You will find that you are wrong about the occupation rates in rural areas, it's still at around 180000 unoccupied dwellings at the last count. Misleading not to make the distinction between Unfinished and Empty just to make a point, leaving out half the story in numbers terms. The article would have been more accurate if the titles of the 'Myths' were about Dublin and not Ireland.

I don't have figures for the amount of bulldozing that went on, but it was enough to make headlines for the years between 2008 to 2012, the bottom of the market.