Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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154. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the number of students who have failed to get any CAO offers due to errors in the student exam number; if there is an adequate system for alerting schools as well as students to the presence of such errors; and if there is a way in which students can be facilitated to participate in courses for which their results demonstrate they should have been selected. [45507/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Universities and Institutes of Technology 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. Neither I nor my Department have a role in the operation of the CAO.

Where the CAO is notified of an error in an application after Round One offers have issued, they update the account information and ask the higher education institutions to consider them for Round Two. The higher education institutions will then do their best to accommodate applicants with offers on Round Two. A portion of the offers that are issued in Round Two every year are to applicants who need to be accommodated after adjustments have been made due to applicant omissions or errors, or administrative errors caused by the higher education institutions or the CAO.

I appreciate that it can be quite upsetting for an applicant to realise their examination information was incorrect, and it is my understanding that every effort is made by the CAO and the higher education institutions to facilitate such applicants in Round Two.

If the issue is not resolved 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 the CAO, and whose complaints have not been resolved by the CAO. The function of the Appeals Commission is to ensure that the rules are applied fairly.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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155. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a person (details supplied) in County Clare will be accommodated in either of two colleges in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45508/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that Higher Education Institutions are autonomous bodies and admissions to third level courses is a matter for the institutions concerned and not for my Department to intervene.