AS Ireland continues to battle a chronic housing crisis, there are up to 100,000 vacant or derelict buildings across the country.

More than enough to house the 17,548 people officially declared homeless.

Derelict buildings in the centre of towns and villages are also eyesores. So it’s a source of deep frustration for many that so many properties that could be brought back into use remain vacant.

The Government has made some headway, with the latest GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report showing a drop in derelict buildings in 2025.

However, for towns like Dunmore in Co Galway, it isn’t happening quickly enough.

Here, author JP Rodgers, from Galway, gives his take on a crisis that has blighted Ireland for the past two decades.

And he wonders if it will ever be solved.

THESE photos of vacant and derelict buildings expose the Government’s mishandling of Ireland’s housing crisis over the last 20 years.

Listening to a man on a dilapidated street in north Galway, where commercial properties remain boarded-up — as in virtually every other town — he said: ‘Ireland has become a nation of crows. That’s all we can do — build nests.’

The Government talks about the need for more houses, and the country is littered with empty ones.

Having earlier seen vast swathes of dangerous half-built apartment blocks in Co Meath, I realised there was an element of truth in what this man was saying.

So, I decided to check out some of these ghost estates in north Co Galway.

What I saw made me want to weep. How had Ireland mismanaged its affairs so badly?

Here we are, after 100 years of relative peace and prosperity, and we have a housing shortage.

Looking at the rows of houses that have lain vacant for 20 years, I asked myself — does anybody in Dail Eireann really care, or know how to do anything right?

I recall what Niall Toibin, the Cork comedian, once said when asked what he thought of Ireland’s standing in the world: ‘Ireland’s just a place where people come and go’.

It breaks my heart to admit it, but Niall was right.

Here I am, in a lovely village in the west of Ireland, looking at some beautiful dormer bungalows.

Yet, they’ve never been lived in since they were constructed in 2006.

‘Who owns these beautiful homes?’ I asked the man who took the time to show me round.

He said: ‘God knows. The houses in that other estate down the road have changed hands half a dozen times since they were built.’

They’re owned by vulture funds who have no desire to accommodate people in them.

Why would they, when they can sit on them and watch them go up in value without having to pay a penny maintenance?

And all because we have the same weak-willed Government running the country for 20-odd years.

European vultures and US multinationals control Ireland now. The Government simply acts on their behalf.

This Government is obsessed with US multinationals. They bow down to the Elon Musks of this world, when we as a republic should be manufacturing our own electric cars, vans and lorries.

But sure, we can’t build a children’s hospital or introduce a new rail network without squandering millions.

Young people are leaving the country in droves because they see no future here.

The poor devils can’t save enough money to put a deposit on a house, or get planning permission to build one.

As an example, the Government has been talking about building a ring road around Galway city since 1999.

‘And here we are, a quarter of a century later, and they haven’t even started the bloody job,’ the man said.

Knowing there was another bone of contention in a derelict street in Dunmore, I went to have a gander, as they say.

There, too, are new houses that have never been lived in.

What is it with Ireland that the Government can’t put people into these houses, while people are having to pay extortionate rent for accommodation?

Distressed Dunmore residents have put up signs around the town.

‘We demand action’ reads one.

‘Dangerous, disgusting, derelict’ reads another.

And still, the wait goes on.

Looking at the buildings on either side of me, I feel as if I’m in a third-world country.

Regrettably, Dunmore, like most other towns in rural Ireland, is on its knees. I have fond memories of Dunmore as a picturesque place, with thriving businesses.

It had — and still has — a hard-working community, who take great pride in their town. But the town’s being ignored.

The community are up in arms. Why wouldn’t they be?

They’ve been fighting for years to have something done about Bridge Street.

Three years ago, I met a member of the Dunmore ‘Tidy Towns’ committee.

He was ecstatic. He told me the council were about to demolish the houses on Bridge Street, and widen it, after years of campaigning. Happy days.

Alas, it was all a dream.

Instead, the preservation of bats got priority.

As one resident of the town put it, ‘What can you expect when we put that shower into government’.

A Government that spent millions on voting machines it couldn’t use, and millions more buying electric buses it can’t use.

They should be turfed out.

But they will do whatever it takes to stay in power.

Every year they give the people little handouts in the form of benefits — like teachers giving sweets to the kids.

That’s how they control the people, while letting Ireland go to rack and ruin.