It was a job-seekers' paradise yesterday as one of the State's largest recruitment fairs opened in Dublin, with 70 large companies competing hard to hire returning emigrants and recently qualified graduates.

Over 15,000 people attended the event, which featured exhibition stands piled high with job application forms.

With some electronics and computer firms experiencing skill shortages, many of those attending the fair were able to approach names like Microsoft, Digital and Hewlett Packard with a certain cockiness.

At each stand graduates and other job seekers haggled with enthusiastic company representatives, eager to tell them about their benefits and perks.

A spokesman for Microsoft said his company was offering a large number of jobs and was particularly focusing on returning expatriates with relevant experience.

The fair, which continues today , is organised by the High Skills Pool, the organisation set up and supported by FAS to help repatriate Irish workers. One man was heard telling an anxious personnel manager that unless he was offered £35,000 a year, he was not prepared to "make any kind of move".

"A lot of those coming back to Ireland will actually take a pay cut, it is the education system and the quality of life that attracts them," said Ms Eugenie Houston, director of human resources at Esat Telecom and author of the book, Working and Living in Ireland.

She added that the company's stand had been visited by over 1,000 people since early in the morning.

"The biggest problem for returning emigrants is that they are aware of the Celtic Tiger, but do not realise this brings difficulties too, like extremely high house prices," she said.

Mr Andrew Brown, who has spent the last five years working for a computer company in London as a network engineer, was surprised at how determined the companies were to get his name on the dotted line.

Mr John Hyland, from Dublin, currently doing a Computer Programming course, said he was hopeful of getting a good job. "I don't want to be rushed into anything, but there seems to a be plenty of opportunities about."

Ms Caroline Leacy, manager of the High Skills Pool, said that unlike recruitment fairs of the past, "people are actually getting jobs at this fair and not just putting their name on a list for future reference".