 11 o'clock I get really, really hungry and almost dizzy with hunger. Nave was telling me yesterday she had the angry pains, you know? Angry. She was angry, she was moody because she was hungry. But she's kind of moody every day, but anyway... That's not nice at all. I'm not getting involved. Listen to this. See, Michaela, across the news desk there, she's reading news. No, Michaela, why do you have a breakfast this morning? I toast avocado and bacon. How posh is that? Come on, it's not. We don't eat avocado around here. Avocado? Did you smash it or mash it? I bought it smashed. Put Michaela's in here. Why would you eat avocado this time? What is an avocado? I don't know. I see it on the telly. What is it? It's a green. Is it a vegetable or a fruit? I don't know. Is an avocado a fruit or a vegetable? What does it taste of? Probably nothing. I don't know how to spin it, but it's like... No. So you had toast avocado and bacon. Where did you get the bacon? She's out here after six. What time did you get up at this morning? Do you know what's even worse? What? Go on. Lee gets up and he makes it for me. That's brilliant. Not me. Not that Lee. So you tumble down the stairs and Lee has your avocado toast and bacon ready. Yeah, and I bring it down here then. I need it. He's messing the trick here. It's a different generation. It's a woman's world. What is Lee's delivery? Can you bring it up for us? We'll see. Thank you very much indeed, Lee. I am now famished. What are you going to have? You've had porridge, hasn't you? I've had poison with blueberries. I'm going to sit here with my Tommy Ratlin now for the next three hours. Thanks, Lee. It is the 9-to-noon show coming up very shortly. It's a minute past nine. Let's get that news update now from Mikaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. Tusla had more than 82,500 referrals of child protection or welfare concerns at last year according to its annual report. The Child and Family Agency says that's a 13% rise on the previous year. At the end of the year, by 22,000 cases were open, but 28% of those cases had yet to be allocated a designated social worker. Tusla says it prioritised cases where children required an immediate response. 400 Ukrainian families have applied for a house under the offer of a home programme in Donegal. Two-day 61 properties have been allocated, housing 203 families who are residing in the county since the scheme opened in December. Under the offer of a home programme, Donegal County Council is appealing for offers of houses, apartments or holiday homes to house people arriving into the county from Ukraine. Kanzer Jimmy Kavna is encouraging people to engage with the scheme. There's an option I think that a lot of people may not be aware of, but it's just a matter of getting awareness out there that is there and that people have a home or have a home that they can offer under the scheme and it's worth looking at. There's been a drop in the number of burglaries in Donegal. According to phonewatch.ie, CSO figures show a 6% decrease in burglaries in the county. 120 burglaries were recorded in Donegal between April 2022 and March 2023. A virtual power plant is being established in Donegal. Ayrnacht has received 1.5 million euros to develop the initiative, which will link energy systems in the county with other European regions. Donegal County Council will work with a number of stakeholders over the coming three years on the community-based virtual power plant project to connect multiple small energy systems and operate them as a utility-skill power station to balance electricity demand and production locally. Ayrnacht Chairperson Kanzerina Donahue says it will ultimately result in communities being able to manage their own energy requirements. This provides a great opportunity then to test like a small community in Donegal. They could generate their own electricity by connecting a number of houses or businesses in a small local area to enable them to manage their own electricity supply and demand without needing to be connected to a national electrical network. Kanzerina's sunny spells and scattered showers today some have a maximum temperature of 16 to 18 degrees. That's all from Highland Radio News for now. We'll be back with news again at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. Some fun, some food, it's all inside this happy meal. Until the 21st of November 2023, from 11 a.m. Range comprises books only while stocks last. The county's number one talk show, the Ninetal Noon Show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the Ninetal Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello and a very good morning. Fast approaching five minutes past nine on this Wednesday, the 19th of July 2023. A very good morning to you. How are you all keeping? I do hope, of course, that you're all keeping very well indeed. It is the Ninetal Noon Show for the next three hours. Loads coming up on the program as you can imagine. We want your stories, your views, your topics, 086 6025,000. That's the WhatsApp line from outside the Republic 0035 386 6025,000. Give us a call to on the program 07 491 25,000. Caroline and Eve waiting to take your calls again. 0035 3749 1 25,000. Don't forget to check out our Facebook page as well and Instagram where we have some stuff for you to interact with as part of this program as well. Readers, emails and other bits that might interest you. Always welcome new likes and new shares and what have you. And we're also on Twitter as well at Highland Radio there. Right, OK, let's go to the front and inside some of the newspapers. The English Times lead this morning. The Boom Bay High Court has ordered that the trial of Vikas Bagat accused of the 2017 murder of Bunkrana backpacker Daniel McLaughlin, be expedited. The court directed that the trial conclude within one year. And as we heard from Daniel's mother Andrea yesterday, how would you describe it? I think she's had a few false dawns but hopeful and optimistic that firstly Bagat is not granted bail given his criminal history that was also refused but also that they follow through on that commitment to have that trial completed within a year and perhaps even before that, we have our fingers crossed in that regard as well. The Donegal Post this morning, he may not have been the caped crusader but boss driver Keith Anderson became an inadvertent and unlikely hero recently when he was driving the Mali coach's local link boss from Kilkar to Donegal town. His quick thinking and calmness as one of his passengers, Stephen Byrne from Bavenin Kilkar, who took ill was crucial. It meant Stephen was soon receiving immediate assistance from a local ambulance crew who then brought the casualty on an emergency trip to Artnagelvin Hospital in Derry in just 45 minutes and both gentlemen pictured on the front of the paper this morning. Good to see. The Innish Independent this morning, sadness has been expressed following the sudden death of Bongkranaman Jim Quinn who died following an incident on the R238 road near Burnford last Friday evening. Mr Quinn took ill and became unresponsive while driving and his passenger had to guide the vehicle to an emergency stop. The vehicle struck a ditch near Tubin School and passing motorists stopped to provide CPR before paramedics arrived. Jim was taken to Letterkenny Hospital by ambulance where he sadly died a short time later as funeral will take place in Cockhill on Wednesday morning. That's this morning. The Finn Valley voice this morning with a total budget of 1.5 million during the next three years. Letterkenny based Earn Act Network will work together with Donegal County Council and European institutions to leverage information technology and smart grid infrastructure. The plan is to link multiple small energy systems and separate them in collaboration, or sorry, operate them in collaboration like a utility scale power station to balance local electricity demand and production. Interesting story more on the front of and inside that paper today. On to the Irish Times. Now, what do you think about this? Your SUV, you might have bought it because you looked at the tax and the tax is relatively low and that was why you bought it. Well, things might be set to change. And there was always this issue as people moved from from ICE engines, internal combustion engines to electric that there would be a drop in revenue. We talked about this on the show three, four, five years ago. Well, those chickens are coming home to roost so there is a budget hole now and how are they going to plug it? Your SUV and most cars seemingly now, most cars on the road are SUVs or some variant of them. Well, the Republic may need to introduce higher taxes for larger heavier cars to help make up for the 1.5 billion in lost revenue per year as motorists switch to electric vehicles government officials have said. While such a move would have the biggest impact on SUV drivers congestion charges are also an option to be considered by officials as they grapple with how to replace the tax stream from cars that run on fossil fuels. Newly published tax strategy group papers also highlight EU proposals for the gradual extension of electricity tax to residential customers as part of possible options for replacing fossil fuel tax revenues. So they're not going to be out of pocket one way or other. Meanwhile, officials are weighing up a vac cut for home building in a move that could boost supply and reduce house prices. So what do you think about that? Would you like to see more taxes on SUVs? Do you have an issue with the amount of SUVs on the road? I remember there was a time when they started becoming popular that it was, you know, an ongoing joke. You don't need a four by four to do a school run. Not all four by fours now. Some of them have really quite small petrol engines. But they're coming after your SUV with taxes to plug that 1.5 billion hole created by people switching to electric vehicles. More on house prices now. And the price of new homes is rising three times faster than the increase in the cost of secondhand homes, which is really troubling, particularly in the context of the defective concrete block crisis, because that means replacement of homes is going to keep increasing, it seems. And we need that scheme with all its flaws that people point out to adapt to that, to the rising cost of building homes, to people in even more financial pressure. And of course, there's first-time buyers as well who might be able to get some value on the secondhand market. But to build your own house, which used to be the cheap option, that option is becoming more and more expensive. Latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show new home prices were up by 11.5% in the first three months of this year, compared with the same quarter last year. So again, that's a 10% increase on, say, for instance, rebuilding a defective concrete block home. The contrast with the annual rise in the cost of existing homes of 3.5% at the end of the first quarter. And the pace of new home prices is picking up at the end of last year, prices of new homes were up by 10% and by 6.2% in the four quarters up to April last year. Now, too many stats, my mind can't follow that. But the cost of secondhand homes had been rising at a much faster pace until recently. But higher mortgage rates jump in the cost of renovation work and higher priced building materials has made it far more expensive to take on an existing dwelling. So as I say, that's concerning for a number of reasons. And look, I can't see the cost of building products going down and there's going to be more and more demand, at least in this area, for new builds. So the only way those prices seemingly for new builds, the only way the prices are going to go is up, isn't it? Into the Irish Daily Mail now and thubbing. Do you know what thubbing is? It's snubbing your partner by constantly being on your phone. Is that something that happens in your house or is it just generally accepted? Well, instead of, you know, you say, how are you getting on? Nothing. How are you getting on? Oh, I'm fine. What were you saying? That's because they've got the head in the phone. It's called thubbing. Well, we're often told that we're too attached to our mobile phones and now researchers have warned that it could be damaging our love lives. A study conducted into the effects of thubbing, snubbing others for your phone, found that married couples who engage in the practice of lower levels of satisfaction in their relationship. The team of scientists at Nij Omer University in Turkey said that the phenomenon was widely observed everywhere in today's technologically advanced societies. The researchers explained when individuals perceived that the romantic partners of thubbing more frequently, they feel more conflict and less intimacy in the relationship. Do you believe your phone is coming between you? And if it wasn't there, things would be better. 086625,000, but not if your partner's beside you. I don't want to cause any rouse. But yeah, banning phones when you're watching a TV show or a film, maybe is that the way to do it? Any suggestions to 086625,000? Well, it's widely watched in TV often and the TV license fee should be scrapped to help restore trust in RTE with the massive drop-off in payments described as a major wake-up call. This is the sun. New data shows the recent RTE scandal has cost the national broadcast an only a million euro in lost TV license revenue already. Almost 6,000 fewer households have made the 160-year-old payment since the crisis began last month. But now, RTE boss Kevin Backhurst yesterday thanked people who continued to pony up the cash. He said, I'm very grateful to those who have continued to buy a TV license during a period when events have cast a dark shadow over RTE. They have every right to feel let down and we are working hard to rebuild trust. Well, yesterday politicians said the government should consider binning the annual charge and replacing it with direct funding. Former Minister for Communications Richard Bruton said that straightforward extractor funding might be more palatable for people. He said the fall in license fees was a very worrying trend. OK, well, that's a bit of a seismic shift as to the direction of traffic in the past. Get rid of the license altogether and you will pay for it because it comes out of funding, tax funding. But maybe there'd be more accountability? I don't know. Do you remember that story of the two men who allegedly attempted to steal a man's pension and attempted deception at a post office? It was all over the news, of course, and across social media. Well, two men have pleaded not guilty to attempting to steal a man's pension and attempted deception at a post office. The alleged incident occurred at Hosey's post office on the Stapleton Road in Carlow on January 21st last year. Declan Hockney, 41, of Pollerton Road in Carlow and 37-year-old Gareth Corkley of John Sweeney Park in Carlow, accused of attempted deception and attempted theft of a 246-year-old pension belonging to Padadol. Yesterday, both men appeared before Carlow's circuit court at a jury of nine men and three women as they were sworn in for a trial that's expected to last six or seven days. They are... The court heard that Hockney stands accused of one kind of attempted deception contrary to common law, where it is alleged that he attempted that criminal tool of Hosey's post office on the Stapleton Road in Carlow on January 21st. So you might remember at the time... I don't want to go into it because it's not in the paper and I don't want to compromise that trial, but you might remember what was going on at that time. So when you go into a restaurant, do you order what you really, really want? Or do you sort of maybe order something because you want to be a people pleaser for those around you? Well, apparently, that's what an awful lot of people do with steak. It's in the Irish Daily Star today. People prefer their steak to be cooked in a different way to how they order when in public, suggesting their orders may be for show. When shown a piece of a series of images of steaks cooked from rare to well done, 58% of participants who order medium rare or rare when in public choose differently. So I think, is there a pressure to sort of go I'll have it medium rare or rare so that you seem to be not someone I'll burn it. I mean how many people are out there eating steaks and they're expensive? Not the way that they want them because the majority of people who were shown images actually wanted it well done but instead in the restaurant setting they order rare or medium rare. So do you do that? Do you eat your expensive steak? Do you eat it not the way you like it because in some way in public you feel a little bit of pressure? Oh wait, 60, 60, 25,000. Any other examples of that that you do things in public to please others but it's not really what you want to do? Get it off your chest with us today here in the Ninetal Noon Show. 086 60, 25,000. WhatsApp's and text to that number. Or give us a call and 07491 25,000. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra, mountaintop Lederkenny, the C-store national large four court of the year for 2022. Most people say that Donegal is the coolest place in the planet but up here we know that sometimes it can be the coldest. Charles Bono and son's Ballet Buffet is the one stop shop for all your heating needs. We have a huge range of multi-fuel and wood pellet stoves and ranges, spare parts for all major stove and range brands, plumbing and bathroom wear, all at exceptional prices. So visit our showrooms where our friendly and experienced team will be ready to help you. Charles Bono and son's Ballet Buffet and the Stove Store.ie where you can always do a good deal better. New this week at home store and more all school bags are all half price but better hurry because when all the half price school bags are gone they're gone. Also all indoor clothes errors and all outdoor cushions are still all half price but when all the half price indoor clothes errors and all the half price outdoor cushions are gone they're definitely gone. Drop by your local home store and more or visit us online at homestoreandmore.ie. New store now open in Prescotti Center Black Rock Dublin. Home store and more. A happy home. If the medical experts get it wrong everything changes. From misdiagnosis or delay diagnosis to surgical injury or even poor treatment all have physical emotional and financial consequences. We're here to help so if your treatment didn't go according to plan speak to our experienced medical negligence team at Mackleheny and Associates. Find us online or call 0749175989. Mackleheny and Associates solicitors strain order. In contentious business a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement. Highland radio time checks with Expressway. Travel route 32 from Lettich, Ennity Dublin when you book online and travel for less. Expressway bringing you the time ask. It is 20 minutes past nine now we welcome back on to the programme councillor Drake Monagall who is chair of the Joint Police and Committee. Jerry thanks for rejoining us. Good morning to you. Good morning. Right and yes of course sorry Jerry and we invited you back on because we did speak to you previously about a perception or a concern that we are seeing an increase in serious violent assaults in the Lettichenny area. You were quick to point out that there's been a couple of high profile situations as of late and Guardia continue to investigate and make progress in relation to those investigations but you did raise this this issue recently as it relates to perhaps the installation of more CCTV the background to that call. Yeah we have for a number of years now in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce being seeking further extension of the CCTV that we already have in the time and just last November it moved on and it's we got a report yesterday at our MD meeting that is now sitting on the desk of the commissioner and I think it's a very timely time for that to be happening. I think CCTV would help the Guardia in their investigations but also would act as a deterrent in preventing crimes and especially those sort of very serious crimes that have been happening in recent weeks and months in and around Lettichenny. So look it's the system we have there now is quite effective it's good but it needs to be there's a lot of gaps in it and it needs to be extended on and as I say it's been maybe four years or more we've been trying to push us through with the JPC and the Chamber of Commerce. Yeah and I remember covering this story and funding being allocated for the rolling out of further CCTV in Lettichenny so that funding seemingly is there what's the hold up then in terms of providing it? Well any CCTV is to get the permission of the commissioner of the Guardia so as I say it's now went through all the different processes and it's now at the on the desk we were told yesterday of the commissioner Drew Horace it's also there's an application also in for Balboe-Face-Trenor area but look what's the recent events that happened here the sort of lack of resources that the Guardia have we certainly need something like an extension of CCTV but to reassure people that they can be safe that their streets are being monitored and can act as a deterrent but also as a help to Guardia in their investigations and trying to bring prosecutions. Yeah well that was my next question this would be CCTV that is monitored so if an incident was spotted or a potential incident might arise that someone is watching it and can alert the Guardia to respond to that scene? Well at the moment we don't have someone where it's monitored 24-7 but what there is is there's a leg of it that goes to the Guardia station and they have it on a multiple screen within the Guardia station you know it's there to be seen and all the cameras are there and what we don't have is someone they monitor 24-7 the Guardia are not the data protectors that's the Donegal County Council and there's certain rules and regulations around the operation of CCTV but the Guardia do have access to the cameras as they are relaying it the live photographs will say what they actually maneuver and the cameras and so they're really there for identification purposes maybe prosecution purposes they're not actually there as a preventative measure other than people knowing them there in other words we don't have the ability to react to an incident on Donegal County Main Street for an example because no one is watching the monitor. That would be correct Greg I'll be wrong to say that there's anything different to that but that's something maybe that could change in the future but as you say it's a deterrent value of it and the reassurance that gives people that the cameras are there they do record and if an incident happens and it has to be followed up on then other information will be ready available. Before I let you go you also were commenting on e-scooters e-bikes obviously you would know or you may not know but you could probably imagine that we get regular calls on this program them flying up and down the streets on the footpaths wrong way up main streets and it's not just a ladder Kenny thing we're seeing more and more of them all around the place currently they're not legal we I think it's some section 12 of the the road traffic act has to be signed into law later this year then there's going to be two categories under 25 kilometers prior their official effectively push bikes over 25 then they require tax insurance a road worth you know so whatever it might be but but we still don't really know how all that's going to work be it now whilst they are effectively illegal or post the legality of these these vehicles what's your concerns yeah look I see it for myself but a lot of people have been talking to me also about it and friends to my attention and while I'm fully in support of these type of modes of transport I think they're the way to go but we need to provide the proper infrastructure to support their use at the minute they're being used widely on footpaths and then criss-crossing on and off the road when it suits the user and this is causing problems not just for motorists but particularly for pedestrians and elderly people and people with disabilities in particular because they're very silent and they're on top of you before you know it and so look well the problem is it's not illegal to it's not illegal to cycle or scoot on a footpath so what how do you deter people from doing it I mean there's my understanding is is you potentially could take against a case against someone under civil law like it'd be trespassing but in terms of actual rules of the road or the laws of the land it's not illegal currently to cycle or scoot on a footpath so are there any tools available to the local authority to introduce something that could be policed well I mean we were talking about just discussing initial discussion around as a bylaws help and that this is for the protection of the user as well because if they do collide with someone on a footpath then I would imagine with somebody's work that there will be proceedings of some kind and you have to prove that you weren't reckless you have to prove that you were working within the remit and that's just why the regulations need to be brought in very quickly so that the user does know what he or she can or can't do and what's what's the responsibilities you know they go to fair speed very few of them wear helmets you know can they drive on the footpath at 25 kilometers an hour you know these are all things that we we need to be looking at and while the council have a responsibility and we're doing it their active travel works that we're we've been working on is we need to put in place the infrastructure where they have their own lanes with them on footpaths or the side of roads where they can it's only they can use and it's done safely all right listen thanks for your time on both topics there any views on that 08 660 25000 08 660 25000 that was a councillor Jay monagle who is chair of the joint policing committee right okay you may have seen the coverage yesterday or heard the coverage on this program that arland has or is becoming warmer and wetter over the last 30 years mary curly is met her and climatologist and project lead good morning to you mary good morning greg how are you i am doing fine and i thought it quite interesting along the coverage yesterday um like this wasn't front page news to start off with i'm not sure if you believed it would merit that space but it was like you know we are wetter and less uh but you know the the the angle a lot of papers took was it's it's wetter but the good thing is is it's sonnier and i was like it was like that film was it don't look up um you know as if it's not all bad news like the penny's still not fully dropping here i don't think mary yeah well actually there is a bit of good news in it it has got wetter and actually in like the thing we've made from we were giving out yesterday it was for the whole country whereas for johnnie gall it's a little bit higher it's about eight percent wetter annually but the good news is it has got sonnier and that's because there's less pollution in the air which is that our air has got cleaner so the ipcc there's no intergovernmental panel on climate change in their latest assessment they looked at um because around the world it's got more sunny and it's basically that there's less particulates in the air from air pollution from the 1950s up to about the 1980s uh pollution in the atmosphere was increasing and then the street was much more stringent laws came in in the 1980s and since then there's less particles in the air stopping the sun from stopping the sun from being blocked and means our air has got clean as well and we can see that we can see it gradually that it has increased right so how significant is it over a 30-year period that we hear in donnie gall are it's eight percent more rain so it's actually the quantity of rain or how many days it rains so what is the measurement there and how significant is it to see that bigger change over the course of three decades yeah um well let's go to it's um so what we're measuring here is total rainfall so it's not the number of days um for the country as a whole where we get about about 60 percent of the time we have a little bit of rain just very small amounts like 0.2 so like tiny bit of drizzle so you'd get that that during the year but um overall like it is quite significant you know the one thing is we know that um if we have a degree an increase of one degree can hold seven percent more water so that's kind of what we're seeing you know we've nearly got in donnie gall um you know you've got a 0.7 degree increase in temperature and you're seeing a seven percent increase in rainfall annually so it kind of all fits in together that that's the way we're going and climate projections are suggesting that it will get annually warmer and wetter you know but what we're going to see is more extreme events so more kind of heavy rainfall events they're projecting um and more droughts as well so it's kind of not that continuous rain but more you know you can have a big heavy downpour but then it could be a while where you've got a drought and then heat waves as well I forget and what we're seeing is is that the predictions coming to pass so what we were being told may happen uh with with the climate is actually happening we are seeing uh the temperatures increasing we are seeing more rain and then we are seeing perhaps more periods of prolonged dry weather yes yeah so I mean when I looked at the figures first you know you you always hear about climate change and obviously I work with it all the time but it's actually when you see the figures you know when I actually did the calculations and it's there right in front of you in black and white it's quite stark to see how much it has changed and the way I was kind of also thinking about it was I have a door like so I was born give my age away now I was born in the late 60s and so I kind of grew up in the the first period you know where we had this less rainfall and then I have a daughter and she's grown up now where she was born in just in 2001 so she's lived through the new this period and you're just thinking going forward you know if we don't make the changes and we don't adapt and mitigate for climate change what will the next generation you know be facing and what we can see as well Mary is and as you say you know it doesn't necessarily fall equally over 365 days is the pressures on how we deal with flooding and we've seen significant flooding events more recently and it's the frequency of it it's not that it's never happened before but it's more and I'll be honest with you there's a few towns around Donegal and some very big towns that aren't really I don't think designed to deal with the weather of the future already lots and lots of with these heavy downpours we get lots of flooding lots of water gathering and it seems the infrastructure which was probably designed for 10 less rain is not able to actually to accommodate it so it is the one off major downfall events that we are going to see more of potentially as well and and you know that's how people feel the climate crisis yes yeah I mean we can see it now in Europe the extreme heat there and suffering at the moment I mean we've had last summer we had record well in Dublin we had a record breaking temperature of 33 degrees but that's the temperature in some of those countries that it was falling to at night you know so that they're very extreme heats and we're going to I mean we're used to cooler climate but we will get more of those heat waves as well so for matter and what our aim is to do we look at the past weather the present weather and the future weather and we we do we use these to inform the policy makers of what to expect with regards so and hope that we can have better adapt and mitigate to the climate we're seeing as it changes do you think it's becoming more difficult to deny what's happening you know I do note on Twitter and we'll probably get texts here and that's fine people are entitled to their opinions that this is scaremongering that there's an agenda here that you know we've had ice ages we've had tropical ages and this is all par for the course I don't I would be surprised if there was a period in history where we saw such dramatic change over the course of 30 years so in other words someone who was born 30 years ago and they're a 30 year old now they are living in the northwest in a very different climate like it is significant when you talk about five percent more sunshine you know eight percent more rain these are significant changes when people talk about the changes of you know from one era to another you could be spanning hundreds of thousands or millions of years yeah yeah so I mean I mean just when we look at it from the and I mean the IPCC have stated that and it's human activities are causing these changes at this stage and I mean in the last 20 years we've seen much more of these events occurring and the likelihood of these events occurring can be attributed in part to you know anthropogenic effects you know so yeah I understand where people come from in terms of the weather and maybe confusing the weather with climate and someone and I appreciate their time has sent me a picture of a sign outside a chemist in bon crana in 2013 and the sign reads 36 degrees celsius and their comment is good morning Greg I took this photo back in 2013 in bon crana 10 years ago 36 degrees no word of global global warming then that's the weather we're talking about the cloud the other thing is you'll see that our temperatures are lower than that like so we'll have a record temperature of say 33 degrees that's roughly the highest in all we've ever had but when we're measuring our temperatures they're in special enclosures they're all at the same height the temperatures are calibrated etc so you know so you might see that our records are a bit lower than yeah but to the wider point they're pointing to there was one hot day in the 2013 so oh yeah nothing new here yeah yeah well that's the thing we're always going to get variability in our climate so like last summer we were basking in a heat wave you know we had the really high temperatures yesterday it was lashing rain for most of the day and that and that's the weather so that's why we look at over 30 years because it's to smooth out those variations so you know it's not looking at the extremes it's looking at what's happening gradually over time so you're seeing it an average over 30 years and it gets rid of those little variations and that's what's most talk about at all you're seeing that on those periods you know that it's at the point seven degrees yeah and maybe the maybe the penny will drop when you know uh if it's a farmer that all of a sudden they realize that the land can't be worked the way it was once worked or if someone could no longer get house insurance because of the way the weather changes and the frequency of events that they now find themselves in a flood zone potentially maybe it's those type of things that then the penny drops with people and they go oh right okay now this is actually impacting me maybe it is a thing yes and I think if you go to our website if people are interested met dot i e and there's a summary report and that I think that would sign maps of the country so they'll be able to look at it and see what it's like in their area and to see what it is in the last 30 years so what you kind of expect each month now and then we also have a translate page on our met dot i e site and you can see what to expect in the future so we have those projects there now and if people want to look at them they'll see what to expect and what can't be expected oh okay very finely then so what are the headlines for donna gall it is wetter eight odd percent wetter it is warm or what else do you have that in front of you mary um yeah I mean we do see changes I mean yesterday we were talking about the changes across the you know Ireland as a whole so it was kind of over the whole country they're a little bit different in johnny gall so for example on the annual scale with the seven percent or across the whole country but johnny gall that's eight percent but we also see that February is actually the highest increase in johnny gall and closely followed by july which is kind of it was july when you look at the whole scale so there are little variations but if people want to go say look at the map to see the more they're all there in front okay listen thank you for your time this morning I do appreciate it mary curley metterian climatologist and project lead as I say all views welcome 08 660 25000 what do you have to say 08 660 25000 or call 07491 25000 watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com the best businesses never stop beginning so whether you're starting or growing your business we want to make it easier for you at bank of arland our faster easier online loan applications help your business take the next step search bank of arland business loans bank of arland begin lending criteria terms and conditions apply over 18s only bank of arland is regulated by the central bank of arland there farmer tinny here it's summer and tinny's toys have loads of swings slides trampolines goalposts and many more outdoor toys and games we've basketball stands swing ball sandpit diggers kids wheelbarrows and when the sun finally gets out we've loads of paddling pools of course we still have what we're famous for the largest range of ride on and small farm toys and models in arland shop 24 7 tinny's toys dot com are calling to lack road ladder canny entries are now being taken for the clan money agricultural show competitions in sheep cattle pony and horse poultry home industry sheep shearing and show jumping entries close the 22nd of july you can enter online at clan money show dot com or buy entry form to the secretary email clan money agri show at gmail dot com the two-day clan money agricultural show the eighth and ninth of august packed full of events for all the family the new volswagen id buzz fully electric fully connected full of new ideas an icon of a new era the all electric id buzz combines comfort sustainable mobility and fun wherever you take it available now with zero percent pcp finance from just 259 per month for july 2023 registration only book a test drive today with connelly's volswagen letter kenny rc connelly's dot ie terms and conditions apply finance provided by way of higher purchase agreement from volswagen financial services ireland and a subject to lending criteria volswagen financial services ireland limited is regulated by the central bank of ireland visit connelly's dot ie for further information the dreaming of a getaway this summer there's still time to book with toy flying from dublin cork and shannon airports summer best enjoyed on holiday to live happy hi pauline mclen here sharing something really important when someone's having a stroke minutes matter because two million brain cells die every minute so call 112 or 999 if you see any of these fast signs f for face has it fallen on one side a for arms can both be held up s for speech is it slurred t for time it's time to call 112 or 999 fast learn more at irishheart.ie are you worried about trees on your property north west forestry services belly buffet are fully insured and have over 40 years experience in dangerous tree removal tree felling surgery and stump grinding for peace of mind call north west forest services belly buffet for no obligation quotation on 9132033 looking for a flexible affordable home improvement loan for your dream kitchen bedroom or bathroom at bns credit union we are here to help renovate loans from 5000 to 70 000 euros visit our website at bnscu.ie or free phone 1800 290 390 where our dedicated and experienced loans team are delighted to help you loans are subject to approval terms and conditions apply bns credit union limited is regulated by the central bank of ireland our next guest is dr sarah robinson psychologist and senior postdoctoral researcher with leero good morning to you sarah thanks for joining us thanks for having me on gregg all right the question being posed is will artificial intelligence ai and civil civilization what is ai because it comes in waves of of you know of people's attentions and but all the while even though we don't talk about it all the time it is progressing at a an unbelievable rate i've seen someone make an analogy of it being like when mobile phones started to come to market and it was all iphone really the next gen but this is like you know thousands of of apples working on on sort of really groundbreaking technology but how do you see it sarah and essentially when we talk about ai we're talking about artificial intelligence which really is the ability of a system to identify to make inferences to learn to interpret from data to achieve pre identified either organization or social goals and so for example if you're applying for a mortgage or for insurance often it's an ai system which will identify whether you're a good candidate or not and but increasingly it's based on machine learning so it's based on billions of pieces of data now that have largely been trawled from the internet so these nat and natural language processing models that we're seeing at the moment like tbt have been trained on on all of that data so if i so if the program is scraping from twitter for an example it will be scraping prejudices certain attitudes potentially absolutely great so this is this is one of the the core and i guess concerns about ai systems is that you know based on the quality of the data and that they're trained on they will inherit whatever is in that data so you're absolutely right if if there are problems in that data then those problems will be reified in the system and but what i'm interested in i guess is what the public and are making sense of all of this debate i think we started off our conversation talking about that very extreme perspective that ai might lead to the end of civilization but i think we've now come to kind of more pressing urgent maybe contemporary issues like discrimination so as a researcher i'm really interested in understanding what the public think what they're concerned about in terms of ai but also software more broadly so ai is the form of software and but software which is the area that i research in really shapes our lives and you know from morning to night in all sorts of ways we use for example our smartphones social media platforms we're talking now on a form of software via zoom and we use it if you know if you work in clerical work you might use databases and spreadsheets and we might have a smart tv at home or internet of things so software in general and including ai but not limited to it influences our lives in all sorts of ways i think the difference is at the moment is is say for instance if someone has a smartphone and i'll obviously want to give you plenty of time to tell us what you're interested in how people can help but if you're smart speakers at the moment they are they are at a tool at your assistance so you can say hey whatever it is you know play that radio station or open those blinds or switch those lights or turn that on offer on offer on and it works for us the problem this is with ai going forward is this is a i don't know if an entity is the right world word but we have to we'll have to share the space with if you know what i mean because it will be backwards and forwards in a more natural way making decisions if we permit on our behalf potentially so do we not need a further understanding of the potential of ai before we can really sort of say as a public what we fear or what we expect or what we think about it well that's what i'm really interested in understanding greg so nobody yet has kind of asked the public that and and i think over the last few months we've seen a lot of debate about ai at quite a high level you know people like Elon Musk or Steve Wozniak one of the co-founders of apple who are you know very vested stakeholders in this debate and process and having a very high level debate they and for example there were two letters in recent months which were quite extremist actually in terms of their the position maybe in the fears that they have around ai but no one is really engaging with the public and asking them what do you think and and you know software is increasingly a public good or should be and i think it cannot fully become a public good without consultation with the public and so what we're trying to do is ask the public what they think what are they concerned about and you know absolutely you're right ai and software is often a tool for us you know and we have evolved as a species because of all of the tools that we've developed and you know potentially ai can be another tool for us and i think too though yeah something else then absolutely that's a problem so if there is this trade-off between what society can benefit from these twos and what harms will actually come and is there any questioning as to who might control it because we talked about how it might scrape certain ideologies or biases or whatever it might be but at the end of the day you know we hope there's a level of control on this so and it's going to be incredibly incredibly powerful who will control ai will it be free thinking will it be right leaning will it be left leaning you know they're already talking about how they're going to police it i mean that's critical how it's moderated as to how we engage it or how it affects us absolutely i i think that's a core issue that i hear over and over again and i guess i i don't want to answer that today gregg what i really want to understand is what the public think i'm very happy to come back and in a number of weeks once we have kind of gathered enough data to understand what is the kind of what is the public and you want the snapshot really without influence and i get that because you want it to be raw you want it to be raw natural data because if it is like if it is shoulder shrugging too that's that's important information presumably absolutely absolutely and i think at the moment what the research indicates is that even though all of us and you know use phones and use software and there is still a really large digital divide in Ireland in Europe and globally so there's still many people that actually haven't benefited from the digital transition and maybe they don't have access to phones or tablets but maybe even if they do they don't feel they have the skills or the capacity to use it and i think there is some research as well that is saying there is a new form of digital divide which is this idea of algorithmic awareness so algorithms are these mathematical rules within software within AI and that really as a public we're largely not aware of them and we don't know how they're shaping the way we interact with each other and the types of news that we receive and read and hear online and and that's you know so so i think what your question is saying is is there another form of divide that we also don't really fully understand the advancements in AI yeah exactly which will be that are we unable to actually engage in these in these debates i i would say i want to find that out because that's really important information and if people aren't aware then i think definitely people like me in academia have a responsibility to try and help and inform the public about that but at the moment i guess i'm just trying to understand what that position is okay so how do people engage with the survey where is it thanks Greg so i am a researcher with Liro and which is science science foundation Ireland's research centre for software and on the Liro L E O O and social media pages so twitter linkedin facebook and there is access to a survey and hopefully if i could share it with highland radio as well yeah we'll share it yeah on your social media too that would be a a good space but it's a short 10 minute survey we're asking the public their concerns priorities about how to make software more responsible and what values they think are important and and really what they feel they can do um to kind of create software for a better world rather than some of the challenges we have at the moment thank you so very much indeed dr sarah robinson psychologist and senior pro postdoctoral researcher with Liro yeah we'll link that out for you i was contacted by a listener to say hey Greg just wondering if anyone else has a problem with their passport being delayed i recently applied for a first time passport i sent all the documentation so 10 weeks later they've asked for proof of address two letters needed a photographic id i e pps card photocopy signed by garter an iran and asked once they get it will there be a delay and was told they'd have to go back to the start of the process again as anyone else experienced that anyway around it what is their expected delay now once they furnish all those documents if you can help that listener oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand our poor people with old diesel cars subsidizing the wealthy so that enable them to buy expensive electric vehicles just asking listen the the the more less well off you are the worse off you are because it's if you have an older car it's more expensive to tax it's more expensive to ensure if you pay your tax to the government you road tax every three months it costs you more over the course of the year every which way you turn the less resources you have the more expensive it is to live doesn't make much sense to me so yes of course to some extent you could say that the extra you're paying for driving an older car is helping to subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles uh who has access to the cct footage uh who has access to the cctv footage who does the monitoring well no one's monitoring at the moment which i think is a bit uh crazy to be honest with you uh who has access to it and garter shiokana as an investigative tool it seems another caller says we need cctv inside all the pubs so many drinks are being spiked which has increased big time we hear that uh we understand that that's what people are saying but they're not reporting it to the guard e if there is a big increase in the amount of people who having their drinks uh who are having their drinks spiked they're not reporting it as a crime because uh we got that checked out yesterday and there is no uh there was a number of cases last year which we discussed on this program but if people are having their drinks spiked then they're not telling the guard e so why would that be i wonder uh morning gray back in 2009 we were told to buy small cars and get cheap tax which i did that didn't last long government making fool of us all thank you okay another my electricity bill for the summer months double what it was even before the war through the wholesale prices lower than it was before the war it's not lower than before the war but i understand what you're saying it's much lower than its peak food insurance heating are expensive and they are all making huge profits and what does this government don't stop this profiteering sweet f a we're not living in this country we're surviving in it their electricity bill 354 euro which is kind of low do you know what i've come across a lot of people who were getting estimated bills and recently their electricity provider checked the meter and they were getting bills for like 1200 1500 businesses 4000 5000 6000 i haven't mentioned it on air before but i've been speaking to people or had contact from people are you amongst those that recently you've got a bill saying sorry but we've misrepresented how much electricity we're using and now you owe us this big massive bill and the worst is you can't switch provider until you settle that bill so there are some people out there that are caught every which way is that something that you've experienced and want to share and get the message out there carbon footprint calculations per person should be introduced to people really need to take a trip to new york for christmas shopping i don't know but should you stop doing that when all the world leaders are flying around the world in their private jets with six or seven humbees in the back see that's the problem is that some people have why should i not go shopping to new york when the people that telling me not to are flying around in private jets our own leader at the moment is away somewhere flying off for a four or five day visit all right let's take a break for the news and obituary notices we will be right back a public interest message from dunny gall county council attention farmers and professional users of pesticides and sheep dip EPA reports in recent years have identified that some rivers in dunny gall have been seriously impacted by toxic effects from pesticides including sheep dip dunny gall county council would like to remind farmers contractors and gardeners of the need to follow best practice when using these products firstly read the product label carefully avoid spills stay well back from open drains rinse empty containers three times into the sprayer or tank don't spray if it's windy or rain is forecast in the next 48 hours follow chuckus advice on safe disposal of spin sheep dip which should never be released into any water course dunny gall county council protecting your environment planning on renovating your garden this summer then look no further than daleside garden furniture with a full range of sizes and garden sheds wooden and steel summer houses playhouses outdoor canopies fencing and much more find us on social media made to measure and one-off designs are our speciality call today on 087 double one two four seven double six friday july 28th country music comes to castle dirt at the dirkfest music festival big top with book rocks and stations the logs johnny brady plus award-winning country artists the david james band jamie donnelly and kenny crofford tickets just 2750 for details see dirkfest.co.uk sponsored by great Mitchell motors strictly over eight scenes experience comfort like never before at half the price in our massive hotel quality mattress sale now on at better value furnishings mobile due to overstocking we must clear hundreds of mattresses at half price get your quality mattress at half price and sleep like a king better value furnishings main streak mobile see our facebook for more details air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning i'm akilah clark with the news at 10 o'clock tusla had more than 82 500 refers of child protection or welfare concerns last year according to its annual report the child and family agency says that's a 13 rise on the previous year at the end of the year by 22 000 cases were open but 28 of those cases had yet to be allocated a designated social worker tusla says it prioritized cases where children required an immediate response bernardo ceo susan conley says one of its greatest challenges is the recruitment and retention of social workers it has a significant demand for its services so it needs to deliver on its plan to ensure that it remains a very attractive employer for social workers in order it to meet its key commitments in relation to vulnerable children police in starban say they're concerned for the whereabouts of a woman missing from the claddy area mckayla mxorley was last seen in the village at around 6 a.m yesterday she's described as being around 5 foot 8 in height with a slim build and long dark hair police are appealing to anyone with information regarding mckayla's whereabouts to contact them on 101 400 ecarina and families have applied for a house under the offer a home program in dunigol 2d at 61 properties have been allocated housing 203 families who are residing in the county since the scheme opened in december under the offer a home program dunigol kindy council is appealing for offers of houses apartments or holiday homes to house people arriving into the county from ukraine counter jimmy kavner is encouraging people to engage with the scheme there's an option i think that a lot of people may not be aware of but it's just a matter of getting awareness out there that is there and uh if people have a home uh or have a home that they can offer under the scheme that's worth looking at the government should not repeat what social justice arlyn says are the mistakes of last year's budget it wants the coalition to prioritize the vulnerable this year the organization wants to seek core social welfare rates increased by 25 euro among the other measures sjj believes should be introduced include an increased in child benefit payment by 50 euro dr shon healy from social justice arlyn says a different approach should be taken in the budget compared to last year the better off in effect got a tax cut that they got permanently but for the people on welfare the focus was on these people should be happy because they were getting one off payments although after the one off payment in that time there were repeated one or two of them but overall when you put the whole thing for the year together they're worse off in 2023 than they were in 2022 that's not acceptable there's been a drop in the number of burglaries in dunny gall according to phone watch dot ie cso figures show a six percent decrease in burglaries in the county 120 burglaries were recorded in dunny gall between april 2022 and march at 2023 a virtual power plant is being established in dunny gall air knocked has received 1.5 million euro in funding to develop the initiative which will link energy systems in the county with other european regions dunny gall county council will work with a number of stakeholders over the coming three years on the community-based virtual power plant project to connect multiple small energy systems and operate them as a utility scale power station to balance electricity demand and production locally air knocked chair person councillor weenie donnehy says it will ultimately result in communities being able to manage their own energy requirements this provides a great opportunity then to test like a small community in country dunny gall they could generate their own electricity by connecting a number of houses or businesses in a small local area to enable them to manage their own electricity supply and demand without needing to be connected to a national electrical network weather nice sunny spells and scattered showers today some of them have a maximum temperatures of 16 to 18 degrees that's all from highland radio news for now we'll be back with an update again at 11 o'clock until then good morning the obituary notices for this wednesday morning july the 19th the death has taken place of leena mcbryde nae finley for mind carmel viewstraban and formerly of clady reposing at her home funer leaving her home two more morning at 25 past 11 for requiem mass in st mary's church melmind at 12 noon and herment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery donations and leo fliers police to the foil hospice care quickly funeral directors family time please from 11 p.m until 11 a.m the requiem mass can be viewed live via the parish webcam the death has taken place of ellen doherty nae doherty eight pierce garden straban and formerly of cavernacore balandread lyford remains are opposing at her home funer leaving her home two more morning at 20 past nine for requiem mass in st mary's church melmind at 10 o'clock and herment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family time please from 11 o'clock tonight the requiem mass can be viewed live via the parish webcam the death has taken place of liz mcglinti nae steward brookside heist cove hill port road letter kenny and formerly from west port bali shannon liz's remains are opposing atterlite residents today from 12 noon until 10 o'clock with rosary tonight at 9 o'clock funeral from there tomorrow morning at half past 10 going to st junan's cathedral letter kenny for 11 o'clock requiem mass which can be viewed on church services dot tv private cremation will follow at lake lands at crematorium cavern family time on the morning of the funeral please the death has occurred of tereza o donal nae doherty clunbeg bonkrana remains are opposing atterlite residents removal from there two more morning at half past 10 to st mary's church cock hill for requiem mass at 11 o'clock while by interment in the adjoining cemetery tereza's requiem mass can be viewed on church services dot tv family time please from 11 o'clock tonight family flowers only please donations and lay of desire to the dunigal hospice care of any family member or murphy funeral directors the death has occurred of danie sharky elabeg burn foot retired principal of st angus's national school bridge end and former presenter on highland radio proposing at murphy's funeral home today and tomorrow from four o'clock until 10 o'clock and on friday afternoon from three o'clock with removal at six o'clock to st angus's church bird to repose overnight requiem mass on saturday morning at 11 o'clock fall by interment in bird cemetery danie's requiem mass can be viewed on church services dot tv family flowers only please donations and lay of desire to the dunigal hospice care of any family member or murphy funeral directors the death has occurred of kathleen urwin 19 mulroney terrace strunaller funeral leaving from her late residents to more morning at half past 10 for requiem mass in the church of mary macklitz strunaller at 11 o'clock interment afterwards in drumbo cemetery the requiem mass will be streamed live by the parish webcam donations and lay of flowers if so desired directly to the dunigal hospice or care of any family member the house is private to family neighbors and close friends please the death has taken place of harry parker craig's road refoe his remains are opposing at his late residents house private please removal from his home this afternoon at half past one for two o'clock funeral service in refoe presbyterian church fall by burial in the family plot in the adjoining graveyard family flowers only please donations in lay of desire to the northwest branch at parkinson's association of arland carterns mclintock funeral director on the death has occurred of christie mccarran 384 ard bethanson johnston county dunigal christie will be reposing from his late residents all day today funeral leaving his late residents to more morning at quarter past 10 going to some bethans church in johnston for 11 o'clock requiem mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family flowers only please donations in lay of desire to the friends of letter kenny university hospital care of any family member or kelly's funeral directors for more details including any family health guidelines for wigs and funerals please go to highlandradio.com all professional bus and truck drivers are required to hold a driver certificate of professional competence or driver cpc to keep your driver cpc you must complete at least one training day per year with an approved driver cpc trainer so if you're a professional bus or truck driver don't forget to book driver cpc there to make you a better safer professional driver to find an rsa approved driver cpc trainer in your area visit rsa.ie or email cpc at rsa.ie from the road safety authority text or whatsapp your view to greg on 086 60 25000 and good morning again thank you to all of you who have text in so far hi greg i sent away for a new passport and three children's renewals in april eventually received all four back last week after sending new photos as the ones i sent weren't good enough and i needed to resend my marriage search so all in all three months wait that's significant we uh were applying for passport recently first time passport and um i think i mentioned this before but anyway be that as it may um and it was taking ages and ages and ages and ages and ages but you know you'd go on to the passport tracker and the bar would still continue to would still continue to um fill up and then it went back to zero got a letter saying that they tried to ring the garter station and couldn't get through so make sure whoever's signing it is available i went to a smaller station and if they ring and the person is not there i think they ring them a couple of times that's it at the window so they sent everything back um and haven't had the um the resolve to start the process again for further disappointment uh morning greg renewed my prescription from the doctors yesterday up to 25 euro from 15 euro and 60 euro for a gp visit was just wondering is this in all areas now okay that's their experience greg have you ever tried to report anything to the garden not great experience when you're finished with the interview you think it's you that did run well i shouldn't feel like that i haven't so i don't know i can't talk to that because i've never done it uh but you saying that one you you felt it was you were up to no good or something okay is that someone else's experience because if it is i'm sure the garden you would appreciate feedback on that like what could change what needs to be done have you reported something to the garden and by the time you were finished with given your statement you felt it might have been you that did something wrong or that's how you were made feel i wonder is that the exception rather than the rule i call it says farmers 60 years ago took a day to plow an acre of land corn barley was cut by horse this work took 10 times longer than today there was plenty of good weather for months to get it done nowadays it's rushed to try and get the crop in and harvest we've private wells and it hasn't dried up it was always it always just keeps us going no change in water level to me there's no global warming it's the world doing what it's designed to do greg as for artificial intelligence the ship has sailed with regards to the public having a say this is happening all around us even in our own donagall we see the taking over of jobs jobs are suffering and being replaced in hospitality in the shopping sector it's sad to see it happening now in rural ireland so the public have no say we simply have to just deal with it which is a shame they say uh what about the winter of 2010 lasted for three months indeed that was a weather event rather than the climate event they would say people looking at the weather are only going back 30 years because they know if they go back any further the public will realize it is all normal weather in europe is also normal high temperatures have always been there perhaps if more effort was put into stopping war there'd be less issue with the climate disaster which is killing the world the scooters could travel on the cycle routes on a slightly similar note cycle it should be fine for cycling on the road when there is a cycle way provided for them millions of euros spent providing these cycle ways and cars and lorries held up on the road by the cyclist that is an ongoing frustration but then you see you talk to people who dress up in all tour de france gear and i've asked them in the past why don't they use the cycle lanes instead of the road they say the cycle lanes that firstly they want a cycle on the road and secondly at the speed they're traveling there's other people walking on this on the cycle lanes potentially if they're a shared space or that they're not of a high enough standard for traveling at 30 or 40 miles per hour on a bike another caller said someone cycling on footpath is the least of your worries in letter kenny lots of drunks and thieves on the street is what they're saying is that a reality or is that a perception don't understand why electric scooters not treated the same as a moped well they will be over 25 kilometers per hour or it's also down to battery wattage 250 watts i think i don't know off the top of my head i read about it sometime ago but they won't all be your bikes that you peddle along with them they're classed as regular bikes and scooters that go slower will be tried treated as push bikes and then the faster ones the ones that go over 25 kilometers per hour though you know can you imagine it seems very fast on a on a vehicle of that size with zero protection but anyway they will be treated effectively like a well not like a moped but like a motor propelled vehicle great just listening to the news there the council offering ukrainian housing under some scheme i'm in the housing list for 20 years and never even received an offer of a house or a flat yet how does this work out i'm in the bonkrana area i didn't hear that piece i'll have a listen back and see what the terms are what what the function of that scheme is the hsc have been on to say they'd like to advise that phone lines are down at bonkrana primary care center it's hoped that they'll have them restored as soon as possible so we'll keep you updated on that uh should i do another couple more comments here just before we take a break for the bingo numbers greg wise there's such a lack of support for our ladies team in the world cup tomorrow if this was the men we'd have been listening to it non-stop from the day they qualified coming in from anthony i don't know it's about the public interest as well i mean but that being said are we unhappy with the level of interest in the media let me see pages right well on the front page of the star um they're on the front page of the irish daily mail free inside women's world cup pullout let's go to the sun nothing in the sun uh but we've got amber barrett on the back of the sun the irish daily mail nothing on the front of it uh nothing on the back of it either for that matter the irish independent world class the captain in the super sub helping arland scale new heights in the global stage it's on the back as well the irish times um barrett bench press arland super sub ready to make impact so it's on the front of that paper and so it goes so i mean the paper is in fairness to the more covering it um so anthony you're talking about like us in the i i think if it were in europe it might be a little bit easier uh because i'm thinking what games am i going to be able to watch there's a screen here but i don't think i could do this program successfully as much as one would call it a success and also um follow a football match so tell us a bit more about what you mean by that uh anthony we'll tease that a little bit i imagine if there's a good result we like to jump on bandwagon so if they maybe pull off something good against australia i think the all of a sudden the world cup fever might grip the country more so let me say happy birthday to megan gallin in balaba fe happy birthday megan from mom and dad um in kiligordon hello uh john wallace please wish good luck and all the best on the wedding day to jane mcgoon and dean voice thanks okay that's um one for lee show that ended up in my pile all right back after the bingo numbers the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio it's time for mcbi bingo on highland radio it's wednesday july 19th you're playing on a blue coloured sheet the reference number is s3 it's game number 29 the numbers are 23 73 19 40 90 13 45 the number seven 44 and 89 phone your claim to 91048 double three before 8 p.m. tonight leaving your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book get all your ncbi radio bingo information at highlandvideo.com cupra for mentor two words causing quite a stir because this car stops you in your tracks even when it's standing still but that's what it was designed to do make a stunning first impression and what's more with the offers now available in july there are zero reasons not to choose the cupra for mentor visit connelly's cupra sligo see our incredible offers at cupraofficial.ie century complex letter kenny are holding their annual charity family fun day in it of the good and new donnie go cancer bus on wednesday the 26th of july from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. check out our century complex social media pages for more information on how you can help support the charity while having fun on wednesday the 26th of july at century complex are you worried about trees on your property north west forestry services belly buffet are fully insured and have over 40 years experience in dangerous tree removal tree felling surgery and stump grinding for peace of mind call north west forest services belly buffet for no obligation quotation on 9132033 okay well um department of finance officials have offered scant hope that tourism and hospitality firms will secure a further extension in the reduced vat rate of nine percent for their sector the reduced rate of vat for the sector is due to come to an end at the end of next month following a sixth month extension agreed by the government designed to help businesses fully recover from the fallout of the pandemic however the tax strategy group papers state that the reduced rate has so far cost the exchequer one point one point two billion and represents a very significant investment in hospitality and tourism joe daily is co-owner co-owner of key west restaurant in donna gall and joins us now joe thanks for taking the time to speak to us delighted to be here greg thank you very much for the opportunity to talk about this right so in business terms what impact would it have if the nine percent vat rate is scrapped and we return to 3.5 percent um do you know what greg it'll absolutely decimate our sector because we are still struggling to get back on our feet as a result from the pandemic and this is only going to wipe out small businesses like restaurants and cafes we only have one revenue stream and that's just the food food right um i'm not going to be i kind of want to kind of separate out hotels and restaurants because i think there should be a different vat rate for hotels because they have revenue from their rooms and bars and food and stuff like that whereas small independent cafes and restaurants all we have is the food route and it will wipe us out and i'm just thinking here this morning there's 10 small cafes at restaurants here in donna gall town and half of them could be wiped out we have so many issues that we're facing at the moment we have um like there's the fast shortest the food inflation costs um tax that's warehouse the the um the vat issue we've so many things that we're trying to manage and that if there's an increase in the vat it will decimate our sector i mean just for example right case of coke has gone up 50 percent in the year and you're trying all the time to kind of absorb costs as much as you can because as you know donna gall town is a great town there's lots of lovely food restaurants and cafes but we're all very competitive so we kind of have to keep our prices at a certain level so all the time you're absorb and absorb and absorb and if this happens i think it's interesting to decoupling restaurants from hotels and i can see another advantage to that because the argument about the return of the 9 percent vat rate or sorry the return of the 13.5 percent vat rate and i've heard leo for adcar particularly talk about price gouging of hotels you know and and we can't reward them you know if they are sort of exploiting concerts and what have you and there's the restaurant as you say with one revenue income kind of being lumped into that because it is coupled with the hotel industry which i think is unfair because as you say you know you have to really you have to set your price just at a level to compete and there's no gouging going on as such oh you can't price gouging because customers won't come into it it's that simple like i had to go to Dublin airport last Tuesday night and i had to stay over because it was an early flight that was coming in and i have the breakdown here in front of me the room cost me 179 euro it was 17 euro for breakfast 14 euro for parking so 200 euro for the night which i know by Dublin standards now isn't out of the way but it's a lot no we've been conditioned to think 200 is cheap now because of the crazy prices yeah yeah but do you know of any small restaurant or cafe that's charged in 17 euro not at all you could eat like a king for 10 or 11 euro uh less even but you know that's the that seems to be the price point for a lot of places depending on the offering i can't yeah i can't see why they can't be coupled or else have a different battery because we already pay a different battery on food and drink so why can't there be different batteries on the rooms and that way then you would tackle that problem that way if they increase the battery on the bedrooms and leave food alone but we cannot be lumped in with hotels i mean we were we're still going back to the pandemic right they made a very bad call back then because hotels were allowed to open up before us so they had like a four-week advantage which left us struggling to get staff so last year and i know all across the board so many small businesses in the all town couldn't achieve the targets they wanted to achieve because of staff shortages ourselves included we were turning away business in july and august because we didn't have the manpower yeah so i mean we're still struggling on from that legacy so to increase the the battery is only going to compound that and and i know myself there there comes a tipping point you know whereby you decide not to go out for something to eat or it just becomes a little bit too expensive you know people will set it in their own mind what it might be for a main course uh dependent on their tastes and their incomes so i'm not going to give figures because it's going to be different for everyone else but i think i'm pretty normal and average but there comes a point when two main courses and a couple of drinks at a certain price you go you know what will leave it and when you get to exactly and when you get to that point it happens it is almost like a cliff edge and and you could be forced into that we don't know uh how i mean we don't know the public's reaction to the inevitable price increases well what's going to happen is if if half of these small businesses go out of business that means then you have a very small gene pool to pick from so if you're going to be going out for about these prices are going to increase in other places so it's it's a no win situation for anybody like we want to give a nice meal at an affordable price to the customer but it comes to the stage really going to go by taking that off the menu we've taken so many different items off the menu because you can't afford to buy them you can't you can afford to buy them in you can't afford to pass on the cost to the customer joe is there a strong enough voice for for restaurants do you think the restaurants sector because actually that's an unfair question because it might mean that i'm trying to get you to criticize the group that does represent restaurants that's not really what i'm trying to do here but like even the fact that you're making this argument and hairdressers are making the argument at the same time to completely different businesses i'm not sure whether they should or should not have a lower vac rate and as we say you know then with the hotels and then the conversations that come about the price of hotel rooms at at at concert times like do you think the argument's being made strongly enough nationally joe that hold on yet we are completely different business to a great extent from these other businesses can we please have a separate conversation stop grouping restaurants in with hairdressers and hotels it's like people that repair shoes cutting keys it simply doesn't make us make sense but it happens all the time well aging commons is on and that's nature last night now he's very very much an activist but i think because we don't have the same volume of revenue that hotels would have that we don't matter as much like we're all small little independent i don't think we matter as much i think you can let so many go to the wall take the hit but no i think as a sector we should be coming together more and shouting about this because it's the small businesses that look at that support the community i mean there's not a week that goes past i'm sure every other little small business around jenny galtown restaurants and cafes that's our approach for sponsorship and you're delighted to be able to do it because you want to be able to help your community support your community but massive big hotel chains in dublin and stuff like that are they doing the same thing are they supporting their community we need to be loved and in real terms the people that you employ regardless of the size of the business there they've got families to look after in some cases they've got mortgages to pay or rent to pay or if they're if they're younger people they have to make up the gaps in the funding for college you know if a business closes even a small business with four five six staff the ripples of that go far and wide it affects an awful lot of people that business is as important as a hotel that employs six hundred people to the individual well i'm just thinking of ourselves in key west there's five mortgages being paid out of us there you go yeah are being helped paid there you go you see and that's what happens then you know where do these people go and not only just that then but from a point of view of life skills the young people that are coming in and getting trained up and getting valuable life skills from the hospitality business which we're not going to get anywhere else you know they're learning how to be team leaders and to to be customer face and all those soft skills that are so important what's going to happen then where are they going to go yeah of course restaurants are standalone businesses there are other people operating in the food sector that have other elements a bar or rooms that maybe they can price a certain way break even on on on the restaurant make up the money elsewhere do you know so it's not a level playing field for necessarily anything to begin with and it's not and then see the food sector you know our sector the food is highly perishable good so you mean it is a risky business to be in and anyone that's thinking about going to the food business I would honestly say it's a thing too long and hard I would advise against and in hindsight in hindsight when um if I had an opportunity I wouldn't be in the food business wow but that's the environment yeah exactly Joe but that's the environment you happen to operate in uh you know if it were a better operating environment and more supports and you felt like your business was being supported it would probably be more of a pleasure yeah well I mean I enjoy what I do I love dealing with the public I that's my passion I just love what I really really enjoy my job but from a business point of view and for personal security long-term security I wouldn't be in this business if I could roll back the clock all right anyway Joe thank you people the Key West restaurant there is just opposite the beautiful key in just off the diamond in Donegal town if you're in that area or down that way uh Joe would love to see I'm sure Joe thanks very much for your time thanks to I really appreciate it Joe daily co-owner of Key West restaurant uh in Donegal town uh that being said Irish people although they say Irish people spent more money in pubs restaurants and hotels in the month of June uh are they separating out the tourism industry there spending in pubs rose by 28% last month peaking on June 24th that's the day of the Dublin Pride Parade the IB spend trend figures showed a slowdown in people booking airline travel compared to May with those age 65 and over accounting for the biggest decrease down 10% the data was compiled from 70 million debit and credit card transactions in store and online during June 2023 lucky you all out having a a few bevvies in June lucky ducks right okay uh we'll be back with our next guest after this short break watch the show live now on YouTube Facebook and at Highland Radio dot com at Manor Motors Opel we're half full type of people which is how we come up with the Opel 5050 finance offer choose from the Opel Crossland Corsa or Mocha select your flexible payment option pair it with three years free servicing and meet your new other half discover more about Opel's 5050 offer the Opel open road event see Manor Motors.ie for details finance is provided by way of a consumer higher purchase agreement by Bank of Ireland Finance lending criteria and conditions apply over 18 zillion ownership remains with Bank of Ireland until the final payment is made Bank of Ireland Trading as of Bank of Ireland Finance is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland house to home bridge end Donegal our modest front door opens onto two floors of iris made furniture suites beds mattresses dining and occasional furniture step into our showroom and see how we can transform your house into a home house to home furniture flooring slide robes and interiors bridge end Donegal begs and partners are a specialist local plumbing heating and bathroom supplier established in Belfast 1960 we now have 12 branches and are known for quality value and reliability our latest branch in Springtown Drive Bunkrana Road Dury includes a beautiful bathroom showroom as well as a fully stock plumbing and heating trade sales counter delivery service available see begs and partners.com this summer visit Belfast discover a jam-packed calendar of events and experiences for an adventure as unique as the city enjoy concerts culture and lively debates at Fela and Fubble Ireland's biggest community arts festival make room for a food tour in the iconic cathedral quarter or why not take an eternal prize winner at the Ulster Museum in Belfast there's always something new and it's all up to you so what are you waiting for plan your getaway today at visit Belfast.com All right so there are four concerts planned for Ebrington excuse me Ebrington Square in August dance event stack rave raves 5th of august abba tribute gig 6th of august ryan mcmolland's due to play the 25th of august there's a dance festival on the 27th of august but those concerts are in doubt gary middleton is the full dup assembly member and joins us now good morning gary good morning so what has led us to these situations i mean obviously these concerts had some level of okay or approval because they're scheduled and i presume tickets are available but now there's question marks over them taking place at all can you give our listeners an understanding as to what's going on here yeah so effectively in recent days and the promoters received a letter from the executive office stating that the approval that they had originally received actually would be withdrawn that was based on threat of legal action against the executive office so unfortunately that is the case now what we've been advising ticket holders or those who purchased tickets for the events is to wait until they hear from the promoters the executive office have said and we know that conversations are still on going to try and ensure these events can go ahead but unfortunately for some of those particularly the event which is due to happen in two weeks time it now looks that it's going to be unfortunately too late for them who is objecting gary well the letter doesn't name the particular party however we know that it's a tenant at everton square and in fairness to that particular tenant which is the everton hotel and they have made it very clear that they themselves are not against events happening whether now or in the future however they do have concerns about that particular issues such as awareness of when these events are taking place in proper notice as well so that they can plan going forward but I think that in all of this it's important that whatever process is in place that's robust enough to ensure that you know we don't have a situation where just a matter of weeks from events happening that they that they can be prevented from happening in such short notice yeah but the problem is is there's been a great deal of investment to make everton square this nice space to provide you know opportunities for hosting such events and of course then we I mean you can understand really where the hotel might be coming from but is this a planning issue did someone not think right we're going to spend quite a bit of money on this square to host these types of events and we're also going to you know allow this hotel to operate I mean they're always going to be there's always going to be difficult there because of noise and everything else you can see the logic to to why the two can't comfortably as it stands yeah well I think they can but unfortunately in this occasion it seems to be a failure of the process and there are particular checks and balances put in place of course to protect not only tenants in the area but residents in the area as well and we have seen since 2013 when we were we were uh boarded the city of country year the success that events have had and the benefits that they've had in terms of everton square going forward I think that the issue here is around ensuring that there's proper dialogue and communication between the tenants and the promoters and obviously the people who are purchasing the tickets as well so it is regrettable that we're in this situation however you know it can and should be fixed go forward yeah because there are all their businesses that would benefit greatly and would benefit and do benefit greatly from hosting these types of events do you think going forward the right systems and protocols can be put in place to allow events to be hosted on ebrington square or do you believe it's time maybe to look at an alternative venue for such events well I think it can be a mixture of both of those things I think yes of course the the correct procedures can be put in place but it's ensuring that the people are given timely notice of when events are happening but also in terms of looking at other spaces of course that's an option as well and that's one which needs to be pursued particularly given the proximity to the city centre that you know that but what we can't allow you is a situation where a space such as everton which is paid for by the public taxpayer the rate payer that that space should be an area which can't be used of course we need to ensure that it needs to be used it's full potential and it and there is it's full potential is limited isn't it there's a certain amount of events that are held there annually so already this is not a weekly occurrence to inconvenience those that might object there is limits isn't there there are limits in that the minute you know a number of the tenants at ebrington square as part of their contract they they know that there's a minimum of five events per year so it's not a case of something being there every weekend we know that there's been a mixture of events which have been successful the bbc antique road show was coming up very shortly and that's quite popular there's other car and vintage rallies that take place those things will continue as normal we do need to ensure that when there's events particularly those which are bringing in thousands of people vast numbers of people that they're that they're allowed to go ahead but of course with the knowledge and the support of the tenants as well have you any concern and not necessarily talking about this specific case gary have you any concern though the the executive can be so easily swayed by the threat of litigation i.e. the expense of defending it or contesting it or discussing it i mean that have you any concerns that that the executive is so easily not manipulated that's the wrong word but you know we can't test this we don't know the ins and outs because the executive says right we can't afford to fund the defense of this or to even engage in it so we might pull the pin on these events all together yes and i of course i have concerns and that's why we're now in this position because the process was not robust enough the process was not right and it wasn't thorough and unfortunately we have a situation where you know there's sort of been a breakdown there in terms of that communication piece and that's why we find ourselves in this position but that can easily be rectified going forward because we see in other cities such as Belfast where the customary square operates they have a long established several long established vessels that take place there without any issues we can do the same at Everton Square but again it needs to be based on a solid foundation of a process which everybody understands and it's clear and that everybody's getting the same message as a result of that so i do have concerns but again i am hopeful those can be rectified going forward learning from this very unfortunate set of circumstances right gary thanks for your time this morning that's gary middleton the foil dup assembly member any views on that if you're what's happening or texting from uh dairy 0035386 60 25 000 0035386 60 25 000 or if you want to give us a call it 003537491 25 000 just take a deep breath okay hopefully a solution is found to that because uh there's some brilliant acts coming uh to dairy uh not least the full mention there there's something for everyone out there it would seem all right good morning Annie mary joe beth patrick rosemary michael amongst uh the many of you watching the show just to remind you as we i like to once a day not at the start of the program too because i thought it became a bit boring but anyway that you can watch this show at your leisure uh well when we're on air live uh between nine and twelve every day uh on our facebook our youtube channel um highland radio arland you can watch on your phone your tablet laptop your smart tv which uh most of them have the youtube app if it's a smart tv it has it or on your fire stick lots of you have those for very good reasons i'm sure uh you can also watch on highland radio uh facebook page that's highland hub or highland radio news and sports and there's a watch live link on our website so you can watch in your browser there on the social media there's a better opportunity for you to engage and interact with us which we really appreciate uh we've got a good morning from rosemary and a good night from rosemary as well i'm not sure if you've switched time zones or it was a spelling error uh to begin with but rosemary either way whether it's morning or night for you we uh are glad to have you on board we received an email from a listener asking for some advice on the situation she's currently facing and it reads as follows uh god knows if this will be any good but i'm going to share my story greg and see if anything comes from it me and my husband were together for 15 years and both were desperate for a child we attempted three rounds of ivf but it failed the stress and fighting was getting far too much so we then separated it's been two years since the divorce and i still want to be a mother i've told friends i will attempt ivf by myself but they told me that it isn't right and that it's a moral obligation to provide a child with a father come on with today's mix of what constitutes a family me being a single parent is perfectly manageable why are they making me feel so self-absorbed any advice would be greatly appreciated there's plenty of ways to uh for a child to to have a man's influence in their life it doesn't necessarily have to be a father uh father influence there's lots of people raised without one parent uh and are perfectly fine i would prefer if your friends would give you a bit more support maybe you need to look at your friends group i know it's easier said than done but uh so we put this on our social media as well to try and get some advice to this listener before i read the social media responses just open it up to you out there uh she's separated from her husband now she's still yearns to be a mum she's set attempting or tempted to go down the ivf route by herself with donors by my presume but uh she's not getting support from friends and family they are saying it's a moral obligation to provide a child with a father but then again no father's better than a bad father as well uh or mother for that for that matter but anyway listen what does it matter what i think let's see what our listeners think lin said she needs new friends lots of single moms and dads out there for many different reasons and they do just fine as do their kids kids need to be safe and loved if she can provide that then she should go for it arlene said no one has a right to dictate what's right for anyone especially in a situation such as this their opinions are irrelevant no one understands the want and longing for a child especially if they already have children don't waste any time go do what your heart is longing for leave them people behind you a sincerely hope and pray it all works out for you and i get it and but you see maybe if you're going into something like that alone you sort of say well i'm going to do it my own and that's fine but you know at least if times get tough i'll have the support of my friends and my family and maybe then you start wobbling going well if my friends are speaking to me like this now will they be there just a shoulder to lean on so maybe that's also a factor i agree with most of the comments so far though another true friends would support you no matter what don't let other people's opinions put you off what you truly want it's your life to live live it suit you and no one else sounds like you'd give a child a loving home and be amazing mommy gray said would you think about fostering a child donagall needs foster carers so much or even adoption and no a child doesn't need to have two parents best of luck whatever you decide to do and mark said what strange friends you have all right so a selection of comments they're all in support of that listener and to say if you want any help with a dilemma like that we're more than happy to anonymize it of course and put it out there for the public to offer their views and more and more people of you are engaging with us in that regard so email comments at highlandradio.com and we'll post it out there and you can get a range of views anything like that at all any uh you know life dilemmas moral dilemma social dilemmas you know yourself we'll see if we can help a public interest message from donagall county council your voice matters and your vote is important local authorities are updating the electoral register and it's your responsibility to ensure that your details are current and correct even if you're already registered to vote now is the time to check and either confirm or update your details by providing your ppsn ear code and date of birth to have your say on shaping ireland's future you must be on the electoral register checking is easy simply go to check the register dot ie the easy way to secure your say experience 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education in a flexible learning environment for more information on how to apply visit atu.ie forward slash tertiary degrees don't miss an incredible night of country music with derrick ryan at the highlands hotel glanties on friday july 28 tickets are 20 euro and available from ticketstop.ie or by phoning the highlands hotel reception that's derrick ryan at the highlands hotel glanties friday july 28th okay in studio with me now is uh john brown who is general manager of the silver tassie hotel and spa hi john good morning great thanks for having me yeah congratulations to you in the team the team at the silver tassie were recently nominated by the public in the irish hospitality awards the awards ceremony took place recently and the one hotel team of the year 2023 it's great to give that get that kind of an endorsement for you of course but also for the hardworking staff as well i'm actually delighted for the staff as any business will tell you about your staff you're you're nothing at all so i'm delighted and especially after the last couple years been a tough couple years especially for anyone in the hospitality sector opening and closing with covid and everything out there short staffed everything and the work that they've put in for the last year or so was absolutely delighted us management everything out there and we're delighted for them in the terms of post-covid does it feel now we're fully out the other side or is there still a hangover from it slight hangover now starting to see the light um this is probably now the last month or two we're actually starting to kind of get back on the tracks and back on the feet and feel like we're we're back to pre-normal as it would say covid times so it's great to kind of be back as we as we are now yeah we're chatting to joe daily earlier on about there were the possibility of the nine percent well it's probably the likelihood of the nine percent that rate returning to 13.5 percent um what what what kind of an impact that would will that have on on on business operations from your perspective john is it a big hit it's a it's a big hit it's a worry now obviously and as you said more than likely um at the minute the dial's on holiday so nothing's going to be done until nine today it's nine weeks today come back and more than likely the budget so as joe said earlier on it's in the in the trade it's everything's it is type margin so does and the rise of food costs um energy heat everything has has come to a stage now where as a case of can you raise your prices anymore or as you mentioned earlier on people are only going to spend some there's a point where people are going to say enough people have an optional idea and then the one starter is how far they will go yeah main courses and i've had this conversation with people out there um and uh we we just could be heading in that direction now we i think we are heading in that direction um like i said that's it's kind of case that people don't as everyone knows their own shopping balls everything out there the spare of change in the pockets not there anymore to go out and socialize as much so when people do go out they want to make sure to get in value everything i got there and it's very difficult and i think we're kind of at a tipping point where it's if the vat rate goes up obviously either price is going to have to increase staff are going to have to decrease and we're at that stage now where i think it's it's make or break so it is okay and i just know more so than you know restaurants might feel that it's not fair that they're grouped with hotels yeah but then you have hotels in the northwest probably feel it's not fair that they may be being grouped with other hotels in very populated areas close to concert venues that have a very different sort of operating model than the task you might have you cannot uh all of a sudden raise the prices of all your rooms no to 450 you know what i mean i wish we could but we couldn't you know what i mean so yeah there's there's different sections within the industry and different sections within sections of that and all the media is at the minute or it's like anything um one or two bad bad eggs a spoils it for everyone yeah likes a double in the minute i'm sure three four five hundred euro for a room for an eight but and then you get stories of people we're clever got an early booking in then that bookings cancelled and the rooms were back up but as i say that is specific to certain parts of of the sector uh weddings is is a big part of your uh business are there is is there anything over the years that has dramatically changed like a more i think maybe one of them is people having their uh do you people can have their service in your hotel yeah we're licensed to we're seeing more of that man we're seeing more of that there's civil services um in the hotel where everything's in the one venue people some people want to move away from traditional church style wedding and so majority of venues now would be set up in catering for as i say the whole civil service area where you have the whole thing in the in the venue on the day and it goes very well as a lot of people enjoyed so is it a percentage wise is it i presume it's more than it was but uh is it it's it's not the norm yet no not the norm yet i would say it's probably probably five to ten percent of weddings which is significant which is definitely number now compared if you went back five to ten years it was virtually zero percent yeah say whereas you're finding it more and more now it's starting to come in yeah and what what else is changing in terms of what the the bride and groom want uh or what is there is there trends and fashion within the whole industry you always have trends and fashion as it changes from year to year as i but i was often say the couples if you get the basics right as i say obviously your venue your your church or whatever you're having your ceremony in and then obviously your food and uh entertainment that's the basics that what everybody will always remember a wedding on come the monday morning whether whether it was good or not you have certain things like the photo booths and um different decor options drapes things they had there but i say that's the basis as i say of a very good wedding and and in terms of booking weddings the nature of it because there's an engagement often and and uh is that you kind of have to if you want a certain venue you need to sort of be getting in there so you still have dates for 24 25 but i presume the book's filling up oh the books filling up as i say we're still 24 25 and just uh past week there we've got a first few inquiries for 2026 as well so i have so there's always dates there um as we always say obviously the peak months your june july august time always full up very fast but as i always say to anyone if you're if you're flexible of dates you'll you'll nearly always find a date in your favorite venue wherever it is friday and saturdays is that the main days thursday friday and saturday friday thursday friday spacey june is somewhere amongst uh mix of us now i know we've weddings every thursday friday and saturday now right up until uh middle of october right so thursdays it's a thursday wedding thursdays will be very popular space friday for a lot of ones it's suits ones holly tames or shift workers things they get there and i suppose with enough notice you know people can book friday off uh if they're lucky enough to have the weekends i haven't and in terms of um how you go about booking a wedding right so say i'm thinking right the silver tassie might be a good spot like who do i speak to do you have teams that work with people and say well this is what we can offer we've got that room or this room and yeah we have a dedicated wedding coordinator georgina there who's always on hand so basically from the first contact until you're nearly put to bed at night time and the night of the wedding she's there constantly so we'll get you as far as the door so we'll get you as far as the door anyway yeah well done time night i might be tucked in but normally it'd be just a consultation first of all come in show you the venue and the main thing is to see what the couple themselves want yeah because um package a package we might instead of couple whereas we would find we can tailor packages to suit suit the couple and suit what they want themselves because everybody wants something different and everyone once has their own idea in the head and trying to just make that idea come through i'd be terrible because i'd be like i don't mind whatever you think yourself do that i don't know that's actually nearly worse than somebody coming in that knows what they want absolutely everything i know um and in terms of the booking of djs and bands that stand to the couple isn't it that would normally be down to the couple we would always say we'd recommend bands but we don't and djs and so on but we'd always recommend for the couple themselves to go and go see them because my taste in music could completely different to your taste in music and every couple is going to want a certain style of music and i think to whatever the book has to match the sort of maybe the demographic and size of the crowd certainly yeah certainly like you have every you could go and see something in a 800 people at it and you think wow this is amazing but how would that work with a 250 yes you know you have to factor those things in don't you exactly we're in a lucky position likes of ourselves our bankman suite can be divided up for smaller weddings and we have a few other smaller smaller areas in hotel for likes of maybe up to 50 people up to 150 up to 200 and up to i should say four or 500 people and the spa has gone well for you the spa has gone very well as well so does not say very very busy thankfully all right john well listen congratulations again to you and all the team at the silver tassie it's great to get this type of an award great for the region as well because you know i mean obviously there's a lot of local weddings but then people call in and visit from outside the region as well and there's a spend not just in the hotel but in the wider area as well all right john listen again congratulations thank you very much great thank you very much for joining us john brown general manager there if the silver tassie hotel and spa entries are now being taken for the clon money agricultural show competitions in sheep cattle pony and horse poultry home industry sheep shearing and show jumping entries close the 22nd of july you can enter online at clon money show dot com or buy entry form to the secretary email clon money agri show at gmail dot com the two-day clon money agricultural show the eight some ninth of august packed full of events for all the family eating out later sister series mouthwatering menu is packed with tempting dishes and all time favorites whether it's a special occasion or a private function their party options and buffet choices have got you covered book now on nine one two double two three eight sister series serving food you love until nine p.m every day well grace how are you today i'm good i've just been down to the mid to measure fireplaces showroom in criss-la they have an incredible selection of over 40 colors for kitchen workshops and guess what for a limited time they're offering a 40% discount on any electric fire when you purchase a worktop there 40% that's an amazing deal absolutely and trust me if the discount alone doesn't sway you there a huge selection of fireplaces stoves wood pellet burners beams and stone cladding certainly well contact me to measure fireplaces criss-la on 0749138365 on facebook instagram and on mtm fireplaces dot ie milford tiles wood flooring on bathware milford retail park new wood flooring just arrived it will ac laminate 999 a square yard 10 mil 1250 a square yard 12 mil 1499 a square yard beautiful it will ac 4 glass laminate 1699 a square yard all in stock fitters available milford tiles wood flooring and bathware 083091 0707 okay some comments as we head towards news at 11 my neighbor has kindly planted 14 large shrubs in the communal area of our estate on wednesday yesterday we discovered they were all gone stolen we wanted to put it out there that we have cctv footage from a nearby home and find it pretty sad and alarming that this person would spend the time doing something so bizarre and we hope they're doing okay that comes in from a person in elm park boncran another high can i make a comment my daughter goes to the ci hub is that it's the ci hub in letter kenny she's got a mild learning disability and has went into every premises in letter kenny for work looking for one day work experience not one got back to her so disappointed or disappointing so maybe there's a business out there sometimes these things don't make it as far as the manager so this is a lady's daughter with a mild learning disability that's how mom described it she goes to the ci club hub in letter kenny and is looking for one day's work experience maybe someone out there can get in touch with us and we can put this together greg went to tax my van yesterday it was cued to the door all our counselors stepping about like prize pups with their tea and coffee not one of them could see the problem the size of the place and two lanes open i should have filmed it the amount of people doing nothing says that listener these people better get used to this because all small businesses are going to be wiped off the map make no mistake of this it's on the cards full stop another hi greg i'm now in my 60s i'm 60 ish i go back 50 years we could walk through the hills have great sun like we had in june and hear the lark singing and when it rained it used to bounce off the footpaths and the thunder and lightning is what we are getting now so what is it all about i don't know what the world heating up doesn't mean hotter necessarily but i don't know i don't know are you do you see the change yourself or are you saying that you don't see a change all right it's all gone pete tongue i pressed the wrong buttons well it's 11 o'clock we'll get back to the ads there it's 11 o'clock time for a news update and it is over to mikaela clark thanks great good morning the child and family agency says it is at risk of failing to meet required standards of care due to its increased reliance on emergency arrangements to hide children in state care tussle's annual report noted its use of emergency placements is one of the main risks it's facing editor this week retired dublin district court judge dermit sims wrote to the government and tussle over the welfare of summit children in care police instruments say they're concerned for the whereabouts of a woman missing from the clady area mikaela mcsourley was last seen in the village at around 6 a.m. yesterday she's described as being around five foot eight in height with a slim build and long dark hair four concerts planned for derries ebbrington square have been thrown into jeopardy after permission was withdrawn by a storming department due to possible legal action the northern arland executive office says the previous approval granted for the events planned for august was withdrawn as it faces a threat of legal action by a third party if they go ahead it's understood the objector is a tenant at ebbrington square 400 ukrainian families have applied for a house under the offer a home program in donnie gall to date 61 properties have been allocated housing 203 families since the scheme opened in december there's been a drop in the number of burglaries in donnie gall according to phone watch dot ie cso figures show a six percent decrease in burglaries in the county 120 burglaries were recorded in donnie gall between april 2022 and march at 2023 the cost of a pint is to rise by four cent from august the 14th it's the second time this year diazio has increased its prices and says it's down to rising costs the vinners federation of arland says it will be calling on the company to review its decision immediately and repairs to a burst water main are ongoing in north in his show um donnie gall county council is advising that supply disruptions may be experienced as a result in malin town malin and surrounding areas works are scheduled to take place until three o'clock this afternoon those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon thank you very much indeed mikaela all right welcome back to the nine till noon show keep us busy on the phone lines thanks for all your contacts so far 08 660 25000 greg what is the obsession with ramps on roads lately it's another way to slow down traffic i was used to going over ramps and yesterday on the same road i didn't realize the ramps were raised and i broke a spring who pays to fix my car well i'm not really quite sure uh if there's not adequate signage or if it's not visible you probably could argue that whomever is responsible for them putting the ramp in could be it's not cheap to fix a spring in a car uh what are the alternatives rumble strips aren't great because it's not great for local residents you know that because um they they vibrate through the ground and into people's houses people tend to ignore signs um i don't know what is the alternative to ramps on a road call for families to take in ukrainian citizens without the social welfare benefits being affected would this not also be offered to people who take in irish people in need with huge number of people who are desperately in need is it not discriminating against our own yeah well the same services should be available repassports we were sitting in the house one night and thought we'd apply for a passport for my mom it was her first passport we did it online at seven p.m on monday evening and it was in the house on wednesday in the first post so we had a fabulous experience with the service fantastic um it could be slightly different with the first passport for younger ones especially if uh you know maybe one of the parents is deceased or there's a separation or a divorce or whatever it might be it can be far more complicated than for child protection purposes i presume often when we talk about delays for the first passport it's because it's a minor that's involved and you know they have to be careful about the movement of young people and then being moved out of the state without people who have responsibility or are saying it not being notified so it's different with children but what a fantastic experience for your mother and hopefully she's had a few stamps on it you haven't told us yet the great here if she's traveling now i'm a visitor in reth mullen and last night it was walking along the pier when i saw the community group in cleaning the public toilets well done to you all and you did a fantastic job okay brilliant well done to the people in reth mullen who did that it's so important i think we keep those facilities up to scratch isn't it right uh 08 660 25 000 whatsapps and texts to that number or call us an 0749125 thousand right there is a new book out it is called charlie vagus and the bubbles it's author or vegas it might be a well it's hardly vegas well let's check with dr helen golgar to who wrote it hi doctor thank you for joining us good morning greg thank you for having me is it vagus and the bubbles uh vegas vegas and the bubbles okay i didn't think you'd go down that route but you did and fair play to you okay um so this uh tell us it's a children's book uh tell us uh why sorry tell us what it's about and and and why you hope it's good for children well it's about the vagus nerve greg which is um connects the body and the brain um it helps children i hope to understand their nervous system what happens to all of us when we get stressed so um there are three general patterns in terms of both attachment theory and polyvagal theory which are the theories that this book is based on and um so we we tend to be either calm and connect us which is where we want to be able we're there summer most of the time but when we get stressed we tend to either go into fight or flight responses which would be things like um feeling very emotional feeling angry and obsessed um for children feeling very dependent and seeking closeness to their parents and so on or else we go into kind of shutdown withdraw becoming emotionally avoidant so there are those three patterns and attachment theory explains them and so does polyvagal theory which is about the vagus nerve the vagus nerve runs all the way down the body and branches off into all the major organs and the face and the hands and the heart and the digestive system so a lot of children i've worked with children mainly in foster care for over 30 years children would tell me that they feel stressed in the body but how to convey that um up to the point where they can actually describe it in words or images which then helps us to work in it and to help them to regulate and calm down that's really what the books about so say for instance if you get a shock or a gonker a bit of bad news uh and you get that feeling of you know almost now to body experience you you're feeling not in your stomach you can feel a sensation down your your arms and leg you make your arms and legs it may you may feel like you need to go to the bathroom is that the the the vagus nerve it is yeah so that would be a short sharp shock uh but you can presumably then have wouldn't say issues but it can have a it can have a more uh a more long lasting maybe even a more subtle impact on how the body and mind works well yes and a short sharp shock um we we can come out of that more easily once we begin to feel safe the polyvagal theory is really about the necessity to feel safe it's based on the idea that in the nervous system we think we think called neuroception but when we think of perception as being in more more in the brain more the ability to perceive things from a thinking point of view neuroception is more like the sensations you have in your body say if you're I remember my mother who lived lived and worked in London during the war she was a nurse and she talked about the sensation when in London when the lights were off and walking down the street one night and hearing these footsteps now that could have been a perfectly normal situation but darkness footsteps is something you can see that that sets off your neuroception um of danger so you then you then your nervous system prepares you for fight or flight and it pumps energy into the muscles for fight or flight but there's also this other system that you can go into shutdown where it's deemed your nervous system makes um makes a decision if you like although it's not a cognitive decision that it might be safe for just the library still so and do nothing just to help me better understand and we're all learning as we're talking here um so say for instance uh I'll say public speaking is one of the things that people don't like to some extent it's yourself that's trying to protect you from something bad happening is it not it it is you know it's or or it's your body trying to protect you from something it thinks that that is not good for you or that you couldn't or that you would find it difficult to manage um and the nervous system is slightly biased for dangers because it's safe which means that you know there's this kind of negative bias and if you've grown up in a family which felt unsafe then that negative bias is probably stronger if you grew up in a safe environment you probably have less of a negative bias now if you have a negative bias you tend to see the glass half empty all the time you tend to see danger around the corner because that's the problem with the nervous system it does keep us safe in danger by by shoving us into fight flight or freeze but it's it over it overdoes us if you like it's hard to get out of us if you get stuck and in the book we talk about the bad things around about where you can get stuck in this roundabout and you keep going back there and you literally can't get off so um there are strategies at the back of the book for how to calm yourself down I mean there are many ways to calm yourself down can I get to that now can I can I just I want to go through the book with you and have but just one more question in relation to that I'm just kind of interested when you talk about how you're a rare it can affect your your ability to cope so if we feel there's danger around every corner or we've had a difficult upbringing that can make our nervous system react in a certain way I'm just wondering for a lot of younger people they're protected by every danger so they get no sense of of dangerous such until such time as it hits you in the face so to speak how does that affect in terms of negative or positive bias when you you're somewhat insulated from everything that's wrong in the world I'm not sure if you are really Greg insulated because you know social media television all of that kind pumps a lot of danger into our lives it may not be danger that we personally experience but compared to my childhood and you know there's a lot more danger they in the virtual world say because the virtual world didn't exist so when I was a child if danger was there it was around you or it didn't exist whereas now you can be actually in a safe environment but your perception of danger is sensitized over sensitized by exposure to you know movies and and and there's a lot of violence in movies there's a lot of danger all around us in the virtual world so I'm not sure okay I suspect that we felt safer as children we certainly one of the measures of safety is expiration and when I was a child I've often talked about this in training and with colleagues and friends when I was a child our zone of exploration was about two miles we toggled off and we had our bikes and somebody had a pony we hopped up on or whatever now I think children are much less able to explore and and that's because there is this perception of danger out there which limits the recreation and their freedom yes so you hear something what I was saying see I that that was the point I was trying to make but what you're saying is rather than it rather than it uh insulating from them they're probably fearful of more than you or I might have been okay um now just to the book itself because that's obviously the important element to this conversation if you pick the book up and flick through it to all intents and purposes if you didn't read it immediately you would think it were a story book and I presume it can work like that but it's it's written as a story book but it's not necessarily a cover-to-cover book to read to your children so talk to us a little bit how it's laid out in that regard well as I've said in the introduction it uses story but it's not a story book it uses story and in order to it's really about psychoeducation for parents children therapists schools anybody working with children and the reason it's not it it uses stories uses character we've picked three animals to depict those three states we've picked a cat for being calm and connected we have picked a mere cat for fight and flight and we've picked a tortoise for the shutdown withdrawal and dissociation response for children moves awareness because they move into an imaginary world which feels a lot safer for them and my colleague medium goal did the drawings and I love working with Marie because she's able to depict these states in such a way that are that they're really accurate but they're they still have a fun element so children can look at them and not feel you know that it doesn't scare anybody looking at them and yet you're looking at these states of fear if you like exactly parents will I think give a good understanding to parents as to what's going on when the young person says I've a knot in my tummy or I feel like this and also like I mean really I think it's really the simplicity of it I think might help parents as well to understand what might be happening with their child well exactly and with younger children so you don't need to read the whole story of the text to younger children you can just show them the pictures older children like the text because they're like teenagers and even adults like the understanding of the news trying to bring neuroscience neurobiology the brain body connection into simple language that we can understand because once you understand these that that you know van de kalk the vessel van de kalk who's a world expert in trauma talks about blowing up or shutting down and there's the two you know stress responses the other of course being when we're calm and connected the state we try to get back into but once you identify that you go one way or the other well then the thing is you know how can I get out of this and one of the way in order to get out of especially if your child you have to be able to signal your need and you have to be able to convey the sensations you're feeling in your tummy in a in a simple verbal way either through words or pictures and that's why we put in bubbles because it all came from actually a tea timer I bought in Germany the children loved I still work with children as a parent person you know they love this idea of bubbles coming up so it's an idea that you can you can you can you can move this sensation you can communicate it to yourself to your higher brain to your thinking brain you can also communicate it to people around you that this is what you're feeling and this is why you might be feeling us and then you can get the help you need the bad things around about you mentioned earlier on and as I say relevant to children but adults as well it's a place where they get stuck thinking about things bad things that had happened no matter how many times they tried to get off the round about scary red bubbles kept bumping into them and pushing them back on that circular or thinking and and and you have advice on on how to deal with all of these things as well in this book of course Dr. Helen yes we have it in the back we have some suggestions in the back there are other ways that one can work with this and I think we might come to further ideas about that in the future but at the moment these are very basic ideas about emotion regulation and how to help children to become camera method now for a couple of years and getting children to draw their nervous system to draw that roadway and to see where the bubbles are and to also put in the blue ones because a lot of the time because that negative bias we can't think about the blue ones I mean you might be a great dancer you might be a great singer you might have a best friend you might love riding your bike there might be things in your life that you don't think about enough that actually do help you to emotionally regulate and when you think about them every time you think about them and put them in a bubble you strengthen them and that helps you stay calm okay I think it's going to be I think it's going to be a useful it's going to be useful book for parents and parents helping their children it's charlie vegas and the bubbles and my ignorance leading into this I didn't I didn't make the connection with the vegas nerve but here we are every day's a learning day um so how do people get hold of the book well it's for sale in in a website called buy the book which is an irish website for marketing books online by the book.ie it's also available in the four masters in donnie galtown and it's for sale in a novel idea in ballish shannon we don't have a bookshop yet in letter kenny but anybody who wants to buy it from north donnie galtown buy it from buy the book.ie and is it former donnie galtown gp dr marie dromgoole that did the illustration it is indeed it is indeed multi-talented lady no doubt about that okay that's a nice connection okay listen thanks so much for your time helen we really appreciate it thank you very much okay take care dr helen go to the author of charlie vegas and the bubbles and as i say i think it'll be useful for some people out there the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio boulder dash poppycock porky pies whispers untruths fake news or as the kids say cap seas have been planted that scuder has no stock let's put the rumors to bed at scuder we have scarla superb octavia and the fully electric enyek all in stock ready for immediate delivery and to drive home today visit scuder dot ie to see for yourself scuder let's explore your local scuder dealer is dmg mortars claire or donnie galtown call zero seven four nine seven two one three nine six new this week at home store and more all school bags are all half price but better hurry because when all the half price school bags are gone they're gone also all indoor clothes errors and all outdoor cushions are still all half price but when all the half price indoor clothes errors and all the half price outdoor cushions are gone they're definitely gone drop by your local home store and more or visit us online at home store and more dot ie new store now open in frascati center black rock doublin home store and more a happy home summer reductions on your favorite brands at brine McCormick sports brooks and asics with 20% off check in store and online brooks glissering and adrenaline 22 gts save 20% asics keanu 29 asics gt 2011 save 20% get ready for the summer and save 20% off your favorite kids asics trainers look the part play the part in store and online click and collect on bmc sports dot ie at hickey clark and langan insurance broker they compare quotes from all the leading insurers so you get a great price home motor and van farm quality home travel and liability insurance they quote them all so if the worst happens you're covered for a competitive insurance quote today called hickey clark and langan on 91 two double six double eight or pop into their office at bali mccool letter kenny hickey clark and langan general insurance is limited trading as hickey clark and langan is regulated by the central bank of ireland highland radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letter kennedy doblin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time at 21 minutes past 11 it's time for wellness wednesday cancer trials are in the national organization dedicated to advancing cancer clinical trials has announced details of a new research survey of women with breast cancer whose cancer is spread also known as secondary metatastatic breast cancer the survey ireland's first ever patient led research to undergo rigorous ethics and scientific approval is being spearheaded by shivan gainer a former research scientist who has also been diagnosed with secondary breast cancer shivan gainer joins us on the program now thanks so much for your time today in helping us get this information out shivan thank you for having me on gregg why did this this need it's this particular study this particular research do you feel well when i was first diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in in october 2020 and i as a scientist you know my go to is go see what the data is what the information is look in the scientific literature google search what everyone does and i realized very quickly that there's very little information available to support patients around what i call the non-tumor stuff so the psychological supports emotional supports information about your diagnosis and other aspects of your care and in fact there's very little information available the more doctors and patients i spoke to i realized that this was a problem and we have very little information on this cohort of patients and so the idea for the survey began what might we learn or what could be important to learn shivan well what would be important to learn is what are the aspects of our disease that most we find most distressing how and do we get information about our disease our subtype and what our prognosis is what what what how long might we live for should we tell and should we be public about our diagnosis where can we get further information how much is this going to cost us it's an expensive process being a patient and in my case i had to medically retire so that had its problems financially as well as emotionally and really what our needs are as a cohort we're living longer thankfully due to advances in our treatment around the tumor but really what we want to know now is how do best support us as we are living longer with this disease yeah so individually people are asking themselves the question do i tell my family how long might i live for what is the cost how am i going to fund this you know there's many many people individually thinking that let's get together find answers and maybe put in place some supports to that the people can go to when they're already obviously dealing with the presumably the huge shock of of secondary cancer exactly so the idea for the survey started a couple of years ago and i've gone round and spoken to many patients and many healthcare workers and realized we all have the same issues but what we need in order to affect change is a unified voice we need data and to make changes so hence the need for the survey to try and establish what exactly those needs are and then further to that how do we ensure that those supports are in place speaking to a number of breast cancer survivors over the years on on this program and others you know one of the greatest fears is that everyone thinks well it's that's it you've got the all clear those words that we use but having spoken to people that are affected by it they are afraid of it coming back do you think if there was more information on what happens when it does come back or more supports in there for those that might go searching out to comfort themselves or otherwise that it might also help that cohort of people yeah i hope so i mean i obviously i'm a firm believer in information is power you know and you know suppressing something that might not happen to you or not understanding it you know that's a problem as well because you're living with a fear that may not be real in actuality it's estimated over the course of a patient with breast cancer's lifetime there's about a 30 chance of it coming back now that may not be a problem in later life but when you're a younger patient and you know in your 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s that is a problem but nonetheless i feel that it's very important to understand what the symptoms are if it does come back and to get help as early as possible what kind of questions are asked in this survey shivan so we've questions about um your own understanding of your diagnosis do you understand what your subtype is do you understand what that means for you do you understand what treatments you're getting do you understand the language the terminology and do have you got support for your condition from people outside of your medical oncology team have you sought support support for example from a psychologist um or otherwise where do you get your information from um what are the costs associated with this condition will it affect impact my fertility which unfortunately it does but then again have you got any information about that have you had any referrals and to satisfy those needs because whilst we're living longer with the condition we still want to live well and we still want to get as much out of life as we possibly can so these are all the questions we feel that are important for patients with this condition um there probably isn't any questions in this area but i wonder how big a part of the experience is shivan in that uh how people interact with you or how you talk about this to other people i mean i'm looking at you now uh i could say you know you look great you look healthy and then if you were you might have you might feel compelled to say well i might look like that but this is the situation is there is that a thing as part of of having a non-curable secondary cancer absolutely so i suppose that the frightening people for the thing for people is yes i do look well and and certainly that is the case i'm relatively stable and relatively well but of course there's things that you don't see when you look at somebody visually but more importantly um you know doctors need to know about this and our healthcare workers so for example for me um you know pain was a big problem in the first few years and now thankfully that's mostly under control but um tiredness is a big issue and that was one of the reasons why i had to retire i just wasn't able to sustain um either full apart time work and so you know for example after today i'll be in bed for the afternoon you're not going to see that your listeners are not going to see that and so the reality of living with it is that i yes have handicaps and disabilities that are really not visible and the question for me is how can i improve that and and how can i highlight to people without frightening them that you know breast cancer does and can come back not for everybody and we're making huge strides but even if it does come back you can still live your life you know i joined when i first was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer i found it very important to seek out other women with this condition and i joined a fantastic support group called positive living which is run by the Marie Keating Foundation and the name appealed to me you know it is about positive living um whilst i may not know how much longer i have left to live um i can still enjoy my days and so it's very important to seek out support um for any um any stage 4 cancer support from your peers is really really priceless yeah so i mean obviously we'll talk about how many women you wish to engage with and how they'll do that in a moment but just fast forward that once this information is gathered and worked through and we know what works and what could work or where the gaps are who takes this then and implement it is it a a society is it the hsc do you know how would this very useful information be formed into sort of new services to assist people in this position well firstly um what we'd hope to do is obviously publish the data and get it out there in the medical literature because i have a feeling that this isn't just an irish issue you know this is an international issue so um i know from talking to many in the field many experts in the field they're they're looking forward to getting the the data because they're simply um not aware of how best to support us what our needs are hence the need for the survey but further to that at a local level at an irish level um you know we we would be talking to the department of health um and the national cancer control program within the department of health who are tasked with um exactly this developing guidance and support for all cancer patients and they're also looking for this information because until you know what the problems are it's very hard to create services until you know how many of us are impacted by these problems and you know you need to start putting in place budgets etc and until you know the numbers and what the impacts are it's impossible for people to put those services in place yes so people can visit cancer trials dot ie um is it clear from there where people might go to sign up and what qualifies them to sort of uh be a good fit for this survey yeah indeed um so the information um on the survey is actually on the front page of www dot cancer trials dot ie um many other cancers charities Irish Cancer Society and the Marie Keating Foundation also have links to the survey so what you do is click on the link there's lots of information um on cancer trials website about the survey if you want to listen or read about that in advance click on the link and to be eligible to complete the survey there's a couple of introductory questions around um what your diagnosis is so obviously you need to be diagnosed with secondary or advanced or metastatic breast cancer and you need to live on the island of Ireland this is an all island survey and across the 32 counties and once you have confirmed those eligibility criteria for the survey you're through into the survey itself 60 questions we've timed it um with some test patients and we reckon it will take 20 to 30 minutes to complete and I don't know how to phrase this correctly but how uh how can you encourage or make sure that this is representative in in other words that it might be quite difficult to face some of the questions in a survey like this but you do want to hear from those people as well if if that makes sense um absolutely yeah that's been a concern um when we were talking about the survey and designing it so um one of the things we felt was important was that it was anonymized so that people would feel more able um to to give up their information so we're not collecting patients names for examples we're trying to figure out where all of these patients are located so we do ask in which county you're located and where you're receiving cancer treatment we also recognize that um for some patients it may be difficult to engage online so we would urge you to ask your children or indeed your grandchildren to support you in this regard it's relatively straightforward we have road tested it in that it's not asking for loads of text it's simply asking the series of questions yes no not applicable brings you to the next question on the survey so it's relatively intuitive um we believe that um it it is easy to navigate but um if you need any support um please email us at um info at mbcsurvey.ie and we're happy to support you further if you're having problems and whilst I recognize we're asking or you're asking people to engage in something at a very difficult part of their lives potentially dependent on on on attitude there is an opportunity to be part of something that could be very very important for yourself or for your children or future generations exactly and I think um one thing I recognized when diagnosed with an incurable illness your first thoughts are well first of all how do I improve this for others but how do I improve this for myself um and this survey is that opportunity to help create those services that you believe that you need um to support you but also for those that come behind us and I think that's something that instinctively you feel as a patient in this position how do I make this a better experience for those going through it behind you next month next year um and automatically uh by completing the survey you are serving that purpose and so it's it's a way to feel purposeful I I felt when I had to retire a little bit a lack of of purpose in my life um and that's what this survey is all about is putting meaning meaningful um information um and questions out there that people hopefully will engage with and understand and and if they feel the same way or differently that's also important to understand um to have that information to provide the services that we need and in a way you did retire but it's also to some extent an extension of what you did in that you were three decades in developing medicines undertaking clinical trials uh so that formed part of your professional career and this is in the same I think it seems to be in the same space absolutely uh you know the irony was as a researcher you know I had worked in breast cancer and so I understood the scientific and medical aspects but what I quickly realized as a patient was in fact it's the non-tumor stuff and the psychological aspects the trauma the nature of this diagnosis how do you tell your family all of those aspects that are actually just as impactful dealing with side effects of your medication and symptoms of your treatment um you know how do you deal with you know the fatigue for example um which is a problem for me and and those aspects whilst relevant and important are less better served and by the medical community at this point all right it's been a very interesting conversation uh for me at the very least I'm sure all of our listeners as well Siobhan thanks for your time today thanks very much Greg take care Siobhan Gainer member of the cancelled trials Ireland Patient Consultants committee if you wish to take part in that survey you can go to cancer trials dot i e cancer trials dot i e and help formulate hopefully a new health and psychosocial services and resources for people with uh secondary incurable cancer watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com transform your home with a visit to McGinley's furniture letter Kenny located at the port link business park just off the port road you'll find a huge selection of top quality suites beds and mattresses also slide robes and custom made dining and occasional furniture with prices to suit every budget see the great choice for yourself at our showroom McGinley's furniture port link business park port road letter Kenny click McGinley's furniture dot com we're sorry to inform you of yet another delay no not the train this time it's John he's delayed getting his eyes tested if he's accidentally sat in your lap knocked over your suitcase or kissed you instead of his wife we can only apologize John has now been informed that I tests in glasses from the 69 euro range of spec savers are free with pure si a medical card so there's no need to delay booking an appointment find out more at spec savers dot i e John can you get off my lap an apple a day keeps the doctor away yes but a joy apple keeps the sadness away crunchy juicy with a hint of acidity get some joya in your favorite store eat joya taste the joy and with the joya contest you can win an electric car with 232 underway it's not too late to secure your new keya with the keya seed petrol and diesel the sportage in hybrid plug-in hybrid and diesel and the award-winning car of the year the ev6 all electric all available for immediate delivery calling the i motors and letter Kenny or malin to find out more open six days a week getting married men's wedding suit packages are now 20% off booked before august 31st default clothing letting any retail park terms and conditions apply business matters in association with the atu dunning all faculty of business if you have an undergrad in any discipline and would like to reinforce it with the masters in business atu are offering their masters in business management conversion program call 91 86 206 or email donald dot hanigan at atu.au okay it's that time of the week gain where we catch up on the latest business news across the region and beyond and also have a look forward to island radios business matters podcast which is live for you now uh to listen back to or listen to uh we'll get to that in a moment after we say good morning to uh kiran or donald presenter of business matters how are you getting on good morning great how are you i'm doing good thank you uh let's get to some news start off with some good news for a person from falcara yeah a falcara architect has won a major award in the uk for an innovative family home renovation and extension breed car who is a director at randall design group and chistiser in southeast of england won a sussex heritage trust award for the south downs college so this project greg involved the full renovation of two original georgian estate colleges which are understood to date back to 1795 all right good news for the caragot area yeah the dunning all boardwalk resort at caragart has been granted planning permission to extend its facilities donald county council has given the green light for 10 new glamping paws five pitches for tents and 10 new spaces for camper vans and permission has also been approved for a new reception building shop cafe shares and toilet and laundry facilities already a lot going on in that area so that's a addition to that um so you know what they need to do as soon as possible separate to this is build the uh construct the pathway from caragot to downings um there's lots of foot traffic cycling traffic on it and hopefully the bikes will get on to it it's been approved it's ready to go it's supposed to be there i think a couple of seasons ago what have you i hope it's done before someone gets hurt or injured because i'd be on that road uh you know and it is just you meet someone on a bike or walking or you know it's busy busy busy i think the money's there i think the planning's there so the sooner that gets done the better and i separate to this development we're talking about which is a bit further up the road but it's a real important piece of infrastructure for that area hopefully before someone gets hurt or worse okay great to see further development right uh bolt yeah bake share company bolt has said that it has reached 5,942 unique users in operating for just one year in sligo that town has a population of just over 19,000 people greek we actually talked about this last year when it was launched so the figure that they've given includes 872 users from overseas and the company operates 40 and 45 countries and 500 cities across the world so users in sligo clocked up a total of 153,000 kilometers with one cycling 47 kilometers and one trip and another taking 530 trips in a year so i heard uh a brief you mentioned briefly about the scooters and that sort of stuff so a sort of it's other to see is there going to be a change and how people go about maybe taking on this sort of form of i think five years in a town like say obviously the biggest town uh in donny goal and of course we've got dairy city as well but the biggest change in five years will be how all that traffic is managed you know where are they stored where are they put how and the infrastructure for the alternative there's a lot around around already right and that's without the green light being given most people won't do something if they don't think it's legal that's the truth so as soon as it becomes the law we will see more and more of uh these these scooters around the place e-bikes yeah i'll be able to see you know obviously sligo was taken as a pilot project you know will that be replicated well we spoke to a company on this program i can't remember uh it was a lady from down the country who were in this business i don't think it's bold but it could have been and they're waiting for new legislation to come in before they start providing services like e-bikes and stuff and scooters in other european cities like uh belgium not brussels you know you can the scooters and the scooters and the e-bikes lying all over the place but i just want to scooter around so there is going to have to be infrastructural changes to accommodate people coming into that space allow them to change them and mindset as well what i've yeah and you know what it might fast track a regular town bus service or something because you know things do need to change great anyway exactly okay so we'll see but i think from now and in five years we are going to see an awful lot of uh an awful lot of changes sorry in-person workshop yeah an in-person workshop entitled think like a video marketer will be held at the co-lab in irikini on thursday next this is july the 27th sponsored by co-lab northwest and association with the irikini chamber the workshop will be delivered by the irikini chamber members kir mur and chris kelly from inbound studio and dip dab media so greg this event is aimed at business owners team members and those interested in or responsible for creating organization or promoting video content uh check out the chamber social medias um social social media platforms for more places are limited and as most again just on their lines the importance of where the whole way and how we promote business is going yeah apparently you're an old fart if you say co-lab that's what i've been told here that you have to say co-lab where naïve is it co-lab co-lab yeah so not co-lab we must take we must take the co-lab no no here i'm gonna i'm gonna start the campaign the change it's she is the promotion i have to drag you kicking in screaming into 2023 it's you know did you can tell you're not fair you're an influencer now you have to make sure it's all right so it's co-lab northwest all right what it depends now is that co-laboration northwest or is it collaborative or is it co i don't know depends if you're wrong answer i'll come back with the proper answer next week okay well for that one last uh two dozen houses bar one except for don fanahe yeah plan permission is being sought to build 23 houses and don fanahe as you say greg the application for the proposed development at hornhead road has been made by sear renaissance properties and the decision is expected from don egola council county council by august the 31st oh you know uh now we are going to take a short break kieran's gonna stay with us and afterwards we're gonna look forward to this week's podcast get a clip from it as well stay right where you are sometimes it's just bad luck but sometimes it's negligence from minor bumps to life-changing injury every accident has a story time to call mackael henney and associates they'll assess the situation advise on solutions and lead the way if any litigation is to follow from motor accidents and workplace accidents to slips trips and falls call today on 0749175989 or find us online let's get you started on the road to recovery mackael henney and associates solicitors turn all their how can we help in contentious business and solicitors may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement century complex letter kenny are holding their annual charity family fun day and it off the good and new don egola cancer bus on wednesday the 26th of july from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. check out our century complex social media pages for more information on how you can help support the charity while having fun on wednesday the 26th of july at century complex curtains at voyin company letter kenny complete any room with our elegant and exquisite range of curtains designed to elevate your windows with sheer beauty whether you prefer classic patterns or contemporary designs our curtain collection offers endless possibilities to complement your interior decor let our expert staff assist you in creating the living space you've always dreamed of call in and get a free interior design consultation this month at voyin company letter kenny so kiran i posted on uh facebook last night it's an anti-bucket list right you know people say bucket lists and you say what would you do what do you want to do go to new york whatever it is so what's the anti-bucket list so in other words what is something that you've done that you'd never do again now i haven't really been able to collect all the information but majority of them are a get married uh b climb arigal uh or actually b is um b was have a baby never do that again uh others pay the tv license they're never doing that again but get married jager bombs tequila slammers uh climb arigal or fun fair rides i would never i was in some country sometime and the boys maybe go on one of those fun fair rides and i was on it thinking i actually thought i was gonna die and i said to and i spoke to the big man and i says if you get me off this i'll never get on another one of those again and i've stuck to my word so kiran the question is before we talk about this week's podcast what is your anti-bucket list what would you not do again probably like yourself i would ever a fan of the fun fair amusement okay if there's something that your anti-bucket list that you would never do again 08 660 25 000 08 660 25 000 this is a marriage shots roller coaster rides and for some recent climbing arigal uh are uh some of the top answers so far but anyway but the arigal one well yeah exactly another person says get the other knee done so they must have got uh um the knee joint changed uh skydive never again that's something i probably would do um others um build a house in donagall obviously they're affected by the concrete by a house in donagall comes up quite a lot um and then talk about the secret sound run a half marathon they'd never do that again you'd do that all the time don't you drink southern comfort watch a horror movie give me nightmares paula cup on now it's only a film um walk karak rope bridge i've never done that before climb arigal there it is uh step inside the hotel where i had my wedding reception now i'm not sure if that's to do with the service they got all the wedding but anyway okay that's a distraction but if you've got your anti-bucket list suggestions 08 660 25 000 kiran old donnelly's presenter of the business matters podcast that's what he came in for not to listen to me waffle so let's talk about your guest this week kiran yes Greg my guest this week is shannon porter founder and owner of the milk bar in kerrigans shannon's family own a large family that comprises around 450 cows and 200 euros on 800 acres she graduated with an honors degree in agriculture in 2021 and a few months later she opened donagall's first milk powder after an investment of around 100 000 euro shannon also has a full-time job with smith steel said as a sales representative for animal feed and during our conversation greg i asked shannon what was the reaction of her parents when she told them about her decision to set up the milk bar mom was like yes come on mom's a great supporter dad's like uh no um he was so scared and everything but i took him around to places showed him things took like there was quite a few around northern Ireland at the time so like we literally just did a day trip and we just went maybe seeing five enemy machines we spoke to the owners and once dad seen that he's like okay this maybe can work but then he was like so scared that you know maybe we shouldn't have it here in the home farm he was like people aren't going to come because we are in the middle of nowhere we like between newtons and johnson like we are on the countryside of it so he was very very concerned that people wouldn't come he thought maybe we should have it and let it kind of tone or into dairy city you know you'll have such a better people moving about there that could stop and get it but i was like daddy i want people to see where the product comes from okay so like i people drive up the road the cars are crossing the road to come into the parlor you know and i'm able to do school trips i'm able to do events like easter events i wouldn't be able to do that if it was in letter candy town right so hold on your second you were at the milk bar what is it then uh so an open planned log cabin with a bottling vending machine and a milk vending machine so you can bring a reusable bottle plastic bottle fill it up and away you go yes and is it pasteurized milk or is it it's very much uh towards the natural milk that we would have had growing up yeah um she talked a good bit in depth about the difference in the milk quality actually um doesn't we covered an array of subjects there um shanners 25 she came back in 2021 when um for the last part of her studies during covid and it was during that this time back at home once she was finishing her degree that she decided she would put this proposition to her parents it's an idea they had talked about greg at different times uh down the years uh shanners parents and her grandparents both have tradition in uh milk provision uh and milk producing so she followed it through uh to quote herself they were blown away by the demand um she's got extremely busy gone into ice cream she talked briefly about the possible if you're going down the cheese making route at some stage so i wouldn't be surprised if her product range expands uh fairly soon great energy uh great outlook and life uh she traveled a bit she was over in new zealand for part of her placement she learned a lot there she was in placement with two companies in northern ireland learned a lot there and she's out on the road with her full-time job with smut steel side as well brilliant stuff excellent and you reminded me i need to get cheese they are on the way home homemade pizzas of i'll make my own dough now uh kiran i'll you can take someone next way to sample it when i have the answer about uh the colab 250 grams of self-raising flour 150 millilitres of water mix it okay uh in a bowl then it actually becomes dough leave it at the counter 10 minutes it's your own pizza base that's it 250 grams of flour 150 millilitres of water i'll take your word and then i'll get the grated cheese then uh tin tomatoes delicious you i used to use the the red sauce can't remember what it's called but anyway uh so if you want me to come on business matters podcast i could stop my own pizza making business maybe i don't know yeah we barbecue at the back for us a bit of sampling but shannon's story is a fascinating one and i look forward to listen to that conversation because more people need to know about initiatives like that there and i know that's why you you sorted out and did the interview but a lot of people would not know that that's happening and i think it really is great to see it's a spotlight on it so i suppose to shannon yeah i suppose her vision that she she didn't want to take it anywhere else greg all than the natural place that the actual the log cabin and the milk burr is actually just in front of the main farm um where everything's going on so you're actually right bang in the middle of where your produce is made right well done shannon you can listen to the full interview the wide-ranging interview with shannon and uh kiran in conversation on the latest business matters podcast the full interview with shannon as i mentioned is available now to stream or download from our website highlandradio.com or you can also access it on Spotify or iTunes and it's live on air to broadcast live on air on after the six o'clock news isn't that right that's a gig on shorn even and if anyone wants to get in touch with the show kiran how'd they get in touch to ask any questions even maybe they want to be a future guest how do they contact you just drop me an email please greg business matters at highlandradio.com brilliant kiran thank you so very much indeed and we'll have kiran back in studio with us uh all being well no reason why not let's suppose next uh wednesday 08 6 60 25 000 whatsapp some text to that number give us a call on 07 491 25 000 my anti-bucket list is three days in locturga did it once definitely never again uh eat frogs legs is another one i remember going back uh in the day this was one of my earliest memories of a child it was in i think an indian restaurant and my parents eating frogs legs and it disgusted me then and uh it disgusts me still to this very day frogs are the idea of eating the words are they bones in them i agree i'll never eat frog legs again and i never will eat them to begin with listen to a man when he said believe me yeah well good advice uh this listener will never trust the government that's their anti-bucket list another anti-bucket list bungee jumping Torah ligament in my shoulder took years to heal that comes in from Trudy i was speaking to someone correct me if i'm wrong who uh works with eyes they're an eyes specialist and they see quite a number of people over the course of the year who've been away and done a bungee jump and i'm not exactly quite sure what happens to the eye maybe it's damaged to the retina or something and i don't want to scare anyone but this was a someone who works uh with an eye specialist and they told me that they see quite a number of people on an annual basis who have done a bungee jump and it has some effect on the eyes i imagine it might be the retina detachment of the retina i don't know so if i was ever going to do a bungee jump that would be the exact reason whether i would never do it now off the back of that tearing a ligament in the shoulder trudy and balance rate or i keep your anti-bucket list suggestions coming in 08 660 25 000 what have you done that before that you will never do again thank you Greg for further highlighting of the Karagat to Daning's path when i last spoke to you i expressed doubts about the june start uh june 2024 maybe who's that is that one of the local representatives i wonder maybe it is i'm not quite sure but look at it needs to be it doesn't seem like it's a difficult job to do because i think the land's been acquired it's a local person isn't that raised that issue okay no uh listen more than happy to highlight it we need to keep people safe and the funding seems to be there the permission is there anyway now certainly um so yeah get cracking with that if we can what was at a wedding at the silver tassie beginning of july tell john the mill was class everything was brilliant okay well done to all the staff in the tassie on winning the reward it's truly deserved we had our wedding there in april they were all amazing couldn't have done enough for us we had the best day out thanks again guys keep up the good work from Theresa and Kevin who are now happily married i imagine big congrats to kieran rose and family and all the staff in the silver tassie so well deserved congratulations to all the amazing staff in the tassie the silver tassie hotel such an amazing award to receive as the staff in the hotel provide a top class service wish you all the best from philly and john uh good morning the chrysler don fanny girls who play under don fanny youths had their play in green world cup night on monday and are meeting up on thursday to watch the match in roses in chrysler all cheering on arland amber and kieran and amber of course and kiera sorry and amber of course um of the parish i think we can say uh so they had an event there on monday night and all of the girls are going to meet might be girls and boys i'm not sure are going to watch the game in roses in chrysler all cheering on arland that'd be great fun wouldn't it uh all all the young ones uh on the big screen there great enjoy it that's what we're talking about uh regarding ramps someone messaged in earlier on saying why ramps why why would you put ramps in in a place this caller says it might be an idea to construct ramps like the raised ramps on the new one-way system at the boys school in letter kenny could also mark zebra crossings on them possibly without needing lights and would also be visible a system such as this is needed on the circular road in letter kenny again would give both a crossing for pedestrians and allow traffic to exit these states as opposed i don't know how level the tops of these ramps are they'd have to be kind of flat at the top to accommodate you know a wheelchair push a buggy a double buggy uh as well as foot traffic um i'm not sort of poo pooing your suggestion i'm just saying that they'd have to be inclusive for all i'm not sure the size of those ramps it's not a part of the world that have been to okay um that's where we're going to leave it on the show today keep your texts coming in by the way we'll carry them over to tomorrow i want to thank each and every one of you for listening to the show it's great to have you on board thank you so much uh and those of you who watch the show great to have you on board in that plot on that platform as well uh we're back with you tomorrow morning at nine thanks to caroline or and uh neve who researched and produced the show john bressons coming up after the news at 12 around the northwest have a lovely uh wednesday don't trust the weather forecast i've cancelled so much on sunday monday and tuesday thinking the weather was going to be bad because of the forecast and it was fantastic so hopefully the same as this evening all right anyway have a good day see you tomorrow