This is how Fennelly J began his judgment for the Supreme Court in Central Applications Office v Minister for Community Rural and Galeltacht Affairs [2010] IESC 32 (13 May 2010). The Court granted a declaration that respondent Minister did not have the power under the Official Languages Act, 2003 (also here) to designate the applicant as a public body subject to obligations imposed by the Act concerning the conduct of its affairs in both official languages. The CAO today publishes its second round of offers of third level places for the forthcoming academic year, and in the inauspicious technical landscape of a Supreme Court appeal, Fennelly J provided an excellent primer on the operations of the Central Applications Office (the CAO; logo, above left):

is a company limited by guarantee and is a non-profit body. It was formed in 1976 and is based in Galway. … The State has no responsibility for its operation. The members of the CAO are the third-level institutions which it serves. Prior to the establishment of the CAO in 1976, there was no centralised system for processing applications from students seeking admission to third level. … The universities … decided to form a single body to process applications. The CAO now has 44 participant Higher Education Institutions …

The process by which the CAO matches applications (from students) and offers (from institutions) is as follows. Each student makes a single application to the CAO early in the year. The student specifies, in order of preference, the preferred colleges and courses of study. Each institution decides on the number of places it will offer in each category and informs the CAO. The CAO relates the student’s application with [that student’s] Leaving Certificate results. It then makes an offer to the student on a form described as “offer notice” which specifies the course being offered and the institution offering it. It invites the student to return a part of the form specifying acceptance. …

This is a far more elegant explanation than the one I essayed in an earlier post, in which I went on to explain that grades of the last-admitted candidate to a course can be regarded as the cut-off for qualification for entry to that course, and that these grades can be expressed as a function of points in a range from 0 to 600. In that earlier post, I set out the points levels for entry into various law courses on the basis of the CAO’s first round of offers.

Each year, not all of the CAO’s offers are accepted, with the result that some courses have vacancies. The third level institutions notify the CAO of the vacancies, and it issues a further round of offers. Where the points of the last-admitted candidate on this round are lower than those of the last-admitted candidate in the first round, the CAO also publishes the revised points cut-off. This year, the second round of offers of places was made today, and the points requirements for some law courses were revised accordingly. (Of course, some of these offers will not be accepted, and the third level institutions and the CAO will continue to make further offers as necessary to fill their courses).

In the table below (after the jump), I set out the final points requirements for law degrees in the various third level institutions. The first number, in bold font, is the final points requirement. Where the points were revised in round 2, the points for round 1 are then set out in regular font, prefaced by “R1:”. Finally, for the sake of completeness, where the course was offered last year, the final points for 2009 are set out in italics in parentheses.

Athlone IT
AL057 Business and Law 250 (n/a)
AL058 Accounting and Law 255 R1:310 (n/a)

Carlow IT
CW708 Law 320 (300)
CW938 Business with Law 300 (290)

University College Cork
CK301 Law 485 (485)
CK302 Law and French 490 (510)
CK303 Law and German 475 (505)
CK304 Law and Irish 515 (525*)
CK305 Law (Clinical) 505 (515*)
CK306 Law (International) 535 R1:540 (540)

Dublin Business School
DB514 Business and Law 260 (245)
DB568 Law 205 R1:260 (230)

Dublin City University
DC230 Economics Politics and Law 400 R1:405 (415)
DC232 Law and Society (BCL) 440 R1:445 (445)

Griffith College Dublin and Griffith College Cork
GC203 Law (Cork) 310 (210)
GC403 Law (Dublin) 300 (185)
GC404 Business and Law (Dublin) 265 (225)

Trinity College Dublin
TR004 Law 515* (520*)
TR017 Law and Business 550 R1:555* (555)
TR018 Law and French 555* R1:570 (550)
TR019 Law and German 510* (470)
TR020 Law and Political Science 560* (555)

University College Dublin
DN009 Law (BCL) 480 R1:480* (470)
DN021 Business and Law 480 R1:485 (480)
DN028 BCL Maîtrise 500 R1:530 (550)
DN029 Law with French Law (BCL) 545 (505)
DN060 Law with History 510 (510)
DN065 Law with Politics 505 R1:510 (500)
DN066 Law with Philosophy 515 (505)
DN067 Law with Economics 500 R1:510 (500)

NUI Galway
GY101 Arts 350* R1:355* (355) (depending on subject choice and progression rules, this can lead to a BA in Legal Science)
GY250 Corporate Law 385 R1:390 (395)
GY251 Civil Law 445 (440)

Limerick IT
LC231 Law and Taxation 300 (350)

University of Limerick
LM020 Law and Accounting 445 (455)
LM029 Law Plus 440 (455)

NUI Maynooth
MH101 Arts 375 (375) (Law within Arts: Law can be studied with other Arts subjects in first year, and students fulfilling the necessary criteria can transfer to one of the law degrees)
MH115 Law (BCL) and Arts 450 (465)
MH406 Law and Business 450 (450)

Waterford Institute of Technology
WD079 Business Management with Law 300 (290)
WD140 Legal Studies 305 (315)


Other law courses are also administered through the CAO; and, in the table below, I set out their final points requirements. Again, the first number, in bold font, is the final points requirement; a number in regular font – if any – is the round 1 cut-off; and the final points for last year – if any – are set out in italics in a parenthesis.

IT Carlow
CW706 Legal Studies 285 (n/a)
CW926 Business with Law 260 R1:280 (210)

Dublin Business School
DB580 Legal Studies AQA (AQA)
DB581 Legal and Business Studies 160 (AQA)
DB582 Legal Studies AQA (AQA)
DB583 Legal and Business Studies 135 (AQA)

Letterkenny IT
LY207 Law 145 (95)

Waterford IT
WD013 Legal Studies 270 (300)


These lists follow the order provided by the CAO. The asterisk * means that not all on this points score were offered places, whilst AQA means all qualified applicants were offered places.