Plans for a new secondary school in Carrick on Suir have taken a major step forward.

Contractors to carry out the works on four separate education facilities including the one in South Tipp have been appointed.

However construction may be delayed given the Carrick project is subject to an appeal to An Bord Pleanala.

Plans for Comeragh College – to replace the existing school which is on two sites – has been in the pipeline for many years and in the past 12 months or so the process has been moving at a pace.

Now the Education Minister has announced that BAM PPP- has been selected as the preferred tender for teh provision of the new co- educational facility in Carrick as well as three others in Clare, Cork and Louth.

Under the public private partnership the 500 pupil will be designed, built, financed and maintained for 25 years by Bam PPP which was behind a number of other developments here including the Waterford By Pass.

It was initially hoped that construction would begin in the latter half of this year but this could be pushed into 2015 as the project is currently being appealed to An Bord Pleanala with that decision not due until September at the earliest.