 Lee Goods, back with you tomorrow at 6.30, of course the 9-ton noon show just about to kick off officially, but first let's get a news update and it's good morning to Donna Marie Daugherty. Thanks Greg, good morning. The Irish government has done very little to contribute to peace to Northern Ireland, that's according to Donegal Deputy Thomas Pringle. Speaking in the doll yesterday evening, Deputy Pringle expressed concerns over the government's proposed review of Ireland's neutrality. He believes a form due to be set up to discuss neutrality should focus instead on restoring peace in the island. This forum should instead focus on how to strengthen our stance for peace, especially in light of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The government has to be honest with the fact that they have actually done very little to contribute to peace in the North, and this peace has been the work of the people on the ground in the North and not of those who signed the agreement 25 years ago and then left them to it. This forum is an opportunity to consider the stronger role we can play in encouraging and sustaining peace on our own island as well as on other countries across the world. Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister will promise to protect the legacy of the Good Friday Agreement during a speech in Belfast later. Rishi Sunak will address a conference at Queen's University and host a special dinner to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the deal. He'll meet with Tishak Leo Varadkar, who is also attending the final day of the conference along with former US President Bill Clinton. Earlier speaking at a meeting with the US President in the North last week, the UK Prime Minister insisted there are plenty of opportunities for the North. We talked about the investment potential that is there, the companies that want to invest in Northern Ireland. I think that's incredibly exciting. It will be growth, jobs and prosperity to Northern Ireland, and I know he shares my ambition to see the institutions here back up and running. That's what people and businesses in Northern Ireland deserve. Early Childhood Ireland has today announced that 32 of its member's settings in Dunnegall contributed over 10,500 to a national total of almost 350,000 raised on National Pajama Day. The funds raised will benefit two projects, as I Am's Child and Family Support Programme and the Regio Children's Project 2023. Theresa Heaney, CEO of Early Childhood Ireland, says the funds raised will make a tangible difference to the lives of children with autism and will also continue to enhance the quality for children in the early years in the early school age care sector in Ireland. And thousands of people will soon be hit with a fee for their compost waste. Panda recycling is to introduce a special charge for people who put out food and garden waste in their compost bin. According to the Irish Independent, Panda's 360,000 customers across the country will be charged $380 per lift from the 8th of May. The move has been described as a blow to recycling efforts and follows a 12% price hike in the company's general waste collection services last year. And now for the weather this morning. Today will be cloudy with sunny spells improving later, mainly dry with the chance of an isolated shower, highest temperatures of 11 to 12 degrees and mostly moderate, easterly winds. That's the latest in news. We'll be back again at 10 o'clock with the news and obituary notices. Until then, good morning. Hello, I'm Quiva Dabara from Throcra, urging you to return your Throcra box donation. Your support will bring emergency food baskets, urgent medical care and fresh safe water to families in Somalia. Families who have lost everything in the worst drought in the country's history. Your help can make all the difference. Visit Throcra.org or call 1-800-408-408. You see, it's not just a box, it's a lifeline. Throcra, together for the just world. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. And now, it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9 till noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello and a very good morning. Four minutes past nine, Wednesday the 19th of April, 2023. How are you keeping? Hopefully you are well. Hopefully you're out and able to enjoy this fine morning. Chilly, though, but still nice and bright, a little bit breezy. And it looks like we're going to continue to have this nice weather who heard from Alan towards the end of the show. Right, just before we have a look at what's making the pages of the newspapers today, a reminder of how you get in touch with us, 08, 6, 60, 25,000. What's absent text to that number? Or give us a call on 07, 491, 25,000. And just to invite you again, if you want to watch the programme, you can do so on YouTube, Highland Radio Ireland, on your Firestick, your Smart TV or across our Facebook pages and on our website at highlandradio.com. That's the contact details and how you engage with us if you want to raise an issue or make a comment or whatever. You know the format, don't you? Right, let's see what is on the front of the papers and inside some of the innish times this morning. The banking sector has been urged to listen to common sense proposals from defective block homeowners. Homeowners from Donegal met with a number of banks to discuss ways to help alleviate financial pressure as a result of the defective blocks crisis. Members of one of the recently formed defective blocks focus groups travelled to Dublin with Donegal's Sinn Fein TDs, Podrick McLaughlin and Pierce Daugherty recently to hold talks with representatives of AIB, Bank of Ireland and permanent TSB and hopefully the pressure stays on those and other lending institutions so that they make their moral contribution, if not legal contribution to this crisis. The Finn Valley Voice this morning, an opportunity for local people to lobby on issues was the objective of the Balabafe and Strunala Community Meeting on Monday, April 17th in the Villa Rose Hotel Balabafe. In attendance were Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConnelogue and Councillor Patrick McGowan. Minister McConnelogue said the meetings were something that he hoped would continue in towns throughout the county on a rolling basis two to three times a year. The opportunities are not always as strong as they necessarily could be at a community level for open engagement and open discussion. Open engagement and open discussion is a great thing, isn't it? Well, you can get it at these meetings on issues that are actually happening, he said. OK, so that's how you get in contact there. The Donegal Post-Killie Beggs is Ireland's most lucrative fishing port. That's according to Bordeskiwara. It says, sorry, a Bordeskiwara business of seafood report has named Killie Beggs as Ireland's most lucrative fishing port in 2022 with landings worth 135 million. The reopening of the hospitality sector was a significant driving factor in increased domestic consumption of seafood. Higher prices on the domestic and export markets have contributed to the increased value of catches. There was also a significant increase in government investment in 2022 with funding under Brexit, adjustment reserve coming on stream. That being said, a huge significant drop in the amount of people involved in the fishing sector. And also, I'm not sure if that's mentioned in the Bordeskiwara report. I didn't get to page three of it. And also, less people employed in it, quite a significant drop and also less productivity. The increase seems to be mostly in sales. But in terms of the marine produce, the fish produce in Ireland, it's dropping and the amount of people employed within has fallen. One is eight and one's 15%. I was reading up on it yesterday. I'm not sure which way it is around. I think employment has dropped 8% in that sector. Down around 15,000 people. On to the national side, the Irish independence. I'm not sure how many of you this affects. We want your views on it if it does affect you, of course. One of the largest waste collection companies in the state is introducing a special charge. Wow, a special one for households for putting food and garden waste into their compost bins. The move by Panda recycling has been described as a blow to efforts to encourage households to recycle. So a couple of questions. A, are you a panda recycling customer? B, do you have a compost bin? And C, are you going to continue to use it if it costs you? Presumably, there are other ways to dispose of this type of stuff. Just want your views on that. And maybe other companies will follow. Panda recycling, whose parent group was recently sold for a billion, is one of the largest bin collection firms in the state with 360,000 customers. From May 8th, it will start charging 380 for each compost bin lift. The new charge comes less than a year after it increased the general waste bin lift charges by more than 12% and hiked its service charges. Since September, the charge for each lift of a general waste bin is up by €1.13 to €10.25. That's a rise, of course, of 12.4%. So again, the three questions. Are you a panda recycling customer? Do you put out a compost bin? Are you going to continue to do so? If you're going to be charged the sum of €3.80 for it to be lifted. Now, excuse me, I'm not sure how often that happens or if that impacts you or if that would make you change the way you operate. All right, let's look at the Irish Times this morning another giveaway budget is in prospect later this year after the government presented updated economic forecasts on Tuesday, which showed huge surpices expected in the public finances in the coming years. Now, what do you think about this? And maybe it's time we as the, I suppose, the consumers had a conversation about this because, and this is not anti-government, right? It doesn't matter who's in power or who even makes the decisions. Who makes the decisions? I don't know. But over the next two years, there's going to be a surplus of €26 billion. Now, this is coming mostly from corporation tax and we're told not to rely on it because it might not be permanent. Yet, the money keeps coming in from it. We are awash with it, okay? Not withstanding our huge national debt, but that seems to be parked for the long term in any case, paying the repayments and the interest on it. What do you think should be done with this money? There's a couple of options, isn't there? A, they stick it in a rainy day fund, which much of it will be. So you plan for the future and you talk about how the increased cost of, you know, carrying for an aging population and all that stuff. This is 26 billion over two years. B, at budget time, you do what the papers call a giveaway budget, right? And I think this is not a criticism of the papers. We might even say it, I'm not sure. But you know that's BS, right? Because honestly, you know, what budget, have you ever come out of it and it's actually really changed your lives? Maybe it has, maybe it hasn't. Under whichever government it is, not recent, not, you know, whichever government it is. So, you know, it's gonna be framed as a giveaway budget. So we're supposed to go, yeah, that's fantastic. But will it actually really make the lives of your average person in Ireland any better? Because someone's benefiting from this huge increase. Or should this money be used to tackle issues like we talked about yesterday? You know, proper supports for families of children with autism, for an example. Paying nurses a proper wage so that they're not tempted to go to Australia or to Dubai or wherever it might be. Even maybe, you know, paying other sectors more if that's the right thing to do. Investing more, and I'm gonna write money, gain changing money that's accountable into mental health services, for example. Making sure that no children in this country are living in poverty or food poverty to make sure that the people whose houses are falling down around their ears through no fault of their own are delivered a scheme. Now, there's probably an argument to say that that is funded, right? But the obvious feeling out there is that the scheme is not fit for purpose in and of itself. But anyway, do you know the type of problems I'm talking about? Would you prefer to see this money spent but in a really accountable, focused, targeted way to lift people out of poverty, to make sure that families have proper supports if they need them, to make sure that maybe we don't have to pay private hospitals in Belgium and Spain and Northern Ireland to treat people? Or do you want it put away for this rainy day? Yet at the same time, they'll still tell us that we're gonna have to pay more tax down the line to pay for pensions, right? So I don't know how all that works. Or do you think it should be in a giveaway budget? Do you feel you'll feel the impact of that giveaway budget? Okay, there are the scenarios. Why don't we have a conversation about it? We don't get to make the decisions directly. We elect people that do make the decisions. But what would you like to see done with that type of money? We're already having it framed as the only thing that we're gonna really see is a giveaway budget. That's how it feels. Now, that's been framed by the media, not the government necessarily, but let's see how it pans out. What do you think? Irish Share Daily Mail this morning, before that, just a text line, 086625,000. The Irish Daily Mail, new party to fight for rural island. Do we need another new party, do you think? A green backlash is looming in the form of a new party that will defend farmers and campaign on rural issues with plans to target 15 seats in a role in government. Russ Common-Goreway TD, Michael Fitzmaris, has issued a rallying cry to potential candidates telling them it's the last round in the fight for rural Ireland. Mr. Fitzmaris made a name for himself in the door as a pugilistic defender of rural Ireland against what he sees as being radical green policies with more seats on offer at the next, let's go to page six, the next election. He sees space for a new party that will fight back against the green agenda, much of which is deeply unpopular to rural areas and particularly among the farming community. Now, a lot of this stuff is international stuff that we're sort of locked into at this stage, but anyway, he told the mail, I have made it very clear that there is space for a rural-based political party. Is that something that you could get behind? We do have the rural independence. I'm not saying they're a party, but they back government, they keep the government in power. This government probably the next if they need some support as well. Do you want to see another rural party? Do you think not another rural party, another party? And do you think that you would back them if they rallied against the green agenda? 08, 6, 60, 25,000, the Irish Daily Star this morning. The government has been accused of protecting energy companies' profits at the cost of Irish families. It follows pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of energy windfall gains in the energy sector bill 2023 at the Environmental and Climate Action Committee yesterday. The proposed energy windfall tax has a temporary solidarity contribution from gas producers and refineries on 2022-23 profits and a cap on market revenues from non-gas generation between December 22 and June 23. Sinn Fein spokesperson Darren O'Rourke branded the plan wholly inadequate and it will leave the vast majority of producers eye-watering and obscene profits untouched. You probably are out there. I've got a bill recently. Four, five, 600 euro. Chatting to one person, a bill for 800 euro. Heard of another, a bill for 1200 euro. What is going on? Why are our electricity prices still so high when gas prices are so very, very low? The government said it was gonna do something about it, didn't it? Was it two months ago and yet here we are. What is your latest bill been like? Has it been a crippler? Let us know. 08, 6, 60, 25,000. Because now some people have been hit with really, really big, big bills and still no real clear sign of when domestic users will see bills come down. Into the sun this morning, lots of papers covering the story. A young girl who was home while her mom was brutally beaten and strangled by her partner yesterday said, I miss my mommy so much. The whole broken youngster was eight when mom of two, Jasmine Monagall, was killed by Richard Burke at Forest Park, Kili Gordon. That was in January the 4th, 2019. Then a 12 year old said, I wish mommy had never, ever met him. He has ruined our lives. She also told of her agony that she and her little sister would never get mommy back with Jasmine's loss, especially apparent at big occasions like Christmas and her birthday. And she revealed how Burke had tried to teach her mother martial arts but that what Jasmine really needed was defending from him. Jasmine, who's 28, was 28 when she died, was found in a pool of blood in the kitchen of her home following a three hour standoff between Burke and Gardie. He, 32 of Kili Gordon, had pleaded not guilty to her murder, but guilty of manslaughter. Mr. Justice Burns remanded Burke in custody for sentencing on May 22nd. So yesterday was about victim impact statements there. And the Irish Daily Mirror, finally, the Labour Party is called for, and I'm glad to see someone taking this up, by the way, because we are, by certain companies, being ripped off. Inflation is being driven up because they're making huge profits out of the Beep counter. It's not necessarily now about the rising input costs and them having to maintain their profits at a certain level. Their profits are making up a huge proportion of the inflation that we're seeing in this country at the moment. The Labour Party is called for the consumer watchdog to investigate supermarket prices and accused major corporations of profiting from the cost of living crisis. TD Jed Nash also called for the government to introduce price caps on certain goods, arguing that it has enough money to introduce further measures. I would not like to see that type of measure having to be introduced. I would like to see these companies reward their loyal customers by doing the right thing and reducing their profits down to pre-war, pre-COVID levels. There's no need for them to be making so much money. Speaking in the doll yesterday, Mr. Nash said, updates from the stability programme show that Ireland is in good financial position and is likely to have record-breaking income levels for 2023. He claimed far too many people are being left behind. He added far too many big corporations like major supermarket chains that are involved in obtaining supernormal and hypernormal profits. In our view, this needs to be investigated by the Consumer Competition Protection Commission. It doesn't really even need to be investigated as such. They need to be embarrassed and shamed because the statistics are out there which show that they are making really, really good profits. Right, okay. Let us take a break back with our first guests in just a couple of moments. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra mountaintop Ledrick Annie, the C-store national large forecourt of the year for 2022. The Ninetyl Noon Show is brought to you by Ledrick Annie Credit Union, offering low-rate car loans with fast approval. Apply online at LedrickAnnieCU.ie or in office today. I remember you. Hi, this is May McFatty Chair. Come and see me at the Delay, Philadelphia nice and a happy medium at the Millennium Forum on the 25th of April. Join me for a laugh as I enter this spirit world and reveal all the tickets from the theater back office or online. Why leave all the magic moments or great scenes you've captured on your phone, sitting there or in the cloud when you can have them printed at McGee's Chemist. Using the McGee's app or one of the in-store kiosks, you can upload your photos from your phone, Google photos, Facebook or Instagram and have them printed instantly within an hour or in by 10 and ready by five. See McGee's.ie for more details. Hold your memories in your hand with McGee's Chemist, Ledrick Annie. You may have heard others making claims, but there's only one number one and it's official. The Kia Sportage is now Donegal's best-selling car in 2023. Call into data iMotors, Ledrick Annie or Malin or visit iMotors.ie to find out why the Kia Sportage is Donegal's best-selling car. So you're saying mental health difficulties can be smaller things? Yeah. Like troubled sleeping? Yeah. I'm always stressed like? Yeah. Or often anxious? They're all part of your mental health. Hmm. Thought those were separate? Nope. They're all connected. I hate to know all this anyway. I'm not sure I've been there myself. Anxiety, ongoing stress, low mood or troubled sleeping, they're all part of your mental health. Make the connection and find support that can help at yourmentalhealth.ie from the HSE. Highland radio, time checks with Expressway. Travel route 32 from Ledrick Annie to Dublin. Expressway, bringing you the time, Matt. At 21 minutes past nine, we say good morning now to Dr Paul Armstrong, who is a GP and president of the Irish College of General Practitioners. Dr Armstrong, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Greg. I was planning to actually come into the studio, but just with traffic and everything around Ledrick Annie is nearly an hour and a half this morning. Of course. And that's there and back. But listen, it's very good to have you nonetheless. Some media reports stating that medical practitioners are warning of an increase in Strep A cases in Ireland, particularly among children. Is that what your members are reporting, Paul? Yes, unfortunately, Strep A is increasing. We see it in various ways. Most of it in very mild illness. But unfortunately, in rare, but very severe cases, it can be much more dangerous and occasionally fatal. So that is one of the reasons there is concern. Nationally, I understand there have been about 200 cases of the invasive, the severe form all over the country over the last few months. Now, obviously, there was a lot of coverage of this coming out of Britain. Going back a couple of months ago. And then people, obviously, were on high alert here. Parents, you know the way we are, Paul. Are we actually seeing more cases now compared to previous years, or is there more awareness of it? I think there is some more awareness of it. It has always been round. Strep throats would be the common one that we would have seen over years. And the older form was scarlet fever. It certainly had diminished considerably over the last couple of decades. I certainly saw more at the start of my career over 30 years ago than I had seen in intervening years. But in recent times, there's no doubt we're seeing more of this. Now, the problems are, there's several problems with it. But one is that Strep A is commonly found in very healthy people. So you get it in the throats and in the nose of people with no symptoms at all and on the skin. It's only when it actually lodges in an area like on the skin and gives a type of skin infection around the throat, giving a strep, what we call a strep throat, which usually with pus spots, not always, but usually with pus spots that it presents to us. So in those cases, people often have a temperature or have some symptoms that are often very similar to the common cold. So in circumstances like that, then in some of them, we give antibiotics when it's indicated to do so. It's only when it becomes the invasive into our actual body systems, into our blood or into our organs that normally don't get infected that it can become extremely serious. Okay, so what then? Because obviously when you are at home with a child and you know, sometimes it can be hard to make these judgment calls. What we always, of course, try as much as we can to err on the side of caution. So how do we then, as caregivers, differentiate between you know, the less harmful version of strep A? Like how do we know that it's progressed and that we need to get our child to the GP or back to the GP? Well, it's very difficult and very difficult even sometimes in experienced hands, Greg. The symptoms are often very mild and the vast majority of people do not get sick with strep A to any significant degree. Usually it can be managed as if our illness might be managed to its fluids, calpola and urethane or whatever people would you prefer and it passes on in a few days. In some cases, then antibiotics are prescribed and that tends to be where it is either infecting the throat in a severe way where a child is a very sore throat is more all form, not drinking. In those circumstances, an antibiotic is often advised. But as GPs, we see this all the time. Most of what we see is viral. We try to minimize the amount of antibiotics that we prescribe unless we see particular things around like post on the throat, very high temperature, off drinks, things like that. One of the other difficulties is that is the sore throat that a person gets isn't always the one that goes on to form the very severe illness. So the very severe illness is presented in a very nonspecific way. Yes, and I understand the reluctance to prescribe antibiotics and even there will be variances amongst GPs in how they will approach that to some extent. But often what might happen is you will get a parent that will bring a child to a GP. It's off form, the child's off form, there is a temperature, the parents are concerned and they're going to the GP. The GP will have a quick look over, check the ears, the throat and what have you. And they will say it appears to be viral. So we don't think at this time it's right to prescribe antibiotics. But keep an eye on the child over the next two or three days and if the symptoms persist or worsen, then bring the child back in. I presume that's the common practice but if we are seeing an increase in strep A at this time for A, to prevent the possibility of any child dying or B, even maybe to satisfy the concerns of the parents, should that not be slightly adjusted that we err on the side of caution and for a period of time until we see strep A cases drop off that we are more likely then to prescribe antibiotics? Would you be in favour of that? Well, you describe very well what normally does happen, like once a child has assessed a decision is made on whether it's likely to benefit from an antibiotic that can often be on the past experience on what's happened, what the parent tells you from what's happened before with the child. And every guideline that's produced advises us to minimise the amount of antibiotics that we prescribe because of the huge other problems that are out there with resistance to antibiotics when they're really needed. You are right though, not alone our parents cautious, but doctors are very cautious as well and they do leave the door open to have your child reassessed or sometimes to use what we call a delayed prescription where we give a prescription and say, look, I think your kid is okay at the moment, hold off for another 24, 48 hours. And we also look for other things other than temperature. I mean, sometimes you'd have a child that's running around your waiting room and your surgery and is playful and smiling. And yes, they may have only nose and sore throat and temperature, but they're obviously quite well and fighting this themselves and are likely to continue to do so. The child that worries us more and worries parents more and sometimes the child that's very quiet, the child that's lethargic, the child that's not drinking and that's going on a little while and you often try and get a urine sample, see as a child to dehydrate it in a way that isn't obvious from their skin or whatever. So yes, we are more cautious. I mean, this is, while the number of cases that are extremely serious around open hospital or fatal or very, very rare, unfortunately, the effect on that on a family or an individual is enormous. And also to be honest, the effect on the healthcare workers who are involved in seeing a child like that. Yeah, and I'll ask more questions about that if that's okay, Paul. But I think it's probably a good opportunity maybe to ask, because I don't ask though we have this conversation from time to time, what are the dangers? The consequences actually probably is a better way of putting it of the over-prescription of antibiotics across a nation, if you know what I mean, or even maybe to one particular individual. Why is it so strongly recommended that there's great caution in terms of how often or how regularly or for what that you prescribe antibiotics? The reason that there's concern is that the more widespread use of antibiotics encourages resistance in the books. The books are revolutionary organisms who are continually trying to evade ways to eradicate them, whatever that might be. So they mutate and they change and they change into slightly more dangerous infections. So often when people go into hospital, and they've had a few different antibiotics, by the time the hospital tries to treat them, maybe with the intravenous antibiotic, they find that there's resistance. And certainly the specialists and the microbiologists are feeding back to us that resistance is a very significant problem. Not alone here in Ireland, but right over the world. And the excess of what they perceive as the excessive use of antibiotics is feeding into that. So yes, in an individual basis, people may say, oh, well, look, I don't care, I just want my antibiotic. There is no doubt that from the society point of view, if they are overused and there's too much change in the books, it's dangerous for us all. All right, now, I mean, as you can imagine, Paul, I'd be contacted by different people with different concerns, say for instance, in this instance about strep A. And it'd be a number of cases, right? Amongst older people and younger people, some people have got very sick and very, very sadly. And our thoughts are with those that have lost loved ones to strep A. Now, in our efforts to make sure that we're doing the right thing in terms of public information, we would try and find out, you know, is there a cluster, is there a problem here? But we would be told for an example that, well, we can't say it was strep A until such time if it's required, that there is an autopsy. And, you know, all of that information might come some way down the line. Are we confident that we are sure there aren't sort of clusters of this or particular problems that won't become apparent until such time as, you know, autopsy reports have been released? I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. It's a bit convoluted, but, you know, are we getting enough real-time information now to make sure we are responding adequately? I understand your question and how that concern leaves people. But in perspective, as I said, there have been about 200 cases nationally. Now, these are cases. These are not people who have died. These are people who have been treated. The actual number of deaths is around eight nationally. So I think we do need to keep that in perspective. Now, whether something else is happening that we're not aware of, of course, is a reasonable question. But there's no evidence that there's a particular cluster of extremely highly virulent bugs around at the moment or in this region. Now, and why, you know, one person can fight it. You know, two people might get a strep. One might, three people might get it. One might have it on their skin. They might never go anywhere else. One might get a sore throat and another person might get sicker. Like, why that happens has to do with the person's own immunity, with the way the organism reacts in their body, different things. It's, but I think it is right to keep it in perspective. We are talking about an infection which is around in our community all of the time and is normally dealt with by our bodies, unfortunately, in very rare cases. That's not the case. Indeed, and that's part of the motivation for speaking to you, Paul, as well, for that perspective that you talk of. In Britain, however, when there were a number of cases, in a huge population, it has to be said, very sadly, there were nine deaths in short space. At that time or before or following it, there was a policy of if there was one case, I believe, particularly in educational or childcare settings, there would be antibiotics offered to close contacts of that child. I don't believe we've ever done that. Is that something that we should be looking at? Because that Strepe case in the one child in a classroom, for example, they might be able to fight it, but they could be sitting next to someone who perhaps could not. So is there an argument for us to have a similar policy? I'm not sure if it's still in place, to be honest with you, Paul. Well, no, it actually is, Greg. The in proven cases of serious Strepe or public health colleagues do get involved. They get the report from the lab. They act very quickly. They're actually going to contact family units and an area where there may be close contacts and where there is concern of some people do get what's called prophylactic treatment. The problem, I suppose, that what most of us are talking about is a Strepe diagnosis made by GP or made by family members. I think somebody has streped throat or they've had positive tonsils and they are unwell. So in those cases, we don't want to approve a diagnosis. And the people say, well, you know, why isn't there a point of care testing? The problem is with the point of care testing, it's not entirely accurate. And it's felt that it wouldn't actually feed at present into good management. OK, so maybe we might, in terms of what parents and guardians can look out for, we might skip the first visit to the GP, right, when symptoms are mild. And as I outlined earlier on, that you might be advised that you might either be given a delayed subscription or advised to keep an eye on the child and come back to us in a couple of days if things don't improve or they dis-improve. So then you go home and for a moment, you feel happy, you feel OK. But then again, you know that anxiety begins again with every cough or every sniffle or every slow blink. What then should we be looking out for in the behaviour of the child, in what it might be complaining of, if it can verbalise that, that might then warrant a further visit to the GP or even the ED dependent on how severe it might be? And with that, Greg, we all know kids change very quickly. You know, kids can appear quite sick. I mean, parents bring them in sometimes, say the kids are very sick, kids find the surgery as well. But the things that we all look out for and we look out for as doctors and the family members or carers should look out for are where somebody isn't getting better and isn't drinking, it's just lethargic, persistently unwell, it's still a bit of a headache. They're obviously more worrying things like developing or when you put the glass tumbler on it. So it's generally the general form of a person concerns us more. And the younger the child and the older the person that goes off, you're often more concerned because things can change more rapidly. So if somebody is not getting better and it's still persisting and they're not drinking, they're not eating, they're off on, they're not playing their favourite PlayStation, they're not watching the TV, that's a reasonable grounds to say, well, maybe we need to look at this again. Beyond that, say for instance, it's possible that if you are medicating with paracetamol or cowpoll or whatever it might be, neurofen, that some of the telltale signs might be masked to some extent. And I'm just trying to make sure people have all the information they feel they might need. So is it possible that the child might seemingly be okay a little off, but still be suffering? Like is there any pains or anything else beyond that that we need to be looking at for Paul? I don't think things mass, communication mass, I mean, the paracetamol or the cowpoll. Well, the temperature perhaps was perhaps what I was talking about. Yes, but temperature on its own is, you know, you can have quite a high temperature and not be that unwell and a low-grade temperature and be quite ill. So yes, the temperature is something which we all follow, but it is more the subtle signs, you know, that we would go with in terms of there, as I said, drinking, general interest in things, lethargy, it's more sleepy than usual, just off their normal routine. And that they're the alerts that we look for more than things like a high temperature or specific pain or whatever. It's very, and they're quite nonspecific. And that's why they're a challenge. They're a challenge for people themselves or not sure if they're just a bit under the weather or parents are wondering, just sleeping it off and some doctors are just wondering, is it viral? So it is a challenge at each stage. Yeah, and if a strepe has progressed to an infection that's affecting organs or the blood or whatever it might be, Paul, are the further symptoms we need to look out for any marks on the skin, any pains elsewhere, or will the general behavior of the child in this example I'm giving you be the indication? And it's also important to realize that it doesn't always progress from a sore throat and your only nose, people can get a strep infection that just presents in the way where they're just to have a temperature and a rash. And so you have to always be aware of that. But we sore joints, inability, vomiting obviously is quite a severe symptom. The rash, people get rashes all the time. You can get that fine red rash that when you put your finger on it disappears. It's often part of a virus. But a rash, for example, it doesn't appear when you put pressure on it. It's always more worrying and concerning. Right, and I might just go back to the start again. Notwithstanding the awful loss that people have incurred, but also at the same time, having to balance that with giving people knowledge, but not at the same time scaring people because we do also have to get along with our everyday life as well. So strep A, generally very common. Some people will present with no symptoms at all. The vast majority of people will be able to fight it off and not be particularly unwell in a small number of cases. 200 cases so far this year in Ireland. It's been the invasive form. And very, very sadly, there have been a number of deaths. Is there anything else you want to add there, Paul? Because as I say, I want the end of it to sort of contextualize it as well for people. Yeah, no, I think that's right. I think we do have to put this in context. Most of what we see is death viral. Most of what we see does not need antibiotics. Making a judgment call is currently quite difficult. I think it's also worth mentioning that one of the reasons we didn't see these for a couple of years was because their motor transmission is by droplets and by hand. And people were washing their hands in the low salt criticism of that was overdone. The people were wearing masks. I know there were people who were critical of that. But that certainly reduced the transmission of a whole load of childhood and other illnesses. And people will tell you, my kid had nothing for two years. Or I normally get a flare-up of my asthma regularly and I didn't get anything recently. That was because our personal behavior actually improved. And we now today, I know masks are gone in most circumstances, most health care centers, including our own surgery this week. But I think it's still prudent that people who have a cough or a cold or who feel they're vulnerable might still wear a mask. And we see people, tourists coming to this country wearing masks over the years and think, God, that's ridiculous. But I think that we do need to realize that they still have a role in reducing the transmission of infection. Okay. I think as well, the key message, I suppose too, Greg, is that we're all to be cautious and careful to be open to review, to try and minimize the amount of antibiotics that we give out. Sometimes we give them out to ensure that particularly somebody's presented a second or third time. So a lot of the guidelines are encouraging doctors not to prescribe, but we live in the real world and we try and meet the needs of patients as best we can. Yeah. And what I've tried to do as well, because when you go into a surgery and you're already stressed, I think everyone's the same. I keep saying you're always stressed and I could only be talking to myself, Paul, but I believe we are all the same. But I try, if I believe, I want to relate everything to the GP because, you know, Hodson, for instance, all Hodson's on your two-year-old, he can't relate it himself. Even take notes of when you're at home before you get to the GPs and, you know, give that information. I just find that personally that helped me because you're in there and, you know, I'd be up to high dove. As I say, I'm not recommending that, but it might help some people just in case just to keep a few notes of what's going on and then relate that to the GP during the visit. Yeah, it is, even when you're in, maybe in the chair, people kind of can't think as clearly and they're saying, I have to leave this. I'm sorry, I didn't say this or that. I mean, feel free to raise an extra concern. Finally, I think good nutrition is important in fighting any illness. It's not a silver bullet, but someone asks how important is good nutrition to stripper. I would imagine good nutrition is really important to everything. And just because someone gets stripper, it doesn't mean they've got bad nutrition either, but someone wants me to ask that, but I presume that's really your answer, Paul. Yeah, it's great. And I like to nutrition is hydration. You know, it's really important that your child continues to drink if they get off form, to get a temperature for any reason. Often they stop drinking. They became a bit dehydrated. That makes them cranky and urgible. And often if you can keep a child's hydration good in the first couple of days of any illness or throat or cough, it actually allows them to pull through better. But so keep your child drinking as best you can. Don't worry about eating in the first couple of days of any temperature or illness. All right, listen, thank you so much for your time this morning. I appreciate it. I hope we covered everything if you feel that we did in an informative, but not necessarily a fearful way if that makes sense. I appreciate your cooperation. Dr. Paul Armstrong, have a lovely day. Okay, thank you, Greg. And Dr. Paul is a GP of course and president of the Irish College of General Practitioners. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook, and at highlandradio.com. The Ninetyl Noon Show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union with monster loans available up to 60,000 euro for all occasions. Visit letterkennycu.ie. Do you suffer from high cholesterol, menopause symptoms, digestive issues, anxiety, aches and pains, or a lack of energy? The highly trained team at the Natural Way Letter Kenny can provide advice on natural remedies for a number of individual health issues. The Natural Way also has its own brand of herbal treatments to help fight fatigue, relieve digestive discomfort, maintain a healthy immune system, and alleviate common menopause symptoms. The Natural Way Letter Kenny Shopping Center, your one stop health shop. Raymond Sweeney here from Ben Sweeney, Iranics, to let you know about a grit tumble dryer that will save you time and energy. Bloomberg 8KG Dryer has a selection of sensor programs that allows you to decide exactly how dry you like your laundry, and smart technologies to help you reduce your energy costs. It also comes with an amazing seven year parts and labor warranty. Call into us and see for yourself at Ben Sweeney, Iranics. Or at Letter Kenny or in the Shopping Center at Longlow. A public interest message from Donegal County Council. Have you got attached roof in need of repair? If you do, Donegal County Council's award winning patch repair grand scheme may be able to help. The grand scheme provides specialist advice to owners on the conservation of attached roofs and allocates funding for small scale patch repairs. Donegal County Council recognizes the contribution that attached dwellings and outbuildings make to our landscape, economy, tourism, and society. Further details and application forms are available on the Donegal County Council website, DonegalCoco.ie forward slash heritage. The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Friday, April 21st, Donegal County Council, serving the people and heritage of Donegal. Hi, breaching here from McDate's bathroom plumbing tides, Bunkrana. Our massive marquee sales starts this Wednesday the 19th. Are you renovating your bathroom or kicking out a new home? Massive savings to be made on all wall and floor tides. That's the McDate's bathroom plumbing tides, Bunkrana, massive marquee sale starts this Wednesday. The 9 till noon show with Lettercanny Credit Union. Simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from Lettercanny Credit Union. Call us on 074 910 2126 or apply online via our app or in office today. In 2003, the Special Olympics changed Ireland forever. 20 years later, we continue to transform the lives of children and adults with an intellectual disability. Some athletes will represent their country. Some will learn to run, jump, or even speak for the first time at a Special Olympics Club. But all will laugh, compete, and belong together. Please support them by donating today at SpecialOlympics.ie or give what you can to our bucket collectors on Friday, April 21st. Thank you. Donegal County Council would like to invite the residents of the Strunauer and Cavern Lower local areas and other interested parties to participate in the first public consultation for the N15 Corcam-Benz Road scheme. The aim of the consultation is to receive feedback on the preliminary options prior to the deciding on the emerging preferred option. A public display of the study area constraints and route options will take place in Keys Hotel Strunauer on Thursday, 20th of April between 2pm and 7pm. County Council staff and their design consultants will be present on the day to listen to and to register your views. For additional project information, please contact the Donegal National Roads Office on 074 97 24 500 or design at dnrdo.ie. Ready for a change or upgrade? Thanks, Seat. With our wide range of award-winning Seat SUV, including the bold crossover Arona, the family-favorite attacker, or the spacious seventh-seater Tarako, all vehicles come with great offers on finance and PCP options. Book a test drive today by calling DMG Motors on 074 97 21 396 or visit dmgmotors.ie. Choose your new 231 Seat with confidence with a visit to DMG Motors' Clairode Donegal Town. Highland radio weather updates with Ireland West Airport, fancy a European city break this summer, discover the beautiful cities of Barcelona, Cologne and Milan with Ryanair. Six flights a week for summer 2023, Ireland West Airport. Don't just take off, take it easy. Today rather cloudy with sunny spells, improving later in the day, mainly dry with just the chance of an isolated shower, highest temperatures of 11 or 12 degrees, winds moderate. Mainly dry and clear tonight, lowest temperatures 2 to 4 degrees, again in mostly moderate, easterly winds fresh at times. Dry and sunny tomorrow, by the way, for your Thursday, which is good news, isn't it? Right, a celebratory event is taking place this week to showcase the success of Catchment Care. It's a major cross-border project that's made a significant contribution to restoring water quality in three important cross-border river catchments. Andi Griggs is Assistant Manager of Catchment Care, Community Action for Resilient Ecosystems. And he joins us now. Good morning, Andi. Good morning, Greg. How are you? Right, Seth, good, thank you. Talk to me about how long has this project been ongoing and what areas benefited from improved water quality? So, Catchment Care Greg has been running over the past five years. We started in 2018 and it's due to come to an end in June this year. The five-year project has been looking at river restoration and water quality improvement works over three different river catchments, cross-border. And those are the Arnie, the Blackwater and the Fin. The Arnie catchment will be the smallest of those catchments. Cross-border for Manor, Cavern and Leak Trim. The Fin catchment is the middle one, Donnie Gordon-Terrone cross-border, and the Blackwater is the largest of those catchments, which is Arnie, Terrone and Monaghan. It's been funded by SUPB, which is the EU program for Northern Ireland and the border regions of Ireland and Western Scotland. And we've been working to do a whole range of river restoration works across those areas. So we've been working with different landowners and stakeholders, looking at the issues and the problems that are affecting our water quality across those different river catchments, and looking how we can make some improvements to bring the water quality back and to get people also involved in looking after their local river catchments and getting local communities engaged with caring for them now and into the future. So how do we, how are we judging this as a success then? What bars were reached? Well, there's all of our rivers under the Water Framework Directive, the European Directive are given a particular status. So that ranges from poor to very good. A lot of the water bodies, the lakes and the rivers across North and South of Ireland would be, some of them are quite good and some range right the way down to moderate and poor. So there's a whole range of different factors which affect our water quality. And each of our river catchments had different pressures across the area. So we looked at different mitigations there. So what we tried to do was work and see how in each area what the problem was whether it was nutrients coming into the rivers, whether it was maybe a livestock which is encroaching onto the river banks and introducing silt into the rivers. Whether in the fin catchment, for example, there's a problem with some of the sheep dip, the spent sheep dip or forestry operation. So we looked at how they could work and mitigate some of the pressures on the rivers there. So we looked at things like working with stabilizing banks, introducing fencing schemes which would keep livestock out of the rivers, combined with working with landowners to look at offline drinking solutions for livestock. We looked at doing in-stream works which would improve the rivers for salmon stocks and for reds for the salmon and different fish stocks. We looked at riparian buffer zones which would help protect against the pollutions coming into the rivers. We looked at tree planting measures as well and lots of different solutions like that which would help to not only improve the rivers now, but again, it's a longer-term process, Greg. So in terms of these three rivers, or even maybe focus on the two furthest north, perhaps that's most relevant to this catchment area, how were they graded before this work started five years ago and did that grading improve in terms of poor, very poor, great, and so on and so forth? Yes, so one of our partners, we had eight different partners in this project. One of the partners that worked in the fin catchment would be the LOX agency, but the rivers would have been, so it would have had invertebrate stocks, insect life on the fish stocks. You look at the water quality there, you can take measurements of the nutrient levels and the pollution levels. So how was it? So say for instance, the fin, where was it rated before this work started and where is it now as a measure of the improvement, Andy? Well, some of the fin, again, on the particular fin catchment itself, but if I remember the fin catchment, we had, again, from quite high quality or good, better quality river water back in the top of the catchment and then it comes into moderate in the mid-catchment and down towards the end of the catchment there. So that was graded and that was looked at before the project started and the LOX agency are then leading out on the water quality improvement schemes across that five-year project. So again, they're looking at the chemical export issues and looking at the mitigating measures. And as we've said, the sheep, dip and the forest have been highlighted as mirrors for mitigation. So they've been carrying out a whole range of works but again, the results coming out of that are quite promising at the moment. The latest report we have and we'll have this at the conference there on Thursday in Balibufe, we'll see some of the improvements that have started to happen across some of our river systems there. Now there's a long way to go obviously and we only cover those three river catchments and it's a longer-term process but one of the things was to look at how we can cross-border knowledge exchange and work with those different organizations to carry on this work into the future and maybe get potential funding to carry on the work. Because 14 million was spent, wasn't it? So it's a significant investment. There was, yeah, there was a significant investment and there was a whole range of other measures. One of our huge success of the project was actually our community incentive scheme. So we rolled out two phases of projects and funded 37 different projects across the three catchments which was given, funding were given to community groups to roll out projects on their own local rivers. So there was a whole range of different projects like stream sketch projects, bioblitz works. We introduced river walks, we had people coming in doing citizen science and getting people actually engaged on their rivers, taking river samples, learning about their biodiversity and their wildlife, doing pollution watches. We had interpretation and signage. We had a whole range of education material and resources and we also ran a very successful education program across the three catchments. So one of the strong things again was working from a bottom-up approach, Greg, and looking at how we can get local communities involved in doing the work. All right, all that work and we'll be outlined and there's plenty of speakers, the panel discussion and interactive exhibits available for the public at the conference on Thursday. That's tomorrow the 20th of April at the Villa Rosa in Ballet Buffet. Tickets are available. You can search eventbrite.co.uk and search catchment final conference tickets. I presume you'll find it there. We'll link that URL actually on our socials which might be more easy or easier access but presumably there's a link on catchmentcare.eu as well. And do people have to register or get a ticket in advance or can people turn up on the day, Andy? No, to get any possible. We do have a very popular event, as you can imagine, because a lot of the partners in all the different communities and different people will be there. So it's been very popular. So if you go on to our Facebook page, just catchmentcare Facebook, you'll see a link to the eventbrite conference tickets there and people can have a look there. And I just don't see a start time for that. Do you have that off the top of your head? Start time for the conference? Do you, the eventbrite? No, the start of the conference tomorrow. It's, I know... Oh, so? Yeah, what time is it started? No, it is. Yes, no, I think we're running for a while. I think registrations at 10 o'clock is about half 10. And then we're running for around about three o'clock with, we have different displays and there'll be a network and opportunity. And the main speeches will be from around about half 10 to about one o'clock. Excellent, Andy. Thank you for that. I appreciate your time. Andy Griggs there, assistant manager of Catchment Care there. That's tomorrow in the Villa Rose in Ballet Buffet. We were chatting to Mary yesterday who again suffered the loss of sheep. Willie emailed us in sympathy, saying, my heart goes out to Mary, who you had on the radio a couple of years ago. We suffered the same. We left to go to a neighbour's funeral. On our return, dogs had been into the field, killed five sheep all in lamb, many so distressed and they had to be put down. Sheep never get over that. Eventually, we had to sell them, start afresh and attack took place at 12 noon in the middle of the day. A dramatic time for all, says Willie, who's empathetic, of course, to the plight of Mary, who still doesn't know the full extent of the damage caused by that sheep kill at Mahirotti Beach, I believe it was, wasn't it? OK, we're back with more after the news and obituary notices. The Ninetal Noon Show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union. Digital loans now available. Apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account. The wind is our greatest natural resource. We're harnessing it to power homes across the country with 100% green energy. Switch to SSC Airtricity, Ireland's largest green energy provider and get the wind working for you. Switch today and get 15% of electricity and gas. Switching couldn't be easier. Simply go to SSCAirtricity.com. SSC Airtricity. This is Generation Green. EAB 3,450 Euro and 12 Cent. Offer from the 15th and 2nd 2023. Rates valid from the 1st of the 10-22. Subdue to change. One-year standard unirate discount for new home gas and electricity customers and direct debit and e-bill. For details of EAB, T's and Z's, rates, exit fees, standing charges and green energy claims, see SSCAirtricity.com. Irish National Opera presents the French classic romantic opera, Verter. A masterly portrayal of hopeless love between the passionate poet, Verter and a married woman. An opera full of sweeping melodies, including one of the world's most famous tenor arias. At Angreenin Theatre Letter County on Saturday the 22nd of April. Tickets from 27 Euro, see angreenin.ie. Funded by the Arts Council. By choosing Donegal Creamery's milk, you're supporting over 200 dairy farming families across Donegal in doing what they do best. Producing delicious fresh milk every day. For over 100 years, Donegal Creamery's milk has been brought to you daily from our dairy at Crossroads Killigarden, the longest established creamery in the region. Support local farms, local families and local jobs by choosing Donegal Creamery's milk. Keep your car or van running smoothly with the service at Hegarty's Ford in Utter County. Not only will it minimize the risk of a major repair expense, but it will be logged in your vehicle's service handbook and help its resale value. Hegarty's also offer everything from new and pre-owned car sales to parts and body repairs in their approved body shop. Book a service online this month and save 30 Euro when you use the code Ford30. You're always in good hands at Hegarty's Ford turn a mug a letter, Kenny. See Hegarty's.com. Live on air, online and on the Highland Radio app. This is Highland Radio News. Good morning, it's 10 o'clock. Donald Kavanaugh at the News Desk. The Irish government has done very little to contribute to peace in Northern Ireland. That's according to Donny Gull, Deputy Thomas Pringle. Speaking in the doll last evening, Deputy Pringle expressed concern over the government's proposed review of Ireland's neutrality. He said he believes a forum due to be set up to discuss neutrality should instead focus on restoring peace on the island. This forum should instead focus on how to strengthen our stance for peace, especially in light of the 21st anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The government has to be honest with the fact that they have actually done very little to contribute to peace in the north. And this piece has been the work of the people on the ground in the north, and not of those who signed the agreement 25 years ago and then left them to it. This forum is an opportunity to consider the stronger role we can play in encouraging and sustaining peace on our own island as well as on other countries across the world. Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister will promise to protect the legacy of the Good Friday Agreement during a speech in Belfast later today. Rishi Sunak will address a conference at Queen's University and host a special dinner to commemorate the 25th anniversary. He'll meet with Tisha Glee of Radker, who's also attending the final day of the conference along with the former US President Bill Clinton. Speaking after a meeting with the US President Joe Biden in the north last week, the UK Prime Minister insisted there are plenty of opportunities for the region. We talked about the investment potential that is there, the companies that want to invest in Northern Ireland. I think that's incredibly exciting. It will be growth, jobs and prosperity to Northern Ireland. And I know he shares my ambition to see the institutions here back up and running. That's what people and businesses in Northern Ireland deserve. Elefther Kenny Farmer has made an online appeal for information after 21 sheep were stolen from land in Noccy Bryn. John Russell says seven yos and 14 lambs were stolen between Sunday, April 9th and the early hours of last Saturday. He added it's the second time this year that sheep have been taken from this farm. The animals are marked with blue numbers on the side with 18 to 49. They have black markings on their backs. Gardie have been contacted. Dunningall County Council has issued an orange fire danger notice in respect of gorse, heather, dried grasses and other vegetation. It'll remain in place until Saturday evening. The council is urging landowners, members of the public to take all necessary measures to prevent the occurrence of wildfires and report any unattended fires immediately. The burning of agricultural waste is currently permitted and it is illegal to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy any vegetation growing on not cultivated land between March and August. This echoes a national warning that was issued last evening. The finance minister says a higher than expected budget surplus for 2023 will not be spent on permanent recurring measures. A surplus of around 10 billion is expected this year mainly driven from corporation tax. However, finance minister Michael McGrath says there's a likelihood a proportion will be used for rainy day funds or one-off projects. When I look at the public capital programme we have at the moment is over 12 billion euro. We've had significant underspends in each of the last two years. That doesn't mean that we will have underspends in the future. COVID played a role in that. But what I am saying is we will examine the potential of a strategic one-off or capital investment that would deliver a return for the people and for the state. Enterprise Ireland is warning the lack of housing is affecting companies' abilities to attract and retain staff. It's the government organisation responsible for developing and growing Irish enterprises. Over 200,000 people work in enterprise Ireland client companies but the agency is warning the housing shortage that remains a major concern for businesses who want to hire workers. Enterprise Ireland CEO Leo Clancy says companies are struggling. And I think as it is in many sectors of our society the availability of housing is a large concern for our client companies in terms of ability to bring in labour to the areas where they work and to house people. And early childhood Ireland has today confirmed 32 of its members in Danygol contributed over 10,500 to a national total of almost 350,000 euro raised on National Pajama Day. The funds will benefit two projects as I am's child and family support programme and the Reggio Children Project 2023. Weather forecasts cloudy with sunny spells, improving later, staying mainly dry with just a chance of an isolated char. Top temperatures today of 11 or 12 degrees Celsius in mostly moderate, easterly winds. And that's Highland Radio News. We're back with news headlines again at 11 o'clock until then, from the news team, have a very good morning. Eobitry notices this Wednesday morning, April 19th. The death has taken place of Pat Callaghan, P.F. Carrourea Road, Cairndona. His remains are opposing at his late residence. Funeral from there tomorrow at 10.30 a.m. Going to the Church of the Sacred Heart, Cairndona, Faraquia Mass at 11 a.m. with burial in the adjoining cemetery, house private to family only, and on the morning of the funeral, family flowers only. The death has taken place of Sister Mary McHugh, Ursuline Convent, Temple Street, Sligo, and former day of Carraghert, County Donnie Gaul. Reposing at Nazareth Chapel, Church Hill, Sligo, from 5 p.m. to day, concluding with evening prayer, at 6.15 p.m. Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated tomorrow at 12 noon in the Nazareth Chapel, Church Hill, Sligo, followed by burial in the Ursuline Convent Cemetery, Finney's Glyn, Sligo. The death has occurred of Thomas Gallagher, 88 Cron Heights, Lifford. Thomas will be reposing at his late residence all day today. Funeral from his late residence tomorrow morning, at 10.20 a.m., going to St. Patrick's Church Murlock for 11 o'clock. Raquia Mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Funeral Mass can be viewed on the parish webcam. Family flowers only, please. Donations in lieu of desired to the oncology unit that are Kenny University Hospital, care of any family member, or Kelly's funeral directors. The death has taken place of Frances O'Donnell, 173-hour Connell, Ardra. His remains are reposing at the Church of the Holy Family, Ardra. Funeral Mass is this morning at 11 a.m., with burial afterward in the adjoining cemetery. The death has taken place of Sally Brown, formerly of Carrie Cohen, Ahi Arn. Reposing at the home of her sister-in-law, Mae Brown, 27, Trina Mungan Road, Carrie Cohen, Ahi Arn. Funeral from there tomorrow at 10.30 a.m., for Raquia Mass at 11 a.m., in St. Patrick's Church in Ahi Arn. Interment afterward in the adjoining churchyard. Family time, please, from 11 p.m. tonight. The death has taken place of Barney Care, Bally Bow, Wrathmullen. Remains are reposing at his home. Funeral Mass this morning at 11 a.m., in St. Joseph's Church, Wrathmullen. Burial afterwards in Wrathmullen Cemetery. Funeral Mass can be viewed on mcnmedia.tv. Family time before the funeral this morning. The death has taken place of Nora Boyce, Pierre Road, Downings. Her remains are reposing at her late residence. Funeral from there this morning, going to the church of St. John the Baptist for Raquia Mass at 11 a.m., followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery. Family time, please, from 10 p.m. and before the funeral this morning. Family flowers only. Donations in lieu if desired. The Donegal Hospice, care of any family member. For more details, including any family health guidelines for wakes and funerals, please go to highlandridio.com. T-99 at Dunstores gets your pet a bag of pedigree dog food. At Aldi, only 9.24 gets your pet a larger bag of earls dog food. Plus mega tube bones, plus a sword of biscuit shapes, plus meaty beef strips, plus dental sticks, and tasty twists. And still have 4.75 left over. You won't just like more value, you'll love it. Aldi, every day amazing. Dunstores price checked on dunstoresgrocery.com 4th to the 4th, 23. Dunstores may sell equivalent owned brand products at lower prices. Details at aldi.ie forward slash swap. Exclusive offers, products and prices may vary. And, excuse me, you're very welcome back to the 9 till noon show. Good morning if you are just joining us. We had an interesting conversation in the first hour with Dr. Paul Armstrong on the issue of strepey, what we should be looking out for. If you missed that, you can listen back on the podcast on our website after 12, or you can watch back on YouTube or Facebook as well. Here's one for you. Maybe you might be able to help this listener. It's a toffee. It's not the most serious issue in the world, but it's one which comes around every now and again. And the question is simple, Greg. Can you ask listeners what amount of money is now given as a gift when attending a wedding? So how much do you put in a card if you're attending a wedding? Now, maybe there's different figures. Is there if you're going on your own, or if you're going with a partner? But let's presume you're invited to everything, okay? So the mass, the reception, the afters, all of it, right? So what would you put in the card if you were going on your own? What would you put in the card if you were going with someone else? What is the standard? Is it 150, 200? Is it one? I don't know. What do you think? No, 08, 6, 60, 25,000, that listener, obviously heading to a wedding and wants to know how much do you put in the card? Another caller says, Hi, Greg, just heard this morning, no more wearing of masks anymore in the hospitals. It's about bloody time, Greg. They were the biggest joke ever, came in, and it was the same with the COVID restrictions, but the city Irish believed everything and our government is laughing at us. That's what that caller believes. Now, I should point out, by the way, I don't know because we can't get confirmation of what the policy is at Lederkenny University Hospital. That's the guidance nationally, and I understand that each hospital can make their own decision whether or not to keep masks. Now, whether they can enforce it or not, I don't know, some people will be very happy if they do keep them to comply, others will not comply. So we don't know at this time what the plan is at Lederkenny University Hospital, our local hospital for this region here, but nationally there is the mandate, but I believe there is still discretion within each individual hospital. We'll get clarity on that for you. I'm sure many of you listening will have to visit the hospital in the not too distant future. A government surplus of 8 billion for 2022, yet we all continue to pay a universal social charge, a charge which was supposed to be a short-term measure to get us out of recession, yet here we are years later still paying it 16 billion next year. So I'm so shocked I can't get the words out of my mouth. I think it's, no, it's 10 billion this year. You're out there by, it was 8 billion for 2022. That's correct, yes. It's gonna be 10 billion for 23 and 16 billion for 24. So 8 and 10 is 18, 28, 34 billion surplus over three years. You know, again, how could we, we can't have a situation, can we, where anyone in this country is struggling for housing, for healthcare, for mental healthcare, for supports, for home helps, for carers. You know, we need to be spending more targeted money, not throwing money at things, because that's one of the big mistakes we make. But surely, if we have a surplus in excess of 30 billion over three years, this country should just be, the dream country, it should be the envy of the world in terms of a place to live. I call it says the government could look at spending some of that money on schools. My son recently got tested for dyslexia. It cost us 500 euro. We both work, but only getting by on what we earn. Absolutely no help. This country is a disgrace. I think maybe you might not, this helps at all, but you might be able to get some of that back through a tax rebate, I hope. But that's not the point of your text. How can this country be awash with money when we're still borrowing and our national debt is way over 200 billion, 44,000 euro per skull in this country it is. But listen, the national debt's the national debt. How much are we ever gonna try and write that down? Will we ever ever look at the national debt of the United States of America? It is unbelievable, trillions and trillions and they're literally printing money, hence the high inflation, which might not come down as quickly as it might elsewhere. I mean, are we ever gonna write down that national debt? I don't know, it's just gonna sit there. We're paying some of it off. We're gonna be paying interest in it. I would prefer to see this money now spent on what we can fix now, but each to their own. A caller says, I'd love to see the money being spent supporting nurses' guardie and 100% scheme, is there a survey on this? The survey's at the next election, the survey's when they come knocking at your doors, whoever it is, from whatever party, be it an established party, an incumbent, a new rural party, it doesn't make any difference. That's really, I suppose, where the survey is. But it'd be an interesting question, perhaps something we can throw upon our socials. I'd like to see all social welfare payments in vouchers. The kids would get it. Yeah, I understand the point you're trying to make there. And I don't think we should maybe confuse the actions of a few with what's happening right across the board. Back to responsible dog ownership or the lack thereof. A caller says dog owners should be more responsible for their own dogs, especially at lambing time. Just open the door and let the dogs out, especially pet dogs, should they not hurt anyone. Nobody ever claims responsibility. Sheep get very nervous with strangers about it, but dogs, they are terrified, gather up and away from danger. Mary's sheep will take a very long time, if ever, to get over that trauma. And we heard from Willie there in the first hour via email, he had a sheep kill and they never got over it. A caller says I had my smart meter installed. I originally wasn't going to, but did. I received a bill, I see no difference, it's the same as last year. That's kind of the reports I'm getting. There are signs up and around about saying resist them because people think that, and I'm not saying it wouldn't be the case that they could charge whatever they like and they could switch you off remotely and so on and so forth. Last Sunday, my wife and I went on our typical Sunday stroll to the port in Inver, which is beautiful. When we were approached by a pit bull and collie dog barking aggressively at us, thankfully they eventually left us, but we found their owners to be swimming in the sea without a care in the world. With no lead, all care for their dogs or other people on the beach. I was left stunned. We left early to avoid any confrontation. So the owners of the dogs went for a lovely dip, left their dogs on the beach, apparently untethered and they were barking aggressively at these people. And the owners seemingly swimming without a care in the world, like a scene from the beach movie, I'd imagine. But those people felt they had to leave early, which is not the way it should be, is it? We had also a contact from a listener who's they were okayed for the Susie Grant, okay? So their finances are such that they qualified for the Susie Grant. They couldn't afford to send their young person to college down south because of accommodation charges. So their student went to Northern Ireland and then they learned that the Susie Grant won't cover their child's expenses there. They're the young person's college fees and what have you. In other words, they're not entitled to the grant whilst they're studying in Northern Ireland. Lots of you text in with various solutions and I appreciate it. But just to get some more off the comments coming in on that, a caller says student loan fees are not means tested, student loans for fees. Okay, I get you. Because one of the suggestions where there are companies that will lend you the money and then you can pay it back when you start working. That's not for everyone though, but we appreciate the answer because I posed that question. Regarding Northern Ireland colleges, when we get the 1,000-year-old deduction on fees in the south last year, it was not honoured in the north. Northern Ireland fees are more expensive too. And I can't remember who I asked questions about this of. I think it might have been a government minister, the ones that still speak to me. But I'm not really quite sure their commitment was is that they knew it was happening and they were looking into it. I believe it was their response. A caller says, I had to get back surgery. So, due to the weight here, I decided to seek the cross-border initiative and I was granted this. I was told it would be 175 pounds, is that right? However, when I had an appointment with an ethicist, they told me, due to my heart condition and the lack of facilities, for example, no ambulance, to go to Altenegelven or even facilities in Belfast, I wouldn't be eligible for the surgery. They seemed to cherry-pick the fittest people for this and don't cater for those with underlying conditions. Now, I think there must be a digit missing from the... It's not 175 pounds, unless that was to go and see a consultant. Why is there opening owners at Ongrenia of Alja? It was open for thousands of years and it is a national disgrace that the OPW is taking it on. The OPW should be asked to categorise the number of instances of antisocial behaviour that occurred at Ongrenia. There's no electric power at the gates of Ongrenia of Alja, so automatic gates are not an option. But as I said in the programme yesterday when that was raised first, that is not a problem that could not be overcome. Greg, I want to support Councillor Paul Canning who was on your show yesterday in his play to keep the entrance to Ongrenia and Fort opened in the summer until 9pm. There were lots of people at the Fort on Sunday, asked a local person to lock the entrance at 9pm. That comes in from Kathleen Grant. Thank you. Another caller says, in a show in the Forgotten Jewel as far as Tourism Ireland is concerned, how do other heritage sites deal with insurance? That's just an excuse. In fairness to Tourism Ireland, it is the OPW that is setting the rules here. A caller says, you have to ring up and cancel your smart meter. That's what I've done and I had no bother. Check it. I would all, at this point, I'm going to check the cabinet, see what's in there. Why has the blood bank stopped going to Gridor? Dunlow, they are missing out on a lot of donations there. I'm not sure. I think they might be going there. We'll try and find out. They were in Donegal Town not so long ago. Then they're in Ishaun. I know they go to Ballet Buffet Stranawler and I know they go to Gridor. I'm not sure. Have they stopped it? When was the last time they were there? We can check it out for you. Can the hospital not prove that you were... This is in terms of getting treatment in the North. Can the hospital not prove that you were there for appointments or operation? I was told about coffee receipts. I thought, how sad we have to go down that line. The logical solution to that is that the hospital is the proof. A letter from the hospital saying that you were there. This notion of having to buy something in the locality or on the hospital grounds is ridiculous, really. It's embarrassing, but it seems to be the case. Back to smart meters. Greg, just in relation to the smart meter and the notice, I had a notice up on my meter stating I did not want a smart meter and I still have people knocking on my door insisting. I was on a list to get my meter replaced by the ESB, so I took action and rang them myself and I am now taken off the list just to save your call of a hassle. It is best to ring. Now, I think you've... And it's only a turn of phrase. Kept the walls from the door or perhaps maybe kicked the can down the road. The reality is, is that very soon, there'll be far more smart meters than they are the old analog meters and it will come to a point very soon that you will either go for a smart meter or lose your service. At the moment, they're doing it on a knocked out sort of a situation, they're going to install it unless they say no, but trust me, that's not going to last very much longer because the direction of traffic is to move to smart meters and once the majority have them and if we're not there already, we soon will be. You will be given a date in the future whereby you will have to accept a smart meter or lose service. So please, don't worry about that. Greg, I'm in my 17s and due to my age, I haven't a notion about technology. My own fault, I know it's not, it's fine. There's people much younger than you that haven't a notion about technology so please, don't worry about that. But they go on to say that the smart meter went away over my head. I rang the ESB, got no answer, so then wrote to them explaining this and could they maybe even give me a call to explain the concept of a smart meter. Instead, I got a leaflet with no written explanation addressing my concerns. When someone came to the door to install this, they themselves couldn't explain it either. I have no issue installing one. Should someone explain it to me? Well, we did have someone on explaining it and look, the whole idea is that, although it's not in place yet, that you have the smart meter attached to your house, you have a little unit inside the house and it tells you when you're using your electricity, it helps you track your electricity. This is the argument. But then I went through the rates. I went through the rates and it seems more expensive to have a smart meter. If you switch to a smart rate, it seems a disadvantage. You know what I mean? Plus the fact I don't really want to put on a washing machine, a dishwasher, a tumble dryer at nighttime because I wouldn't think it very safe. So for my brief analysis of it, having a smart, what do you might call it? You have the regular rate, the smart rate. Do you know what I mean? Where it's advantageous to use electricity at certain times, it did seem more expensive. The unit rate in general busy times was more expensive than the standard tariff that you might be on, if that makes sense. OK, I need to get my next guest on a show, which means going for a quick break. Stay where you are, and all many of you waiting for the bingo numbers and we'll be back shortly. 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 Wednesday, the 19th of April. You're playing on the blue sheet. The reference number is S18. It's game number 16. The numbers are 84, 44, 81, 52, 75, 68, 13, 35, 48, and finally, 88. Phone your claim to nine one zero four eight double three before eight tonight. Leaving your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day. Get all your NCBI Bingo information at HighlandRidio.com. Are you tired of unreliable and inefficient appliances? Upgrade to Bosch, the brand that delivers superior quality and performance. Plus, their advanced technologies and energy efficient features will save you money on your utility bills. Choose Bosch and experience the difference for yourself. Speak to our expert team now at Irwin Expert Electrical, Letter Kenny and Bon Kranah. The groom goes free. The groom goes free. Yes, you heard it. The groom's room. Evolve clothing, Letter Kenny retail park. The groom goes free. Call in today. Terms and conditions apply. The Ninetal Noon Show with Letter Kenny Credit Union. Now offering mortgages from 40,000 to 600,000 euro with no hidden fees or transaction charges. Letter Kenny Credit Union 9102127. OK, you're very welcome back to the Ninetal Noon Show. Now, I mean, I think everyone is aware there's a lot of negativity out there, isn't there? Or at least it feels things are very negative every which way you turn and listen, hands up. If you have a current affairs show as much as we try and bring light to the shade, often a lot of negative things are platformed on this show. It can feel overwhelming at times. I'm sure we've all felt that at some time or other. But perhaps maybe we can view things in a different light. Maybe Declan Coyle, founder of the Green Platform, might be able to help us. Good morning to you, Declan. Thanks for joining us. Good morning, Greg. It's a privilege and an honour. It's great to have you with us. Thank you. So what is the Green Platform, Declan? The Green Platform is a book at the moment which is a concept that I came up with, Greg, was that I say go back to the beginnings of it when I was doing my postgraduate studies in Ottawa. I met a great man there, a man called Victor Frankl. He was an Austrian psychiatrist who was tortured in Auschwitz during the Second World War. And he wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning. But he said in Auschwitz, he discovered the last and the greatest of the human freedoms. And that's our freedom to choose a response in any given set of circumstances. Now, that ability to choose, Greg, that was mind-blowing for me because I grew up in a farm in County Kavana. We had horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs, and all of that. But we also had handed down scripts from the 12th century, 14th century, 16th century. And I remember I was 22 at the time and I said, I just said, oh, he made me very angry. And Victor said, no, Declan, he did not make you angry. You are making a choice to be angry. And I still didn't get it. I said, no, Victor, you stop me. It's him, it's his fault. He's the one. No, he said, you are making a choice. And I still remember the feeling in my stomach, 22 years old, to discover that I had a choice. And I say things like, oh, that one, she really annoys me, you know? And he said, no, Declan, she is not annoying you. You are making a choice to be annoyed. It is a bad choice you are making. Was that a light bulb moment for you? That was the light bulb. And then watched him because I'm a very visual person myself, and I want you to bring this power to choose and give it a visual effect. So it was one day at lights, I saw reds for no, green for go. So subliminally, I said, okay, something happens in your life. You feel it, you honor it. You're emotionally honest. If it's tragedy, you cry the tears. If it's loneliness, you turn on the tap. If it's love, you love fully. But you honor your human experience. You don't pour pink positive paint over human suffering. That's denial. But you feel it, you honor it. And then we have a white space. And in that white space, we have Frankl's, the last and the greatest of the human freedoms. And I can choose a red platform, which is the victim, the queen, the whine, the moan, the complain, the poor me. And Greg, that's the home of the energy vampires. And you know these energy vampires, it's not their bad breath of their body odor. But my God, they're whinging, they're whining, they're moaning, they're complaining. And they suck the energy out of you like a vacuum cleaner. Or I can go back to my white space and I can choose the green platform. I can choose with the 10 most powerful words in the English language. If it is to be, it is up to me. I choose peace. I choose joy. I choose to be happy. And... But Dan, just before we dig a little bit deeper into that, though, I just think, I think to some extent we, even if we had resilience, everything around us is almost chipping that resilience away. I think we have generations coming through that resilience isn't really taught at all, actually. Everything is just the path of least resistance in life. And that doesn't help us because then when things start getting very real, you know, we don't have the equipment to deal with it. So my point of saying that to you is that many of us will approach the lights. You see green and red and you can make your choices, right? But I think there's a stage that has to be gotten through before you can differentiate between the colour of those lights, if that makes sense, in that it's like wishing to run a marathon, but you can't get off the couch to make that first step. For some, they can just jump off the couch, do the 5K and work on from there. So what do we need to be doing in ourselves to actually be able to have the clarity of thought to see the green and red lanes? You know, I would say, Greg, that it all comes down to awareness. And you know, if I am awake and aware and alert, then I can see that this is a bad choice. This is a good choice. But the problem, like you've outlined there, is like me in Ottawa, was that I was unconscious. I was asleep. I didn't know I had a choice. And it was, you know, and it was the conditioning brought up in that. And resilience, I got, we got a great talk in the states last June from a man called Eric Wehenmere. He's a blind man who climbed Everest. And he said to us, he said, what if adversity wasn't your enemy? What if adversity was your pathway to true greatness? And that was an insight that we all hit adversity. And it's almost automatically we go on the red platform and we quench our mind. But if we saw this because in life, Greg, it's not the moment in front of me that's bothering me. It's, I'm bothering myself about the moment in front of me. It's not the weather that's bothering me. I'm bothering myself about the weather. And if I could get, and I remember Victor said to me, he was frustrated with me because I couldn't get it. And he said, Declan, Declan, why not you get it? Why not you get it? I said, Victor, I'll tell you why not I get it. It's because of my mother. Your mother, he says, you're like the American. You blame your mother, he says. I said, yeah, because there were six of us in our family. If it was a rainy day, we'd be in the room, we'd be messing, we'd be playing football and everything. And my mother came in and said, stop that, carry on. Now you're making me very angry. No, it never occurred to me, Greg, to say, Mammy, that's a very poor decision you're making now because there'd be the tactile response. So we're conditioned in that way. But once we get awareness, then everything changes. OK, so can I give you probably a real life scenario so our listeners can help understand how you might apply this and then we'll go through it a little bit more, right? So you're living day to day, OK? Things are very, very tight. You get paid on a Friday or you get money on a Friday, your money runs on a Wednesday and you're driving along and your engine goes. You're on the side of the road, you've got no money to fix that engine. Things are as bad as they could possibly be and now they're compounded because you've got two children in the back. You don't know how you're going to get them to football, which you've probably stopped going out to facilitate them going to football. So is there a way, I mean, can you employ a system that makes you react in a positive way to that, if you know what I mean? So how do you apply this theory or this practice and what type of a situation and what would be the outcome of it? Well, there's three steps, Greg, we bring in the green platform. The formula I use is acceptance. That's the first step because we create and manufacture most of our suffering through our resistance and non-acceptance of life as it is. Like a man from Kerry phoned me last week and he said, I said, well, how are things going? You just moved to Kerry. He says, I didn't have the week I wanted. No, I said, but you had the week you got. So it's that non-acceptance. So we bring acceptance to it. Now, acceptance, Greg, on its own can degenerate into indifference or apathy. So we must add then plus pan, plus positive action now. Pan is an easy way to remember. Plus pan, plus positive action now. And after 25 things, what one positive thing can I do? Because, Greg, it is as it is. I cannot un-is it. The situation is as it is. Whatever chance I have of changing it or bringing a positive attitude to it, I have none at all if I scream and shout and bang the car and kick it. So is it to say that, so it helps you deal with the situation and makes it more tolerable perhaps, but obviously there's realities that it's not going to fix. It's going to make the experience more tolerable and maybe you can see a solution better if you're in a better frame of mind. I'm not putting words in your mouth, you're the expert in this regard, but clearly it's not going to magic the engine to work again. But it helps us to deal with it and find a solution. Is that the way it works then? Yeah, that if we're in this camp-centred space inside, I have a much better chance of coming up with a better choice to make it, and then what happens, Greg, is once we take that first step, the whole universe conspires with us to make it happen. That's the third step. I'll give an example. We have a special needs child here, Alexander. He's 18, he has Maud Wilson syndrome. He is on 35 medications a day. He has scoliosis, he's tube-fed, and he's doubly incontinent and all of that. Okay, now, three years ago or so, the government and the HSE took away his medical card and a terribly cruel medical card call of all the terminally ill children in the country. So I brought the formula to that. Acceptance, the card is gone. It is as it is. Now I can sit on my hands and whine and whinge and moan and play the victim. Or else I can plus pan, plus positive action out. What one positive thing can I do to change the situation? So I was doing some emails, and I wasn't too good at Facebook at the time, but a proper picture of Alexander and the story on Facebook. And that night got a call from a journalist. We had a two-page spreading news paper the next day. But we started a campaign 42 days. At the end of the campaign, Minister for Health had the resign, Minister for Education had the go. They had the Labour Party went. And all the terminally ill children got their medical cards back. But it all started from acceptance. It is as it is. The card is gone. Plus pan, plus what positive action to do. And then the whole universe conspired with us to get the cards back because we got interviews. We got Saturday night show with Brendan O'Connor. We got, we had 17 newspaper articles, 16 radio interviews, and six television interviews. But that all came from those four steps. If I sat on my hands, played the victim, blamed the government, I'd be whinging whining moaning forever. And the beauty of the green platform is that it was born in Auschwitz. It was Viktor Frankl where he said they killed 39 members of my family. But every day he said I made a choice to be happy. Because first thing in the morning he said, that I made a choice to be happy. Now they could break my body. They could torture me. They could do operations in my genitals, he said. But they couldn't touch my spirit. And that choice I made every day. And my car is broken down on the side of the road. I can whinge and whine and moan and kick the car, or I can choose inner peace. Do you believe everybody has that ability? Sorry, I beg your pardon, Declan. Do you believe everybody has that ability within them, though? Absolutely. 100%. I had a lady who was like, she's in her 70s. She was in a few weeks ago. She was in a terrible way. And she had tried all kinds of psychology and psychiatry and all the rest. But she was miserable. And she said, can I get the green platform? So I signed the copy and gave it to her. Three weeks later, Greg, she sent me a little handwritten wobbly note. Thank you for the green platform. I am now living a life I never dreamed possible. Now, if she can do it, Greg, any of us can do it because we go to stories. If you go on the red platform, you see an event has no meaning. A situation has no meaning. A fact has no meaning. Unless I make up a story in my head about it. So I'm the interpreter, the meaning maker, the storyteller. So my question to people is, why? Why when something happens, do you make up a story on the red platform that makes you feel bad, like this is a disaster, with a septic tank of sabotage underneath that platform, when you can make up a story like on the green platform, like this is a great opportunity. So like anger, frustration, they're not necessarily negative emotions though, because obviously you would be very angry, you'd be very upset, you'd be very frustrated about the case that you talked of, but you focus that to campaign. So you're not saying that you have to be happy about everything. I mean, I presume negative emotions are okay. We can't fight those. It's what you do with them. As I say, I don't want to paraphrase it, but I'm just trying to make sure we all better understand. Is that what you're saying? I'm sure you feel angry and frustrated and what have you at times, Declan. Oh, you're absolutely right. You see, that's why I'll go back to the beginning, that this is not about repression. It's about you have a feeling, you feel it. I would imagine, great, we've talked to Mother Teresa one time, when she saw the people dying on the sides of the street and killed cottage, she got very angry. But then she channelled the anger into building the house of the dying. So anger is, and I wouldn't, like you feel angry, like I remember in a former life, I was a club and missionary priest out in the Philippines, and in slum there, I remember the last 90 days, I checked the funeral book, I buried 65 children, under two years old, all died from hunger, hunger-related diseases. And I had a debrief from a Jesuit, Dennis Murphy from New York, and he, like, he, I done all sorts of projects, like Grameen Banks Co-operatives, Credit Unions, and, you know, Hen Projects, Pig Projects, Fish and Projects, all of that. And he praised me to the heights, but then he said, Greg, he said, after these five years, are you a happier, more creative, more vital, more innovative person, are you more angry and bitter and resentful? And I attacked him, Greg, I said, Dennis, did you hear a single thing I told you? I just told you, I buried 65 children who died from hunger in a world full of food. Of course, I'm more angry and bitter and resentful. What do you expect? Happy, clappy, all's well. Well, I have news for you, Dennis, all is well, not well, and I am not happy. And he paused for a minute, and this is the other beginning of the green platform. He said, Declan, if you're coming back to this slum, bring the people joy or bring them nothing, because the last thing they need is another serious long-faced, miserable, cranky missionary priest working for justice and peace. The end must be prefigured in the means. You must live the utopia you're talking about. If I want a Mercedes Benz from you, you cannot give it to me because you haven't got it. If I want an earpiece from you, you cannot give it to me because you haven't got it. And he said, you still don't get the gandy thing. And I said, what is the gandy thing? Be the change you want to see in the world. And he said, how many years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years of justice, of food, in Latin America, in Asia, in Africa, because you get before you can decide to be happy. Are you going to be? So that put the kibosh on my anger, Greg. Okay. And you are making a presentation or presenting a motivational talk and people have got a good sample of that now, I think, on the show this morning. It's St. Crohn's Church Done Low. It's tonight, actually, at 7pm and it's open to everyone, is it, Declan? That's right. It's open to everyone. And Father Johnny Moore has organized it there. And we have Michael Maloney, the great Johnny Gall singer, is opening it and he's a beautiful song that he has written about people who are facing challenges in their lives and about to sum it up, Michael was singing about the purpose of life is to live a life of purpose. And that's Michael's message. So he's open it and he's closing it. And he's an incredible singer. So I am honored to have a man like that book-ending the presentation, Greg. Okay. And it's at St. Crohn's Church Done Low tonight at 7pm. And you'll be able to hear more from Declan and the Green Platform and how it might be able to benefit you. Thank you for your time this morning. So we're nice listening to you. Thank you, Greg. My privilege again. Take care. Goodbye. Have a lovely day. That might not resonate with everyone, but it may resonate with some. And if you're interested in that, as I say, St. Crohn's Church Done Low starts at 7pm. Declan is a renowned speaker, by the way, and he's going to concentrate on resilience to life's pressures, giving us hope and help in seeking a positive way through life's problems. All is welcome and Michael Malone, as you heard there, book-ending. And by the way, bring a cushion with you if you want to sit on, because it's pews and you might want to be comfortable. So bring a cushion. All right, we'll be back with more on The Ninetill Noon Show shortly. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com. 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For all your denture needs, call Dunneagall Denture Clinic on 9 1 25 25 3 online at dunneagalldentureclinic.ie Connelly's Volkswagen Letter Kenny, your only official Volkswagen passenger and commercial vehicle dealer for County Dunneagall. Pop in to visit our showroom on Canal Road Letter Kenny. Speak to them of our friendly team Book a test drive on 074-912-3233 or check out our full new and used range at connelly's.ie Right, the Road Traffic and Roads Bill 21 set to go before the Cabinet before being signed into law in the coming weeks paving the way for the use of shared electric scooter schemes in Irish towns and cities while also setting rules for private electric scooter use. A lot of people, perhaps even the Guardian and other road users are waiting for this with baited breath. Ashlyn Dunne is head of Public Policy in Ireland with Bolton joins us now. Hi, Ashlyn. Hi, thanks very much for having me. Right, so what can we look forward to into the future post this legislation being enacted? Well, the expectation is that within a couple of months of the legislation being enacted, the regulations will be released by the department, so the minister will sign them into law and these regulations will give much more detail and be more specific about what you can and cannot do on a scooter and what type of scooters you can use and we'll really clear up a lot of this ambiguity and kind of uncertainty that surrounds the use of scooters at the moment. And what's Bolt's role in all of this? Well, I suppose as an operator across most of Europe we provide e-bikes and e-scooters along with a range of other shared transport modes and we would like to start providing those e-scooters in towns and cities in Ireland. At the moment we provide e-bikes in Slago and Kilkenny and we will also be providing them in Bray and Wexford in the coming weeks. So these are kind of shared bikes that you can use for 10, 15 minutes to connect you from one part of the town or city to the other, maybe connect you into your transport links so that you can then get a bus or train and so we'd like to be able to do that on a more widespread basis and also be able to provide scooters. The thing with the scooters is and I'm not being negative right I'm quite an early adopter of things but I was in Brussels recently and what I witnessed was not an awful lot of people on scooters right but scooters abandoned everywhere and I'm not being, I'm not one to sort of exaggerate, I'm on about places for scooters to go but they were literally just abandoned on their sides across footpaths and all that type of stuff I'm not sure if Boltz involved in that are responsible for that but like I presume that's not how they're ordinarily used is Brussels an outlier in that regard because it was chaos. Absolutely and I think that's totally a fair observation I've noticed it myself so it depends on cities so some cities have very strict rules about how the scooters can be parked and some don't and where there aren't strict rules people tend to go literally to the door of the place they want to go to and then just abandon it right on the path outside and it's pretty inconsiderate but I guess if there are no guidelines or rules in a city people tend to you know take the easiest option. What I think will happen in Ireland and certainly what we'll be proposing is that we have virtual parking bays for e-scooters in the same way that we do for e-bikes in Sligo you might be familiar with it and we have 51 locations across Sligo town where you have to be to start and finish your journey and geofencing controls it you're not allowed to finish your journey you can't stop paying for it unless you drop it into one of those 51 locations and so by doing that we're dictating to a certain extent and we're removing a tiny bit of the convenience because you can't bring it straight to your front door but what we're doing is ensuring that people can just abandon e-bikes or e-scooters on the footpath we don't have the kind of footpaths that maybe they do in some other European cities that are you know five meters wide and maybe a scooter left lying on the side isn't going to hold people up. In Ireland the size of our footpaths mean that that will create a hazard for other road users for pedestrians, people in wheelchairs, buggies it's just something that we are so it's an outlier I get you and that makes sense as you're saying you recognize it might be slightly less convenient but people are adaptable do we have the infrastructure for e-scooters e-bikes I mean Sligeltown kind of lends itself reasonably well I think to that I'm not sure how I might let her Kenny or other towns around the region so do could you hit the ground running or scootering for that matter like do you believe that our towns do they require a specific infrastructure not the one that you might put in place I'm on about the way the roads are laid out cycle lanes so on so forth. Yeah I mean there's a body of work to be done in general to get Ireland to you know a higher standard and probably you know on a par with some of our European neighbors in terms of cycle lanes and cycle infrastructure and even you know how they're dealt with the traffic lights you know rights of way there is definitely more work to be done but we are on a good path there has been a lot of investment in this area the government is committed to it and we're seeing improvements you know kind of on a monthly basis so would we like to see more of it would it make the service even more enjoyable for users more likely to get more people out of their private cars and onto scooters and bikes yes and is it sufficient as it is at present to get going yes but it's certainly something that we'd like to see more of and there is an element of chicken and egg because the more people who use kind of these shared modes or light electric modes like e-scooters e-bikes the more likely it is that councils and national government will invest in infrastructure to support it but then also sometimes chicken and egg I can't get to you yet you can't launch it until you have better bike lanes and I presume Baltas has submitted something to the government in this regard so what do you see is the right way forward would you favour it controlled to operators like yourselves you know or broadened out so because we have to figure out rights if people are on the road who's liable who's covering what's the story with insurance you might argue that you use consult all that out but you could end up with 100 people up and down the streets of letter Kenny and Sligo on scooters so what do you think how do you think this plays out or what would you like to save that matter I think how it plays out is that both private scooter use and kind of public shared scooter schemes will be allowed under the new regulations and I think that's right because there are an awful lot of people who have their own private scooters however I do think there is a benefit to the shared schemes because as you mentioned there is insurance there are safety measures that we can put in place that can't be put in place for a privately owned scooter so I think an emphasis should be on the shared schemes because they both have a greater level of control in terms of age restrictions insurance and you know putting in features such as testing at night cognitive reaction testing so between the areas of midnight and 6 a.m. we make sure that if anyone's going to use our bikes or our scooters they pass the test on the app to show that they haven't been drinking alcohol just that they're mentally able for it so there are a lot of things that the shared schemes can control to make it a safe reliable sustainable service and so I'd like to see an emphasis on that I don't think for the big cities you would want to see only one operator I think you'd want to see two three maybe four operators so that there's good competition for the smaller kind of towns regional towns it might be better for it only to be one operator and do you think we will see these in the small regional towns I wonder because I mean obviously you go to Galway Court Dublin you know you go into Sligo because you know you want to say you're in the north west as well right do you actually see this being do you think the the letter Kennes and Bonkranas and similar sized towns these are like 5,000 population towns 15,000 population towns and letter Kenny's much more than that of course do you see scooters or shared scooter schemes being enormous sites of that size and it is definitely the million dollar question it's something that we grapple with internally obviously these things you know can't run at a loss and if you're a very small town it's hard for a company to justify rolling out a scheme did someone say subsidies well now that you mentioned well no I suppose that is that is one of the issues and it's something that we won't know until these schemes get live how popular will they be will they be able to wash their face will it be something that if presumably you need a certain level of a residential population don't you because you're not going to pick up a scooter presumably a kilometer or two kilometers out of town and scoot into town so you need to have a certain level of internal traffic no you do need to have a certain level of internal traffic but actually that description that you just gave is sort of like a park and ride and it's something that we are doing in Sligo with the e-bikes so having a park on the outskirts of town and then having the e-bike station there so like you know there's issues with congestion there's issues with having to pay for parking all day and so that idea of the park and ride is something that does work for a lot of towns and cities as well we've a lot of TBCs here I presume organizations like your own are looking for a plan here a time frame some clarity even just simply for planning purposes and as you quite really just yourselves there are other players in the game I'm sure is that really why you do this sort of random media talk to try and ensure that the government gives us something to work with here yeah I mean we're engaging with the Department of Transport and the Road Safety Authority and the NTA regularly trying to understand what's coming how we can plan first I suppose and there seems sometimes in the media a lot of confusion sometimes people say scooters are illegal it passed legislation that hasn't happened yet but it is coming and you know people kind of maybe don't understand what the the kind of process is so that's really why we're engaging with the media this week is just to try and raise awareness about the process and also as you say start planning and start encouraging councils and cities and people who live in these areas to think about what they'd like to see and start engaging on it because once the legislation is here what we'd really like to see is then movement if these schemes are going to be rolled out that it's done relatively speedily ultimately I would say that we won't see them in our towns and cities this year it will be early next year before these kind of schemes have been rolled out but we'd like to see some momentum once we finally have the legislation to do it what's the average cost of a ride on one of these across your sort of networks so at the moment in Ireland on our e-bikes and we expect our scooters to be similar but obviously things could change over the 6 to 12 months but at the moment it's 18 cent per minute and we've no unlock fee so if you're on it for 10 minutes which our average journey is between 10 and 12 minutes and looking at about 180 there are day passes I get you but that's just the basic okay it's interesting I'm really fascinated to see how all this unfolds and I hope we have the capability to do something like this I sometimes wonder do we all just get caught up in why it can't work rather than focusing on why possibly it can but anyway that's not for me to decide it's been lovely chatting to you Ashley thanks very much and I was supposed to get to you a little bit earlier but things ran over I appreciate your patience okay nice to talk to you too that's Ashley and Don head of public policy in Ireland with Bolt BOLT there's a few things that the likelihoods that might come from new legislation actually you know what because we've talked about it in the past after the news 11 I might run through some of those in terms of you know who might need insurance who's likely one age all that kind of stuff I'll do that actually after the news Restex beds has everything you need for a good night's sleep visit them today and sleep better tonight why did I choose Ulster? I wanted a university who could give me the biggest possible future but also the best possible time now somewhere I could make friends and have good crack but also to set me up for the best job possible I'm planning to take up one of the study abroad options and then my big plan is to specialise in media law in LA but for now N.I. has one of the lowest student living costs in the UK night markets here I come learn why over 30,000 students choose Ulster at ulster.ac.uk slash go north apply N.I. for this September are you looking for good value on a used car? at iMotors and Letter Kenny and Malin you can choose from over 150 cars all fully serviced with NCT and Warranty we can even arrange your finance within one hour view our stock at iMotors.ie the Caribbean sail from Crete to Corsica soak in Santorini sunsets dine on the shores of the Indian Ocean stroll through cobbled streets for hidden gems or bring the little ones to a magical wonderland trust the award winning Atlantic travel to guide your next adventure step through our doorway to the world Atlantic travel Letter Kenny Highland video weather updates to the world Atlantic travel flight with Aerlingus on their new daily service to London Heathrow and connect onwards to 80 plus destinations worldwide including New York and Boston Ireland West Airport don't just take off take it easy ok today we'll be rather cloudy with sunny spells improving later in the day mainly dry with the chance of an isolated shower highest temperatures of 11 to 12 degrees a much better day tomorrow though with With all the stories that matter across the Northwest. It's Greg Hughes on the 90 noon show on Highland radios Stay tuned another busy hour for you on the way. But first, let's get a news update and it's good morning now to Donna Marie Dougharty Thanks, Greg. Good morning The CEO of Kelly bags fishermen's organization has called the ongoing delay of compensation for polygic fishermen impacted by brexit scandalous a loss of 18 million euro was seen in 2022 alone in Mackinac Coral exportations due to the smaller quotas Sean O'Donoghue says without financial support 1,100 jobs could be lost in the next 10 years The doll has been told that there are over 7,000 vacant homes in Dunnegull many of them in the possession of banks Deputy Podrick McLaughlin said it's not enough that just one vacant homes officer is being appointed by Dunnegull County Council to address the issue a Letter Kenny farmer has made an online appeal for information After 21 sheep have been stolen from land in Nockie Brinn John Russell says seven yos and 14 lambs were stolen between Sunday the 9th of April and the early hours of Saturday morning last The animals were marked with blue numbers on the side from 18 into the 40s and have black markings on their back Gowdy have been contacted in relation to the incident Dunnegull County Council has issued an orange fire danger notice in respect of gorse heather dried grasses and other vegetation It will remain in place until Saturday evening Dunnegull County Council is urging landowners and members of the public to take all necessary measures to prevent the occurrence of wildfires And report any unattended fires immediately A Ross Common Galway TD has called on rural independence to join together and create their own political party Michael Fitzmarts has accused the government parties of not properly representing voters outside of towns and cities He also warned rural Ireland that it's not just farmers, but it's all kinds of different people in lots of individual communities And finally companies are struggling to attract staff due to the housing crisis Enterprise Ireland is warning the shortage of homes is a major concern for businesses who want to hire workers Client companies it supports already employ over 200,000 employees, but they have an ambition to create 45,000 new jobs by 2024 That's all for now. We'll be back again with more headlines at 12 o'clock until then. Good afternoon. Good morning. Donna Marie That's two days in the row It's still the morning. Still the morning. I know you've been up since the crack of dawn Thanks so much. Yeah, Donna Marie Oh, Kido. Right coming up, uh, we have David Foley of the natural way He's joining us as part of our wellness wednesday feature We're going to have a conversation about alternative remedies. Okay So if you have any questions for David, please get in touch right now on alternative remedies to 08 6 60 25 000 08 6 60 25 000 or give us a call on 07 4 9 1 25 000. So I mentioned just before the break what's likely to happen in relation to to scooters Once this legislation is passed. Okay, so some of the quick key questions. What might Uh, a maximum speed be they think about 25 kilometers per hour or lower in Designated busy areas. It's unclear if the government's going to impose an age restriction on The use of an e-scooter, but most operators Do not allow under 18s on them It's expected that they will be banned from paths and pavements So you'll only be permitted to use Any scooter or a bike on an electric bike on in a bike lane where they exist or on the road So you possibly could see these scooters going up and down your local main street, but not on the footpaths It's unlikely that you'll have to wear a helmet, but it would be recommended In terms of insurance What the expectation is is that private electric scooters will not be required to have insurance But will be personable personally liable for damage or injuries that they cause I don't know how that works, but that's what they expect Insurance is ordinarily included in the rental fee for the shared scooter schemes that we talked of before the 11 o'clock news Users will not be required. It's expected to have a license to operate an electric scooter However, they will need to adhere to the rules of the road Breaking the rules of the road. What are the potential Consequences for scooter users once this legislation is passed, which is not yet by the way following regulations And improper and or dangerous use of an electric scooter It's believed will likely result in a fine and in terms of parking What's the story there? Well, it's likely to vary across the various council areas But mandatory virtual parking locations will likely be required in urban areas to ensure controlled and orderly Parking so that's what's expected when this legislation is finally passed. Okay We were talking yesterday to mary who lost sheep due to a dog attack We're going to be talking about sheep losses of a different kind, but as important after the break The 90 noon show is brought to you by letter. Kenny credit union with monster loans available up to 60 000 euro for all occasions Visit letterkennycu.ie Attention all pet lovers and owners gary's pet world letter Kenny is open seven days per week Offering the very best value on all pet foods accessories grooming and care products Call in and let our staff help you spoil your pet today You will be amazed by the range of product for all pets with exceptional value on all leading brands Alternatively, you can browse and buy online at petworld.ie And we will deliver to your home To mark their 45th anniversary grow furnishings have everything reduced in their sale There's a large selection of X display suites beds mattresses dining sets and occasional furniture All greatly reduced with many items half price or less The sale you know is genuine is now on a grow furnishings Your local easy living store and kill toy rolled letter Kenny dunny gold denture clinic letter Kenny Denture problems we can help at dunny gold denture clinic We customize personalize and tailor your dentures to suit you call us for a free consultation on 9 1 25 25 3 find us at ballet rain letter Kenny beside rossum college medical cards welcome For all your denture needs called dunny gold denture clinic on 9 1 25 25 3 online at dunnygoldentureclinic.ie Join robert missel on friday the 21st of april at mamellan country in oma Early dancing to dj steven daherty from 9 p.m. And robert missel on stage from 11 p.m. through to 1 a.m Admission 14 pounds payable on the door overnight stay options available directly from the hotel Contact 028 8161224 There's something special about clayton hotels It's it's me The way they treat me wherever I stay whatever I need Because their focus is always on me And you know what when you visit a clayton hotel their focus will be on you too Unless i'm there of course Save on every room every night when you click on clayton at clayton hotels dot com Clayton hotels our focus is always you Okay, uh, john russell's been the victim of a significant crime um 21 Sheep seven news and 14 lambs stolen from land at knocky brinn just outside letter kenny and hopefully through the power of The media john will get them back john good morning to you. Thanks for talking to us Morning greg. I mean this must have come as a shock. Is this the first time you've been hit like this? No, it's not the first unfortunately It's not the first day of been hooked. There was a few sheep taken from the same farm Back, I would say we're not sure obviously I mean sometime between november and we scanned in january When we done the scanning numbers we just we knew we were 10 sheep short at that stage But when we thought When through this the motions again, but never heard nothing about it sunson the neighbors He lost five around the same time as well I mean, they're obviously somebody in the area or somebody in as as Put their hands in places. They shouldn't be Describe to us where knocky brinn is because it's a townland and everyone might not know where it is john Yes, if you go up past where the old unify was up that road and It's just between there and the what they were the the old woodland school would have been Yeah, um up that that area basically that's kind of Said a letter kenny So when uh, do you think uh, your sheep were stolen now this would be a significant enough operation Do we but suspect that maybe your neighbor lost his at the same time, uh, john Well back in november time and around that time he was he he was missing a few sheep at that stage like you know Right, but but I mean Basically last saturday morning My cousin gave me a ring to say there was sheep on a it was a kind of a big long lead up to this farm Said there was sheep going down past her house that worked on the road So I went up straight away And I met seven yos and 13 lambs are are on the lane So I mean I opened a gate at the bottom to let them into the fields And I went on up the end to see where they'd come out of so there's a gate up kind of behind her house up the top of the lane Um, it's always tied with a kind of a big card rope And I mean the ropes it's just it's a loop rope So I mean somebody physically had to take it off but that gate was open right and Basically I says right, okay, so there's more I knew there was more sheep in the farm So we've lucked the whole farm and there's no sheep on anywhere else So obviously they're gone with the all around I mean seven yos and 14 am just don't wonder They're a big enough number you'd see them anywhere But there's there's no sheep in the vicinity and I mean obviously you don't count sheep every day There's cattle in the field too. You might take a look at the cattle, but uh The last time that we've seen would have been the sunday before But there was a lot of rain last weekend. So it's very hard to see tear tracks and stuff like that So I would have Satisfied like because there have been appeals in the past where they did end up in a neighbor's farm or something You're you're satisfied that these sheep and lambs didn't wonder off Her land is fenced round and round. It's well fenced What kind of uh, a vehicle would be required uh to move I'm trying to trigger any memories for people from last saturday morning You're talking a cheap and so you're talking a cheap and trailer like the long trailer probably Double axel Or somewhere a van or something some kind of a machine like you know, um I mean the problem is suppose greg is the modern day sheep now you rattle a bag And they'll Yeah, you know, it doesn't it used to be say you needed a good dog to round up sheep But now you think if you just have a good bag The sheep will fall in somebody gets behind them and push them out of there You're gone in two or three minutes, right? So the um, they were numbered because it's lambing season, of course Yeah, they're numbered on the side from 18 Into the 40s the numbers are in blue And they also black on their backs as well. So relatively distinctive back in the back. Yeah Yeah, they're pretty distinctive all right here. They're standing there. They were good. They were good There's very good lambs from the beginning. They were born All those sheep would have been born from the 20th of march to the 20th of march And that started at this point the good big strong lambs awesome And good good kind of stuff like across texaly owls. I was kind of surely texal lams You know that they stand out pretty well Do you believe john uh, and if you're in the farming community you've talked to other farmers that have been victims of this crime And you were yourself. What do you think happens to the sheep? It's very easy to switch out tags and all that type of stuff And it's not hard to get your hand on tags either Do you think they're down the country somewhere across the border? Do you think they'll be offered for sale locally? Or what do you suspect if you can anything? Yeah, I reckon somebody has to be moving them somewhere because I mean like A lot of the march and dunny galls all online now So I mean and I would buy a lot of sheep online and march and stuff like that and you'd be watching a lot of march and They don't come up that easily You'd kind of notice what's happening You see most of us happening them, but I know a lot of sheep going lorries and stuff but I mean to me somebody is Somebody's moving them down the country. They're moving on to the north or jump on the border doing something You know, they have to have a way out for them. Yeah, I mean this is obviously listen You've had stuff stolen. No one wants anything stolen, but a lot of work has gone into Getting them to this point a lot of your money has been spent and a lot of money in terms of sales now Has been lost as well. I mean, this is a significant hit to your I mean, you're a farmer, but in being a farmer You're a businessman. John. This is a big hit to you Yeah, yeah That's a two grand for this one. Like, you know, that's a lot There's not a lot of money and to me made out of sheep full stop in the story Like, you know and T2 and you there's a lot of work with them for maybe sometimes not as much reward as you would like but, uh, you know It was it was well that you feel it kind of violated to a certain degree You know, someone has taken your stuff like, you know, and you're always watching and looking around you to see You know, did you mess anything? Did you do anything wrong? Is there something? You know and then the you didn't someone else did something wrong, but you're the victim Right. So when do you think they were taken John just again to try and trigger any memories people might have? I would say I don't know. I would say it sometime between I would say the ninth and the 12th and around that time because I mean I say There seemed to be a lot of track the rain kind of took away a lot of but there's a lot of rain last week all week Like, you know, uh, so sometime around that say the gate the sheep that were there had come out of the gate on the 15th anyway, so at that stage So sometime between the ninth and the 15th, but I would say maybe It could have been a couple nights before for that matter I guess you John and when the last time and and people would have noticed a vehicle that can pull a reasonably sized trailer that you can get 20, you know, seven seven sheep 14 lambs Yeah, and I mean like those vehicles are commonplace on the road Greg because you know, like, you know, you don't pass I mean we drive one or two of them here and like you don't pass on their marks to a jeep and trailer run around You know, it's just on the elephant. It's just on the off chance. Who's to say um, and when you lost your When you lost your livestock for uh, a couple of months ago No luck. I presume you were eagle eyed at mart somewhat. Have you there was no luck? They were lost Yeah, maybe they would have been harder actually to move easier moved along because you know, they were just a single You they could have you could have got the way that fact they're got the way as fat yous are Physically, but to me these would be harder to to shift because they're the yos and lambs if they're going as units They'll be easier spotted. Okay, and they're suffix cross and texel Or charlie lambs as well too for those in the know, they'll know what to look out for listen John I hope you get them back. Uh, we're hearing this all too often It's enough of a challenge being a farmer at the moment, but between dog attacks and People stealing sheep and other livestock It's just one thing after another you get in every direction Yeah, seems to be a ton of it. All right, unfortunately All right, take care of yourself. John. I hope there's some success coming from this, but they could be in any county in Areland at this stage. All right, take care of yourself. Right. Bye. Bye. That's john rossel there He lost his sheep from uh, knocky brin just outside letter. Can he up past the old unify there? In case someone spotted something right, okay Uh, david foley of the natural way is going to be joining us very very shortly We're going to be talking a little bit about alternative remedies if you have any questions For uh, david get in touch with us. So wait six 60 25 000. This is just to help you. It's not a an alternative to uh Traditional medicines that how you describe it. It's just what might be able to help you Right wedding cards. Remember we asked a listener. We asked a listener a little earlier on Or we asked on behalf of a little or a listener earlier on how much you put in a card and you Responded thank you morning. Greg. I'd put a hundred euro into a card. It's more than enough in my opinion My friend is here beside me having a cup of tea whilst we listen and she says i'm cheap that she put in 200 into a card What about 150 have another cup of tea and uh say will 150 uh be agreeable for you. Thank you Uh, what's the name of the book the man you had on there referred to about his experiences in Auschwitz Man's search for me by victor franklin is the name of the book man's search for me In relation to smart meters. Greg you stated in the future. We'll all have to get smart meters in personally I feel everyone should have the right to choose We shouldn't feel pushed into getting something into our household that we do not want I get you but I think it's going to be a little bit like You know Wanting your phone calls to be delivered to you on copper cable like you might want that But unfortunately if you do and you know no one's going to have a big opinion on that It's probably not going to happen because everything's being switched to fiber, isn't it? Uh, Greg my three daughters had a traffic Accident on the dual carriageway last night a doctor had stopped on the scene to see if they were okay And if they needed assistance He just finished a night shift at out in the gulf and hospital and was so accommodating and kind to my girls With all the chaos we didn't catch his name or a chance to properly thank him If by lucky happens to be listening I wanted to say thank you very much. So that doctor may well be If they were coming off a night shift May still be within earshot if you are Your intervention with these this listeners three daughters is greatly appreciated They wish they had your name. They don't and they just want to Thank you Right, we've carried out river restoration projects on salmon spawning which have great results Okay, that's someone who's obviously oh it's actually from the mill river conservation group. Thanks very much for that Let me see David fold is going to be joining us right now. I mentioned that didn't I very shortly Greg there is nothing wrong with being angry. It's a feeling aren't we always told to embrace those feelings? Yes, and I don't think our guest was suggesting otherwise what he's saying and I recognize it's not for everyone that you challenge those feelings um into positivity Needs to be preached to football spectators and players abusing refuge Referees, yeah, okay um Maybe I don't think that's going to work. Okay What I'm going to do now is listen. Thank you so much for all your comments I'm going to get to them before the end of the show as much as I can But I don't want to keep David waiting because he's of natural way And he's going to be joining us after this break to talk about alternative remedies So if you have any questions, please get them into us now because we generally get a rush when our guests come on and we want to make sure that Everyone's questions are answered The county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio The nine till noon show with letter kenny credit union simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from letter Kenny credit union call us on zero seven four nine one zero two one two six or apply online via our app or in office today Do you know what I love about letter Kenny shopping center? 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Simply go to ssc airtricity.com ssc airtricity this is generation green eab 3450 euro and 12 cent offer from the 15th and 2nd 2023 Rates valid from the first of the 10 22 subject to change one year standard unirate discount for new home gas and electricity customers And direct debit and e-bill for details of eab t's and z's rates exit fee standing charges and green energy claims the ssc airtricity.com The cfc interior's dairy stock disposal sale is now on due to overstock an incredible 1.5 million pounds worth of stock must go Don't miss our highest ever discount on selected ranges across all departments The stock disposal sale at cfc interiors dairy cookstown and abbey centre sale now on island radio time checks with expressway Travel route 32 from letter Kenny to Dublin expressway bringing you the time at Okay, uh, 21 minutes past 11 in studio as I mentioned now with me is uh, david foley of the natural way We're taking your questions and having a general chit chat as part of wellness wednesday about alternative Remedies. Good morning to you david. Good morning. Does alternative remedies describe it correctly? It does. It does. Complementary as well. Complementary I would use more than alternative to be quite offset. I think things have changed a little bit now haven't they? So going forward we're going to refer to them as complimentary remedies It's it's it could be a struggle to get younger people, you know From toddlers to whatever age they might be to have a varied diet. Okay And you know parents might at times suspect that they could be prone to illness or what have you Is there anything that's safe to give to to to younger children? You know to keep but to enrich them and to to help maintain their immune systems Yeah, oh brilliant. I mean really like I mean one of the greatest things I mean is is actually Soups, you know to be quite honest, you know, so like all kids don't like maybe their vegetables So sometimes, you know, if you can make it into a soup, they'll drink the soup homemade soups now So that's a great way you can get multi-vitamin Like even in kind of sweet form, you know, that that kids can take So if you really want to cover all the options, you know, yeah, okay But just look for different ways that masks. Yeah masks. Yeah, and I soups are I always think are Marvellous way to do it. We're always told soups were good for us. You know when you're sick Yeah, get a bowl of mommy soup. Is there anything natural for psoriasis? Psoriasis that is a tough one really I mean, I you know, we have things that kind of ease the symptoms like like, you know, that maybe like out of here and things I think take a bit of Sharpness out of it, but really like in in the health of jobs. We don't really have much For for psoriasis. I'm afraid, you know, a good anti-inflammatory diet is very helpful So yeah cutting down on sugars and things because that increases information in the body, you know Too much meat or heavy foods can increase the information too. So cutting back on these things particularly sugars Can help with psoriasis and I think David it's always very fair of you in that, you know, you know There's no silver bullet to a lot of things, isn't it? There's a holistic approach So maybe there might be something that takes the edge off things But also too there's other areas of your lifestyle in terms of diets and what have you that might be required a slight change to supplement your Absolutely, absolutely. Small adjustments can make a big difference sometimes, you know Yeah, um, can David please recommend anything for tiredness and weakness after having the flu and finishing a course of antibiotics So they feel down after that might be well, but yeah, that's very true It's very common thing we see, you know one of the first things I think you mentioned that the biotics there is you can get you know probiotics that are designed to actually Build up the bacteria in the gut again. So that's one of the first things Now if a person often after does food a bit one that we don't often take enough time to recover in the past We used to take more recovery time. We're going to streak on get back into work So, you know if we can't do that, you know, it's good to take things that'll build up the immune system So do we think sometimes, you know, say for instance, you have a flu The the we might read up and they say, you know, you should feel better in three to five days or something, right? And then on day six, you still feel a bit And you think well, there must be something wrong with me, but it's just everyone sort of recovers at different paces Yes, and it depends the severity of it obviously, you know, so, you know You know, we have to give her a time to recover time to recover and we can help that along with with good diet But also like there's things like astragalus Siberian ginseng Korean ginseng. These are actually things that are very very helpful Licrous as well as another one. So these things actually help to Bed body quickly back into its or strong stages. Well, that's what's going to ask you in terms of How long it takes for things to begin to work Will quite a number of complementary remedies like you've just mentioned there You you'll start to feel the positive impacts of it quite quickly There's different herbs do different things now So for example, like if you took for instance, valerian, which is a herb for helping to relax and for sleep It is an immediate effect wouldn't in 10 minutes you're feeling the effect of it where other things like Over a long time period of time you might need it for a long period like to say the mushrooms Which are fantastic to build up the immune system. They they would be used in a long term use So like reishi be great mushroom for actually building Feet with allergies and people are run down reishi be fantastic mushroom for that But you know, you have to take them for a number of months to see the benefit So it just depends like serbian jinx thing And korean jinx are very fast acting you start seeing the effect very rapidly. So it just depends on which herb you use Really, yeah, and that's done in consultation with someone like yourself. So you can Manage people's expectations or elevate them Defending you what on what you suggest and they might take Um Hi, david. What is the best probiotic for ibs for ibs? Well, there's a number of ones that are out there specifically designed For ibs and there's there's actually if you go to the down to the health which is sort of chemists You'll actually find specific ones that are designed What we're finding now is that the the actual bacteria and it got effect our immune system our nervous system You know really a wide range of so they even Have probiotics now that will affect people have anxiety And and and you know, so it a nervous system problems as well as you know Straightforward building the immune system. How is that working? Is that in in some way? Promoting the growth of certain things within your guts that benefit you or we don't get want to get too scientific But it's quite interesting how you know putting something in your mouth or consuming something then could have that type of an Amazing really what there's so much resource nowadays on the gut itself So the gut itself really is your connection with the outside world, you know So everything you take into your body. It has to go through the gut So 70 percent they reckon of your immune system is actually in the gut. So all this bacteria in our gut are incredibly Important for our health. So they fix all areas like even as I say nervous system problems like sleep even You know, so it's a wide range of things. So there's what what the search is showing that in Certain bacteria they've noticed Effects certain areas so you can go and you can actually get a probiotic suit a certain condition And IBS is one of those. Okay This list now has two children under the age of two at kresh Everything every turnaround. There seems to be a new illness be chicken pox the vomiting virus colds Um, is there anything other than a vitamin supplement that can be given to the children to build up their immune system? this caller has older children and They never had all of these illnesses. They believe anyway. That's what they feel Well, you know, since covert really there has been, you know, there's been very bad infections Like long infection are not covert but actual fact because we were so isolated during the period of covert and It particularly children were very isolated. We interfered with nature Absolutely We were actually working getting those little cause and things that they normally go and they get to the crash So all of a sudden then you released them out into the society and they're getting things and and they're getting them harder because These actual infections things help to strengthen our immune system, you know So really they they've lacked that for a number of years So I would suggest that this this person now like there is a number of particularly very good Herbal combinations that help her astragalus is one, you know, uh, there's very very all these things are very safe with children There's actually combinations there that actually are designed to the way because multivitamins are great In there if they're lacking some but if they're not lacking something sometimes the immune system needs a little bit of a Liftup so astragalus would be one of those things A listener's prone to kidney infections. Is there anything they can take as a preventative measure? Yeah, well, you know, there's actually like Some people find cranberry very good. They cranberry and I would always advise, you know Cranberry Because some people actually just go into the supermarket right and take a carton of cranberry juice off the shelf That's not what we're talking about here. No, not really like, you know, you can get cranberry with that in Sometimes they've they've put them in capsule form sometimes in liquid form, but they take not the sugar You see the sugar the trouble is when you take these Cranberry juice off the huge amounts of sugar because cranberry is very Sharp the day so they put loads of sugar and that sugar then is not very good for the thing For the unit tract infection. So it kind of loses all its benefit. The other thing. It's a very simple thing that is barley, you know, you know barley itself if you make a If you use kind of 100 grams of barley, you know A one pint of water and you and you boil that up for 20 minutes and You create barley water you add a bit of honey to it and that's a lovely drink And that actually very very good for Unit tract infection just backing up a little bit Is it Is it's understood that if you drink more sugary drinks or have more sugar in your tea that you might be more prone to kidney infections Yeah, absolutely. How does that work? You know the worst because sugar actually depresses our immune system, you know, and it's pro inflammatory So, you know, they've done Studies where they've shown that if you take a certain amount of sugar it stops the absorption of vitamin c into the cell Because it gets vitamin c doesn't get it and that weakens our immune system sugar is is like it's almost like a poison I'm afraid. All right. Okay. This is say where you are because we've the phone lines have Gone berserk in a good way With people coming in with questions So that means I have to take a quick break and hold on to you for another 10 minutes. Is that okay? That's okay. We'll be back after these Watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com The 90 noon show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit union digital loans now available Apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account Give blood dot ie know we can count on you our community of blood donors to give blood And to choose to be there for others in their hour of need blood donors from bunkrana Should attend the clinic in the inisho and gateway hotel on monday 17th and tuesday 18th of april And donors from carndona should attend the clinic in the carndona community school on wednesday 19th and thursday 20th Making an appointment is recommended. 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Men of all symptoms digestive issues anxiety aches and pains or a lack of energy They're highly trained team at the natural way letter candy can provide advice on natural remedies for a number of Individual health issues the natural way also has its own brand of herbal treatments to help fight fatigue Relief digestive discomfort maintain a healthy immune system and alleviate common menopause symptoms The natural way letter candy shopping center your one-stop health shop And we have david foley of the natural way in studio with us Greg not a question But I just want to say a massive thank you to david and his team who have been a fantastic help to me Over the years with all of my questions. Oh, that's very nice. Thank you very much I'm on beta blockers and blood thinners Can I take vitamin c and zinc while on these tablets? Oh, absolutely. There's no problem. They don't conflict What would you recommend for a lack of sleep while in menopause? Well, you know valerian is a wonderful herb for for this, you know, so we have a combination of valerian there that actually will help first and it's been Proved to help with the menopause symptoms to valerian and david does that help you get off? Or does it give you a better quality of sleep less likely for disruption both in actual fact Sometimes it depends on each patient, you know, each person, you know, if it It will give you a better quality sleep would also put you to sleep very fast But sometimes it needs to be combined with other herbs and we have combinations there that will help that too I think it's valerian the one we spoke of before that comes in two forms one slightly more palatable than the other Or is that a different thing? I'm not quite sure Right, okay. We'll come back to that. But anyways, this version is quite palatable. Okay Remedies for brain fog and a lack of energy during perimenopause and menopause maybe it's a similar answer Yeah, similar answer really like we have we you know, we have combinations of herbs are very very good to help a menopause One of the things with menopause the problem is like is that you know often It's due to the body not adapting to the change just natural change that occurs at menopause Or perimenopausal So it's have to help you have to help the adrenal glands help the body to actually deal with the change Once it once the body deals with the change, then it's the natural progress in their symptoms Go away. It's given the system a kick up the backside almost. Well, it's just helping it. Yeah, it's helping it because you know Normally today like, you know, it's a very stressful society We live in really basically and you know all demands on people and we get a bit run down And then you know all of a sudden this big change happened the body the hormones change and the body just can't deal with So you know using things that will actually help the body to To adapt to that change because what's needed, you know Um, my daughter suffers from pseudo seizures. She sometimes feels it's coming on Is there anything you would advise to help her control these feelings to avoid the seizure happening? Yeah, I agree. I mean it sounds like I mean there is there is a nice tonics Uh What we call them nerve ions things like, you know time and you know these herbs that actually rosemary and herbs like these actually Very good for tonifying the nervous system. So it sounds like, you know, if her nervous system was strengthened So we have a big tonics that actually will help that, you know And it's not hard to really understand it because we know things like I don't know drinking alcohol can affect the nervous system in a negative way So we can only presume then there is going to be a counterbalance to that. That's right Although, you know, I'm not saying this is a hangover cure. Don't get me wrong But do you know what I mean? It helps us sort of understand how What we take in can affect How we feel oh very much. I mean when you think of herb medicine like it basically like, you know people have to Go over thousands of years. Which herbs affect different parts of the body, you know Okay, and they do say it's over thousands of years Someone's offers from nausea. Is there anything natural that can be taken to? Ginger is a great help, you know How do you take it? Well, you know, you can you can just Some people for people are having morning sickness and things people find that sometimes ginger biscuits You know, they have oat biscuits with ginger in them. They're they're very nice to take and they just find that's that Or you can take the ginger itself or they make a ginger tea You can even get capsules of ginger How important is it the quality of what we take in like say for instance honey? Because we talk about the benefits of honey, right? But if you go in and get a jar of honey off a shelf that's heavily processed and imported from god knows where You might not feel the benefits of going to your neighbour who has bees and consuming their honey I presume it's the same with when you talk about ginger and you talked about cranberry, isn't it? It's how we consume it Presumably preferably in its most purest form. Oh, absolutely most Organic is best of all like, you know, and you know local stuff is so much better often, you know Like if you can get your local honey, you can guarantee that, you know, the beekeepers they do it out of love It's not much so which are the commercial enterprise and you get that local honey head or honey, whatever these are fantastic Um, I'm taking HRT. Would you recommend supplements? And if so, what's best? Well, you know HRT like if you take like it depends how would a HRT for HRT Can I just actually move back slightly David just to make sure everyone can hear it's just the the microphone is just a little bit Equally go ahead. Yeah, no, you're perfect there One of the things with HRT is like normally people take HRT for a Short period of time and then they'll stop it So if they can take I think multivitamins and all things with HRT and that's perfectly okay But if you can if you can think of things that will help as I was saying before like Help the body deal with the change that's happened then when they come off the HRT They don't have any symptoms, you know They go on to norm So things that will help the immune systems help the adrenal glands are very helpful in this case Um, I'm having terrible trouble with facial nerve pain David, which in turn gives me a terrible toothache Can you please uh advise is there anything You could suggest for this. Well, there's two things that we think of like you can get St. John's wort oil you can't take You know get jade John's wort in the liquid form now to take internally But you can get the oil and you can rub that on the face. That's very good for nerve pain How does that work? Is there a numbing effect to it? It's it was used and believe in the past really a lot of these her we don't really know exactly how they work I mean, it was used was famous St. John's wort was for crushed hands in the past back in back in the day type thing So you'd imagine a lot of a lot of nerve damage, you know with a current There wasn't a way you could operate anything in those days. So somehow it seems it kind of works It eases the nerve pain, but I know it's just acupuncture too. You know acupuncture very good for this type of pain Um, what would you recommend for stomach acid? And imagine what they're currently engaging in, you know, your liquids and your Powdery tablets, but is there anything more natural? Well, you know the thing is with stomach acid a lot of it can be do with diet So cutting out caffeine with big coffee And things like high sugar content foods They're very important, you know to cut down on the acid I also found slowing down eating and not reclining soon after eating was of great help Very helpful too. And because if there's a little bit of overweight in the in the abdomen area That's that's coming off a factor too So having the pillars a little bit higher in the bed that I can ease that a bit too, you know So they can be very helpful Uh, can you talk a little about probe by our next in relation to oral health gum disease bad breath and so on? Well, you know the bad breath there's many factors why people have your Sage is a wonderful herb to actually gargle with for for bad breath It also helps the whole digestive system. So gargling and swallowing sage is very very good So you can get normally you can get sage herb a loose and just make a tea with it Very good. And there is probiotics that will as I say if you go to the health which are becoming you You'll find probiotics that are designed for each particular area So you can get probiotics designed for this area too. All right. I'm not sure if this is a alternative or complimentary remedy question or not, but Um, my ankle is swelling on my left foot. I'm of slim build, but I have high cholesterol and they're on statins as well Yeah on on the on the left foot Yeah, I I've been trying to go see your GP To be honest with you if you see swelling or demon like that, you know, unless there's an injury there that would Say well that why they're happening, but you know demon is always especially in the ankle Always a little bit have to be a little bit careful. Yeah, I suspected that might be your answer, David So joints Glucosamine and clondroitin were advised you can help me out in that one. Uh, I presume they're actual medicines. Is there any alternative? No, no, no actually they're Complementary stroke alternative right any other alternative natural product available. Well, you know depends on the on the job Turmeric is is absolutely fantastic. It's an anti-inflammatory and turmeric. You take, you know Turmeric every day. It actually reduces the information in the body and often with the joint pain It's inflammation that it can be the problem. Okay. I only have time for a couple more, David. Um Red yeast rice Again, this is it taking instead of statins for high cholesterol. I'm not sure if that's a road you would go down But uh, do you have a view on that and yeah, whatever you believe there is actually very good remedies to reduce Cholesterol, but you know, we're having to go on statins, you know Because there is mixed views on statins Especially if you read the Daily Mail because they have a different view on it every day But anyway, that's in Britain not as much here. But uh, so go ahead natural You know, there is natural remedies. There there is plant statins which are you can get in and that's one particular form That's very very effective for reducing cholesterol. So I would always suggest to people if they have high cholesterol Try the natural remedies first, you know, try them for a period of time Go back to your doctor get a test if it's down. That's great. It isn't you know, you can always go on statins and You know first would you would use those pad statins and then you would just red wine yeast That's another way of actually trying to control it. And if after you try those particular remedies and They be quite honest today. They often do work They keep people from having to go on statins, but if you need statins, you need statins But I think it's what we're trying the alternatives for all right David Foley owner of the natural way letter Kenny. Thanks for joining us for this wellness wednesday feature If anyone wants to speak to you or any of your staff or your staff You're located in the shopping center in letter Kenny. All right. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for calling Up. I really do appreciate your time. Okay. Thank you very much. Coming up here now. Donald will be joining us with business news The nine till noon show with letter Kenny credit union now offering mortgages from 40 000 to 600 000 euro With no hidden fees or transaction charges letter Kenny credit union 9102127 The lotto jackpot is an estimated five million euro Oh Play responsibly in store in app or at lottery dot i The national lottery it could be you With brand new state of the art facilities get your car serviced in iMotors We cater for all mechs and models. 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Don't just take off take it easy All right, kieran is just going to join us in a moment But let me get that weather for you just before we say good morning to him Uh, rather clearly with sonny spa's improving later in the day Mainly dry with the chance of an isolated shower highest temperatures 11 or 12 degrees, but tomorrow Um, it's going to be dry and sunny temperatures around the same winds moderate So that's what we have to look forward to Right, it is time for this Business matters in association with the atu dunningall faculty of business Are you a senior manager in the private sector looking to reinforce your leadership skills? atu are offering a level nine executive In leadership and innovation based around action learning starting late april Take the next step in your career and contact the exec ed coordinator on 9186206 today or email donald dot hanigan at atu.ie Okay, so i'll tell you what happens every wednesday for those of you who aren't aware We have a podcast here called business matters that it goes live Uh for you on our website on spotify and itunes and uh kieran or donald Uh is the presenter of it and he interviews business brains from across the region talking about their business about themselves their backgrounds How they got to where they are and whilst he's in shamelessly plugging his podcast We get a round up of some of the business use from across the region So we go to the we're going to delay the shameless plugging for a moment and talk about businesses kieran. Good morning to you How are you keeping uh what a natural good morning graven? You're welcome back i'm just checking the microphone here and he's okay It's it is it's it's i forgot how i i didn't two weeks. I two weeks and then there was a week before that Yeah, uh, so it's been rare. It's good. Okay, good. Good. Good. This happy back Hey, let's stay with the good news that me and you are back together Because uh, the mount area hotel in nato kenny has achieved four star status That is a big feather in the cap for not only the management there, but the staff as well Yeah, very much. As you say, the Moundary Hotel is now recognised as a four-star hotel by Falkshire Ireland. The 139 bedroom hotel has been run by the McAnuff family since the 70s and employs around 150 people. And this re-classification follows a multi-million-year renovation of the well-known establishment. So, well done and good luck to them. Yes, indeed. Donagolle to you. Have another opening evening coming up. Yeah, the latest in a series of opening evenings, Greg. This time is for MedTech Bio, Pharma and Quality courses. It's been held next Tuesday, April 25th from 7 to 9. And it will provide an opportunity to talk, as to join live talks and ask questions in the live Q&A session. So, check out Donagolle ATU socials for more on that. Definitely. Now, I want to say Celtic Media Festival. Correct. I was just double-checking that myself last night. The 44th annual International Celtic Media Festival will take place at the Waterfront Hotel from Tuesday, June 6th to Thursday, June 8th. This festival will bring together inspiring artists and creators within the film and media genres from regions, including Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales. So, good boost for the west of the county. And nice to have hosting such a very prestigious event. Good setting too. Yeah. Lovely hotel there. And what a gym they have. You were up with that, weren't you? I will stop. I think you did one of your thoughts for that, didn't you? Yeah. I mean, it's really, it's like state-of-the-art. What you would expect to see in a, you know, brand new gym in the heart of London. Not that that's where we set the bar from, don't get me wrong. They have the same gear in there. It really is quite remarkable. Out of all around, it's that's why. It's a massive boost that there is, well, Greg, just to think of that, I think that's a four star doing there as well. Yeah, big catchment. So, that's why I suppose they do well. Irish grown wool cancel established. Now, yes, the first Irish grown wool council was selected at a stakeholders meeting, was took place recently at Athlone Springs Hotel. So, the Irish grown wool council brings together stakeholders from both sides of the border with the aim of improving the Irish wool sector. So, the establishment of this organisation, Greg, is being described as a new, as a major milestone for the Irish wool industry and for the creation of a strong Irish grown wool brand. So, obviously, they're looking to get themselves organised and together and be a better force, which is good news for that sector. I was hoping to keep it quiet, but my big news is out. I've cracked open the piggy banks. Yes, we're seeing larger and a bit max there one morning, all right. Here, what's going on? Yeah, I need to take a site, and Lerner Kinney has been sold for €4 million. The land along Hyrule is reported to have been bought by someone from the county. Great. Planning budget was granted back in 2014 for development, comprising six retail units, 190 apartments, 17 duplex units and seven, 18 townhouses, but that has since expired. And in the current county development plant, the site is owned as Establishment Development Stroke Mixed Usage. So, the sale of this prime site was handled by local estate agent, D. N. G. Boyce-Geller, and it will be interesting to see what happens next. It really will be, because on both levels, if they sort of went along the lines of what was previously awarded plan permission for, any extra retail is always really quite interesting, but obviously, there's quite a significant housing need that might be able to be met there here, and so we'll see how things progress. I'm almost down from the side of the fire station and goes down, and it backs on to the back of the old field site. Right, so it's on the right hand side? Yeah, if you go down from here, and you're going to pass the asphalt down the town, it's on the left. So, after you pass the four houses there on the left hand side, there's a gap. There's a house across the road there from Max Deli, it's directly across there, and on down to the very bottom. So, it's about two-thirds down Oliver Plunkett Road. Actually, you probably wouldn't even know it's there if you're just a road user, okay? That's really quite significant, okay. Excellent stuff. So, that was a run-through some of the top business stories from across the region. So, let's get on to the podcast, and you are speaking to Clive Alcorn. I had a couple of chats with Clive, because we were down at Tropical World, and he's got a really interesting approach, and I think this is going to be a really interesting podcast, Kieran. Yeah, as you say, I'm going to be joined this week by Clive of Alcorn's Guernsey and also as the owner of Tropical World in the Rikini. Clive's parents, late parents, Tommy and Martha, set up a flower shop at Loughn again in the 80s, and Clive began working full-time in the business when he was still a teenager. When his father retired, Clive formed Alcorn's Limited along with his brother John, such a caring who also run Alcorn's Flowers. And it was always Clive's ambition to establish his own zoo, and in 2011 he opened Tropical World, which attracts 40,000 visitors annually. Here, Clive talks about the positive influence his late parents had on himself and on his siblings. Well, my father and mother were genuine people. My mother was a person, if anybody actually remembers her, would say, my mother never made money because she actually gave away more plants than she sold. And that was her nature. She loved people, and she loved, and as I say, the saddest thing is that I would say today is that she never, ever got to see the good of Alcorn's. My father seen, as I say, it developed through the years, see us develop into the business and the business go forward. And was a great man for actually backing, as I say, what, what the future or what. And I remember going to the trade shows and where they went and maybe it looked at a piece of machinery. And I remember going to this, going to a show and killed air one time and looking at this better machinery and myself and myself were standing looking at it and I says, and the lutch man says to me, would you be interested, I say, maybe in the future. And of course, he took my telephone number and he hung me every year for three years. And eventually I says, look to me, what do you think? He says, get the machine here to speed things up. And that was this. And it was always the vision of how we can make it better, how we can, as I say, increase production. But at the same time, it has to be done in a sustainable nature. And it has to be viable. Yeah. And balancing that's the difficulty, but one, a balance they're striking at there and I get a sense here, and that, you know, obviously, a hugely successful business there outside Lattrack County. But this is also about Clive, him as an individual, his philosophy, his influences. Yes, very much so. He talked there on honestly parents and the positive influence that it has had on himself. And I suppose he still takes great inspiration from the example that they set. How to make things better is probably sums up Clive and his approach to his business. We talked about a lot of things and a lot of detail. He's a huge passion for nature. He's a huge passion for educating and for hoping that young people will be aware of what's around them and the most importance of knowing what is happening around them. Outside of his work he has a huge passion, Formula One and Bonnegie. So we covered a lot of topics and that was a very, very interesting conversation. Yeah, okay. Now, you can hear that in its entirety on our website right now, highlandradio.com. We're on Spotify, iTunes as well. It's ripped to it. So you can listen to it, stream it or download it, okay? So whatever way you want to do it. Business Matters, this episode, like all are then aired on a Sunday evening here at the regular time. Yeah, great. Just after the six o'clock news. And if anyone wishes to get in contact with them, how do they do so? Just send me an email please, businessmattersathighlandradio.com. And I don't want to repeat myself, but there's a big archive there now of really, really interesting interviews, which are of interest to people outside of business. And I think those within business too, Kieran, because over the year, we can almost actually over the years now, at this stage, can't we, Kieran? You know, there's an awful lot of testimonies from people as to how they made it, the mistakes they made. And sometimes everyone has to make their mistakes for themselves. But there's a lot in there, isn't there, for all different suggestions. When you get to talk to somebody that for the show, when they may have listened back to another show, they're able to say, look, I heard him saying or heard her saying or I thought that was interesting. So business people do tune into it as well. And I suppose they're looking and listening to see if they can pick up on anything or if they can find a wee bit more about somebody that they know or don't know. Okay. Just to remind you once again, if you want to get in contact with Kieran, the email address is businessmattersathighlandradio.com, simple as that, isn't it? All right. Kieran, thanks so much. Good morning, Greg. We really do appreciate it. Thank you. That's live for you right now, by the way, on our website. Let me see. I think I have time to... No, I don't have time for any comments. So I'll carry these dozens of comments that we have left over into tomorrow. That's Thursday. So we're going to thank you for listening to the show today. It's been great having you on board. Thanks to Neve, who worked on the social media and assisted Caroline, who researches and produces the show most days. John Bresen's coming up around the Northwest after the news at 12. But for me, Greg Hughes and the team, have a lovely day.