Courses that still have room after Round 1. If you got no offer, or an offer you do not want, this is the live second chance and it is open right now.
Anything you add to your CAO list before then is considered in Round 2 on Monday 7 September at 2pm. Miss it and the next chance is Round 3, two weeks later, by which point the good courses are usually gone.
List correct as of 29 August 2026, 09:10. CAO adds and removes courses daily on instruction from the colleges, so check the live list before you act on anything here.
Accepting an available place cancels every offer you already hold, including one you have already accepted. There is no undo. If you hold a Round 1 offer you are happy enough with, do not accept an available place unless you are certain you want it instead.
Applying is different from accepting. Adding an available place to your list does not put your existing offer at risk. You can hold your Round 1 offer, add available place courses, and see what happens in Round 2. Only accepting replaces what you have.
Where you put them on your list decides everything. Available place courses can only go above any offer you have already received. So put anything you would genuinely prefer above your current offer, and put your current offer above anything you would only take as a fallback. The list is still capped at ten, and adding an eleventh deletes whatever sits at number ten.
Courses come and go daily. The snapshot further down this page is a starting point, not the authority.
Available places are not a way around the requirements. You still need the subjects, the grades and any matriculation requirement the course carries. Portfolio and audition courses still need the portfolio or the audition.
It is not a new application. You insert the course codes into your existing list of preferences, above any offer you have already received. Free if your application number begins with 26. Fifty euro if you did not apply this year.
Offers are made in rounds, not instantly. Adding a course does not mean you have it.
The points from Round 1 tell you nothing here. CAO says so directly: previously published points should not be taken as an indication of what an available place will require. A course that went to 450 in Round 1 may take far less now, or may not.
Mature applicants, and anyone applying with qualifications other than the Leaving Certificate or QQI, must contact the college directly before applying for an available place.
| Add courses by | Considered in | Offers issue |
|---|---|---|
| 11:00, Wed 3 Sept | Round 2 | 14:00, Mon 7 Sept |
| 11:00, Wed 10 Sept | Round 3 | 10:00, Mon 15 Sept |
| 11:00, Wed 17 Sept | Round 4 | 10:00, Mon 22 Sept |
17 September is the closing date. Available places shut at 11am that day. Rounds continue to the start of October but nothing new can be added after that. Change of Mind closed on 1 July and does not reopen.
Dundalk IT, Griffith and Dublin Business School account for almost half of them. There is nothing from UCD, Trinity, UCC, DCU or UL, which is normal: the large universities fill in Round 1.
Correct as of 29 August 2026 at 09:10. Always check the live CAO list.
An available place is one route of several, and it is not the best one for everybody. None of these needs a CAO offer.
Rounds continue into early October. Places come back when other students decline, so an offer can still arrive without you doing anything.
Apply direct to the college, not through CAO, and not on points. A PLC also opens the QQI route into first year next September, which is a genuine second door into the same degrees.
Degree routes that start in an ETB or further education college and finish in a university, with no CAO points at all. Listed at nto.hea.ie.
Earn while you qualify, to Level 6 and in many cases Level 8. Recruitment runs all year rather than to the CAO calendar. apprenticeship.ie.
Thinking of deferring? Do not accept the offer. Email the college admissions office directly with DEFERRED ENTRY in the subject line, giving your name, CAO number, course code and your reasons, and it has to reach them at least two days before your reply date. Never send a deferral request to CAO.
Every rule and date on this page is taken from CAO directly on 29 August 2026: the available places rules page, the application page, the course list and the published timetable of important dates. Nothing here is our interpretation of the rules.