Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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1020. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views regarding grading errors and college places (details supplied). [33029/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Universities and Institutes of Technology are autonomous and determine their own procedures for admission. The CAO process applications for undergraduate, and some postgraduate, courses on their behalf.

Decisions on admissions are made by the higher education institutions who then instruct the CAO to make offers to successful candidates. Therefore neither I nor my Department have a function in relation to such matters and it is not within my remit to intervene in individual cases.

An outline of how the random selection process works is outlined on the CAO website at the following link:

The randomly generated number used as part of the selection process is assigned to each applicant prior to any offers being issued. I understand, based on the information available to me, that in the case of an appeal or amendment which leads someone to obtaining an upgraded result, their random number remains the same. If they are now in a position where they would have received an offer in a previous round - i.e. if their randomly selected number is higher than that of the last person offered- they are offered a place, if it is lower than the last person offered, they are not offered. As such, applicants who have points upgraded as a result of a corrected grade are not disadvantaged.

If an applicant has an issue with their CAO application that is not resolved to the applicant’s satisfaction, the option to appeal is available. The CAO has an Independent Appeals Commission, to which recourse may be had by applicants who believe that they have been treated unfairly by CAO, and whose complaints have not been resolved by CAO. The function of the Appeals Commission is to ensure that the rules are applied fairly.

Appeals should be addressed to:

The Secretary, CAO Independent Appeals Commission, c/o Tower House, Eglinton Street, Galway, Ireland.