CAO promises to review website application system

UP to 6,000 students may have been affected by delays in the Central Application Office’s (CAO) online application website this week which have prompted a major review of the system.

Although problems for users of the CAO website were reported to have eased yesterday, students have complained about valuable study time being spent trying to submit choice courses ahead of yesterday’s 5.15pm deadline.

The CAO said it had received 51,000 online applications up to 3pm, with thousands of paper applications yet to be counted.

Late applications will still be accepted up to May 1, just as in other years, but the fee doubles to €70 for applications through the CAO website or €90 for those sent by post from today on.

But those who had already paid €35 online and paid an extra €10 to post their application yesterday have been told this fee would not be refunded.

About 53,000 people had registered their personal details up to lunchtime yesterday, slightly fewer than all applications by February 1 last year. But reliable sources told the Irish Examiner that as many as 6,500 of them did not get to the next stage of submitting their course choices. While this could include a small number who might have begun the process online any time since last November without proceeding to the course lists section, it is believed most of them might have been affected by the difficulties of the last few days.

Some guidance counsellors have reported their students tried for up to eight hours before succeeding in having their application completed.

“I’ve heard from dozens of people who just gave up and had to post the application for an extra €10, and many counsellors had dozens of students caught up in all these delays,” said Mr Frank Mulvihill, president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors.

At some stages during the week, as many as 600 applications were being accepted every hour by the website, causing queues which led to web pages timing out.

The CAO said it would review its technical systems and examine ways of encouraging people to apply earlier in future. This might include reduced fees for applying before an earlier date. “We apologise to anybody who was inconvenienced by long delays. We had similar delays on the system a few days before the deadline two years ago but the volume of applicants logging on seems to have been what caused problems this week,” said CAO operations manager Joseph O’Grady.

The promised review follows calls from Education Minister Mary Hanafin to ensure that a system is in place in future to cope with the bulk of applications arriving in the last few days. She questioned why the CAO’s systems could not offer any flexibility to extend the deadline by a few days.

Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland general-secretary John White said the procedures should be reviewed to ensure the stress caused to students and parents does not happen again.