The level of planning permission granted for the development of new houses and apartments fell by more than 11 per cent over the first quarter of this year.
Houses showed the greatest decline, with the number planning permissions for these dwelling units down by 2,826 to 22,524, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.
The number of new apartments granted planning permission increased sharply between January and March to 6,070 compared with just 4,595 in the last quarter of 2005.
More than half of these were in the Dublin region (3,248) with another 577 being built in the commuter counties of Kildare, Meath and Wicklow.
There were only 297 apartments granted planning in Cork and Kerry and just 261 in the Galway, Mayo and Roscommon areas.
One-off houses accounted for more than one in five of all new dwellings (21.7 per cent).
Co Donegal had the highest number of approvals for one-off houses at 518, followed by Cork and Galway. Co Mayo had the next highest total of one-off houses with 334 followed by Co Kerry with 282.