Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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900. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the date on which the CAO is notified of the number of college courses to be offered via CAO, on an annual basis [27686/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Officials in my department contacted the CAO with this query and were advised by the CAO that every year, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) inform the CAO of the courses that they wish to include in the CAO Handbook for the upcoming application season. For the 2026 application season, the final deadline for courses to be finalised for the printed version of the handbook is 13 June, 2025. However, it should be noted, that HEIs have the option to add courses to the CAO application system after this deadline has passed. Such courses are notified to the CAO and added to the 'Changes to the CAO Handbook' document (published at www.cao.ie/handbook) as well as being updated to the CAO's course search facility and personalised CAO Handbook.

It should be noted that the CAO is a non-profit private company jointly owned by a number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Its function is to process applications for undergraduate and some postgraduate courses on behalf of these HEIs, which are themselves autonomous. The CAO is not a public body and neither I, nor my department, have a direct role in its operations. Enquiries regarding the CAO's processes may be made directly to the CAO.