Senator Mark Duffy has confirmed that the proposal for an IPAS centre at the former St. Mary’s Secondary School on McDermott Street, Ballina will not go ahead.
This comes following last week’s news that the site had been proposed to the Department of Integration as an IPAS centre.
Senator Duffy, a native of Ballina, has stated that the proposal was rejected by the Department and there has been no new application by the owners.
He said that ‘although renovations are presently taking place in the building, this is the right of any property owner, but it does not imply that the Department has any interest in the site’.
The secondary school site was sold, privately, after St. Mary’s relocated to a new state-of-the-art facility in September 2022.
Senator Duffy, who had opposed the application in November last year, has welcomed the decision to reject the proposal.
