CAO available places 2026
What an available place is, who can apply, what it costs and when entries close. The list itself is on cao.ie, and it changes through the day.
Opens cao.ie. Its own note reads “Courses are added/removed on instruction from HEIs”, and the page carries the time it was last correct, so check it rather than any copy of it.
An available place is not only a course that failed to fill. The CAO puts it two ways: “If HEIs have any new courses that open for application after the Change of Mind deadline, or if any places remain unfilled in particular courses after all offers have been made and the waiting lists of applicants meeting minimum entry requirements have been exhausted, such vacancies will be advertised.” You do not have to have had the course on your original application, and you do not have to have been offered anything at all.
“Previously published points in an earlier round of offers should not be taken as an indication of the points required for entry to available places.”
Planning for Available Places in 2027?
The 2027 handbook describes the facility opening after Round One, but exact 2027 opening and application deadlines are not verified yet. It gives a €50 fee for new applicants and no additional fee for existing applicants. Normal entry requirements still apply; earlier round points are not an Available Places entry threshold.
CAO Handbook 2027, printed page 29 (opens in a new tab). Checked 7 September 2026. The schedule and any course snapshot on this page remain explicitly 2026.
When entries have to be in
The available place facility opens Thursday 27 August at 12:00 noon and closes at 11:00 on 17 September. If you already have a 2026 CAO application, adding an available place course costs nothing: the CAO says people “who have applied already (whether placed or not) may apply for an Available Place on-line without payment of a further fee”. If you have not applied at all this year you still can, on payment of a €50.00 fee.
| Entered by | Considered for |
|---|---|
| 11:00 on 3 September | Round 2, at 14:00 on 7 September |
| 11:00 on 10 September | Round 3, at 10:00 on 15 September |
| 11:00 on 17 September | Round 4, at 10:00 on 22 September |
These dates are the CAO’s and the CAO can change them. Before you rely on any of them, check the CAO’s available place page (opens in a new tab) yourself. Our 2026 key dates page carries the rest of the season.
If you already hold an offer
Adding an available place does not sit alongside what you have. The CAO puts it this way: “Acceptance of an offer of an Available Place automatically cancels and supersedes any previous offer(s) and acceptance(s).”
And it can only go above what you hold: “Available place course codes may only be inserted higher in your list of preferences than any offer which you have received to date. If you still wish to be considered for any existing courses, you must insert all available place courses below those you wish to retain.” So the ordinary rule still governs everything: put the courses in the order you actually want them, because an offer on a higher preference ends your chance of anything below it.
Your lists stay capped at ten. If a list already holds ten and you add an available place course, the CAO deletes whatever is at preference ten.
Entry requirements still apply
An available place is a place, not an exemption. The CAO’s own condition is that “applicants for available places must meet the normal minimum entry requirements for the course(s) in question”, and those subject requirements are not in the points charts, so nothing on this page should be read as saying you qualify. Check the course on the institution’s own site and on the CAO’s available place page (opens in a new tab).
Two groups are told to talk to the college first rather than apply straight away. The CAO says anyone matching “Restricted Categories of Applicant” in its handbook should consult the admissions office concerned, and that mature applicants, and applicants holding qualifications other than the Irish Leaving Certificate or QQI FET awards it lists, “must contact the appropriate HEI before completing an application”.
What to read while you decide
How the offer rounds work explains where available places sit in the season. The Course Matcher shows what your points reached in the published rounds, and every course has its own 2026 figure here. None of those are what an available place will ask for, for the reason quoted above, but they tell you what sort of course you are looking at.
Questions people ask
- What is a CAO available place?
- The CAO advertises a course as an available place in two situations, and it names both: where a college opens a new course after the Change of Mind deadline, and where places remain unfilled after all offers have been made and the waiting lists of applicants meeting minimum entry requirements have been exhausted. You can apply whether or not the course was on your original application.
- Does it cost anything?
- Not if you already have a 2026 CAO application. The CAO says people who have applied already, whether placed or not, may apply for an available place online without payment of a further fee. If you have not applied at all this year you still can, on payment of a 50 euro fee.
- Do the round one points tell me what I need?
- No. The CAO's own condition is that previously published points in an earlier round of offers should not be taken as an indication of the points required for entry to available places. What does still apply is the entry requirements: applicants for available places must meet the normal minimum entry requirements for the course in question.
- Is the list on this page the current one?
- Check the CAO's own page before you enter a course. The CAO's list says courses are added and removed on instruction from the colleges, and it carries a correct-as-of time for that reason. Where this page shows courses at all, it shows the time they were read from the CAO alongside them, and it links to the CAO's list rather than standing in for it.