New figures from the Central Statistics Office show a fall of 10% in the volume of output in residential construction in the second quarter of the year.
However, the figures also reveal that the overall volume in building and construction activity increased by 4% in the three month period compared to the same time last year.
This was due to strong annual growth in the civil engineering sector and the non-residential building sector, which saw growth rates of 36% and 22.7% respectively.
The CSO also says that the value of housing output fell by 6.2% in the second quarter.
Output in the building and construction sector grew by 2.6% in the euro zone and by 3.2% in the EU 27. The largest increases were in the Czech Republic (47.8%), Slovenia (32.6%) and Slovakia (31.7%). This compares to Ireland's 4% rise.
Despite the slowdown in the housing market, separate figures from the Central Statistics Office show that planning permissions in the third quarter of 2007 were actually up 6% on the same time last year.
The CSO figures show that a total of 22,138 planning permissions were granted for dwelling units in the third quarter of this year.
15,838 planning permissions were for houses, that is up 2.3%. 6,300 were for apartments, an increase of 16.7% on the same time last year.
One-off houses accounted for 22% of all new dwelling units granted planning permission in the three month period.
