The Irish Republic is in recession after the economy shrank for a second successive quarter.
The Central Statistics Office said gross domestic product contracted by 0.5% in the three months to the end of June.
The economy also shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter of the year.
Technically, a recession is defined as two or more successive quarters of negative growth.
It is the first time Ireland has experienced a recession since 1983.
The economy is now facing its most difficult period since high unemployment and emigration hit in the early 1980s.
Earlier this month, the Economic and Social Research Institute predicted the Irish economy would contract by 0.4% over the year after growing by 6% last year.
