Some 93,419 houses and apartments were completed in the State last year, an increase of 15.4 per cent on 2005, according to figures published yesterday by the Department of the Environment.

However, the latest figures were disputed by a leading analyst, who claimed the rate of growth in housing output was significantly lower than suggested by the latest figures.

Minister of State for Housing at the department, Noel Ahern, said Ireland was now producing homes at a rate of more than 20 per 1,000 residents, a "phenomenal level and the highest in Europe".

House completions in Dublin recorded a new high, with 19,470 units. In the Greater Dublin Area, 29,987 units were complete, both up 8 per cent on 2005.

Nationally, houses accounted for almost 79 per cent of total completions, but only 41 per cent in Dublin and 56 per cent in the Greater Dublin Area.

There were 25 per cent single dwellings nationally, and apartments accounted for 21 per cent of all new completions in 2006.

Mr Ahern said the indications were that completions in 2007 will increase further, with new house registrations for 2006 at 66,649, up by 7 per cent.

"There are positive indications that housebuilding will remain strong in the short to medium term. There was a 7 per cent increase in new house registrations in the past year, and there are significant tracts of serviced zoned land currently available for residential development" he said.

But Ulster Bank economist Pat McArdle said 5,200 houses recorded as being built in 2006 were built in 2005, but only connected for electricity in the early part of the following year

"There is no proper measure for house completions in the country and therefore ESB connections are used as a proxy," Mr McArdle said yesterday.

"When you make this adjustment, actual completions in 2006 were 88,000 as compared with 86,000 the previous year, an increase of around 2 per cent. This is the lowest increase for housing completions for a good number of years."