Of the 150 graduates from the four classes in Trinity College Dublin, UCD, The Royal College of Surgeons and University of Limerick (UL), 71 are unemployed or have had to take up jobs outside their field.

"We are extremely concerned about this issue because unemployment is not something we've come across before, " said Esther Mary Darcy of the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists (ISCP). "In 2001, the Bacon Report found that physiotherapy places needed to be increased and so 25 places were created in UL. Now, four years later, graduates are coming out and the jobs are not there. It is very distressing."

Despite a shortage of physiotherapists around the country, recruitment in the public sector has come to a standstill due to the governmentimposed HSE staff ceiling.

This means that students who gained 570-plus points in their Leaving Cert and who have studied physiotherapy for four years are now losing their skills by working in offices and shops.

"A lot of people in our course were mature students who already had degrees, but who really wanted to work in physiotherapy, " said Maria McGrath, class representative of the Trinity class of 2006. "We were all under the illusion that we would walk into jobs and we are just shocked at the situation now.

Physiotherapy training is so precise that you can't do anything else."

Fiona Crehan, class representative of the Royal College of Surgeons, lost out on physiotherapy by five points in her Leaving Cert. Instead, she did a four-year science degree before spending three years in the Royal College of Surgeons doing physiotherapy. Despite her best efforts she has been unable to get a job, along with more than half of her class.

"It is unbelievably frustrating, " she said. "The demand is there, there are patients who need treatment and then there is all of us, ready, willing and able for work. Yet we can't get jobs. From a financial point of view it's also extremely worrying for many of us who have student loans to pay off."

The ISCP, along with the four colleges affected, has set up a working group to look into the situation and see what can be done for students.

"We certainly hope this issue can be addressed, especially when we consider that there will be another 150 graduates coming out next year, " said Darcy.

"Graduation is supposed to be a time of celebration, but there's no celebration when you haven't got a job, " said McGrath. "It goes to show that just because a course has high points it doesn't guarantee employment."