Just over 128,000 foreign nationals registered for work in Ireland last year, the highest 12 month total since the country opened its borders to workers from the 10 accession states which joined the EU in 2004.

The pool of available skills is now even larger. Since 1 January Bulgaria and Romania have acceded to the union, albeit that their citizens are restricted in their ability to work within Ireland by the government's work permit scheme.

The prospects for many foreign nationals seeking work in Ireland this year appear to be good, despite the high level of immigration in recent years. Recruitment specialists Irish employers are still experiencing serious difficulty recruiting staff in several sectors and are likely to continue to do so.

"Most of the companies that we work with would find it is still difficult to find staff, " said Jane Lorrigan, chief executive of online recruitment advertiser Irishjobs. ie.

"This week's payroll is probably saying 95% of the people that we paid this week are foreign nationals, " said Sean Flanagan, managing director of Richmond Recruitment, of the 900 temporary staff it currently has on its books.

"One client of ours says he has had a 200% increase in placing foreign clients last year. I think we're going to see more of that [growth] this year" said Aoife Curtin, marketing manager for Recruitireland. com.

Recruitireland's clients include some of the country's largest employers and recruitment companies. Among the most sought-after professionals from overseas at present are accountants, according to Curtin. "There's a huge shortage in accountancy, " she said.

John Cronin of PRC recruitment in Dublin also identified accounting positions as a prime target for foreign nationals seeking work in Ireland . "I think there's just generally a shortage of accountants, " he said. Cronin was aware of several large Irish accounting firms recruiting from as far afield as India for chartered accountants.

Among the clients it placed in jobs last year PRC, which specialises in recruiting legal and finance professionals, saw about half those roles filled by foreign nationals, according to Cronin. Almost three quarters of that number were Polish, he said. That number seems to tally with the broader picture. Of the 128,000 non-nationals who registered to work in Ireland last year, 87,000 were Poles.

Mark Fielding, chief executive of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises association (ISME), said anecdotal evidence suggested that many skilled workers arriving from Poland and elsewhere were, at least initially, finding it difficult to find work commensurate with their qualifications. "The main beneficiaries in [among SME employers] have been in the food, agricultural, construction, retail and the hospitality sector, " he said.

Fielding said that from talking to ISME's members his impression was that "a lot are way over-qualified for the work they are doing". Many were taking jobs in service industries such as the retail and hospitality sectors simply to improve their English before moving on to betterpaying roles. Fielding said a number of those who arrived to work in the service industry after the last round of EU accession in 2004 are now beginning to move on "to jobs more Fielding said, however, that he did not expect Irish employers to be deluged with applications from Bulgarian and Romanian job seekers over the coming year. "I've been in both countries recently and I don't think that they're looking at Ireland as being the Godsend that the Latvians and the Poles saw, " he said.