Green Party TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh questioned the secretary general of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Brendan Gleeson after a review of estate management showed that the department “lost a forest” and “found” a Georgian Manor.
During a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) today (Thursday, July 11), attendees examined Chapter 10 of the Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022, which gave an insight into estate management at DAFM.
The meeting was joined by the comptroller and auditor general, Seamus McCarthy, and officials from DAFM.
Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said that when he read the specific chapter on estate management his “jaw dropped”.
“The question is around oversight and how we do the registry,” Ó Cathasaigh said.
“We lost a forest, but we gained a Georgian house, and then we found out there was somebody living in the Georgian house.
“So we didn’t know the house was there, but then we found out that the farm foreman resides on the farm, but there’s no tenancy agreement in place,” Ó Cathasaigh said.
DAFM has an estate portfolio of 85 buildings and land plots covering 1,724ha located across the state.
This includes former land commission lands, forest plots, laboratories and farms.
Estate management
As part of the examination, a sample of 14 buildings and land plots across 12 sites, totalling 661ha or 38% of the department’s portfolio were selected for review. This included visits to the sites by the examination team.
For one particular forest plot listed on the department’s asset register as being in Durrow, Co. Laois, DAFM was unable to provide location details.
It was not clear whether this was a previously-owned plot that should have been removed from the asset register, or whether a site was ever owned at that location. DAFM has since removed this from its asset register.
The department stated that it is conducting a review of the forest plots listed on its asset
register to confirm all plots are fully owned. The status of this site will be established as part of this review.
Lands inherited by the department from the former land commission are the largest category of property held, accounting for 67% or 1,155ha of DAFM’s land portfolio at the end of 2022.
Land commission
These lands are classified as non-agricultural lands and are mainly boglands.
Three forest plots and one former land commission site are not recorded in the land registry.
One former land commission site was partially registered, with only 1.61ha of its 44.7ha accounted for.
At the time of the dissolution of the land commission, there was no register available of
lands owned or managed by them.
The department set about compiling a register and identified around 2,660ha of non-agricultural land, over half of which has since been disposed of.
DAFM stated that it had intended on fully disposing of these lands, however, most of the remaining land is subject to turbary rights allotted by the former land commission or grazing rights, with the result that they are not easily dealt with.
The examination found that the department does not have a register of turbary right holders for these properties.
Therefore, it does not know who has the right of access to these lands and consequently does not have full control over these assets.
Department staff do not monitor the levels of turf cutting activity at sites.
Backweston
DAFM’s other land and buildings are held for a variety of purposes, and includes lands at Backweston, including Backweston farm and Backweston laboratory campus in Co. Kildare.
The examination team identified a Georgian farmhouse, approximately 235m2 during the site visit, and found that it was not recorded on either the department’s or the OPW’s asset register.
The department stated that the farm foreman resides in the farmhouse, and advised that there is no tenancy agreement in place as it is a requirement of the post that the farm foreman resides on the farm.
The building has now been added to the department’s asset register.
Stacumny Cottage is also located on the lands at Backweston, and has been in the department’s ownership since circa 1961.
It was previously occupied by a farm labourer and his family, and subsequently by his widow, until 2011.
The department has had a legal tenancy agreement, in place since 2011 ,to let the property to a staff member for a nominal annual rent of €104.
This is in order to mitigate against leaving the property vacant for lengthy periods of time and to prevent the property from becoming derelict.
The examination found no clear business purpose or policy in place for the use of the cottage.
Meanwhile, total expenditure by DAFM in 2022 amounted to €1.9 billion, with €953 million spent on farm and agri sector supports.
Farm and agri sector schemes and controls accounted for nearly 50% of the spending in 2022.
€431 million spent on policy and strategy, €333 million on food safety, plant and animal safety and animal welfare, and €177 million on the seafood sector.