DUBLIN, April 15 (Reuters) - Irish residential property prices rose at the fastest annual pace for almost two years in February, up 3% year-on-year, as a shutdown of construction to slow the spread of COVID-19 compounded a long-standing lack of supply. The government shut most building sites in late December and only allowed housebuilding to resume this week. Prices in February rose by 1.2% year-on-year in Dublin and were 4.7% higher across the rest of the country. The pandemic briefly halted seven years of unbroken price growth last year. However, growth had begun to moderate before Ireland’s first lockdown a year ago, having recovered rapidly from a spectacular property crash just over a decade ago. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin. Editing by Mark Potter)