Could Ryanair multi-millionaire Tony Ryan be the next owner of the Guinness mansion, Farmleigh, and its 70 acres adjoining the Phoenix Park? He already has a stately home in the Lyons Estate, in Co Kildare, which he has spent an absolute fortune restoring, but he has an appetite for more. Earlier this year, he was gazumped on Luton Hoo, one the largest stately homes in England. He bid around £17 million for the 1,500-acre property, but it was later sold for approximately £10 million with half the acreage. With that sort of money to play with and a taste for exquisite living, the Tipperary airline chief might well pitch for what must be the grandest house in Dublin.

There is the possibility the Government will have a change of heart, given the importance of the house and the size of the OPW's kitty. The OPW has been buying office blocks with state tenants as fast as it can find them, so it is not a matter of money. Could Fianna Fail still be preoccupied with the belted earls, and with Charlie long gone, could they handle the sheer grandeur of it all. Then again, it could be about money. While they can't use the excuse of the public finances being in poor shape, it would be hard to have to shell about £15 million when so many houses were given in the past for nothing. Either way, it would be an absolute shame if this Victorian mansion and grounds were to be turned into a gaudy hotel with conference facilities and pitch and putt grounds.

Think again Bertie!