76,000 students have applied, with law, engineering and architecture proving popular.
For the third year in succession, the amount of students in Ireland applying for third-level education has increased.
RTÉ has reported the findings of the latest CAO data, which illustrates that 2016 has seen a 2% rise in the number of applications, an increase in line with the last two years of improvement.
As already mentioned, courses like engineering, architecture and law are a big hit with secondary school applicants, with the the two former courses seeing a 13% rise in applications.
Meanwhile, there has been a 6% increase in the number of people applying to law, while nursing has seen an 11% improvement in interest.
Additionally, some 1,700 students from Northern Ireland have applied to third level institutions in the Republic.
