Education Minister Norma Foley has announced that a centralized admissions process in Ireland

Education Minister Norma Foley said a centralized admissions process for post-primary schools would be introduced in many high-stress towns and suburbs across the country in the 2025 academic year. Limerick city, Ennis and Co Clare already operate a common application system, and plans are underway to expand the approach to other parts of the country where post-primary school places are in high demand.

Under this system, instead of making individual applications to several schools, parents submit a form where local second-tier schools are ranked from a list of choices. Schools will then collaborate to allocate space.

The Department for Education has not named areas where a common application system may be introduced, but they could include towns such as Greystones, Co Wicklow, Maynooth and Celbridge Co Kildare, which created extra first year places this September.

A department spokesman said: "Trying a co-ordinated process in areas that experience significant levels of in and out movement, or areas with a large number of schools, is extremely challenging.

"These and other factors will be considered in identifying relevant areas." Ms Foley said: "We want to encourage schools in stressed areas to sign up to this. It will help identify the number of places needed in an area immediately."

The Department for Education is examining existing systems in Limerick City and Ennis to see what can be learned from the experience of a public enrollment system. While education department officials agree that such systems are beneficial, their operation is challenging, she said.

Norma Foley said the department wanted to ease the anxiety felt by parents, students and schools in areas where school places are in high demand.

While parents fill out only one form, schools apply their own enrollment policies to decide which children to accept. The main advantage of a centralized system is that it is easy to ensure at an early stage that all applications are covered.

However, in some counties where the program exists, parents complain that they have to rank too many schools on the form to get a spot at a school they don't want to send a child to. In Limerick, parents must list 11 of the 17 schools across the city and from the county. The department added that it will engage with relevant stakeholders including guardians and school management bodies in the coming weeks.