The damage was caused by years of daily illegal car parking on the pavements, a council spokesperson told the Irish Examiner

The spokesperson added: “Parking fines are issued to vehicles which illegally park on both this and all other footpaths across the city.

“Parking on footpaths is not allowed. It is illegal for private vehicles to be parked on this section of the footpath.

“Fixed charge penalty notices are imposed by the Traffic Department for this illegal parking. We will continue to issue fines for this illegal parking going forward.”