The men and woman had all made it through the recruitment process but were then rejected under the terms of the 50:50 policing agreement.

It has led to renewed calls for the contentious system to be scrapped amid claims it is "reverse discrimination".

Lord Laird, who tabled a Parliamentary question asking for the figures, said: "It is an absolute scandal. Those 708 people have had their human rights violated.

"The Government should be hanging its head in shame. It is disgusting. You cannot infringe people's rights and call it a peace process. This is the only part of the modern developed world that allows discrimination on the basis on religion.

"I have a file of people who have not been accepted, including a man from Co Tyrone who had been a sergeant on the mainland but could not get in to the PSNI because he was a Protestant. It's an outrage."

Since the force was created more than 65,000 men and women have applied for positions during the 11 recruitment exercises.

In total, 708 recruits will have been turned down because they are not Catholic.

The policy was devised after the Patten Commission recommended widespread changes to the police service - then the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

It recommended the 50:50 policy as a key element of the Good Friday Agreement. Half of all new recruits must be from the Catholic community and Secretary of State Peter Hain last month said the policy would continue.

A PSNI spokeswoman said: "Following recommendations made by the Patten Report, subsequent legislation - The Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 - was implemented.

"Under this legislation the Chief Constable is required to offer appointments in accordance with Section 46 of this Act so that an even number of persons of whom - 'one half shall be persons who are treated as Roman Catholic, and one half shall be persons who are not so treated' are drawn from the pool of merit.

"It is important to understand though that the section 46 principle is only applied once applicants reach the required standard on merit. They are then drawn from the merit pool on a 50:50 basis. 50:50 recruitment continues to go from strength to strength within the police service and remains on target to increase the representation of officers from a Roman Catholic community background in the regular service to 30% by 2010-11."