After you apply: offers, waiting lists and appeals
What happens once a secondary school application is in: when you'll hear back, how to accept an offer, what to say about other schools, how waiting lists work, and how to challenge a refusal.
Updated 31 October 2026
Once your application is in, the next few weeks follow the same rules at every state-funded secondary school. Here is what to expect and what to watch for.
When you'll hear back
Each school's annual admission notice gives the date you'll be told its decision. That date must be within three weeks of the closing date for applications. The decision comes in writing. See the offer and accept-by dates we've found, and check them against the school's own notice.
Accepting an offer
- Accept by the date in the notice. Each school sets its own deadline. If you don't confirm in time, the school can withdraw the offer.
- Tell the school about other schools. When you accept, the school can ask whether you've accepted a place elsewhere, or are still waiting to hear from another school, and for the details. Answer fully: an offer can be withdrawn if you don't.
- Check what you sent. An offer can also be withdrawn if information in the application was false or misleading in a way that matters.
- It's free. A school can't charge you to apply or to enrol. Fee-paying schools are the exception for their fees.
Waiting lists
A school with more applicants than places must keep a waiting list. Children on it are ranked by the school's admission criteria, not by when they applied. If a place comes up during the school year you applied for, it goes to the next child on the list. The list doesn't carry over to the following year.
Being put on a waiting list counts as a refusal. The letter must give the reasons, and where relevant your child's ranking against the criteria and their place on the list. Keep the letter: the date on it starts the clock below.
Challenging a refusal
- Ask the board of management for a review within 21 calendar days of the date on the refusal letter. Put it in writing and say why you think the school didn't follow its admission policy or notice. The Department has a form (BOMR1), but a letter is fine. The board must reply within 42 days of the refusal. If it finds a mistake that changed the outcome, it must fix it, by offering a place or moving your child up the list.
- Appeal under section 29 once you have the review outcome, or once 42 days have passed with no reply. The deadline is 63 calendar days from the original refusal, not from the review. You must have asked for the review first, or the appeal can't be heard.
Appeals go to an independent three-person committee appointed by the Minister. For a full school they're decided on paper, usually within 21 days of a complete appeal. You can appeal online at section29appeals.gov.ie or by registered post. Include your original application, the school's refusal and the board's review reply.
If you still have no place
The Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) helps families who are having trouble finding a school place. Contact details are on the gov.ie school enrolment page linked below.
Still applying? See which application windows are still open, and read how admissions work for the rules on admission notices and priority.
Sources
- Education Act 1998, section 62 (as revised): offers, waiting lists, withdrawals
- gov.ie: Appeals where a school is oversubscribed
- gov.ie: School admissions and enrolment
Rules and rates change. Check the official source before you rely on a detail, and tell us at [email protected] if something's out of date.