CAO key dates 2026 archive

2026 cycle archive. For the next application cycle, use CAO key dates 2027. This page preserves the 2026 calendar and guidance, not the deadlines for a new 2027 application.

Every date below is the CAO's own, from its timetable of important dates and its dates and tips document for 2026. Times matter more than most students realise, so they are given exactly.

One thing to fix in your head straight away. The application deadlines fall at 5pm, not midnight. Every year people sit down after dinner on the closing date to finish an application that shut four hours earlier. The times are not all the same, though: the facilities that open do so at noon, and an offer has to be replied to by 3pm, which is two hours earlier again.

The dates

Planning for 2027 entry? Our restricted-entry CAO courses guide covers that cycle's application deadlines and assessment rules. The calendar below remains the 2026 timetable.

Every row above is the CAO's own, from its timetable of important dates and, for the available place entry deadlines, from its available places page. A handful of the CAO's rows are not here because it has not dated them yet: the mature nursing test window and the release of Leaving Certificate appeal results both still read "TBC" on its own timetable. What each round is for, and who is in it, is set out on the offers page.

What each one actually means

20 January, 5pm

The application fee is €35 if you register and pay before this, €50 up to 1 February, and €65 for a late application between 5 March and 1 May. That is €15 for doing the same thing a fortnight earlier. Register early even if you have no idea what you want to study: most course choices can still be reordered, dropped and added for free during Change of Mind in May, and the exceptions are restricted courses and mature applications, which are covered below.

1 February, 5pm

The main one. What has to be done by now is register: create the application and pay the fee. After 5pm on 1 February there is no ordinary way in, only late application from 5 March at a higher fee, and that is limited.

Your course choices are a softer deadline than most pages make out, and it is worth being exact about who it binds. An ordinary applicant going for ordinary courses can leave the list empty on 1 February and fill it in during the free Change of Mind from 5 May to 1 July. Two groups cannot. If you want a restricted course, it has to be on the list by 1 February or added through the €10 facility by 1 March. If you want to be assessed as a mature applicant, most institutions want your course choices in by 1 February as well, again with the €10 facility open to 1 March.

So the honest version is: register by 1 February whatever happens, and put your list in by then too unless you are certain neither of those applies to you. Getting it in costs nothing and it is the only way to keep every option open.

Restricted courses

Some courses close earlier than the rest because the assessment has to be organised, and the handbook marks each one "(Restricted, see page 3)" beside its title. There are fifty one of them in 2026 and they are mostly art, design, animation, film and photography courses wanting a portfolio, and music, musical theatre and drama courses wanting an audition. A few are interview courses: Social Science (Youth and Community Work) at UCC, primary teaching at the Church of Ireland Centre, general nursing at the Adelaide School of Nursing.

Medicine is not one of them, which surprises people. Undergraduate medicine is marked "(HPAT Required)" rather than restricted, and the HPAT is a separate registration with its own body. The 1 February date still matters to it for a different reason: the CAO advises applying "before 1 February at 5pm, if you need to apply for the 2026 GAMSAT or HPAT tests".

Mature applicants are a restriction too, but a different kind. The handbook lists them separately, as a category of applicant rather than a category of course, and the rules are on the mature student page.

You must have applied to the CAO by 1 February at 5pm to be considered for one at all. The course itself has a little longer: the handbook says it "must be included on your course choices list by that date, or added to your application using the facility to amend course choices (for a fee of €10) before 1 March at 5pm". That amendment facility opens on 5 February at noon. So a restricted course you forgot is recoverable until 1 March, for ten euro, as long as you were already in by 1 February.

After that the routes in normally close. The handbook is direct about Change of Mind: "You cannot introduce restricted courses using the Change of Mind facility (but you can change the order of restricted courses that were already listed on your application)." It names one narrow exception. "In the case of a restricted course which shares the exact same assessment procedures with a course you had applied for by 1 February 2026 at 5pm, you may be permitted to introduce it on a Change of Mind. You should consult with the relevant HEI before introducing such a course." That is a conversation with the college, not a box you tick, and it is the only door the handbook leaves open.

Late application is not a way in either, and the handbook adds a second layer to that: "individual HEIs may have restrictions on late applications", and mature applicants in particular are told to check the institution's own site first.

So put it on your list before 1 February anyway. Moving it down or taking it off later costs nothing, and the ten euro window is a rescue rather than a plan.

5 March to 1 May, late application

Late application opens on 5 March at noon and closes on 1 May at 5pm, at a higher fee. It gets you into the system, but it does not normally get you a restricted course, and what it gets you at all depends on the institution: the handbook says individual HEIs may restrict late applications, and names mature applicants and applicants holding qualifications other than a recently taken EU school-leaving examination as the two groups who should check before relying on it. Treat it as a fallback and not a plan.

May, the Statement of Application Record

The CAO emails you a record of what it holds. Read it properly. This is your one clean chance to catch a course code that is not the course you meant, a qualification the CAO has not recorded, or a spelling of your name that does not match your exam entry. Errors are much cheaper to fix in May than in August.

5 May to 1 July, Change of Mind

Free, and you can use it as often as you like. Add courses, remove them, and above all reorder them. The exception is the one above: a restricted course cannot normally be introduced in May, though one already on your list can be moved.

Order matters more than most applicants believe, and there are two lists rather than one. Level 8 courses are one preference list and Level 7 and 6 courses are another, and the handbook says choices on one "will not affect the choices on the other list". Within each list the CAO works down it, gives you the highest course you qualify for, and nothing below it. You never get an offer for your fourth choice while your second is still available to you, so there is no tactical reason to put a course you want less above a course you want more. Because the lists are separate you can be offered one course from each in the same round, and then you choose: the handbook is explicit that you "can only accept one offer, in any one round, from either the Level 8 or the Level 7/6 list".

Change of Mind closes on 1 July at 5pm, and there is no extension.

HEAR and DARE: 1 February, 1 March, 10 March

Three dates rather than one, and the last two are the ones people miss. You have to be registered with the CAO by 1 February at 5pm; the scheme's own online sections have to be complete by 1 March at 5pm; and the supporting documents have to be with the CAO by 10 March at 5pm. Outcomes issue on 23 June, and a review and appeal can be lodged until 2 July at 5pm. There is more on both schemes on the HEAR and DARE page.

27 August, Available Places

Once Round One offers have gone out, the CAO advertises courses that still have places. The facility opens at noon on 27 August and the list changes through the season as colleges add and remove courses. What it costs, who may apply and what it does to an offer you already hold is on the available places page.

What happens if you miss one

Offer rounds

Round A and Round Zero come before the Leaving Certificate results and go to particular groups, including mature applicants, some further education applicants, and applicants whose qualifications are already known. If you are a school leaver waiting on Leaving Cert results, the round that matters to you is Round One.

Round One offers issue after the results come out in August. If you do not get your first choice, later rounds continue through September as places move. There is more on how the rounds work in CAO offers.

After the results

The offer rounds are not the only clock running in late August. The State Examinations Commission runs a separate calendar for viewing your scripts and appealing a grade, and its first deadline lands before round one has been replied to.

The order catches people out. You apply to view your scripts first, and that window runs from 5pm on 25 August to 8pm on 26 August, which is the same day round one offers issue at 2pm. Applying to appeal is a second, later step, from 10am on 30 August to 5pm on 31 August. Miss the viewing deadline and you go into the appeal without having seen the paper, and the Commission does not accept late applications for either.

Those dates, the fees and the Commission's own wording are on is an appeal worth it, read from its candidate guide rather than from a summary of it.

Before you close this tab

Put two reminders in your phone now: 1 February at 4pm and 1 July at 4pm. An hour before, not on the hour, because the CAO site is slow on closing day and it is always slow at the worst moment.