The public paid a developer 2006 property prices in 2012 after civil servant failures caused a €30m-plus land deal to go wrong — and only got off the hook because the builder was taken over by Nama.

A report published by the Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy, the State’s public spending watchdog, reveals not just the shocking state of the Government’s finances but huge shortcomings in controlling spending, overseeing payments from both within and beyond the state and in the management of a range of services.