29% of housing units vacant in Co Leitrim

Miscellaneous:Increased ownership of holiday homes appears to be one of the key factors behind the high vacancy rates of houses and apartments in parts of the State, census figures indicate.

Overall, about 15 per cent of the total housing stock - or 266,000 housing units - was estimated to be vacant on census day in April last year. This is an increase of almost 40,000 when compared to the 2002 figure.

The counties with the highest vacancy rates were Leitrim (29 per cent), Donegal (27 per cent) and Kerry (25 per cent). The rates were lowest in south Dublin (6 per cent), Fingal (9 per cent) and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (9 per cent).

Apartment living is becoming more common, with the number of occupied flats and apartments increasing from 110,500 in 2002 to 148,600 in 2006. They now account for 15 per cent of housing units in urban areas.

The majority of housing units are owner-occupied (75 per cent), while 13 per cent are rented and 7 per cent are local authority rented.

In total, census enumerators estimated the overall housing stock to be 1.77 million units.

Meanwhile, there was a slight decline in the percentage of people who indicated they could speak Irish. While the overall numbers increased from 1.57 million in 2002 to 1.66 million in 2006, the percentage fell from 42.8 per cent to 41.9 per cent.

Of the 1.66 million who indicated they could speak Irish, 485,000 spoke it on a daily basis in the education system, while a further 53,500 spoke it in day-to-day life.

The proportion of Irish speakers fell in all Gaeltacht areas apart from the Meath and Waterford areas - two of the smaller Gaeltacht regions.

Irish speakers represented 71.4 per cent of the population in Gaeltacht areas in 2006, down from 72.6 per cent in 2002.

In Gaeltacht areas, about 60 per cent of Irish speakers use the language on a daily basis, and a further 10 per cent do so on a weekly basis.

This compares to 55.6 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, in 2002.