DUBLIN - The drop in Irish house prices is accelerating, according to official statistics Tuesday which show the cost of a home in Dublin is now 54 percent lower than at the height of the property boom in early 2007.

The market for apartments in the Irish capital has been worst hit, with prices 58 percent down from the top of the market.

"In the year to December, residential property prices at a national level fell by 16.7 percent," according to a Central Statistics Office (CSO) index.

"This compares with an annual rate of decline of 15.6 percent in November and a decline of 10.5 percent recorded in the twelve months to December 2010."

Last week one of the country's top estate agents, Douglas Newman Good (DNG), suggested the situation could be even worse with its 10th annual analysis estimating prices last year were down almost 20 percent in Dublin.

It said property prices were down approximately 64.7 percent in the greater Dublin area since September 2006, back to levels not seen since the year 2000.

The collapse of the Irish property price bubble built up during the co-called Celtic Tiger boom years has hit the country's banks hard and slashed transaction taxes the government had collected during the boom.

After years of reckless lending, the Irish banking sector was hammered by the property crash and many home buyers have been left in negative equity.

The property bust has left 2,800 "ghost" housing estates scattered around the country containing 33,000 empty homes.

In November 2010 the eurozone member had to seek an 85-billion-euro ($110 billion) rescue package from the EU and the IMF when massive debt and deficit problems left the country on the verge of collapse.