The volume of production in the residential building sector fell 1.3% between April and June compared with the previous quarter, new data from the Central Statistics Office shows.
That comes off the back of a 7.3% growth in residential building volume output in the first three months of the year.
The slight contraction will be of concern to the Government, amid ongoing pressure for an increase in housing completions.
The residential contraction compares to overall volume growth in building and construction of 1.7% in the period, on a seasonally adjusted basis, versus January to March.
That's the second consecutive quarter of overall growth, following three straight quarters where volume output fell.
But in comparison to the second quarter of last year, the building and construction output was down 1.5%.
The non-residential building sector performed strongly, expanding by 5.3% between the first and second quarters of this year.
The civil engineering sector also grew, by 3.3%.
In value terms, all building construction was up 4.6% on a quarterly basis and down 0.7% on an annual basis.
