I’ve lost a fair few things in my time, but fortunately a forest was never one of them. There was some interesting news when Department of Agriculture secretary general Brendan Gleeson addressed the Committee of Public Accounts last week.

When discussing the Department’s property and land portfolio, TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh commented that the Department “had lost a forest, but we gained a Georgian house”.

The comptroller and auditor general’s office found a forest plot on the register in Durrow, Co Laois, for which the Department was unable to give location details. It’s not clear what happened but the plot has since been removed from the register. The house, located on Backweston farm, has now been registered.