An additional 800 college places have been announced ahead of the release of CAO offers on Friday.
It's on top of the extra 1,250 places announced previously.
Points for third level courses are expected to rise after record Leaving Cert results this week.
The average marks across all subjects and at all levels have increased on average by 4.4 percentage points on last year.
The Higher Education Minister is expecting more students to get their first choice course this year than any other year.
Simon Harris has told the Dail more places are being made available to deal with points going up:
"I am now in a position to confirm that there will be a further 800 additional college places on top of the 1,250 we announced last week."
I do hope this will go some way to relieving pressure. Let's be clear I expect points to rise. Higher grades will result in higher points, there are no two ways around that. But the most practical, sensible thing we can do is try and provide as many places as possible."
