The Housing Agency says there are still about 198,000 homes around the country are lying vacant.

The Agency's report also shows that construction is struggling to keep up with growing demand.

15,000 homes were completed last year, an increase of 18 per cent on the previous year.

But the agency reckons we'll need to build an average of about 22,000 homes each year until 2020 keep up with demand.

It also says there's almost 92,000 people on housing lists and 7,000 homeless people in Ireland.

David Silk, Policy Director at the Housing Agency, says the rate of house construction is still too low: