The number of empty homes in Ireland has always been a bit of a mystery. There are no official figures and estimates from local authorities and commentators tended to be so absurdly high or so absurdly low that nobody believed them. Well the truth is out. There are 300,000. A staggering 20% of the country’s housing stock. The absurdly high figures were right all along!
This story from the Irish Independent tells how the number was uncovered by people working on the national census underway in Ireland at the moment
“Enumerators delivering and collecting the census forms were unable to contact the inhabitants.
Following inquiries among neighbours, postmen and women and apartment block management companies, the vast majority of those dwellings - some 275,000 - were identified as being vacant. In a further 30,000 cases, there was nobody at home when census officials called on various occasions.”
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