The prospects of a new €15 million secondary school being built in Claregalway have been dealt a huge blow – the Department of Education has dismissed all of the eight sites that were suggested.

And now this is being viewed as mechanism by which the Department can renege on building the 600 school without actually throwing cold water on the project.

A senior source within the Department of Education told the Connacht Tribune that of the eight sites that were submitted, they were all rejected for a variety of reasons.

Last year, a commitment was given to build a new secondary school in Claregalway as the population of the area justified such a facility. A total of eight sites in the area were offered by local landowners.

It was confirmed a number of weeks ago that the Department were close to making a decision on a suitable site but now it has emerged that none of the sites are suitable for the construction of a secondary school.

The source said that one of the sites was located along the N17 and was not suitable from a traffic safety point of view while another was situated too far from the village.

A number of the sites close to the village were deemed unsuitable on the grounds that they were located in the flood plain – despite the fact that extensive flood relief measures were carried out in Claregalway during the course of last year.

Local TD Noel Grealish said that he had been in contact with both Galway County Council and the Department of Education and was told that all of the sites offered were being considered.

“It is very strange that they cannot inform me when they will be arriving at a decision. It is important that this project gets the green light so that enrolment can take place as soon as possible”, Deputy Grealish said.

See full story in this week's Connacht Tribune.