Preliminary figures from the Central Statistics Office show the economy shrank at a record rate last year.
The CSO said Gross Domestic Product fell by 7.1% from 2008, while Gross National Product plunged by 11.3%.
Read the full CSO report
As GDP includes profits made by US multi-nationals based here, many economists prefer to focus on GNP.
Figures for the final quarter of last year showed no sign of a let-up in the economy's decline, with output for both GDP and GNP down 2.3% from the third quarter.
Consumer spending in was 5.2% lower than a year earlier, a slightly smaller fall than in the three previous quarters.
However, capital investment dropped by more than 28% from a year earlier and industrial output was down 6%.
Construction output fell by 32.3%.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said the figures show that the annual pace of decline in GDP slowed considerably as the year progressed.
'Today's figures are consistent with my Budget Day projections for this year and as I outlined, I expect that the economy will resume growing in the second half of the year.
'Internationally in many of our trading partners, there are tentative signs that a modest recovery is underway.
'The Government have taken actions to ensure the economy is positioned to take advantage of this recovery', he said in a statement.
