 I didn't know. I didn't know Savannah. Go on. This is Savannah. So you know, Savannah 20. She is now she is 15 today, and this comes in from dad and mom, Sienna, Joshua and not forgetting. Granny You can now that was very important. Yes, of course. I thought it was something so far. Very important stuff. Happy birthday, Savannah. Okay It's the 90 noon show on the way after the news at a minute past nine with McKayla Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. A Donegal woman has been selected to read at the funeral of former Pope Benedict the 16th today. Thousands of mourners are expected in the Vatican for the funeral mass. The 95 year old former Pope will be laid to rest following his death on New Year's Eve. He's expected to be given a funeral in the Vatican. The documents have been limited to Italy and his native Germany rector of Knox Ryan. Father Richard Gibbons says it will be watched by millions on Catholics around the world would be tuned into the rector mass itself in St. Peter Square, which is absolutely extraordinary in terms of reigning pant of presiding over over a retired part of mass. 15 years ago, they were arrested after white Toyota Aqua car failed to stop for Gardea at Lifford Bridge in the early hours of yesterday morning. One 16 year old has been charged with the number of offenses including aggravated vehicle taking, driving while on fit, dangerous driving, going equipped for theft and driving without a license. The other four teenagers have been charged and will also appear to be charged with illegal driving. The county is home to over 300 turbines. A public meeting is due to take place on Saturday and let your Mac Award hall to discuss concerns over proposed wind farm developments in West Dunnegall. Patricia Sharkey believes the distribution of wind turbines in Ireland is disproportionate. Just ourselves in North Kerry that are bearing the burden of being charged with illegal driving. But why should a small county like Dunnegall bear the environmental burden? A Gardea investigation has been launched after bags of excrement were allegedly thrown at two politicians at a meeting in Galway last night. Minister of State for Disability Anne Robert and Finnegale TD Kieran Cannon tweeted about the incident in a public meeting. Gardea say they are investigating all the circumstances relating to the incident. Weather night windy today with strong southwest winds, mostly cloudy with outbreaks of rain and highest temperatures of 9 or 10 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. Modern hotels really are an escape from the pandemic. Oh, please. Join us or wrap up and go stargazing on the coast, pick up some bits at a local market and cozy up in a snug somewhere special. Wherever you go, you can save on every room every night when you click on Muldron at Muldronotels.com. Teas and seas apply. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook, and at HighlandRadio.com. We'll be back with the talk of the Northwest, the 9 to noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello and a very good morning. It's just approaching five minutes past nine on this Thursday. It's the 5th of January 2023. How are you keeping it to help you very well? Indeed this morning. And I hope you're with us now for the next three hours in this show. We'll keep you entertained all day here on your number one local radio station. The lines are open for you right now. If you want to have your views on what we've lined up for you or to raise your own issues on the show, you can find us on Facebook, Facebook and Facebook. We'll be some positivity as well. Of course, it's all very welcome on the program. Oh wait, 660 25,000 new WhatsApp syntax as you probably know. But I have to remind you at the start of every show for those tuning in for the first time, and thankfully, uh, he's continued to do so. Also if you want to give us a call 07491 25,000 and emails comments at HighlandRadio.com and as you heard, just as the show was about to start, we're going to have a look at what's going on right now. Thank you for joining us. Good morning, John D Creswell, who's watching with us on Facebook, I believe. Okay. The Donegal Democrat this morning, members of the Irish Nurses and midwives organization are living in fear because of the situation at letter Kennedy University Hospital. They fear overcrowding could lead to something being overlooked. No Neil Donahoe, the industrial officer for the northwest branch of the INMO has warned that staff are struggling with the current situation at RUH where there's a significant overcrowding. Mr Donahoe said this led to a significant strain on the hospital. And you heard yesterday on the show from Neil and painting a worrying picture. We'll be speaking. I think it's scheduled at least to speak to the general manager of Vatterkenny University Hospital later on in the program. The dairy people, Donegal News this morning, a man whose car crashed ten minutes from Vatterkenny Hospital was told it would take four hours for an ambulance to arrive the shocking situation unfolded during what has been an extremely challenging week for the health service. On Monday alone, 116 people attended Latterkenny's Emergency Department. As of 8 a.m. on Tuesday, there were 56 patients awaiting admission. That number is down this morning somewhat, but still rather high. It's also fallen to some degree in Sligo as well. The hospital has also been treating 50 patients for COVID while a further 31 are being sent for flu and respiratory illness. Are they treated for COVID or with COVID? If they're being treated for COVID, 50 of them, that's really quite startling. Or if it's with COVID, that's probably going to be reflective of what's happening in the community. The Chicano Tribune this morning, the major multimillion-euro housing and infrastructure development plans south of the River Swilly in Latterkenny that has been delayed for many years may finally be on track by in 2023. John McAteer writes that the 180-acre location is in the LEC and Scribbly townlands and a number of farms are involved. The proposal has been held as a game changer that could lead to major progress across all sectors of the town and its environs for future generations. Now the Council's Planning Department has included lands in the LEC area in the draft plan that has gone to public consultation. Submissions will remain open for public consultation until the 16th of February following the process the Chief Executive's report on the submission will be considered at the Council's plenary meeting at the end of March. The new plan is expected to be ready for adoption around Easter. More on that story on the front oven inside that paper there. The dairy news tells us that dissident Republican groups have been challenged to stop their futile campaigns and in in turn a sign hatred and turn a sign it's a new word for me. The former Sinn Fein National Chairperson Mitchell McLaughlin made the proposal for public consultation in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area in the LEC area already under significant pressure and the majority of schools set to reopen today. Parents are being warned to keep their children home if they're displaying new flu-like symptoms. Patients hospitalized with COVID have remained high but are relatively stable as well as RSV cases according to a government spokesperson. However, flu cases are much higher than previous years and are yet to peak. Officials have been warned and as I say we literally were talking about that yesterday the Health Minister says just that on the program yesterday. The Irish Times, hotels, community centres and churches could be used as schools for Ukrainian pupils on a short term basis in the event that there's no spare capacity in local schools. Internal Department of Education documents show that while there are tens of thousands of spare places in schools nationally there is a risk of shortages in certain areas in the event that very large numbers are located in hotels or other facilities. A contingency plan state that in these circumstances schooling may need to take place on site for example a teacher employed by local school could be based at a local hotel. This may not be required in some cases if there is significant space in local existing schools but it would be good contingency planning to incorporate it as a default position and could up ensure a faster access to education and language supports the briefing document states. Some controversial remarks from Steve and Donnelly yesterday. Senior doctors clashed with Minister of Health Steve and Donnelly yesterday after he asked them to work weekends over coming weeks to help deal with the crisis in the hospital's emergency units and what's happened is if you have people involved in management at local and regional level who have come out really in defence of these consultants saying they're already working above and beyond and maybe perhaps Steve and Donnelly whilst he's right to make the calls in certain circumstances it's a broad stroke that he's taken here. Well Mr. Donnelly and health officials want hospital consultants to work outside their normally rostered hours to speed up discharges and make space for patients to be admitted to ease overcrowding in the units which has hit record levels this week and we had a really interesting insight on the show yesterday from the former assistant manager of Lederkenning University Hospital Paddy Rooney. That whole interview is available for you either to watch back on our social media channels or you can listen back on our website. It's in the news section there. It just gives an insight even if you have more doctors for example and I'm not attributing this comment to Paddy Rooney as such but even if you have more doctors discharging people you also need care packages, care in the community. You can't just discharge them out into the car park. So that in and of itself in my opinion, let me put it like that, would not be enough. They have to have somewhere to discharge them to because there are people in hospital that are ready to be discharged but there's no way for them to go. The Irish Daily Mail Quilcher plan to sell off Rural Ireland. I think this is actually quite an important story and good to see on the front page of a newspaper. A British investment fund could buy upwards of 123,000 acres of rural Ireland as part of a deal to help the state's forestry agency meet its climate change targets. Quilcher is aiming to plant around 247,000 acres of new forest by 2015. That's an area larger than County Dublin by the way. Half of that land will be purchased through a not-for-profit vehicle with the remaining 123,000 acres coming through a partnership with investment companies. The Gresham House Fund is believed to be behind that partnership which could see it purchase a portion of Irish agricultural land. Equivalent to the size of over 1,500 average farms or 50,000 football pitches, there are fears the plans will see the average price of an acre of land for forestry rise from 5,000 to 9,000 euros. So why if it's to plant forestry to be the lungs of the world? For example, what is interesting? A British investment house to fund that. Those are questions that need exploring further. The Irish Farmers Journal full powerful polar orbiting satellites will inspect all Irish farms every five days in 2023. Big brother is quite literally watching you. These satellites will constantly collect information to monitor farm compliance with the basic income support for sustainability, which replaces the basic payment scheme and areas of natural constraint scheme. Can you imagine this is normalized that we have massive cameras in the sky that will monitor us or can monitor us and in this case farmers to make sure that they're abiding by every rule of the law. It really is quite remarkable when you think about it and not necessarily in a good way either. It's just accepted. People worry about the location of CCTVs and we have satellites circling above our heads that can really see absolutely everything to the point whereby they can track changes in someone's farm. The newly intensified monitoring will identify non compliance such as the presence of ineligible structures incorrectly categorized forage areas and ineligible land use such as scrub claimed as forage area. The information collected will also be used to determine farming activities in each land parcel. As I say, that is big brother gone mad, isn't it? Right. Okay, on to the Irish Daily Star this morning on pleasant scenes, really. And I can anticipate that some people might say, well, it's good enough for them or whatever. But I don't know. I think we can maybe come up with solutions and protest in different ways. What am I talking about? Well, it was mentioned on the news. Politicians have condemned an alleged instance that saw a bag of poo thrown at junior minister and rabbit the fina fall TD for Galway posted about the incident on her Twitter last night. She wrote attended a meeting tonight in a bag of sh it thrown at me and my government colleague, Minister Robert, who is the Minister for State for Disabilities did not provide any further details or comment on where the instant occurred. She did not divulge the identity of the other government colleague who attended the meeting with her and a number of TDs replied to the tweet to to commiserate with her and to condemn the incident. And it was a cross party kind of a group on to the sun. Let's see what hit fix my chair on to the sun Ireland had a 5 billion euro surplus last year due to record breaking corporation tax returns from big tech and pharma firms were pulling in so much money at the moment. Now we know some of this could be short term because you can't rely on the corporate tax because you don't know when that bubble might burst or when the rug could be pulled from under us. But there's an awful lot of money there. And you know, things should be better really shouldn't they? The money is it being managed correctly? I wonder. But anyway, despite an extra 5 billion, more than they anticipated, ministers are yet to provide households with any certainty around the future of the cost of living support that are due to end in March. The Exchequer returns for 2022 were published yesterday, which outlined how much cash the state and board brought in through taxes last year and how much money the government spent. But oil at the moment is $80 a barrel. And all that doesn't tell the full story, but it's $80 a barrel at the moment. It wasn't a hundred and was it 11? Now, exchange rates have changed in the strength of the dollar and all of that has to be factored in. But I know the cost of living is not all down to diesel, petrol and home heating. I'm not that naive. But you would wonder why we aren't seeing more of a reduction, I think in terms of fuel costs, given the fact that oil is so cheap at the moment, the raw product of oil. And finally, Irish Daily Mirror. There are still people that will argue that often people confuse the weather with climate. But something is happening, right? You can sort of say, we can argue the task as to what's happening or what we need to do or what we shouldn't do. But something is happening. Record warm temperatures for early January hit eight European countries. Now, a hot day, a hot day is the weather, right? Or cold days, the weather. And it's never going to get hot here, by the way, global warming will not affect us in terms of heat. It's never going to get warmer here as such in any dramatic fashion. And we're not going to have big long droughts and dry summers. Because of where we are, global warming will actually leave us far wetter. We'll see more rain. But in other parts of Europe, they're seeing record temperatures, massive swings in temperatures that are along the lines of trends, okay, which is climate, whereas, you know, a hot day is the weather. So people look out the window and go, it's freezing today. What about global warming? That's the weather. That's not the same thing as far as I'm aware anyway. And we're seeing ski resorts having to close because there's no snow. But anyway, let's talk of these record temperatures for eight European countries, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Denmark, and Poland, where Capital Warsaw was 18.9 degrees on Sunday. Regional records were broken in Germany, France, and Ukraine. In Balbao, Spain, it was 25.1 degrees. That's 10 degrees above average. Last year was the hottest on record for Ireland. The UK, France, and Spain experts said the extreme heat was almost certainly linked to climate change. Climate and weather are two kind of different things, although obviously interlinked. All right, that was a run through the papers today. Anything you want to comment on there? As I say, obviously, we also want you to raise your own issues. People raise issues with us all the time here on the show. And a lot of the time, thankfully, we managed to get some answers or some resolution. We're going to keep doing that work throughout 2023, of course. Next, we're going to be discussing the pros and cons, the rights and wrongs the foreign against of Garde wearing bodycams. Would you be for or against to get your views in quicker? Wait 60, 25,000. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Sentra, Mountaintop Letter Kenny, the 2022 C Store National Off License of the Year. Great news. The house proud group stock disposal sale continues today and all this weekend at the Straban store. With so much stock still to clear, prices have been cut again on furniture for every room. The massive stock disposal sale at House proud Abercorn Square Straban. Don't miss out. Sale also at Oma store. Is your loan provider leaving town? Then why not look to your local credit union? At B&S Credit Union, we have a transfer loan just for you. The transfer process is straightforward with an emphasis on personal service delivered locally. Apply online today at bnscu.ie or free phone us on 1800 290 390 or drop into our office at Main Street, Bally Bofay. New members welcome. B&S Credit Union, local lending you can rely on. Loans are subject to approval terms and conditions apply. B&S Credit Union Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The Brussels eye in the sky is watching you for more in your farmers journal. Here's Paul Mooney. New satellites to inspect all farms every five days. Battle of the breeds. We reveal which suck the breed secured the top wheeling prices. 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Your local Skoda dealer is DMG Motors Clare Road Donegal Town telephone 074 9721 396 or visit dmgmotors.ie Okay uh let us discuss now um the wearing of bodycams by Angadashi Akana we have a foreign against really I think here we'll see if we can go up with some common ground on it uh former guard sergeant christie gallican good morning to you. Good morning and happy new to you and same to you same to you right okay you are um keen for the introduction of legislation uh to allow for bodycams to be routinely worn people who watch any of these cop shows in america or britain as soon as there's any interaction with the public they switch them on there's a little red flashing light uh you believe do you that we should employ the same system here? Absolutely I mean this was entered uh this the introduction of body cameras was recommended by the commissioner teacher of policing in uh 2018 and this prompted them for the legislation to do recording bill to be introduced and where situations where the use of the camera could be justified including you know crime scenes where you're going to domestic violence scenes uh public order searches and other pun other potentially confrontation instances so the bills were very very important they have been introduced in america and in the u k and and other police forces worldwide and that best evidential uh these evidence you can have is body worn cameras because you're having a real time uh evidence what is actually occurring at that material time so and that both protects a member of the guard of chicana but it also protects members of the public because it holds members of the guard of chicana accountable and and and the second by transparency and trust since officers and their interventions are recorded and an evidence from other countries like the united states seems to confirm that these these devices were linked to more desirable socially desirable behavior among police officers and we saw there was a study in america uh and in conjunction with the union through the departments of justice there where it showed that the use of body worn cameras didn't infringe the rights of people but actually the evidence itself helped to ensure that the justice was fixed in relation to police officers and the use of lethal force had reduced the issue the issues of domestic violence and other uh matters so i think it's very very important that this is introduced and there's proper oversight and we need to see that as well that's all part and parcel of this bill what is the main reason you believe this should be introduced the principal reason though i mean you've outlined numerous reasons i think well one of the reasons as a former member of the force we tax and guarantee we've seen recently the tax and guardian in in in dublin and other areas of the country and we haven't they've increased the number of solves the staggering there's over two and a half thousand guards were solved over the past decade between uh uh that's in up to october 2022 there was 194 and so far or 196 and 2022 uh you know and having body worn cameras is a very very important thing to protect the member themselves because then it shows in real time what is actually occurring when they attend the scene no matter what the scene is and i'm not i'm not aware of this i'm not sure you are but i'm assuming it might be uh is the footage from body worn cameras routinely used in court cases to as part of prosecutions or even as part of you know a part of disciplinary hearings for example you know say for instance a member of the public made a complaint against a a uk police person like is this footage routinely used uh for evidential purposes oh yes they are and it's very important because it's a real time you know here to forward where police officers went out they could give evidence that might suit the the issue of the situation at hand you know it might indeed the the full picture but with body worn cameras you get the full picture in real time and that's very important because it's a member of the public doesn't make a complaint against a member of the force and there's dispute in relation to the evidence put there uh that is presented then that body worn camera that the the issue of what the recording is will be uploaded and presented and i think that's what you need and i think a lot of judges in this country and i think a lot of members of the judiciary uh even when it comes to say special criminal court or interviews of people in guarded stations that they take that more seriously than the actual written word itself because sometimes you don't get down everything you have written in a notebook or on a statement form but where you have a digital recording or something that's real time and that's very important all right let's take Liam Herrick in executive director with the Irish council for civil liberties Liam i mean maybe you know we're trying to push back the tide here if if you're a pose tooth i'm not saying you i mean you in the in in a generic sense it looks like body counts will be introduced what's your view on it good morning Greg well i think Chrissie said out very clearly um what the argument in favor of body worn cameras by police are as Chrissie said the commission of future policing recommended their introduction in 2018 the argument is that they will improve criminal justice outcomes reduce violence against police and also improve police behavior towards the public and if all of those things were true and were proven i think that we would be very open to their introduction um our analysis of the evidence from the united states and elsewhere is that it's it's a much more unconvincing picture that some of the initial research did indicate some benefits but more recent large studies in washington dc and in other parts of the united states are raising questions about the benefits and if the benefits are not compelling then we need to go and look at the cost and the cost of introducing body worn cameras apart of course from the financial cost and we have an under-resourced police service with a lot of gaps and resourcing at the moment and there's also the question of increasing the level of surveillance in policing and in society more generally so the dangers that come from increasing the amount of filming of the public by police are that private data would be used inappropriately and that there would be a chilling effect on people taking part in events in public spaces in protests strikes and so on so this is really about looking at the evidence and if there was a proven case that the benefits outweighed the costs we'd be very open to it what has been disappointing is that since the commission the future policing made a recommendation in 2018 initially and we and other groups were invited to make submissions to the department of justice they said they wanted to carry out some research before they proceeded to look at the evidence but they've never published the outcome of that and whereas there is legislation before the Iraqis at the moment the guarded digital recordings bill we've never seen this evidence on the benefits or otherwise we had helpfully suggested that maybe the prudent approach would be to start off with a pilot project maybe trial the use of body cameras in an irish environment to see how they operate here before we roll it out across the whole the whole world i mean i think the real issue here and Christy made reference to this they're used extensively in the united states in particular and in the united kingdom the united states the argument for introducing them was because of the number of fatal shootings by police of members of the public and they wanted to take drastic measures to deal with that problem thankfully not something that's a common problem here yeah but they can be so it can be heavy handed and they can be heavy can i just i mean i don't know if you're if either of you've read the national institute of justice now i'm not sure how reputable what they are but they seem to have done quite extensive research on this uh and what i found interesting about it and they they looked at what was going on in birmingham um and a number of us states and what have you but it didn't seem to benefit the police much uh there were some it had no effect in a lot of cases in some cases there were less complaints in some cases there were less um there were less instances of of heavy handed action by the police but it didn't seem to uh materially affect the in other words it didn't create any reduction in um attacks on on the police christy do you know what i mean like i know you're making this argument you've pointed out yes it might but all the evidence here to force seems to suggest that it's only the public that benefits from this or there is no benefit at all so with that in mind is it worth this increased level of surveillance but you can't you can't compare like with like we've talked about an armed police force in america where the first action of any police forces in america is is produce a lethal weapon and you know discharge and we've seen it all time after time and but the fact is each and every day and one of the things i've thought about for the criminal program each and every day we have images uploaded on facebook instagram and other things every day about every aspect of our lives and we're talking about the rate of privacy there is no privacy anymore everything has been uploaded now the gaurdi are seeking to have or and the commission of future policing are seeking to have that little that extra tune that protects them and the public yes see the thing about protecting them though christy like if this conversation was 10 years ago it'd be so different now but if i ever see say for instance gaurdi being antagonized or challenged the person responsible is actually videoing it or live streaming it you talked of other instances that happened in the capital recently all of the footage was posted by those responsible watching on on tiktok on like all that footage is there i just wonder what the bodycam footage from inside a vehicle or or whatever actually adds to this but the bodycam the bodycam is is is primarily you know the bodycam won't camera as i said you know the bodycam one that had been worn going to be asked to be worn by members of the force is in relation to real-time evidence at that material time and presented to the courts in a proper official manner you know you don't have to go really looking for cctv and every other aspect are other evidence but the body won't camera will help and assist members of the force in the due execution attitude not all it is that i think i agree with i agree with Liam i agree with Liam that there should have been maybe a pilot program introduced before it was ruled out overall yes and and there have been pilot programs in the garbage can over the years now there is a difficulty in the garbage can there's a lot of difficulties in the garbage can at the present moment and and lean highlighted but boss i think this is just another attitude to the forces you know tunes of many tunes that they require right i think it's one very very important i'll come back to you Chris you know and you talked about you know surveillance of people at protests and maybe it could hinder all that but i think it's not that long ago when i think it were you that i was speaking to that plans are a foot that would effectively allow you know cameras that were erected to to to monitor fly tipping being used for evidential purposes you know what i mean so in the wider scale of where this government and the police force seems to wants to go the body cam wearing elements seems almost trivial in comparison to how much overreach they want to have in terms of access to you know video footage that's out there yeah and again i think that there is a wider context here and that's why i think we should be cautious about adding to the levels of surveillance i mean this ledge this proposal for body one cameras is part of a wider proposal for increased levels of surveillance in many respects and one of the really controversial proposals that's out there at the moment is proposal that the guards would have use of facial recognition technology the ability to match video footage against databases of faces something that's been used by a authoritarian regimes in some parts of the world and a and a technology that the european union is currently considering banning in the context of law enforcement so there is a much wider context going on one of the reasons we need to be cautious about this and it's something that christie touched on as well is that uh juries and courts can very often assume that digital evidence or video footage is perfect that it is infallible that it always presents an objective and accurate account of an event that happens and the research indicates that that's not always the case apart from the potential for such evidence to be tampered with of course it is a point of view perspective it depends on which way a camera is facing at a particular time and it also depends on when a recording starts there may be events for example preceding an incident which involves provocation by one side or the other which provides a different context to the footage of a particular incident over a couple of seconds or minutes so there is a danger that we are going down a road of a justice system which over relies on digital evidence and the context of the irish police in situation versus the american or british one is important here too because the commission of future police when you look at the recommendations in their totality are about a community police vision an idea of a policing service in this island which is based on community engagement north and militaristic approaches we see in other parts of the world and if we go down the road of giving the guards more and more technology more and more surveillance more and more cameras are we creating a barrier between the public and the guards and damaging the types of relationships we're trying to create can i ask a question that maybe talks to this and maybe it's conflation i don't know recently not recently a couple of years ago i received a notice from e-flow i think it was that stated that my car was on the m50 and they produced a number plate picture and it was quite selective because all it was was on the number plate and i then had to disprove that i was just going about my everyday business but i actually had to dedicate quite a lot of my time to disprove this evidence that they had that i was driving on the m50 as it turned out someone must have cloned the number plates or just used the number plate is that kind of what we're talking about here could we find that on a grander scale in a court case where a snapshot in time rather than it being the old way of of defending yourself that you would find yourself having to disprove or contextualize an image or a video similar to the example i gave with e-flow or i-flow whatever it's called the same legislation is also making proposals to extend the use of what's called automatic number plate recognition technology so this is all at play very much and all of these things if used appropriately in the right context and tightly regulated can be useful criminal justice tools but we we are not starting from a very strong position in our land the data protection commission has been hugely critical of and garish icon over many years for its data protection policies internally how it uses things like automatic number plate recognition and cctv already so in that context we should be very cautious about adding technologies on it seems that the guards do not have internally the technological capacity or indeed the data protection policies and procedures to properly use the technology that they're already using and that's why there's been so many findings against them by the data protection commission so i think our priority will be let's get those things right first of all before we even start talking about adding things like body-worn cameras or facial recognition technology all right finally kristi obviously this is a complex issue that feeds into a broader conversation as Liam was very well pointed out there and I'm sure you're very well aware of yourself with all that in mind have as your view such as if you changed at all no no but where anything will be tested is in the court of law it doesn't matter if the further the legislation could be flawed whereas we found out legislation over the years that can be flawed that can be reduced but we need to see these things tested in the court of law and the irish court the courts of justice are very very strict in what you present before them you know it works through it in minutiae at the end of the day and we know it could go all the way to the spin court in the european courts of justice so we haven't tested it yet but we need to be tested but i would agree that we needed to just we needed the pilot program of where body-worn cameras and different areas of we are a community-oriented policing system yes and i'm glad to say i was part of that community-oriented but this is just an extra tool i don't think it's you're talking you know that's something wholesale or wholesale that there's going to be abuse right left and center no the body-worn camera once the guard puts it on he switches it on or she or she switches it on going to a different scene we all want protections the guards want the bone protection and i'm sure members the public want protection as well and it's just another attitude to that protection all right okay but you in your letter to our national papers that we have freedoms that we have taken long for granted but we must protect those whose job it is to protect those very freedoms but i suppose when we feel like we're being watched every single minute of the day you want to have free we actually are Liam Herrick executive director with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties thanks for engaging with us we appreciate it and thanks thanks Greg thank you and Christy Galligan former guard of sergeant thank you very much indeed as well winter sale at Brian McCormick sports now on in store and online discounts of up to 30% off assets new balance brooks and hoca footwear GT 2000 gel cumulus new balance 880 hoca Clifton 8 to name just a few treat your feet in our winter sale grab a discount and stretch those legs look the part play the part in store and online click and collect on bmcsports.ie we have recycling all wrapped up this festive season use your local bring banks for all those empty glass bottles jars food and drink cans please remember not to leave any waste materials at the banks to find your nearest spring bank visit dunigallcoco.ie recycle more with dunigall county council the air lingus January sale is now on with over four million seats on sale we've got your 2023 travel sorted from just 179 euro each way as part of return trip you can fly to New York, LA and everywhere in between take that magical holiday to Orlando plan that action packed week away in Chicago or explore the sights of San Francisco visit airlingus.com and grab your seats today tees and sees apply travel 1st of February to 31st of May 2023 at Hickey, Clark and Langdon insurance brokers they compare quotes from all the leading insurers so you get a great price home, motor and van farm, holiday 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 Langdon on 9-1-2-6-8 or pop into their office at Bally McCool Letterkenny Hickey, Clark and Langdon general insurance is limited trading as Hickey, Clark and Langdon is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland okay we're joined on the program now by Sean Murphy the general manager of Letterkenny University Hospital thank you very much for joining us Sean and good morning to you and a happy new year to you as well although I know it's one under which you and your staff are under a great deal of pressure thank you Greg and happy new year to you too yes it's a very hectic start to the new year but not surprised before we get into I suppose get an information out there that's going to be useful for the public how much of what is going on and coping with what's going on in a hospital like Letterkenny University Hospital is under your control if you know what I mean I know you're in control of the hospital don't get me wrong but how much can you sort of influence or your management team influence within that hospital and how much is sort of dictated by you know staffing issues and obviously the huge numbers turning up at the hospital like what kind of space in there do you have to try and affect efficiency and change okay I suppose the simple answer Greg is that a significant proportion of the demand donor services is outside our control and it's a mixture of the demography of the population we're serving the levels of illness chronic illness in the community the current loads of respiratory illnesses COVID influenza RSV the capacity of is in primary care and community services to be able to take patients or have patients allow us to discharge in a prompt manner and again that results in increasing numbers presenting to the hospital and it's not unique to Letterkenny it's an issue that's every hospital on this island and in fact we know our colleagues and the NHS in the UK are facing exactly the same challenges at the moment this year is an extremely busy year and as say we weren't surprised we knew that it was going to be extremely busy you hope that it might that the level of infection in the community may not be as bad but you expected and you planned that they will be and that's what we're facing at the moment in terms of what we can do obviously we throughout the year we've been recruiting staff we spoke in November, early December around the additional beds we put into the hospital the extra staff we'd recruited into the hospital and they are all fully deployed at the moment but also there's a reality that our staff are part of the community so we're seeing those levels of illness those levels of respiratory illness affect our staff as well so we have a number of staff that themselves are on of sick which is also then putting pressure on the remaining staff and can you put a figure on that for us I think it's 150 with COVID across the whole CLTA group but obviously flu RSV is an issue is it easy for you to put a percentage on how many staff you are down due to sickness we've got 2,300 staff in the hospital and actually just under 2,400 some of those are part-time obviously they're not all full-time but in terms of people there's just under 2,400 and as we're here today now we've gotten obviously today's speakers are still coming in but I've got 60 plus staff with COVID or a lot of respiratory illnesses and about 200 off for other health reasons which is a significance you're over 10% down or close to 10% down in terms of staff in the hospital it's actually slightly over yeah okay what is the problem what is causing the problem in terms of the throughput and the outputs at the hospital as far as you can see obviously there's a huge amount of numbers you've talked about the staff there but what is causing the fact that's leading to 35 people on trolleys what is the delay in freeing beds that would get them into the hospital because they're sick enough to actually be admitted so what is the problem that you have at the moment okay so again and I actually heard last night I got to listen to some of your interview of Paddy Rooney yesterday which and I think again a lot of dishes were picked up in that interview so first and foremost the first challenge is just the sheer numbers coming through the hospital I was saying to Caroline before I came on that if you look at something like Stevens's Day historically it would have been there would have been a significant level of activity but it would be one of the quieter days this year levels of patients through the emergency department of Stevens Day exceeded what would have been historic busy Monday so we're seeing our numbers have gone from what would have been around 100 patients over the Christmas period coming through the emergency department every day now gone up to between 120 and 160 depending on the days so that's a very significant increase in the number of patients presenting the second factor is that a number a significant number of those patients are extremely ill and required missions so they're not patients we can treat quickly in the emergency department and send home and that puts pressure on our beds and everybody talks about opening more beds and I know I've sorry I repeat myself here now but I was just to remind people that what I was saying before Christmas so we've opened extra beds throughout the COVID and again throughout this year and opened the further 13 beds in October so we at the moment have the highest number of beds that we've ever had in this hospital the largest number of beds that we've ever had in the hospital were just under 380 beds open in the hospital but the demand is still exceeding that capacity so what you need we talked and you referenced that interview yesterday in terms of then discharging people from hospital like how many can you give us an idea because I think you referenced Paddy Rooney's interview yesterday he said these figures aren't routinely available can you give us a sense of what how many beds did you say 300 and it's 380 so can you give us a sense of of that 380 how many people could be discharged if there were care packages or someone somewhere for them to be discharged to can you give me a ball or can you give us a ball pop figure of how many of those beds so go ahead so obviously the so the board runs are continuing today so these figures have been flowed throughout the day but we've started this morning with 25 patients that are medically fit for discharge out of the hospital and that we we're not in the position to discharge them yet because they can't just go home they need some level of care outside and we need to ensure that those services are available for them and that's quite significant because there's 35 on trolleys this morning and if you were able to discharge those patients who are well enough to leave an acute hospital the overcrowding figure would look really quite it would potentially could be in single figures effectively yes they're very close to that anyway you you'd be understand so who then there'll always be maybe some degree delay who is who is responsible within the hsc it's not is it it's not the hospital's job is it to make sure that this additional care that might be needed in certain cases is available then is the hospital reliant on other arms of the hsc to to make those provisions absolutely so and we have worked and I continue to work very closely with our colleagues in community services to to actually expedite those discharges out as soon as possible the one of the big challenges is that our community hospitals no more than our acute hospital are also full a number of nursing homes in the community hospitals are also dealing with COVID restrictions and COVID outbreaks and that limits their capacity we we would have a number of patients that are waiting for a home care care packages to be made available and there's a major challenge in recruiting home carers it's not that the money is not there it's not that people aren't trying to recruit people but the the difficulty is it always takes time now the issue of discharges is a real challenge for us but put this in context I mean we have in the past been at the point where we would have had 30 to 40 patients delayed I'm not saying 25 is a a good position to be in but it's not that it that work hasn't been it hasn't been so success in reducing those numbers but we need further reductions again ongoing another issue obviously that's been highlighted is is is diagnostics and effectively the impression is given that it's almost office hours not not uniquely but that's when you have the best level of resources and we also have Stephen Donnelly sticking his opinion not sticking his opinion in expressing his opinion calling on consultants to do to do more to work weekends to work longer hours do you agree with him that consultants need to be working harder in our hospitals that they should be coming in at weekends and maybe working later into the evening do you agree with them I suppose I wouldn't agree that they need to be working harder because I because they are consultants who work extremely hard if you're asking do we need to be able to have more consultant input and more services available out of ours yes that that that would certainly help but again I would say letter Kenny is actually one of the better hospitals in terms of what we've achieved in in that maybe we have consultants across which the old specialties that are working most of Saturday and a large chunk of Sunday in onsite in the hospital we have radiology services running if you talk to a radiologist or radiologist they'll tell you how busy they are on Saturdays and Sundays during CT scans and x-rays and again from diagnostics in it's not all about consultants though the consultants work as part of a team so there's again there's a challenge if you if you have a consultant in say in radiology and we do have our consultants are in in radiology every Saturday every Saturday and every Sunday they without having the radiographers to actually do the x-rays to do the CT scans then the consultants can only do part of the work so you need the full team that we've increased our diagnostic capacity in the last year and we have increased what we do both in the evenings and out of hours and again a lot of our scanners work through the eight o'clock and most evenings and say working through Saturdays and Sundays but again in an ideal world and this where I would agree with the minister I'd like to see much more investment so that we would build up the full support team not just the consultants but all the support teams around okay well speaking of speaking of investments he said that he's made an extra 35 million euro available to your hospital how much of that is available to actually improve services and not to meet in inflation in terms of wages and other areas because you would have heard also from Paddy Rooney yesterday depending if you heard the whole interview he said that you would be left with their pitons to actually try and provide an improved service was that service is that an accurate representation again I think Paddy hit on a number of the issues yesterday I understand that you have to be careful I'm not trying to get you to fall I'm not trying to get you to fall out with Stephen Donnelly and I understand that you have to be but my point is is good because I need his support to keep this up in London of course you do but of that 35 million how much would you have to spend from that to actually improve service not to maintain but to actually improve and invest how much of that 35 million would be at your disposal so there is a significant proportion but it's nothing like 35 million a significant element that funding has gone into actually allows us to retain pay the bills if you recall before pay bill but these are so the nurses and if you recall when we spoke again previously I talked about it back to we had over 200 staff extra within the hospital compared to 12 months ago but a lot that's to mean ensure that we maintain those staff coming in this year we have got funding and the minister would have talked about the four extra consultants in emergency medicine that have been approved for the hospital one of my challenges there is that I have money that I can't spend because I can't recruit the doctors because every hospital in the country has gotten extra money to recruit doctors and there's a limited number of people out there to recruit so we have a non-going and it doesn't help when a it doesn't help when a additional staff it doesn't help when a consultant leaves citing an impossible working impossible working conditions that's not great for a recruitment campaign no and I say it's an issue that is not unique to letter Kenny is based I know our colleagues and across the border are having exactly the same challenges in terms of recruitment and our colleagues in the UK and our colleagues throughout Ireland are having the same challenges right we only have a we only have a couple of minutes what's the important message to go out Sean okay so as well first of all the a couple of key messages I would say to people we are experiencing extremely busy time at and hospital at the moment we are trying to sedate them because we know how important it is to patients and our families but I would plead with people if you're feeling unwell if you have any respiratory symptoms if you're feeling unwell or please don't come into the hospital the risk of infection spreading in the hospital you mean as visitors there by the way just for clarity Sean sorry you mean as visitors visitors for visitors for visitors yes so I do not visit the hospital if you're feeling unwell if you're if you're cough and sneezing if you go respiratory symptoms be cautious be overly cautious and play safe I know you may wish people may wish to see their loved ones please bring people who may be ill and infectious are putting the patients under staff at risk so please don't come if you're not well also again for appropriate for people for patients who may be unwell feel the need medical attention but aren't in an emergency situation please contact your GP and are the adverse GP service and also contact your pharmacist rather than come to the hospital as the first port of call so again that's really important and GP's will refer patients on to the hospital where they feel that's appropriate about 50 percent of our patients that come into the hospital come in as GP referrals so again it doesn't stop access to the hospital it just means that the patients that are coming in are those that are most in need of acute hospital care and I would also ask that for patients are fit to be discharged I've asked at families and I know it can be very difficult working on family arrangements etc but it's really important that when patients decisions made that patients fit for discharge that transport arrangements families come in to collect those patients as quickly as possible because as soon as we get a patient out of the hospital we can then clean that room area and take another patient off the trolley in the hospital so every hour of the day has an impact across the whole service all right finally Sean maybe I would say go ahead just I was just going to say for those patients who do come into the emergency department please bear with us if you're experiencing extremely long waits because as ever our priorities on the most ill patients and this again that means that patients that are less acutely ill will experience long waiting times and please bear with us and bear with the staff it's not their fault they're doing their best everybody's working extremely hard we don't keep patients waiting any longer than we can possibly have Do you have any short term scope to increase that space or to find an alternative space and all your colleagues down in Galway are trying to repurpose an old ED room if you any capacity or space there or plan to try and make that experience somewhat more tolerable for people so unfortunately Greg at the moment we have used all our capacities so we opened the extra 13 beds in October there fully utilized we restricted our planned surgery for both inpatient and day surgery for the month of January because we knew we were going to be extremely busy as I say as we're talking this morning we've got 11 patients in our day surgery unit that are inpatients they're a scenario designed for patients to come in have their surgery and go home but we're using that as additional capacity to take patients out of the emergency department so we've also had to put up beds and treatment rooms and our wards and in some cases and the corridors and our wards to actually cope with that demand we don't have any other space left at this stage there's also a considerable amount of work we're doing in terms of the investment we put into diagnostics we've got any talks about diagnostics is really important for us and we have been using our second CT scanner that the friends funded we got extra approval for extra staff last year to run that and we'll run that as many days as possible the rate limit step there is our own sickness levels is impacting on that we're also working very closely with our colleagues in the National Ambulance Service to turn around the ambulance as quickly as possible and we have an ambulance officer on site working with us to make sure that we we get patients seen and as quickly as possible and so one of the issues you talk about can be done maybe we don't have time this morning we might come back to it at some stage but there is a lot of work I've been undertaken in community in terms of developing new alternative options for patients instead of having to tend the hospital to be seen with by medical staff and nursing senior nursing staff and therapists within the community when might we see some action when might we actually start seeing some of that available I mean like there's people that just need a dose of antibiotics or a steroid and they're ending up in hospital like when that would be really really useful I think for you when might that start happening that started to roll out really from the second half of last year again the recruitment was the biggest challenge we're already seeing some of the impacts the difficulty is the sheer levels of demand within our community and with every other community in the country is we improve in one area but it's still not enough to stem the tide of patients requiring care those programs will continue to develop and will probably in terms of it's probably four to six months before we see the full benefits of them but every month we're getting more and more patients through those services and again that is work is continued I know our colleagues in primary care have put on extra GPs and the out of error service again to make sure that the GP out of error services is accessible to patients as an alternative to somebody getting in the car and turning in turn up at the emergency department and then find out having an extremely long wait all right Sean thank you very much for your time this morning I appreciate it there's so much more we really probably needed to get to but time has run out it's right to the extent that news has got to be four and a half minutes late my apologies we'll be back with more afterwards live on air online and on the Highland Radio app this is Highland Radio News good morning it's four and a half minutes past 10 Donald Kavana at the Highland Radio News Desk the general manager of the McKinney University Hospital says 10% of the hospital's staff is currently off sick just over 60 people have COVID or other respiratory conditions while around 200 staff members are off with other illnesses speaking to Greg on the 9 to the noon show a short time ago Sean Murph he said demand is exceeding the hospital's capacity at present and that's the root cause of the crisis facing the facility he said much of the pressure being experienced is outside the hospital's control it's a mixture of the demography of the population we're serving the levels of illness chronic illness in the community the current loads of respiratory illnesses COVID influenza, RSV the capacity of vision primary care and community services to be able to take patients or have patients allow us to discharge in a prompt manner and again that results in increasing numbers presenting to the hospital the funeral of former Pope Benedict is joined for close in St Peter's square in the Vatican tens of thousands of mourners attending the open-air ceremony at her Kenny woman Mary Maguire read one of the liturgical readings the funeral also attended this morning by the emeritus Bishop of Ruffo Dr Philip Boyce the 95 year old former Pope is being laid to rest in the papal-quipped in St Peter's Basilica following his death on New Year's Eve Donnie Gull is bearing the brunt of industrial wind that's according to one of the founding members of the Guibara conservation group the county is home to over 300 turbines a public meeting is set to take place on Saturday in Lechermac award to discuss concerns over proposed wind farm developments in West Donnie Gull Patricia Sharkey believes the distribution of wind turbines in Ireland at present is disproportionate just ourselves in North Kerry that are bearing the burden of this industrial one for the whole country so we would like to see other counties play their part and when other counties have got as many turbines as Donnie Gull has then let them come back and we'll discuss it but why should a small county like Donnie Gull bear the employer mental burden of wind industry for cities far away industries far away five teenagers who were arrested in Oma after felling to stop for Gardean Donnie Gull are due to appear in court today they were arrested after a white Toyota Aquacar failed to stop for Gardean Clifford Bridge in the early hours of yesterday morning one sixteen year old has been charged with a number of offenses including aggravated vehicle taking causing damage to a vehicle driving on unfit dangerous driving going equipped for theft and driving without a license the other fourteen managers have been charged they'll appear Astroban magistrates court again later Gardean Donnie Gull are warning of fraudulent text messages which are currently doing the rounds they say they're aware of people receiving messages purporting to be from the HSC advising that the recipient is at close contact of someone with Covid-19 the HSC has again confirmed these messages are not genuine police are being advised not to click any link contained in a text and to delete the message and to block the centre you can see a picture of that text on our website highlandradio.com and the delivery of the flood relief scheme in the Glen Swilly area of Latterkenny has been welcomed last year the road in the vicinity of Glen Swilly National School flooded on a number of occasions leaving some residents trapped in their homes with the road impossible works are ongoing and are now almost complete the clear look of Latterkenny Milford Municipal District Councillor Donald Mandi Kelly says the works have had a positive impact the flood issue has been addressed you could say it's 90% complete there now at the moment we have seen heavy rain there since the pipes have gone on and you could say trend shall rain as well no sign of flooding so thankfully what I have suggested from the start has been carried out and the flood has been addressed there the men on the ground there they're doing a fantastic job of putting on the pipes and the new drainage there and maybe it is no any problem actually for all the local residents in the area weather forecast and weather intel as it'll be windy today with strong southwest winds very strong gusts at times especially in the coast mostly cloudy with outbreaks of rain some dry periods as well rain clearing later to clear spells and locational showers this evening highs this afternoon of 9 or 10 degrees celsius that's Highland Radio News we're back with news again at 11 o'clock until then from the news team good morning the obituary notice is for this thirsty morning January the 5th the death has occurred of Catherine Kitty McConagley Corrie, Port Salon, Donegal Kitty's remains will repose atterlite residents from four o'clock this afternoon removal from there at half past 10 on Saturday morning arriving at St Klomba's church mass mount for 11 o'clock recreation mass fall by burial in the adjoining graveyard rosary at 8 o'clock at both nights family time only plays from 10pm until 10am the recreation mass can be viewed live via the St Mary's fan of oldie and St Klomba's mass mount facebook page family flowers only please donations if desired to the Donegal Hospice care of any family member or marketeer funeral directors the death has taken place of Patti McGlynchie Conlan, Kerry Keele remains will arrive at St Mary's star of the sea church Glenvar at six o'clock this evening to repose overnight rosary at nine o'clock tonight recreation mass at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning with interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family flowers only please donations and leave to Brentwood nursing home Kervden Levy funeral directors the death has taken place of Michael Finley one hundred and ninety three Bali Coleman estate Straban reposing at Quigley Spinner home this afternoon from two until three o'clock and tomorrow evening from five o'clock with removal at six o'clock to St Mary's church melmite for recreation mass on Saturday morning at 10 o'clock cremation afterwards in Lakelands crematorium at four o'clock the recreation mass can be viewed live via the parish webcam the death has taken place of Grace Wilkie Ney Houston Dremore letter Kenny and formerly Leicester Moore drum keen removal from Grace's late residence to more morning at quarter past 11 going to St Junans Cathedral letter Kenny for 12 noon recreation mass which can be viewed live on church services dot TV interment afterwards to New Lex cemetery family flowers on the police donations and lay of flowers if desired to the society of Sylvain St. DePaul Kerv Annie family member high strictly private police the death has taken place of John J. Meehan 331 Bally Coleman estate Straban and formerly of Cullety Lifford remains reposing at his home funeral leaving his home to more morning at 20 past nine for recreation mass in St Mary's church malmite at 10 o'clock interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family time police from 11 p.m. until 11 a.m. the recreation mass can be viewed live via the parish webcam the death has occurred of Margaret McDade Bally Bow Temple Clawen County Donegal Margaret's remains will repose at her late residence until removal at half past 10 to more morning for funeral mass in our lady of perpetual soccer Glen Finn with interment afterwards in Kilworth Cemetery Glen Finn recreation mass can be viewed on mcmmediate.tv the death has taken place of Kathleen O'Donnell Ney Sweeney Kil-Ault Fulcara formerly of Bally Ness Fulcara funeral from her late residence this morning for 12 noon recreation mass in Christ the King Church Court of Hork with burial afterwards in the adjacent cemetery funeral mass can be viewed live on mcmmediate.tv house private police before the funeral today donations and leaf flowers if desired to the Irish Cancer Society care of any family member and the death has taken place of Paqui Farn Meen Street Clamane reposing at his home funeral leaving from there tomorrow afternoon at quarter to two going to St Mary's Church Clamane for recreation mass at two o'clock with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family flowers only please donations and leaf desire to some column killed village care of any family member or comscape funeral directors house private police from 10 o'clock tonight and before the funeral tomorrow funeral mass can be viewed live on churchservices.tv for more details including any family house guidelines for wakes and funerals please go to highlandradio.com okay you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show thanks for all your texts and messages coming in we will get through those very very shortly we're going to stay in this at the top because it is one that's so crucial and we're trying to over the course of the various conversations maybe rather than just always talking about the story around it is to try and get into the story so we all have a better understanding of where we're at and where we're going and how we might get there so hopefully you're finding that element of the conversation useful we hear and it's still important and people can share their their real world experiences of it but we need to figure out what's the problem and how we fix it or else we'll just perpetually having the same conversations will be very very important and get them into us as well by the way you know we need to try and come up to a place where we get to the end of this you know 086625,000 WhatsApps and texts they'll call 07491 25,000 right bingo and a break because the last interview ran over a little and then we're back with more it's time for NCBI bingo on Highland Radio it's Thursday the 5th of January jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 13,400 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s4 it's game number one the jackpot number is 84 this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers 41 46 57 11 83 9 17 53 74 and finally 58 phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 tonight leaving your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your NCBI bingo information at highlandradio.com at Holland and Barrett this new year you can buy one get one free on hundreds of your wellness favorites mix and match across the vitamins you need including many top brands you love like Star Power and Viviskal those get even more with free personalized advice from one of our qualified advisors so you can find the right wellness solutions for you don't miss out shop our buy one get one free in store online and on the app now Holland and Barrett wellness that's worth it ends 31st of January 2023 selected lines only cheapest item free see our website for full T's and C's Adele Cashman liver transplant recipient encourages you to talk about organ donation with your family people say it's the gift of life and that's almost become a cliche but it literally is the gift of new life it's just so important for people to talk about organ donation because it's not something I would have given a second thought to before it became my life for information visit hse.ie forward slash organ donation and start talking about organ donation today from the HSE are you tired of waiting for treatment or surgery did you know you can receive immediate treatment across the border under the new n.i. planned healthcare scheme at potentially no cost dunigol patients are still being treated with us at Kingsbridge Private Hospital Northwest Post Brexit the process is easy and our dedicated team will help guide you through it so why wait contact us today to find out how you can skip the bidding lists and receive treatment in Northern Ireland visit Kingsbridge Private hospital dot com because life matters shrink your bill this January with Dunstores Double Sabres saving the aisle on ingredients for a protein rich chicken casserole that's 500 grams of chicken thighs only three euro eighty nine Irish onions and garden peas sixty nine cent each baby potatoes carrots and chicken casserole seasoning mix all for a total of less than eight euro then save again at the till with our five of 25 grocery vouchers Double Sabres from Dunstores always better value terms and conditions apply Vagric Abuse on an exprosy shop of 25 euro or more Highland Radio Weather Updates with Ireland West Airport thinking of a sun holiday this summer with the family Flight to Alicante Malaga Faroe Lanzarote New York and Milan with Ryanair Ireland West Airport don't just take off take it easy Okay the weather forecast out for today I can tell you that windy with strong south west winds with very strong gusts at times especially near the coast mostly cloudy without breaks of rain some dry periods rain will clear later temperatures of nine to ten degrees Okay so let's continue our conversation about Letter Kenney University Hospital I suppose the hospital service in general and we're speaking to people either running it so I've had a role in running it so I've worked within it to try and see you know where are the problems where can we go to try and resolve them Dr Peter O'Rourke is a former orthopedic surgeon at Letter Kenney University Hospital and I'm delighted to welcome him back onto the program Peter a very good morning to you I'm good I'm good thank you right since I think it's been quite an informative and interesting conversation over the last couple of days we heard from Paddy Rooney yesterday we've had the view from Michael Murphy it's not to give anyone a pass or whatever everybody's trying to really drill down into where we're at and where we need to go Well I think before we can do that we have to understand where we came from I mean this whole bed situation first came about in the mid 80s when there was a general consensus in health service providers across Europe that we had more beds than we needed and there's a gradual reduction in number of beds now that was on the premise that medical treatment would stay the same as it was and the outcomes would be similar to what they were but unfortunately or fortunately shall I say that changed by the time Mary Harney was made Minister of Health in 2004 things were really in a bad state to the degree that the Department of Health was known as Angola when she took up post and I don't think it's changed a lot since then and she instituted the NTPF in an effort to have a short term solution to waiting lists I mean at that stage we didn't have the bed trolley crisis because people were being accommodated in facilities like day services units but that was restricting the amount of surgery being carried out but the severity of the problem only got worse over time as the amount of medical treatments improved and increased and it was somewhat offset by the fact that surgery became more efficient we had laparoscopic procedures so instead of being hospital for 10 days after appendix you were in for a day you're having your laparoscopic odysstectomy as a day case hip replacements weren't spending two weeks in hospital they were spending two or three days and so it that offset the severity of the problem and it's only now come home to roost and the problem has been because the government from to be expedient has used the NTPF to outsource waiting lists and to be frank waiting lists mean surgical patients they don't mean anything but surgical patients because you don't go in to a public private hospital with a heart attack or with diabetes or anything like that you go into a public hospital so it is surgical waiting lists that have suffered yeah but the majority of people that are causing the immediate problems that we have at the moment are you know maybe respiratory illness other conditions that may not require resurgery or an intervention like you describe okay should an acute hospital system not be able to accommodate these these surges as well it would have except for the fact that the money that should have been devoted to increasing those beds over the last 15 years went into private hospitals and people talk about the lack of beds in the country we probably have more beds in medical beds in the country now than we had 15 years ago but they're private beds the NTPF have put approximately 1.5 billion into the private healthcare sector and it's no surprise that the likes of the Hermitage Clinic the Beacon Clinic the Spatsantri Sports Clinic the Galway Clinic the Bon Secours group of hospitals all exist now because the government has been funding them and they have used 1.5 billion or so of money that should have been used to build infrastructure in public hospitals to fund private hospitals and I guarantee you every private hospital in their planning financial planning anticipates money and ink from the hospital they were all going wallop about 15 years ago I remember Black Rock Clinic I think had to be refunded and a few of the other private hospitals were being bought for literally their debts rather than their profits but now they're all making profits and only the other day they were offering to have an ability on a contractual basis to provide services for the government again and unfortunately that just means more money going into the private sector rather than the public sector right so I mean that's one problem that you very very clearly identified a one scenario I think you see it as a problem so why then are we still in that position why is a short term solution become the norm is this a lack of planning by the Department of Health or senior management at HSC or is there resistance to change within the HSC so that we can have maybe a different more efficient model I think it's all historical I mean the Minister of Health doesn't run the health service the civil servants run the health service and even when you ask him I believe he's on your program a few months ago you ask him a question he's answering the briefing that he's being given by the civil servants oh the politicians have very little influence and it's the civil servants who actually run it and they have their fixed ideas and trying to change that would prove very difficult and the easy way out from a political sense was to buy the services elsewhere that takes the pressure off the civil servants because it's not their problem it becomes a problem elsewhere but the unfortunate problem is that when you outsource things you have there's a number of unintended consequences all these private hospitals are employing all the nurses and other specials nurses for instance ICU and theater nurses that were trained in the public sector and that means the public sector cannot operate for instance the children's hospital can't do their cardiac case but they don't have the staff why because the staff have been poached by private so when we often the often default position is is that all our qualified staff are heading to Dubai and Australia we're not saying that is not the case but a lot of the problems is actual internal competition and presumably two consultants who might ordinarily work at a hospital like letter candy university hospital are saying right I'm leaving that basket case and I can do more work and in the private sector so we're funding perhaps maybe the main cause of competition to the public health system we are the training ground and then we're providing funding for their wages after the fact it's a bit wonder anyone works in the public service then I yes I agree with you totally and this current bed crisis and the various pandemics and the situation at present is only going to feed into that because if you're a nurse working in a public hospital present and things are going you know absolutely mad with work why wouldn't you take a nine to five job in a private hospital where there's no pressure there's no hassle there's no emergencies and why put up with the struggle in a public hospital because one they can't get staff because the staff are leaving and more staff will leave because of that it's a vicious circle that unfortunately once started it's going to be very hard to break and of course I think most public hospitals don't have an ED like sorry private hospitals don't have an ED like a public hospital with so it's another advantage that they can seem like a very calm routine no delays no smell of death all or whatever it might be you know what I mean that's another feather in their bow but it's of our making we've funded it we've bailed them out too to some extent it seems you're intimating oh definitely I mean you hear about these VHI and other private clinics are five private emergency departments which are designed to treat simplistic cases that are in and out quickly and make money I mean private hospitals don't make money from someone who comes in with diabetes and spends two days in the hospital they can make money from somebody coming in who has a hip replacement and is there for three or four days or someone who has a heart operation is there for a week spends four or five days in intensive care and ends up leaving with a bill between 15 and 30 000 that's where the money is they don't make money from dealing with someone with a cough right no one individual has a solution to this but if you were part of a panel and you say right there's a couple of things that we need to do and and even if it's actually only short and medium term radically do we take over these private hospitals and and and utilize any capacity they have other other protocols that we could invoke I mean what do you think that needs to be done if we treated this as an emergency the same way for example that we did COVID what what could work in the medium short to medium term um I suppose beds are the issue at the moment so if you can take some beds out of the private sector and put them into the public service that would be the short term solution but the problem is every time you take a short term solution and rather than taking the pain of the situation and looking to a long term solution you just make the situation worse and all the solutions are coming up like slow and short care is not going to resolve the situation to have this idea that you know for instance one of the examples is private patients in public hospitals virtually all the private patients in public hospitals are emergencies the only beneficiaries of removing private patients are paying patients from public hospitals will be the insurance companies who will be laughing themselves at the bank it does I mean if you live in Dublin or Limerick or Galway you don't go into a public hospital if you're private insurance you go into one of the very nice comfortable private hospitals get your single room so the benefit of that for instance will be limited and even this new contract that they're talking about there's so much money to be made in private healthcare they're not going to get anybody who has any get-up-and-go to work in a public hospital if they can work in a private hospital and make twice as much money yeah well Peter though that this isn't quite disheartening I'm not going to lie to you because it's another person that I've spoken to both on air and off air that's worked within the system that is that has been part of the system and you whilst within it you know you expected your frustrations with the view of trying to shine a light and to improve things but you don't seem very optimistic about the future and others that I've spoken to are the same that doesn't seem to be a pathway to a solution it's really quite it's quite worrying well I worry about for instance lever kenny I worry about in hopefully 20 or 30 years time when I'm sick and aged and decrepit that be someone there to look after me but I've no confidence that that'll be the case so it that do we then need to start from the ground up then and and I mean it and then realistically that's going to take a decade 15 years perhaps I don't know is is that is that the the the light at the end of the tunnel unfortunately I think it is and I think you have to take pain now for future gain but the problem is people aren't willing to do that and whatever about patients being unwilling to do that politicians certainly are not willing to do that you're not going to have a minister of health who will stand up and say that there's nothing I can do to resolve the situation it's going to be bad for the next 10 years but in 10 or 12 years time we might have a good health service that is not something that gets you re-elected it isn't but that's why maybe my somewhat naive suggestion yesterday to to Paddy Rooney you know I mean I think there was cross-party input into this launcher care program for for for good or bad do we need to take politics out of such an important issue then whereby there is a cross-party no-party panel that are in situ to to to run this that that that because we're doing this in election cycles it's crazy really and cycles within elections as well that enough good was clearly done in the first half of this government's term that Stephen Donnelly retained that portfolio but as you've quite rightly pointed out and it's evident Stephen Donnelly is more a minister for observation than a minister for health and I don't mean that as a criticism of him but he's just telling us what we already know we don't need that we need a setup of some sort to take the politics out of this and to take the election cycles out of this then unfortunately you can't do that everybody in there has their own acts to grind be it from a from a socialist point of view from a private practice point of view everybody has vested interests and unfortunately it is impossible to get consensus that is not laced with vesting interests every group has a best interest I mean when people would say I as a surgeon of a vested interest. I was frustrated that I wasn't allowed to operate and I wanted to operate more. But hopefully I was able in the various roles I had in the hospital to see the bigger picture and see that other people needed to get what they needed, not just what I needed, but there's so many people out there who are only interested in what they want, what they need and what that service needs. And what we have in the midst of all this, and it's never far from my mind, but as I say, I just wanted to dig a bit deeper into this issue, is that we have people and their families, and we've all been there going through very difficult times in the ED. I don't think it's ever pleasant, but it's obviously worsened. We've got staff that would look for any, I mean, if I were there, how long would I want to work there if I had other options? And it has to affect outcomes. And then we have elective surgeries being deferred. And the impact that's going to have on people's outcomes on top of already maybe delayed diagnosis because of COVID. Like it's worrying because this has a real impact on people's maintenance of their health and their longevity. No, it's true. I mean, the people will die because of the current crisis. People have always died because of medical crisis and lack of resources. But in this day and age with social media, et cetera, it's out there all the time, you constantly hear about it. And the media is talking about it all the time. So I wonder, you know, is it that much worse than it was 10 or 15 years ago or just hear more about it? But it's always been bad. There has never been a time when I personally had confidence in the service that hospitals were providing because of limitations that were put on them. All right. As always, thank you so much for your very valuable insight, Peter. I really do appreciate it. Thank you. That's Dr Peter O'Rourke, orthopedic surgeon at Leonard Kenney University Hospital, just concluding that series where we, as I say, trying to drill in a little bit to the situation. It doesn't fill one with optimism, does it? Okay, let's take a break. We'll come back with your comments. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. Every year, about 2,800 people in Ireland get bowel cancer. Bowel screening helps to reduce your risk of developing it. If you're aged 60 to 69, you can register today for a free bowel screen test kit. Once you've done the test at home, return it by free post and we'll test your sample for levels of blood. If you need any more tests, we'll let you know. Register today at hse.ie forward slash bowel screen or free phone 1-800-454555 from the HSE. New this week in Home Store and More. All floor lamps are all half price, but better hurry because when all the half price floor lamps are gone, they're gone. 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A caller says why was it 5am in the morning when a relation of mine got a bed after spending hours in A&E? No one was discharged at that time of the morning. Well, listening to the manager there, the general manager is possible that the room had to be cleaned and prepared and no one's available to do that until that time. That would be my best guess. Re-home care, there's a fair few working-in-home help short of working available to help out. That's certainly something that should be looked at. Why does Letter County University Hospital need two managers in the one hospital? Is this the norm? I mean the level of employment there, 2,400 people. That's massive. That's as big as an awful lot of companies that would have multiple managers. I'm not here to defend the situation by the way, but 2,400 people, that's an awful lot of staff. Right, hi. My experience from the hospital is that the skill mix of nurses and doctors are very clear and simple. Care for the patient is poorer. Nurses do not in some cases do rounds with doctors and no communication between nurses, doctors, patients and relatives. Simply a very broken and very serious situation now in our hospitals. Okay, few solutions for the health service in Donegal. This is from someone who works within the sector and we appreciate it, by the way. And you can always contact us in absolute confidence, by the way. And we appreciate when you do so, either by calling or texting the station or even contacting me directly on social media. You know, it's a valuable insight and helps to form our coverage, but they make three suggestions as to what might improve the situation. Why is there no separate minor injuries unit in Donegal? This would make vast differences if there was one or two units set up in Donegal to treat minor injuries and not have to go to ED for hours and hours. That would make an awful lot of sense. It would certainly make the patient experience better, but there are minor injuries units elsewhere in the country. Have they eased pressure on EDs in the areas they are? I'm only asking, I'm not contradicting you. Their second suggestion, have a nurse or doctor triaging patients and also set up phlebotomy to take bloods ASAP so people are not waiting for hours, especially for cardiac patients who need them done urgently. Also, open up services 24 hours and employ staff at different hours to help at busy times. That one might face a challenge from certain sections of the employers, I wonder, employees. For now, Doc, set up services so that more people can be seen there, have separate extra teams of nurses and doctors to actually treat patients and not refer them on to ED, build up the services and community to help ease burden on hospitals. These two things alone would make a massive difference. Do you know what it might be interesting to contact? We might actually contact now, Doc, and see if they'll give us some figures as it relates to how many people they saw over Christmas New Year and how many, what percentage of those were referred to the ED. I think that might be useful just to help us understand the whole situation. But this caller concludes, just think outside the box, lots of things can be done to help the current situation, but it's the same thing every year. Frustrating, no positive changes being made. Bring back the Northwestern Health Board and the Matrons problem solved. I think if we dig a bit deep into history, though, there was probably an awful lot going on that we didn't know about and we're more aware of that now. Actually, Peter, I'll reference that. Happy New Year, Greg. Thank you. I was just wondering, are the private hospitals in the same state with people lying on trolleys, 18 hour waiting to be seen by a doctor overcrowding? No, clearly they're not because they can cherry pick to some extent. They don't routinely, in the same way a public hospital does, deal with emergency patients. So they can have everything nice and calm, everything scheduled, your appointments in two or three weeks or wherever it might be. And as you heard from Peter O'Rourke, we're funding it. We've bailed them out in the past. We are training staff for the private hospitals. They're leaving the public service to work in the private service. We know that consultants have and are leaving the public service to go and work in this clearly less stressful, better-out environment. And I don't think Stephen Donnelly calling for consultants to do more is going to do a great deal to make them happier in the public service. Right, okay. Right, okay. We'll come back to some of that other stuff as well, because it's on different topics. I'll take a quick break. We'll be back with more in a sec. Can I help you, sir? Oh, I hope so. It's Jimmy here, my budgie. He hasn't made a sound for weeks, so I thought I'd better bring him down here to the vets. Right. He used to be so cheerful, chirping away all day. But now, listen, nothing. Is there anything you could recommend? Maybe try the spec savers next door? Lost sounds, spec savers could help you find them. With qualified audiologists and free hearing aids with PRSI, book a free hearing test today. Terms and conditions apply. See our website for details. For day-to-day health care needs, generations have trusted the experienced staff at McGee's Chemist Letter Kenny. From coughs and colds to aches and pains, from vitamin supplements to first aid essentials. McGee's have what you need when you need it, with a full prescription service available daily. McGee's Chemist Main Street Letter Kenny. For health care help and advice, you can always trust. The Brussels Eye in the Sky is watching you for more in your farmer's journal. Here's Paul Mooney. New satellites to inspect all farms every five days. Battle of the Breeds. We reveal wits of the breed secured the top-wielding prices. Jail for frauds are involved in online tractor and farm machinery scam. And following recent savage dog attacks, we detail your legal rights and how to deal with the dog worrying sheep in your farm. Only inside this week's Irish Farmers Journal. You cannot afford to miss it. Check out the winter sale at Michael Murphy Sports and Leisure Letter Kenny with fantastic bargains on footwear. Shoes from the Northwest's biggest selection of sports shoes with 20% off men's, women's and children's shoes. Get tested on the in-house gate analysis machine to find the perfect shoe for you. Don't miss the winter sale at MichaelMurphySports.ie. And just to remind you, if it suits you, you can watch the show on your TV through the YouTube app or Facebook Watch. YouTube is Highland Radio Ireland or on Facebook. It's Highland Hobo, Highland Radio News and Sport. You can watch every day and see most of our guests. Mary McGuire is from Letter Kenny and is literally just read the second reading from the first letter of St Peter at Pope Benedict's funeral mass this morning in Rome. Mary, good morning to you and thank you so much for joining us today. Sorry, Mary. I beg your pardon. I had the wrong line up. Mary, this must be a wonderful honour for you to be involved in this. Can you tell us how it came about? I got a phone call on Monday morning from Father Kevin Gillespie, the administrator in St Peter's Cathedral, Letter Kenny. I am presently a reader there in the cathedral. He asked me would I be willing to go to Rome to do one of the readings at Pope Benedict's funeral. My initial reaction was no. And then he asked me to think about it and I spoke with my family and they encouraged me. It was such an honour. And as the day went on I just realised what an honour, what a privilege it was to be asked and to be able to go to Rome. And today when I was reading it I just felt such joy in my heart. As much as it was a sad occasion I just really felt joy and was so honoured to be there reading today on the steps of St Peter because it was lovely. And part of history as well because this is very historic given the fact that we have a pope involved in the funeral mass of another pope. May I ask if it's not a personal question? Why was your initial reaction a no Mary? Because I just thought why me. I just thought I wouldn't be at the standard of reading it. Not me. I can't do it. But then I thought about it. And today as I didn't have nerves I really really was not. There have been many occasions we've been in the cathedral I've been more nervous than today. I was really calm. And to say I just, I did enjoy doing it. I can honestly say that. And I mean that very genuinely I did. It was a joy, a real joy in my heart as of today. I imagine it was very spiritual. It was very spiritual. Was it for you? Was there or was that the right word? It was just a beautiful experience to be here. Really very beautiful and to be, just to be, it was so cold but at the same time and I really really felt just as a joyous way I could describe it today. Just a joy to be here. For those who may have, many people may have watched it. Can you set the scene where you're reading? Where were you? Where is everybody else? If you understand where I'm coming from? I know it's a big picture to paint but if you could try your best for us. Well anybody who was watching this over the altar was situated and as you're looking at the screen the readers and the people doing the prayers of the faithful we were sitting to the right of the altar. We were down the steps and we were led by an emcee when I came to our turn to to do the reading and there was the cardinals and all were to the left of the altar and then all the consulate of it and priests were all to the front of that and the people then were all down through St Peter's Square so there were huge huge numbers here huge numbers and of course a worldwide audience that we can't put a figure on. So you talked about in the past being more nervous at times reading in the cathedral. You said you weren't nervous today. That doesn't make sense at all. How is that, Mary? I know. I don't, as the greatest heavenly I got today, Greg. I can't explain it but I really did not feel nervous today. I don't know. It was great as I was getting there. And I mean obviously there's a great sense of personal pride, I would hope, Mary, but also your family, your friends, your fellow parishioners, those that know you to have someone from our small part of the world having such I think it's really quite an important role. It's not it's really significant, Mary. It was it was an honor as I say and I hopefully I did my parish and my county, my diocese and our complete pride. And do you know what I think, too, was a great part of this? Who was it asked you again? Sorry, did you say? Monsignor Kevin Gillespie. Yes, I think Monsignor. Without him asking me, I wouldn't have been here. Yes, exactly. But I think he showed it was really great knowledge in saying think about it. You know, rather than taking your first answer to allow you that space to make that decision, I think that's a good bit of management there if I could phrase it like that from the Monsignor. Exactly, no, he's a wonderful person, so it's wonderful. Is Monsignor Gillespie with you? Is it possible I could have a quick word with him? He is. Oh, thank you very much. Thanks, Mary, if you don't mind. Hold on. Hello, Greg. How are you doing? Monsignor Gillespie, a very, very good morning to you. We'll talk about Mary's role in this, but perhaps maybe your reflections on this morning being there for the occasion that it is, and Mary, I suppose it's trying to phrase that obviously it's a sad moment, but then there's a great ceremony there as well. It's a celebration of someone's life, too, I presume. Can you try and frame it all for us, Monsignor? Well, I suppose it's a very historic day, of course, when you see the living pope who is in office bidding farewell and burying the retired pope, so a very, very unusual historic day, but apart from that, the sense of a huge crowd in the square was a great sense of affection for the deceased pope, and so there was a sense of solemnity and sobriety and sadness, but also a great sense of faith and of prayer in the square, throughout the mass, and the Pope's homily, Pope Francis' homily also reflected on the ministry and the dedication of Benedict in the service of God, so it was a lovely experience to be present, and for myself personally, it was very moving and heartfelt to be here. And what was the process that left it to you to have to select someone to do the reading, and then why did you invite Mary Maguire to do it? Well, it's somewhat accidental. I worked here for some years and part of my duties here were ceremonial duties as an emcee for Benedict and subsequent people, Francis, and the office that arranges and organizes the ceremonies. They needed an English-speaking leader, and they simply contacted me to ask if I might know somebody who might be a good reader and who could come with me, and there was a very short space of time to do this, and I thought of Mary and proposed it to her, and thankfully she agreed to come. In my conversation with Mary, I was praising you in that you had the full sight to give her, following her initial answer, this space to reconsider. Oh, well, yes. I mean, it's a very daunting thing. I would never force anybody into anything, but mercifully she accepted to come, and I'm very glad that she did. I thought you read so well. Lovely. Okay. And no, she felt no nerves either, which is really amazing. She had no nerves at all, absolutely not. And I think she was nervous beforehand, perhaps the day before at the rehearsal when you see the whole apparatus of the place in action. But then during the thing, I think when you're there and you're present and you're taking part in maths, like any maths would be, I think the nerves left her very quickly. Thank God. And perhaps she sought some assistance, and it was delivered, who's to say, in support in her through that. Monsignor Kevin Gillespie, Mary McGuire, both of you. Thank you very much indeed for taking time out of this busy morning to speak to us. Take care. You're very welcome. Goodbye. Thank you very much, both of you, and safe journeys home. Cutting Through the Spin, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. Sheridan security now introducing zero wire smart alarm systems, zero wire, zero mess, and a real peace of mind. With a simple press of a button, your alarm can be set or on set or download the free app and control it from your phone. Call us today on 074 912 6025 and get your alarm from 299 euro. Stay local, stay safe, and protect what you value most with Sheridan security systems. Great news. The house proud group stock disposal sale continues today and all this weekend at the Straban store with so much stock still to clear. Prices have been cut again on furniture for every room. The massive stock disposal sale at house proud Abercorn Square, Straban. Don't miss out. Sale also at Oma store. Are you worried about trees on your property? Northwest Forestry Services Bully 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 Northwest Forest Services Bully Buffet for no obligation quotation on 9132033. Highland radio weather updates with Ireland West Airport, Salah, Nunes, the Beatles, you can now fly to Liverpool eight times a week with Ryanair this summer. Ireland West Airport, don't just take off, take it easy. Windy today with strong south west winds, with very strong gusts at times, especially near the coasts, mostly cloudy without breaks of rain, some dry periods, rain will clear later to clear spells, and occasional showers this evening afternoon highs of nine or 10 degrees. Lots of people texting and calling in to congratulate Mary. They were watching. Well done, you did brilliant. Part of the reason for the shambles of a health service is that there is a high number of Donegal people reliant on medical cards, a whole mess you get what you pay for. I don't see the connection there. Listen, there is absolutely no doubt that, and it's statistically proven that if there are more medical cards, then you will have more presentations, for example, at now dark or or the GPs that's accepted. And that's actually been widened out now. How that then translates to pressures on the acute hospital, which is where people go and are admitted if they're very, very sick. I'm not quite sure if you could just join up the dots for me there. Greg, can you find out what's the percentage of absenteeism sick of staff in Electric County General Hospital? This is the most important question of all, I can tell you precisely, it's just over 10%. They have 2400 odd staff and around about 250 of them are sick. So there's the answer to you. It's 10%. Now, maybe dig deeper than that. How many of them are clerical versus frontline? That's a question I kick in myself. I didn't ask. Maybe we can find that out. Right, I sat in the ED from 1am until 9am with my daughter until she got a bed in the children's ward. When we got to the ward, there were four beds in her room and three in the ward next door. Empty, is that what you're suggesting? Hi, Greg, give Mr Peter O'Rourke the hospital manager's job. He knows how to sort the problems and would sort it. Some mainly highly skilled nurses have left LUH. We need to ask why. Well, the question has been answered, I think, by Peter O'Rourke who worked within the hospital. He's answered that question. I'm not sure if that text came in before or after our piece, but yes, of course, we're losing them internationally, but also we're training them and giving them experience, of course, and this is not a criticism of them. It's their working environment, and then they are going to take up much better, less stressful jobs, you could argue, in the private health service, which we are funding through the MPTF. And so it goes, and you can see how it all feeds into itself. Just had a call from a telephone number wanting to sort a Wi-Fi problem which we don't have. Can you tell me if this is a hoax call? Yes, no one's ever going to call you. I don't need to read the number out because the clone number is now, so it doesn't really matter. No one's ringing you to fix your computer, to fix your Wi-Fi. They certainly won't know about the internal workings of your house. They might suggest that your broadband's not working, but you know yourself if it's working or not. Here's the thing. Try and get through to one of the telephone companies with a fault. It's very difficult. They aren't ringing you up, going, hello, I had two minutes spare there. I just want to make sure everything's all right with your service. It would be great if that's the way it is, but unfortunately, it is simply not the case. So yes, you did the right thing. Ignore that. It is a scam. Just a reminder to do with the HSE scam, where your text to say you're a close contact, ignore that, don't click any links in it. Also, there's another round of these messages going out, purportant to be from your granddaughter or your daughter or your son, saying that they've lost their phone. That's also a scam. I've lost my phone. I've got access to someone else's phone. I need you to transfer this, that or the other. Obviously, we're going to be scared stiff and we might react without thinking. That is a scam as well. So just be cautious of that. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. And we have another hour of it for you this Thursday morning. But now at 11 o'clock, let's get a news update. Good morning, Michaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. The general manager of Letter Kenney University Hospital says 10% of the hospital staff is currently off sick. Just over 60 have COVID-19 or other respiratory conditions while around 200 staff are off with other illnesses. Speaking on the 9 till noon show earlier, Sean Murphy said a major issue present is delays in discharging patients who are fit to leave the hospital. Well, the number of patients waiting on trolleys at hospitals across the country has fallen significantly compared to yesterday. It's now 639. Figures from the Irish nurses and midwives organization show a drop three days in a row. 51 people are currently waiting on a trolley at Letter Kenney University Hospital this morning. Junior Minister Ann Rabbit says she didn't feel safe after a bag of excrement was thrown at her in a public meeting last night. Bags were reportedly thrown at Minister Ann Rabbit and Galway TD Kieran Cannon during a public meeting in Gort last night. Guardi have launched an investigation into the incident. Donegal is bearing the burden of industrial wind. That's according to one of the finding members of the Guibara Conservation Group. The county is home to over 300 turbines. A public meeting is due to take place on Saturday in Letcher Macaward Hall to discuss concerns over proposed wind farm developments in West Donegal. A Donegal woman who was selected to read at the funeral mass of former Pope Benedict the 16th says it was an honour and a privilege to be chosen. Mary Maguire from Letter Kenney was initially reluctant when contacted on Monday but after some encouragement she says it filled her heart with joy to be part of today's ceremony. And the delivery of the flood relief scheme in the Glen Swilley area of Letter Kenney has been welcomed. Last year the road in the vicinity of Glen Swilley National School flooded on a number of occasions leaving some residents trapped in their homes and the road impossible. Those are the latest headlines. We'll be back with an update again at 12 noon. Alright you can go and have a cough now. Thanks. Okay we'll be back with more after the break. On this week's Business Matters I'll be joined by Paul Kelly, a director with Irish company Hardcore Technologies which is providing the 3D construction printing technology for a housing development in Lancashire in England. So join me, Curie Ronald, for Business Matters on Sunday evening after 6 o'clock news. The Business Matters podcast is also available to download at titlevideo.com. Business Matters in association with the ATU Donegal Faculty of Business. If you're looking to reinforce your leadership skills, ATU are offering level nine executive masters in leadership and innovation for private and public sector managers starting in January. Take the next step in your career and call 9186206 or email donald.hanigan at atu.ie. Do you suffer from high cholesterol, menopause symptoms, digestive issues, anxiety, aches and pains or a lack of energy? The highly trained team at the Natural Way Letter County can provide advice on natural remedies for a number of individual health issues. The Natural Way also has its own brand of herbal treatments to help fight fatigue, relieve digestive discomfort, maintain a healthy immune system and alleviate common menopause symptoms. The Natural Way Letter County Shop in Centre, your one-stop health shop. Hello, Hill 16 Insurance. How can I help you up the dubs? Ah, hi. I am looking for a home insurance quote. Righto, I want part of Dublin D11. I don't actually live in Dublin. Roy, they lease apart the dubs. What? I'm just looking for home insurance. Well, you're going to have to keep looking, pal, because Hill 16 is Dublin only. Get the feeling that your insurer doesn't want you? At Local Insurance, we understand your needs. Call today for a bespoke quote or find us online at localinsurance.ie. Local Insurance, we'll get you sorted. The Local Insurance Network, DAC Trading's Local Insurance is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Local Insurance is a Tide Insurance Intermediary of Acorn Brokerage Limited. Acorn Brokerage Limited Trading is Acorn Insurance is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. OK, right. You're very welcome back to the 9 till noon show. I suppose, you know, there's really quite long waiting lists for people wishing to take a driving test. So, if you're waiting a long time, you're very keen to get on the road. You need to get on the road for work or education or whatever it might be. You don't want to be failing, but unfortunately, many of you are out there. And some of it's within your control. I think let's tease this out with Shane O'Donough, who editor of CompleteCar.ie. Good morning to you, Shane. Thanks for joining us. Good morning, Greg. Right, so we've had this new survey from Aviva, and it's really dug into why we're failing our tests. 23% blame nerves for not passing their test. Obviously, there are other reasons as well. Yeah, absolutely. And I think we need to be careful with the survey. It seems to have surveyed the population at large rather than people who actually fail their test. So, it is the opinion of the population rather than, you know, asking... Well, that's never good, is it? No, we do need to be careful about that. The only thing you can do worse than that is pull opinion of journalists. Yeah, let's leave that one there. But it makes for interesting reading all the same. And, I mean, one of the biggest causes that people think other people fail their test for is lack of preparation, actually, and lack of practice. And I suspect that's probably a very, very good point, a really good reason. It's probably harder than ever to get practice in cars, because in the old days, and this wasn't a good thing, in the old days, it would have been acceptable, or at least the guard would have turned a blind eye to you borrowing your parents' car and going out for a drive, even if you were on a provisional license. Now, it was never allowed, but it definitely happened. Now, of course, there's a lot more focus on that, and it's just not as acceptable. Yeah, but we've mandated now testing, don't we? And there's time frame. So, you know, you have to do your tests, and you can't apply for your test until I think it's six months after you've been issued with your learning permit. And then, as I say, you have to do these 12 lessons. So, I mean, we've never perhaps, although we don't have the casual access to vehicles like you described there anymore, although some still do, do it. You know, we've never really arguably been more prepared ahead of a test, but we don't know how this compares historically either, I suppose. Yeah, I think it would be really interesting to see the data for the time before those mandatory lessons that are now in place, and it's a great thing that they are. They are supposedly there to make people, you know, better drivers, safer drivers from the start. So, it isn't the case of you get your test and you're suddenly allowed on the motorway, or, you know, suddenly allowed to drive at night or whatever in bad conditions. So, they must improve things, but the failure rates are still quite high, and it's really interesting. One of the other big causes mentioned in the survey was nerves, and I suspect that's got to be a big part of it. You know, all tests, people are nervous in all tests of any type in life, and when you're sitting beside, which is probably a stranger in a car, and you know, you really want your driving license, it's a nervy situation. Like, it's probably people with driving licenses right now driving around the country that are nervous in a given situation, or in a given situation might get a fail on their test if there was an instructor next to them. So, to be perfect for a test, for the whole duration of a test, an instructor next to you, I can understand why people are nervous, for sure. I wonder just, is the system really flawed though, in that it's a little bit sometimes like, you know, the leaving sort of something, in that really what determines whether or not you are able to drive for the rest of your life, providing you're not sanctioned, or what have you, is just getting it right in this moment of time. Yet, we don't do, we don't do driving tests as farms are where at night, we don't do it when the weather's bad, we don't do it in snow, we don't do it in the nice, we certainly don't do it on a motorway or a dual carriageway if you're living here in the northwest. Like, it's an imperfect system, like people might choose Donegal town, for example, where you might not have to encounter multiple lanes of traffic as you might around Etter Kenney, or do you know that sort of a way? I don't really know how effective the whole system really, really is. I agree with you completely. I think we need a complete revamp of it. It's a subject that's come up a lot recently, looking at the increase in fatalities last year, for instance. And I know the government is looking for this quick fix with looking at speed limits again, but really, I think we need to go much deeper than that into driver education from a younger age. And I'd be quite in favor of looking at how Austria or Germany do it, and where they have these fantastic facilities that are private facilities, or publicly run facilities, but in a private land in a safe environment where people are taught how to drive in a variety of scenarios. And it's not just, you know, a 30-minute course. This is a long, long duration. It's proper training, proper driving training. There's another thing to say, for instance, if someone's starting here, I have in front of me quite a large desk, okay? But what I do is you try and train people what you do when something goes wrong. Do you know what I mean? So in other words, if the ad break doesn't fire, this is the button you press, those are the failures you pull, or whatever. Do you know what I mean? Because you can teach them how it when everything works. But as soon as something goes wrong, that's when there can be a problem. Yet with the test, it is just our basic general driving behavior, how much focus is there on emergency braking, or avoiding an oncoming car. Now, you could never replicate that, of course, in the test nor would you want to. But again, and as I say, and I think that multiplies things quite all driving around Dublin, do you know, like, it's, you just learn enough, get your 12 tests out of the way, see if they'll sign you off three or four, say nothing, and just get it right on that one day. And then we're not really doing our best to prep people, I think for for the road. Yeah, you're right. It's too much responsibility. You know, you're in charge of this one two ton metal and plastic box that can travel quite high speeds. And you're just let loose on the world. And I 100% agree we're not preparing people properly for that. And the point you said there about not replicating things like emergency stops, etc. We don't want to be doing that on the public road in it. But you could in your Germany, Austria, Austrian example. And they do. And not only that, they do, you know, severe skids, you know, what in the car loses control, you come to a patch of oil on a wet day on the on a roundabout, that kind of thing. Yeah, because there's nothing in the process really to teach you how you drive in frosty icy conditions. Or in black ice, like maybe, and we're going to speak to someone from school of motoring now, maybe good instructors might say, and by the way, you know, when you're driving with ice, but I mean, really, what you're doing is you're training someone to pass, but to pass the test, but we don't prepare people for that. What how do you break or slow down in snow? You're driving test doesn't in no way educate you in that regard. No, and and you hit a nail on the head there. It's no point telling somebody that either they need to have experienced it physically experienced it in some way. And I think that's where we're lacking. It's a big gap in the test or in in our driver education in general. Stay with me because I want to talk to you about to the new penalty points and again, we'll get to it in a second, but there's adverts running at the moment that tell you that, you know, why waste the money on a why waste the money on a fine when you could buy yourself a pair of shoes. The advert in and of itself highlights the fact that really, what you forego a pair of shoes and do whatever you like or you don't go out for a meal. It seemed really counterintuitive to me. But anyway, I'll be very interested in your views in a moment, Shane. Frank Doherty is of the Donegal School of Motoring. He joins us now. Frank, you've been listening to some of that conversation. What's your view? Anything you want to add or contradict? Good morning, Greg. I'm happy new to you, your lustre and all your staff. Well, personally, I don't have any figures there that you're quoting. I'm just talking from a personal point of view. I would think the first thing will be the lack of practice because of insurance. Young people know that just cannot afford to get insurance to buy a car and all to get practice. And can I put a figure on that, Frank, if you don't mind, it's a 50% a 50% levy for young drivers. So if there's no, there's no smoke and mirrors here. If you're a young driver, regardless of your history, there is a 50% levy. I'm not sure how many people are actually aware of that. But that is it's actually 48 or 49%. That's a levy straight on a young motorist. Yes. And, you know, they can't cope with that really, you know, how can they, like, they don't have the famous to do it. Right. So that feeds into you saying, you know, the lack of ability to sort of get on with a qualified driver, get out and about in the road. That's a problem. What else do you see as a problem, Frank? Well, I think it's a lot of us geared to towards cities, you know, where they kind of people, the students can have their qualified driver on. But you take people here and I will save you up and close to the border and really up there, people probably to Balbo pay that are connected to work. They're not, they're not always going to have someone available to set the on and guide them, you know, and take them back from work. It's nearly impossible, you know. So the system on itself, I don't think it's great there. Now you've a really high pass rates. I think it's 60% in Donegal. It's higher with you guys. How do you prep people then to control the nerves? A lot of people quote nerves as a problem. Yes. There should be a problem surely for a lot of people. But and saying that, and my own opinion, I think nerves alone should not fail a driving test. It's like any other exam, Greg, I would imagine you must put on the homework to get a result. Should it be a leave and take any type of exam, you know, and including expected to drive and take you have to do the homework. And that's where the problems coming on. A lot of these people are not getting a chance to do it because of financial ties with insurance and that, you know, and EDT lessons. A lot of people are pretty hard to get themselves done to this. These things, they go out to do their 12 EDT lessons. That's them ready. It's not supposed to be practicing in between for two weeks, every lesson, but it's pretty hard to get people to yeah. And then again, they have no care of their own, their parents can get them into you know, I think if you're very lucky, if you're very lucky, you can get a reasonably reliable car that's not too hard to tax an insurer and insurance, but you would be looking at, I would say five to 6000 euro. Now that would be for a that'd be for a 10 year old small master or two years or something. I mean, and that's, you would have to be paying, you'd have to have that and that on the road whilst you're doing your 12 lessons. But I mean, that's an awful lot of money, isn't it? Yeah, for young people that's probably still a college or just starting out in their work time life, you know, that they really can do it, you know, let's pay for lessons and keep the tax and everything, you know. Yeah, but then it's a more of a problem too as well. Sorry to pull out the old Donegal rural Ireland card, but we don't have perhaps the luxury of public transport that they might have in bigger cities as an alternative, you know, I mean, if you get a job eight kilometers away, you'd have to be really lucky if your local link ran on your route and at those times, you know, it's essential to us to be on the road Frank often at this time at least. Exactly. It's really a necessity and Donegal, you know, and you know, around the fun valley area and all that. The public task for us in there and that's where people need this, you know. Yeah. All right, Frank, lovely to get your insight. Thank you. Oh, I did just one more we think to there. I think to the driving testers themselves has a lot they're approaching that now we are very lucky here I would say 98% are very, very approachable, very nice to the machine, you know, but you might have one or 2% that actually puts them off by their attitude towards them, you know, that's just just a wee thing that, you know, I have I had different students tell me, you know, that that's really all I can say about it. Okay, they've got a huge role to play indeed. That 98% figure you talked of I quoted earlier as a pass race at 60% the pass rate here. My apologies. Shane, I don't know who I mean, Frank's talking a lot of sense. There's often do you know what if we speak to people in the know, and then maybe try and form policy and make decisions off the basis of that then we get to really where we should be but we're still doing it the same old way. Yeah, Frank pointed out the insurance cost there and that's a really, really good point. Not really sure what we can do about that other than, you know, the whole population subsidizing the industry in that way, but I don't know we only do that for we only do that to insurance companies that go bankrupt. We don't do that to try and help people. That's a very good point. You're not going to come down that rabbit hole with me, Shane, no? Come here. Let's get on to the doubling of certain fines for driving offences. What's your take on that? I kind of put my cards on the table, but what's your view? Yeah, I mean, the advertising is nonsense and I first start but the data I just don't think it's the right way to go about it. We have seen in the past and the distant past now that when penalty points were increased and fines increased and a big campaign was done about it that there was some modification of behavior but I believe it came at the same time as an increase in enforcement and I think we need that way more than we need any change in the in existing laws as such and existing legislation and penalty points. They're, you know, anecdotally it feels like there's a lot, lot less Garde on the roads than there's ever been. Driver behavior I feel is much worse than it's ever been. People feel like they can get away with more. It's the only explanation I can find. Again, this is anecdotally. There has been, actually not just anecdotally, there has been a reduction in the number of Garde used on the roads in the last two years since the pandemic, presumably budgetary reasons and it just feels like people are taking more chances. People feel like they get away with it. Well, look, listen, there's cars all over the place with number plates that aren't legal. Cars that have been modified illegally tinted out windows. I'm not calling that out, but that's the reality. People feel they can drive around and not going to get stopped or if they do, they get a slap on the wrist. If you know the location of the ghost safe fans, I mean, I can't remember I last time I seen a guard out with a radar gun, for example, you know where they are. If you want to speed in between them, you probably could. I think if you've got your car tax insured and NCT'd, you might stumble across the occasional checkpoint, but that's few and far between the guard. He would say otherwise because they pop up and move around and they are detecting people. But I think there is this sense there that you probably can get away with it. Yeah. And so the fines were irrelevant, in other words, because if you're not going to get caught, the fines are relevant. Yeah, exactly that. And hence increasing the fine. I don't think it's going to change the behavior. I'd also urge people to focus less on the speed limit or not just the speed limit, should I say. So it's very easy. As you said, ghost safe fans do do a job. They are supposed to be in places where there are known crashes, where where speed was a factor, and they do a job. But everybody knows where they are. So slow down in those areas, which is fine. Now, I think we need more Guardian not doing checkpoints, not doing speed checks, but literally just driving around patrolling and their sole job being clamping down and bad driver, bad and illegal driver behaviors, things like using mobile phones, you know, weaving in and out of traffic, going through red lights, this kind of thing. Because even when the operation slowed down, it's primarily it's ghost safe fans, you know, and then they say, you know, we clocked a million people and found 12 of them speeding because that we've all worked it out. Like I actually think that day kind of exposes the fact that, you know, we know where they are and people are very well behaved driving past them. Yeah, absolutely. I don't think there was any value in that in that day in that campaign whatsoever. I think it just boils down to enforcement. As we spoke about earlier, you know, the longer term strategy should be driver education, improve driving standards for everybody. That's a much longer term project. Right now, just slapping up new speed limits or increasing the fines, increasing dependent points, I don't think it's going to have as much of an effect as they might think. So I fully believe we need enforcement right now, much more enforcement. We're buying more cars in Donegal this year than we did last year. Nationally, it's dropped a little bit. Does that surprise you when the figures come out? Not about the Donegal thing, but just the national. I think the market's holding up really quite well considering. Yeah, there was big challenges in the market last year, but you mean supply was the biggest issue, of course, everywhere. It's the elephant in the room, because we don't really know what that means in terms of consumer sentiment, do we? Because we, I think certain elements of society were quite impulsive. We want it now. We're not prepared to wait till April or June. Some are, I wouldn't be. Yeah, I think there is, the problem is, of course, that there is a big, there is demand out there. We speak to buyers every day about choosing new cars, and there's far more demand than there is supply, certainly in terms of new electric cars. Some motor makes some models. Some makes more than others really struggle with getting any new cars last year. So actually, I feel that we would have seen a much higher increase in new car sales last year, if there wasn't a supply issue. Yeah, I made the mistake of googling a car, and now my Facebook feed is full of car adverts. But an awful lot of different branded, fully electric cars are coming out. Polar or one or other, like I was really quite, you know, brands that I'm not familiar with, maybe the, you know, they're like Tesla, they're electric only. There's a lot of new electric cars coming to market, some around 27, 28 grand as well, maybe for city drivers. There is a change of foot in that regard, isn't there? Would you agree? Oh, absolutely. We saw a significant increase in sales of electric cars last year, certainly percentage terms, and probably would have been higher again if supply wasn't a problem. But what it's giving, what we're finding, talking to buyers, is that brand is becoming less important, or certainly right now in this transition period where people are thinking, right, I want an electric car, what's available. So you just mentioned Polestar, that's a brand new brand for Ireland. And whereas the other one you mentioned, a car for 27,000, that's probably like the MG4. MG has been reinvented as an electric only brand. Let's come back to Ireland. So there's big potential there for new brands. If they have supply, that's because that electric car sort of in there, it's not a dissimilar shape, but it's also in there at the sort of, you know, Suzuki crossover type price point as well. Do you know what I mean? So, you know, I think we're going to see more of these types of car. And hey, as long as it's got a 14 inch screen, who cares what brand is that's all you want. Yeah, every every new card is being launched now seems to have a big touch screen apple carplay, Android auto, etc. So all technologies on board. All right, listen, sorry, I've took up so much of your time this morning. Great to have you on the show, Shane. It's the first time I've had you on. Hopefully we'll speak to you again. Good morning to you. Thanks, Greg. 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advertising team on zero seven four nine one two five three double two or email advertising at highland radio dot com highland radio we're here for you watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com call to say drivers are going to go around without tax and insurance because they can get away with it why aren't the guardi doing more about it uh why can't the government or some private company provide a driving simulator similar to what pilots use to learn to fly this simulator could be used to train drivers in various situations such as driving on ice or snow or motorway or nighttime driving this simulator driving could be incorporated into the final test making it a two-part examination would make sense why isn't there more emphasis on reversing in the test i'm a lorry driver and the reversing i see is awful yeah a lot of people are very reliant on cameras and the cars and beeping and when that fails them wallop uh but i think the way cars are going now anyway they'll probably reverse for us and they're not too distant future um illegal dumping let's talk to louise about this louise thank you very much for joining us hi heavyweight i am good i'm good writes you've uh noticed a spike in illegal dumping around our beautiful region uh particularly over the christmas holidays and you provided a picture uh from glenn finn just outside ballad buffet and someone's literally just dumped their crap out onto the road for someone else to pick up i don't understand the mindset but unfortunately it's there uh what else have you spotted louise and i thought i i never i never thought i'd have any uh empathy for people who dump their rubbish on the sides of the road um but the problem in this area at least is that i actually the private company don't service a lot of a lot of the area so for example where i live the last five months i've been trying to torque bins for my house uh and five minutes off the nearest roof but the the bank companies won't come down they cited the roads of the reason but our roads are fine there's logging trucks up and down them every day i sent them a map of tree turning points you know we had the a drilling company it's all well the biggest vehicle i've ever seen in my life turned just fine so it's about profit um if an area isn't profitable enough um for for the private companies to come and then they don't have to and the councils don't apply them to do it so a lot of people in these areas they just don't have access to to bins so they're the waste center in serrano was closed i don't think it opened any day over the holidays maybe one day uh they only open a couple of days of the week anyway and then over the holidays of course they were closed for all this time so uh it's a really bad situation about by where the good chance of making it really difficult for people to get rid of their waste and they're gonna have a they're gonna have a knock on effect um of illegal dumping it's a symptom of a bigger problem do you think there should be a compulsion on private companies to collect from wherever uh wherever it's reasonable and you've demonstrated i think that it would be reasonable to be able to collect from your uh property even if they have to employ a smaller van that scoops up more difficult uh areas you know i i don't think if this were a council operated service that you would be refused a service do you think that's a fair enough assessment yeah i think that's i i think that's a fair assessment you know and i first spoke with um the the waste department in dunigaw county council in may so i've been trying for six months to get bins to the house uh in may and the waste enforcement officer there uh tried to tell me that the council are essentially not responsible for household waste you know and i pushed back and said even if you've privatized it ultimately the responsible waste those sit with the council um you know we have excellent postal service in rural dunigaw we have access to electricity we've grants for group or private water ban scheme we've got rural broadband schemes and you know even even though that's so to roll out where we are we have excellent we have darling and it's and it's excellent do you have something i might ask you a question about i might ask you a question about that afterwards actually because i find that quite interesting but also to you tell us about the proposals that you have and you forward it onto every single dunigaw county councillor and you say uh you forwarded to them on the 16th of december it's now the 4th of january maybe they are on dull holiday time frames i don't know uh you have yet to receive a single reply for any of the sitting councillors that you emailed now i want to be fair did you email all 37 or 38 of them did you i emailed everyone that was listed on the dunigaw website so there's a section on the county council website where it says here's your county councillors okay they've listed maybe you've got non-bath ten councillors so i actually when i emailed you yesterday i also sent a second email to all of them to say hi you know here's a picture of the the dumping this is you know have you gotten my email on the on the 16th of december and two have emailed back since then so yesterday evening uh news kennedy emailed back and she said she's forwarded to the waste sector so fine uh and then barry suini the baria actually fits on the environmental special policy committee and he gave me a list of the fairly weak plans that the council are implementing almost all of their efforts seem to be on like smoking illegal dumpers and almost none of it on understanding why people are resorting to getting you see i don't think people but i don't think people are comfortable with that conversation the way it's because it's come up in the past and and it's been shot down it's been shot down as no defense i don't think people are comfortable accepting the proposition that the reason people are dumping illegally is because either a they don't have access to a refuse collection or b can't afford it and i just don't think it's an impossible correlation and i i don't think it's a uh what's the word i'm looking for uh a party improbable no it's not that word either people just don't like to make it's not positive people don't like to make that connection i've you're the first person i've heard make it so strongly do you know what i mean and stand by it people like to go well there's no that's no excuse do you know what i mean um you know there are a portion of people who can't afford bins you know there's those people who can't access them at all because the council privatized this and they didn't put the system to regulate it or require the areas to be covered so people living through rural to be profitable they just don't get waste collection and there are probably other reasons but the council aren't actually interested in understanding the problem they're just trying to find the offenders and like with the driving they're just looking to put in fines but a fine won't magically give a household a proper waste disposal solution if none exists you know this this plan to smoke out the illegal dumpers you know barry got back to me and he gave me the the list he said there are some technology apparently purchased to catch people but they haven't put it in place for whatever reason uh that's that's yeah that's to catch people that doesn't what you're talking of is a cause causation and and that's kind of been right well we'll not talk about we'll jump straight to well but what do people do in that situation i wonder uh it's like it would be worth further analysis is there any supports for people because it i think it's it can be up it's be 13 to 20 quid a week to get your rubbish collected can't it or or or every couple of weeks i can't remember how much mine is now but i got a recycling bin and knock that on top of it it's it's not insignificant do you know what i mean it's not cheap yeah there's a solution for helping at the top end of it is investing into education but but i'm educated and aware and i know about burning plastic will you know contribute to increased levels of illnesses like cancer and asthma in my community and i can afford to spend uh it's four euro per black bin in the recycling center and i can afford the fuel to drive it to you know 45 minute round trip every week into the recycling center but what if someone couldn't afford to do that or what if they had a large family putting rubbish into their car a journey like that it's just not a solution you know if the kinds of continues to make it difficult and expensive for people in rural communities to get rid of waste you know these these things are going to happen there is also a problem though with people at your house yeah you're not going to trouble on the side of the road either i agree with you and i'm not diluting your point right but i gotta um if i say for instance uh heading to downings going out loxalt there's a stretch of road there that there's rubbish on it all of the time all of the time take away rubbish and i'm i'm thinking to myself why is this rubbish there all the time so i was leaving later kenny got myself a takeaway right and um i was eating chips while driving i don't think that's illegal if it is i apologize i won't do it again but anyway by the time i finished my chips i was right at this point where all this rubbish was being dumped so there's people routinely getting themselves something to eat right and dumping it out the windows the same uh the same is in a spot the same distance from donagall town so there are people that don't care they just finish their they finish their take away or whatever roll the window down and just dump it out for some person who goes out at six o'clock in the morning on their own time to pick up with litter pickers in a bin bag so there is a problem as well that's not it's not counteracting your point louise in addition to your point of people that simply do not care yeah it's all about convenience if that's the most convenient thing for that person to do they're going to be driving for the day and they don't want to keep that rubbish you know they balance up their morals and they and their level of convenience and they do what they have to do um it's so someone driving that like every day rubbish is one piece and then the second piece is it is rubbish at their house at their houses you know and how convenient it is for them to get rid of that um but basically all the focus that the council have is on just finding and there is a plan that they have in place so this is actually going to roll out in the whole country i believe this year where they're going to have a new system where residents and renters are asked to provide proof of waste disposal methods now i can't imagine that's going to be full proof you know if you're in a legal dump or you just say i bring my waste to my friend's house you know you know but at least they will have some sort of data um if they do decide to actually try and route out that's a health and safety there's a health and safety issue here as well because if you don't have access to a bin company if they won't pick up or you can't afford it and you don't have access to a vehicle you talk in your email of being you know i think it's a one-hour round trip from the local recycling centre that's if you've got access to a vehicle you know there are going to be people then that are living with this waste around their property they literally have no alternative uh which i mean i mean that is obviously could be problematic to their health waterways water systems you know there's a there's a lot of incentive here for the local authority maybe to look into this and to address it and at the same time that'd be also i think addressing some of your concerns yeah i mean there's obviously a culture of uh where you know if it's convenient for someone to dig a hole in their land and and bury rubbish or for them to burn rubbish that bodies what people do if it's if it's convenient like where we've bought we could see that there was a burn test that we had to fix what what what had obviously been done for the person prior prior how they were managing it and that's what people are doing they're finding their own little solutions of burning burying rubbish uh if the council don't provide a solution for them all right okay well listen let us know if you get any more contact back we're going to contact the council as well pat wants to come in on this conversation pat good morning to you good morning Greg how are you happy to be happy to new year new year to your pat right you're listening to uh louise's conversation what's your experience you well i have a gateway on a pulling way along the end 56 you're just um and i'm targeted with people uh from delivery lorries to delivery vans and um i get a lot of takeaway stuff from i don't know what's been bought in letter kenny and takeaway places and all their chip bags and coke cans is all dumped out at my gate so do you think that your distance from letter kenny is just about the average time it takes someone to finish their takeaway well it's um it's about 15 minutes from letter kenny you know but it's just the average they they just pull in there eat all their stuff and dump it all out at the gate and it blows up the road and down the road the tin the tin trays the paper bags the napkins the plastic bags yes with uh names of takeaway places you know and i often thought there should be uh what would i call it levy put on it on all takeaway stuff that the council could afford to send somebody out to collect this stuff then or print the number plate on the on the bags that would be a good idea you know wouldn't be very good idea long tracking down uh you wouldn't belong tracking down who's responsible but what do you do i really want to pull in what do you do do you i mean you you can't perpetually eternally be going out picking up other people's rubbish if i see somebody sitting there i can't just stop and say well um you can't be to yeah you know what i mean i know so you just got to drive on past yeah okay i hope it takes this stuff with them i'll put up a dummy camera or put up a dummy camera or something you could do that we're spit bowling on air here pat but anyway listen it is it is and it's a pattern of behavior and it's been going on for ages and as you say there should be a levy for cleaning it up or uh you know number plates printed on bags automatically for drive-throughs or whatever it might be uh right pat listen thanks i'm sorry you have to go through that but thanks for your story i appreciate it take care right and a happy new year again to you pat right louise before you go sorry you're in rural ireland um you you you chose this the the satellite broadband starlink it's elin mosk's initiative it's remarkable what they're doing up in space like trails and trails of these satellites in low orbit uh that's your internet solution for you how's that working for you just in case any other listeners are interested in it yeah it's good um apparently both work for home uh most of the time and uh it's good you get about 250 megs every day always so it's not like perfect you know we had a small bit of problem with it but for the most part it's it's really really good and in terms of we'll take the fiber when it comes in but of course yeah yeah it it's it's a we couldn't live where we live we live in a really really beautiful part of shunning all this really really really nice but we couldn't live there if we if we didn't have the internet so uh yeah we're pretty happy to have it and do you have 24 hours a day yeah yeah we have no latency no downtime uh it's it's perfect we were on video calls most of the day uh and it's no problem we've lived in a few places we lived on a boat uh on the shannon during lockdown for like uh two summers and we worked remotely and it was a little bit difficult with the broadband we had then but uh the starting is it's super super good hold on any second stops dropping interesting bits of information just as we're ending you lived on a boat through lockdown what was that like yeah it was good yeah it was good again it was one of the things where we just got made remote so we just just decided to do it um yep was it static or did you tour in it uh we we toured in it we moved different different places we did lockdown to lock free although it's up further than that now but yeah brilliant all right well done listen Louise really interesting I don't want to take away from your initial point which is a very very important one it's about access to to refuse collection and uh I do I get where you I try and get to some of these recycling centers and all the lads and ladies in there and they work hard and the they're great people but sometimes it's a bit hit and misses when they're scheduled to be open it's not the workers within them but it can feel a bit it doesn't you know maybe if you need to go and do something in an evening or what have you you know I think maybe there could be a bit more accessible uh and in in more locations but Louise listen thanks for all your time I really appreciate it okay thanks thanks for taking my call I never thought I'd call in a show for something but I really appreciate it taking that taking the time and I hope to hope that the chancellor listening to do something you know yeah and really valid points and solution focused as well thanks Louise take care of yourself a call us as we had a great service here in the Rosses area with the green refuse bags which we dropped off at a designated point but unfortunately this service has ceased why did that go away I wonder because of uh you know pay by weight and all that type of stuff at centra we have great offers and are better than half price sale like centra fresh arch pork loin roast one kilo now least 669 Robinson's fruit chewed four pack selected range now 183 each and Nestle Cheerios 700 gram now 275 smart choices chewed centra centra live every day winter sale at Brian McCormick sports now on in store and online kids and adults Nike and adidas track tops and bottoms clearing from 15 euro women's fitness pants t-shirts and shorts reduced to clear getting fit this year visit the winter sale at bmcsports.ie look the part play the part in store and online click and collect on bmcsports.ie it's the right price tiles and wood flooring half price sale get up to 50 percent of all tiles wood flooring bathware cladding everything's reduced tiles from only 899 per square yard and wood flooring from only 1199 per square yard right price tiles and wood flooring half price January sale is now on there's no place like a foie and company home our big January sale is now on we're also giving away 100 euro foie's vouchers every day for 12 days in January for a chance to win visit our social media for details foie's big January sale is now on at foie's.ie and in store in letter Kenny and Balbuffet there's huge discounts off all interior paints wallpaper ready made and custom made curtains also off cushions rugs household and gifts lighting kitchenware and much more another Christmas gone another year begun another opportunity to do those things you've been meaning to do for so long maybe doing something about your hearing loss is one of those things at hidden hearing we are the hearing experts our expert audiologists will assess your needs and recommend what's right for you the results can be life changing book a free hearing test today go to hiddenhearing.ie or call 1-800-370-000 hidden hearing your hearing is our expertise all right brooks gullion uh joins us on the program good morning to you brook how are you i'm good how are you keeping it's great to have you back on the show and uh we're going to have you back on the telly because you are taking part in dancing with the stars it returns to our screens on sunday the eighth of january with 11 new celebrity dancers you are one of them why did you accept the invitation good question genuinely um at the start i was like yes of course glittery costumes uh you're getting a theme every week like you know you do all the styling and i was just more about the what it's gonna look like like not even jumping to the stage rather than the actual process it takes to get there and when i tell you i'm in pieces it is it is so difficult right we know we know you can do the hair through or whatever that might be called and the and the and the finger click uh and a bit more of course we saw from you uh but this is all different disciplines of dance uh there's a lot of learning to do but do you have any background in it brook obviously you've got uh you got rhythm but as i said you know have you anything else that will tool you up for the show apart from your vision um and the choreography i received for that i got kicked out of Irish dancing when i was six um so no not really any any good base uh line to go from like i didn't i didn't do anything when i was younger like dance wise on i just like sang all the time or you know uh did uh maybe plays in the school but never any dancing maybe a box step or something but also too this will allow you more so than uh what you've done in the past i think between the voice and and the Eurovision this will there is also a lot of capacity there for that people to learn a bit more about you a bit more about your personality through expression but also through your words if hopefully you're uh in the show uh in and consecutive weeks yeah i mean i i had no idea it's the biggest show in Ireland like it's absolutely mad the amount of exposure that i'm getting at such a young age and we are working so hard because nobody wants to go out and embarrass themselves nobody wants to you know um get out there and crumble on when under the lights like that would be the worst nightmare so we're working so hard like doing six to eight our days of like intense training and and everything is precise down to your fingertips and do you know what the head rule is actually the thing that is throwing me off in the in the routine but that's what you've we've seen you do it on a massive stage if that's the thing that's throwing you off we're in bother uh come here from a career perspective though listen as you say you know it's brown brook as well and it's great to get it out there but i think i'm correct in saying that your first love is your music you know and uh you've written extensively you've released music you've got your own uh you know you produce an an awful lot of it yourself is that did you have to decide whether or not you you you don't want the reputation of being a jack of all trades i presume and i hope that's not a an offensive question to ask brook but was that a consideration in that did you know your first love remains music and did you have to consider how this progresses that or maybe you see yourself maybe branching out more generally into into the entertainment world look it's not a bad question it's actually interesting i never haven't even give that uh any negative thought for me it was yes while yes my first love is music my whole aspirations be like lie behind me being a performer and in my head like another reason why i took part in the show was okay this will help me like and like and capture jennifer lopez like you know the dancing as well as the singing like i'm showing two sides to yourself when you are performing and we're just securing gigs for this year and uh and i've got a new song coming out in the end of january because i worked hard before christmas and then now i can kind of focus on the dancing wholeheartedly it's just a matter of judging your time wisely and and really it's mature in me a lot in in terms of being an artist and being a performer yeah i noticed actually there's a couple of tracks that have been released over the last while that kind of emulate your style and delivery quite a bit i can't think of the names off the top of my head but i just thought that was interesting that's that's as an aside as an aside right okay so we look forward to seeing you on sunday the 8th of january it's live so there's no spoilers we just we just hope that everything goes well for you and you have a good long run on the show and it's the start of a great year for you either on our tv's or on the stage and and with the release of your music brook thank you so much i really appreciate that hopefully it all goes well i'm sure it will well don't you thanks that's brooks gullion from dairy of course uh the other celebrities on it i know brook and who else do we know uh kevin graham is a comedian leah roark uh was in dairy girls panty bliss uh is a well-known drag artist call mullen um he presents a breakfast show um in the mornings i think he's a former rugby player as well is he uh stephanie roach is a footballer as we know damien miginty um is off an american reality tv show shane burn rugby player dr marie cassidy former state pathologist uh and then we've got brook there paul brogan in all island uh footballer of course with doblin and susan jackson uh who's a blogger so sue me it's it's actually not that bad uh not that bad lineup i suppose uh right okay let's take uh our final break before we bid you farewell coming back with your comments the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio new this week in home store and more all floor lamps are all half price but better hurry because when all the half price floor lamps are gone they're gone also all home gym equipment all one hundred percent cotton printed duvet sets all prestige kitchenware and all feather and down duvets and pillows are all still half price but when they're gone they're definitely gone drop by your local home store and more or visit us online at home store and more dot ie home store and more a happy home sam is an expert at splitting a bill if you didn't order a starter you're not paying for a starter but he's not an expert when it comes to electric cars should he go for mild hybrid full hybrid is he ready for fully electric all he really knows is that he wants a pluggy in one luckily nissan having given people help and advice on electrified vehicles since we introduced the all electric leaf back in 2010 so whatever you are on your journey to electric head to your local nissan dealer to see which electrified vehicle suits you pluggy in or otherwise nissan innovation that excites the red castle oceanfront golf and spa hotel and county dunagall invite you to their weekend wedding showcase on saturday seventh and sunday eighth of january from 11 a.m to 5 p.m view the breathtaking ocean suite set up for a wedding meet the wedding team enjoy refreshments and more avail of superb offers for weddings booked on the day see red castle hotel dunagall dot com have you seen the grand shoes boncran i have their seal on yeah i love grand shoes they're the best for comfortable shoes amazing service great value and better still grants are local and family run grand shoes boncran a seal now on highland radio weather updates with ireland west airport discover edinburgh this summer with ryanair's three times weekly service stunning architecture endless winding streets and an awe-inspiring castle ireland west airport don't just take off take it easy all right let's have a look at the weather forecast for the rest of uh today hasn't changed since the last time i told you windy with strong southwest winds with strong gusts at times especially near the coast mostly cloudy without breaks of rain now that rain will uh clear a little bit to leave some dry clear spells occasional showers then for the evening temperatures of nine or 10 degrees to call it says i went out over christmas with family so we did more driving and socializing what horrified me most was the amount of drink driving which was happening one evening at 7 p.m a fella came into the bar and said there's a checkpoint up the road and one man at the bar said you may give me another pint till they move on uh it wasn't just that night it was almost all of the nights we noticed someone drink and get into their car and drive home and unfortunately whatever level of detection is out there in the garden he would say it's strong um the drink and drug driving statistics would suggest that that is not out of the ordinary and it's a worsening problem uh at least as it relates to the last set of statistics from on goddess yukana why not have a national slowdown day but don't tell the public you're having it could catch far more people than obviously if people know it's happening they will take it handy that day also to the the um also to the strategy uses that people are told when it's happening they're told where the go say fans are um and uh they're asked to alter their behavior it's out in the open they've not done it secretly it's secretly it's great for mary maguire one very special moment forever in the memory bank for her and her family good job she noticed the honor and did not miss out a lot in life is about making good memories it is indeed it's about capturing them and get them into that bottle isn't it i agree with you actually and it's really all there is material ownership we judge ourselves often to on and you hear someone say you know whether it's a property or a car or or something but really our worth shouldn't be measured in material things it's in things like our memories and what we achieve uh if let's look at a university hospital is stuck for staff why am i on the panel for clerical officers since a year past last april i'd love to start working there immediately it's an obviously a question i can't answer greg if people have a medical card it usually means they have low income and or on benefits so not paying income tax into the system what that what funds our health service isn't it partly income tax that's the connection and part of the reason for the mess of a health service too many dodgy scammers avoiding paying income tax in ourland right okay again i i always say this it's not for me to preach but when we are pointing fingers at each other the people that make the decisions that actually decide our health system that run our health system they're sitting back laughing you're saying look at them they're fighting amongst themselves here uh that person there who's uh working thinks it's that person there who's who can't work they think it's their fault they don't think it's our fault it it just plays to the system uh good morning greg just trying to call the doctor surgery and at this time in the morning they've reached capacity for phone calls this is a joke i believe that is uh a surgery that we get quite a lot of calls on um and they are very busy we do know that they are very busy i'm an old aged pensioner and i fell i'm in pain and living on paracetamol i'm avoiding getting health care due to the state that it's in my back is in pain does anyone have any tips on how to cope with a bad back here's a tip for you please go to your gp and demand to see them all get yourself to hospital none of the conversations we ever ever have on this program is to scare people away from the health system to discourage people from going to the health system please if you've got a bad pack a bad pack and if you're an older person you you will be seen to and you will get you need to get an x-ray to make sure you haven't cracked something so don't be chewing paracetamol get yourself up to ed get yourself checked over and an x-ray please don't be fearful of going into the system a lot of the delays we're talking about might not affect you you probably will be seen really quite quickly and i never ever want to do anything on this program that might encourage that lovely listener to avoid the health care system please engage with it you'll be the better for it that would just be the one piece of advice in fact i implore you to do that for us please