Students are applying for college courses they're genuinely interested in, according to one guidance counsellor.
Brian Mooney was speaking as there's been a widespread fall in the numbers applying for healthcare courses through the Central Applications Office (CAO).
It includes a 27% drop in first preferences from nursing - with nearly 1,700 fewer students having Nursing and Midwifery as their first preference courses in 2022.
However there has been an 11% increase in Dentistry.
While calls from the construction industry for more workers appear to be taking hold, with a 13% rise in interest.
The inner courtyard on the campus of Trinity College Dublin is seen in February 2008. Picture by: mauritius images GmbH / Alamy Stock PhotoWhile Humanities are up 11% and applications to study Arts are up 9%.
In Education, first preferences for primary teaching courses are down 5% - compared to a 9% rise for second level.
There has also been a big drop in students who want to study Agriculture, down 17%.
Brian Mooney, who's also an Irish Times columnist, told Newstalk Breakfast this makes sense.
"It's the market, the market, the market: it's what the students perceive.
"Students are applying for the things they're genuinely interested in.
"And obviously Arts and Humanities [presents] a huge, positive opportunity right through - as an Arts graduate myself.
"The growth that students can undertake over those three years, and puts them in a position to be very flexible in terms of the area of the economy they can go when they graduate".
And he says more students from abroad are also applying to study here.
"The number of students from Europe who've applied to Ireland again is up hugely this year.
"Last year it jumped massively - from just over 2,000 to 5,256 - and it's gone up to 6,317.
"So our continental cousins are looking to Ireland as a very attractive place to study.
"Obviously with the UK now, with Brexit, and all that sort of stuff".
