A compulsory exam for junior doctors has been cancelled due to a computer glitch.

The Royal College of Physicians in Ireland (RCPI) has apologised to all those affected who had gathered to sit the exam.

The test was being held in Walkinstown in south Dublin on Wednesday morning.

Up to 170 candidates were due to sit it and were instead told it was cancelled.

One student said they were told there were technical issues, but it was hoped to get going shortly.

But almost two hours later, it was announced that the computer-based exam would not go ahead.

In a statement, the RCPI said: "We apologise for the situation this morning and having to cancel the sitting of the examination MRCPI General Medicine Part 2 Written in Dublin today.

"This is totally unacceptable and we apologise for the stress and frustration this has caused to candidates.

"We were forced to cancel it as a result of unforeseen technical failures that our service provider had informed us would be fixed during the morning.

"This did not happen. Our priority now is to re-schedule this exam as soon as possible and we will communicate the new date by the end of this week."

It added that it expects it to be re-sat in August. There will also be an opportunity to sit it on October 24th, the college said.

"We understand that candidates have put a lot of work into preparing for this examination and may have travelled to attend and have also taken time off work.

"RCPI will refund costs incurred around travel and accommodation for today's exam and we will inform candidates shortly about how to seek this reimbursement", it said.

Many junior doctors had travelled from all over Ireland and the UK to the exam centre.

One junior doctor, who wishes to remain anonymous, says it will have knock-on consequences on people's careers.

"There's three parts to the membership exams, and in order to progress and do the next part you have to pass the previous one.

"So this is the part 2 - written.

"So in order to get through to the next part, and to then subsequently your higher specialist training, you need to pass this exam.

"People will be applying for a job in the autumn time and we need to have this exam on our CVs, so it does have knock-on consequences for everybody".

"It is a computer-based exam, so there always should be a plan in place for a technical difficulty - there didn't seem to be any in place today."

"People were asking 'Can you not just print out papers and we can just mark off multiple choice like we did in college?' and [they said] 'Oh we don't have the facilities to print things like that'.

"People have been working and studying hard, and have been planning their summers around this day".