On census night in April 2011, 78 per cent of all housing units in the seaside town of Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, were empty, giving it the highest vacancy rate in the State.

The construction boom contributed to a huge rise in the number of vacant dwellings in the State, according to the Central Statistics Office’s report on Census 2011.

The number of such dwellings increased from 105,000 in 1996 to 290,000  last year with the biggest increase occurring between 2002 and 2006.   

Nationwide 92 towns had a vacancy rate of more than 35 per cent.

When excluding holiday homes, Tulsk and Frenchpark in Co Roscommon had the highest vacancy rates at 51 and 44 per cent respectively.