 being professionals in the Northwest. Donegal Newbold and Rebold 2023. It will take place in the Mount Eregal Hotel, Letterkenny. Admission is free to this three-day event from March 10th to March 12th. This ad is kindly sponsored by Patterson Kitchens. Thanks to your company this Thursday. Have a nice day. It's going to be nice weather today. Getting chilly now. Next week. Do you know what this taught? Is that all? Let's try though. No, no, it is. You know how they're saying it, but there could be a cold spell coming. There is, but no art. If you see the papers try and make out, it's going to be the beast from the east with some arctic freeze. It's going to be chilly next week, but at least it'll be dry. There's no snow or nothing like that, is there? It could be wee bits of snow now. There's not an old flood of moisture forecast, but there could be the sprinkling. I wouldn't expect to see. You don't mind the cold as long as it's dry, you know? Well, the heat and the house is the problem. You need a hat. It gets cold. You need a hat. Do you wear a hat, do you? No. Do you not? Do your head not get cold? It's just like old leather now at this stage. Is it? Yeah. I don't know what it is. Is it? Yes. All right, okay. I'll get a hat for next week, see if it improves the situation. Pete Fletcher has those great hats out there, so how the hell are you? Would you wear it? I would. I would. If there's one gone for free, anything for free, Highland Radio, Mountaintop, Leather Canyon. Yeah. All right then. Put me in there too, will you? Last time I said it, we got pancakes, so you know what? You did not, did you? We did. You're on the scrounge every day, are you? It's a new policy. I'm going to try, you know, if you don't ask, you don't get. Stretch or starve. Exactly. Right. Lee, have a good easy tomorrow for the last show the week, believe it or not, already tomorrow. Okay, let's get a news update at nine o'clock, or a minute past, actually, and say good morning, Michaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. The T-shock has told the doll that issues around engineering costs being faced by families moving through the defective block redress scheme are being considered by the housing minister. Leo Radker was responding to Donegal Deputy Thomas Pringle, who told the doll a Donegal family has seen less than 70% cost recovery after their mic affected home near Newton Cunningham was demolished. Deputy Pringle asked how the government can still claim 100% redress is on the table. Despite your chatter, the new scheme will not provide much more relief for the family. We are sick telling you that the scheme, old or new, will not work as best in the set up. When will you and your government wake up to those factors? I'm aware of the issue around engineering costs, something that Deputy Joe McHugh spoke to him about only at the weekend, has spoken to Minister Brian Evagini as giving it consideration. A Donegal concert says the HSC must consider whether a special package of incentives is necessary to attract people to work in Innocheon. When he asked a series of questions about respite services in North Innocheon at a meeting of the HSC Regional Health Forum, Councillor Albert Doherty says progress is possible at Riverwalk House, but it cannot be legally progressed until a nurse manager is in place. He was told the job was offered five times to a nursing panel, accepted twice and then declined twice. And the nursing panel is now in place and the post has been offered to another person. Councillor Doherty says this raises serious questions. I believe the HSC have to take up the gauntlet that is this void that remains here and a full PR of what is available to prospective employees who take up employment. I think we have to ensure that it's attractive. Perhaps we must look at incentives as well that can attract the right people for the vacant jobs that presently exist. The Agriculture Minister says government will consider taxing the two state-owned energy providers if prices don't fall. Reports today suggest ESB Electric Ireland and Borgos could face a special dividend used by the state to offset high bills for consumers. The government expects to see reduction in homeowner bills in the near future. Minister Charlie McConn-Lokes says action will be taken if that doesn't happen. We certainly hope that we are over the worst of that and certainly in terms of the international energy markets it's reflecting that. But we need to see that now translate to homeowners and to businesses. And if we don't, the government will consider all options to actually ensure that that happens and ensure that nobody is profiteering in the back of the hardship that people have had to face in terms of energy, heating their homes and running their businesses over the past year. Whether I'm mainly dry today with sunny spells and well-scattered light showers afternoon temperatures of seven or eight degrees. That's all from Highland Radio. News for now will be back with news again at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. Now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9th and Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Good morning and away we go again for another Thursday, the 2nd of March, 2023, it's five minutes past nine. How are you keeping? You're very welcome along to the 9th and Noon Show. We have, as always, a packed show for you and we want your views and your say. And if you want to raise an issue, you know yourself. 086625000, 086625000, WhatsApp's and text that number or give us a call on 0749125000. Emails to comments at highlandradio.com, comments at highlandradio.com, or you can hop on to your smart TV, your Firestick, your tablet or mobile phone, laptop, watch the show live on Facebook or on YouTube or on our website at highlandradio.com. I have a whole pile of papers in front of me today because it is a Thursday. It's the busiest day of the week in our part of the world for newspapers. So let's see what's making the headlines on the front of and inside some of them. We'll start with the Chicano Tribune. The Office of the Planning Regulator has proposed major changes to the letter Kenny draft plan submitted by the Council's Planning Unit in Lifford during the six weeks public consultation period. 38 submissions were made across a range of interest. This process closed two weeks ago. The OPR has significant powers and only the Minister for Housing can overturn decisions of the Office. Details of the OPR recommendations and observations have significant implications in the area of land rezoning, housing construction, future road strategy, economic development, flood mitigation, climate action, obligation and much more extensive coverage as you can imagine on the front of and inside on page two of the Chicano Tribunal. I'll work one into that story for you today. On to the Donegal News now and four of Donegal's TDs have vowed to send back a pay increase, which came into effect yesterday. Wage packets of Oroctus members and public servants have risen by 2% in the deal brokered amid soaring living costs. For TDs, that adds up to an increase of 2,000 euro. It takes the basic pay before expenses of a deputy to an all-time high of 107,376. So TDs are earning a basic salary of 107,000 euro. That's up from the previous Celtic Tiger era peak of 106. So it's the most they've ever been paid. Both Donegal, Sinn Féin, TDs, Pierce Daugherty and Porc McLaughlin have confirmed that they will not be accepting the extra money due to the financial pressures being felt by the general public. Independent TD Thomas Pringle said he had rejected previous pay rises and would do so again. A spokesperson for Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlemate Conalogue said ministers annually hand back a percentage of their wages to the state and that practice will continue. And I think that's it, is it? I don't see a quote here from Joe McHugh. I'll get to that. So maybe they couldn't get to speak to him, but I did read through the article, but now it's a glance over. I can't see it. That was the Donegal News. On to the Donegal Democrat now and as we were hearing on the program yesterday, buildings at St. Cardinals Hospital in Letter of Kenny, which have not been used and have been lying empty for years, may be brought back into use under new plans. Over the last decade, the Health Service Executive, Capital and the States have carried out a number of projects on St. Cardinals campus. The works include internal refurbishments, the roof coverings being replaced, re-rendering and external facades and window repairs continuing. But as we heard yesterday, all the public want is the space to be used effectively and to make experience at Letter of Kenny University Hospital less crowded and more pleasant. You know, no talk, just do it. I think the stage is that where we're at. The Derry News now this morning, Railway passengers terrified by signal failure. A rail passenger said he was left terrified by the events surrounding an apparent signal failure in Belfast's great Victoria Street train station. Speaking to Derry News, the man said he had taken the 5.38 p.m. Derry to Belfast train on Saturday. He added the train was delayed when we reached the end of the line because it had been directed into a platform from which there was another train waiting to pull out. It was pitch black outside and all I could think of was what if we hit that train? I was terrified. They had to reverse our train out, switch tracks and come back in. We eventually pulled into platform four. An awful tragedy, a rail tragedy in Greece which is covered in some of the papers. We'll get to that a little later on an incredible loss of life. 38 people died. It must have just been a horrendous thing to be involved in. But as I say, we'll reference that in papers later. On the Irish Independent today, state-owned energy companies like ESB face the prospect of a new levy on above normal profits to help households offset their soaring energy bills. Ministers are so far reluctant to haul in energy companies over their failure to pass on wholesale price cost savings to customers by reducing their bills. But new measures, in addition to the planned wonderful tax on private energy firms to recoup some of the profits in the sector are now being actively examined. T. Shockley of Radcor has raised the prospect of a special dividend being taken from state-owned energy companies such as ESB which is kind of interesting because he sat across from me here, he sat across from me here a number of months ago and I said to him at the time when electricity prices were going up, you know, what about a windfall tax on profits to ease the cost of electricity for the companies. And he said at that time, well, in terms of presuming meant the wholesale suppliers that they're outside of Ireland, you know, the shells and what have you. And, you know, they couldn't really do much about it when everything was on the table. And here we are months and months and months and months later and we're still, we are still being screwed by the electricity companies and we're still just talking about what can be done. I asked a few people yesterday as to a few simple questions that I asked on the show yesterday morning, you know, at what stage do companies buy on the wholesale markets for how long at what price? You know, I think we should have that information. Are they now buying at lower prices? Do they wait till the higher price stuff runs out? Could they not do some sort of a medium between the two? It's all a big mystery as to, you know, and who oversees what the prices are in the wholesale markets? You know, where's the oversight there? Can they just pick a price? Can they name a price? And then we have this ridiculous situation whereby effectively the price of electricity is struck at the most expensive rate regardless of it being wind energy, solar energy. They all get paid, do they not, the one highest rate which will be dictated primarily by gas? Will it not? Crazy old system. And it's lost the, this whole the stories today. 375,000 people couldn't pay their energy bills last year. 375,000 people couldn't heat their homes and we've got energy companies, and I'm not gonna keep on about it, but you said just grace. We've got energy companies making record profits. Record profits off, literally off our backs. All right, the Irish Times this morning, almost 1900 AIB borrowers secured private debt write-offs of more than 90% since the financial crash the bank has disclosed in the wake of the controversy over former hurler DJ Kerry's deal. The majority state-owned bank will tell the Rockers Finance Committee today that these deals were agreed outside the formal bankruptcy and insolvency process where borrowers have fully disclosed their financial affairs and agreed to maintain a reasonable lifestyle. Jim O'Keefe, AIB's managing director of retail banking will say in an opening statement to the committee that a further 4,300 borrowers had their debts reduced in approved personal insolvency arrangements, a post-cratch mechanism that allows people escape unaffordable loans. Now, the devil will be in the detail, of course. We saw someone who owned many, many millions of euro ending up having to play 60,000 euro back, a write-down of monumental proportions. There are others that have availed of write-downs, but what's the mechanism, who qualified? You know, why are some of us out there, for example, you know, with worthless assets, I'm thinking of people with defective concrete homes not getting any write-down, not getting any arrangements with the bank. Is it who you know, what you know, who's doing this? I believe it's outside the bankruptcy and insolvency process. Who's getting it done? How are they getting it done? Again, hopefully, a lot of those answers will be questions asked today and answers forthcoming. I don't want to burden you with too much bad news, but knowledge is power, and I suppose some of you might need to know, and it's in the Irish Daily Mail today, that mortgage interest rates for some homeowners could hit a crippling 8% later this year, adding thousands of people's, adding thousands to people's bills. Many vulture funds were already charging more than 6.5% on some of the 130,000 mortgages they hold, and that's three times what a lot of people are paying out there. However, that rate is before the next planned increase in March, financial expert, Park Cassane, told the Dolls Committee on Finance yesterday, and some homeowners face even further increases according to Sinn Fein Finance spokesperson, Pierce Daherty. People have contacted me, he said, and they're already on 7.5%, and it's going to go to 8, a jump to 8 from the current average variable rate of 3.85% on a 300,000 euro mortgage would send repayments up 713 euro a month from 1,547 to 2,026, so I mean, that's just, that's just, no one can, very few people can absorb that, even TDs with their increased income might struggle. The Irish Farmers Journal, over 46,000 farmers have been accepted into the agro-climate, rural environmental scheme, bit of a mouthful, that's acres. This after-minister for agriculture, Charlie McConnel, announced that space has been found for all valid applications. Farmers are now expected to draw down a combined 266.6 million euro in payments this year and 1.33 billion over the scheme's five-year duration. Farmers who applied as individuals can claim up to 7,300 for each year of the scheme with payments expected average around 5,000 euro per year, that's the acres scheme. A lot of news this morning, of course, about the fire at a Wexford hospital, thankfully, we'll be talking about this until later on in the programme, of course, it's a really significant story, but thankfully, no injuries. But more than 200 patients had to be evacuated last night after a blaze ripped through part of Wexford General Hospital. Although nobody was injured in the drama, hospital bosses declared a major emergency when the fire erupted just before 4pm. Many of the patients were moved to other hospitals in the southeast, Cork and Dublin, as dozens of fire personnel battled the inferno. It's a small fire, but it's not insignificant because it could have damaged the infrastructure in terms of one part of the hospital feeding another. Therefore, people are going to have to be moved to other hospitals, maternity or pediatrics to Dublin and so on and so forth, already hospitals in that area, as they all are under severe pressure. Onto the Irish Daily Mirror now, and dozens of people from Northern Ireland working in Donegal exploited a benefits loophole to print off their own COVID certs and defraud more than €65,000 in illegal payments. The 34 employees made dozens of bogus enhanced illness benefit claims, while still turning up for work and claiming their full salaries. A number of staff, all resident in Derry, appeared before Bunkrana District Court, where they admitted fraud. All of the employees living in the north were able to claim the bogus COVID payments after realising they did not have to have any proof of medical intervention for their claims. Instead, all they had to do was to log on to a national health service website in the UK and print off a self-isolation cert. This allowed the employees to receive further payments under the enhanced illness benefit scheme of €350 per week, while they were already being paid their normal wages by their unsuspecting employer. The fraud only came to light when eagle-eyed staff in the control section of the illness benefit scheme spotted an unusual, sorry, an unusual increase in such claims from individual employees of the company, sparking the probe by inspectors in the Innishaun Special Investigations Unit. According to the Department of Social Protection Investigators, the company for which the employees worked knew nothing of the scam and cooperated fully with the investigation. Judge Atain Cunningham accepted the pleas in a number of cases and issued fines to the offenders after hearing plans to pay back the money to the Department of Social Protection. Those plans to pay that back were now in place. And last but certainly not least, that Greek train crash. Survivors of a head-on train crash that killed 38 people have told of 10 nightmarish seconds when their carriage overturned and was engulfed in flames. They were trapped as a passenger train hit a freight train travelling in the opposite direction at high speed outside the Greek city of Larissa. Now, you can imagine the impact and the noise and the disruption. It would have been horrific. Most of those killed, including two drivers on each of the trains, died instantly with the first two carriages of the passenger train destroyed on impact. Flames swept through the derailed third and fourth carriages, forcing passengers to batter through windows to escape. And as I say, I don't need to paint the picture of the horror that must have unfolded during those moments and since as well, of course. OK, 08, 6, 60, 25,000. WhatsApp, sand text to that number, if you've anything to say. 07491 25,000 if you wish to give us a call and hop on our social media via any of your devices, Firestick, smart TVs, tablets, laptops or whatever, if you wish to show and see, if you wish to watch. And you'll see many of the guests on the show as they join us. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra, Mountaintop Letter Kenny, the 2022 Seastore National Off-Licence of the Year. We can all see how conflict affects energy supply and prices. More than ever, we need to be mindful of how we use energy. By reducing your use, you can save money and lessen the impact. Here's how. Only heat your home to the temperature you need. Use appliances efficiently. And where possible, outside the peak hours of 4 to 7 p.m. Consider walking, cycling or public transport for short journeys. Drive at lower speeds where safe to do so. Government advice and supports are available for homes and businesses to help you meet this challenge. Find out more at gov.ie forward slash reduce your use. Brought to you by the Government of Ireland. Choose life. Choose fun. Choose not sitting at home getting bored. Choose something better. Something really fun. Choose Fundomania. Coming to the Brunswick Movie Bowl from March 3rd. Choose regular, junior or family wristbands and enjoy some of Europe's top thrill rides. Choose fun for all ages. A legendary Fundomania event, 3rd to 19th March. For details, see Fundomania.co.uk. At Unpust, we believe in the power of words to change lives. Right now, 1 in 6 adults in Ireland have difficulty with reading and understanding information. This limits their opportunities in life. That's why Unpust supports the National Adult Literacy Agency's work to improve adults' reading and writing skills. We're going to take a look at some of the best books that we've ever read. Unpust is a work to improve adults' reading and writing skills. We're also enabling volunteers to tutor primary school students with our Unpust Time to Read programme delivered by Business in the Community Ireland. And today, to celebrate World Book Day, we're working with Children's Books Ireland to deliver thousands of books for free to children. We're creating opportunity for all so everyone can leave a mark. Unpust, for your world. Now, multi-trists in part of the show are going to face a significant detour this month for what I imagine are essential works if they're going ahead in and around the Moff area. To find out more about this, we're joined on the programme by Councillor Terry Croson. Terry, thanks for taking the call today. I agree and thank you for having me. Now, what's going on here? I mean, obviously there's going to be quite a good bit of local knowledge there, but this is a popular route for people maybe from a little outside the area. So what is going to be happening over the next month? Yeah, absolutely, Greg. From approximately the 27th of March until maybe the 7th or 8th of April, there will be significant works going ahead on the main street. It's a project that my self and indeed all our councillors prior to me coming on, the council have been trying to get on a project and now that we have it, you know, it's going to be a very welcome piece of work. It's a very essential piece and, you know, obviously it's not going to, it's going to be in the convenience of some people now. I put the information out there about a month ago on my social media that the idea was for overnight and that there would be road closures. At that point in time, I didn't get any negative responses, but I advise people that there would be a notice in the local papers and that people could have an opportunity to object. I know there have been a number of objections and I think that the Donegal County Council have to take those on board and what I would like to see is I would like to see the Donegal County Council engage with the objectors and possibly explore other options if there are other options. Well, let's stay to that, Terry, because I mean, listen, I think everyone understands that for things to improve, there's going to be some inconvenience. Do you know what I mean? That the old omelette and eggs and all that kind of stuff. That being said, it's a tough pill to swallow for some, and I don't know. I presume thousands of people use this road on a daily basis to have to have a 70-kilometre detour effectively via bridge end. Are there no alternatives? No alternative routes? No... Greg, that 70-km feature pertains to large HDV traffic. Right, OK. Smaller traffic can avail of other more local roads. I mean, a car coming from Quigley's Point could go up the Calhame in Shabble and come out at Lennemore and totally avoid... And pardon my ignorance, Terry. That road is suitable for two-way traffic? Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Right, so particularly then the HDVs that are going to be inconvenienced. Now, normally what we see is maybe one half of a road being done, a stop-go system allowing traffic on the other side and vice versa. Overnight works also, often are employed. Why, as far as you can determine at this stage, Terry, why are those options not on the table? Well, as far as I'm concerned, and my information to date is that on previous occasions, that system had been in place and caused huge traffic backlogs, you know, almost as far back as Quigley's Point and from the north way beyond the Calhomore. So I think it's something that has been talked about between the engineers in the Donegal County Council and the contractors now. My information is it's going to... There is a significant amount of cost to do the works at night, but that has been measured against the inconvenience that they caused as the works were to be carried out during the day. But what I would like to... So, Terry, just to be clear, sorry, are we looking at nighttime closures then while the works are ongoing overnight or is it daytime closures? The nighttime closure from 7 p.m. until 6 p.m., that is how it is as we... As I said earlier on, there have been a number of objections. I'm not sure how many, maybe possibly no more than half a dozen, but I think that there is an opportunity here where Donegal County Council have to take the objectors on board and I think what they need to do is have a conversation about this. It may not change the situation, but at least it gives the council an opportunity to explain the logic in the nighttime closure. OK, so I'm sure, Terry, because I don't want to... It's a little bit outside the areas I'd be very familiar with. Will people still be able to access Derry via this road during the day? No, not through the main street. Right, OK. There will be... There is alternative routes that may take HTVs through Cairndona, Drumfreeze, Bunkrana and out there in the Bridgian, but for cars there are other routes, other local routes that are payable and I would hope that the Donegal County Council would mark those clearly so that ordinary cars can avail of these routes. Yeah, I'd agree with that because what you end up with sometimes is just detour signs and then there are multiple turns between both detour signs and I think the locals on these alternative routes I think as well, they're going to have to put up with a bit of extra traffic, just put actual names of places on these signs and make it clear for motorists who aren't familiar with the area. Yeah, absolutely. I emphasise with the people who these works are going to impact on the most and we have to take their concerns on board and that's why I'm encouraging the Donegal County Council to engage with these people and at least explore or be given the opportunity to explain the logic behind the closure times and the various different that may be available. But this work needs to be done. I mean, it is much needed work too. That's the rub here isn't it Terry? This is not something that can be deferred. We need this work done. So it's just a case of minimising disruption as much as actually possible. The road date for many years we have ongoing issues with subsidence and it's not going to improve. There has been numerous remedial projects carried out to no avail and at a significant cost to the taxpayer. These are going to recur and recur until the project is addressed properly and significant works are carried out to mitigate against what has been caused. Yeah, all right Terry, good stuff. Listen, thanks for your time this morning. I appreciate it, Councillor Terry Croson. Now there's a few comments actually that slipped under my radar here. We were speaking to Margaret towards Tuesday. It must have been Tuesday. Margaret was on with us and articulated very well and very clearly her displeasure at cash not being accepted at the turnstiles for some games, GEA games. That this was an inconvenience for firstly a lot of people that like to use cash. There are many of you out there and I know that and rightly so and it's good to see the government recognising that and working on plans to make sure that your cash is accepted. But it's not accepted by the GEA for certain games it seems. Well, we know it's not. I'm not sure if we had a response from the GEA since on that. I'll double check with Caroline. But here's some of your comments in support of Margaret. In response to Margaret read GEA, I agree with her. They should take cash, respect their supporters. It is the norm now. No cash, but no thought for older people cannot even get on a boss unless it's booked. This is all slipped in with the excuse of COVID. Yes, indeed. The buses are another significant problem. Another Margaret is right. Cash should be taken at the gates as the County Board has said. No one would be turned away with cash. Inside the Granites cash, the programme halftime drawn also for the shop. Why they were charging four euro for a programme in Old Donald Park when the programme at last on the Gauls game in Balabfa was three euro with three more pages of written material. Another I definitely support the cash option for the games as I know for sure my husband can't go to games unless my son's going as he doesn't have a phone and has missed a lot of games. That's for me the unacceptable part of this. I support paying cash at the gate, says another. Tickets for into County games can be bought in Super Value All Centre stores. That's coming in from Pat, but I understand Pat and you're quite correct, but not everyone is close to them either. So, you know, rather than being able to pay for cash at the gate, you might have a 15 kilometre round trip to your local Super Value All Centre store. They do great work, don't get me wrong, but again, that's not really a solution, is it? The most definitely should be cash received at the turnstile, at the football matches. I'm 46 years of age and still hate booking things online as do a lot of people. Not just the elderly, paying cash or cards should always be an option. Totally agree with Margaret, says a couple more. And last one for now, I totally agree with Margaret. Cash is legal tender. I'm in my 40s. We sort of obviously, you know, we might highlight the particular inconvenience for a certain group of individuals, but lots of people only want to use cash. They don't trust the cards. They're afraid someone's going to come with one of these portable machines and tap their back pocket and take their money. I'm not saying that happens routinely, but I mean, a lot of people might have those concerns and want to hold on to the cash in their wallet. But the direction of traffic seems to be away from that. We'll keep on that subject and we'll continue to try and get an answer from the county borders to the justification. I think one caller made a good point in that cash is accepted elsewhere within the ground. All right, so where's the logic? Back with more shortly. What does the green economy mean for your business? How can you unlock your business digital potential? The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is holding a free Building Better Business event on Friday the 3rd of March at the Atlantic Technological University in Letterkenny. The event will highlight the opportunities, the challenges and the government supports that can help you navigate your green business journey and boost your business performance through digital transformation. Come along and build a better business. To register and to find out more, visit enterprise.gov.ie. OK, we're joined on the programme now by Mora Niveraku, who is the chair of the Irish Self-Catering Federation. Good morning to you, Mora. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you, Greg. Good morning. Right, we are talking about new legislation which the government are working on. It's targeting short-term rental properties. I think pre-Christmas, it was particularly in rent pressure zones, but sort of over that holiday period just before or shortly afterwards, the blanket has been thrown wider. This is all self-catering. This is all sort of short-term rentals. We're talking Airbnb properties here, I think, for the most part. Other providers are available, but that's what we're talking about here, Mora, isn't it? No, it's actually more than that, Greg. It's self-catering. It's B&B. It's if you've got a boat where people can sleep on, if you've got a glamping, if you've got a yurt, if you've got a cabin, if you've got self-catering on hotel grounds, all of it is covered. But mostly this is advertised in Airbnb, isn't it? No, it's all advertising. So in other words, there are three main companies in the Irish market, Airbnb being the best-known one, but there's also Expedia and Booking.com. So if you advertise in any of them, it affects it. You mentioned bed and breakfast. You mean all regular bed and breakfasts would...? If they have more than four rooms, if they have under four rooms, they have to register, but they're not affected in the same way by this legislation because the self-catering people will have to apply for a planning permission to be designated self-catering, and that comes with quite a lot of complications. The first one is that if you get designated self-catering, you're evaluating your property, and you may not get the designation back as to say a long-term house again. So in other words, if you've got Granny's house that you were renting out for some years in the hope that the kids are going to come home, well, if you get this designation, it may not be possible because it becomes a short-term rental. The cost of it, it could cost between 3,000 and 5,000 per house to get this designation, and people aren't earning that much money from their self-catering rentals. So the planning is the big issue for us. We do want to register because it will quantify the number of properties we have in the country, and I think that's a good starting point, but I think the need for planning permission as well is just... I was going to say too complicated. It's completely disorganized where the Department of Housing is concerned. Yeah, but is that not by design rather than accident? It's clear they want to disrupt this short-term letting market so that more of these properties become available to long-term renters. Whether or not that's justified, that's the aim here. They're not going to try and streamline it and make it easy because that's not really the end game here. True, but if somebody's needing a house in Dublin, they're not going to be very happy to be told that they've got a house in Guido or somewhere else in Donegal. It is not much good to them because the housing crisis are in the urban areas and we do see that there is a need within the urban areas the rent pressure zones for a very controlled housing stock available in the self-catering sector. Not closing it down completely, but it does need to be managed and controlled. But in rural and coastal areas, this rule should not apply. Right, so can we go through an example too, if you don't mind, so it's made very, very clear, right? So let's just say I have a two-bedroom property overlooking the sea, and currently I'm advertising it on, we'll say, Airbnb. I don't want long-term renters in there as such. I just am making quite a few barbs out of this because it's a nice, long holiday season now and it's a good income for me. I invested in this property, I don't have one, by the way. I invested in this property, right? This is my pension or whatever it might be. So up until now, pretty much on regulation, obviously if I had to pay the tax and all that kind of stuff, insurance and everything, up until now, I've been making quite a few barbs out of this over the summer and the occasional weekend here and there, maybe when the rally's on. So for me to continue to do that, I'm doing it for over 21 nights. So for me to continue to do that... Over 20. Yeah, in other words, I'm writing it out loads of the time, right? The whole summer it's booked out. So if that is me, what happens next then? Like what will I have to do to comply with new regulations as they are laid out at the moment? OK, so the first thing I'd have to say is if it's 21 nights consecutively, if it's more than 21 nights consecutively, it doesn't bother you. If it's under 21 nights for any booking, it does affect you. Well, let me just say then... And then we'll continue with the analogy. In the summer, you know, I'm going to be booked out for probably 60 nights in a row. You will, but there'll be different bookings. So there... Ah-ha, I get you, right, OK. You get me. Understood. So this is... It could be 61 nights, but it could be 30 couples. It could be... Yes, no. Yeah. But somebody might book for seven nights, the next person books for three nights. Exactly, yeah, it's made up. Right, OK, so let's continue then. What will I have to do then to comply with new laws? So before I get to that, I have to say that of the people that we have as our membership, 45% of them have used as family or farm income already. They are using it to support their retirement fund, like 35%, and then some people are using it for college fees and for other reasons, right? So it's not just to make... to pay for the house or to make a profit. So that's the first thing. Because the majority of the owners that we have would be women over 45, and they're using it as part of their income, because if they've taken time off to have children, they don't have necessarily much of a pension plan. So by this regulation, if it comes in, they will have to register on the registration system with Folger Ireland, and then they will have to... within six months get planning. And that is the problem. Now, there's also the problem with that before you go on and listen at the end of the day. You're not going to get planning in, for example, in rent pressure zones. That's what I was saying right from the beginning, that they can say, hold on, we can't give you planning because there's a high rental need. Now, that's right across the country now. So really, how many of the thousands we're talking of are going to get past that first hurdle? Well, we have been talking to the Department of Housing for over a year. It seems longer. There are reasons why people in rent pressure zones should be allowed to continue in business. So if they've been seven years in business, if it was built as part of a group scheme, if they've diversified as part of farm income, we have about 20 reasons why in the rent pressure zones they should be allowed to continue. And then outside the rent pressure zones, there would be no actual restrictions in the same way. Right, so if it happened to get planning permission, what next to comply with the new proposed regulations? If you get planning permission is the question. Because I discovered in Kerry, now it's a long way from Donegal. But it's similar, I think, really probably in the demographics we're talking of. In Kerry, they have a lot of enforcement orders going out at the moment. And as a result, the basically closing businesses down, be they on a farm outside town as well as inside town of Kalarney. And we've discovered they're dealing with legislation from 2016. The rent pressure zones came in in 2019, but there were no advice or guidelines with them at that stage. So they're dealing with, they're closing businesses down based on out-of-date guidelines. I don't know what problem they're trying to resolve here because a lot of these properties, they might be sold, I don't know if they're sold or not, but also to, at the moment, the government's going around taking over a lot of these properties to house refugees, for example. They're also looking for thousands of houses to accommodate people that are currently in hotels. The general public could feel that, and this is not anti-refugee or anything like that, don't get me wrong, but this is the current problem, people could feel that they're being regulated and legislated out of a business to be shoe-horned into letting that accommodation go for 800 quid a month. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I mean, that's a lot less than the hotels are getting paid for the same people coming to stay in them. And Donegal and Carrier are in a similar position where a lot of the hotel accommodation has already gone to the refugees and we have no idea when that's coming back into the market. Well, I can tell you what's going to happen because very conveniently, these are three-month contracts and they're being signed out for the summer to be signed back in into the winter. Now, that's great for hotels. Yeah. You know, this is going to make a lot of this property worth less as well, I presume. It is. 20% less. If you've got this STR designation, it's worth 20% less. And there is another little problem in that if you go to sell that property, it has to be sold for cash. You can't get a mortgage on it. Yeah. Now, we're not looking for anyone to try to try and circumvent laws or regulations, but, you know, Airbnb, Expedia and others, they're already sending emails out to the people that they work with, notifying them of these changes. So, in other words, if you are going to be using these companies, for example, you know, there's no right way around this. Now, we're not... I'm not trying to find loopholes or ways around it, but people are going to be caught every which way is the point I'm trying to make. But yes, and the other thing is, and Hasry mentioned that we have... we have quite a lot of Irish agents as well. So, we would have agents in Donegal all over the country. So, people, you know, if people sign up with them, they can deal with... they take bookings as well. So, it's not just the international companies. There are local companies in Ireland. No, I understand that. I think the majority. Also, too, what's... Like, I don't know. I'm not affected by this. I'm making my mind up as we go, right? But, you know, this is going to lead to an accommodation shortage as well. You know, there is a capacity in our hotels. There is a capacity, perhaps, in established bed and breakfasts. You know, if I ran a CAF in certain areas, I would need to think, well, a lot of the people coming into my CAF staying in local Airbnb, for an example. You know, there's more than just the economy of that lady you talked of, over 45 supplementing her pension because she took time off for school. You know, this talks to the broader tourism economy, I imagine. And if people are looking to come to Ireland and they can't find the kind of accommodation they like, they'll look at Portugal or Spain or France or Germany or wherever. Yeah, they will. They won't stay at home. They won't stay in Ireland. And, like, for most of us, the domestic market makes up at least 50% of the customers that we have, and they're very important to the local community as well, to the shops, to the cafes, the activity providers, the visitor attractions. All those earn money from the people who come into the area. And if they're not there, the downstream job losses will be huge. Yeah, like, I mean, I think that this would make an awful lot of sense if we were way over supply versus demand, or if these houses might actually end up being long-term rentals because we do have a housing crisis here. I am not convinced at this point with the various conversations I've had that this is actually going to ease that problem. Finally, what about if you own your own house, right? I've got a house, five bedrooms, four bedrooms or what have you. You know, the family have fled the nest or whatever it might be. And I rent these rooms out. I think really kind of what the likes of Airbnb was right from the get-go, rents out part of your house. Do I escape these regulations in doing so? No, you still have to register. And apply for planning permission to be a short-term... No, you don't have to apply for planning permission in the same way. OK, there's a slight difference there. Yeah, yeah. The problem is, is you're going to struggle, finally, Mura, in making this argument because the argument will continuously be put to you that we're in a housing crisis and we need to house people. And these are people who have got loads of money and are creaming it as is. You know what I mean? The argument against what you're probably looking for is going to be pretty strong. So do you think this can be resisted? Well, we had a lot of support from our Rural TDs and Senators in the Doyle. They have a serious understanding of what the situation is. We had a meeting in Kalarney on Monday night, and it was the councillors who came up with the solution to what the problem was in Kerry. So I think we have a... You know, we're working hard to change this legislation before it becomes law. OK. Yeah. Anything you want to add, finally, Mura? Well, if anybody wants to join the Irish Self-Catron Federation, they can contact us at isef.ie or phone 086-178-5654. Thanks for your time this morning. Take care. Bye-bye. Thanks very much, Greg. Bye-bye. That's Mura Niveraku there. So if you're going to rent out your accommodation on the likes of Expedia Bucking.com, you are going to have to register with Fulcher Ardent. The companies are working with the governments on this, by the way. And, you know, that's how you're going to reach your customers. There's no point putting it in the local paper because, you know, people down the country or across the water are not going to see it. And by registering them with Fulcher Ardent, they have that database. And then you have to apply for planning permission in certain areas. There's no chance you're going to get it because it's not about going to be about the structure you're building. It's going to be to do with things like housing need in the area. But maybe many of you out there think that, you know what? This is what needs to be done here. We need these houses for long-term renters. But what's your views out there? You've heard that conversation. What do you think? I'll wait. 60, 25,000. WhatsApp's in text to that number. Or 07491 25,000. TFI Local Inc. Operate over 1,300 door-to-door bus services nationwide. If you live on or near one of the routes, just pre-book the day before you travel. Simple. Then off you pop from your front door, off to the shops, off to training, or even off to the chipper. And fares now cost 20% less. Find the door-to-door bus routes in your area on transportforireland.ie. If you're on our route, we're on our way. TFI Local Inc. is part of the Transport for Ireland Network. Up to 7,000 euro cash boost for Acres Farmers. For more in your Farmers Journal, visit our website. 30 million euro cash boost for Donegal Farmers. We bring you the full county-by-county Acres Breakdown. All you need to know on the new BizFarm Payment System, an exclusive Irish Farmers Journal investigation reveals how beef factories are using an elite group of mega-finishers to supply a quarter of the national kill and a hike in farmer TB Leves on the cards. All inside this week's Irish Farmers Journal. On sale now. Place on Saturday 4th of March from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Letter Kenny campus. If you're a leaving certificate student, a mature student, a parent or guardian, thinking on a postgraduate degree or interested in upskilling or re-skilling, then come along and discover all that ATU has to offer. Special guest on the day, Dolcha Omahani, will give a talk on leaving certificate guidance and study tips. Bring the family along and enjoy fun, games, music and a complimentary burger bar on the day. Saturday 4th of March, don't miss it. See ATU Donegal's socials to register. Highland Radio weather updates with Ireland West Airport. From March 26th, Air Lingus will operate a daily service to London Heathrow, providing on-road connections to any plus destinations worldwide. Ireland West Airport, don't just take off, take it easy. OK, let's have a look at that weather forecast for this Thursday and I can tell you that. Mostly dry today with sunny spells, well-scattered light showers this evening will be largely dry afternoon temperatures 7 or 8 degrees with light easterly breezes. Good morning, Finola. Good morning. My complaint is that I cannot get a booking for a renew my driving licence. Phone 08-18-919-090. And then you get so many options and then you press maybe one, two or three and then you are asked if you want a renewal of your driver's licence booking you ring 08-18-700-800 and then they give you all the options again and then they tell you that if you want to renew your driver's licence you ring the previous number again and that just goes around in the circle so that I cannot book my driving licence renewal on the phone. Then they obviously are trying to encourage you to go online but you either can't or don't want to do it online you want to ring up and do it over the phone and they are sending you into this matrix, this circle. I actually can't do it online because I haven't got a computer. And I am too old to learn all these new tricks. Why should you have to anyway regardless of your age? Yeah, that's what I am saying. So one number sends you to another number and that number sends you back to the original number you have been trying this for over a week we are going to try these numbers and see what we can come up with but at this stage now you must be pulling your hair out, Finola. Yes, because my driver's licence is going to expire and I will be driving without a licence and the same thing if I wanted to go on the bus the same thing applies I can't book a bus on the phone I have to do it online. There's a serious issue there as well because I am basically trapped in the house. Yeah, I mean I don't think that's an exaggeration either because you don't have access to online facilities you could effectively be off the road without a licence and as you say you need the computer to book a bus ticket and you don't want to have to rely on other people around you to do that for you, you're an independent person. Yes. Right, we're continuing. I'll leave that with you. Yeah, please do, Finola. Yeah, okay. We'll be in touch with you if we get any success in relation to that so maybe you've had this experience that Finola has had I think I mentioned this in passing yesterday but it's good to get a voice to the situation. She's trying to book an appointment for her licence renewal she's been trying for over a week she had one number, she rings that after a series of press one for this, press two for that, press three for the other they give her another number, she rings that number she goes press one for this, press two for that, press three for the other and then they give her a number, it's the first number again so she rings that, well you could be there forever couldn't you you're stuck in the loop at that point it's like time travel or something she doesn't have the facilities to go online she doesn't have a computer, doesn't use a smartphone just wants to ring up and book a licence renewal and again another mention of this really important issue I think it's really important issue of not being able to avail of free travel in some cases because you have to book online and it's difficult for some any insight into that for Finola 08 660 25000 maybe there's a good person listening in an office that deals with licence renewals or appointments that could ring us up and we could try without compromising anyone's GDPR and everyone in contact to get the story to get that situation sorted the Moff Detour will work sorry, I beg your pardon the Moff Detour will work fine if all HDV vehicles are kept off the smaller roads but this won't happen it'll just take one for a gridlock, thanks that would be my concern and I think that's why that's why strong signage is required there isn't it another caller says we live in the centre of Moff Village and of two businesses on the main street we will be more inconvenienced by the roadworks than anyone objecting however we are delighted this work is being done the street and footpaths need done and along overdue one week of convenience for our business is worth it to get the work done indeed and I think I hope that was the tone of the conversation with Terry that we recognise that this work has to be done and I think really he's just hoping that the council do everything they can to limit inconvenience as much as possible but hey there's people directly affected by it but they can see the long game in it ReCache and the GAA Cache can be taken in the ground at venues around the county as it is the clubs that run the shops and draws etc whereas the Donegal County Board also GAA have responsibility for gate revenue and that might be the case but listen we're just sports fans we just want to go and see a game we don't really consider the ins and outs of you know it's the GAA and people want to be able to roll up with their 20-year-old note they pay to get in put their change in their pocket and away they go let's see there is a meeting in Leicester Macawood Hall on Sunday the 4th of March in relation to the closure since before Christmas of the Leicester Macawood doctor's surgery all TDs and councillors will welcome the meeting starting at 8pm I presume and I hope the organisers send an email to the TDs and councillors to formally invite them it's the best way to ensure that they do acknowledge it Greg stop taking so many refugees in when there's no room Irish people fed up with it well we're not taking any more into Donegal at the moment and in terms of Ukrainian refugees coming here it's down to a trickle in the number of international protection refugees has fallen drastically so I understand the point you're making but that problem is seemingly starting to resolve itself Greg what happens if you own a house in Donegal and work in the north and come home every weekend or so which is your home but you choose to rent it out when you're not there yourself again I don't think you're going to get around I don't think you're going to get around it the rules might apply differently but I don't see how you could declare you're not there five days a week all year round sounds complicated to me right got to take a break for the news in a bit where he notices loads coming up in the next couple of hours stay right where you are up to 7000 euro cash boost for acres farmers for more in your farmers journal is Paul Mooney 30 million euro cash boost for Donegal farmers we bring you the full county by county acres breakdown all you need to know on the new biz farm payment system an exclusive Irish farmers journal investigation reveals how beef factories are using an elite group of mega finishers to supply a quarter of the national kill and a hike in farmer t.b. levees on the carts all inside this week's Irish farmers journal on sale now Calla Hans Gala and Go Burt your one stop family shop drive into our newly renovated spacious forecourt fill up with our upgraded modern fuel pumps and save with our keen go fuel prices located on the main letter Kenny to Derry Road where the ideal pit stop on your Donegal journey fast flow fuel self service or attended with a smile shirts all go with Calla Hans Mary here from the cosmetics department at McGee's chemist to let you know that long come have a great beauty gift available here this week buy two long come products one of them to be skin care and you will get a free eight piece gift containing a full size rose sugar scrub absolute day and night travel size creams and more iconic long come products this is available until Saturday the 18th of March or while stocks last for any skin care advice you can always talk to Gemma or myself here at McGee's chemist main street letter Kenny live on air online and on the Highland Radio app this is Highland Radio News good morning it's Donna Marie Doherty with the news at 10 o'clock the office of the planning regulator has raised a number of issues relating to the draft letter Kenny plan and local transport plan 2023 to 2029 one of the major concerns raised by the body was that the plan does not provide an appropriate level of flood risk management the OPR has made a submission to Donegal County Council as part of a public consultation process which has now closed Makayla Clark has more the OPR believes the publication of the draft letter Kenny plan in advance of the completion of the development plan review will give rise to significant practical and legal uncertainties regarding relevant policy framework it has recommended a focus strategy be put in place to deliver housing close to the infrastructure and facilities within letter Kenny and avoid displacement to less sustainable locations transport plan the OPR says it is overly focused on road building projects and is less so on reducing carbon emissions by facilitating and encouraging walking, cycling and other sustainable modes the office notes that the area of land zone for residential purposes is significantly in excess of what is required under national policy which it says has implications for implementation of compact growth and integrated land use on sustainable transport planning on risk management consistent with the national objective under the MPF and a link to the full report is available on our website highlandradio.com Adonigal councillor says the HSE must consider whether a special package of incentives is necessary to attract people to work in Enish own when he asked a series of questions about respite services in North Enish own at a meeting of the HSE at Riverwalk House but it cannot be legally progressed until a nurse manager is in place he was told the job was offered five times to a nursing panel accepted twice and then declined twice a new nursing panel is now in place and the post has been offered to another person councillor says this raises serious questions I believe the HSE have to take up the government role of what is available to prospective employees who take up employment I think we have to ensure that it's attractive perhaps we must look at incentives as well that can attract the right people for the vacant jobs that presently exist the health minister has commanded the work of emergency services for their response to the fire at Wexford General Hospital yesterday the majority of the 220 patients have now been evacuated to the hospital with 41 still on site plans are still being worked out by health officials but it has been confirmed that the hospital's maternity services will be temporarily transferred to University Waterford speaking at Wexford this morning the health minister Stephen Donnelly says there were also a major response from neighbouring hospitals the latest information we have is that we have had no injury either from smoke inhalation I've spoken with the senior team here on site and they are emphasising the extraordinary response that they have seen from the emergency services but as well as that the wider health services responded Waterford hospital Kilkenny hospital CHI in Dublin the agricultural minister says government will consider taxing the two state owned energy providers if prices don't fall reports today suggest ESB Electric Ireland and Borg-Gauch could face special dividend used by the state to offset high bills for consumers the government expects to see a reduction in the homeowner bills in the near future Minister Charlie Mcconnelly says action will be taken if that doesn't happen we certainly hope that we are over the worst of that and certainly in terms of the international energy market it's reflecting that but we need to see that now translate to home owners and to businesses in the back of the hardship that people have had to face in terms of energy heating their homes and running their businesses over the past year and now for weather mainly dry today with sunny spells and well scattered light showers after doing temperatures of 7 or 8 degrees that's all for now we'll be back with more news headlines at 11 o'clock the obituary notices for this Thursday morning March the 2nd the death has taken place of Sheamus Behan Ashling Butcher Street Lifford reposing at St Patrick's Church Murlock Lifford from 5 o'clock this evening recreation masks to more morning at 10 o'clock followed by interment in St Mary's Cemetery Malmount donations and lay of flowers placed to the Donegal Hospice care of quickly funeral directors recreation masks can be viewed live at Nail Neale 92 Muldonner Road for Glen County Derry reposing at her late home funeral tomorrow morning leaving her late home at quarter past 10 for 11 o'clock recreation masks in St Peter and St Paul's Church for Glen interment immediately afterwards in the adjoining graveyard family flowers only placed donations if wished in lieu to Northern Ireland chest heart and stroke care of community neck oil Malville Road County reposing at her home funeral from there on Saturday morning at half past 10 going to the Church of the Sacred Heart County for recreation masks at 11 o'clock with interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery the death has occurred of May Griffin Drombo St. Norler at 11 o'clock interment afterwards in Drombo's cemetery the recreation masks will be streamed live via the parish webcam donations in lieu of flowers if so desired to the patients comfort fund St. Joseph's community hospital care of any family member family time from 10 o'clock tonight her daughter Collette Lokes home 91 Valley Coleman Estate Strabane funeral from there this afternoon at half past 12 for recreation masks in the church of the Immaculate Conception Strabane at 1 o'clock followed by private cremation afterwards in Legland's crematorium family time to Heine Radio.com Hi Did you know that your Irish Life pension could help the planet by investing less in companies that harm the environment and more in those trying to help it while always aiming to give you the strongest possible return see Irish Life.ie for pension funds that have on Highland Radio. Great to have you back listening for the second hour of the program. Good morning if you have just joined us. A call us says if the doctor passes you a medical cert for your license, your license can be valid for three years. It doesn't have to be every year, of course, but we don't know if Enola is at the end of the three years or whether her doctor might pass her for three or not. Driving license, just go into the letter Kenny office. The ladies in there are so helpful, and I'm sure they are. But Enola's not from letter Kenny. Now, of course, she could drive down. She could buy herself a laptop as well. She just wants to ring up and there is a service there to ring up and book the appointment, but she's been looped between two numbers, but we really appreciate your suggestions and thank you so much for that. And I've heard great things about the people working in that office in letter Kenny as well, which is good. Keep up the great work. A call us says if you rent two rooms in your three bedroom townhouse to nurses self catering for the foreseeable future, do you have to register that rental? Do you need planning permission? No parking facilities with this rental. Now, if you rent to the same people for over 21 days in the calendar year or in consecutive days, from my conversation we had with Murrah is that no, this might not apply to you because you're providing long term accommodation to important workers there. So my understanding is it doesn't. But listen, we haven't actually seen the full text of the legislation yet. I don't think caller says even if you go to book online with an older person's card for a local bus company, they charge you a booking fee. There never used to be a charge with our pensioner card when you didn't have to book online. I'm not sure what the story is with booking fees. Whether or not the government provides enough money to absorb the booking fee or if some see if it has another revenue stream, I don't know if anyone in that industry can give me an insight as to why one might charge a booking fee as a private company. Let's use that as an example to someone who has a free travel card. What would be the reason for that? Is it administration? Is it at a minimum? Is there profit in there? A call has said if you own a property, it should be your own choice to let it short or long term as you wish. Otherwise, if you're told what you can and can't do with it, what value has your title deeds got? It's a tough one, right? Because I understand exactly what you're saying. This on the face of it does feel like an overreach by government. But government, perhaps arguably no government, could ever build enough houses to satisfy all housing needs. So what about the rights of people to be able to rent, particularly maybe in their local area? Are they competing rights to those who want to do whatever they want with their second properties or even their principal property? It does feel like people are being coerced into using their property a certain way, which feels, I feel a bit uncomfortable with that, but I also have to recognize that there is a huge property need there. So I'm always open to learn to be educated. I want to hear your views. You're listening, get your phone out, even if you've never text a radio station before, you don't just come on air or whatever. It's just to have your say, text 08 660 25,000 WhatsApp that number. You're going to be telling someone in the van beside you or in the office or in the house what you feel. Share it with the entire Northwest of Ireland here and the tens of thousands that listen to us outside the county as well, through streaming platforms or whatever. Your view is really important and we genuinely do want to hear it. Lots of shows don't read listeners' comments. We do it purposely because it helps us, I think, helps us to keep our finger on the pulse of what people are feeling out there. Maybe you guys can answer a question. On average, 70 Euro per night on refugees in Ireland documented or undocumented. Only documented should be here. That's three billion a year. We have an average of 148,000 over 80s in Ireland. They could use that money and have their bills paid, heat, electricity, shopping, Visa card or something, but we're leaving them in the cold and afraid to eat. They served their time. They should be on a pedestal and no worries. Why not? We can afford it by the look of it. You see, I understand exactly where you're coming from, okay? And I understand that some people have issues with us looking after refugees, people coming here. But the obvious argument here is as well, okay? That a lot of them want to come here and work. And a lot of us want to leave here and work elsewhere. And you can imagine if there were, and we've seen it in the past, if there were anti-Irish sentiment in Australia or Canada or America where our young people are going to be welcomed with open arms. And you could say, yeah, but they're working. Yeah, but they're also taking houses in areas that have homelessness. Do you know what I mean? If we wanted to drill down in that, we could sort of say, well, but I accept that. And I'm not being critical of anyone going to another country. But secondly, and this is the really important one, secondly, regardless of your views on our refugees, be they Ukrainian or international protection refugees, please don't think for one second that if we didn't help these people, that that money would in some way be ring fenced to help poorer people here, to help older people here, to alleviate electricity bills here. There is enough money in this country, dependent on how it's spent, or who's given it or who's taxed and who's not taxed. There is more than enough money in this country to meet our international obligations to which we've signed up to as it relates to refugees, but also to make sure that those 375,000 homes that went without heating last year don't, that older people are well looked after, that they can go to hospital and not sit in a chair for 12 hours. Their money is there. Money is not being robbed from those services to look after the refugees. Now, some would want you to believe that, but we all know our hospitals were banjaxed in terms of overcrowding. And this is no slight on the workers. You know what I mean in terms of all the issues for years, for years, long before the last couple of years, older people had to go out and march in the streets for certain entitlements. You know, there's always been a high level of poverty, particularly here in Donegal. I don't think it's even worsened, but it's always been there, because perhaps you could argue that the will hasn't been there to address those issues. But please, don't think for a second that money is being taken that could help older people and spent on refugees, because that's simply not the case. Some of that money is coming from outside the country and so on and so forth. There is enough money here to look after the people that you talk of in your text. And I really appreciate the text, but you know, let's think freely for ourselves. Let's really break out and think for ourselves. You don't have to listen to me. You don't have to listen to a particular Facebook page. You don't have to listen to RT, whatever it might be, listen to all of it and in somewhere in the middle. And I try and find that middle as much as possible on this program is the reality. You know, people and issues are weaponized to make us feel a certain way. And normally is to push a certain agenda. And that's good for let's put it the left and the right as well. So let's try and us here on this program at the very least keep it in the middle and think as freely as we can. If any of all any of that makes sense. Oh my God, such crookery about the ones claiming the COVID payment. We knew this happened and thank God they were caught and got their day in court scandalous. Thousands more got away with it. I think really it was the cluster, wasn't it? That was the problem there. All right, back after the bingo numbers. The county's number one talk show, The Nine Till Noon Show on Highland Radio. It's time for NCBI bingo on Highland Radio. It's Thursday the 2nd of March, jackpot day. You're playing for the jackpot prize of 15,000 euro on the pink sheet. The reference number is S4. It's game number nine. The jackpot number is 17. This number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn. And now here are your daily numbers. 66, 9, 69, 65, 70, 76, 57, 31, 84. And finally, 54. Phone your claim to 9104833 before eight tonight. Leave in 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. $0.99. Two, get thousands of special offers and three, money off vouchers every week on the app. Supervalu makes saving money as easy as one, two, three. Donegal and Irma both sit on three points in the National Football League, and the two sides meet this Saturday night in Irma. Join Ocean Kelly and Martin McHugh for full match commentary and analysis from the 730 throw in. Live from the Atherics Grounds, live coverage of Donegal in the National Football League is brought to you by Highland Motors and Ather Kelly with the 100% electric Renault McGahn E-TEC, 220 brake horsepower and up to 450 kilometres driving range. Now available for test drive and immediate delivery. On this week's Business Matters, I'll be joined by the managing director of iHeating and Cooling Limited, Fabian McShane. So join me, Cure and Donal, for Business Matters on Sunday evening after the six o'clock news. The Business Matters podcast is also available to download at highlandvideo.com. Business Matters in association with ATU Donegal's Faculty of Business. If you're an owner or manager in food production business, consider the new one-year level eight higher diploma in food business and product innovation. It's just one three-hour lecture weekly. Call 918600 or email gary.miguel at atu.ie. How well do you know your mum? Find out with our fantastic Mother's Day celebrations. At Foilside Shopping Centre Saturday 11th of March from 12 to 3pm. Enter our fun-filled quiz. How well do you know your mum? Live with Jerry Love's for your chance to win amazing prizes for your mum. See Foilside Shopping Centre's Facebook page for details. Now the Chief Medical Officer, as you heard on the programme yesterday, has urged older people to reconnect with the world so the COVID pandemic does not steal any more years from their lives. In an open letter to older people, Professor Brita Smith said vaccination has now reduced the most severe risks from virus and that older people should be confident about re-engaging in social activities. Dorothy Toyes, Chair of Active Retirement, Donegal and joins us on the programme now. Good morning to you, Dorothy. Good morning, Do you welcome this intervention from the Chief Medical Officer? Very much so, very much so. I'm involved in the Active Retirement at the moment. We have over 100 members and they're a very active group. We're engaged in walks and coffee mornings. We've recently had a weekend away in Galway and coming in, we're having a trip to Austria. 30 of us went to Austria. We had a lady join us. She wouldn't be a member but because of COVID, obviously she hadn't been out and about so she came on a trip we had about three years ago and it was her first time out in three years. She was so delighted to be out and about again as indeed are many of our members who just signed Active Retirement. So inviting, so welcoming, a cup of tea in the chat afterwards, just to get them together, Greg. Yeah. Just meeting other people, going to the cinema. At the end of every month we have a meal out in a different restaurant around Latter-Canada and when the weather gets warmer we're going to organise a trip away to some part of Donegal, maybe down the country or maybe into the north and then we can put a meal in that afterwards. Brilliant. So obviously most of the people, Dorothy, that you're dealing with have come back out effectively. Let me put it like that. Some of them never went in, don't get me wrong. But do you think there are a lot of people, maybe even those that might have been involved in Active Retirement two or three, four years ago, that are still well, that are still able to get around and all that but are not doing so because they're fearful? Like, do you think there are a lot of people? Yeah, I suppose, Greg, COVID had enough, I think the restrictions that were imposed during COVID were actually cruel. I think they were just very, very cruel to older people. They just confined them to their homes. I would say that I don't know the numbers but I would say there are certainly people who are still scared of their lives to come out and make people. If they're going to come out and go shopping, they're going to do it early in the morning when there won't be any private people around in super markets. I think it's absolutely often that they have to stay in because of a fear that was imposed on them during COVID. Well, let me ask you that a bit more about that, Dorothy. You said what was expected of people was cruel. We were being told that we were saving Granny's life by not leaving them. Yeah, I'm aware of that, Greg. I'm very aware of that but I think, you know, imposing a 5K restriction on people, you know, if you're going to go out to the beach, you're sitting in a car, you're not out meeting people. You could have gone to the beach and you could have sat in the car if you know what I mean. You know, not everybody went out deliberately to interact with other people. I know I'm a grandmother and I know that I had to stand quite a distance. I wasn't actually able to visit my grandchildren because of the distance from my home to their home. I couldn't visit them. But when I was a life-divist, I got a hug from my granddaughter. It was nearly squeezed in life. I didn't make sure she was so delighted to see me again. Yeah. But that wasn't fair. You know, to talk to an older person through, I knew that it was for our good and it was for their good. I think it was just awful to talk to someone through your window. Nothing allowed to visit people in hospital. Did you feel that at the time, Dorothy, or is it sort of on reflection that you've sort of said? On reflection. I know a lot of people do look-backs. Yeah. Yeah, it was on reflection, but are we likely to feel like that because we're able to sit here and talk to each other? You know, because there aren't going to be people listening who lost older people because they were sick. You know, there was always sort of, you know, co-mobility, other illnesses. I think not being able to talk to someone in a nursing home. In a nursing home, you're lonely. You're to catch from your family. You may have dementia. You may have not been able to talk to people. Okay. Not all the men, people recognize their families. I think just a presence of a family member would have just been anonymous to them. Just would have made a difference to them. You know, instead of communicating through the window. And it's heartbreaking listening to us. Those who didn't get to spend time with their loved ones in the last days of their lives. Or as well to thinking on family members. And I have them myself, of course, who died. And their last memories were that distance, that detachment from their loved ones and families. It's if you think sometimes you can't allow yourself to think about it because it's so bloody sad. Well, unfortunately, you can't allow yourself to think about Greg. It was part and parcel of COVID. And it's always going to be there. And that sadness is always going to be in your life. Because you aren't able to be with your loved ones totally. And, you know, when you should be there to hold their hand, you couldn't do it. Right. So it's not something you're going to forget. So our message anyway, our message beyond that is to particularly older people is to get out, live your life, live the rest of your life. Yeah, today there are more people globally over the age of 65 and children under the age of five. We're living longer, we're more active, we're engaging in more activities, we're dancing, we're swimming, we're going on trips for walking, we're going to cinema, we're going to pictures, we're going to theatre, we're doing everything. We don't sit any more. We don't sit around any more and risk our lives. You know, life is not like a remote control. You just give up and change yourself. What's the remote to change yourself? Get out and be active, to take part in things, get involved in things. And that's very much what we, an active retirement do. Yeah. And I think, too, there are some, even just listening to us, there are some people listening that they have, their personalities will have changed a little. Do you know what I mean? With some isolation and to try and move through that and get over that and look, get out, save it still for you. Do you know what I mean? Don't set barriers up to keep yourself in the house because we all love to chat and spend time with each other, don't we, Dorothy? Is there anything nicer than you getting together with a group of your friends and the crack on the bus on the way to the airport to head to Austria? I mean, the crack is 90, like you don't want to miss out on that. Of course it is. Yeah, all right. Of course it is. Yeah. You know, there's, there's, we have a senior line, it's a confidential line where you can talk privately to someone about loneliness, isolation, conflict, anxiety, and you don't lack of company. And I think men are less inclined to get involved in things than women. Yes. We, we have a lot fewer men in our group than we would have women. And I think that's in a way that's sad because men don't talk about their problems as much as women do. They're inclined to hold everything inside, which is what I think is wrong. And that's across all ages, Dorothy, I think. And we all as particularly men need to listen up. Or you have to talk, you have to, you have to talk about someone, to someone, if you're having problems. And most men, the majority of men have good friends around them, good family around them that want them to say, I'm not feeling great today, or this is how I'm feeling, open up, just have that conversation. It's so, so important. Dorothy, do you think, I also hope there's not a case whereby there are older people who are still isolating but are being encouraged to do so by some family members, maybe that it suits them better if mom or dad doesn't do a whole pile of stuff in the house? Do you think there's some of that going on, perhaps? Well, there is, there's, you know, we've come across members who've been advised by families by their daughters in particular to get out and meet people. You know, and they've actually come and joined us in our group, and they're absolutely delighted to have done so. Because, you know, we're just so active. And we make everybody very, very welcome at the end of our talks. We meet on the second Thursday of every month in the regional culture centre. And at the end of our talk, we're always at the speaker and talking about maybe making our will, our power of attorney or something like that, or just security in your home. But at the end of that meeting, Greg would have a cup of tea in the chat. And our members just love that. It's just a camaraderie and they get together and just the friendship. Just knowing that there's someone there, you know, if they're in trouble, they can lift the phone and then, you know, and talk and talk. And that means so much to so many people. Dorothy, I've enjoyed talking to you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Okay, Greg, thank you. All right, it's okay. And I think we might have the chief medical officer on the show in the future and we'll run through all this again. But for now, thanks so much. Take care of yourself, Dorothy, and enjoy your trips. Okay, thank you. All right, behave yourself. Bye-bye, Dorothy Toy, the chair of active retirement Ireland. A little earlier on, someone texted in and they were paying credit to people who were providing a surface for them. And I just want to throw the phone lines open now. If you've been out and about, say in a shop dealing with a business or an individual, you know, anyone from someone who looks after your landscaping or a local shop or a big business or a hotel. If you've been out and about lately in the Northwest, right, tell us the story of your positive experience in customer service. Wouldn't that be nice? Text them into us. I'll wait 60, 25,000 because often, you know, we have to highlight where there are issues. Okay, that's part of what we do and try and resolve them. But we do know, of course, we try and platform as much as we can. There's a lot of good out there as well. So if you've been out and about and you've interacted with someone and had a positive experience, maybe they helped you with the service or maybe they helped you with the car or whatever it might be, share that story with us and we'll read it out. And if you want to name check them, that's great too. We don't mind. It could be a business. It doesn't matter. So if you've been out and about, you've had a really positive experience, someone went above and beyond to help you in their job or whatever. Get in touch with us and we'll read it out. So spread the love is what I'm trying to say and maybe support some businesses too. 086625,000. What's absent text for your suggestions on that? 086625,000. And you know what? Maybe the best answer will give them a lovely, very limited edition 9 till noon show mug. Right, okay. Let us take a break. We are going to be speaking very shortly to two members of the Irish Second Level Students Union. New this week in Home Store and More. All Pyrex is all half price, but better hurry because when all the half price Pyrex is gone, it's gone. Also all toilet seats and all mirrors and clocks are all still half price. But when all the half price toilet seats and all the half price mirrors and clocks are gone, they're definitely gone. Drop by your local Home Store and More or visit us online at homestoreandmore.ie. Home Store and More. A happy home. Up to 7,000 euro cash boost for Acres Farmers. For more in your Farmers Journal, here's Paul Mooney. 30 million euro cash boost for Donegal Farmers. We bring you the full county by county acres breakdown. All you need to know in the new Bizfarm payment system. An exclusive Irish Farmers Journal investigation reveals how beef factories are using an elite group of mega-finishers to supply a quarter of the national kill and a hike in Farmer TB levies on the carts. All inside this week's Irish Farmers Journal on sale now. OK, welcome back to the show. We have Casey Lam. And I've not only did the lamb, but there is. Casey Lam and Ella Oka in studio with us. Both of you, you're very welcome to the programme. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Right, tell us a bit about yourself, Casey. We'll start with you. First, it's Cassie. Cassie, sorry. Right, I've only got the lamb wrong. Got that right. You're perfect. But got Cassie wrong. Yes. So it's Cassie. Cassie, yes. Go on, Cassie. In fair play to you for correcting me. Go ahead. No problem. You're right. So, ISSU is the Irish Second Level Student Union. We represent uplift student voice all over the country. So, really, there's 37 euros across the Republic of Ireland. So, we are just here to listen to all the students and we're trying our best to represent them. And when I'm a student, right, and I make representations to you, where can you filter that information to? Will you give it to maybe the school? If I'm a member of a particular school within the schools? Is it to the Minister for Education? Or where does the information go that you would get from students? OK. So, we help school representatives. So, that's from where the school reps come from their school, for example, my school, Loretto. So, we have our school reps. And then we would meet with them on a weekly basis where myself and Elle will be meeting with them in the coming weeks and we're so excited to meet them. So, we'll be meeting with them. Then we pass on their information to the questioner, no. And we connect with them. So, myself and Elle work to connect with both those. So, we are connecting with the government in general as well. So, that's how we would do it. All right, fair play. Cassie, 14 years of age, by the way, and a student at Loretto Secondary School in Lettorkenny. Elle is 15 and is a student in fifth year in Loretto Secondary School, Lettorkenny. Is 15 young for fifth year, Elle? Yeah, I skipped two, I, but I'm turning 16 on Tuesday. Well done. All right, fair play to you. You'll be barely 18 by the time you finish school. OK. So, tell us why you wanted to get involved with ISSU or how you became to be involved, Elle? Well, I originally joined the Student Council in my school and usually the school reps come from the Student Council. And so, last year's school rep said that they need a new school rep for the new year and I just volunteered myself because they thought, why not? Never done this before. And then from there, I ran for regional officer and I got voted alongside Cassie and then that just worked off again. So it kind of like, right, I might get involved next thing you know, you're running and campaigning and you're taking on all this responsibility. It's exciting though. Yeah, really exciting. Yeah. And what are you passionate about? What is the issues facing, you know, young people that you think needs to be talked about more? There is a lot of things like mental health and just in general, like just different things students are struggling with, which is why we want school reps to come to us and tell us what their students are struggling with as we represent all students. So we want to hear from students what they're struggling with so we can help them with that. Yeah. And it's fantastic work, but we are in this space whereby I don't think we've been talking, we've never talked as much about young people's mental health, which is good. I think schools are doing an awful lot of work, they have special days, they've got stuff up on the walls encouraging people to speak, but unfortunately, the statistics are showing us that we're seeing record numbers of younger people presenting with self-harm or mental health issues. So whilst we're talking about it, I think we actually have to come up with a solution as well. Do you know what I mean? Because talking in and of itself, Cassie, if you want to come on this, talking in and of itself is not fixing the problem. So we need a solution. Yes. So what do we know what that might be? I don't know, better supports, better access to services, I presume. Well, Issue, we are always trying our very, very best to connect with our own region. Me and Ella are both very passionate about mental health and needs to be solved, you know, but it cannot be solved overnight. It's something that does take time. But for example, I assess you, we are going to be holding a mental health survey and this survey is just to see how COVID-19 has impacted second level students all across Ireland and we are encouraging every second level student to please go for the survey. So this survey is just to see how COVID has affected them, because some students didn't have access to mental health resources, which is kind of hard to believe. Everyone should have access to it. And so this is running from the fifth match to the end of the week, I believe. And I hope the question in there is, because I want to hear it from young people, what needs to be done? What is not being done that would help? You know what I mean? Maybe it will be access to services, maybe that's the answer, but I don't know because there are numbers there and what have you and we're talking about it more than we have before, but I'm really concerned about the fact that we're seeing numbers increase. And I would love to hear from young people what they think the actual issues are. You're also both of you are and I often in conversations like this and in programs like this, right? We discuss equality, say for instance, out in society and there's people of a certain age and maybe their views are hardened on certain issues, even in terms of transgenderism or whatever it might be. And what I often say is that, you know, what we're talking about and our attitudes and young people's attitudes is very different. So amongst young people, amongst your peers, is there a better understanding of people being different, having, you know, a different way of life, a different skin colour, a different background? Like, do you think young people are, is there room for improvement or are we in a good space in that regard in terms of equality and understanding? Most of it is really good, as we are in the 21st century, it's more modern mindsets. So most people are accepting, but there is some people that do have old fashioned views, but it's not that common. What do you think, Cassie? Here, look, it should not happen. You know, it's something that we shouldn't be sort of been sorted a long time ago. It shouldn't be happening. And it's again, it's segmental health, it's hard solve. You know, people have their own views. And again, with Ella, it's 21st century and, you know, it's something hard solve again. Again, on programmes like this that you probably don't listen to because you're at school or have poor taste, I'm not sure which is. No, but you know, we talk about, say, for instance, reform of the leaving, sir. We talk about how, you know, subjects are marked and all this type of stuff. In those conversations, do students feel that their voices are being heard? Now, I know through the ISSU, you're trying to ensure as best as possible that happens, but Ella, does it feel sometimes that we're talking about you rather than to you? Yeah, because a lot of the times students aren't really consulted with these as last year, when we were in third year, I was just announced that that in 2024, the fifth year will be sitting paper one for English and Irish, and they weren't consulted with after this was something they would want. They were just told, like, this is what you're doing. So I feel like most of the time it's, they just make the decisions for young people without talking to them about it and seeing if that's what they want. And that was worse for us guys. It's all right for you girls because he's mature quicker than us. So that was actually literally one of the reasons it would disadvantage boys because we develop mentally slower. Some of us never fully like myself, for example, I'm still a kid. Right, okay. So normal fully eventually did have to backtrack on those plans, which I think, you know, it's generally conceded those types of exams require a two year lead in and also it and although Ella, you didn't do transition year, you don't want students that choose to do transition year worrying about an English paper at the end of fifth year one, I don't think. Right, so as well as what's planned and what is already do the Mental Health Survey March is a big one, I think. And the findings of that aren't going to sit gathering dust. They're going to be presented to the relevant Minister, Mary Butler, I believe it is. You're also looking for ideas from students, presumably is it? What do you think? Do you want to take this one, Ella? And then she can add a bit Cassie as well. Yeah, so we are looking to meet with the school representatives as me and Cassie are only two students and we represent all the students in Donegal. So you want to hear from them and hear what they would like us to do for them. Yeah, Cassie. So as you're well aware, I hope the issue is made by students for students. So we are meeting with our school reps and me and Ella are both on our manifestos, was to get our connections stronger with school reps and the regional officers. But even we love just to hear from students all over the Donegal region and to reach out to us and you can always find our emails on the web on ISSU's website. So please do not be hasty to come and ask us any questions. So if I'm a student and I'm safe, for instance, in I don't know the Abbey Vocational School in Donegal town, right? And you're a student at Loretto and you're a student at Loretto also, of course. How do I get my voice heard at ISSU? How do I contact you? Is it via the web? Do you go to schools and meet year heads or whatever it might be? So how are you making sure as best as possible that you two can represent the views of students right across the county? Is he outlined, Cassie? So say, for example, you were a student, the student should always go to their school representative. If they do not have one, they can go ahead and email us at Donegal at isc.ie or even our personal emails. They can always come into contact, but they can also go to their student council as well as their school reps. So they always will have options as well as ISSU does have working grips. So they always can get involved. Alright, okay. Excellent. So Cassie, what do you want to do when you finish school? You're only 14 at this stage, so maybe you haven't even decided yet, but definitely I love to do something in mental health and nursing. It's something I love to do, but politics will never be out of the picture. Okay, you'd be interested in the elected politics? Oh, of course. What about you, Ella? What's your hopes for the future? Medical science. Brilliant. Okay. You'll probably be fully qualified at 21 the way you're getting through secondary school. Alright, listen, well fair play to the two of you. Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to call up. People can Google ISSU and get more information, and I presume this is Donegal's section and your contact details there, but it's been lovely speaking to you. Before I let you go, though, I don't want you to leave without, if there's anything that you wanted to say that you feel you have the points that you haven't got across. So was there anything in your mind, Ella, that you says rather want to say this and you didn't get an opportunity to, because I want to make sure you feel that you've had that opportunity? No, that's perfect. And what about you, Cassie? Just never be afraid to get in contact with us. You know, you have a voice and it's important, and it also needs to be heard. That's something I love to take away. Yeah, definitely. Good note to leave it on. Cassie Lam, thank you. Thank you. And Ella Ocho, thank you both very much. Your school and your families will be very proud of you, I'm sure. The two are Donegal Regional Officers for the Irish Second Level Students Union, and we appreciate your time today. Thank you. Thank you. There's a gavel of monsters you'll see around town, in every colour from bright pink to brown, and just like us they have hopes, dreams and wishes. A new car, new windows, a holiday diving with fishes. They know just where to go for their dreams to come true. 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Right, let's have a look at the weather forecast for today and I can tell you right now that, mainly dry today with sunny spells while scattered light showers. The evening will be largely dry, afternoon temperatures of seven or eight degrees with light easterly breezes tonight. Dry with clear spells and just isolated showers. Lowest temperatures minus two to plus two degrees with a touch of frost. Winds will be light in direction. Right, okay, we are joined. I'm not even going to give her an opportunity to settle herself, because she's sat down and we're going to go straight at it. And we're going to say good morning now to Brenda Hagerty, head of Enterprise in Donegal. Good morning to you. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, Craig. Delighted to be here. In studio with us. Right, okay. So talk about your job or actually talk about Enterprise Donegal, what the work it does. Yeah, well, the local Enterprise Office is part of Donegal County Council and we receive our funding through Enterprise Ireland. So we're one of 31 local Enterprise offices across the country. And we are the first stop shop for anyone planning, starting or growing a business in Donegal. And it's still a case of getting that message out there, isn't it? I think there are people with ideas or they're currently at something and they feel isolated or alone. And I think every time we have conversations like this, another person realizes that there are these types of services they're available to them. So what can you do for people? Yeah, so we offer a wide range of supports, both financial and non-financial supports to anyone that's thinking of starting a business or maybe in business and would like to grow their business or maybe they're facing specific challenges. So we offer training, we offer mentoring, we've business advice clinics where there is one-to-one support. We also offer a range of financial supports. So maybe if you're in the manufacturing space, you can get startup grants towards the investment in capital or labor or in consultancy. We offer exporting support if you're going into new markets. Trading online is a particularly very popular support and that's where we help a lot of businesses get online, reach new customers, get new website and develop their interaction online. And I think obviously we often straight, you didn't, but we often straight go to the money side of it. How important is the advice, maybe the mentoring or even maybe if I believe I've got a fantastic idea, right? It's going to make an absolute fortune. Sometimes do you have to give a reality check to sort of say, I know that you think this is this, but this is our experience or our understanding. I'll probably not phrase that correctly because it would sound like cruel advice and I know it wouldn't be, but sometimes do people need to bounce ideas off you to say that we know of companies that try that or this maybe might not work. You know what I mean, maybe just an external voice to assist people in decision making. Yeah very true and we're an honest broker and you know we offer that challenge but in a positive and an engaging way. So we try and work with the client to help them along the process because you know it's about customer discovery, it's about knowing what the product is, what problem it is solving, how efficient, how likely somebody is to buy the product once it's brought to market. Is it the right product? Is the refinements needed? Maybe they need some additional technical advice and we can link them in with supports there. Maybe there's patent or trademark, maybe they've come up with a new invention. So again we can walk them through that journey. We start your own business programs and that allows them to explore individually with a mentor in terms of is this the right business and give the entrepreneur the right skills to get the best start in their business journey. You know I'm kind of picking examples here but you could be someone who's decided to take a different path in life. Maybe you're in your 40s or 50s and you know you're computer literate but e-commerce marketing all that type of stuff that might be a barrier to you pursuing your ambitions. Again I presume enterprise could help in that regard. Of course because we have the wide range of supports either to upskill you as an entrepreneur and the new skills that you may need or maybe be able to provide assistance with you seeking in those specific skills that are required. So maybe you need additional marketing support maybe product development support that we can engage mentors or consultants with those specialisms that'll help you get the best start in your enterprise journey. Now we're heading towards local enterprise week 2023 what's the theme of this week? The theme this year seems to be come to Donnie Gull and get the work-life balance right? Yeah and that's definitely a communication message that we are trying to really project in a national stage but the theme this year is Be Inspired. So it's all about being inspired to start and grow your business in Donnie Gull. So we have it's from the 6th to 10th of March and it's right across the country but Donnie Gull has one of the best local enterprise weeks. We have 23 events with our partners and the local enterprise office has put on right across the week so there is something for everybody. And listen you get your inspiration from everywhere and we'll talk a bit more about this week but I think anyone too who's looking to make a what might seem like a bold decision in terms of business to listen to the back catalog of business matters our business matters podcast here in Highland Ready because there's a theme with all of the people in it decisions they had to make crossroads that they were met at challenges that had to overcome you know these are businesses brains that are all of them and not all of them sorry many of them were just doing something else and then hit upon something you know and it's a very inspiring stories on a week on week basis I think as well as I say if you're looking for more inspiration I certainly would get some from that although I've concluded listening to these people that I am not a risk taker and I will never achieve anything but anyway that's fine so talk to me a bit more about how people access enterprise week how they feed into how they engage with it yeah so it's available the flipbook or the brochure is available online so is this what I have here yeah that's the brochure and that's available online for anybody listening that doesn't have a hard copy on hand so local enterprise dot ie forward slash dunny gall and there you can explore the range of events that's on and also book online so all events are free there's 23 across the week and they're right across the county there is some online but most are in person so we're delighted to be back in person because as you rightly say enterprise can be a lonely journey you know sometimes it's one person and you're facing challenges so it's a great it's a great opportunity to come out listen to those that might have walked that journey have faced the same challenges listen from you know with some celebrities there that can bring their perspective in relation to how they navigate at the entrepreneurial journey and again it's a great opportunity to network and meet people like minded people you talked about isolation the probably is no great excuse for it because you talk about the sport the sport from enterprise then we have the business women in business network and other networks that are that are for all men and women and what have you you know there's lots out the chamber we were speaking only yesterday about the chamber again that is that is at some point or whenever it suits a business that is another form of support you know more business brains that you can so in other words there is tons out there it's just a case of tapping into it I think if you disagree or not Brenda I fully agree there's a great network in dunny gall in relation to supports that are available for business you've mentioned dunny gall women in business network and we in collaboration with them for international women's day next wednesday have an event in locus castle so it's about building firm foundations the chamber as you rightly say there is and the agencies well there's the etb the atu uderus all of which have great people engaged in really wanting to do the best for business in dunny gall give them the supports if one agency can't do it then they will signpost and connect you with the right people so please do reach out yeah there's a little business groups in different towns bonk rana car and donna dunny gall town ballah shannon do you know what i mean there's different traders groups there as well um this is i i like to be able to ask these types of questions while the guests in studio because sometimes it's like uh well i want to confuse the situation but we do things that we've been strange in this country like having a carers day that carers can't attend because they can't get uh they can't get respite you know we do strange things but anyway this listener they have a small business right they run by themselves they would find a lot of the events really really interesting but they're concerned a lot of them are going to be on during the day and they simply can't get along to them have the times i'm looking down the time see they are all during the day uh i suppose you have to try and appeal to the masses but i think you can take it's an interesting point isn't it that they need to help but they're not going to be able to go and see bobby kerr or the digital marketing expo because it's on during their working day yeah and i do take that point there is some events in the evening but maybe that's not the one that they're particularly attracted to um but uh it's something we can look at in the future but we would definitely urge the businesses to take time out you know them if they can yeah if they can and you know uh it's not always easy but we certainly would welcome everybody to the events now in the booklet that i have there's a full list of events we can't really go through them because there's uh there's that many of them uh and then they're index linked to pages later in the book is there some things you want to pick out yeah well i think if we start with the launch you know bobby kerr and three you know a lot of this is about showcasing entrepreneur entrepreneurs that have been a success but not just looking at their success looking at their challenges and what the lessons are so again we're joined by three local businesses 3d issue accountant online and garden technologies um on tuesday there is a big push on digital marketing and that's one area where there is significant interest um and again there there is a range of experts and influencers and those that have the technical knowledge to share and their experience wednesday i mentioned the um international women's day and the event in association with dunig all women and business network we have atu again looking at the opportunities that our young people um can bring to entrepreneurship and really instilling that creativity and innovation and design thinking because we need more people to plan and start and grow businesses in dunig all we are not where we should be and that's a big objective to try and push the numbers of new starts and again atu through their enterprise and their student um that's an important area the digital hubs are looking at the opportunities that the hubs in dunig all are presenting for people to work and start new businesses we've a lot of tourism events we have a focus on dunig all tweed because it's looking at the opportunities that that presents in the county not just from a business perspective but also from tourism and it's kind of a recognizing our tradition but also looking to to the future yeah all events are free are they all events are free but we ask that everybody book and there is food provided so please do and it's a great opportunity to connect in and then our closing event i just draw attention to that we have four sports stars enda mcnulty who is a performance high performance coaches mc in it and we have our own michael murphy who's the head of atu has just recently retired nina carbury uh one of our best jump chalkies and of course brent pope from the world of rugby and that's a very popular event where we look at leadership and how those leadership lessons from sport can be transferred into local enterprise okay there's lots there where should people go to get all the information we've been talking about here get the online version of this brochure that i'm holding here in my greasy mitts online version of the be inspired local enterprise week brochure is on local enterprise dot i e forward slash dunig all okay brenda thanks for your time this morning i really appreciate it best uh best of success i'm sure it's going to be a great and at the very least uh a fantastic networking opportunity in attending these events as well because everyone can do a bit of business over a cup of tea or something as well all right brenda hegerty head of enterprise dunig all thanks for your time thank you great thank you add on post we believe in giving you more power over how you bank that's why a i b and bank of arland customers can now lodge and withdraw money at any of our 900 post offices across arland six days a week that's right your bank is in your post office for personal and business banking alike meaning you can bank wherever you live or work visit your local post office or on post dot com slash everyday banking on post your money for your world allied irish banks plc and bank of arland are regulated by the central bank of arland at centra this week we have great offers like centra fresh arch round steak mince 500 gram only 350 comfort fabric conditioner 85 wash three liter only five euro and am a delamere souvenir vionnier only nine euro smart choices choose centra centra live every day enjoy call sensibly don't know if you know alison pat blade 40s couple of kids been together 17 years never married of course but that's not a problem until something happens and suddenly words like unmarried inheritance and substantial tax bill enter the equation you never need proper estate planning until you do that's why the experience team at macklehenny and associates are here to help find us online our call 0749175989 macklehenny and associates solicitors watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com okay another out to come in the program stay right where you are let's get a news update though at 11 o'clock and we say good morning once again to mackayla clock good morning mackayla thanks gray good morning the transport minister has again acknowledged the impact the absence of a real network in denigol has had on the county in responding to deputy emin oqueef in the dull today minister emin ryan says the county has suffered for decades because of a lack of infrastructure a strategic real review is currently at an advanced stage but the lack of a functioning executive in northern arland is delaying the publication of it the office of the planning regulator has raised a number of issues relating to the draft letter kenny plan and local transport plan one of the major concerns raised by the body was that the plan does not provide for an appropriate level of flood risk management denigol county council says the submission is being assessed and considered the health minister has commanded the work of emergency services for their response to the fire at wexford general hospital yesterday the majority of the 220 patients have now been evacuated from the hospital with 41 still on site a denigol concert says the hsc must consider whether a special package of incentives is necessary to attract people to work in the county and particularly in in ishawn when he asked a series of questions about respite services in north in ishawn at a meeting of the hsc regional health form counter albert dowry was told a new home is ready for one of the residents in riverwalk house but it cannot be legally registered until a nurse manager is in place the agriculture minister says the government will consider taxing the two state-owned energy providers if prices don't fall reports today suggest esb electric arland and board gash could face a special dividend used by the state to offset high bills for consumers an aib will refuse to answer questions about dj carries finances when it appears before the eructus finance committee today representatives from the bank will tell td's and senators the 1900 customers have had over 90 percent of their debt written off by the bank jim okayf managing director of retail banking at aib will say that some of the recent commentary about the bank's write downs has been incomplete and have not presented the full picture those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon thank you mikaela it's not just that sara can't rely on the rains to come this year it's not just that the only water left could cost her her life it's not just that she has seen all her crops destroyed and she is struggling to feed her little boy like thousands of parents living in regions devastated by drought sara is living in fear and it's not just this lends your health can make all the difference visit trokha.org or call 1 800 408 408 trokha together for a just world all right i want to wish you a happy birthday to my mom eileen mcman from trenter today lots of love from your favorite daughter caron see it the weekend okay caron's the favorite any other siblings of ellen mcman want to contest that claim happy birthday to you and mcdormitt's in my her bag happy birthday from margaret and joe they're sending their wishes good wishes to you from where is it from from burn foot okay right now we're going to head to wexford now because a major a major emergency was declared at wexford general hospital due to a fire in the hospital the wexford fire service was notified shortly before 4 p.m. yesterday they got the fire under control pretty quick and the wexford fire service had a presence at the hospital overnight as a precaution and we've heard that on the wide of scale of things the damage is not terribly extensive but it is incredibly disruptive counselor george lawlor of wexford county council in fact the chair of it the carelock joins us now good morning george thanks for your time today good morning greg i suppose in the first instance thankfully serious injury or injury or death in fact was avoided and fair play to the emergency services and the staff in the hospital for how they reacted to ensure the former was the case absolutely with that that's the remarkable statistic of this appalling situation that occurred in wexford a general hospital yesterday the notion or fact that no um no loss of life for no casualty or no injuries took place is is quite remarkable given the scale of the fire and whilst you know about a quarter of the hospital i suppose was affected by the actual fire itself the impact is that half the beds in the in the hospital are actually affected by the fire not just by the fire but also obviously the the water damage as a result of the emergency services fire services wexford county council fire services and their work their their gallant work in ensuring that this fire was brought into control in a matter of hours there was quite extensive smoke damage also but truly remarkable that we don't have any casualties as a result yeah when you start to learn of this and i don't know how you did perhaps you're the same as i you know we start hearing that an major emergency has been declared we start seeing the images of bellowing smoke appearing on social media and what have you we didn't know how it was going to play out you've got a particular interest in this George don't you i think your daughter works in the hospital so how did you learn of this and what was your sort of initial initial reaction well our our office is at wexford county council is a couple hundred yards away from from wexford general hospital so we knew fairly quickly that we have a we had a difficulty at the hospital didn't know the extent i took the two minutes stroll over to to take a look and i knew immediately we were in quite some difficulty initially just a number of the wards were were evacuated with patients being moved to another part of the hospital but then just after 6 p.m. yesterday evening the decision was taken by the hospital management and the HSE under a major emergency plan to evacuate the entire hospital in excess of 200 patients and there was 700 staff on duty so obviously it was somewhat the the logistical nightmare to ensure that all these patients were moved comfortably speedily and efficiently in a very safe manner and i have to salute the emergency services obviously the fire the fire service of county wexford who performed remarkably but also the staff of wexford general hospital and also the volunteer ambulance services from the likes of the order of malta the irish red cross wexford civil defense and some of the private ambulance providers in fact i was speaking with some of the volunteer people who came from all over the country some of which served in the in the awful tragedy at creasla as well so you can imagine the extent of the scale of the operation we had at one stage in wexford county council because we're in close proximity we had over 100 ambulances on standby ready to be tasked and they were indeed tasked to take the patients to various hospitals around the country my own daughter uh ended up traveling i believe to navan i haven't spoken to her since uh since last night but she was on duty uh on the night duty last night and and was traveling with patients we had patients sent to bow months in vinson's to kenny to warford and and and further beyond so it was a remarkable logistical nightmare that has seemed to have uh ran extremely efficiently uh no no which is great and and that good news obviously is going to give way now to the reality moving forward in that wexford hospital like all hospitals it seems in the country and those around it uh already under significant pressure now we've got a vital sort of cog here that has been removed for how long we don't know yet of course it's going to be all hands on deck and the staff like your daughter doing amazing work to to maintain patient safety and what have you but we need to sort of now start to kick on as to when can this vital service be back uh up and running that assessment presumably ongoing and hopefully in the near future will be timelineed well that is the immediate difficulty and problem that we have to address wexford is is is quite a large county population of about 165 000 people one of the biggest counties and most pop most populous counties in lester uh the a and e the ed service and uh our hospital are a hugely vicar cog as you've said in the community of wexford and indeed beyond serving up as far as the wicklow border uh right across the the kenny and and warford border so it's a hugely important piece of the health care jigsaw that we simply cannot do without so uh we've already had uh talks with the uh the minister for health steven donnelly who is assured of sure this of his support and and knows the urgency which are correct when you say we we now dust ourselves off and get back to to ensuring that our services are put back in place as a matter of urgency because we simply cannot do without it you have the same pressure on birds as we have here in donnelly goal this has brought back into focus the conversation about plans for uh an additional 90 beds are you encouraged by the sandings from the government and of course it's easy to talk we'll see uh that that that they're going to employ measures to try and fast track the provision of these beds so in other words that when you bounce back and you will uh in the in the medium term at the very least you'll actually return uh obviously the hospital open before the new beds are provided but with extra beds extra capacity well we already had already had plans in place for a new 96 bed unit for wexford general hospital and obviously we need all those plans to be expedited alongside the reconstruction and reconfiguring of the service here in wexford to ensure that what we have we hold but also we we utilize this situation to ensure that our new 96 bed unit is a is an absolute must and no no greater need than now uh you know as you know hospitals right across the country are under tremendous strain and the last thing they needed was an entire hospital to be effectively closed down to bring more pressure to bear on them so this this this hospital has to be got back into use with with a huge degree of urgency and the soundings and they're only sounding at the minute but we need to bring pressure to bear to ensure that wexford general hospital and the reopening of is an absolute priority all right listen best wishes to to you your daughter as well of course she is putting in a shift i'm sure looking after her patients but the rest of the crew there and all the emergency services sending our love down thanks very much george appreciate your time thanks thanks a million great all right that is uh councillor george lawlor who is kehir lough chair of wexford county council right okay gonna take a quick break and then gonna come back with i'm gonna say comments but then carol i will put someone through and then i'm gonna have to say comments again and comments again a little later but we will get through the comments and our guests all in the next 48 minutes stay where you are the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio up to seven thousand euro cash boost for acres farmers for more in your farmers journal is paul mooney 30 million euro cash boost for dunigol farmers we bring you the full county by county acres breakdown all you need to know the new biz farm payment system an exclusive irish farmers journal investigation reveals how beef factories are using an elite group of mega finishers to supply a quarter of the national kill and a hike in farmer tb levies on the carts all inside this week's irish farmers journal on sale now join all fucked up live at the abbey hotel dunigol this saturday the fourth of march that's all fucked up live at the abbey hotel dunigol this saturday march the fourth tickets available from event bright local enterprise week is back and 2023 is all about finding that spark to inspire you to start grow or scale your business running from monday the sixth to friday the 10th of march local enterprise week is organized by local enterprise office dunigol this year's events will stimulate creative thought motivate action and encourage you to be brave in business booking is essential see the lineup of events and speakers and to book visit local enterprise dot ie forward slash dunigol or call seven four nine one six zero seven three five enjoy the tastiest burger in town for less every friday at kelly's diner letter kenny in the friday deal get a renowned jakes burger with fries and a soft drink for only 12 95 there's great value throughout the menu for breakfast lunch and dinner so why not treat yourself or all the family for less at kelly's award-winning diner mountaintop letter kenny good morning stephanie thanks for joining us good morning great thanks for having me on your show this morning it's it's important and we're going to try and get a resolution to this for you asap we're working on it behind the scenes but for the benefit of the listeners tell us your mom's predicament she's in right okay so my mom is 81 years of age she lives on her own and a couple of years ago she was diagnosed with a heart condition she also has mobility issues and she is she uses a walking frame now her landline phone and internet has been out of order for the last two weeks and she has no way of contacting family members or American services and events of an emergency this is her lifeline to the outside world to her family as you say in the event that she needs the emergency services and i know what this is like with my own father when he didn't have access to the phone for not a dissimilar reason it was very it was very distressing yes uh greg i came home from work yesterday and the mother was extremely upset and to be honest we have today first of all we reported the phone to vote a phone on the 17th of february on that day i was assured that because of her medical conditions the case would be marked as high priority so today she has received 11 texas the most recent yesterday and it says please be patient we are looking into this and we hope to get it started within the next 10 working days which as you can understand greg that brings us up to the 14th of march which is nearly a month since i first reported it right and she is presumably afraid to leave the house either in case someone from vote a phone lands to fix the problem yes so she was told that an engineer recalled yesterday and she sat on all day and he was an ocean so like she was extremely frustrated and she just feels like all the family members here we all work so mom spends a good part of the day on her own so um do you know what i mean she was she's feeling very she's feeling very isolated and um she obviously uses her phone to ring family members the internet to watch math because she's not set every day to go to math so you know she uses the phone to watch math and to contact family members that are overseas yeah okay well listen as i say stefanie we are uh making every efforts that we can to get this resolved as soon as possible and i hope there's some success yeah um someone needs someone within vote a phone needs to take control of the situation because this is a lady 81 years of age uh she's independent living on her own but her phone is her uh it obviously it's her emergency line if that should be needed but it's her access to you and and the rest of the family uh she's sitting in the house waiting on an engineer to arrive she's been fobbed off with text that's the only way i could describe it and her most recent text yesterday giving a 10-day commitment simply not good enough uh and we just hope we're going to try and get through to the right person in vote a phone to get this sorted asap 20 years she's been with the company that's brand loyalty if ever heard of it so if that was an actual reason alone they'll loan everything else that's going on and great she also has a sick relative as well like and you know she uses messenger to contact us well doesn't she happen to be able to do that and that's quite quite upsetting and quite frustrating as well so i'm hoping you know and i'm most grateful for you for giving us a fair time this morning as well i'll want to be happy if we get it sorted stefanie you know i mean that's what yeah we're not here just to sort of platform it we want to get it sorted no yeah i did get a message i did get a message from uh sales representative that's actually from vodafone that was on the mobile area yesterday and he said he will call to see my mother today but he doesn't fix phones but he said he would hate to see his parents in the summer of situation so he said he would see what what he could do as regards maybe hurrying things on for between the jinx and the reels we should get it sorted then asap stefanie listen thank you best wishes to mom as well thanks very much for your time thank you very much great thank you okay thank you all right um as i say there's a few people working on that now we hope to uh bring that to a resolution hi greg you're really not getting it about the hospital situation i was in hospital 10 days ago for operations and two days later had to go back i spent two nights on a chair in a and e then readmitted i had spent eight hours in a and e told a hundred waiting to be seen with four ambulances outside the place full of refugees if we can't look after our own for god's sake so i take thousands more people in i'm a farmer and i've just enough room for what i have in the shed i'm going to go to the mart and buy more in that's just calling a spade a spade anything happy to big boys in government that would be on a chair two night in a and e with fold because we're putting up with it okay i get listen i'm not here to campaign to make you change your mind that's your experience and i get that right but i've sat for i've sat for 12 hours in a and e four years ago five years ago i've been on this show now unbelievably for much longer than i thought long before the refugees that you talk of were here and i've heard horror stories all over those years i'm not saying things haven't been exacerbated that's why they're saying donagall is full our services can't take anymore but these are not new problems and i'm really sorry for what you had to go through i'm if you have more people it's going to make things more difficult i imagine that's the case i get that okay and i understand but we're not disagreeing we're not disagreeing i i don't think greg could you ask darothy if she has any powers of persuasion with the ge8 to facilitate older people getting out to matches as they feel able by restoring the cash option at the gate again i don't know did we get any response from the council on that i'm not really quite sure uh not the council the ge8 i remember the time a nine-year-old meal could save you from getting covid and not buying children's clothes yeah indeed i remember slipping in under yellow tape in dons just not steel because i paid for them for pajamas for a kid you know what i mean that's fine it was never about protecting from covid it was to discourage you from going out at all in the first place but anyway there's a look back ongoing now too isn't there hi greg i agree with most of what you say but really let's not kid ourselves the money may be coming from europe but it's not we're in fairness we're budget some of it is but we're budgeting most of it here but who's going to end up paying for it plus i sincerely believe anyone who arrived here who lost their paperwork between getting off the airplane and customs officers should be sent back on the plane they arrived i get that i think there's a general consensus that that's there's something is amiss there listen most of the money now is coming from the extractor not from europe um but yeah okay i i uh appreciate your point right some of you have been sending in some nice comments about your customer experiences and i'll get to those separately to this all right but i want to introduce uh i want to introduce our next guest who is julie gourman hi julie lovely to see you thank you so much for calling it how you keeping thank you i'm doing great how are you feeling amazing like a new woman yeah a new woman so um this is all down to weight loss for you weight loss yeah okay talk to us about your situation are you happy to talk about weights oh yeah yeah not everyone is but you're okay to do that right so um what were you how was it impacting your life why did you want to change my heaviest um last january i was 182 okay which was way too heavy for me how was that affecting your life i was miserable yeah i never really spoke to anybody about this you know nobody really knew how i felt but i was thought about it from i first woke in the morning it was my last thought at night i just felt horrible and um would people around you have realized that you felt like that i don't know side out no i was i'm i'm fairly always happy and snail and so they probably didn't realize but it really was miserable when you're on your own yeah there's always there in your head you think well i thought you know the people look at me and thank god she's so heavy you know yeah of course and did they have a bad opinion on you because you were so heavy you know things like that and those stupid stuff that running around and you wouldn't be thinking that you know physically how was things i wasn't too bad i would i would have been going to the gym you know i always lost weight put it back on i couldn't i couldn't sustain it i couldn't keep the weight off um so i loved going to the gym i still would have been fit even when i was heavy people were always surprised by how much i could do you know yeah so you're a good strength good oh good good yeah definitely i would have spent a lot of time in g8 fitness um where i gained a lot of experience and i still carry that experience whether it's nutrition or from you know i would have left it weights with them mainly was my thing so i can still carry that now i can go to the gym i don't go as often as i would like to go um you go more than me yeah i'd love to get into a routine like that so would you say that you weight yo yo then is that weight yo yo again anything i ask it's only what you're comfortable julie uh but then what was the reason for your weight gain like is it what you were consuming versus your exercise when i was younger when i was younger i was i was never heavy i think once i had children i give up smoking and i was a stay at home mom my diet was just perfect storm really because you're running around looking after everybody else and yeah i guess not eating the proper meals you know snacking on rubbish and just things like that yeah and did it bother you in terms of you know if there was an event on oh definitely definitely yeah it was a case of you'd have to go shopping that was a big thing yeah and i could never go shopping for what i wanted it was what fitted me yeah what would hide my weight yeah so uh in every element of your life it's always there then it kind of everything's framed through this prism of how you feel about yourself and i tried for years you know i you know this going down the route for the surgery was a huge ordeal for me because you're not good with needles and i'm no good with nothing i'm using that as a sort of a catch on i'm a real bad bad um patient right okay you'd avoid the gp like the play oh avoided the gp even when my pregnancies they had to ring me to come on and get bloods i would have avoided it but we're more similar than that in that way than our gym going anything to do with the hospital at all um i never forget you know walk on down to theater that day like i was ready to get there yet let's see how you got there because i want to know what was the what was the tipping point for you like because i presume you were starting to google all types of options different you know stuff you could consume blah then eventually you're gonna start hitting on and you may be heard interviews or read something about tick tock the tick tock or the gastric panel whatever so at what point did you sort of get into your head right okay i may be now prepared to go down the surgery routes i mean my friend actually at work a colleague at work didry was talking about it um a sister i think it was a sister of hers or something maybe someone was discussing do it and um i thought maybe that's an option for me you know i thought maybe this is something i should look into and then of course you go on tick tock and you start looking at these videos and then that's always in my feed then because i had researched it and this is the dramatic transformations oh huge people that have gone to turkey and people much heavier than your 18 stone i yes oh definitely yeah um so i spoke with my gp and my gp recommended dr bodner and litter kenny well you see gp content that you were a candidate for oh yes you had to be a certain weight and i think a certain possibly a certain bmi um and i just spoke to her about my worries and my concerns you know the fear of going under the knife and she said like strokes and heart attacks run and my father said you know so as she said the positives outweigh the negatives there are negatives we have to look at what's best for you so you were referred then to whom i was referred up to dr bodner i know he has been on here i listened to him on here before and she said he was one of the best if not the best i knew them that he was a man for me yeah like going to turkey was never an option for me no one he was too scared because often he ends up now i'm not saying it's not fair play to people for doing it you know it takes a lot of courage to go out to another country to do that what is the aftercare the aftercare i have him here now and he's just a phone call away right so after your gp then your referral he's he's saying right this could work i went to him initially i thought i was going to get a sleeve but he spoke to me about my diet what my eating pattern was and he recommended the bypass um i had to then go and consult with a psychiatrist so there was a procedure to follow it wasn't just a case of you know yeah so now the bypass what actually happens in through the bypass the bypass is where they they close off i probably not explained it as well as he could they close off my old stomach and he created me a new pouch probably about the size of the palm of my hand and he reattached all my intestines and my bowel to this new stomach which is amazing so for someone who's not really a big fan of the white coat uh that's a horrific conversation to hear it was coupled with the reassurance of what this would mean to you as well of course i knew there was a good end of yeah you know and how it would make me feel so you went through the evaluation to make sure that you know this was the right thing for you and all that type of stuff how how long then after did you do this publicly or privately do you mind me asking that okay right so it's going to be a little bit quicker so then how soon after it was about a year because of covid i probably would have gotten quicker but because of covid he wasn't getting as much access to theater exactly of course yeah um and on the day of the operation then or in the lead up to it was excitement fear no fear i told no told hardly anybody yeah um i just i was afraid i would back out you know i was afraid this day will come and i'm going to cancel and that goes i was like i'm telling nobody and um my brother has a priest in the family father steven i didn't even tell him but it's seven i think it was around seven o'clock that morning when i was sitting there praying for theater it's like i'm texting father steven to pray for me no i was so scared um talk about internalizing things oh i was scared i was so scared i think he'd have been my first port of call yeah i know but you faced your fears faced my fears yeah were even i would say as you were approaching theater uh you were ready to do turn and run yeah um the nurses that did my pray up like i have a clean bill of health i wasn't on any medication i had nothing wrong with me it's perfect candidate they couldn't get over like they were like you're the perfect patient like yeah you don't take this you don't take this we're going over this paperwork and then i seen her coming with this trolley and i says are you coming to do blood she says i am yeah i so i might faint she says i knew you were too good to be true but anyway you didn't you didn't and you went in you you when you come out of surgery how long were you in surgery i was in surgery for four hours okay and recovery for four right four hours right okay so then when you awoke obviously a bit sore i actually wasn't too bad right for me i don't know how i wasn't as sore as it was i wasn't too bad and is it is it a significant is it do they have to i don't know how to phrase this without upsetting anyone is it done for a small incision is it quite six six puncture wins okay so i watched the video of course before i went on your sucker for punishment i'll tell you that final thing but anyway you still went ahead with it yeah so then in terms of recovery how long do you be in hospital for i i had my surgery on the 12th of september on the monday and i came home on the wednesday now in terms of your diets you can't go straight into solids like a new baby really i had three weeks of fluids only and i then had another few weeks of pureed and another few weeks of soft and then gradually small but how was how difficult was that it was fine because i i wasn't hungry i haven't been hungry since i've had my operation yeah because your your stomach is so small that your mind is convinced that you're full it was like a light switch when i had my operation was like all the cravings for sugar crisps did that feel weird was like a different yeah i was i'm like a different person all that's what i say i'm not sure every day how conscious we are of our cravings yeah you know like you eat uh but do you really think how hungry you are do you really you know you think i'd love a bit of chocolate but do you really think that much about it maybe the absence of the head yeah it's all in your head it's the absence of those cravings that portion control now for me you know eating of a side plate and i was listening to and we'll talk more about the recovery and so if i was listening to i think it was lifeline or something where people were talking about they were trying to discourage people from this kind of of operation and a couple of the people were this is their own probably their own research and i don't mean this in any way nasty towards them but they were peed off because they could no longer eat the foods that they enjoyed yeah no i'm no now but i would have thought that that's part of the process you know you have to get your head around it before you have to understand that you're not going to be able to eat ever like you did before you can't finish a plate now because you simply don't have the capacity for it don't i don't know if you could probably make yourself some people say they could make themselves but you'd be sick after it like i know when i've had enough i eat slow i get i'd get a pain and one of the people was saying you know even though uh that that she started drinking coke because the coke expands the stomach so she could consume and i thought well i can't i thought that's why she went through the whole operation to begin with you know so my point being is is that i think you read to be really clear in advance i don't think you can do enough research as to how your life changes it's not just how you might lose the weight but how in terms of drinking and eating and socialising and what have you so if you went out for a meal now do you eat a starter instead of a main or what way does that work i would eat a starter or i have a kid's meal do you enjoy it though you enjoy the food i can't even eat a full kid's meal yeah you know i probably couldn't eat a full starter for some people that might feel weird it is a bit it's a bit daunting it is i don't i haven't been out for meals a lot um we're also bloody busy with everything yeah yeah but like we're used to going out for meals and right going for a few drinks um they tell you to stay away from alcohol for a while um so i haven't really had any alcohol so how long since you've had the operation it will be six months now in the 12th of march really recently really recent so it's a learning curve for me now yeah for sure exactly so then how quickly do you start losing weight obviously your diet was drastically changed post operation so it's gonna be you probably lose the stone if you did that diet without any operation you would my first week i lost 18 pound yeah that's a massive no i couldn't believe it but i knew myself even before i weighed myself that week that i had there was a dramatic change and then from then over the next six months is it does it slow down a little i lose some weeks it could be three pound some weeks it could be one pound some weeks it could be four pound but i'm gradually no a pound to two pound a week sometimes three pound a week so what then where do you settle how do you settle it away to them right because the obviously uh it all depends on how much you consume versus how much you burn right you don't want to fade away into nothing no i don't yeah so is your stomach of a size where you will hit a weight that you'll maintain or how does that work i think you can lose weight from for from 12 to 12 to 18 months i think so i have another while to go yeah i was hoping to lose six stone so i'm not far off well i'm a pound off five stone now okay so and how do you feel amazing like a new woman yeah you know my husband got his wife back my kids got their mom back i got myself back yeah yeah just a different person typical uh a very safe woman and i mean this in a lovely way that you go to your husband yeah yeah oh he was saying make sure mention me i was like i'm not even going to say i have a husband your current husband come here because what happens is is you can't be a good at anything until you until you feel good you have to feel good yourself you have to get yourself back yeah and then you can be all the things other people can't you it's just great to go into a shop and see an address and say i like that and try it on and it that's you don't have to say god is there stretch amount will that fit my body you know it's a great feeling what are the negatives then um what are the negatives in terms i mean is it is it how you eat now or like i mean obviously the positives are right there and you've got a certain attitude whereby obviously the positives far far outweigh the negatives and that's how you are happy and you move forward other people their personality might be that even though the negatives are much smaller than the positives that they focus on them and that's why you have the evaluation so what would you see as the negatives i have no negatives nothing none my only one regret is that i didn't do it ten years ago yeah that's my only regret i had no negatives at all for me because i'm quite happy like i can't have an odd biscuit which i do have a very small biscuit and if i could have one biscuit or you know in a couple of days or something like that i'm quite happy that's the way i have to be now and i understand that yeah so what have you eaten today so far um i had a half a slice of toast right and what will you have for lunch um i might i'll probably have an egg or i'll try and get some protein into me you know it's all about eating the right foods now we're my body is going to get the nutrients yeah i'm on vitamins and stuff yeah i'm on i'm on vitamins i take i'll have to take them for life okay so that will be to end because you can't consume enough of what is right okay so then the evening meal what might you have evening meal stews and soups and things like that just sit better with me but you can't have a cup of tea at six and dinner at seven i'll presume no i can yeah i just can't eat and drink at the one time because if i if i drink if i eat and drink at the one time it pushes the food down through too fast then i don't get the nutrients from it yeah so that's the idea of that is this new stomach of yours now your new stomach in other words at some point do they reverse this or make it bigger no it stays if i was sick or something it can be reversed so that's why i like the idea of the bypass the sleeve they take away your stomach or say if something happened to me i was very sick the thing with the sleeve as well too is that and presume me is it is this ongoing sort of maintenance they're monthly maintenance and what have you i think i don't want to mislead anyone but that was the what i remember from previous conversation like in other words unless you know obviously there'll be some routine checks and all that but are you you're finished with the the doctor now i i still be called up to see dr bordner i was with him just before christmas and he is going to call me back in the new year but um i have no complaints so you know i have to go and get b12 injections every three months and i'll probably have to get my bloods done i'll probably have to get regular checks with my bloods but again this is this is not just simply about how you feel you might look you talked of the family history of heart disease and of stroke do you know what i mean so to to to better insulate from that versus an injection every three months these are all the balances but put those headphones on if you don't mind freddy's with us i want to come back to you in a second and we'll actually name your husband so he's not disappointed freddy you had this operation did you i did i had a ten or twice i had a done six years ago in belgium right and then i lost about 12 so i mean kevin bradler wow 12 and then when i came back then my bow was causing me problems the tail end your bow is only supposed to be 1.5 meters with mines was three so there last year just a week before july i got eight meters when testing removed wow and why was your intestine so long freddy because when they do it over there it's a second realm they like a 10 year research on it they've caught on this is kind of a problem what they're doing is one thoughts all like everybody's in testing different sizes yours could be six meters mines could be 12 meters somebody else could be eight meters what they were doing they just say 1.5 1.5 and that was that they never measured the tail end of where dr bowmore he measures the tail end of it and make sure that's right and then he works from here on and i mean obviously listen you've lost 12 stone and hopefully you feel great now i think freddy you went over to belgium it was the right decision at that that time do you wish you had a gullet done locally or was that not an option for you or what's your feelings about traveling to get this done i already went to gallway to get it done and the gallway i was known but the poles from start the funnest like they want me to go in a mouth day for six months to travel every second week to get that weighed just to get weighed was that in the public system or were you prepared to go private at that point no it was private right okay i think i was 20 over 28 stone my word and my wife just died and all and i had to do mami andally so you know she died we should have said so it was tight going you know so had to do had to do something then at that stage so that's why i went to belgium and kevin bradley went first you had to move things along didn't you well life really sparked you in the face there there was a real reality check that you had to get yourself in order as well as everything else yeah but that dr bomb was on real americanny general hospital yeah freddy how are you now i'm good okay well done and uh you feel good you've had that second operation and how do you find your your diet and and eating and stuff freddy i'm leaving her out i can eat now too bad too much yeah all right yes but you may you're you've been able to for the most part maintain the sort of the loss of the what should we call it dangerous weight that you were carrying yep i would have put on a couple of two or three stone again but that was kind of my own fault more or less trying to sample in different foods and then i kind of like them where i should have just stayed away from them you know i can away it does require a bit of discipline as well listen freddy fair play to you you're amazing man for everything that you've uh you've done and not just for yourself but your family as well so well done to you and thanks so much and i hope continued good health and and happiness for you freddy and i mean that from the bottom of my heart and i like to congratulate julie there she's doing a real she's speaking to her a couple of weeks ago there and she's doing marvelous isn't she fair player yeah indeed all right waltz into the studio she did take care freddy all right all right thank you bye bye okay good man freddy all right it's amazing what we we have to go through at times isn't it that is yeah um just that milk diet stuff never heard of it no never heard of it there maybe it was because of his size because maybe possibly a human on top of you at 18 stones yeah right you're happy now very what's the husband's name sammy he feels like he is a new wife how lucky is he uh is he getting much sleep no put your headphones put your headphones back on and less of that chat julie and sammy behave yourselves uh right marie how are you getting on good morning to you good morning greg how are you i'm doing fantastic marie good good good good um i was up to there about two maybe three years ago was in in in the studio i remember um i have i have 10 stone off and i couldn't recommend dr but a partner he's a mighty man he has definitely changed my life yeah and i think too what's important about the language he uses is that he talks of of of um obesity as a disease you know a disease like other diseases that we have rather than it being you like your food you spoil yourself you can't say no he recognizes and he wants the medical fraternity to recognize this as the disease that it is uh marie and you went in for treatment of your disease yes yes yes i had diabetes as well i was on slender pountain and i am on tarpons and how are you feeling great like a new woman don't tell sammy for sammy and yeah i know but should i say one dimension you know you shouldn't have said it now he's getting a mention and marie have you able have you found sort of like a you're you're forever wait does it feel like that marie or do you still have to keep your checks and balances in marie oh you have to keep your checks and balances and maybe it would go up and down there at times maybe a few point on a few point off yeah you know it's uh i've on and off it's just not steady but it's easy if you to control it doesn't you don't feel it's going to run away on you no i you feel like you're in control yeah and you're 10 years in so you know i mean that's sorry six years in sorry i mixed the stones up with the years six years is a long time 10 stone off listen julie and you're feeling good your your medication has been reduced and presumably feel better much more optimistic about everything in life marie yes definitely definitely any tips for julie now she's here you're a veteran now a six-year veteran she's six months in um just watch your diet yeah watch what you're eating and make sure you eat yeah make sure you eat you know isn't that it's it yeah there are days that i would feel that i'm not hungry but you have to eat you have to eat yeah i was very bad at the beginning um when you're going through the diet you know afterwards um i couldn't eat i had no desire for food but then you're gonna feel lethargic lightheaded uh you know so yeah okay great advice marie and continued good health to you and thanks for talking to us thank you all right take care julie nice to get the two calls from definitely yeah feedback from people yeah exactly um and uh you i think you're already getting to set yourself into a routine of knowing what you have to do to you seemed already very conscious of that in talks of the eggs and stuff even if you're not hungry get it into you try and get something even if it is only an egg on its own you know yeah so are you what's your feelings now that you're feeling great about yourself to are you gonna you're gonna run a marathon or something no if you see me running you run too because there's something chasing me i'm not a runner but i try i try to get to the gym it's very hard with work and family life to get to the gym yeah um but i just let go of myself put the headphones on and lift the weights you know and you're still settling into the new you too that's it yeah yeah do you find your energy levels have massively improved yeah you can get up so early now in the morning you're not feeling that slump yeah and some of that is going to be the weight loss and some of that's going to be feeling better about yourself like i was carrying another person you know and a wee toddler about with me on my back every day you know yeah okay anything you want to add uh julie before we go or do you feel we've touched on everything i mean i'm happy enough is it very expensive i hate to ask but because um you know it's going to be different things for different folks it's 11 000 euro um which i was prepared to pay um but my health insurance my health insurance covered it did it really yeah i didn't know that's a lot of money but a lot of money but you see if it'll take a ways after and you think what car you would get for 11 yeah a lot of money but so worth it it wouldn't be yeah you know like yeah and it not everyone has access to that all the lines of credit but bloody hell if you did as you say you save then over time uh dr bonder saved my life you know he's just fantastic what he does yeah it's just amazing and it's great for you and as we've mentioned that we had a wee joke about south but it's great for your whole family yeah and i had huge support from my family and that's a big young ones at 12 15 18 and 20 wow okay right okay so there's three boys and in garyland the three boys now they always try and gang up on me now because i'm smaller and i'm not as strong you know but i would say to the rough and age where they can be nice and supportive oh definitely yeah yeah definitely brilliant stuff well listen julie it's a it's a it's an amazing story just a pound or two off five stone yeah and still going your early doors in it but we've heard some really encouraging words there from our guests uh julie and uh freddy as well yeah not mary and freddy yeah and your julie yeah um so that's encouraging because they're quite a bit down down the line um and are you prepared to sort of say would you say look if you're gonna do it do it local i was just yeah definitely and anyone sitting on the fence um i would tell them to go and do it it will change their life you know if they're like me and they're stuck and they lose and they put it back on i just couldn't keep it off i just couldn't do it i tried everything yeah um to go and do it and anybody that wants to contact me i've had people contact me um from my post on facebook the people that i don't know anybody wants to talk about it they feel free to message me i think really a lot of this is is that because you know maybe it's not the way you were before i don't know but this has made such a difference to you that you want to if you can help someone else to feel like you do because i spoke with two people two local people uh before i had my operation it was great to have them to speak to yeah you know and they recovered okay my biggest fear was that i wouldn't recover from the operation that i would be sick after the operation that was my biggest fear yeah and i only took pain relief in the hospital yeah the moment i came home i took nothing but a lot of those fears were your personality traits really they would have there they wouldn't might have been there if you're going to get a wisdom tooth out yes as well do you know that sort of way so yeah listen julie it's been it's a lovely story it's an inspirational story it's not just in terms of weight loss i i just love uh i love hearing about people's happiness and improvements in their lives you know what i mean and it's not just you it's your whole family and it's it's lovely uh because we have to sometimes talk about negative stuff but it's great to hear the side of it as well so thanks julie thank you so much for having me uh and continue happiness and health all right that's julie gorman there oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand is the whatsapp and text line stop highland radio are going to scotland from monday the first of may to thursday the fourth of may with the very best of music and we would love for you to join us stay in at the four star crown plaza hotel in glasgow we are bringing with us some of the biggest country stars including myself david james deklin ernie and robert moselle to name a few you will enjoy luxury travel to glasgow three nights dinner bed and breakfast with music and entertainment each evening 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the 25th of september have six stone four pounds off whole new way of life but the mental health side of things are my only negative all right okay were you assessed before that what kind of supports are there maybe you want to tell us a little bit about it you don't have to come on air even by email or text like what are the challenges for you maybe we can point you in the right direction to get a bit of support in that area so that you're not struggling on your own i appreciate you texting us but i just don't want to leave it at that if you feel very isolated in it please give us some more info we can try and maybe put you in contact with someone who you can chat to and talk some of that stuff through i wonder was it more difficult because you went to turkey would have been better if it had happened here i don't know i can't understand why anyone will put themselves in that situation taking such drastic action major surgery requiring medication and vitamins for life i have a friend who had this done in turkey she was never chronically overweight nothing a changed lifestyle wouldn't have changed we were out for lunch recently she's unable to enjoy social occasions like this anymore she got a pain in her stomach after nibbling a starter but they see the problem is as you see i think you might be of the view that people who are overweight just do it by choice so they don't have willpower medical professionals who work in this area are adamant that this is a disease and should be treated as such i understand where you're coming from but maybe just try and understand a little bit more can you please ask that lady how much it cost a couple in on that she went private it was 11 grand her her life insurance lucky enough to have that covered that greg our shop at least in at least five different supermarkets both large and small i find both symptoms simpsons and aldea first class with extra assistance if one needs it always with a smile and never making you feel a nuisance for asking even for carrying heavy groceries to one's car and i cannot praise them enough and time for one more before we go do we listen loads of you texting in there about your nice experiences in shops and with service providers i will get to them tomorrow because it's a nice positive note for friday isn't it that is where we have to leave it listen thanks to all of you who took part in the show who listened to the program those of you who watched it too all very welcome back with you tomorrow friday panel discussing all the big topics of the weeks so stay tuned for that and the usual entertainment for you on a friday enjoy the rest of your thursday stay tuned john bresen's coming up around the northwest after the news at 12 on the streaks business matters i'll be joined