Building and construction output decreased by 24.4% in the third quarter, compared with the third quarter of last year, according to new figures by the Central Statistics Office.
The fall in the volume of ouput can largely be put down to a decline of almost 49% in residential building work. That is only slightly offset by a rise of 4.7% in non-residential building work.
In addition to the fall in volume, the value of production also decreased - by 21.6% in the third quarter.
Output in civil engineering fell by 2%.
In the EU overall, building and construction output is also falling - though Ireland's drop of 24.4% is the highest of all EU countries. Spain reported the second-highest decrease of 15.9%.
Meanwhile, Romania (+27.8%), Slovenia (+16.6%) and Bulgaria (+13.5%) showed the highest increases.
The volume of output has fallen 2.8% overall in the euro area in the year to Q3, and 1.6% in the 27 EU states.
