An extension to the Central Applications Office (CAO) deadline for student applications is not possible, according to Minister for Education Mary Hanafin.
Ms Hanafin said: "We contacted the CAO, which is an independent company, yesterday to see if it could be extended, and they told me then, and they confirmed this again this morning, that their legal advise was such that they had a legal contract with applicants and they weren't able to extend the date", she said today.
Thousands of students have complained that they have been unable to process their applications online due to problems with the CAO website.
Ms Hanafin said that she had used the site herself this morning and that it appeared to be working fine.
"If anybody didn't get through or if they have any queries about it, what they should do is manually fill in the form and get it in the post office by 4pm today," the Minister said.
Earlier, CAO operations manager Joe O'Grady had said there was no need to extend the deadline as the CAO had already received most of the applications, including 2,000 more than they had received last year.
The deadline for applications is 5.15pm today.
