UPDATE 2-Irish Q2 unemployment rises to highest in 9 years

(Adds closure of Boston Scientific plant)

By Andras Gergely

DUBLIN, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Ireland's unemployment rate rose in the second quarter to a near 9-year high as a weakening construction sector added to dole queues, while separate figures on Wednesday indicated a further slide in the property market.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent in the second quarter from 4.8 percent in the first, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said in its Quarterly National Household Survey.

The last time the quarterly unemployment rate reached 5.1 percent was in the final quarter of 1999, the CSO said.

The number of people in employment rose at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the second quarter, down from growth of 2.6 percent in the previous three months and 4 percent a year earlier.

After an end to Ireland's decade-long property boom when house prices quadrupled, falling house prices and a global economic downturn have abruptly ended Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" boom.

The economy is expected to contract in 2008 after growth of 6 percent in 2007, a Reuters poll showed last month, with unemployment seen reaching 6.2 percent at the end of the year and adding a further percentage point by late 2009.

Bloxham analyst Jason Somerville said the alarming falls in construction sector employment were likely to be followed by more job cuts, adding that economic conditions had worsened since the March-May period which the CSO survey covered.

"Given the further deterioration in the construction industry in recent months it is likely that the third and fourth employment surveys will be a lot weaker than Q2's," Somerville said in a research note.

A separate survey on Wednesday by Ireland's largest property website showed that the stock of rental properties had reached a record high in the second quarter and the average rent fell year-on-year for the first time in four years.

The report by Daft.ie, which says 90 percent of properties for sale in Ireland are advertised on its pages, showed the total stock of rental properties exceeded 15,000, more than twice the level a year ago.

"With supply at all-time highs, it is likely that we will see continued falls in rents over coming months," said Daft.ie, which has collected housing data for 10 years and published its rental report since 2005.

Separately, medical device maker Boston Scientific Corp (BSX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) announced on Wednesday it would close a plant in Tullamore, west of Dublin, which employs 240 people. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen described the loss as a blow to the area.

The decision to close the plant came after the sale of the company's fluid management business in February to Avista Capital Partners and follows earlier moves by U.S. healthcare groups Allergan (AGN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Pfizer (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to close plants in Ireland. (Editing by David Christian-Edwards, Swaha Pattanaik)