The taxpayer missed out on hundreds of thousands of euro on the sale of the government jet.

That is according to the State spending watchdog, who has raised concerns about the sale.

The findings are contained the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) annual review of State spending across a range of departments.

But the sale of the Gulfstream IV jet, which was let go in early 2015, is carried in some detail.

The 23-year-old jet was sold for €418,000, with spare parts bringing in another €53,000.

But the Comptroller has raised concern that there was no public tender for the sale.

It also reveals that an internal valuation valued the plane at up to €750,000 - while the spare parts were worth over seven-times what they were actually sold for.

There is then a dispute about how the plane should have been accounted for.

The Department of Defence is disagreeing with calls for a more scientific approach to selling off major assets.