DARE 2027: who qualifies, the documents and reduced points

The short version

DARE (the Disability Access Route to Education) is for applicants under 23 on 1 January 2027. To be eligible you must pass two separate tests: an educational impact test, filled in with your school, and an evidence of disability test, signed by the right professional. Pass both and you can compete for reduced-points places that each participating college holds back. Fail either and your CAO application carries on exactly as before.

Disabilities considered include ADHD, autism, blindness or vision impairment, deafness, dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, mental health conditions, neurological conditions, physical disabilities, significant ongoing illnesses and speech and language disorders. Colleges give priority to applicants with physical or sensory disabilities (blind, deaf, physical), who are still under-represented in higher education.

The four parts of the application

The CAO form itself must be in by 1 February 2027 at 5pm, and you tick “Yes” when it asks whether you have a disability; that is what opens the Supplementary Information Form. Paper documents go by post to DARE Applications 2027, CAO, Tower House, Eglinton Street, Galway. Get a free certificate of posting at the post office, because the deadline is about when they arrive, not when you send them.

Test one: educational impact

The Educational Impact Statement has six indicators. You need a combination of two. Applicants with dyslexia or dyscalculia must meet indicator 6 plus one other; everyone else needs any two of indicators 1 to 5. Answering Yes to any one part of a multi-part question counts as meeting that indicator.

1. Intervention and supports: extra support in school, or Leaving Cert exam accommodations.
2. Attendance and disruption: many school days or classes missed, or unable to do full days.
3. School experience and well-being: limited extra-curricular activity, support for the emotional impact, or schoolwork taking much longer or being limited by managing your condition.
4. Learning and exam results: results hit after the condition began or worsened, extra challenges with homework, study, class or the curriculum, or attending a special school.
5. Other educational impact not covered above.
6. Dyslexia or dyscalculia scores: two literacy scores, or one numeracy score, at or below the 10th percentile, from tests done on or after 1 February 2025.

The statement has to come from your current secondary school (or the last one you attended). DARE will not accept one completed by a PLC or FET college.

Test two: evidence of disability

Each disability has its own rule about who can sign the evidence and how recent it must be. Most diagnosis reports have no age limit, but four categories do: for ADD, ADHD, a mental health condition or a significant ongoing illness the report must be under three years old, which for 2027 means dated after 1 February 2024. The safest route is the Evidence of Disability Form 2027 itself, completed by the specialist named for your category on accesscollege.ie. A report is accepted instead only if it contains the same details the form asks for and is within the time limit.

Dyslexia and dyscalculia work differently: no Section C form. You send either a full psychological assessment report or the Section D School Statement, plus the attainment scores from testing on or after 1 February 2025. If you have more than one disability, send the correct evidence for each; DARE assesses all of them.

Eligibility in 2025, by disability

The 2025 report from the Irish Universities Association shows how often completed applications were found eligible. Overall, 9,702 applicants sent everything in and 8,020 were eligible.

The report links the lower rates partly to documentation: getting the right evidence from the right professional is harder in some categories than others. The common failures are a report from a professional not on the list for your category, a report past its time limit, or one missing details the form asks for. Start in November and ask your specialist to use the official form.

The bigger leak happens earlier. 14,407 people said on their CAO form that they had a disability, but only 9,702 completed the DARE application with documents. Finishing the paperwork is half the battle.

How reduced points actually work

The handbook gives a simple example: a course needs 366 points, and a DARE-eligible applicant could be offered a place on 355. There is no fixed discount. The DARE cut-off depends on how many places the course has, how many it reserves for DARE, and how many eligible applicants want them. You must still meet the minimum entry requirements and any subject rule for the course (see minimum entry requirements).

In 2025, colleges made 10,925 offers to DARE-eligible applicants. 78% of them were above the normal points anyway, and 2,393 (22%) were reduced-points offers. The reduced-points offers were almost all for honours degrees: 2,162 at Level 8, against 231 at Levels 6 and 7. So DARE makes the most difference on competitive Level 8 courses.

After you apply

DARE assesses applications from April to June. You hear by email on 23 June 2027; if you are found ineligible, the email explains why and you can apply for a review. Offers come through CAO in the normal rounds in August, and if you accept a DARE place you can use the college’s academic, personal and social supports.

Repeating or deferring? DARE eligibility from 2026 carries forward for one year if you are still under 23 on 1 January 2027. Enter your 2026 CAO number on the 2027 form.

Frequently asked questions