Guidance counsellor Donnchadh O’Mahony: "There’s loads of options and opportunities for students outside of the CAO"

As secondary students weigh up their CAO choices, Donnchadh O’Mahony – guidance counsellor at Loreto College, Stephen’s Green – wants them to know there are many different paths available.

“There’s loads of options and opportunities for students outside of the CAO,” he notes. “PLCs, tertiary degrees, traineeships and apprenticeships are all entry opportunities to earn qualifications. The CAO is mainly for applying to universities. However, in the last couple of years, the National Tertiary Office, or NTO, brought out new tertiary degrees, where you start in a PLC college, before guaranteeing your progression into a course/university.”

O’Mahony emphasises the importance of discussing all post-secondary options, pointing out the benefits of alternative options, particularly tertiary degrees. First introduced in September 2023, as of 2026, 38 different bachelor’s degrees now offer tertiary entry courses.

“The best thing about tertiary degrees is that there are no points required for it,” says O’Mahony. “Additionally, while you’re in the PLC college, you don’t pay any fees at all.”

O’Mahony also points out certain simple errors to avoid.

“The biggest mistake you can make is not looking at correspondence from the CAO,” he says. “Pay attention to all emails they send, or you may miss out on some valuable information! Sometimes, with students, the CAO will ask them for a lot of further verification. It may feel like spam, but I promise it’s important to pay attention to. If you miss it, when it comes to the offer stage, your account isn’t fully finished. So even though you might have gotten the points, you won’t get an offer for that course.

“The second thing is to be specific with your order of preference, or how you rank your courses on the CAO,” he continues. “This list is really important. When it comes to the offer stage, you’ll get an offer of the course highest up on your CAO list. Make sure you thoroughly research the course, specifically checking the modules that will make up your course of interest. Maybe these modules aren’t of interest to you! A lot should go into deciding a course, whether you’re checking for specialities or Erasmus opportunities. Research is everything.”

What advice would O’Mahony give to people who are under parental or peer pressure to choose a specific course?

“This happens more than you’d think, though sometimes parents do it subconsciously,” he replies. “As a guidance counsellor, when I’m speaking to parents and giving talks, I always say, ‘Give your input, give your advice, but ultimately the decision is your son or your daughter’s. You’ve had your time, you’ve done college. Ultimately it is your child’s decision. They do know best!’

“After the first round of the CAO, if you don’t get the course you really want, there’s still options. Talk to your guidance counsellor, talk to your parents, and remember that tertiary degrees will still be opened for applications. Additionally, there will still be available places for any courses that weren’t filled in Ireland. Try not to be too upset, and begin planning what you will do to move forward.”

Following last year’s first major drop in grade inflation since Covid, at around 5.5%, the goal is to return to previous 2019 rates.

“This year’s grade inflation will go just below 2020 levels, which were inflated due to the pandemic,” explains O’Mahony. “Besides grade inflation, I predict the biggest impact on points for 2026, is the amount of applicants applying through the CAO. Last year, even though there was grade deflation, the points still remained the same, because there were close to 90,000 applicants to the CAO.

“This was the highest amount of applications there ever were, due to a generational baby boom. Additionally, this year’s 2026 class broke a record for the amount of junior cycle students doing the Junior Cert, which in this round, could result in similar outcomes during the CAO. But within this entire application process, the most important thing I can emphasise is the endless amount of opportunities available to you, even outside of traditional routes.”

• In addition to his work as guidance counsellor at Loreto College, Stephen’s Green, O’Mahony is also the founder and director of the EdTech service findmycollegecourse.ie, which works to help find the college course best-suited to students.

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