UP TO 100,000 people are expected to descend upon Croke Park over four days to attend the 14th annual Fás Opportunities career exhibition. The exhibition will include, for the first time, a significant number of exhibitors from eastern European countries, writes Nigel Stirling.

The largest of its kind in the Republic, it will also include 160 exhibitors from private companies and business organisations, public and private colleges, as well as apprenticeship instructors from the national skills training organisation.

Dermod O'Byrne, marketing manager at Fás, said the event hoped to attract a wide spectrum of attendees.

"It has become a important event, especially for second-level students, 16-18 years of age. But it is not only for school pupils.

"During the weekend we would expect to get a much more mature crowd . . . parents, and in the last few years we have had a lot more people looking for job changes."

Nearly 2,000 second-level students were bused in from around the State to attend the start of the four-day exhibition yesterday morning.

Representatives from skills and training organisations in 18 European countries are attending this year's fair, the first time they have done so en masse.

Kevin Quinn, manager of international employment services at Fás, said they hoped to attract workers to fill particular skills shortages as well as making contact with employers in the Republic.

"There is still a demand for Ireland as a work destination."

Mr Quinn said there was strong interest from the Polish and the British delegations ahead of the London Olympics. Construction wages in Poland had risen by 20 per cent year-on-year over the past few years, making a return to their home country more attractive for Polish workers at this stage of the Republic's construction cycle.

"Polish people still want to come here but it is a two-way process. We are all members of the European Union and as such enjoy the right to mobility between nations. We are simply helping to fulfil that right."

Beata Chroscinska, representing the Bialystok regional office of the European Employment Service in northeast Poland, said she was attending the event to "promote" her home country.

"Polish people can earn more money here but they are starting to talk about not just the advantages but some of the disadvantages of living in Ireland.

"They will stay maybe another two or three years more but are thinking about going back to Poland."

She said the high cost of living in Ireland, as well as the narrowing differential between wages in the two countries, was making Poles consider returning home.

Fás Opportunities runs from 10am-5pm today and tomorrow in Croke Park and from 10am-3pm on Monday.