THEY helped to transform Ireland into a booming multicultural society, but now thousands of Polish workers are returning home, lured back by European Union-funded infrastructure projects and preparations for the 2012 European football championships.

About 15,000 Poles have returned home in the five months since July, bringing the total who have left Ireland since 2005 to 30,000, according to Jacek Rosa, first counsellor at the Polish embassy in Dublin. An estimated 170,000 Poles are still in the country, but they are leaving at a rate of 140 a day.

Irish recruitment companies have been engaged by Polish employers to lure the Poles back east and are handing out flyers outlining the job opportunities.

Six months ago Grafton Recruitment began distributing flyers with the slogan “Interested in relocating back to Poland?” to attract applicants for vacancies in the Polish operations of Royal Bank of Scotland, KPMG, Franklin Templeton Investments and Hitachi. Karen Kennedy of Grafton, which has offices in five Polish cities, said: “Some employers in Poland are even offering relocation packages for senior candidates and a lot of people are moving home.”

Last week the the Polish consulate began distributing 2,000 booklets to its citizens in Ireland outlining how best to relocate. The guide explains how to bring home pets and how to reclaim Irish taxes. It is complemented by an advice website which was launched in London by Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister.

“Our consulate is getting more inquiries than ever before,” said Rosa. “If one in 10 Poles loses their job, five of them will be fearful enough to make inquiries at the embassy in case they need to go back.”

Rosa estimates that as many as 250,000 personal public service numbers have been issued to Poles since Ireland threw open its labour market to the eight eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004.

Last week the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment estimated that 27,000 more people will leave the country next year than will enter it, leading to the first net emigration in 12 years.

In addition to the building boom in Poland, which is benefiting from €67 billion in EU funds, the zloty’s rise against the euro has made saving money in the single European currency less attractive for Poles in Ireland.

“In 2003 one euro would buy five zloty. Now one euro will only get you 3.8, so for many it makes no sense to live abroad and leave their children with grandparents when they can earn more in zloty,” said Rosa.

It is a sentiment shared by Arkadiusz Stawicki, 31, who spent three years working as a security guard before setting up a consulting company in Ireland. He returned home to Kielce in central Poland in May, having saved enough money to buy an apartment and set up a dental clinic with his wife.

However, Stawicki, like Rosa, thinks Poles in Ireland should not believe the grass is necessarily greener at home. Prices are rising, rents are climbing and job opportunities for returning emigrants are not as plentiful in rural areas as they are in Warsaw and other cities.

The Polish government has scaled back its economic growth projections for 2009 to 3.7% from the estimate of 4.8%. Stawicki said Polish friends who have left Ireland are already restless and considering working in the Netherlands or Scandinavia.

Jaroslaw Tomaszewski, a Polish priest at St Audeon’s church in Dublin, now the official Polish chaplaincy in Ireland, is witnessing the same trend. “Some had been here for three or four years, but money wasn’t everything and many had left children behind,” he said. “Some have taken the loss of their job in construction as a sign they should go home. But when they get to Poland, they see it’s improved but it’s not good enough for them and they think about coming back.”

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