Weekends away, sweets, free pens and T-shirts were among the inducements used at yesterday's annual recruitment fair in Dublin to persuade Irish professionals to return to their home country to work. The fair, which continues today at Jury's Hotel, Ballsbridge, is expected to attract several thousand people, most of them Irish professionals currently working abroad who now may be interested in coming home. The event is sponsored by High Skills Pool, the recruitment agency which targets Irish workers overseas. Most of the 118 participating companies are from the technology sector.

Despite chronic traffic problems and galloping house prices, the organisers said that emigrants are interested in returning home to exploit new economic opportunities.

Ms Caroline Leacy, manager of High Skills Pool, said that while the fair sometimes resembled a "cattle market", a significant number of those attending would get employment as a result of the initial contact they'd made with companies.

She described the people there as "a mixed bunch" and said it was the first year in which a high proportion of non-nationals were also in attendance.

While the number of companies at the fair was high, some of the bigger names in the computer sector, such as Dell, Intel, Apple, Microsoft and CBT, were not present.

This may be because many of them are not currently recruiting or have just ended their recruitment drives.

Mr John Xerri, director of human resources at Xerox, the document company, which is currently recruiting 1,500 people for an operation at Blanchardstown, Co Dublin, and several hundred more for another plant in Dundalk, Co Louth, said that newer companies are "coming through in terms of employing people".

"The more familiar names have done most of their recruiting in the last few years and now don't need as many people, whereas newer companies like ourselves are looking for large numbers of people," he said.

He added that the word `salary' had only been heard once at the company's stand and that other considerations were just as important to Irish professionals considering a return. "Career development is the thing that concerns most of them. They can get a job, no problem, but they want one where they can move around and improve their skills as they progress," he said.

The twin problems of traffic congestion and expensive housing were not enough to put them off, he added.

"Most of them have worked abroad in major cities, and things like traffic gridlock and expensive housing would not be something new," he stated.

Ms Eugenie Houston, the author of Working and Living in Ireland, a book about returning home after working abroad, was exhibiting at the event and gave a talk to some of the professionals considering a return.

"They are not too preoccupied about pay. The quality of education for their children is something that seems to come up a lot more," she said.

She added that Irish people who have been living abroad for long periods (15 years or more), were also present in significant numbers at the fair.

"A lot of them have read about the Celtic Tiger, but now want to see if it is actually true.