Seven in 10 people in Ireland are living in homes that are too large for their household needs.
That's according to new Eurostat figures, which show Ireland (69.6%) had the third-highest share of people living in under-occupied dwellings in the European Union in 2019.
Only Malta (72.6%) and Cyprus (70.5%) had higher rates.
Ireland also had the second lowest share (3.2%) of people living in overcrowded households.
In Spain (55.4%), Luxembourg (54.0%), Belgium (53.9%) and the Netherlands (53.4%) more than half of the population were living in dwellings deemed too large.
In contrast, less than 15% of the population were living in dwellings deemed to be too large in Romania (7.7%), Latvia (9.6%), Greece (10.7%), Bulgaria (11.5%), Croatia (12.0%), Slovakia (14.0%) and Italy (14.2%).
Almost every third person (32.7%) in the EU lives in under-occupied dwellings.
Former TD and Senator Mary O'Rourke has said while her family home is large, she has nowhere else to go.
She told The Hard Shoulder: "I haven't a notion of moving... I don't regard my house as enormous, and where am I going to live?
"There's no talk of 'if everybody voluntarily gave up their home, where would you go to live?'
"Is this amorphous study going to provide beautifully contained flats on a lovely site?"
While admitting that her family home is too big for her - "particularly now in lockdown, I'm wandering from room to room - but I've no notion of leaving it".
"I have no intention of living above any kind of a boulangerie or whatever: I intend to stay put at a modest bungalow on a suburban street in the town of Athlone - and here I'm staying".
Asked about the idea of retirement villages - such as those in the US - Ms O'Rourke said: "As you're talking my blood is rising.
"The idea that you'd be shifted to a retirement village/home [and] just meet people your own age all the time... that would be hell and a misery.
"We gain by talking to all sorts of people".
'Number of properties needs to increase'
While Edgar Morgenroth, Professor of Economics at Dublin City University (DCU), said there is only really one solution.
"The number of properties is what matters, and simply by playing musical chairs we're not going to get any more.
"So the housing crisis is not going to be solved by a few people moving into slightly different accommodation - that isn't really going to happen.
"What we need to do is we need to build, and we need to build in the right places the right kind of accommodation.
"And that's the only solution to our housing crisis: is the number of properties needs to increase".
He added: "I think one of the striking results also in that report by the European Commission is that around about 90% of people live in a house - and that's the highest proportion in the EU".
"Houses by their nature are a bit bigger, so it probably isn't surprising that the share of the population that live in slightly too big an accommodation for the size of the family is highest in Ireland".
But he said what is not contained in the report is by how much the houses are too large, and who actually lives in them.
"Often enough you find that working families with kids, they have a spare room - a spare room that's currently probably being used when they're working [from] home".
"So it's not exactly clear how unused that space is".
