Minister of State for Housing Noel Ahern has suggested that housing output this year will fall back from the record output in 2004.
The likely dip in production comes despite projections from the Economic and Social Research Institute that demand for housing will not fall until after 2006.
As he published figures that showed the total number of house completions grew by 11.8 per cent to 76,954 units last year, Mr Ahern said he did not think that that rate of production would continue.
"This year it may well be that the numbers might fall back a little bit but I hope that they'll be in or about the same level. I do not expect another year of 12 per cent growth, but I expect that we will keep a good level of output."
Mr Ahern said the figures proved that the building industry last year produced more than double the number of housing units built in 1997.
However, Labour claimed that the house completion figures did not tell the full story because estates were often left unfinished for years.
"The Minister for Housing has failed to address the non-completion of housing estates by builders and developers all over the country," said Labour environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore.
"Unfinished estates, with unfinished walls, footpaths, green areas and play areas, are cropping up all over the country, especially in the commuter belt around Dublin."
Mr Ahern accepted in an RTÉ interview that the provision of services such as schools inevitably lagged behind new housing development.
"Of course infrastructure has not been perhaps as fast as the production of houses, but we're getting there. There's enormous need for investment in new schools in these areas. They take a few years to catch up."
The Construction Industry Federation said it was forecasting 73,500 completions in 2005, down 6 per cent on 2004.
However, it said the rate of growth in house prices was slowing while data from the major auctioneering firms suggested there was a major stock of new housing units available at affordable prices.
"The housing industry has certainly performed its role in delivering housing units well in excess of all official estimated demand projections and in ensuring that housing demand and supply broadly come into equilibrium."
