A CIVIL SERVANT has been paying €104 in rent each year to the Department of Agriculture to live in a cottage owned by the State.

This was revealed in a report about the number of assets the Department owns and controls for the Public Accounts Committee and the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) today.

No “centralised” estate management system exists for the Department, according to the report, meaning that, along with the cottage, a State-controlled forest was also incorrectly accounted for in their portfolio.

The report details that a visit to what was believed to be one forest plot owned by the Department in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow found that there was actually two separate sites at the location.

It is further detailed that one site, in the townland of Lackan, turned out to be owned and controlled by Coillte – the for-profit forestry agency set up by the State in 1988 – while the other site, in the townload of Monastery, is owned and controlled by the Department.

The report adds that the Monastery site was intended to be disposed of by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, but that has yet to be done.

In total, there are 33 forest plots in the Department’s current property portfolio. 

“When I read this chapter my jaw dropped,” Green Party TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh said during a Public Accounts Committee hearing today. “You lost a forest.”

Brendan Gleenson, the Secretary General of the Department, threw up his hands in reply, seeming to acknowledge the error.

The Public Accounts Committee today also heard that some confusion over a number of cottages in Backweston estate, in Celbridge, Co Kildare, led to the Department choosing to rent one of the properties, Stacumny Cottage, to an employee since 2011.

The report states that the arrangement was put in place “to mitigate against leaving the property vacant for lengthy periods of time and to prevent the property from becoming derelict”.

The cost of the rent at the cottage is €104 per year, according to the report – which comes out to just €2 a week.

The Department told the report that the cottage has also been used to provide shared, temporary accommodation for staff on an ad hoc informal basis but there is no “clear business purpose or policy in place” for the use of the property.