 Pilled on the roads were between the age of 16 and 25. Shinfé and TD Martin Kenny says the government must warn young drivers of the risks of speeding. They'll need to look at means of having better enforcement measures put in place for people who are travelling too fast on our roads. They'll need to come up with solutions for all of that and they'll need, I think, you know, better training for young drivers as well to ensure that they're fully aware of the dangers of driving too fast of the adverse weather or weather conditions as they come to contact with them. Two men have been released on police bail after being arrested as part of an investigation into a poster which claimed to show the details of serving officers in Northern Ireland. The notice appeared on a bus stop in Don Given on Thursday. P.S. and I say the information was incorrect and one woman it was wrongly linked to the force. Looking to weather, misty or foggy in parts to begin that will soon be clearing. It'll be another warm or very warm day with mostly sunny skies. A coastal fog may linger locally. Top temperatures of 22 to 24 degrees. That's all for now. You can find the latest local news on our website, hideandradio.com. The next news updates at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. Only Murders in the building is back on Disney Plus. You know what this means. Murder? Yeah, murder. The stage is set for the wildest season yet. We're onto something here. Featuring Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez. Look at this cast. They're all killers. As well as Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep. This is so exciting. I'm honored to work with him. Just don't upstage me. Only Murders in the building. New season now streaming exclusively on Disney Plus. 18-plus subscription required. Teas and seas apply. The county's number one talk show, The Ninetal Noon Show on Highland Radio. And a very good morning to you. This is The Ninetal Noon Show on Highland Radio. It's Donal standing in for Greg. He's on his way back after a very successful weekend in London with the team over there. A great broadcast yesterday. If you heard it, if you didn't, you can listen back, of course, on our website and our YouTube channel. Really good show there in London from Greg and the team. Now it is Monday. It is the 4th of September. And one thing that was very noticeable driving up this morning actually is the amount of extra traffic on the road because the schools are now well and truly back. They were going back in dribs and drabs all through last week, but the buses are out there. The traffic is out there, so please just be aware of that on the roads this morning. Allow a bit of extra time. Be a little bit more patient than usual and especially around Letterkenny. We've been having some road works and there will be more coming up. I'll mention that in a moment, but it has been a fairly busy morning so far and there have been way too many stories about roads on the airwaves here and elsewhere for the wrong reasons and let's not add to that. A lot coming up on the show this morning, but of course, as we always say, the most important thing is your perspectives, your views, your take on the stories and issues of the day. If you can text or WhatsApp us on 086 60 25000, call us 07491 25000, Caroline producing and taking your calls this morning. Caroline on her own because Neve was over in London and is on her way back this morning along with the team. So be a little bit more patient if the phone isn't answered as quickly as it normally would be. Please just be a little bit more patient. It will be answered and you will get the attention that you need and deserve of that. You can be absolutely sure. We're on social media as well, of course. We're Highland Hub on X or Twitter as we used to call it. We're, no, we're Highland Hub on Facebook. We're at Highland Radio on X or Twitter and we're on other social media channels as well. Comments at highlandradio.com if you wish to send us an email. Looking at the papers in this morning's Donegal news, major recruitment drive at LUH, Emma Ryan writes that over 80 healthcare posts are to be filled at the hospital to improve safe staffing levels. A major new recruitment drive is underway under the National Initiative for Implementation of Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix. The hospital has received approval for a total of 78 new posts, 55 in nursing and 23 in healthcare assistance. Also looking for more candidates, advanced nurse practitioners in cardiology, emergency, rapid access, diabetic nursing, respiratory nursing, ED, children's IBD and dermatology access to care. Still to see 17 new nurses have already been recruited at the hospital to date this year and that can only be good and we just hope that we don't have the problems that we've had with recruitment in the past where we know the posts have been advertised and they've been advertised again and again and again and sometimes it can be difficult to get the actual people that they're looking for and hopefully they're in a position to offer the sort of packages that will attract people to the area and to the region. Derry News this morning. Council urged to rethink half marathon decision. A waterside half marathon winner, Kyle Doherty, has renewed calls for a rethink on the decision to cancel next year's event insisting that nothing comes close to promoting the city as much as the half marathon. The council revealed that as a cost-cutting exercise, half marathon events will be alternated between Derry and Straban over the coming years. Over 2,000 runners took part in the event yesterday with hundreds more turned away but despite its popularity, the waterside half will not take place, we're told, in 2024 and a lot of pushback on that particular issue. Looking at the Irish Independent this morning, their main story, urban rural divide revealed in our most overcrowded classes, the independent rights that school children and parts of rural Ireland were twice as likely to be placed in overcrowded classes at primary level last year, compared with pupils attending national schools in Dublin, an analysis of class sizes in more than 3,000 primary schools across the country by the paper reveals wide variations. Nationally, 11.4% of children were being taught in primary school classes of more than 30. So nationally, the figure is 11.4. So where do you think Donegal comes in the particular league table associated with that? Well, I can tell you, Donegal is the third highest in the country in terms of overcrowded classes. The national average is we said 11.4% of children in classes of over 30. In Donegal, it's 16.5% in classes over 30. Only two counties higher, Monaham, 17.2% and Lytrim, 18.6%. So Donegal, the third highest and there's a lot more on that in the Irish Independent this morning. Quite a lot online as well actually, including graphs featuring all 3,000 plus primary schools going, so you get quite a lot from the Independent on that particular story and obviously with all the schools back, its education and associated issues are very much on the news this morning. Irish Times this morning, inside a lot on the electric picnic highs and lows of the weekend festival, Billy Eilish speaks to a generation in crisis. That's all inside the paper. Sharp fall in private pensions for those in their 40s and 50s. The number of people in their mid 40s and 50s with a private pension has fallen significantly since last year with the cost of living crisis, putting future planning out of reach for many. That's according to research from the state's consumer watchdog, a competition and consumer protection commission survey published today highlights what it's describing as concerning gaps in retirement planning and that is indeed an issue of concern. Also on the Times this morning, Kinehan Cartel franchises drug operation, cartel assisting Irish gangs in exchange for a percentage of major drug deal. Latest move by Cartel to invent itself on Ireland after crackdown outlined by Gar thee. And we were speaking earlier about the waterside half marathon. Well, there was the Dingle foot in half marathons took place yesterday in County Kerry, lovely picture on the front of the Times as the participants run over a bridge as they headed out toward Bally Ferreter via Slay Head to Dunkin and then back into Dingle. And that's on the Irish Times. Irish Daily Mail this morning, new plan to get more of us living apartment life state to become a major player in building homes, 20,000 Euro tax free plan for rental rooms, bid to beat institutional investors. And I was actually in Dublin the weekend before last, the 25th, 26th and 27th, I was in Dublin that weekend. And I was in a B&B and the Lady Ring the B&B is by coincidence, married to a Dunny Goldman, told me that there was a place in Dunleary now, quite close to where I was attending an event. And in this place in Dunleary, it's called niche living. And what you have are tiny ensuite bedrooms where people are living in these tiny ensuite bedrooms and they're sharing kitchens. And there's maybe one kitchen for every, whatever it is, five, six, seven bedrooms. So people are sharing the kitchen, they're sharing, oh, I beg your pardon, oops. Yep, get rid of that. They're sharing the kitchen, they're sharing the living rooms and then they have these tiny bedrooms which are ensuite and they are paying, she reckons, somewhere between one and a half and 2,000 Euro a month for that. So they're paying in excessive 1,500 Euro and they don't even get their own kitchen. It just seemed crazy. But this is where they're looking. We heard previous housing ministers actually speak about this in the past that they were looking to go more into apartments and go more into these kind of smaller areas. And also Roy Keane headbutters in stadium at Arsenal Match, that's an interesting one more about that in the Daily Mail. Now let's move to the tabloids. The Irish Sun this morning and a lot about John Gilligan in the news. Now you'll be aware, I'm sure you'll have seen coverage over the weekend of the fact that Virgin Media are to broadcast a documentary on the life of John Gilligan which includes an interview with Gilligan himself and a lot of pushback and a lot of concern about that, not least from Jimmy Gehran, Veronica Gehran's sister because Gilligan, whereas he was not convicted of involvement with the murder of the murder of Veronica Gehran, he was convicted on drugs charges and the judge did say at that trial that they were very seriously concerned about Gilligan and his role in the Veronica Gehran murder. So whereas he has not been convicted of anything, he has, shall we say, been associated with it in the minds of people for a very, very long time. So the Irish Sun headline this morning, pint-sized thug faces eight years, Gilligan in copycat Veronica Gunn trial. John Gilligan goes on trial today after cops found a gun they mistakenly believed was used to kill reporter Veronica Gehran buried in his yard. The mobster also faces drugs and gang charges in Spain and could be locked up for more than eight years and that set the front of the Irish Sun this morning. Irish Daily Star, crime bosses close bond. Mobster John Gilligan says he's glad the person who killed his criminal ally, Martin Cahill, got away with it. The general got what was coming to him, according to Gilligan. General had it coming as the headline on the Irish Daily Star this morning. Cahill was a good guy. He said, but I'm glad his killers weren't caught. That is good. And the inevitable Irish Daily Star pun on the front page after yesterday's soccer, united pay the rice. And that's soccer coverage there. Reference back to Declan Rice scored in that game in the Emirates yesterday. Also on the Irish Daily Mirror, Gilligan exclusive, they say, I'm glad they didn't catch the general's killer and that's on pages four and five. So that's the exclusive on the Irish Daily Mirror, which is on pages four and five and the mirror have it exclusively while it's on the front page of the Irish Daily Star. Haven't quite figured that one out yet. But the main story on the Irish Daily Mirror this morning, comics, secret ordeal. Al, my boo's hell. A comedian, Al Porter has revealed how a warning from Gay Burn helped him beat his battle with the boo's. The stand up who has made a comeback following allegations of sexual misconduct is now three years sober. At 30, Al said the iconic late late host told him he needed to look at his drinking after watching the funny man down pints on stage. Al says he's now T-Total. I think life is better for it. And it's interesting. There's been a couple of interviews with Al Porter and stories about Al Porter over the past couple of weeks. And it seems to be quite clear that Al Porter is sort of trying to ease himself back into the public consciousness and relaunch his career. We'll watch that one with interest. It's 9 to the Noon Show on Highland Radio. Oh wait, 60, 25,000 for your texts or WhatsApps 07491, 25,000 for your calls. 003537491, 25,000 for your outside of the dialing area. 16 minutes past nine. Take a short break. Back after these. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra Mountaintop Letter Kenny, the Seastore National Large Four Court of the Year for 2022. The 9 to the Noon Show in association with Fit20 Letter Kenny. Get fitter and stronger in just 20 minutes. Train once a week with a personal trainer in a climate-controlled gym. Increase strength at any age. Visit fit20.ie to book your free session. All you need to make your house a home at Patterson's The Hall Livered. From garden furniture to kitchens, sofas and dining sets all under one roof. Need a new mattress? Why not visit our sleep center on the first floor with a large range of quality beds and mattresses in stock and ready for collection or delivery. Relax in our coffee shop serving hot lunches daily. Open Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Patterson's kitchens and interiors The Hall Livered. The bakers are talking about their kids heading back to school. Chazelle, Mr. Brennan, they'll need the grades if they want to grow up to be bakers just like their mums and dads, Chazelle. I see the circumference of the hole in the bagel or calculating the hypotenuse of the perfect triangular toastie. Hypotenuse, Chazelle. The mathematician's bread, butter. Ha, ha, ha, ha! Brennan's, Chazelle's bread, Chazelle. Due to popular demand, the iMotors have extended their sale on the 30th of September with over €150,000 of reductions across all stock. This is not to be missed. At iMotors, test drive any car and enter our draw to win €1,000 cash. Yes, €1,000 to take a test drive ends the 30th of September. When you buy, choose one of the following offers. 12 months tax, free ceramic coating, 24 months warranty or your first finance payment covered by us. Low finance rates available, check our website for all T's and C's. You will not want to miss out. Visit iMotors.ie for more details. Are you worried about trees on your property? Northwest Forestry Services Bully Buffet are fully insured and have over 40 years experience in dangerous tree removal, tree felling, surgery and stump grinding. For peace of mind, call Northwest Forest Services Bully Buffet for no obligation quotation on 911-320-333. Highland Radio time checks with Expressway. Travel Route 32 from Letter Kennedy Dublin. When you book online and travel for less. Expressway, bringing you the time, Matt. And the time on Highland Radio is now 19 minutes past 9 o'clock. This is the 9-10 News Show. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at highlandradio.com. Let's go to our first guest on the show this morning. Kiran Sharp is the CEO of FACT. And any of us who have been in the cinema for years will know FACT from the I think it's Federation Against Copyright Theft, if I'm correct. But we've seen FACT's ads in cinemas on these islands for years. And Kiran, we're here to talk about what are you from mystically known as dodgy boxes? Yes, that is a term that covers a wide range of different boxes who basically do the same thing. They illegally allow you to access material from the internet, usually streaming these days. So that's what they are. Now, a lot of the time these are items that you can buy and shall be euphemistically safe from a fellow you met in a pub or from a fellow who someone you know is met in a pub and the transaction can be done and you pay whatever you pay at some of money and you get this box, you connect it to your TV at home and it basically acts as... And I'm not hugely into all these terms, but it sort of does the same thing as a VPN. It circumvents the blocks on streams and you can access things like Netflix shows and Amazon and ProSky or Next or whatever. And you can watch them without paying the quick subscription. That's right, yes. It's illegally accessing sports, content, TV shows, movies, anything you want to watch, as you say, usually for a small fee. And it's depriving the legitimate providers of the subscription fees. Is there a way that the use of these can be tracked down? Is there any way of monitoring where there may be such a box and where streams are going illegally? There's lots of different things that could be done technically, but often we work through other investigations to find the people responsible for selling or moving on these types of boxes and the services that they provide. So that's our main focus, really, is those who are providing the illegal services. There are criminals who are committing crimes and giving people something that is essentially dodgy in itself in terms of the possibility of malware and viruses and inappropriate content and so on and so on and so on, which is a very real possibility as well. Obviously, the rise in streaming and the rise in online services and web services and broadband and Wi-Fi and so on has changed everything. I mean, I'm of an age where I will remember buying my 12-inch vinyl album and the inner sleeve had a big scot and crossbones with the legend. Home taping is killing music and it's illegal. And as I said in my intro, I will remember going to cinemas and there was lots of warnings against recording, using cameras in the cinema and so on. But given what's now available in terms of technology, it's now become a lot more sophisticated, hasn't it? Yes, it has. So the use of the streaming services, such as originally by BBC iPlayer, have made it the fact that consumers can access what they want when they want and where they want to see all their favourite shows and programmes, which is a great thing. But of course, then it also creates an opportunity for criminals to try and take advantage of that as well. Do you count... I beg your pardon, sorry. In terms of the use of these boxes, one of the things that's really become sort of prevalent in recent times, as you understand it, is sport and people are accessing Premiership Games, Formula One races and so on, things that would normally be shown under subscription, be it on Sky, be it on BT Sports, be it on whatever. Yes. Yeah, sport is really, I suppose, the Premier League in the main. I think that's what kick-started all this. Because once you access or you go to a provider to get access to all these sports, of course you then get access to all the other things as well. So the movies and the TV shows that I've already mentioned, so sport, yes, it is a problem in that it's such a thing that's in demand by consumers. But of course, then that creates more problems for the paid TV providers, such as Sky, because then all their other content is accessed at the same time. You mentioned the BBC iPlayer there. Now, another thing I'm aware of is a thing called, it's a VPN where you can put something onto your computer or your laptop that makes it effectively think it's in a different country or act as though it's in a different country. And therefore you can access things like BBC iPlayer, even though you're not necessarily, because here in Donegal, obviously, even though we're 16 minutes' drive from the UK geopolitically speaking, we cannot in Donegal access the iPlayer, even though our neighbours in Derrier Sturban just a short hop up the road can do. Would you be including the use of those kind of VPN programmes or something similar in this particular drive? Yes, definitely. What we've been doing at the moment has been, as I say, going after the providers of services and the boxes that go with that. But of course, all our investigations involve whatever means people use to access this illegal content. And VPNs in particular are an issue when you go to different countries, different geographical locations. And so, yes, those things are always part of our investigations. There's a caller asking, who produces the equipment that allows this to happen? Surely those companies and the providers of that equipment are the main players who should be targeted, not necessarily the consumer who's actually using it? Well, we're not chasing down the consumer at the moment. Clearly, we want the consumer to... They're film fans or sports fans, whatever it might be. I mean, we want them to take on the legitimate content and enjoy it in the best possible circumstances. But the people we are chasing are those, as I've already said, who are providing these opportunities. But the boxes themselves, they're not illegal. They are perfectly legitimate. They can be used for various things. For instance, you could load up your holiday videos and photos on there or whatever. It's when they've been modified and that most of them are constructed to be easily modified. They come from the Far East. And some of them even come already modified from the Far East. The manufacturer of them in itself is not illegal. It's a modification. It's a problem. And there's also, I mean, a number of, as you say, legitimate and perfectly legal products that can be bought, one made by one of the major sort of streaming TV providers, actually, that can be modified and have a program added to it, which allows you to access stuff that's being streamed illegally. So the equipment itself isn't... And I'm talking about the Amazon Fire Stick. And I'm aware the Amazon Fire Stick is an absolutely legitimate piece of equipment that is used legitimately and properly by many, many people. But it is possible to get, as I understand it, a program onto a Fire Stick, which allows you circumvent, in a lot of cases, the actual streaming rules. Yes. So what you normally get is the people who provide the sort of illegal services we've already discussed, they will provide you with an already modified Amazon Fire Stick. It's another form of IPTV, Internet Protocol Television. It's just another form of that. And if they can crack the code that protects the Fire Stick, then that's what happens. You'll be then given that Fire Stick to use. Obviously, all of the companies who produce these are doing everything they can to keep changing the codes and stop it being modified. But it's very difficult. They have difficult technical solutions. And there are people who will continue to try and find a way to beat those technical solutions and provide you with illegal services through a Fire Stick. Fact has traditionally tried to appeal to people's better natures and appeal to their sense of morality and point out that effectively, if you are accessing services for which you haven't paid, then that is a form of theft. And you've always sort of taken that as I've sort of seen the advertising and so on, you know, and it appeared on Simon Bates did one for years, as I recall, on videos. And again, I'm showing my age on that one very much. I suspect. But in terms of facts approach, it's always been to try to appeal to people's better nature. When you get to a point where a fact will actually say, OK, we're going to start, we've used the carrot and we've used the carrot an awful lot. Now it's time to get the stick out and maybe it is time to target consumers. Well, it is a subject that's been under discussion clearly. We know that as we do our investigations, we're going to see consumers getting swept up in those investigations. But we don't really want to be going after people and prosecuting those who are consumers. We really want them to be able to be warned, take a warning. And we've done that on many occasions with letters sent to customer databases of people we've arrested who have been providing illegal services. Take the warning, understand what you're doing is illegal and that there could be consequences. And but in general, as you can imagine, we would much rather that some people understood the problem and enjoyed the premium content in his best guys. Kieran Sharpe, CEO of FACT. Thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning. Thank you. Kieran, thank you. That's Kieran there, who is the CEO of FACT, the Federation Against Copyright Theft. And we'll be seeing more and more, I think, on that, a crackdown on dodgy boxes. And let's be honest, there's been various over the years in Donegal and elsewhere. There's been loads of conversations about the accessing of TV and, you know, be it through microwave and you remember way back in the days of MMDA and think not not MMD. MMD is something completely different. I beg your pardon. MMDS, you may recall, and it became an election issue back in the mid 1990s, which was an interesting time to be working in this job as I was. Now, let's look at our quiz for this week because Fit20 have a giveaway and it's running all this week on the 9-2 noon show from today until Friday the 8th. We're giving you the chance to win three months membership to Fit20. You can get stronger in just 20 minutes, train once a week with a personal trainer in a climate-controlled gym, answer a simple question. Each day, a winner will be selected daily to be entered into the draw on Friday. And to be in with a chance, we just want you to simply answer this question. And the question is, who won the Women's World Cup this year? Was it A, Spain, or B, Ireland? Who won the Women's World Cup this year? Was it A, Spain, or B, Ireland? Text your answer or WhatsApp it to 0866025000, including please your name and address. You will, if drawn, be a qualifier. And then at the end of the week, we will give you the chance to win that free three-month membership. So that's what we're giving away a three-month membership to Fit20. You can win that by entering the competition, qualifiers each day, going into the final draw on Friday. And the question is, who won the Women's World Cup this year? Was it A, Spain, or B, Ireland? Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook, and at highlandradio.com. The 9 till noon show in association with Fit20 Letter Kenny. Get fitter and stronger in just 20 minutes. Train once a week with a personal trainer in a climate-controlled gym. Increase strength at any age. Visit fit20.ie to book your free session. Enhance your skills with SIFTEC's part-funded training programs. At SIFTEC, we provide courses, including first aid, road works, people moving and handling, confined spaces, electrophusion, and machinery training for Ireland and UK sites. Also online programs such as water hygiene, construction supervisors, SIFTI reps and much more. If you have a group for training, SIFTEC will go to you. Contact SIFTEC today at SIFTEC.ie and take the first step towards upskilling and safety compliance. We go through a lot to connect with our family. That's why Vodafone Red Family now rewards you with a minimum of 20-year-old every month when you add broadband to your plan. Some moments like getting the dog they desperately wanted can be more rewarding after you've fed it, walked it, cleaned it, played with it, walked it, taken it to the vet and walked it again. Search Vodafone Red Family or go in store. Vodafone, together we can. Offers objective in a third to six connection joining a Red Family account on a Bill Pay Mobile or Vodafone home broadband plan. Her full term, see Vodafone.ie, 4th slash Red Family. Welcome to the spa at Orchids, one of Europe's largest spas at the Holly Root Hotel Bundorn. Discover tranquility in our Japanese themed garden, boasting seven treatment rooms, seaweed baths and a secret garden with an outside hot tub and sauna. Now, let me take you to the heart of Bundorn where you'll find the Holly Root Hotel Spa and Leisure Center. Don't miss out on our exclusive midweek hotel specials. More information at hollyroothhotel.com. Donegal County Council has prepared a proposed material alterations to the draft letter Kenny plan and local transport plan 2023 to 2029 for public inspection. Public consultation runs from Friday 11th of August to Friday 8th of September 2023 for details, see consult.donegal.ie. Only two weeks left here at House to Home and Tears Bridgen and Britain's furniture mobile for a month of in-house offers and giveaways. Call in to House to Home and Tears Bridgen today for a chance to win a 500 euro voucher in our end of month draw. Don't forget, we're only 20 minutes drive from Letter Kenny for all your home furnishing and floor covering needs. This is the Nintil Nun Show on Highland Radio. Just a few of your comments that have come in. Long live the dodgy box says, It's the only TV I have as the mainstream TV is rubbish. Another caller says, People have these boxes because the satellite services are so expensive. He speaks about crime, the way companies up their prices and get people hooked is crazy. Can someone just back the people once? So asks a caller. Now, let's go to Paula Leonard who is the CEO of Alcohol Forum Ireland because September is recovery month. It's a month during which there are celebrations and Paula joins us. Paula, good morning. Good morning. How are you? I'm very well indeed. Paula, very often when you come on, inevitably you're here to talk about problems and you're here to talk about issues. But today we're here to focus on success and we're here to focus on something positive. Absolutely. I think it's really important, you know, the number of people who are seeking support through addiction services across the country has gone up significantly. Some people may see that as, you know, an indication of something that we need to be concerned about and yes, you know, you can look at it that way, but it also means that more and more people are taking a really brave and courageous step to say alcohol and other drugs are really harming my life. They're harming the lives of, you know, the people around me that I love, my family members, my children. And I'm going to do the really hard work and navigate recovery. And we're seeing more and more people in recovery. But unfortunately, there's still quite a bit of stigma and silence around that. So recovery month, really, every September, it's a way of doing two things. It's a way of making visible and celebrating and acknowledging the contribution that people in recovery are making in this country every day, you know, just about seeing them and hearing them and hearing their voices. But it's also then on the other hand, it's about remembering, you know, the people who didn't make it. So by the time you and I go to bed tonight, there'll be three more people dead in this country as a direct result of alcohol harm. So it's also a space for those families who have lost loved ones from alcohol or other drugs to remember them and to remember the challenges and to remember those who did aim for recovery and didn't make it. So I suppose it's both celebratory and a remembering. And, you know, what we've seen across the country over the last number of years is a huge increase in activity around making visible and celebrating recovery. And this year, Alcohol Forum Ireland, who traditionally we haven't, we've been sort of service delivery oriented. We're making a big call out to people and saying, look, come and join us. We're joining the recovery walk in Northern Ireland, which takes place in Derry on the 30th of September, Saturday morning, early. We walk the two bridges in Derry and come together in a celebratory way, then down in Guildhall Square after the walk is finished. And it's just the tea, coffee, chats, making and building community, making and building visibility. And it'll be great fun. So if you have a pair of runners, you don't need to be in recovery, but you can be. We are calling, you know, people in recovery to build a visible, vibrant recovery movement here in the county, but for family members, for friends, for organizations who care about this issue and want to contribute and become part of the movement, join us. We're going to have a wee bus leaving, well, depending on the number of people who volunteers, leaving Leather Kenney at around nine o'clock on Sunday, Saturday, the 30th, traveling in Derry to join, you know, our colleagues and our friends who are running that event. One of the key words you used there in that opening piece was I, because as I understand this, one of the keys to recovery is it's got to come from the person themselves. You can be told you have a problem by everyone around you. You can be urged, you can be cajoled, you can be asked, but the real recovery starts when the person says, I have a problem, I need help, I need to tackle this. Yeah, I think, look, I hear what you're saying, I acknowledge what you're saying, and it is, that's a very strong narrative is this notion that it's, you know, that people have to decide for themselves and that, you know, there's nothing we can do, there's sort of a little bit of nihilism around people who are in active addiction. What we do know, for example, we run an impact program, we've run two of them here in Donegal, already this year, we'll run another one the four year end. And families, so family members, children, and adult spies often can come to this program with the person who is, you know, in active addiction or in recovery or in treatment, it's a unique program in that you don't have to actually be in recovery or in treatment to come to the program, attend the program, you just have to be sober on the night of the program. And what we find with that is, you know, family members come and they talk about it, and that can actually motivate that person to move towards recovery and to make changes, positive changes in their lives. We also run the family support service. We've run five-step family support and we have a new family support worker who starts just in July, Tom, and anyone who's out there can contact them, Tom at alcoholforum.org. And that work too is about working with family members. One, they have a right to recovery in their own right, so addiction is damaging the whole family and they have a right to sort of look for support in their own right, make their own journey. And those people, often around the drinker, around the person who's abusing drugs, they can make really positive changes that support that person to move towards recovery. We also see in, you know, hospital services, there's often this sort of nihilism again about what they call frequent fliers, so people who are in active addiction who come through hospital services, addiction services, mental health services repeatedly, and there's sort of this notion that well, until they decide for themselves, there's nothing we can do for them. And that actually, in research terms and in evidence terms, that proves not to be the case. There are things that services can do, you know, a helping conversation, somebody coming out to visit you at home after you've been released from hospital, that has sort of outreach. All of those things can make a significant difference. People in addiction can often feel really, really alone and they can often feel that they have to do all of the heavy lifting and everything on their own. And we're now beginning to build up an understanding that that's not necessarily true. You don't have to do it all on your own. Yes, it's going to be a long, tough journey and navigating recovery is complex, but there are lots of support, you know, supports that are out there, there's lots of services that are out there. There are programs for family members, there's programs for families, including children, which we run ourselves. So, you know, it's not as isolating and it's not as, you know, the other thing I think we have to challenge is the rock bottom narrative. So in Donegal, in particular and across Ireland, people tend not to go for help until they really hit rock bottom. You can go for help at any point in the journey. Once you realize that alcohol or other drugs are having a negative impact on you, on your work life, your family life, your social life, you know, your help, you can go for help at any point in that journey once you make that realization that, you know, hang on a minute, my alcohol intake or my, you know, use of other drugs is impacting negatively on my life and there's something I need to do about this. You don't have to wait until you hit rock bottom. You know, that sort of story that we read about and see in the movies and all of those things. It doesn't have to be that way. I suppose don't really think that's an important message. I'd like people to hear today. Absolutely. You made the point that the recovery walk is taking place in Derry on the 30th, but you're hoping that maybe in 2024, you won't be having to get a bus into Derry because we're going to have one in Donegal. Yeah, absolutely. You know, baby steps, I suppose the big journeys all start with baby steps. There's great things happening in the recovery space in Derry. You know, you have arch recovery and you have Derry Healthy Cities and you've got other organizations who've been working on this for a couple of years. We've been working with them on a cross-border basis this year. We're really excited to be learning from them and to be helped by them. And I suppose I'm new enough to the post of CEO and building recovery movement and supporting recovery is something that is very high in our agenda and it's part of our new strategic plan. And next year we will be doing recovery walks and recovery events in Donegal throughout September. So that's something I'm really looking forward to. But this year, we're going to travel in and join people in Northern Ireland, which, as you were saying earlier on the program, is only a 16-minute drive for people from here. So... Collar says, and this is a point, actually, that does bear consideration, Collar says, unfortunately, we can talk until we're blue in the face about alcohol and addiction in general, but there is very little help available and the process to access help in this country is at times a complete joke. And we're told there is a dearth of services in Donegal in terms of those who are seeking help. From that point of view, how would you respond to that, Paul? I mean, do I presume we do need more services, particularly in areas like Donegal? Yeah, look, you know, we had the county alcohol profiles were published just earlier in the summer by the Health Research Board. You know, and that did show some things that we need to be concerned about and pay attention to in Donegal. You know, we had a higher than average number of people seeking help from addiction services, but I think it's really important, and this is really, I suppose, for the HSE to answer rather than myself, but I am absolutely happy to promote their services. The addiction community alcohol and other drug service by the HSE in Donegal is an excellent service. They have outreach clinics, you know, south of the county, they have the service in Natterkenny, they have services up and in Shown. They do assessments within two weeks of receiving a referral. They see people, you know, in a very quick turnaround time, they try and keep their waiting list to a minimum. You know, so if somebody is having difficulties with their alcohol or other drug use in Donegal, they need to just go to the GP and have a conversation and look for a firm into that service. So that service is completely free at the point of delivery. We have residential treatment in Donegal and White Oaks. We have family programs that we run ourselves. We have family support. The Northwest Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Force, I'm on my way down to Valley Shadden this morning to meet some of them. They have outreach and family support in the south of the county. So I think there's, there are the services and support that exist. And I think the excellence supports the services and don't bring it in Donegal. There is also a lack of awareness that those services exist. Where they are, how you access them and how you can move, you know, on that journey, taking that first step towards treatment or towards recovery. So I think that, you know, all of us together who work in the sector, we have to promote those all of the time, communicate, use Highland radio and local media and get the message out there. The help is out there, in fact, you know, so if people want to ring us in terms of family support, they want to ring the HSE addiction services. And, you know, all of those supports in terms of exist and White Oaks as well. I think it's really important within this county that people know that we do have residential addiction treatment services. And finally, Paula, in terms of making contact with yourselves both in terms of seeking help or getting the right direction in which to go and also in terms of registering an interest in going into Derry and maybe getting a place on that bus on September 30. How can people contact you? Well, Tom, our new family support worker, I'm promoting his services support, it's there since July. Just if they contact directly, Tom at alcoholforum.org in relation to the recovery walk and in relation to anything else, they can contact yourself on email at Paula at alcoholforum.org. And we're happy to provide support and advice. We're happy to meet with people. We're happy to hold people's hands, you know, and help them on that journey, you know, either through our own services and support from other community volunteer organisations in the HSE. Paula Leonard, thank you very much indeed. Lovely. Thank you, Paula. Have a good day. The 9 till noon show in association with Fit20 Letter Kenny. Get fitter and stronger in just 20 minutes. Train once a week with a personal trainer in a climate-controlled gym. Increase strength at any age. Visit fit20.ie to book your free session. In a week, Rek Dalmer and Coradja Eiradja in a talk with Sennarov, tour me on Nils Monodah of Miledine, on Bubble, Yal-Sharivori, and the Gwini Sennarol, Pobl and Yonoh. To our report, Cori Eirish, the Gwini Eirah connoisseur-feiderling, Tau-ki-in-vune-he-a-a-a-ri-hu. To our guest door, Erlina Eiroskild, and his talk for the Fragritian Sennarov in our planned lan-o-no-cunee-f-don-Eiradj. Kurdig, Coradja Eiradja, Fit203, and his leaner-survey Erlina, connoisseur-mi-a-coranur, Tau-ki-chut-o-ri-il-tils-ne-heran. We're sorry to inform you of yet another delay. No, not the train this time. It's John. He's delayed getting his eyes tested. If he's accidentally sat in your lap, knocked over your suitcase, or kissed you instead of his wife, we can only apologise. John has now been informed that eye-testing glasses from the 69 euro range at Specsavers are free with PRSI or medical card. So there's no need to delay booking an appointment. Find out more at Specsavers.ie. John, can you get off my lap? If the medical experts get it wrong, everything changes. From misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis to surgical injury or even poor treatment, all have physical, emotional and financial consequences. We're here to help. So if your treatment didn't go according to plan, speak to our experienced medical negligence team at McElhenney & Associates. Find us online. Our call 074 917 5989. McElhenney & Associates solicitors, Stranorla. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement. Homeowners, it's time to unlock incredible savings on your energy bills. Efficient renewables is here to reduce your energy consumption. Say goodbye to Skyrock and the cost and hello to renewable energy solutions. There's no vat on solar panels and the generous grants for both solar panels and heat pumps. See these innovative systems in action in our state-of-the-art showroom in Newton, Cunningham today. Contact Efficient Renewables on 074 97 08 320. Thank you very much. Thank you. John Boyle, a native of this Fair County, is the Chief Executive of the INTO. John, a very good morning to you. John joins us on Zoom. John Ho. Hello, John. Good morning to you. And a very good morning to you as well. John, in terms of the... I said Chief Executive General Secretary is the correct title. I do beg your pardon, John. John, in terms of those figures published by the Independent this morning, no solicitation. No solicitation. No solicitation. No solicitation. No solicitation. The Independent this morning. No surprise, I'm sure, to yourself. No, Dorna. And the good thing about it is quite complicated, this class-size scenario, you know? Because every year the department publishes what they call a staffing schedule. And that indicates to you how many teachers the school gets based on the 30th of September, figure of the year before. So I want to just take the listeners back a little bit to 2012 when it was on the show. was on the show. And back in 2012, the government slashed all of the small schools in rural Ireland. For example, I was really angry at the time because my own former school in Anagrae and all those schools were very badly hit by government cuts. And what happened at that particular time was that if you had 84 children in 2011, you had your four teaching. And that was favourable. That was 21 children per class on average. And that was merited because it's not simple in rural Ireland. You have multi classes. You'd have junior and senior infants in the one classroom, 56 in the other. So that's more challenging for the children and for the parents and the teacher. So the 21 to one ratio, which was, you know, in line with the rest of Europe back in 2011 for the smaller schools. At that time, the bigger schools had over 30 children in the class. But the government slashed the schools and you lost your four teacher. And that brought you to a scenario where you had only three teachers for the 84 children up to 28 to one in the class, basically increasing the class size by a part. So that happened back in 2012. And that's not really washed out yet through the system. Even though in the last couple of years, we have been successful with our pre-budget campaigns, getting reductions of one child per class for the last three years. But it's too little and too late. This government probably only has one more budget left on the 10th of October. And our demand this year, on behalf of all the children of Ireland and the parents, as well as the teachers, is that we get it down by two children. Now, the impact of that would be across the whole country. It would be significant because it would help us get close to the European average. But I don't think it's any coincidence that areas like Donegal and Lytrum, where a lot of the new Irish and particularly the Ukrainian children have been settled over the last 12 months, that the class sizes there are particularly large at the moment. So it's a major, major concern at the start of a school year. And it means government are really going to have to step up the pace with class size reductions. Do you believe that the fact that the figures are based on 30th of September the year before is now unrealistic, given the movement we've seen in terms of bringing in those from Ukraine and from elsewhere and the way those people are being distributed across the country and being given the education that they need and deserve, that if you're basing your figures on September 30th the previous year, you're utterly failing to take into account what's happened in the intervening 11 months? Well, not necessarily, Donald, because it's supposed to be fair to the Department now. We, when the war broke out in Ukraine, we certainly identified that certain schools who have maybe spare classrooms in that would have capacity. And we dealt with the Department last March. And the one big ask we had after the Department was, if a school kicks in, say, 30 more children in the middle of the year, please don't force them to hold on until the following September before they get their teacher. Don't just base it on the previous 30 September figures. Give them the teacher. If they take the 30 children, give them an extra teacher right away. And to be fair, that did happen. But in terms of the figures that are there today, it's very, very clear that at least one in nine of the children in Ireland is in a super-sized class. And I suppose, when you look at the rest of Europe, the average is 20. But we have countries that are a way less well off than us within the European Union, who have classes of much less than 20. And with 56 and a half billion euros of a government surplus being predicted for the next three years, we just have a simple ask, will you give us 41 million to keep the teachers in the schools that you're going to take away? Because if we don't get class size down in this budget by two, the government is actually going to be taking back teachers because the total population in schools is now coming in at about 50 to 53,000 coming in in junior infants. But back eight years ago, nine years ago when they did those cuts, there was way more children coming in. So with 80,000 kids going out in sixth class and only 53 coming in in junior infants, if the government keeps the teachers and they're saying that's going to cost us 41 million, it's not going to cost 41 million extra. It's just going to mean that the 41 million they're spending on those teachers right now will be retained for next year. And by the time you'd ring me this time next year, you'd notice that the impact of the class size reductions that are happening now today, because it's down by one from the first of September. And then another two for next year, you'd notice that the Donegal figures would be considerably reduced. And we'd be on the right trajectory towards the European average. And my view is, why would an Irish child not have the same opportunity in primary education to get a good start as a child in any other part of Europe? After all, the world is different. We're competing with all these for work throughout the world. You have different employers trying to attract the best. And if Irish shouldn't don't get the right start in life. So I hope all the listeners are emailing their TVs and back in our campaign to get class size. I must give a big shout out to Frank McGlynn, who's a principal there outside letter Kenny, former All Star and Enter County player for Donegal. He is part of our pre-budget campaign. We did a video with a lot of Gaelic football stars asking for these improvements to the education budget. And Frank made a particular case for extra supports for school leadership in school. So I just want to thank him very much for that input. Are you looking when you speak about retaining those teachers that are at risk of being lost? Are you speaking about just maintaining the status quo and keeping those in the schools they're based in and making no change at all? Or are you looking at maybe redistributing some teachers to areas where perhaps there are bigger class sizes and in some way keeping the teachers but not necessarily in the same place that you would spread them around to make sure you get a more even spread of class size ratios? Yeah, so let's say next year now if we got our way in the budget campaign and rather than the class size schedule being a 23, if we got it down to 21, the impact of that would mean that in Donegal and Monaghan and later in a place like that, that instead of losing a teacher and the awful thing that happened with the cuts 10 years ago, that they would have less teachers for the remaining children, they would keep their teacher. And in keeping their teacher with a wee small drop in the pupil population, the school, because there's more children going out in six than what's coming in junior infants, by keeping the teacher automatically their class size average would fall. And if that were to happen over a number of years, you'd suddenly find that instead of having these super size over 30 children and classes in County Donegal, you'd end up that it would be down around 25, 24, 23, which still above the European average, but it would be definitely moving in the right direction. So all I'm trying to say here is budget ask, reduce it by two, it's only going to cost you $41 million if you were looking upon this as an extra cost. But in my view, they shouldn't be looking at education as a cost. This would be a major, major fill up for the next generation of children. If with a new curriculum coming in as well, don't know, there's a brand new curriculum, the maths has been announced tomorrow, and it's based on 20 to one. So how can you deliver a curriculum for this this modern era? If you have 30 children in the class, if the actual curriculum is designed for 20, so it'd be a win win for everybody if we've got it down to the 20. John Boyle, General Secretary of the INTO, thank you indeed for joining us this morning. Thank you, John. That's John there, the INTO General Secretary, and you're listening to the Nine Till Noon Show on Highland Radio coming up in just a few moments, the news and a bit trees with Donna Marie, but right now we're going to take a short break. The Nine Till Noon Show, an association with Fit20 Letter Kenny. Get fitter and stronger in just 20 minutes. Train once a week with a personal trainer in a climate control gym. Increase strength at any age. Visit fit20.ie to book your free session. At Screw Fix, you can click and collect over 10,000 trade products in as little as one minute. So whether it's sockets and swords or radiators in Ross Common. When you need it yesterday, just click at screwfix.ie and collect at your local store seven days a week. Ties and Seas applied for the screwfix.ie for full details. Call them here from Sweeney's Home Value Builders providers, Letter Mac Award and Dairy Bag. Are you starting a new build or planning a renovation any time soon? Why not give us a call today for quotation for all your building needs. Will there steal their installation? Timber Slates, we have it all at Sweeney's Builders providers, Letter Mac Award and Dairy Bag. Call 074-95-44-114. And now with delivery all across Donegal, at Sweeney's Builders providers, we have it all. Hip and knee pain can be debilitating. That's why at Kingsbridge Private Hospital, orthopedic surgeons offer a range of hip and knee surgeries and are ready to help get you back to doing what you love fast. Why wait? Find out more about our health insurance partners and cross-border health care options at KingsbridgePrivateHospital.com today. Eat healthy, work smart, be better. I don't listen to any of that. I'm fine the way I am, according to the mommy. And we all know she's never wrong. No, the only thing I'm changing is my broadband provider. You see, National Broadband Ireland is delivering high-speed fibre broadband right to my door. With almost 50 broadband providers using their network, I can decide who I want to connect with. I just need to find the best deal for me and the mommy, of course. You can find out all about it at mbi.iu. NBI, building a limitless Ireland, supported by the Government of Ireland. Do you need a UK address? Save hundreds of euros on custom charges, shopping online with Space Hub Dairy. We provide a full virtual office address mailbox service for all your business and personal use. Save your business hundreds, possibly thousands on custom charges with Space Hub Dairy. Call 048-7187-8077 for more details. Live on AIR, online and on the Highland Radio app. This is Highland Radio News. Good morning. It's Donna Marie-Darty with the news in full at 10 o'clock. A Johnny Gull deputy is calling for the fossil fuel divestment bill to be fortified. According to a report released by Action Aid, Ireland funds of 5.7 billion euro were registered in bonds and shares in climate harming activities in January of this year. Deputy Thomas Pringle says the bill he introduced in 2016 now must turn its attention to the banks. It was very interesting as well. In the six or seven years since the fossil fuel divestment bill has been implemented, there's actually a lot of focus has moved on to the banks and now the banks are actually funding fossil fuel development and I think that's the way that the investments are. The bill should look now as to cut off those investment funds because it's clear that the banks aren't going to make decisions themselves. Garde have detected 50 vehicles breaking the speed limit in the first two hours of a major clampdown this morning. Over 15,700 vehicles have been checked as part of National Slow Down Day, which runs until seven o'clock tomorrow morning. Among those spading was a motorist driving at 134 kilometres per hour in a 100 zone in Newcastle County, Wicklow, along with someone travelling as 155 kilometres on the M6 near Trails Pass. Assistant Garde commissioner for the roads policing Paula Hillman says they're working to try to keep the roads safe. We really need to look at certain areas like environment and road design. What are we doing when we identify black spots, when we identify locations where we know there are high numbers of accidents and also education? Meanwhile, the road safety authority says one in four people killed on the roads are aged between 16 and 25. Sinn Féin, TD, Martin Kenney says the government must warn young drivers of all the risks of speeding. They'll need to look at means of having better enforcement measures put in place for people who are travelling too fast on our roads. They'll need to come up with solutions for all of that. And they'll need, I think, better training for young drivers as well to ensure that they're fully aware of the dangers of driving too fast of the adverse weather or weather conditions as they come to contact with them. Two men have been released on police bail after being arrested as part of an investigation into a poster which claimed to show the details of serving officers in Northern Ireland. The notice appeared on a bus stop in Dungiven on Thursday. The PS and I say the information was incorrect and one woman was wrongly linked to the force. 750 Ukrainian refugees will be moving into tents at Electric Picnic tomorrow after people clear the festival. Today the Ukrainians will be moved into tented accommodation. The government have not been able to source housing and have sort of decided to put them up in Strad Valley. They'll be moved on a face basis over the next six weeks. An increase in child benefit and social welfare are necessary to reduce child poverty. Social justice Ireland is urging the government to make permanent changes in the budget rather than relying on temporary or one time measures. It says the new child poverty unit must deliver if Ireland is to become the best place in Europe for children as Tisha Glee over at Kuwans. Suzanne Rogers is research and policy analyst at Social Justice Ireland. Children living in poverty are living in households who are in poverty. So that will have to be reason truly I think one of the four things that would need to be tackled increasing social welfare payments ideally by at least 25 euro a week. Looking at increasing child benefit as well our proposed would that be that that will go by 50 euro a month. Looking to whether it'll be another warm or very warm day was mostly sunny skies, top temperatures of 22 to 24 degrees. That's all for now. You can find the latest local news on our website hideandradio.com. The next news updates at 11 o'clock until then. Good morning. The obituary notices this Monday morning September 4th. The death has taken place of Huey Galbraith, Port Hall, Lifford. His remains will repose at the home of his sister Marine Colhoun 314 Conneboro Road, Lifford from 1 PM this afternoon. General service at his sister's home tomorrow at 2 PM, followed by burial and the family plot in Balli Lenin Presbyterian Churchyard. Family flowers only please donations in lieu if desired to Balli Lenin Presbyterian Church care of any family member or Terence McClintock, funeral director. The death has taken place of Sarah Theresa Anthony, Glee Ballyar and Melton, Ney Freel, Doamore Fanad, remains reposing at her home in Ballyar from 3 PM today. Removal from there tomorrow at 6 30 PM, going to St Mary's Church, Fana Volte arriving at 7 30 PM to repose overnight funeral mass on Wednesday at 10 AM burial afterwards in Fana Volte Cemetery, house private to family and friends. The death has occurred of Kathleen McNicholas, Nick Gallagher to Ashley Parker, Melton Road, Letter Kenny, reposing at her late home from 12 and in today with Rosary at 9 PM, funeral from there tomorrow, going to the Church of Irish Murders Balli Rain Letter Kenny for 1 PM, rakeway and mass, which can be viewed live on YouTube, followed by burial and the family plot in Conwalt Cemetery. Family time please on the morning of the funeral. Family flowers only please donations if wished to the Donegal Hospice care of Pasco Blake funeral director. The death has occurred of Peter Gavigan, Strotter Kilray and Glenty's funeral arrangements later. The death has taken place of David Campbell, a rank in to Moff Funeral Service in Greenbank Presbyterian Church tomorrow at 1 30 PM, interment afterwards in the adjoining burying ground. Family flowers only please donations in lieu of flowers if wished to Greenbank Presbyterian Church care of Mrs Sylvia McCann, Windy Hill. The death has occurred of Eamon McGee, 15 the Green Balli McCull Letter Kenny and formerly Derry funeral from there today, going to St. Unan's Cathedral for rakeway and mass at 12 noon. Family time this morning please burial afterwards in the family plot in Cornwall Cemetery. Family flowers only please donations if wished to the Coronary Care Unit Letter Kenny University Hospital care of Pasco Blake funeral director. For more details, including any family health guidelines for wakes and funerals, please go to Highland radio dot com. If you want to grow up to be a champion, you have to eat like a champion and the Aldi savers offers are a super choice with up to 50% off, including granola bars, five pack was 159 now only 79 cent. White or whole male soft grain sub rolls was 75 cent now only 49 cent. Minions Ham was 139 now only 79 cent and Glenisk organic kids yogurt's four pack was 249 now only 199. Aldi official fresh food partner of the Irish rugby team. Come on Ireland we're rooting for you. Every time I hear that I just want to start screaming I'm going up to Boston wall to find my wooden leg at the top of my voice. Great piece of music that actually it's the second arm of the nine to noon show here on Highland Radio. It is eight minutes past 10. Bingo numbers coming up by the way, if you play Highland Radio NCBI Radio Bingo grab your books grab your pens we'll be playing the bingo numbers very shortly. Just a few comments to get through. We spoke earlier to the guy from fact and caller asks is this man serious very few people can afford Sky Sports. I had to stop Sky when it got to 77 euros a month and that was only half the sporting channels available. We spoke to Paul Leonard about recovery month, which is September and the recovery walk taking place at the end of the month in Derry. Caller says I've been listening to Paula a is the most popular organization to help alcoholics recover and she hasn't mentioned them once. I'm alcohol free now for 35 years due to them. It's totally access free with meetings in every town in Ireland. Alcohol recovery is now an industry and that's why we're on the wrong road. If you want to access any unit he won't get in on till your six weeks sober, which is very difficult. So says our caller. I can't stand over that claim. Not a caller has this woman ever had an addiction or known anyone that has. They make it sound so simple. It's far from it. I think in fairness to Paula Leonard, at no point did she say it was simple. In fact, she said it was a very hard road and she did not in anyway want to minimize how hard a journey is potentially is. So I mean, I think there was nothing glib about Paula and certainly Paula said nothing to suggest that recovery is easy. She explicitly and quite clearly stated quite the opposite. Now, this is an interesting one. Call it as we paid for school bus tickets for our children to go to national school. Last week and this morning again, the driver said he can bring them to school, but he can't bring them back home again. I've tried calling bus air and I'm 55 minutes on hold trying to get to talk to anyone. All they do is take your name to pass on your details. When I bought the ticket, there was no list of buses where to get them or anything else. There are four buses I had to call around to see which bus my kids were on. Why are bus air and selling as tickets that it seems relate to services that don't exist? Does anybody else have this issue and how did they get it sorted? That's from a listener and right, we'll put the question out there. I've not heard of this one before where effectively the caller was told we can get your kids to school, but we can't get them home again, which seems a strange one. So there's room on the bus going to the school. There isn't room on the bus coming home. That's that's an interesting one. That's from a caller. If you can throw any light on that subject or give our caller any solace, please do. We had a query in on Friday on the show caller asking, I'm writing to this morning and in the hope that you may be able to help or highlight the difficulties of parents in East Donegal. We've lost all our services to help our children with Downs syndrome and with disabilities. I'm brokenhearted. My little girl is too with Downs syndrome. We as a family have been working so hard to help her. We never got speech therapy or occupational therapy. We really need these services. And last month we lost our physio. Now, that was from a caller. We got a response from the HSE and the response is as follows. We are unable to comment on individual circumstances surrounding particular cases in order to protect patient client confidentiality. However, the HSE confirms there are ongoing active recruitment processes and initiatives in place to fill vacancies arising in children's disability teams. Recruitment to children's disability network teams is receiving priority attention by the HSE locally and nationally due to the workforce challenges in the sector. And there is a longer statement from the HSE across the entire region where it pretty much repeats that. It's an issue that exists nationwide. Human resource departments and recruitment services have been unable to recruit staff to fill the existing vacancies at this time. They say recruitment efforts are active and ongoing. So for those who have lost their services in East Onigal, this particular lady whose daughter has down syndrome and others as well, the HSE are telling us, as you've just heard, that effectively they are in a position where they're trying to recruit more people. And hopefully if they can get that recruitment done, then they will be in a position to hopefully move forward. Caller says, I'm hearing that both the GRA and the Association of Guarded Surgeons and Inspectors have overwhelmingly voted a no confidence motion in guard the commissioner, Drew Harris, but nothing is being reported in the press so far. Can you please find out what is going on with the GRA? Well, had you been listening to Island Radio News, I'd say about three, three and a half weeks ago, you'd have heard the story. We have Brendan O'Connor on air. And yes, indeed, the GRA, the Guarded Representative Association has started the process of voting no confidence in Commissioner Drew Harris. It's as a result of a number of issues, not least the commissioners, as they say, refusal to speak to them on what was, they believe, in a lateral decision to return to pre-COVID rosters. And what Brendan O'Connor said at the time, as I recall, is that they were starting the process of putting a ballot in place. That would take a couple of weeks and towards the middle of September, they would have a result from that ballot. So as I understand it, the balloting process within the GRA is active and ongoing at the moment. They are indeed within the GRA moving a motion of no confidence in Drew Harris. And the main reason for that, among other reasons, is that Drew Harris has unilaterally decided that he wants to return to pre-COVID rosters and has refused to discuss that decision with the GRA. With regards to the AGSI, I have no information as what the AGSI may or may not be doing. Perhaps someone there would clarify that for us. But certainly the GRA, yes. And we had that story on the news here, I'd say three, three and a half weeks ago. So that's the situation with the GRA. Now, time on Highland Radio, 14 minutes past 10, we're going to take a short break. As I said, grab your books, grab your pens, because it's time for Bingo and we're going to, after a very briefed promo, we're going to hand you over to Kanas. 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 Monday, the 4th of September. You're playing on the green sheet. The reference number is S16. It's game number 36. The numbers are 65, 54, 7, 20, 77, 19, 85, 27, 22, and finally, 39. Phone your claim to Nine 104833 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. It's the great autumn of savings at Supervalu with over a thousand price cuts on all the big brands you love. 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You will be acutely aware that there has been a lot of loss of life on Irish roads in the past weeks and months won tragically in this county just last week and that the figures for the past month were up 25% on the same period last year and the overall figure for the year so far is now 127 which is also up 25% on the same period last year. If you were watching the national television news last night you'll have seen Susan Gray from Donnie Gull, the founder of PARC, Promoting Awareness, Responsibility and Care and Susan was on the 9 o'clock news last night and as Susan pointed out while we've lost 127 lives so far this year the number of Garthee assigned to road policing units across the country is 58 less than it was two years ago. Susan Gray, good morning. Good morning, Dom. Susan, the point you were making last night was that on the one hand Drew Harris and other Garthee are speaking very articulately in Paulahillman obviously as well speaking very articulately about the need to address what's happening on our roads but at the same time they're actually cutting the numbers that they have working actively on them. Yes, and as was reported that we've more Garthee now than we had five years ago. That may be true, Dom, but in 2021 we had 736 members assigned to the roads policing unit. They took 58 of them out and now we have 678. Nothing will make up for Garthee stopping somebody at the side of the road. The plans for more speed cameras are welcome but they will never catch a drunk driver somebody on drugs, somebody not wearing a seatbelt or somebody using their mobile phone while they're driving. So we need to Garthee. We need the numbers up. We need to see them. There has to be far greater visibility. We travelled four hours this morning. We didn't come across one checkpoint. Even though today is National Ghosts Loday and today we're talking about that today is National Ghosts Loday. Someone would have assumed there would be a really active presence out on the streets today. Yes, so what they're saying on one hand is that really happening in the reality. But have they got the numbers? We fear that the Guided Commissioner is going down the road of technology, technology and using the guards for other duties. The Space Fans, as I said, they're welcome, but no. There's nothing that will put fair regard to people more than coming across a checkpoint. And even, as you said, it's an important point you made because a garther in a car who's looking is going to see the drivers, perhaps notice suspicious behaviour. A garther in a car is going to have much more chance of spotting aberrant activity, something that's out of the ordinary and then perhaps pursue and stop based on a hunch. That's not going to happen with a van. A van's going to generate a computer chip that's going to send out an automatic two points and however many, 80-year, 120-year-old, whatever the figure is, it's going to send out the fine. It's going to send out the penalty points. But ultimately, the garther sitting in the car watching is what's going to spot potentially aberrant behaviour on the roads. Yeah, it's totally right. So we need more guards. And we wrote to the teacher, Leo Veradker, in the middle of August, and they replied on the 25th of August. And we pointed out, we outlined eight points that need to be addressed, but we said there was more. We wanted to see more sharing, far better sharing of information with the guard. We need more guard on the roads, right in the roads, producing units. When they're assigned and they stop somebody at the side of the road, they need first-hand information, technology, at the side of the road. At present, they have not got instant access to transport drivers at the side of the road. To identify, say, somebody driving where it's qualified, they don't have access to know the status of a driver's driving license or learner permit. That's, we've been asking for that for years and years. Equip the guard properly when they're at the side of the road. Let them have instant access to transport's driver file, and that has to be real-time information. It has to be accurate, and the Minister for Transport has to keep it up to date. So if years stopped at the side of the road, the guardie with the new handheld mobile database should be able to determine a few layer must lead them. They should have all that information about the driver on their phone. Also, the vehicle file and the driver file isn't linked up. There's a new road traffic act that was passed this year, 2003. We asked, as a teacher for ADCA, to get two sections, very important sections, commenced straight away. When an act is passed by the president, everybody assumes that that's law and it's active. No, it's commenced section by section. And the two that we want is to be commenced straight away is transport to allow all insurance companies access to their driver file to know the status of each and every licence and permit in the country. And to enact or commence legislation to link the driver file. The transport has a vehicle driver file, but it's two separate files. One has all information on your vehicle and the other one has all information on the driver's insurance on that vehicle, the status of their licence, et cetera, et cetera. These two don't talk to each other, we need them linked up. Another issue you've been speaking about, Susan, and another issue you've been speaking a lot about in recent years has been the fact that even if a driver gets to court and even if an endorsement is placed on the licence in the court, if they don't physically have the licence with them, it can be the case that they can walk out of there and the endorsement doesn't get applied. Has that issue been addressed to your satisfaction yet? No, and we believe that's why, it may be why transport's not sharing information from their driver file because it's incomplete. They don't have all the information because they don't have the unique driver number of everybody's licence, Donald's, this was the whole life. And that's not recorded and put into transport's driver file. That person, that driver, he or she gets disqualified, may not be easily identifiable for Gaudi, the South of the world. Now, we asked questions through Kettle Morphy recently on learner drivers. You know, my passion on getting the laws, is that strength since as far as learner drivers are concerned. And we asked how many learner drivers were disqualified in court on a set period, right? It's just, it's actually depressing to talk about. Out of all the drivers, only 11 and a half thousand approximately were disqualified, right? 722 surrendered their licence to the RSA. And it's the law that you must surrender your licence, or your permit, or licence or permit depending on the status. Now, where are we going like? And in the last six months, a total of 2,699 learners failed to show up for their driving test appointments. But there's no legal requirement for a learner or a permit holder to have for such a driving test to be able to obtain a subsequent permit. The RSA knows about this since 2013, and they said they were going to put an action plan into the new strategy. And by 2014, it has been mandatory for a learner to actually turn up for their test and such it before the RSA would issue a new permit. They're not doing that. They're not turning up, but the RSA, if they give the RSA, 85-year-old, when they're applying for a date for their appointment to put the test, they're renewed, tame and tame again. And it's your belief in many of these cases, those learners are driving on a company. Yes, it's like the Clancy Amendment can happen in 2010. Make it an offence if you were driving on a company if you were a learner, the Guardian had heard to seize your vehicle. But one that would be far better would help the Guardian system a lot. If the RSA stopped renewing learner permits, it would, without sitting the test, it would encourage learners to practice, practice, practice. Be prepared, go and fit the test and we're sure many of them will pass the test. Then there would be less encouraged or felt the need to drive on a company for whatever reason. And the Guardian wouldn't be detecting this many. And it would make the Guardian's job a lot easier. But we've asked T-Shook Radka to look into it. But during the August Bank holiday weekend, Guardian reported the detection, sorry. Yeah, I was going to say, Paula, finally, you have heard a lot, and we've heard a lot over the past weeks from Paula Hillman, from the T-Shook, from Minister Jack Chambers. It's national slowdown day today. Guardi are promising a new initiative. They're promising a new focus. The T-Shook did admit to you in his response to you that this is not a blip. And that was a significant thing to say because it's not just an aberration that we've had an increase in road deaths this year. It's not a blip. The T-Shook's acknowledged that. So from that point of view, have you any confidence that with all that political and policing focus on the roads over the past number of, say, the past even the past fortnight because we've had some tragedies on the road sadly over the past two weeks? But with all that new focus on Irish roads, have you any confidence that we will actually see results or is it going to go down the same track of well-meaning statements but ultimately departments still not talking to each other and as a result, the information's still not available where it needs to be? Well, all we can do is hope that the T-Shook here for Adca will act and he's in charge, he's responsible for all his ministers. He's heard over them, let him have a meeting and he said he would bring up our issues. He would write to Minister Macinty and the Minister of Chambers for updates on the issues that I raised and suggest the campaign meeting of ministers, committee members, on road safety and that he might chair it. Let's hope he chairs it. Let's hope he lays down the law now and says, look, look at all these issues. We have laws coming out of years. Let's focus on the laws we have and make them watertight. And Susan, do we know the fact that these departments aren't speaking to each other? Is it GDPR? Is it data protection? Is there a reason? Because one would have thought that if there's an endorsement on a license, that should be registered right across the board immediately and everyone should be able to see it from the local garter right through to the insurance company and if that's not the case, you're left wondering how many holes are there in the system? Oh, endless as far as we believe, anyway. I mean, are they claiming this is GDPR? Are they saying this is a matter of data protection? Are they giving you any reason that they're not registering this information and sharing this information between departments? Well, John, on this new road traffic and road spell, 2023, it was passed and there's provisions to share information. So we would like to think or believe that they didn't pass all the TVs and cameras, didn't pass the spell and put it on connect, knowing that they couldn't share this information because of data protection. There's two excellent provisions in the fact that have to be commenced yet. So if they put them on, you would like to believe that the check that all out can be shared it's just a matter of when they're going to commence that's them two sections of the road traffic act. There's no point putting provisions on act and it's going to sit there forever and never be commenced. So we've asked the Tisha to, and the consolidation of the road traffic act, that's another thing we were up against. That's been promised for, well, 10, 15 years. And still we've asked them, could they update us where's it at now? Every Minister for Transport promises that's going to be a consolidation of road traffic because there's so many laws and acts overlapping other laws and it's just so confusing for anybody to understand where the law stands at the moment what's the latest update. But it seems to be going absolutely nowhere. So we're putting our faith in the road traffic because he was an excellent Minister for Transport in 2011 to 2014. We worked with him. He knows exactly so much about the lip-holds and so we're just, we have to put our faith in something. It's a song, don't know, so we'll keep you updated. OK, thank you. In the meantime, thanks very much indeed for speaking to us this morning. That's Susan Gray there from Park Susan. Thank you. We're going to take a short break. Back after these. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com. The Nine Till Noon Show in association with Fit20 Letter Kenny. Get fitter and stronger in just 20 minutes. Train once a week with a personal trainer in a climate-controlled gym. Increase strength at any age. Visit fit20.ie to book your free session. Curtains at Foy and Company Letter Kenny. Complete any room with our elegant and exquisite range of curtains designed to elevate your windows with sheer beauty. Whether you prefer classic patterns or contemporary designs, our curtain collection offers endless possibilities to complement your interior decor. Let our expert staff assist you in creating the living space you've always dreamed of. Call in and get a free interior design consultation this month at Foy and Company Letter Kenny. 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Supported by Education and Training Boards Government of Ireland and the European Union. Have you heard about the McElhaneys M-Card? Now available exclusively in store. Sign up today to start earning and redeem once you hit 500 points. Register in store at our M-Card station on the first floor or at any tell point. The M-Card, the new way to save at McElhaneys. It's the 9-2-9 show on Highland Radio. We spoke to Susan Gray from Park just before the break. Caller says on a Sunday we usually go for a drive which most likely takes us through the Barnasmore Gap toward Donegal Town. I rarely, if ever, have seen a checkpoint there apart from the odd speed van. One of the biggest issues is bikers. They travel in groups and to pass out traffic regardless of what's coming against them. They seem to think because they're bikers they can pass in the middle of the road with cars in both directions. Why is it that bikers seem to take so many risks and yet they're among the most vulnerable groups for accidents, so asks a caller. Now, two things that have been very much part of the national dialogue in the past couple of days has been school transport and the latest increase in petrol and diesel prices as a result of the re-imposition of excise duties. Now, we are joined on Zoom this morning by Seamus Boland who is the CEO of Irish Rural Link. And Seamus, a very good morning to you. Good morning. I hope you can hear me. Nice to be on your show. We certainly can and I have to say Seamus is lovely after weeks and weeks of rain and fog and mist and gunk to actually see somebody speaking to us on Zoom outside in the backyard. And it's lovely, it's lovely to see you can actually do it outside for once. It's a bit of sunshine. I was trying to find a quiet place as well. Well, there's lovely sunshine and it's quite beautiful. It's a great link and it is great to see it. Seamus, you're making the point that in order to allow people access the school transport scheme, the requirement is they have to be at least 3.2 kilometers away from the school. You believe given where we are with fuel costs, given where we are with the cost of living crisis that needs to be reviewed. Absolutely, it's an incredible anomaly and it doesn't really make sense in any type of government policy. Even if you take climate change, what it means for the parents listening to your show is that they're going to have to find a way of getting their child to the school every morning. And that means another car. So straight away, you need the second car for certain. It also discomodes parents where there may be two parents and both have jobs. That's a problem. This idea that somehow they can cycle and walk. Well, anybody who knows the roads, rural roads, and I know Dunigal very well, being up there many, many times. The roads in Dunigal are no different from the roads in the midland or anywhere else. They're not suitable for children. They're cycling or walking. So you have to have a car. So the current policy is against safety. It is against climate change. It breaks every government policy I can think of and we don't understand why it cannot be corrected. We heard yesterday that there has been a problem. Well, we knew for a couple of days there's been a problem getting in particular pupils with special needs and disability access and so on to school because they didn't have enough drivers and they couldn't get the staff recruited in order to bring them. Now, if you were called for the 3.2-kilometre restriction to be relaxed where to be adopted, that's going to mean an awful lot more school buses both within the Busseran fleet and within the private sector as well who are then contracted out by Busseran to provide the services. Are you confident they'll be able to get the buses? They'll be able to get the drivers and they'll be able to actually put that infrastructure in place given that from what we're hearing from Busseran the infrastructure as it stands is already creaking at the seams. Yeah, yes, absolutely an agreement with you there. It is creaking and I know we're getting calls of schools with the existing criteria are informing their children or their parents or their children that they can't supply buses. So it's in a chronic state at the moment. The first thing to say is if our anomaly that we're asking to be dropped in some cases it certainly would mean more buses and more drivers but also it doesn't mean it in all cases because you do have a situation where buses are passing by households with half empty buses and so it's not necessarily a demand for greater buses but let's get back to basics here. And the whole school transport program which comes up every year at this time of the year and your program and many others is the Cinderella of Education. It is simply not resourced. There's no thinking going into it and the reason we have lack of capacity, the reason we haven't the same number of buses is because nobody actually thinks about completely reviewing it. And really, it's not a good reason to do that you can't do something good that's essential. It's not a good reason to say well actually the system is so creaking it's not able to deal with what it already has. We really need a complete rethink. The other issue of course is and you'll be well familiar with this as we are here and as you say, yes indeed calls come in this time of year you can always be pretty much guaranteed you'll get on this show you'll get at least a week out of school transport and on the news as well it's pretty well guaranteed but there's another element because we're talking about the school transport scheme which is something that certainly a lot of families qualify for but on top of the school transport scheme you also have the discretionary scheme which is where if there is spare capacity in the fleet then families can buy places on the bus for a set fee and that's where it really starts to in a sense fall apart because you've got so much discussion on the discretionary thing and people may have got tickets last year but couldn't get tickets this year one member of the family got a ticket a second member of the family didn't get a ticket that once you move into the discretionary part of the equation that's when it really starts to fall apart because you're talking about what is supposedly supplementary and additional capacity so not only do they now have to fulfil their obligations under the school transport scheme but they've got to meet what is growing demand under that discretionary supplementary scheme yeah and the discretionary scheme in my opinion was always a strange one and there was always an Irish solution to an Irish problem and it doesn't work and that's the problem, it just doesn't work it's also a kind of unequal depending on your resources the better one you can afford it or not but the real problem here is there shouldn't need to be a discretionary scheme for example, let's take another policy change this year fares were reduced and Dublin bus, Air North, Air and all of that and it has made a huge difference in the way people use public transport we have a school transport system that has so many alleyways and so many criteria attached to it that actually parents need a PhD to understand it the discretionary system actually should go and free transport or transport should be available to every child who wants to go who is going to school because it's not working, it's not workable and it causes huge confusion and also, you know, a child getting on the bus one child is paying, the other isn't there's something about that that strikes to me as inequality as well so that's why that whole scheme needs serious, serious review as you've said, you'd need a PhD to understand the schemes we've actually had one this morning on the programme where someone's been told having bought the discretionary ticket they've been told by the bus company and this is the new one on me I've never heard this one before they've been told we can get the child to school but we can't get them home I think you're talking we're in faulty towers lands here at the moment you know, I mean, it's making it up as you go along it's trying to figure out something and fair as to those stuck with it the bus companies or even the school principals you know, they're trying to deal as best they can with a situation that is not fit for purpose that is broken so it's not fair to blame them too much but yes, I have heard that one I've had worse, I've heard you can only be picked up twice a week but we can't pick you up out other days because we've other runs so it's an absolute broken system and I'm amazed that no minister is being called to account to review it and revise it and stop you having a free week of programming that you don't have to think about every year at this time of the year is the problem at government level, at department level is it at bossering level now because as we understand it, bossering administer the scheme bossering have a certain amount of capacity themselves but the vast majority of the capacity it seems are private companies who are hired as it were through bossering to actually provide the service so you have potential logjams at government level department level and bossering level I mean, where does the focus need to be in terms of unpicking where the issues are and what needs to be improved? Well, look, it starts at the cabinet table whether we like it or not the bus, the whole transport system has been basically what's the word? The responsibility has been leveraged away from everybody that should be so the department give it to bossering bossering don't really want to be bothered with it so they hire it out to the private operators the private operators have their own routes and responsibilities and also priorities so nobody is taking charge of it nobody is able to say to bossering hey, we get you a contract to deliver school transport system you can't do it and you're now delivering it out to somebody else and somebody else is delivering it out to somebody else honestly, it's like Highland Radio being asked to do a job and you figuring out you giving it to whoever's passing by the studio will you run the studio today? Because we have more important stuff to do the school transport system is really important it has not been managed properly it has, nobody seems to be in charge and that's why we have this colossal complicated system in place that lets us down every year day in, day out One of the things we've seen in the general transport scene here in Donegal and I'm sure it's the same where you are as well and right across rural Ireland is the success of LocalLink and LocalLink is a company which is providing rural bus services in places that never had them before and more and more we're seeing LocalLink buses coming into letter Kenny from Outlying Parts of Donegal and it's been quite clear and quite evident now there's a way to go obviously before everything that's needed is provided but they seem to be very much on the right road if you'll pardon the pun in the LocalLink service is it time to look at forming a company called SchoolLink and actually getting a private, not private but getting a company that's run, that's owned a semi-state or whatever set up by the state to actually manage this take it out of the hands of Busseran as you say Busseran have an awful lot else to worry about between their own services and Expressway and everything else so rather than having Busseran trying to get this resolved take it out of Busseran's hands get a whole new system that we'll call for the sake of argument SchoolLink and actually create a specific body that will have no other responsibility than that for school transport Yeah, there's a really strong case for that and we're very proud of LocalLink it started way back in the 90s when Irish where Link members come up with this idea which was poo pooed by everybody the only thing I'd say to is yes that would be it may well be the solution but it needs to come about after like Busseran are challenged are you delivering the free transport or just a school transport program are you delivering it or are you not are you ensuring that it can be delivered are you living up to the responsibilities of providing drivers, buses, infrastructure like why isn't the buses there so yes setting up another company may well be the end of game solution but as you know doing that would take a fair amount of time fair amount of resourcing and may even be seen as a waste of money there is a national bus company set up by this government, by this country running for many many years now they have been asked to run this service they're not really doing it very well and in my opinion I would rather ask them why because really that's the beginning and end of it and government has to take charge as to if they're not doing it then there has to be consequences Sheamus Boland CEO of Irish Ruling thanks indeed for this conversation and for sharing your perspectives on this really important issue and hopefully we won't have to be talking to you again in the future and rehashing the same stories that perhaps we will be able to see some improvement but in the meantime Sheamus, thank you very much indeed been a pleasure, thank you very much thank you Sheamus, take care The Nine Till Noon Show in association with Fit20 Letter Kenny get fitter and stronger in just 20 minutes train once a week with a personal trainer in a climate controlled gym increase strength at any age visit fit20.ie to book your free session Do you need a little extra help staying in your home? At Bluebird Care we offer a wide variety of Q-Mark approved personalised home care services across Dunnegall and our fully trained and committed staff will always meet your care needs with kindness, compassion and dignity To get your personal home care assessment plan visit bluebirdcare.ie or call our care team today on 07491 29562 and bring care home Are you building a new home? Building requirements state that you must install a radon barrier at FF Radon Systems we supply and professionally install the fully certified barrier For more information call Liam at FF Radon Systems on 086 83 227 49 Well Grace, how are you today? I'm good, I've just been down to the made to measure fireplaces showroom in Chrysler they have an incredible selection of over 40 colours for kitchen work tops and guess what? For a limited time they're offering a 40% discount on any electric fire when you purchase a work top there 40%? That's an amazing deal Grace Absolutely and trust me if the discount alone doesn't sway you there are huge selection of fireplaces stoves, wood pellet burners, beams and stone cladding certainly will Contact made to measure fireplaces Chrysler on 07491 38 365 on Facebook, Instagram and on mtmfireplaces.ie Are the signs of aging creeping up on you? Are you not happy with the way you look or feel? At Letter Kenny Medics private clinic we're here to help you offering Botox anti-wrinkle injections derma fillers, skin bio-injections Botox treatment for grinding and clenching teeth hyper hydroses that aids excessive sweating Let our doctors help bring back your confidence and look after what is important to you to see what real results really look like Book your immediate appointment with no waiting times at letterkennymedics.ie Letter Kenny Medics, we listen if you want to talk And until noon show on Highland Radio we were speaking earlier to Susan Gray about issues on the roads Cawler says, I know a person who's disqualified in Northern Ireland yet they can drive in Donegal when are we going to see cross-border recognition? And there's been a lot of discussion on that in recent times Cawler says, regarding speeding given the litany of tragic road debts recently it's difficult to understand why the state hasn't insisted on cars being fitted with devices that prevent them being driven beyond the speed limit This would have meant many of the recent debts could have been avoided We're told there's been a tweet by Vincent Brown who speaks sense Another caller concerned about their NCT I received an email reminding me my NCT was due on the 1st of October winter book online but I'm unable to get a test until the middle of January Will I get in trouble for being without NCT during this time if I get pulled over by Garthee? This isn't my fault but I'm worried about it Technically speaking my understanding is you could but I think in fairness Garthee understand the situation as it stands What I would do is I would book the NCT immediately and I would have the booking sheet I would print it out I would have it in the car and if I was ever stopped and I was in this situation myself in the past actually where and it was my own fault I left it a while thought oh I have a month to go I'd better book the NCT and then suddenly I found myself in a situation where I could only get a booking two and a half months later and I literally printed out the order form and I had it in the car and if ever I was stopped I would say look I couldn't get an appointment here is the sheet that proves I have the car booked and I think usually in fairness I think any Garthee that stopped you on the street would show I suspect a modicum of understanding of that situation Now we are going to totally change the subject because and it's an issue we've discussed before on the program and it's the issue of menopause and in particular women in the workplace a workplace survey on the impact of the menopause on working women in this country has been launched most recent census statistics show there are now over 1.06 million females in the state aged 45 and over this means menopause for many of them is going to be an issue we're joined by Loretta Dignum who's the CEO of the menopause hub on Zoom Loretta, a very good morning to you morning, how are you? Very well indeed Loretta, it's something that and it's one of those things and there was an ad campaign ran quite recently I mean the menopause was the thing that was never talked about it was always there but it was never talked about and it is I'm sure for many people and I'm sure there are many women who are going to work if they are working externally on a daily basis and they're trying to hide the fact that one moment they feel they're burning up and the next moment they feel they're a block of ice Yeah, you're absolutely right I mean I set up the menopause hub which was Ireland's first dedicated menopause clinic just for you over four years ago and up until that there was nothing dedicated to menopause and so we've a couple of clinics I'm hoping a third one in core so we might get to Johnny God soon and but we also noticed in conjunction that women were telling us about their their experiences in the workplace and what our survey says is that 70% say there's still a stigma associated with menopause in the workplace and therefore women are embarrassed it's taboo they don't want to be considered that they can't do their job that their performance would be affected and so on so don't feel comfortable talking in the workplace about this in addition a lot of females would have male bosses some of them a lot younger and they would feel also very awkward talking about this situation I mean I went through my menopause when I was in the workplace and before I set up the menopause hub and I didn't dare mention it because my perception of a menopausal woman was someone much older than me I was 49 at the time thought I was way too young for menopause to be honest but was a much older woman who was maybe past it over the hill bit of a crazy lady and I questioned you know could she even do her job and if that was my perception as a woman I didn't realise I didn't know my bosses and colleagues perception would be so I kept it quiet because it was a negative association that I had in my head in terms of the experience and I suppose it's one of those things that has to be said that for every woman it's going to be a slightly different experience and there is no one size fits all description there is no I mean I know two sisters both in their late fifties one went through a situation where they were like a thermostat that was gone completely wrong the other was like yeah grand and their sisters you know and it was a completely different experience for the two now as it happens the one that was going through the very and she was getting the hot flushes and I mean there was times she would get five, six hot flushes a day she happened to be working remotely in her own home so she was able to get through that but she said there was times there was sometimes she had to sit there with the window open and practically put sort of frozen peas you know on her chest there was other times when you know she was freezing and when she got through it but she was able to get through it in the privacy of her own home and she was able to do everything she needed to do and that would include sticking your head in the freezer from time to time but in a workplace that's going to be far more difficult exactly so we do hear that from women and I suppose Covid was the menopausal woman's friend in that she could control her environment, her circumstances and however the only thing I'd say is that you know and I had 20 or 30 hot flushes a day every day for three years as well as night sweats and hot flushes at night but I went on hormone replacement therapy eventually which I was terrified of but once I got the information and was able to learn that a lot of the information is myth rather than fact and that helps me with that but just to say to anybody out there is that there's actually over 40 symptoms of menopause and hot flushes is only one of them so women everyone thinks that they don't have hot flushes they didn't go through menopause well the reality is that there's so many other symptoms out there including anxiety, depression, insomnia, fatigue, dizziness, headaches the list goes on and on our website the menopause hub you can see a symptom checker with those 40 plus symptoms and so that's just a message there but yeah so when women come back into the workplace it's an issue for employers and the whole solution for menopause in the workplace really is around reasonable accommodation and reasonable adjustments so that can be made on an individual basis because as you said no two women's menopause going to be the same so therefore they feel confident in going to their employer their line manager, their HR department to actually request some reasonable accommodation or reasonable adjustments but a lot of organisations aren't even aware of menopause or aware that it's an issue for any of their staff and therefore they're not ready for those conversations so there needs to be education and awareness in the workplace HR need to know all colleagues need to know line managers need to know and we offer training for organisations in that regard and we can help them develop policies and really move the conversations forward to normalise it rather than make it a stigma or taboo Does there need to be an assessment of the attitudes among line managers and HR managers and CEOs and those in the workplace because it seems there's enough lot of information available about women but there's very little information available about the attitudes of those they're depending on to give them those accommodations It's interesting because last year we did a survey with Ibeck amongst employers and what a lot of employers said is oh we already have a lot of things in place for menopausal women and they may have but nobody has ever you know called them related to menopause so women don't know and the employer doesn't really realise but there are things that can be and that can be applied to menopause except nobody was talking about that and I would say it wasn't even that the workplace and employers and managers went out and said oh let's ignore menopause or I don't even think it was on their radar either it was barely on women's radar but actually I think what you're saying is absolutely right and so I'd be conducting a survey next year where we will get the voices of managers and so on I get the voices of employees and then we'd be able to merge the data but what I do know that organisations do want is more training and they want menopause policy and they want their managers trained and I think that's a growing issue if we want to keep women in the workplace 10% of women left work because of their symptoms 40% considered giving up work because of their symptoms we can't afford to lose talent at this particular age of 45 plus from the workplace and this is often the time when women might be stepping into new roles might be going from senior positions and they're actually stepping back from that and that is the exact opposite of what employers want There's a dignum the CEO of the menopause hub thank you very much indeed for speaking to me this morning thank you Loretta, that's Loretta there the CEO of the menopause hub and I suppose really the most important thing right now is you have to have a situation where a woman is comfortable going to her line manager or CEO or HR director and saying look this is the situation I'm in and if you haven't got that sort of situation going then you have an issue I'm going to take a short break news after these The 9 till noon show in association with fit 20 letter Kenny get fitter and stronger in just 20 minutes train once a week with a personal trainer in a climate controlled gym increase strength at any age visit fit20.ie to book your free session The rent a room relief scheme is now open and you could earn up to 14,000 euro a year tax free by renting a room in your home to a student this scheme is open to everyone and won't affect your payments If you're in 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slide robes and interiors, Bridge End, Donegal The time on Highland video is a minute past 11 and with apologies to Donemory Doherty for our lateness and tardiness let's go over for the headlines Good morning Donemory Thanks Dono, good morning Hickwa has published inspection reports on two designated care centres with adults for disabilities in Donegal this was in Sleeve Glass and Balletrim House In the case of Balletrim House the centre was found to be totally compliant in all 15 areas of inspection Sleeve Glass also had zero non-compliances while six areas were found to be substantially compliant Links to both reports are available on our website highlandradio.com A third arrest has been made in relation to a stabbing incident in Castle Derg It occurred on Main Street at around 1.30am on Saturday morning A 28-year-old man was arrested this morning on suspicion of attempted murder and he remains in police custody at this time PSNIC inquiries are ongoing and those who believe they have information or video footage of the incident is asked to come forward A Donegal deputy is calling for the fossil fuel divestment bill to be fortified according to a report released by Action Aid Ireland Funds of 5.7 billion euro were registered in bonds and shares in climate harming activities in January of this year Deputy Thomas Pringle says the bill he introduced in 2016 now must turn its attention to the banks A number of public consultations will open this week for the Draft County Donegal Development Plan 2024-2030 including area plans for Bunkrana, Balletbuffetstrenordr and Bundorn Today the public are invited to view the plan in the old courthouse in Lifford from 4pm until 8pm Throughout the week there will also be events in Lederkenny, Cairndona and the Twin Towns And finally, Gardie have detected 50 vehicles breaking the speed limit in the first two hours of a major clampdown this morning Over 15,700 vehicles have been checked as part of the National Slow Down Day which runs until 7pm tomorrow morning The Road Safety Authority says 1 in 4 people killed on the roads are between the ages of 16 and 25 That's all for now You can find the latest local news on our website hideandradio.com The next news updates at 12pm Until then, good morning We all want to restore our world's natural environment But where do we even start? How about right here? With Supervalued Tidy Towns we can reimagine our local areas Every time we re-wild Every time we strengthen biodiversity Every time we support our Supervalued Tidy Towns volunteers That's real action Because at Supervalued we believe that every local action makes a global impact Supervalued, real food, real people, real action This is the Ninetyl Noon Show on Highland Radio with Stonel Kavana with you on the show Until midday which is pretty much the next hour It is just after 11 on a Monday which means it is time for our preview of tonight's DL Debate joined on Zoom by the wonderful Brendan DeVaney Brendan, good morning to you Good morning to all those things Oh, Grant, thank you Brendan, a good weekend of GAA again And I suppose I'm sure you're an unbiased reporter but you've enjoyed that Unions game Oh, yeah, well, kind of You know, it's so lopsided like that You know, I know that our dry lads are very well They're a great bunch But it's difficult when a team gets taken apart like that You know, there's probably nothing great in St. Unions in terms of learning and that other So we have some of these, you know, mismatches in this championship, you know, it's a big group system I'd say the top four go through the quarterfinals Now the next eight plates are to join them on the quarterfinals on the bottom four Then I'll play off in relegation And of course our draw They have two points on the board at the minute But St. Nalls, Milford and Kiley Beggs Yet they register a point So this was an interesting weekend Four weeks in a row championship Don't know there's a lot happening in the county across the three championships And it's a lot of stuff to keep up with But it's been an interesting championship so far I mean, teams like A Rua, three ones from Three Kulkkar, Glen Swally, you know They're all putting their hand up to be To be a possible contender for St. Unions And Neve Connell just tucked in behind them Because they played each other in Drew You know, Ghidor after that So those teams in their mix Don't know all fancy themselves of beating each other Because there's no doubting that A lot of people are looking at St. Unions And Neve Connell that bit ahead of the rest But certainly there's some teams there That'll certainly give either of them An interest in counter And of course, two of them playing I did the draw there yesterday Out in the park, life's full of first done It was the first time I've done something like that And the big draw there was Of course, Neve Connell and Glen Swally Playing in the final round of group four matches Next week Yeah, that's going to be a big one You'll be looking at the weekend's games With Brendan Kilcoin and Gary McDade Tonight, of course, on the DL Also looking ahead to that Glen Swally and Neve Connell clash And other clashes coming up as well Yeah, getting the views of the two lads I was out in Glen Swally watching their game I still know yesterday And I suppose on top of everything else Don't just today was in at the weller You know, after the terrible summer we've had there It was just such a nice occasion Big crowd out in Glen Swally Watched that match, it was an entertaining game And then came back to the park And there was just such a different atmosphere Because of the evening it was And that's what we want in Championship That's where it needs to be paid And those nice evenings and that And certainly that ties a massive one Of course, the derby of Ghidor and Don Lowe Is another huge game in there as well After they beat Clown Ghidor beat Clown in the weekend So lots of wee permutations in there Teams trying to avoid relegation Other teams trying to get into that At least that pre-quarter final So the good thing is Donalist was compared with the group stages Everyone has something to play for Going into these last games And you don't have teams that are sitting top of a group And it doesn't really matter in their last game What's going to affect the outcome for everybody Everybody's going into this now No one is actually mathematically Into the quarter-finals yet So everyone has to go out and play Which keeps the senior championship very interesting And we're shortly going to be getting to knockout stages And that's when it really gets tasty But as you say for now They all have to be on top of their game And some really nice games coming up Now as well as Donegal, of course There are other counties in Ulster And you'll have Neil Lockvern on tonight from the Irish News Just to see what's happening elsewhere across the province Yeah, listen, we always like to keep things informed I think all of us, we have a wee bit of an interest In what's going around Obviously, Trone hasn't kicked off yet But what's happening around the provinces And of course, the bigger teams out there You think of the likes of obviously Glen Also champions, how they're getting on The likes of Bally Bay won Monaghan last year They're looking like they're in a relegation this year Kalkou, of course, Carole Lucy's up there now They had a big result of the weekend and that So just chat with Neil Just look and see how they're shaping up Because you still have this thing where It's interesting from my own perspective Who comes out of Donegal And who they're going to meet in Ulster And how those bigger sides are getting on In there, in particular I had a good chat with Aaron Kernan last night About Darmat Championship He's still playing me, cross McLean And very interesting the different championships Don't like in our map, for example The league feeds into the championship So where you finish in the league Gives you a seeding for the championship Because our own league there was You know, there wasn't a lot to play for in it And no one was taking that big of interest In it leading into the championship So different counties have different things going on So myself and Neil's going to have a chat about that as well Finally, Brendan, just something I was wondering Given that we had the announcement of Jim McGinnis Taken over the county quite recently Obviously, it's going to be a while Before the National League It's going to be a while before we get into the business end Of inter-county football again But was there any noticeable sort of atmosphere Around the various grounds at the weekend? You know, a sense of excitement that McGinnis is back A sense of excitement that maybe there's something in the offing And were people maybe putting in the extra bit of effort Were people putting in the extra bit of work Just to stake their claim for inter-county place? Well, I would think so Don, there's certainly been a great buzz About the county since Jim took over And, you know, there's so many aspects to this around Jim And, you know, if he didn't come on now Don, you know, you were kind of thinking Who, a bit like last year The fact that someone of his calibre To come on in the backroom team that he's put together And as I was saying previously on the show, you know There's about seven or eight lads from 2012 Out there coaching now and players involved And, of course, Luke Barrett's in there as well with Jim So, you have now, by the time Jim finishes up You have a load of people that will be there ready-made To step on, and they're not really there now So, from Jim's first time there He's created these all-island winners And loads of lads that are coaching And now, from a second tenure He'll have ready-made guys to come on as well So, there's so many sides to Jim taking over And it's all positive and it's all great There's no doubt he'll get a lift from the lads And we're just blessed that we have him And that he's taking the time to come back And take our team again So, all that positivity about plus great weather as well It was a good weekend, didn't it, God, it seems? Yeah, even got a bit of sunburn there I wasn't expecting... We've nearly put the sunscreen away this year But I got a lovely blast out in the Glen there yesterday Mick Murphy very kindly even brought me a coffee at half-time But then he stung me for a ticket So, I said it was an expensive enough wee coffee But you got a chip out of the window there, don't you? Absolutely DL Debate, Brendan, on tonight after the 7 o'clock news That's it, don't... In association with Sister Sarah's in letter Kenny That's the DL Debate Brendan DeVenny presenting as always Brendan, thank you, it's been a pleasure Cheers, don't... Look after yourself, Brendan, that's it Brendan DeVenny there, the presenter of the DL Debate Looking back at all those inter-county matches Not inter-county, those club matches at the weekend And looking ahead to the next round of matches After Brendan himself did the draw there Right, we're going to take a short break 11 minutes past 11, back after these The county's number one talk show The Ninetal Noon Show on Highland Radio The Ninetal Noon Show in association with Fit20, letter Kenny Get fitter and stronger in just 20 minutes Train once a week with a personal trainer in a climate-controlled gym Increase strength at any age Visit fit20.ie to book your free session Quality matters And when it comes to feeding your dog You need quality you can trust Game Pet Nutrition's Elite Range Is formulated using years of animal nutrition research And now, with new bag sizes and a Velcro seal Our 100% recyclable packaging Keeps your best friend's food fresher for longer Game Pet Nutrition's Elite Range Give your best friend the very best Special offers of participating retailers Terms and conditions apply Homeowners, it's time to unlock Incredible savings on your energy bills Efficient renewables is here to reduce your energy consumption Say goodbye to Skyrock and the cost And hello to renewable energy solutions With no vat on solar panels And the generous grants for both solar panels and heat pumps See these innovative systems in action In our state-of-the-art showroom in Newton, Cunningham today Contact the efficient renewables on 074 97 08 320 These days, we're all looking for healthy, tasty family meals And lots of variety The good news is that our fishermen continue to bring us the best of the catch Like fresh Irish hake and haddock There are so many ways to enjoy them Try delicious Thai curry with hake Or mouth-watering Cajun seasoned haddock For lots of tasty recipes and different meal ideas Visit boardbeer.ie And look out for Irish hake and haddock next time you're shopping Fresh ideas, great meals Highland Radio time checks with Expressway Travel Route 32 from Lettich, entity Dublin When you book online and travel for less Expressway, bringing you the time, Art And the time on Highland Radio is 13 minutes past 11 o'clock Now, have you ever considered public speaking But being a little bit nervous at the idea? If that's the case, don't go anywhere A very important discussion coming up in just a moment That might just be the ticket as far as you're concerned Before we do that, though, just want to remind you Finally of our quiz before we close the lines Our sponsor is this WeekRFit20 We're giving you a chance to win a three-month membership With Fit20, you can get stronger in just 20 minutes Train once a week with a personal trainer In a climate-controlled gym Just answer a simple question each day A winner will be selected daily To be entered into a draw on Friday And the question today is Who won the Women's World Cup this year? Was it Spain or Ireland? Who won the Women's World Cup this year? Was it Spain or Ireland? Text or WhatsApp your answer Name and address to 086-6025000 And as we say, there'll be a daily winner And then the daily winner goes into a draw And then the draw takes place on Friday Of the five daily winners And someone will win that three-month membership With Fit20 Now, as I said, if you have an interest in public speaking Or if you have a fear of public speaking And would perhaps like to do something about that Toastmasters, maybe the answer Toastmasters meet in Dillon's Hotel And the new season starts on this week It's on the 6th of September And by my reckoning, today is the fourth Which means it's Wednesday So, and if it's not, I'll be corrected very, very quickly Oh, it's the fifth, I do apologise It's the fifth, which means it's tomorrow Which is Tuesday, OK What I'm going to do is I'm going to go to our two guests And we're joined in studio By the president of Toastmasters In letter Kenny, who is Brian Marshall And by Lila Worth, who is the PRO And I'm going to go first to yourself, Brian If I may, you're very welcome Thank you, Donald Brian, in terms of Toastmasters I mean, we've all heard of Toastmasters A lot of people won't be quite sure what Toastmasters is So, the first question is, I suppose, the obvious one What's Toastmasters? Toastmasters, I would count as The world's biggest self-help club For people to improve their public speaking skills There's, at this moment, 270,000 members worldwide 14,200 clubs And it's in existence in 148 different countries And all of these clubs are just set up by people Who are volunteers, who try to help each other With a bit of information and guidance To improve their public speaking I'm sure a lot of the time someone comes Because they've been asked to be the best man At their best friend's wedding and they've got to make a speech Or people come because, you know, they need to stand up And make a presentation at a meeting or whatever And, Leila, as the PRO of Toastmasters, I mean Is this a matter of people go to Toastmasters out of necessity Or is it people go to Toastmasters Because they just perhaps have an anxiety Or they have a nervousness And they see that as a way to address it Well, I think Toastmasters is for everyone And for me, I had a fear of public speaking From a very young age So it's really helped me gain confidence in public speaking And everyone's really friendly, it's a safe place We also have a laugh And, yeah, everyone goes for their different reasons Some people are naturally gifted at public speaking And some people need to work on it, so, yeah And it was during COVID that you yourself sort of Developed that interest or developed that impetus To do something about it, presumably Over the course of COVID, this all moved online? Yes, I joined through COVID So it was on Zoom first, which was interesting And then, which was a nice start for me Because, yeah, I was quite shy at the start And then going to Dylan's, it was a lot better To be in with everyone So, presumably you had, and I had something similar With the thing I did on Zoom with people Where, even the weekend before last, I met two people That I've become really good friends with online And I met them in Dublin for the first time in person I'm sure you had that experience too Where you actually developed friendships online And then somebody got to meet the people face to face Yes, definitely And then there's a lot of people in Toastmasters Who do parkour and letter candy as well So it's kind of nice, there's, yeah A lot going on in the group Brian, from the point of view of Toastmasters It's an interesting one because It comes from the community It is an international organisation But the local club is very much a local club This isn't somebody coming in from outside And sort of imposing a philosophy or imposing something This is very much local people coming together And doing it themselves Oh, definitely The thing is that although the main Toastmasters programme And once you join up You get access to a lot of information And video back up to improve your learning And make suggestions When it comes to the person themselves Everybody has their own individual style And we're not out to change that But if we can improve, tweak And give you the confidence to stand up And make your own best presentation That's what we want to achieve And we achieve it with just everybody Pointing out what you're doing well And what in their opinion, as members We would suggest to an individual To maybe improve their public speaking skills And practice, practice, practice Will build up that confidence That, hey, I'm doing my best The best that I can And this club is helping me do that Is it the case that most people are actually Far better at public speaking Than they think they are And that one of the biggest things You have to overcome when you first join Is almost that mental block that people have Where they think, I can't do this No one's going to listen to me No one's going to pay any attention to me But in fact, they're actually far better equipped Than they themselves believe Oh yes, I would agree totally That 90% of our members come to us And they are scared stiff of speaking The joke has always been made That in statistics, 70% of people said That they were more scared of public speaking Than they were of death Which means that if you were standing at a funeral You'd rather be in the box than giving the oration But really, whenever it comes to that There are people who are really, really scared They have a story to tell And they haven't the means To put it out there Toastmasters where everybody is rooting for you To improve your skills is the perfect venue To get over that nervousness And gain some confidence in your own ability And Lena, I suppose you're the proof of that Because you've said over COVID Which is what, two, two and a half, three years ago Perhaps at the tops You were nervous to the extent That you had to go looking for some help And you've found that through Toastmasters And what change has it made for you In terms of both your own self-confidence And your own ability to get what you have to say And what you want to say across to other people? Well, even at university I avoided any modules that had public speaking So I was so afraid of public speaking And I think I did take maybe a bit slower And it's still a continuous journey But I definitely feel like I've gained a lot of confidence I mean, I still get really nervous before speeches But you feel really... Yeah, you feel like you've accomplished something After you've done each speech And the first one only has to be about four minutes So it's not a huge thing Sometimes it feels like it, but yeah And it's not just like the best man's speech Or standing up to make an after-dinner speech In a situation where perhaps you're a chair Of an organisation or whatever This also holds for meetings, for workplace discussions It isn't just standing up at a big huge hall And making a speech This could be just making a presentation to people I mean, it goes right down to that level Yeah, and the good thing about it is Though that you can pick what you want to talk about So it could be anything that you're interested in And like I've been learning how to wave The past two years in Donegal With one of the masters in our drag, John Heena So I did my first speech on that So it was quite nice to do something that I was interested in Yeah, and there's so many different topics That people talk about it and they're really interesting Yeah, and I suppose, Brian, two people move at their own pace I mean, I know you do have sort of competitions and symposiums And you get together with Toastmasters from other areas And there are national events and so on and so forth But people will move at their own pace I'm sure some people have developed to the point Where they're actually maybe ready to stand up And make a speech at a regional gathering Others perhaps not so quick But it's not a matter of you have to do X, Y and Z at this time It's a matter of you move at your own pace It is a matter that you move at your own pace And the other thing is once you start The first thing we try to do is get you into what we call a path And the Pathways programme is designed Where you do a questionnaire whenever you come in to be a member You decide what you want out of Toastmasters And then the Pathways will direct you in a programme To try to develop those skills And give you that objective that you have set out for Now, say we have had people who have just joined to do a wedding speech We are targeting transition year students this year Because we think that you need interview skills And there's a lot of people that are excellent candidates But just can't put themselves across whenever it comes to an interview Or whenever it comes to the workplace That they can't put across their ideas This is the sort of people we like to see coming in Because we can see improvement on them week after week And I suppose that then begs the question How many great ideas have been lost in business? How many great potential employees would have made a real difference Have been lost to companies because the person with the idea Or the person with the skills just didn't get it across At the interview or at the presentation And I'm sure we have lost great ideas over the years Because it just wasn't transmitted Yes, I would agree again Because whenever you see that Pramerica, which used to be in the town Where an American corporation, they could see the value Of teaching their employees how to communicate And Pramerica had a very active Toastmasters club But unfortunately they lost that whenever Tata took them over We now have some of the Pramerica people in our club Because they saw the benefit of the continuing practising Of public speaking And the continuing getting feedback to improve and tweak And sell yourself the best way that you possibly can Lilla, in terms of self-confidence I mean, what difference does it make to you Knowing that you have that skill now And knowing that you have a bit more confidence Just to stand up and say something or to speak I mean, in terms of your overall self-confidence How much of a difference has it made? Yeah, I feel like it's made a huge difference But also I still have a long way to go Because I've only done about four speeches in the past few years Because it's taken me that long But everyone's been really supportive And anytime you do get up You get a really good round of applause And you get feedback on how you can improve And what you did well And yeah, so yeah, I definitely feel like I don't know if I'm ready to speak in front of hundreds of people yet But yeah But if someone had told you in 2020 That within three years you will stand up And make four speeches in public Would you have believed them? No, no way So yes So you have come a long way Yeah, I'm being a bit... The journey isn't finished But you've gone a long way past the front door You've taken way more than the first step And that's always a good thing I mean, Brian, from your run point of view As president of Toastmasters It must be lovely to sort of see people like Lilla Who come with a sense of nervousness And perhaps a sense of trepidation And to see that growth And you, in your position, I'm sure Are seeing that develop And you're seeing it nurturing growth It must be almost like raising children That you can sort of see that wonderful development No, not that I'm suggesting there's that much to it Well, you know what I mean? Yes, of course, Donal, I know what you mean And yes, we as members love to see other members progress Because that's the total crux Of the reason for us existing It's a safe space where everybody Can help everybody else improve And my problem wasn't actually That I was afraid of public speaking I joined Toastmasters for a completely different reason Because I'm almost deaf in the top frequencies And I was an awful listener I could rub it on But I couldn't understand and wasn't getting That real meaning of what people were telling me I had no idea at all about reading body language I was very poor at reading tones, especially sarcasm And I really did think I was brilliant But that was the sort of thing That I learned from Toastmasters And I'm continuing to learn from Toastmasters So it's not just public speaking But it's also all the other presentation skills That you need as well And down the line It's also helps improve your leadership skills Because you can take on roles within the company And within the club and get experience And again, there's online video backup For absolutely every role that you want to take on In the club from speaking to president And as you said, it's a safe space And people will nurture and grow And I'm sure someone is going to stand up at some point And maybe someone's going to freeze And the important thing is that if that happens to them Everybody else in the room knows what they're going through And everybody else in the room is going to support them And ensure that it doesn't become a blockage And that level of support and that level of understanding And I think if people realise that they're With people who are in the same situation that they are Rather than believe they're in some sort of hostile environment And as you said, it's supportive And that's really important element of it And as you say, it's great to see the successes But what's also maybe equally important Is maybe when someone, you know, makes the effort And doesn't quite get there on the first occasion You know they're going to be supported They're going to be nurtured, they're going to be helped They're going to be encouraged And eventually they will stand up and do it Yes, that's it That's completely summed up the reason why we're there We're there as a self-help club Everybody will have a different idea Of what a perfect speech is But everybody getting together Can help that person who's speaking To make the best possible speech Or the best possible presentation That they can to sell themselves To whoever they have to sell themselves to Should it be an interview panel Should it be a work boss Or should it be their fellow colleagues Who they're working with And have to get a message across to And Leila I'm sure as well as the hard work Of the speaking and the learning and the developing There's also the social element There's also meeting up with people having the cup of coffee Having the cup of tea, having the chat And there's that social element Which is going to be a really important part of it too I'm sure Yeah, it's lovely Everyone's really nice And yeah, we have a good laugh every meeting as well And yeah, I just really enjoy it But it would be lovely to get more young people involved Because I think I'm the only member That's under the age of 30 So it would be nice to get more Okay, we want that caught up And you did say you were targeting specifically Transitioning your students, Brian, as well You know, that's good to hear Listen, Brian Marshall, who is the president of Toastmasters Letter Kenny, Leila Worth, who is the PRO Of Toastmasters in Letter Kenny Yeah, and I bet if someone had told you three years ago You'd be the PRO of Toastmasters You wouldn't have believed that either Yeah, or been on Highland Radio Hey, you've just done it You've just done an interview on Radio Well done And that's wonderful So it's tomorrow night, Tuesday night It's half seven in Dylan's hotel in Letter Kenny Yes, and if you can turn up 10 or 15 minutes earlier Especially if you're a new member We'd like to see that Because we'd like to get talking to you Before the formalities of the meeting start Excellent Brian, Leila, thank you both very much indeed Thank you And we wish the new season And the new influx of young members Toastmasters, every success Thank you Thank you Watch the show live now On YouTube, Facebook, and at HighlandRadio.com To control gym, increase strength at any age Visit fit20.ie to book your free session Click McGinley's Furniture.com If you've heard about Charlie's chips They're made from potatoes that are carefully selected Then peeled, cut, and like everything else At Charlie's in Letter Kenny Cooked to water That's why they taste so good From 12, right through to 8 in the evening Charlie's at Pierce Road, Letter Kenny Offer an extensive menu That includes a great selection of gluten-free options All available to sit in or take away The next time the hunger hits Pull into Charlie's On BMC Sports.ie and get your free delivery We've been told water in the Nockbrack Listilian lower areas of Letter Kenny Have been off all weekend Does anyone know what's happening? This morning there's nothing but a dribble from the tap The last time this happened it took over six weeks to repair The kids are now back at school We can't really cope this time For that length of time We'll certainly make inquiries with Irish water And I know that general area is sometimes problematic With regards to water supplies But we'll certainly put that query out there On climate change, ice core samples Proves that increases in atmospheric CO2 LAG periods of global warming By around 800 years This is accepted science Which has never been challenged But simply ignored So current increases in atmospheric CO2 Are from the medieval warm period Have absolutely nothing to do with humans The entire climate disaster is based on pseudoscience And can be debunked with some basic research So says a caller I am no expert I am no scientist But I will just basically say Any reading I've done And any perspective I have on climate change Has not led me to believe that it's not linked to humans It seems to me it's very linked to humans Mass was cancelled in one Malin church yesterday The reason it was cancelled Although no explanation was given in the newsletter Was to have a film crew park at LAG church Appalling behaviour, so says a caller Did the parish get paid for this Plenty of parking at the local hall in Malin town Now and we have a response to the best of our knowledge Notification was given and alternative masses And mass times were put on at a church Less than three miles away That's our understanding So notification was given And alternative masses and mass times Were put on in a church Less than three miles away So we are told now Special Olympics A very important organisation Which performs a wonderful service The North West club are looking for volunteers And athletes aged 16 or over to join the club Anyone with disabilities can contact Pat McLaughlin or Nicky McDermott Via the North West Special Olympic Facebook page And the number is 087-69-448-22 So Pat McLaughlin, Nicky McDermott Contact them either via the North West Special Olympic Facebook page Or on 087-69-448-22 And that is looking for both volunteers And athletes to become involved in Special Olympics Caller contacted us with regards to the park In Glencar, just behind the Glencar shopping centre Between Dr McGinley Road and the Glencar shopping centre The park, we're told, is littered Day in and day out with takeaway food containers Alcohol cans and bottles The antisocial behaviour is terrible I'd include some photos and we do indeed have some photos here There's a lot of broken bottles which are very dangerous For young children and dogs There's an actual den in the bushes Where people are drinking, that can be quite scary But what's really worrying now is some of the shores Are completely blocked and have been for a long time There are weeds growing from them It's quite scary considering how close it is to the hospital And the previous devastating flooding These are ongoing issues Now it's a park, I would have to say No, because I live in that general Glencar area And I would walk in that park occasionally And it's a wonderful park and it's a wonderful facility And yes, it can at times be littered And there can be some evidence of antisocial behaviour there And hopefully that will get resolved And we're happy to highlight that Now, we are going to go back to Zoom Because we are joined on Zoom By an Assistant Professor in Criminology At the Department of Policy, Sociology and Criminology In the University of Birmingham Now that's what I call a mouthful And Dr Evelyn Svingen I hope I've got that right Evelyn, a very good morning to you Good morning Evelyn Svingen, have I got the title right? Yeah, Svingen Svingen, yeah, excellent But we'll just go with Evelyn from now on As I say, Assistant Professor in Criminology At the University of Birmingham Over half of people Evidence has emerged Have the capacity to commit a violent crime If provoked That'll be surprising to many people Who would say, no, I would never do that And when we see reports of people reacting In certain ways, we go, oh, I would never do that I would never do that Perhaps we are more likely to do it Than we think we are Absolutely And I think crime is something that we You know, the media draws us as this Really violent offender Or you know, you have Jeffrey Dahmer And we all think that people who commit crime Are somehow special And have a different personality Whereas in fact, actually right and wrong Are quite context dependent For example, we'll know that killing a person is wrong On the other hand, if you kill somebody In an act of war Or as a self-defense Or if you're saving somebody else That is not necessarily a bad thing So actually, oftentimes the environment Really influence us, right? And the context changes So what I did in my experiment I just gave people hypothetical scenarios And I said, so here is the situation You know, would you punch this person Given the circumstances And once I started changing the circumstances In the environments Yeah, more than half of people said That yes, there would be, they would definitely Consider at least and will probably Punch somebody if The right circumstances presented themselves And the interesting and perhaps frightening thing Is a lot of the scenarios that you used Were realistic scenarios Things like being insulted in the queue For a nightclub and things like that Which is a scenario that people Could very often find themselves in And it's the very situation Where things like that could escalate That does beg a question Is there a difference In the response based on whether There was or wasn't alcohol involved Or was that part of the study? That wasn't part of the study And it was all hypothetical obviously For practical reasons, we can't put people in the queue And see if they will