 from mum and dad. See they didn't forget. Have a great day. If you're out and about today, Thursday it is. Be safe on the roads and we're going to pass you over to Greg Hughes. Good morning Greg. Lee, good morning Shane. Thanks again for a great show. Back with you tomorrow morning. It's nine o'clock on the Ninth El Nune show. Let's get a news update and say good morning to Emma Ryan. Thanks Greg. Good morning. The Garada Commissioner has confirmed that Garady are continuing to liaise with the coroner in a bid to reach a conclusion in the investigation into the Chrysler tragedy. Ten people died following the explosion at a shop in October last. In the aftermath, the scene remained closed for a number of weeks as Garady and other experts from overseas gathered evidence. Garada Commissioner Drew Harris says while the outcome is uncertain, they are hopeful they will come to a satisfactory conclusion. Together with the experts who are working on this, we would hopefully get to, you know, a satisfactory conclusion as to the cause of this. But that'll be part of the investigation then that we would support in terms of the investigation into the coroner. So that we have responsibility in terms of the coroner and the information that we would gain through investigation and reporting to the coroner. Ultimately, we would hopefully get to some final explanation as to what happened and that's what we're working towards, obviously. The Sinn Féin leader says there is now finally a sense of movement towards the restoration of power-sharing government in the north. Tanishami, Hommerton and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heating-Harris are among the delegation attending a key meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference today. There has been no government at Stormont since last May's Assembly election as the DUP demanded changes to the Northern Ireland protocol. Mary Lou McDonald says she believes a deal can and will be done soon. The housing minister has been pressed once again to provide support to defective block homeowners who are under pressure to keep up with mortgage repayments. Johnny Gall Deputy Thomas Pringle has told the DAL that homeowners are under severe pressure from banks in relation to worthless homes that they have mortgages out against. Minister Darrell O'Brien did not make a commitment that action would be taken but says discussions are ongoing. The issue with regard to banking in how mortgage lenders are dealing with some homeowners is an issue that's been raised with me which we'll continue to address with the banks also and I'll address this directly with residents. I'm pleased to see Alaskan Corle as well that we're seeing applications particularly in Dunnegal and Mayo being processed through the system now being processed effectively and efficiently. We have a lot more to do in that space but all of those homeowners will receive the benefit of the revised scheme the revised 100% redress scheme and I'll keep the deputy informed of our engagement with regard to the banks on the mortgage issues. Finally, barring a political mishap, the next general election will be in autumn of next year. Tishak Leo Verakur has indicated to his Fungal colleagues he wouldn't like to see a winter election and said it looks as though people could be going to the polls in autumn of 2024. And a look at today's weather. Wintery showers will clear throughout the morning, mostly dry weather will follow for the rest of the day with some sunny spells, cold day with highest temperatures of just one to four degrees. That's all for now. Our next news update will be at 10 o'clock but until then, good morning. forward slash under insurance brought to you by insurance Ireland. Hello and a very good morning to you. Four minutes just turned five minutes past nine on another wintery morning across the Northwest. It is Thursday the 19th of January 2023. I do hope you are well and of course you're very welcome along to the show. Hopefully we'll keep you informed and entertained throughout the next three hours on the program and throughout the day here on your number one local radio station. The lines are open for you right now. Another snow day for a lot of young ones out there, not so young ones too, perhaps. Thanks to Lee for keeping us updated with all the school closures or the postponements and what's happening on the roads. It's really appreciated. Any further information to pass on, you know, the numbers 086625000 086625000 or give us a call on 07491 25000 or send your comments to email comments at highlandradio.com. And if you want to watch this show, why would you watch him this morning or whatever nonsense is on the TV when you can watch your own show here dedicated to the Northwest of Ireland? Go on to your smart TV or your fire stick and open up the YouTube app sticking Highland Radio Ireland. Watch this upon your big screen. Same applies for Facebook. Watch the search Highland Radio. You can watch us there on your tablet or mobile as well. And you can also watch on our website in browser highlandradio.com. And lots of emerging news over the last couple of days. We're going to keep you right across that. All right, let's start with a look at the newspapers today. The Trikarnal Tribune, the Finafore party in Donegal has been requested to select and identify the local election candidates before the end of this week. The request has come from party HQ in Dublin and it's seen as trying to awaken grassroots interests amongst the membership. A scheduled meeting was already postponed with party sources telling the Tribune the meeting is due to be held this Friday night with the party holding the biggest number of councillors in Lifford. They will want to start oiling the wheels once again to retain their 12 seats. It's not clear yet if all their outgoing members will run in 2023. And it's also unclear if any exciting new heartthrobs as they described here will want to put their heads above the parapet this early in the new year. Interesting times. The Donegal news. We want answers. Defective block homeowners in Donegal are demanding answers after government announced a 100% redress scheme for apartments affected by construction defects which expected to cost up to 2.5 billion. The announcement has left homeowners concerned that those who are suffering in defective concrete houses are being deprioritized and questioning why they're being left in limbo. And as you heard from the housing minister there in response to if you were listening to the news in response to Thomas Pringle he believes everything's going rightly in Donegal and Mayo. Things are flying. And this new scheme you described the new scheme, the new enhanced scheme is working well. I didn't think the new enhanced scheme was up and running yet. But anyway obviously we're going to have to have some reaction to this story. I do note that no one's talking about the taxpayer having to foot this bill and the poor taxpayer. It's just 2.5 billion euro worst of all. And by the way can I just say very clearly I'm very pleased for these people, these homeowners, I have no issue with whatever I pay into the system supporting them. And unfortunately we didn't say the same grace from some parts of the country when we were discussing Micah. But I do note that I haven't really heard politicians pointing out the fact that they have to be really careful with this scheme because this is taxpayers money you know. That type of rhetoric was reserved for us here in Donegal and other affected counties. Obviously we've got two people in government in this county, Minister Charlie McConaughey, Deputy Joe McHugh, we have made contact with them with a view to having a conversation with them today to see what they think of this decision. I'll let you know later on the status of the responses to those invitations. But we're going to be talking to people affected by defective concrete blocks, defective concrete products here in Donegal a little later on to see what they, I don't think anyone begrudges these other homeowners. They're 100% redress scheme. But my word, the difference with how that has been announced versus the drag to the table kicking and screaming and what they left on the table for Donegal, it's night and day. Donegal Democrat Hospital protest plan for Saturday. I'm very interested still to see what kind of a turnout will be at this protest. The weather looks like clearing for Saturday by the way. But overcrowding at Letrucanny University Hospital's emergency department has reached crisis levels and unless something is done to address it, Donegal lives will be lost. Look, they may well have already been lost. That's the stark prediction from what I added on the, they may well have already been lost by the way. I don't want to attribute a quote to someone that they didn't make, but I can't see how it hasn't happened. Anyway, that's the stark prediction from one of the organizers of this Saturday's Day of Action protest at the facility. The chairperson of the Letrucanny Hospital campaign, Mary T. Sweeney, the Letrucanny woman is calling for people power at the event which starts on Saturday at, sorry, my chair's collapsed here, on Saturday at 1pm. We'll be talking about that I'm sure before the end of the week. The Dairy News customers urged to use cash. The owner of a small business in the city has asked customers to pay by cash where possible in future. David Dunn owner of the iconic Fish and Chip Shop Brendon's on Spencer Road said the charges he was facing from card machines and app operators had become an unaffordable expense for a small business with a small team of staff. David, who runs the Chippian adjoining cafe with his wife, Catherine, daughter of the eponymous Brendon, said they had always tried to keep their prices as low as they possibly could for their customers. Speaking to the paper, he said, our aim was always to look after our customers, have a viable business and look after our staff. But the way the situation has transformed since COVID, it's just crazy. He says, please, where you can use cash. And then you have some businesses very keen for the customers to use cash. Many customers very keen to use cash. And then you've got all the businesses that refuse cash. It's a funny old world, isn't it? The Irish Independent, a bit of coverage today on Pascal Donahue, the under fire minister. He didn't take questions last night, which I thought was really quite interesting. Pascal Donahue has revealed he personally sold 2020 and 2021 Finnegale raffle tickets to businessman Michael Stone. The five super draw tickets sold in 2020 amounted to a donation of 334 euro. While in 2021, Mr Stone bought 22 tickets to a donation value of 1,382 euro. Mr Donahue revealed the public expenditure minister gave a short statement in the door yesterday evening over his failure to declare expenses for hanging election posters over the weekend. It emerged that Mr Donahue had not declared a payment made by Mr Stone to six people to hang up election posters ahead of the 2016 general election. Now, I think it was Paratobine that called for an audit of submissions from elected representatives to make sure that everything that should have been declared was declared. The government rejected that. And then quite interesting, listening to Aiman Ryan this morning, he was being questioned, and he was asked as to why more conversation is not happening in the doll, right? And his argument was that that's the role of Sipo. And why would he do it in the doll when that's what Sipo was there for? But he also said, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he effectively said that it would take up too much time because so many members would have questions to answer. Now, it's not an exact quote that but that's effectively what he said. Not a great indictment of the political system is it when you have one of the leaders of the government suggesting that discussing claims in the doll because it could affect so many people would take up too much time. That's a problem. I think that's a problem. All right, the Irish Times, a plan to install thousands of electric vehicle charging points around the country will will place more pressure than ever on the electric electricity grid the government has been warned. Minister for the Environment, Aiman Ryan will today and answer 100 euro million strategy that aims for charging points to be placed at 60 kilometer intervals along motorways and taxi ranks, tourist office, hospitals, hotels and small sports clubs. There are also plans for charging the charging system to serve apartment blocks and neighborhoods. Now, again, I don't wish to be cynical, but I have to be honest on this program between the ESB and the government. We seem to have talked about multiple announcements of improvements to the EV charging infrastructure. You if you're a regular listener, you know we have the ESB have been on. We're investing this, that and then the government have made various announcements. I might catalog them just to see what kind of announcements has been made. Yet people contacting this program say that the infrastructure is poor. It's not in fact, it's not that it's improving. In fact, to some extent, some would say it's getting worse because it can be on reliable as to whether charging points are available or not. And that's a shame because there's a huge interest in the public in EV cars, hybrid cars, we can get into that whole debate another time about whether or not we should be or not. But that's the fact the statistics don't lie. But we had a town like our draft, for example, I'm not sure if the situation has been resolved there yet, that despite all the various announcements, it doesn't have one single charging point. If anyone's listening in our drawing, if that's changed, please let me know. But anyway, this strategy to be announced today states the number of charging points could increase from 1700 to between 2540 and 4850 within three years as a result of the significant number of additional charging points being contemplated. It warns that the widespread use of electric vehicles will place more pressure than ever on Ireland's electricity network, which is worrying because the government was warned that it needed to very much improve the infrastructure in this country, particularly with the welcoming nature we have towards data centers, which are very power intensive, but very little was done to improve, even with warning very little was done to improve the infrastructure. All right, on to the Irish Daily Mail now, if you're a second hand car owner, it's continuing to go up in value. The value of second hand cars has increased substantially thanks to the effects of the pandemic and the scarcity of new vehicles. The impact of COVID and a shortage of Michael trips has severely restricted the supply of new cars and upended the market I read. This has led to the number of second hand cars for sale drying up meaning that they have been rising in value. Someone who bought a used car for five grand before the pandemic would now be able to sell it for up to 8500 with two years depreciation. It should really be worth around 3000 prices are almost 75 70% higher now compared to the pandemic onset in February 2020 compared to this time last year, prices have increased by more than 16. Now it depends on which car you have to. I think the lower value cars have increased in value to a greater extent than the higher value cars, but it's nice isn't if you've alone out to think that maybe your car is not depreciating as quickly as your loan is. The Irish Farmers Journal Ireland's beef trade is poised for further increases in demand or as demand exceeds supply. Some processes have indicated a 50 to 20 cent per kilogram bonus for China eligible cattle when processing begins later this month. Average prices for R3 bullocks have already increased by 54 cent per kilogram in eight weeks, which is good news I presume. More in that Farmers Journal hugely popular paper it has to be said. Right on to the Irish Daily Star RTE, have the begging bowl out again. It's looking for reform of the TV license system because it is not working, a door committee heard and the action said that the station that there isn't a sustainable future for RTE unless the public funding model is overhauled. The committee also heard last evening that the controversial toy show musical that failed to sell all its tickets and was slammed in many quarters will return next winter. The national broadcasters losing money every year as people move away from watching TV in traditional the traditional way as they ditch televisions and embrace streaming services in droves RTE said that 16.5 per cent of households in Ireland are now no TV homes which is an increase from 3 per cent just five years ago. Are you a no TV home? Tell us why. Did you used to have a TV and did you get rid of the TV and how did it change your life? And when I say no TV what I mean I'm not sure what they mean is that you don't watch any TV anymore. Let us know 08 660 25000 but I think you know if RTE want the license fee to be reformed they need to reform themselves they need to stop paying people 700,000 euro a year for doing one hour here and two hours there. Why come back to us looking for more money show us how you're spending the money I mean they spent a fortune on launching the autumn TV schedule hundreds and 80,000 euro wasn't it 80,000 euro that's an awful lot of license fees isn't it and then they've got this musical it's the hobby horse of someone there why do it there's no need for it there's no need for it now I know there were some local people involved in it and that's great but there's no need for RTE to be running a musical it didn't sell out this year so why continue that to cancel shows for other reasons as well so why continue with it you know that's spending what the orchestra why is that still being funded the way it is come up with a different funding model you know the likes of News Talk Virgin Media other independent stations us here just to remind you we get no license fee money when I say no there is some funds that come through for documentaries and stuff on a small level it's nothing like what RTE get from it but just to be absolutely transparent there's no regular payment or no support it's all done we the business model in this station like others I presume is it's advertising basis and your costs you have to keep your costs down and that's how you try and continue but RTE don't want to do that they just want more money from the public to keep going which I don't think is terribly fair and I would be saying that if I wasn't working here it's I'm not speaking on behalf of Highland Radio it just it just seems wrong on to the Irish Daily Mirror where I'm what I'm reading oh yeah here it is RTE star Emeril Neal has revealed Tommy Tyrann apologized to her and removed a joke from his set last week the very native told us that's the paper she walked out of the comedian's vicar street gig in Dublin last Friday week after becoming upset over a joke he told about taxi drivers after publicizing her upset Emer has now revealed to the paper that Tommy has apologized to her for the hurt caused the Navin native wrote her an email saying dear Emer I'm sorry about the hurt that a joke I told at vicar street on Friday night has caused you he says it was never his intention as he removed it from his set all right and finally as we know the legend that is Christie Dignam he is currently in palliative care and has spoken to his fans and the general public via his daughter um Christie Dignam's daughter say support from Aslan legends legions of fans has given her ailing dad a much needed boost Dignam's daughter Keir has broken her silence following her father's recent devastating health update rock legend Christie has been battling amylo disis a rare blood disorder since 2013 early this week the crazy world singer's family shared a heartbreaking update revealing he's getting palliative care at home well Keir has now said that the supportive response from fans has given Christie a boost she said on social media my dad just asked me to thank everyone for their support well wishes and kind words over the last couple of days all right okay so 08 660 25 000 what's apps and texts to that number or give us a buzz an 07 491 25 000 right back after these the 9 till noon show with letter kenny credit union do you need to switch your current account or loan we are now offering my cu current account and debit mastercard bringing full banking features and competitive rate switcher loans care is not a women's issue care is an everybody issue we're all going to face care responsibilities from cradle to grave we need to accept that and we need to support that by having systems and structures in place for people rather than relying on the fact that women are going to do it just because learn more about care and gender inequality in Ireland at ihrec.ie from the irish human rights and equality commission we're all human we're all equal factory beef prices set to rocket for more in your farmer's journal this paul mooney chinese bonuses tighter supplies and soaring demand are pushing beef 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kenny rovers bingo in the station house hotel is cancelled this evening due to the weather right we had a text in from a caller and as we always try and get answers as best we can and it read as follows hi greg can i ask if anyone knows anything about cross border workers living in the south and working in the north and issues around working remotely workers will no longer be able to work from home for more than 30 days a year because of tax implications could you raise this on your show to see if there is anyone who could shed some light on this issue and possibly get a workaround uh so we reached out to connor dowds um former co-chair of the cross border workers coalition former isn't that correct connor good morning to you good morning greg yeah that's correct uh i was the co-chair of the cross border workers coalition while we had that up and running no problem just to make sure i didn't um introduce you incorrectly right so what is uh what is the the problem that this listeners highlighting there connor yeah so maybe greg what i can do is well first of all i'm not a tax expert for sure so as it gets to any of the specifics of it i definitely would recommend people reach out to some of the tax consultants and experts that are out there for specific advice and so forth but i'll i'll give a little bit of history and then take it through to what the situation looks like today so historically there's a a tax agreement between ireland and the uk and what that means is if you live in ireland but work in the uk your employment is is residing there you don't pay double full double tax on your income in both jurisdictions um and that was introduced at maybe 20 20 or so years ago and also there's a a criteria set out which allows you to claim something called trans border workers relief so someone in my position who lives in dunegal works in northern ireland can claim this relief and what it says is if i'm employed in the uk living in the republic of ireland i can claim this relief and essentially avoid paying additional tax within the republic of ireland and just pay your tax in the uk and you're you're covered during the covid 19 pandemic there was an allowance made because obviously people were told don't go to the office stay and work from home if you can and that relief existed during the the core period of the covid 19 pandemic but has since been dropped the key restriction with that relief which is a great relief and improve things greatly you know from where it was 20 years ago is all of your work 100 that work must be performed outside the state and what that means is you really can't perform any work from within the republic of ireland and if you do then you incur these tax liabilities now your texture mentioned a 30 day period again this is where individuals should be tried to a personal tax consultant to get specific advice on their scenario because there's many layers to this there's a lot of legs that it grows once your scenario or your situation changes so 30 days may be something that this person has been advised but essentially if you're living in the republic of ireland performing work for a uk company or base in the uk you generally have a tax liability unless you claim this transporter workers relief and then that stipulation kicks in that 100 percent of that work must be performed outside of the state of the republic of ireland yeah i i don't think maybe the text kind of understands the modern way of working though because whilst you might be located in the republic your productivity your output is is is in britain on northern ireland so you know it sounds like we're trying to use old wording to apply to a new situation it's possible and again the meaning and the impact of it really is very different depending on the nature of your work so for example i work in the technology sector so a lot of my work is done on a computer a lot of my work is done remotely if you will so it that sort of industry is quite suited to people working remotely or the work not actually taking place if you will in the republic of ireland if i were working from home other people depending on the nature of the job may physically need to be in a in an office or in a factory or in a location in in the uk and then it's not really a question for them but there are other people who may be employed in northern ireland companies or in england and the work they perform might physically require them to be in the republic of ireland to perform that work so it does put them in a much more a much more difficult um i presume what you're talking about there is maybe say someone who works for a blinds fitting company in dairy and they do a lot of work fitting blinds in the republic and they live in the republic although they're working in dairy a lot of the work is on the ground in the republic where they live is that that that's a really good example i mean anything that requires that physical presence don't know why i thought of a blind company but anyway it's a good example as the as the sun shines through me wonder for the first time in a couple of days the blinds are something definitely front of front of mind but it's a great example of how it can impact people and what we found was really when the Covid-19 pandemic occurred this started to raise questions a lot of people started to ask about it and the nature of how companies work particularly those companies where you can work remotely were previously that wasn't the case for the culture this question arose more and more and we created the cross-border workers coalition because our own company had a challenge with this and many other companies we spoke to had a challenge and a lot of individuals really were confused about what they could and could not do and it is quite confusing so we ran a campaign for almost two years successful in some quarters in terms of the buy-in and general support we got from many companies individuals political representatives from across the spectrum but when we got as far as the department of finance they did review it they did produce a paper as part of the 2021 tax tax bill but really the disappointing thing was i don't think they took the time to fully understand the impact for people who live and work around the border regions in particular and they they really found a way not to change anything and keep the status quo as opposed to in my opinion looking for an opportunity to change it and there's a couple of really good examples where this disadvantages people so the company i work for what if people who work on call so if i apply for a job part of that job might mean i need to be on call overnight but if i haven't done it all i technically can't perform on call duties unless i get in my car and drive to to dairy or wherever that the office happens to be located so it does disadvantage people in terms of you know applying for employment getting an employment and then if i'm a company based around the border you know talents a limited resource so what you want to be able to do is is pull from as much talent as possible even attract people back from Dublin London other places to the locality but and this this is a it's an obstacle that gets created so i mean obviously the number one piece of advice is speak to a tax consultant but let's just hypothesize so this person who's living in the south working in the north uh and is has issues around working remotely what is the penalty for them like what what will they are they being expected to pay tax full tax on their income in both north and south like what how are they being disadvantaged at this time that they would feel they need to text us yeah at a very high level probably the main thing is they're confused because everyone we spoke to in this topic was was confused and it's very hard to get a specific answer and be comfortable with where you where you sit but the advice i would give them as you say talk to a tax consultant who's an expert but the other thing is you're not being required to pay 100 double tax and two jurisdictions you don't start you don't pay your tax in the UK and then start from scratch in the republic what the taxation agreement the double taxation agreement does is it says okay we've an agreement for UK you've paid a lot of tax there now let's look at what you paid there look at what you would have paid here in the republic they do a comparison and you may end up paying a differential or additional tax and that tax can be based on many things such as your income but also the number of days that you perform work from the republic of Ireland so it again that's where it starts to get a little convoluted and have multiple layers are there any advantages in terms of maybe down the line being able to draw a pension in both jurisdictions or is there any advantages to someone living in the republic and working in the north there isn't and many people do you know do take advantage of that so for example i know in the UK at the moment there's an amnesty for people who if you perform to do three or five years work in the UK consecutively you can even if you haven't made the 10-year mark you can retrospectively pay sums of money towards that to bring you to 10 years and then you're entitled to UK pension from retirement age and if you're somebody who's worked both north and south for example in Ireland then you may be entitled to pensions in both jurisdictions so again there are advantages to it the number of years of working in each jurisdiction the consecutive years a number of other factors come into play but as like many things there are some advantages to it it's just with this cross-border workers piece we found modern-day working there's a very very restrictive criteria in that trans borders worker relief that says basically if you want to avoid paying tax in both jurisdictions you have to perform all of that work in the in the UK and Greg we found talking to groups such as the the Derry dinner Kenny digital corridor i know there's no more initiatives cross-border on the medical fields it makes those organizations very difficult to function because you're going to naturally have people from both sides of the border needing to go to both places to to make that happen and again what you don't want is people worrying about what are the tax implications if i join this organization and try and you know create that benefit for all so the impacts are sort of varied and many all right okay it's complicated i can understand why it's hard to get the message across and i can also understand how it's difficult maybe to get someone in Dublin to sort of grab this by the horns and and come up with an absolute resolution because it's a problem far far away and i think if you were sitting in a bar with someone who's living in Dublin and started explaining what you're explaining about how we have to live our lives up here they'd be going what Bodds really what i thought Donagall was in the north anyway or something like that you know what i mean all right listen thanks for that Connor i'm not sure i'm i'm not sure i know any more but i hope people that that's because it is complicated and it's not your fault because you explained it very well but i think people um who are in that situation it'll resonate with them very well so thanks so much for your time thanks great all right take care of yourself Connor Dowds there who was the co-chair of the cross-border workers coalition so hopefully that to some extent has um helped that listener hi Greg our own traffic lights at McGinley motors another accident wait to happen cars turning up justice walsh road while on red going on green for straight uh and they turn up on red it's also slowing traffic down learn to use traffic lights folks says that motorists um let me see hi uh Greg i may have missed it but was there any uh ever any determination of what caused the horrific Chrysler tragedy uh no it's obviously a very very complex multi agency international investigation and we heard uh coincidentally from Drew Harris there in the bulletin um he expects uh a satisfactory i think that's the words he used outcome to it uh the answers will be delivered but they are uh going to take their time and i don't think anyone well i can't speak for anyone but i imagine i'm guessing that no one wants it rushed uh because it's going to be incredibly incredibly important uh why i don't know no parking signs at the pedestrian crossing in boncran it's not uncommon for school children to come on to the road from behind a lorry and it is a crash waiting to happen also there are no loading bays for lorries on the main street and that was a follow-on from our conversation about the traffic in ballet buffet and we got so many messages that i simply could not read them out uh but let me just tell you the overwhelming majority of people believe that the traffic crossings particularly the bank one in ballet buffet needs to be looked at but we had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of um comments on that the caller says the pothole and convoy was filled but it seemed to be a patch job and it started to open up again with a few days the council do fill potholes but the quality of repair work never seems to be enough uh to last for very long hi greg there's an unreal bad pothole on the way up to glenili's school it would affect the cars coming down from school then on the way to ballet buffet on the back road people will definitely damage uh their cars and another one here before break i was driving this morning and i cleared the snow from the windows before i set out to work but not the roof driving along the road the snow fell off the roof down on top of the front window screen not only did it give me a fright but it could have put me off the road less than learned clear the entire car before you set out in the morning probably not bad advice the nine till noon show is brought to 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government has announced a multimillion euro scheme to repair Celtic tiger air apartments after it was revealed that thousands across the state were not built standard the cabinet agreed to draft legislation to support the remediation of apartments and duplexes with fire safety structural safety and water ingress defects a working group report published in july i found up to 100 000 apartments and duplexes built between 91 and 2013 were defective with fire safety being the most prevalent issue the scheme is estimated to be worth up to 2.5 million and it's expected that it'll cost around 25 to 30 000 euro i think to fix each apartment but it's been made very simple people aren't going to have to do it individually it's going to be a whole building approach the fixing problems really um before anyone can identify them and if you've began work or you've done work it looks like you will also get payment for that retrospective sounds nothing like the defective concrete scheme does it and owns joins us now good morning an good morning Greg right i mean the first line here is the Dublin scheme is a disgrace it's a disgrace in the context of what we're going to talk about it's fantastic if you're affected by this it's a well bells and whistles scheme but when you look at it compared to what was offered to homeowners in donningall and elsewhere it's just it's insult injury isn't it we don't begrudge these people i'm delighted but it's insult injury absolutely as campaigners we totally welcome this announcement um we're delighted for the people but i would temper that by saying that what we do not welcome is the difference in the way that we've been treated so you know mica homeowners need and deserve what i call hashtag parity with the pain there's nothing short of blatant discrimination in how they how they have been treated and how we have been treated and as i say best of luck to them we're fully behind them but i mean the decision to you know give them 100 percent of those apartment donors and duplexes it's simply discriminatory it's unfair it's lacking in natural justice and i mean if you'd allow me just a few minutes uh greg to go through a comparison of why we are as campaigners very upset about this announcement so the people in Dublin in the duplexes will be getting 100 percent redress though the no cap they will not be tied to the 2007 regulations all affected can apply on a complex by complex basis retrospective payment will be permitted so if you've already fixed your home to the standard that's acceptable you can recoup everything that you've spent an office is to be made available to them specifically at the headquarters to provide advice assistance and support no campaign was required no campaign and the scheme will be based on primary legislation let me compare that with what we have had in Donegal first we're in the 12th the year of our campaign and that protracted campaign i cannot underestimate the effect that this campaign has had on the memble and the physical health of our homeowners and indeed our campaigners we are left now with a flawed scheme on flawed houses caused as you know greg and everybody listening to this will know caused by soft touch regulation and nothing short of gross negligence at a local and national government level we're left with a foundation issue the government actually expect us to go without looking at our foundations we all know with that but a lot of people don't know about and it's something that i've been trying to bring up at all levels and that is their legal and technical issues for repairing and rebuilding semi-detached and terraced homes i don't know if you repair this on your program so far but anybody in a semi-detached house or a terraced house for example greg in order to demolish their house all the parents will need indemnification from their adjoining neighbor now what neighbor in a rotten like a house is going to give that indemnification because it's a very good chance for the woodworm are holding hands the maker woodworm i was there to that if one house is demolished that the other house will fall or be for sure and listen there are some and we have discussed that over the years and i mean there's complications if one were council owned one was privately owned maybe one person wanted on the scheme the other person didn't want on the scheme maybe one of the resources to go on the scheme the other could be an older couple who don't have the cash to make up the shortfall i mean the the problems there are are are are evident it's like and it's like the it's like they took a submission as to what would be a good scheme for donnie gall what we were looking for up here and without a campaign they said well look at these ones in donnie gall have given us all the things a good scheme must have so lots of the stuff that was refused for the people of donnie gall uh it's it's almost like it's been copy and pasted into what seems like a really good scheme for the people of doublin and let me ask you put put something else to you as well and unfortunately by the way i just want to say charlie mccunlough is not available this week to speak to us okay so we've made inquiries why am i not why am i not surprised yeah well he's not joe mcqueen we can't get through to joe mcqueen to get any response from him so this is i i think i think when there's sort of you've you look at this this story along a line i think this is this is a marker where this is one of the most important days in the in the effective concrete story for me anyway and unfortunately neither charlie mccunlough or joe mcqueen perhaps for good reason are available to speak to us today and listening um listening and to um the way darrell brine framed the current scheme here in donnie gall it sounded like he thinks it's not too bad you know that that things are working let's just listen to i want to just play a little clip of what he said a little earlier on just to see if we can get a sense of it the issue with regard to to banking and how how mortgage lenders are dealing with some homeowners there's an issue that's been raised with me which will continue to address with the banks also and i'll address this directly with residents i'm pleased to see alaskan corolla as well that we're seeing applications particularly in donnie gall and may have been processed through the system now being processed effectively and efficiently we've a lot more to do in that space but all of those homeowners will receive the benefit of the revised scheme the revised 100 percent redress scheme and i'll keep the deputy informed of our engagement with regard to the banks on the mortgage issues now listen we've heard the bank stuff a million times now i don't think anyone thinks anything's going to change there but is is the scheme working effectively and efficiently onto the new he also referenced it in an earlier clip onto the new enhanced 100 percent redress scheme is that how it is on the ground and in donnie gall look i don't know like a great all i can say is that talks cheap and can i just you said something very important there with regard to the variation and to the machines i would say i would go to say is that the government took like a homeowner's wish list and used it as a template to give to write up the scheme for the apartment owners i would actually say they use our wish list as a template but going on from what he said again talks cheap and i just heard from all of our councillors this morning that and this is this is definitively true this is empirical evidence 50 percent of all applications coming into the council at the moment are breaching the existing cap and that is even taken into account the increase in the seai figures so 50 percent of our applications are breaching the cap they don't include foundations i take it on no they don't include foundations we don't know where that will be in the new regulation uh because we don't have them yet the enhanced regulations we don't have them yet we're not predictive yet but 50 percent of applications coming in according to martin mcdermott are breaching the existing cap so what does that mean in reality that that means that people will have to find the balance of that money themselves now people will be forced into incredibly difficult circumstances so if you do professionals working in a house you have a good chance of finding the money to fix their house they will actually have to say they won't be getting susie grants for their children if they have children they will be forced into the situation where they will have to decide do i educate my children because i won't qualify for this the susie grant or do i repair my house that they are the lucky people there will be other people who just don't have 40 50 or 60 no most people don't i mean unless unless they're different unless they're different people i know no one i know could put their hand on 30 40 50 000 euro maybe it's just the the the circles i mix it but they simply don't and the older you get the less the less you know either you dig into the the the the slight bit of comfort you might have had for your retirement or you try and get along which you probably won't get and and and what i don't understand and and anyone sitting around this ministerial table uh to who approved this what i can't understand is that you accept that people of dublin are more deserving than people in donna gole because the only difference here is is that people of donna gole were wronged at a higher price they did nothing wrong the people in dublin done nothing wrong the only difference is is that uh it costs more to fix the donna gole problem so people are being discriminated against it's plain as the nose on my face these are all victims yet the victims in dublin are being looked after fair play to them the victims in donna gole and elsewhere they're being thrown this mess to try and unravel to see if they can get some some sort of repairs onto their house it's so unfair i don't know how anyone could sit around a ministerial table and tick off on this i would have said i am not approving this until you i'm not approving this until you apply the same rules to the scheme in donna gole and i and i would have got up and walked out Greg you know what we are all citizens of this country and i thought our constitution said that we got that meant we were equal and i thought that our constitution would then confirm that there should be natural justice for all citizens of the state but it would appear to me that there is divide um actually you've got inside the pale you've got outside the pale and that there is a huge disparity in how people in those circumstances are treated which again Greg leads us on to an argument which is not part of it today but why should that why does that exist because there's 30 there's probably 30 30 30 000 votes up here and maybe half a million votes down there maybe a million i don't know that's that i mean is that is that is that what it comes down to is that the currency absolutely but i go back to citizenship and natural justice and we have to Greg ask our td we have to particularly ask our minister at the table charlie mcconn logue why he permitted this travesty and why the why it was obscured and hidden after the day before it was announced because because it was actively it was actively suppressed it was actively suppressed it was released it was released between christmas and new years and people not me were asked to sit on it and some people did and as soon as i heard about it as soon as i heard about it i'll put it out there but absolutely i'm not talking about doing great no no i'm not being defensive i'm not being defensive but i know this i know this was i know i know a lid was kept on this i know it was um our tv and our minister at the table was involved in this decision he was actively involved in this decision he was part of it and i mean i mean the anger the anger that is out there from nika homeowners i mean it's nothing short of a re trauma it you know this is going to fuel further anger uh further distress retraumat and huge political semester that is to say if we in donny gold could get any more cynical no well that's the problem i was going to say that yeah all right and listen we're going to we're going to continue to cover cover this thanks for accepting our invite this morning thank you avan shawflin good morning to you avan what's your take on this thanks for speaking to us again hi how's it going greg all right um i just wonder where if you get a double in uh uh postcode uh this morning because um just really shocked reg at that you know that that took 12 months to to get this scheme up and running and it's um just shocking for those and other where you uh own an apartment you have been fighting for everything that was delivered for people last night and yet here you are uh with one arm as long as the other no help for you really at all it must just be extra bad for you it is greg it's a kick in the teeth like um to me this is discrimination at the highest level um and for our brain to say that the scheme is in place and it's working effectively is the biggest little rubbish um we are stuck we are ourselves we're stalled in the scheme at the minute because we have a duplex apartment and there's so much complications with it um it's just it's unbelievable like it's just just a kick in the teeth and as you say you're standing with one arm longer than the other we're no better off 10 years later greg fighting and emailing and just i mean that's a big part of any of our lives uh have on for this cloud this cloud to be hanging over everything from everything in your life i presume goes through this filter this this defective concrete filter greg you have no idea you have no idea the stress and the torture and the torment and the actual despair that we as a family have went through our children has grown up with nothing but mecha you know we're not even living in our apartment because it's so dangerous you know there's a big block cell off two days ago because of that freezing and the thorn and there's another pet hanging just in the balance i was just listening to i was listening to some of the conversation yesterday and i wanted to go to eileen but eileen if it's okay if you hang up we'll come back to you after 10 they were talking yesterday about how this is good because there was a fire and someone couldn't really have died and we've seen what happened in grenfeld and we don't want that happening in dublin and i was thinking and i don't know how to phrase this with the sounding wrong but if a what where would we be at if one of these walls and it could have happened fallen on it on some kids playing football against the gavel or if a chimney stack fell down in the car and killed people would we have to be arguing like this avan does it would it have taken the loss of life for dunagall to be looked after correctly because it seems our good luck in that regard has worked very much against us yeah oh absolutely i don't even know if that would um uh you know bring things on greg to be honest because the way that we've been treated i mean i have a gas our apartment is gas it was a twist in balden like and i have sent us to um to the housing department and the environmental health i have i don't know i have about a thousand emails sent all over the country and not one like not one better help when we received we're not even loving on the apartment greg like he had to move out and listen i think i can read between the lines of what you're you're saying there as well avan and the potential dangers listen we're going to return to this as well avan thank you so much for your time i really appreciate it avan and i'm really sorry that you're waking up with this slap again all right thanks so much indeed the 90 noon show is brought to you by letter kenny credit 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opportunity employer highland radio weather updates with ireland west airport thinking of a sun holiday this summer with the family flight to alicante malaga faro lansarote miorca and Milan with ryan air ireland west airport don't just take off take it easy any wintry showers will clear through the morning mostly dry weather will follow for the rest of the day with sunny spells although some mist and fog may linger locally with little or no wind another cold day highest temperatures just one to four degrees right just have to catch up on one last break before we get the news and obituary notes is stay tuned back with more on the nine till noon show afterwards 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 for day today health care needs generations have trusted the experienced staff at mickey's chemist letter kenny from coughs and colds to aches and 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prsi and now those sounds are back so's my jar de vivre still can't find those keys though book a free hearing test today terms and conditions apply see our website for details the clan re hotel presents nathan cardering concert this friday 20th doors open at seven show starts at eight p.m tickets are 30 euro each and available from the hotel reception that's nathan cardering concert this friday night at the clan re hotel letter kenny do you know what i love about letter kenny shopping center i love it because everything i need is under one roof there's fashion shopping for women and men health foods and cosmetics test schools and pennies free parking and late night shopping thursday and friday i love it because letter kenny shopping center has it all including homework jewelry hair and beauty and revolution laundry and their free car park letter kenny shopping center so much choice and open seven days live on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning it's 10 o'clock dodle kavna at the highland radio news desk the gar the commissioner has confirmed that gar thee are continuing to liaise with the coroner in a bid to reach a conclusion in the investigation into the creasel at tragedy 10 people died following the explosion at a shop and filling station in october in the aftermath the scene remained closed for a number of weeks to allow gar thee and other experts from overseas gather evidence gar the commissioner drew harris sense while the outcome is uncertain they are hopeful that they will come to what he termed a satisfactory solution together with the experts who are working on this we would hopefully get to you know a satisfactory conclusion as to the cause of this but this is that'll be part of the investigation uh then that we would support in terms of the investigation into the coroner so that we have responsibility in terms of the coroner the information that we would gain through investigation and reporting to the reporting to the coroner ultimately we would hopeful we get to uh some final explanation um as to what happened and that's what we're working towards obviously the genefin leader says there is now a sense of movement toward the restoration of power sharing in northern arland thonished me hall martin and northern secretary chris heaton harris are among a delegation attending a key meeting of the british irish intergovernmental conference in farmley today there's been no government at storm and since last may's assembly elections with the d up demanding changes to the northern arland protocol maryl mcdonnell says she believes a deal can and will be done soon eight months on there is now an urgent and pressing need for government to be reestablished and there is now finally a sense of movement finally a sense that a reasonable rational approach can be taken and a deal can be struck on the outstanding issues around the protocol that those matters can be resolved that we can then get back to work donnie goll county council is being urged to erect a better signage advising hgvs and large vehicles not to drive down market square in letter kenny officials say there are two signs in place but councillor jimmy cavernous says there needs to be earlier signage he outlined a recent case where a lorry driver from northern arland got stuck at the top of the square and only managed with great difficulty to get back to the cathedral he says the warnings need to be visible sooner and he believes that officials have taken that on board you do need far earlier warning and in fairness to the engineer there today i think he's taken that on board and will be better cities will be provided there i think also you know at times people use sat nav and so on and it doesn't necessarily provide them with the route the best for the vehicle they're driving so need to be careful with with that and we really do make need to make sure that the signs are very visible and easily seen barring a political mishap the next general election will be in the autumn of next year tisha glee of radgar has indicated to his finaguel colleagues he wouldn't like to see a winter election instead it looks like people will go to the polls in the autumn of 2024 according to the aries independent all three coalition leaders will decide on a date together so the government can work out a vote transfer packed and road users are being warned of potentially dangerous driving conditions again this morning as the call snap continues met air and nation-wide status yellow ice warning is in place until midday and advisory remains in place in dunigol until tomorrow it's urging people commuting to be mindful of icy stretches on roads and footpaths alan orreilly from carlo weather says temperatures will rise over the weekend saturday morning really we should be back to most areas haven't taught at that stage or time and there may be some showers that could potentially fall as sleet and snow before turning terrain and but by by saturday afternoon temperatures will be back up above freezing well above freezing and by sunday we're looking back up to 10 degrees so we're we're nearly at the end of it well forecast any wintry showers will clear through the morning mostly dry weather will follow for the rest of the day sunny spells with some mist and fog lingering locally with lettler no wind another cold day top temperatures just hitting one to four degree celsius tonight again very cold with frost and icy patches dry early with some clear spells but mist will thicken into dense freezing pog in places lowest overnight temperatures minus five to minus two in just light southeast breezes some sunny spells will develop mr fog will persist across some inland areas tomorrow it'll be less cold than recently on friday with top temperatures four to five degrees celsius in light southeast breezes and that's island radio news we're back with news again at 11 o'clock until then from the news team have a very good morning a veteran notices for a thursday morning january 19th the death has occurred of catherine kitt mcgarline knee convery newtown conningham county donagall formally koon lasilla maharah funeral from her home lawn glass newtown conningham on saturday at 11 15 a.m for 12 noon recreation mass in all saints church newtown conningham interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family time from 11 p.m to 11 a.m family flowers only donations in louis donagall hospice the death has occurred of ann mcqueen knee mccann the commons killie begs county donagall remains are posing at her residence today from 10 a.m to 10 p.m removal tomorrow at 1 30 p.m to st mary of the visitation church killie begs for 2 p.m funeral mass burial afterwards in the local cemetery mass will be streamed live on mcn media dot tv family flowers only please donations in louis if desired to the north west hospice slago the death has occurred of aileen chuvlin knee mccannaman church road killie begs and formally of belalt crossroads killie gordon remains are posing at her residence today from 12 noon until 10 p.m removal tomorrow morning at 10 30 a.m to st mary of the visitation church killie begs for 11 a.m funeral mass the mass will be streamed live on mcn media dot tv burial afterwards in the local cemetery family flowers only please donations in louis if desired to the killie begs community hospital care of any family member or mcberty funeral directors house private on the morning of the funeral please the death has occurred of hui eamon magarra v chapel road bring the lack we door removal today from eternal light chapel of rest mountaintop letter kinny at 2 p.m going to his son hughes residence chapel road bring the lack funeral from there on saturday going to check pubble column kill knock follow for recreation mass on saturday at 11 a.m follow by interment in the adjoining cemetery rosary both nights at 8 p.m family time from 11 p.m to 11 a.m funeral mass can be viewed live on charlie mcclaffrey funeral directors facebook page family flowers only please donations in louis arish alcimer's unit gwee door care of any family member the death has occurred in london england of christopher dordy christie gill the rock fa fena ballet magan bon crana christie's remains will arrive at 6 p.m today's to st mary's church cock hill to repose overnight funeral tomorrow at 11 a.m with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery funeral can be viewed live on church services dot tv the death has occurred of ronan roddy trend the mullin sternorder remains are posing at mccullis chapel of rest ballet buffet this evening from 6 p.m until rosary at 9 p.m when his remains will be removed to the family home funeral leaving his home on saturday morning at 10 30 a.m for recreation mass in the church of mary a maculite sternorder at 11 a.m interment afterwards in drumbo cemetery the recreation mass will be streamed live by the parish webcam donations in louis flowers if desired directly to the donagall hospice care of any family member the house is private to family and close friends please the death has occurred of mary mcgonagall knee o donal chris lemore born foot her remains will repose at her home today from 12 noon removal on saturday morning at 10 15 a.m to st murray's church fawn for recreation mass at 11 a.m fall by interment in the adjoining cemetery recreation mass can be viewed on church services dot tv family time pleased from 11 p.m to 11 a.m family flowers on the police donations in louis if desired to ballet trim house for foe care of any family member or murphy funeral directors the death has occurred of annie boyle knee mcclund lock krillin road and formerly ochle and the crows reposing at chilvans funeral home sandfield are dry this afternoon from 3 30 p.m for removal at 5 30 p.m to arrive in st connell's church glendys at 6 p.m to repose overnight funeral mass tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m with burial afterwards in the local cemetery funeral mass can be viewed live on church services dot tv family flowers only please donations in louis if desired to killie begs community hospital care of james mcginnis and some's funeral director me and street glendys or any family member the death has occurred of michael tommy boyle lock fad reposing at his daughter's residence at five golf cottages cloney rosary tonight at 9 p.m funeral from there tomorrow morning at 11 a.m for recreation mass and st connell's church kill cloney with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery house strictly private on the morning of the funeral family flowers only donations in louis if desired to the alzheimer society donnie gall branch care of james mcginnis and son's funeral director or any family member the death has taken place of frank sweeney ballet mcgown fan it removal from the eternal light chapel of rest mountain top letter kinny this evening at 5 p.m going to sing columbus church mass mount with rosary at 6 p.m requiem mass tomorrow morning at 11 a.m with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery funeral mass can be viewed live on st mary's fan of ulti and sing columbus mass mount facebook page house private please family flowers only please donations if desired to fan it day center care of amon scott funeral director the death has taken place of moira clinton knee she's glass a fan it moira's remains were opposed at her late residence from 10 30 a.m this morning rosary at 8 p.m requiem mass will be held at st mary's church fan of ulti at 1 p.m tomorrow afternoon fall by burial in the adjoining graveyard house private on the morning of the funeral the requiem mass can be viewed live by a st mary's fan of ulti and sing columbus mass mount facebook page family flowers only please donations in louis if desired to fan it day center care of any family member or market here funeral directors the death has taken place of josey diva tyrna league caron donna remains were posing at her sister margaret's home at tyrna league caron donna funeral leaving their tomorrow morning at 10 15 a.m to church of the sacred heart caron donna for requiem mass at 11 a.m interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family flowers only donations in louis to the icu in letter can a university hospital care of any family member the death has taken place of edrid mcmonigal golin milford and laterally of termin funeral mass in st bridget church golin at 11 a.m tomorrow morning fall by interment in milford cemetery the house is strictly private please the death has occurred of ann kelly knee mcquee three st vincent's close balbuffet and formerly mean glass remains are posing at her late residence funeral leaving their tomorrow morning at 10 30 a.m for requiem mass in st mary's church she shall kneel at 11 a.m interment afterwards in the adjoining church yard the requiem mass will be streamed live by the parish facebook page donations in louis flowers if so desired directly to the donna goll hospice or care of any family member family time from 9 p.m to 11 a.m the death has occurred of patrick carlin formerly of litrim bogey newtown conningham mahan intellectual and disability service county sligo patrick is reposing at his sister urshula carlin's residence 20 green hill manor conningham today from 11 a.m funeral leaving his sister's residence tomorrow morning at 10 20 a.m going to st basins church st johnson for 11 o'clock requiem mass at burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery the death has occurred of sheamus mckeague one ash lawn letter kinny formally tore head county antrim reposing at the church of the irish martyrs bali rean letter kinny with 11 a.m requiem mass this morning which can be viewed online at the church of the irish martyrs youtube channel followed by interment in the family plot in conwall cemetery family flowers only pleased donations if wished to the friends of letter kinny university hospital care of pascal black funeral director the death has occurred of patty mcsheen five bali colman estate stirban formerly of burn denett remains reposing at his son joe mcsheen's home 114 berry hill road arty garvin stirban funeral leaving his son's home this morning at 10 25 a.m for requiem mass in st mary's church clock or at 11 a.m. interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery and the death has taken place of eddie mclochan 45 carry gullion lowered stirban and formerly of legford drum remains reposing at his home funeral leaving his home this afternoon at 12 15 p.m for requiem mass in the church of the immaculate conception stirban at 1 p.m. interment afterwards in stirban cemetery donations in lieu of fliers pleased to the foil hospice care of quickly funeral directors family time please until 11 a.m the requiem mass can be viewed live by the parish webcam for more details including any family health guidelines for wicks and funerals please go to highland radio dot com okay you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show here on highland radio good morning if you are just joining us your bingo numbers are on the way of course it is jackpot day so lots of you interested in that uh good morning greg i hope joe and charlie and this government is finished next time around big time it's time for the people to wake up in this country this government is bringing in new laws every month and we just sit back and take everything it's coming to a stage in arland greg you'd need three jobs to pay the bills coming in the door i understand where you're coming from but just in terms of waking up um tens of thousands of people from donagall took time out of their busy schedule to go down and you know campaign at the the doors of power what that achieved or not has to remain remains to be seen but it's not over yet either hi greg as one of your guests intimated there is no natural justice for the micro sufferers of donagall the Irish constitution is simply not fit for purpose you can rightly call it discrimination but what it uh it all comes to is that democracy is a false religion led by the Dublin government again it's donagall the forgotten canty it's about time that this canty stood up for itself because the likes of charlie mcconnellog donagall td isn't going to open his math because he's too scared to lose his job well charlie it's time that you stood up for the people that voted for you and other the people of donagall should stop complaining for almost a hundred years they voted fenigale and fenigale and will continue to do so in the future like obedient fools what more uh those in power in Dublin know this is uh so why should the care what happens in donagall well most people in donagall who are elected uh aren't fenigale or feniform i take your point but there's two shin fame representatives one independent and one fenigale who's not in fenigale parliamentary party uh and um charlie mcconnellog so you could say he encountered donagall at the moment there's one elected td who is a member of the parliamentary party for which he was elected um so what else do you want people to do uh greg just cannot believe for what has happened i'm at my wit's end and this morning uh how how can this be allowed to happen just devastated another it simply stinks the scheme for Dublin is to fix poor workmanship and corner cotton on fire safety would be very easy to go after anyone who did this work simply wasn't done as it should have been mica and pirate issue is a whole different ball game but it isn't it isn't it's regulations weren't followed or enforced in either let's just call it donagall i mean we know there's 12 other counties and and more but let's just say say well it this is about regulations not being followed or enforced um the cost to someone in Dublin happens to be around about 25 000 the cost for someone in donagall happens to be much more it's the exact same thing as far as i'm concerned and the people of donagall should be treated the same as those in Dublin neither of neither homeowner flat owner apartment owner are at blame one that's being recognized and they're being compensated 100 percent in other cases it's not being recognized and they're being sold uh uh it's the best we can do type of scheme the poor taxpayer blah blah blah not a problem in Dublin is there any difference between the situation that exists in northern Ireland with discrimination where we have people in Dublin making decisions over the mica issue uh good morning Greg why does our government have such disdain for donagall when our local minister at the table won't come on this morning show where to show where he stands Fina Fall and Finnegell have done their research donagall and other rural counties mean nothing to all of them which is why they're so underfunded and under resourced wake up people i hope Charlie Mcconnellogue, Joe McHugh and now Blaney are unavailable at election time Charlie should come on the radio plain and simple he should be made come on and explain to his electorate this morning we can't be compelled to do anything we can simply extend an invite and more uh coming in here um keep them coming we are going to be continuing on that topic and very much more uh to come between now and 12 so it's going to be another busy show let's take a break for those obituary not the obituary notes there's a bigger part in the bingo numbers the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on Highland Radio it's time for NCBI bingo on Highland Radio it's Thursday the 19th of January jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 13 800 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s14 it's game number three the jackpot number is number nine this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers 68 86 42 57 27 79 12 16 8 and finally 58 phone your claim to nine one zero four eight double three before eight tonight leave 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 Highland radio dot com winter sale at Brian McCormick sports now on in-store and online discounts of up to 30 percent off asics new balance brooks and hoca footwear gt 2000 gel cumulus new balance 880 hoca clifton 8 to name just a few treat your feet in our winter sale grab a discount and stretch those legs look the part play the part in store and online click and collect on bmcsports.ie at centra this week we have great offers like centra fish arch chicken breast fillet 680 gram only 699 centra soup 400 gram selected range any two for 350 and cassiero del diablo cabine souvenir only 10 euro smart choices choose centra centra live every day enjoy cosensibly the 9 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 9102 127 okay aileen mcloughlin long joins us now aileen sorry for having to hold you there over from the news your initial reaction to the announcement of this scheme for a Dublin home owners what's your feelings on it um hi Greg um i'm not one but surprised the government doesn't shock anybody anymore but it's absolutely disgusting yet again we've been given a slap in the face and the people of Dublin are coming up from so nothing new there and i know to someone who speaks on behalf of Dublin apartment holders recognizing that they don't want the government to do to them uh what they're doing to the people of Donegal i thought it quite a remarkable intervention what's your situation how are you affected by this aileen um well we discovered about maybe our house is 17 years old we discovered about seven years ago like we were in denial obviously as usual with everybody would be but we discovered about seven years ago that yet we had mecca and then we went for the testing and almost two years ago we were all demolished but we can't go any further ahead because we can't afford to is that even under the enhanced scheme in inverted commas the one i mean we heard minister o'brown refer reference it as a 100 percent scheme in a clip this morning 100 percent but sure they're putting a cap on us but they're not um they're not rising with you know the rising inflation they're not going with the you know the the building um cost and the labor so i mean what's the point of putting a cap on something when everything is rising and rising it's just you put it right i i mean maybe this isn't yeah maybe this isn't sort of the biggest problem at the moment for you but like the foundations do you know if they would need to be changed or because i mean obviously that would be a further cost whether they would be paid for or you'd have to come up with the money yourself like would you be happy enough to build rebuild your house if you could on the existing foundations i wonder no way like that's you know it's common sense if it's in the blocks it's also going to be in the concrete i mean anybody with a nice a common sense would know that there and for them to even think that they can get away with that it's ridiculous that won't happen like to be put through the devastation of of demolishing your house and then to build on foundations that they won't even test or you know no that's ridiculous like it really is i mean is it clear how much money you might have to come up you would what would have to be able to come up with to rebuild your home we haven't had final figures but you're you can be chatting on the thing to 40 50 thousand i mean who's the second the moment line about no one you know it's ridiculous no nobody now you're you know you've been approved for demolition is the house habitable at the moment what's it like at the moment it it is at the moment um we have a gable out there that's extremely dangerous at the moment it's um it's uh bolstering out in the middle and twisting in the the corner um it's not looking too good we've had a few uh builders out and they have advices to get it fixed straight away but of course we don't have the money for that um i'd be thankful that the rain isn't coming on top it's like a lot of houses um we didn't get our house pumped thank god so that's a big advantage on our side but um it's just uh i don't know maybe another year if we're lucky but um you know like that goes at the house apart i mean obviously there's i'm not talking about everything in life being hopeless but in terms of your house getting your house getting a house back it is hopeless i mean i'm not sure even if you would have uh if you would have been inclined to maybe if if you could take the maximum and build a smaller house that might not have suited you but even that option uh was taken off the table by government it's difficult like how do you in terms of where you live going forward do you what what what is what's your future eileen well you know would you have said there about drawing thousand why should we yeah no i get you that's why i said it might not apply to you yeah you know why should anybody do inside when they're still like we're still paying our mortgage like so you know for another 15 years you know and with three young children so you know it's the government going to swoop in and say about you will take a five ten years off your mortgage no so we won't be doing something um for them to even suggest that it's another himself yeah no i don't know i mean you know it's too bad when you have worked hard and saved and you know saved you know going on holidays sacrifice going on holidays etc why we should have to know in the future we're going to have to sacrifice a lot of things that the kids should be doing just to get our house back to some normality if there's there's no end in sight and this house is as you've mentioned yourself you're still paying a mortgage on so in other words even if you were to consider at some point you might have to move out rent to pay mortgage and rent for normal families it's not it's just not doable like it's and yet we're we're here to arrow brian saying this is a great scheme and it's working and people are on it and they're moving through it and it's effective and it's gonna you know like it's just uh your reality it's it's just heartbreaking that someone like you has to listen to that that's that's what i'm trying to get why should you have to listen to why should you have to listen to other people get a brilliant scheme that gavel you talked of if this was Dublin and you did fix that gavel um or something similar to to their scheme you would get refunded for that work here don't touch it because if that's that's dead money if you spend it now you know another example of how it's so different up here compared to the capital yeah um they just um and even if you did go to do any work like they'll say all right you you put the money up front first and then we will refund you down the line who is that kind of money to uh you know you can't pull a what five or ten thousand out of a bag you know they just think that we're made of money and um do it yourself and we'll sort you out maybe down the line it's such ridiculous um they don't have a clue words are easy to them but they're not living in the reality of it and the fact that they have come up to people's houses and seen the harsh realities of what some families are having to go through and that they can sleep at night it's a disgrace because what's even worse is it's being spun uh it's been spun nationally and on national media that don't it all sorted that that we we got don't it all done and now we're focusing on Dublin and that's what's extra frustrating that we're up here knowing the reality and they're down there spinning this tail that everything is fixed up here or it will be fixed because they've financed this fully funded brilliant scheme the only thing that would help us is if we had a voice at that decision making table to say hello and you lads it's not fixed up in Donegal we can't sign off on what's happening in Dublin until we get Donegal right but unfortunately that didn't oh it doesn't happen and and here we are here we are again having to beg moan complain but it's because we've been put into this position it's not our choice it's not what we want to do Eileen you want to be living in the house that you've worked very hard to build without a worry in the world as it relates to the structure of that house but that's not we can't pretend that's not real the real you're outlining your reality there's very little hope in terms of you know the accommodation yeah I mean there just seems to be no way forward and you know when you hear other people stories like I mean you know it just begs you hard for even everybody is in it together and like some of the cases like water flooding and like you know day and night that's not that's no way of living you know children breathing in mould you know I can't understand this government they they're just great and that's really important you make that that black mould and I tried to push it as much as I could in this show how dangerous it is lifelong health impacts for young children living in these homes inhaling that lifelong potentially now I don't want to scare anyone but it is it's very very dangerous prolonged exposure to it it's not just you have bad breathing and when your house is fixed it's gone it can cause long term lung issues we heard that from a lung expert one of the the top lung experts in this country and that doesn't seem to matter to people that make these decisions they you know the government know all this um they just they they're doing nothing and it goes to show you um they need cut out it it's shocking that they're letting this happen but they wouldn't let it happen in Dublin no that's for sure and you'd not not one foot had to hit the streets of Dublin either to get this scheme it's like they took all what we were looking for up here and just delivered it for Dublin in a year primary legislation no talk of skipping uh you know legislative review none of that crack that we had to do here none of this oh listen you better accept this because time's running out and this is the best deal on the table and all that nonsense we've been fed for the last 10 or 11 years there was none of that there was right there's 2.5 million we're going to make it really easy you don't have to do it individually whoever manages the apartment block can do it for you we're going to get everything sorted if you've already spent money don't worry that's refunded we're going to get your properties back to exactly the way they should have been everything that people up here were looking for has been delivered without a foot haven't hit the tarmac in Dublin it's crazy i don't i don't get it eileen i'm sorry for everything you're going through i really am um thanks for helping us understand the reality of living with this disaster thanks great thank you very best wishes to all the family uh caller says i was invited to speak at a working group entitled working group to examine defects for housing because i was an estate agent in donny gall in july 2021 the chairman of the working group was all right i'm actually going to come back to that just because names i mentioned i just want to have one quick look over that uh what could our hard working minister be doing today that is more important than taking a few minutes out to talk to the people of donny gall what could our hard working minister be doing today that is more important than taking a few minutes out to talk to the people of donny gall that's according to a listener hello greg i was just wondering does anyone else think like me just wondering what would the six men that died in the 1916 think of the way ourland is being run today all others that died like them hope this doesn't start a big discussion thanks for keeping up the good work greg what the f are our councillors hiding or where are they hiding not one word from any of them each one needs to be called out now and ask are they with us or not because at the moment it looks like they are not morning greg a total joke that joe and charlie are hiding as they describe it once again the people of donny gall have been deprived to gain listening to that caller can only hope charlie mcconnellog hans is heading shame talking to the councillors a waste of time the different treatment between donny gall and doblin is terrible ultimately though ultimately uh i mean obviously the only thing we can control from electoral perspective is local but ultimately these are decisions that have been uh these are decisions that have been made by the government right a quick break back with more on this the 90 noon show with letter kenny credit union now offering mycu current account and debat mastercard bringing full banking features delivered with the same local trustworthy service of your credit union there's still time to 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this challenge find out more at gov dot ie forward slash reduce your use brought to you by the government of ireland foreign company are the north west's leading interiors paint curtain and blind and interior design specialists make a statement in style and give your home or commercial premises a fresh new look this year with over 25 years experience the in-house team of interior designers and paint color consultants will make it happen this month get a free one-hour color and interior design consultation at foyan company in itter kemmy book now to transform any room or commercial space on nine one two one nine two five around the northwest with john brasilan will come to you from the regional cultural center this friday to mark the launch of letter kenny tradweek join us for some music and chat with some very special guests that's around the northwest with john brasilan this friday from 12 noon till 2 30 p.m. okay um we've lots to get through um this morning but we're just going to stay for a moment more uh with this big story of a major 2.5 billion euro scheme announced for a dublin apartment owners it's a hundred percent redress um everything will be covered if they've spent money already uh that will be refunded to them if the work meets certain standards um they're not having to look at old building standards everything would be presumably right up to scratch now joe malkin good morning to you morning greg how are you i'm all right joe your reaction to this news ah i mean lost for words greg is probably the initial reaction and infuriated by the the confidence and pomp and ceremony that minister darrow brine put together in terms of that statement and that presentation of a scheme for apartment owners and double which they deserve by the way that the people have done he got a mail and and claire and limerick and beyond have been asking for it for 14 years and we didn't get and we got pushed back on all of the key elements that would have allowed every family with a defective black house to get on and remedy their homes it's it's unbelievable i i still think i have to be missing something i just i do not understand how they can let me propose discriminate well let's let's see how they can joe um you know uh we politics works in election cycles they knew they know you know that we talked about donagall first their mayo is 12 13 other counties it's going to be in every county i think in this country uh before the dust settles defective concrete they can't they don't want to take it on the they they're afraid of how much it might cost yet they can deliver what appears to be a big win uh in doblin for two and a half billion it maybe it's just simply political and and kreg that i mean you know what that's that's where i'm leading to as well because i i really cannot understand what what other driver is out there that would allow this very blatant discrimination to take place and if that is the case if it is the case that because donagall the northwest of ireland is uh as geographically dispersed from government buildings and densely populated urban centers if that's what's driving us it would shame on the government one but all of these developments and in terms of ongoing conversations that were happened with the u are being shared with key um representatives of the u to try and get to an appreciation as to whether there is a legal stance based on national discrimination based on national origin to see if there's um a role that the u can play to put this to stuff because i i can tell you as a homeowner that's been involved in the campaign and there are thousands of people that have done this for years and have expended huge effort it is so destroying to see a campaign that has really only come to the national for um international press over the last six twelve months in in my view now you've been given exactly what we've been asking for 14 years absolutely sold to join in the fact absolutely like i mean let's forget money right let's forget about money whether it's 25 or 420 how can it be legal right for one group of citizens to be treated uh different to all of us presumably it's down to uh lack it's down to not a lack of adherence to regulations and a lack of enforcement of regulations in both cases let's forget whether it's concrete or a fire door let's forget if it's 400 grand or 25 grand that shouldn't matter because fundamentally both sets of people have been wronged one have been perfectly looked after seemingly the others have been thrown under the bus that surely has to be discrimination i think you hinted at this already in your comments that that has to be wrong on a on a on a on a on a legal uh certainly wrong on a moral level but it has to be wrong on a legal legal level yeah and and greg i'm not a legal expert but i can't answer that question because i've been doing research into it and when we initially tackled this with your we were very much focused on concrete building and construction regulation within ireland and the homeowners have been screaming this for for the 14 15 years of the campaign that there has not been the right level of oversight by government and market surveillance authority that they are afforded from the EU relative to concrete building in in ireland right now we've been screaming this but the government themselves in written responses to the petty committee within the EU have confirmed this and indeed their their their own construction experts and industry experts themselves are also confirming that there is self-regulation within the construction industry within ireland that there's light touch that they don't have resources to go out and assess quarries except that none of that is happening at the level that it should be so that is confirmed right and when you have a confirmed position of that that then starts to feed into which is where i'm at at the moment to human rights infringements and that's what we're trying to get the EU to bite on now and it does specifically say within the european convention for human rights that you cannot discriminate against uh EU citizens based on national origin and national origin does not is not limited to what country you're born in it also speaks to groups of individuals within the same country and that's the argument that we're putting to the EU at the minute to see if we can get them to come in and stem what i believe is discrimination based on based on sparsely populated low electoral vote density areas within this country yeah i mean and and it's a it's a it's a good one to pursue uh and you know it might be found that that's the case but ultimately it's not perhaps going to change the reality for people and they're what they're living in is it or maybe it is i don't know no you make a good point i mean look the unfortunate thing is when we get into politics i think we were called out firstly we're paying fines for not adhering to um environmental regulations here in this country we're paying fines for not adhering to planning as it relates to that wind farm as it relates to the poisoning of our waters um we we ignored europe as it relates to vrt didn't we double taxing and stuff what else are we ignoring them on our our our rights to treat people with disability equally uh we ignored that uh so so i i don't think there's any hope that even if we can prove that they've discriminated along the grounds that you've said that it would have any really material effect on anyone's life other than you know them being called out for what for what's happening joe i'm not being negative but that's my take on it no greg you know what and and generally speaking when i come on your show and and speak to what we're doing and what's happening with the campaign i i typically and it's just my dna would be optimistic relative to where we're going next i i do have to say that this the developments this week have been hard to swallow and and and they would take away some of that level of optimism and even in relation to efforts that we are proceeding with with the e u like there's no there's no short resolution there the the the key players that we need to listen and get involved are heavily involved in issues in iran and in ukraine you know so they're obviously uh you know global it's very important work by the way as well i hope you know we all recognize that it is it's a very important strand of what we're doing or what you're doing it's there's a many strands to this nothing what you're pursuing in europe is incredibly incredibly important and we had that major conference and and and and so much more besides it's just amazing that we had that conference use had it i would say we want to say we i mean donnie goll i hope you understand what i mean joe yeah but we had that where we had people from california uh debbie and the rest of them we had people with the top experts from all over europe uh and none of that had to be done all they had to do to fix the situation in dobblum was take the donnie goll rule book that they never enforced it's it's absolutely unbelievable here's the one thing greg that that that we now know off the back of this week's development we know if there is a political will that there is absolutely no issue in making this happen now the political will is absent we have a donnie goll resident at the top table in kevinus who approved the scheme this week for donnie goll apart or for donnie dobblum apartment owners it can be done the response from that same minister charlie mcconnellough when we pushed and asked for exactly those parameters that have been afforded to the people of dobblum the response was to come on your show and due to his elevated educational levels to explain to us poor mortals the complexities of a sliding scale that will within weeks was trashed by bscsa so that's what we're dealing with and do you remember can we come back to the original scheme too joe uh people had to take the 9010 scheme at that time because they were said look at you know what if you don't take this scheme it'll require more legislation that could take years and years to get through the dole and there'd be no guarantees after it so take the 9010 now next thing you know part of the announcement from dire o brian is whether we primary legislation moving on there'll be this there'll be that no mention of it so we were treated like you wouldn't treat children like this we were told take this because the legislation would have to do new legislation and it will take ages and you know what and this that and the other and we would that was used as an excuse for people to swallow the first 9010 scheme and yet it's just a passing remark now maybe i hope i'm not conflating but it's just a passing remark that legislation or primary legislation will be established for this scheme yeah absolutely and if you look at all of the narrative um greg and that that one that you picked up was very interesting go beyond rts coverage yesterday where um it was stated the xjacker will be picking up the tab now it wasn't the taxpayer in this case it was the xjacker which is an institution within the government right it's not a citizen of ireland in terms of the narrative it's exactly the same thing but when it comes to fund the dunagall homes it's the taxpayer of ireland is paying for when it comes to fund them these apartments in goblin which the overall cost is much of a much less relative to the dunagall price point it's the xjacker it there's just a different narrative there's a different approach there's a different political will when it comes to addressing issues where electoral votes are and and that's the bottom line and and you're aware but for those listening who may not be aware your reference to the taxpayer and i talked about this earlier on as well right in the throes of when uh we were hopefully coming up to a conclusion that would be satisfactory it was leo for adcar himself and uh although something pascal donahoe who said that they had to be responsible that this was taxpayers money and every citizen ireland would have to contribute to this and then what happened on twitter then then what happened in twitter was people started saying well why should we pay for why should we pay for dunagall why should we do this that and the other and it started a narrative and it and it did chip away i think to some extent at the momentum um but as you quite rightly pointed out it's not the taxpayer anymore it's the coffers it's the checker it's the money resting in the government's accounts it's no worry don't worry it won't impact you you won't have to pay for it it's the exchequer it's it's it's it is very deliberate language absolutely yeah i mean look at beggars belief the last week i i i have no doubt that the development the developments this week have been extremely tough on the effect of concrete black homeowners and there's going to have to be a regroup look the pressure that's been put on dunagall homeowners predominantly only because the campaign's been on longer and that doesn't diminish in any way the other counties that are also impacted it's just the fight has been in dunagall for a a lot longer period of time and we've been squeezed and pressurized and pressurized and pressurized and pushed back and everything's been a really really tough struggle and i i just think that it's it's getting to a point where people are not able to take it anymore and i just my thought process is it's going to explode um i i think there's there's there really are maybe only one or two avenues and you know i think pared ever um related to it as several the disobedience and and the legal route and to be quite frank with you greg i i my view whilst we will continue to push in europe i think that's a long slog it's not going to solve it the other thing is is and i'll put it to eileen a little early ron let's just look at the timelines here um joe um foundations whether they've been included or not blah blah blah maybe the end of 23 start of 24 back and forwards hominin haran next thing you're in in the election cycle i'm not sure if in a fourth in again they don't think they would be they'd be crazy if they think they'll be back in government together you know this is going to be a shin fame problem before they have to sort it out so they can deliver the 2.5 from doblin with their fingerprints their stamp all over it right see the the effective concrete thing it can be very very easily kicked into the the the next government's uh into the next government's pitch so even if all of donogall descended onto the capital and shut it down i still think they have enough there laid out in front of them they can actually see out the rest of their term without actually having to really do anything else again sorry to be negative or or whatever but that's just politically the way it looks to me that this is already they've bought themselves over a year really with the whether or not you know foundations will be included and it would not be too difficult to run down the clock in 2024 yeah and look Greg i think unfortunately you're probably spot on and and i think it's it's it's shameful that that's where we find ourselves and that that's the way politics works in this country it's certainly not the the island that that we've all been uh proud to be citizens of and and you know to to be proud on the global scale in terms of what we achieve is such a small age and it's just it's despicable and it's disgraceful okay uh joe thanks for that we'll finish on that note uh we'll be back with more on the program after the break 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 reply online via our app or in office today if you're about to use an electrical appliance like your washing machine which uses a lot of energy just ask the question is this a good time ah yeah it's fairly breezy out you're good to go if it's windy out it is a good time because wind generates renewable energy which arland will be relying on more and more to find out the best times for your electricity usage sign up to our pilot at esbnetworks.ie slash pilot factory beef prices set to rocket for more in your farmers journal this paul mooney chinese bonuses tighter supplies and soaring demand are pushing beef prices skywards angry suckler farmers have their say in exit schemes farmyard thefts off the ritter scale we investigate quiche and gresham house tell us about their land purchase tactics the latest land leasing prices plus our special on calvin cameras milk replacers and calf feeders and don't miss our ceo and college guide inside this week's irish country living you cannot afford to miss it banking can make you feel a bit so why not switch to a provider that helps you take control of your finances the on post money current account lets you see exactly what's going on with your money and gives you control with the tap of a button switch with the on post money app or pop into one of our 900 plus post offices you don't even need to make an appointment take back power over your money today on post is authorized by the minister for finance provide payment services and is regulated by the central bank of ireland in the provision of such services hi trees manion here with the road safety alert for bad weather black ice is one of winter's biggest hazards and is hard to see watch out for sheltered or shaded areas on the road under trees and near high walls visit orsa dot ie from the road safety authority highland radio weather updates with our land west airport salla nines the beetles you can now fly to liverpool eight times a week with ryan air this summer ireland west airport don't just take off take it easy okay dope um the weather forecast uh for the rest of today i'll run for it for you anyway tree showers will clear through the morning mostly dry weather will follow for the rest of the day with sunny spells although some mist and fog may linger locally with little or no wind another cold day temperatures one to four degrees very cold again tonight with frost and icy stretches dry early with some clear spells however mist will thicken into dense freezing fog in parts lowest temperatures tonight minus five to minus two um and tomorrow we should start to see um temperatures creep up um in the low single mid-single digits four to five degrees tomorrow uh but that's the weather forecast another cold one today and into tonight um can i please say hi to our granny margaret mcgloughlin is in bernford how are you margaret i hope you're well this morning uh and your loving family hope you are warm in all that snow up in donig all a very special request to you from ena 11 and neve seven they're in dublin of course uh right so okay that's a big hi to granny margaret mcgloughlin and bernford coming in from ena and neve thinking on you today uh roads are absolutely terrible uh greg kill mcrennan to letter kenny awful after snow we uh just up the mountaintop here we just had a terrible uh heavy fall of snow there so that does not surprise me the road near educate together school cars are having trouble there again it's uh a big fall that we had recently mountaintop road is terrible cars are sliding everywhere we are told okay thanks for all of you all of you by the way for getting that information into us staying with the weather i've booked a theory test in letter kenny today i've been told by the rsa that i cannot cancel and reschedule my test as it's not a red warning i stated that i'm snowed in and the roads are i see people are being advised not to drive however the road safety authority told me to come on ahead or i lose my money for the test i do not think this is good enough from the road safety authority who should be put in safety first listen um we're going to follow this one up um that's completely completely unacceptable um right i know what to do leave that with us because this is the road safety authority telling someone drive in that crap snow or else you'll lose your money for your theory test what a way to send someone out for a career of driving it's hard not to swear sometimes you know um mica property owner have an ace card they need to use if 50k homes of mica why not stop the mortgage together they can't put together uh they can't put everyone on the street that's an average cost to the banks of 40 million each month watch the government stepping quick to resolve the problem then listen if you stop paying your mortgage your credit ratings ban jacks for probably forever and i'm not sure it would work if everyone did it's multiple lenders a lot of the houses are owned by vulture funds um you know they they can seize the property and then i don't know it's probably worth us them i don't know they don't care they often seize properties and sell them for 20 grand anyway uh there's the these banks are so big i'm not sure this little piddly bit of the market's going to put them up or down honestly i i know exactly where you're coming from but if if i think through it i just can't see how it make any material impact other than destroying any chance homeowners have of ever even getting a mobile phone contract let alone another mortgage or a car loan or something it's just a gamble i i would not be prepared to take and as i say these multinational bands uh banks vulture funds in some cases are they going to worry about 500 people in donningall not paying your mortgage i don't think so may well but listen but let me know if i'm wrong oh i'm not i'm not saying there's a right or wrong that's just uh the way i see it maybe it's time for an independence referendum in donningall for years we've been ignored by the government and our elected reps in government seem to have no influence over any decisions made that's not democracy and other in relation to all the trauma and discrimination that mica families are facing it's time we stood firm and told doblin enough is enough greg these representative counselors from donningall they basically sold us up the river once again it's an absolute disgrace the way mica families are being treated it's been obvious for years that they've no shame but now it's apparently of no conscience either the concrete that is mica in it all also is used in piping of roads what's going to happen when they start to crumble people need to look at the bigger picture how long does the road at what part of the road um how long does the road even need to last are you on about driveways um or road surfaces i'm not really quite sure uh but let us know and i'd be happy to um read that out again nothing is going to happen until uh they choke doblin and go up to doblin on a regular basis all they do is talk and it's not going to help hmm being listening to your show this morning greg great as always just when you said not one foot in doblin had to hit the street to get this scheme in place in doblin big question big question so who owns these apartments apart from the t-shirt leo owing one owning one who else benefits is it ordinary homeowners or property management companies and the likes well it's an interesting question isn't it the nine till noon show with letter kenny credit union do you need to switch your current account or loan we are now offering mycu current account and debit mastercard bringing full banking features and competitive rate switcher loans new this week in homestore and more all artificial plants are half price the better hurry because when all the half price artificial plants are gone they're gone also all rugs and all 100 percent cotton printed duvet sets are still half price but when all the half price rugs and all the half price hundred percent cotton printed duvet sets are gone they're definitely gone drop by your local homestore and more or visit us online at homestore and more dot ie homestore and more a happy home you may think you know driving but you don't know nissan e-power an electric motor that brings you the performance and response on the road that you demand charged by a petrol engine as you drive the thrill and economy of electric driving without ever having to plug in and it's exclusive to nissan who said you have to plug in to drive electric find the drive you've been looking for with e-power now available in the new nissan kashkai a unique electrifying experience now unplugged nissan innovation that excites are you tired of waiting for treatment or surgery did you know you can receive immediate treatment across the border under the new ni planned healthcare scheme at potentially no cost dunigal patients are still being treated with us at king spreech private hospital northwest post brexit the process is easy and our dedicated team will help guide you through it so why wait contact us today to find out how you can skip the written lists and receive treatment in northern ireland visit kingsbridge private hospital dot com because life matters get ready for our drass first festival of 2023 from friday the third to monday the 6th of february their country and western festival kicks off with patsy calvana and shuny cramsey in concert on friday afternoon entertainment with gypsy rovers and on saturday night a lane boil and many more acts the country and western festival our drass and bridget's bank holiday weekend lots of accommodation available see our drass dot i e okay it is 11 o'clock it's time to get a news update and we say good morning once again to emma ryan good morning emma thanks gray good morning there are currently 35 people awaiting beds at letter kenny university hospital a drop of 14 compared to yesterday the hospital is the fourth most overcrowded hospital in the country with 12 people on trolleys in the emergency department and 23 in wards elsewhere nationally 527 admitted patients are waiting for beds this morning that's according to today's ianimo trolley watch figures the garada commissioner has confirmed that garady are continuing to liaise with the coroner in a bid to reach a conclusion into the investigation in the 10 people died following an explosion at a shop in october last in the aftermath the scene remained closed for a number of weeks as garady and other experts from overseas gathered evidence garada commissioner drew harris is where the outcome is uncertain they are hopeful they will come to a satisfactory conclusion spencer road in dairy is currently closed due to a road traffic collision the closure is in place from the victoria road at the bridge to the traffic lights at simpson spray motorists are advised to take another route for their journey the leader of shin fian says she's more hopeful now than ever that the uk and eu can reach a deal on the post brexit trade agreement a midnight deadline to re-establish power sharing in northern arden looks likely to be missed because the d up is continuing opposition to the protocol it could mean another assembly election however mary lou mcdonald is hoping for a brexit resolution soon garady are calling for tougher laws to clamp down on people who assault them it's after new figures show 285 officers were injured after being attacked on duty last year it's an increase of 17% on the previous year demian mccarthy from the garada representative association thinks tougher action is needed and finally the hse is again advising people to top up their immunity ahead of the kraken variant of covid-19 becoming the dominant strain of the virus in the country there are a number of options for those in johnny gall to get their vaccines over the next week with clinics running until saturday and letterkinny and a pop-up clinic tomorrow in stern order more information on that is available on our website at highland radio dot com that's all for now we'll have a news update again at 12 noon but until then good morning thank you ammo watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com taking time out to visit a health care professional isn't always convenient that's why at irish life health we visit you with my clinic our members get virtual access to back in neck physiotherapy professional cancelling unlimited gp consultations and more search irish life health a better life with irish life health services available where covered on your plan and clinically appropriate professional cancelling available to age 16 plus back in neck physio to age 18 plus irish life health tech is regulated by the central bank of ourland terms conditions are all right gregg can you explain why we are getting the black mould is it because insulation is wet and walls are cold i i i i presume it's to do with dampness uh i don't know uh remark your scandal why are the block makers getting off with this another great to see charlie and joan co enjoying an easy ride on highland radio the voice of the donagall political establishment pretending to be the voice of the ordinary people well it's an interesting comment where is joan charlie hiding why have highland not got them on air first thing explaining themselves as to why once again they have not fought tooth and nail for the people of donagall who voted them in to do so i'm being a little bit facetious here but just we can't drag them onto the radio we can invite them uh onto the radio which we did uh neither are available today charlie's neither available today or tomorrow uh right okay let's move on to our next item although i think this is going to be fingers crossed job ethan do you hear me ethan i know ethan yes oh you can you're frozen there on me but that's okay as long as you can hear me that's the priority uh congrats do hear us isn't it sorry about your pardon congratulations ethan a third year at st columbus comprehensive glentes you were down at the btysc 2023 competition first place well done to you thank you talk to me about your project ethan well my project is a comparative study on the physiochemical characteristics and health warning properties of donagall had their honey versus manuka honey it's um it's all about honey uh i had great help um doing it from just the school and from yeah that line isn't brilliant i'll tell you what i might do ethan is we might get you on the telephone if that's okay uh whilst we are waiting on ethan to connect again ruth mc pollin is a maths and science teacher and runs the young scientist club in st columbus comprehensive glentes um we're going to hear from ethan a little bit more about his project but he already lost me about three words in so i look forward to explaining it a little bit more i mean this is this is really quite important stuff here uh that our young people are looking at ruth yeah good morning greg yeah i mean the young scientists here in uh we do in the comp we do at a weekly club and it all starts basically with the students coming in with sort of any question curiosity unanswered in the field of maths and science for themselves and then they just embark on a project they enter the young scientist and it's a feat itself to be accepted i mean only about 20 of the students that actually enter get accepted so we were looking enough we had two students new kennedy in the biological section and ethan jewhurst in the mathematical chemical and physical section entered and were accepted um keen was basically a lover of dogs and wanted to basically see if it uh depended on the breed of dog what microbes grow on the fur and would that have an impact on vulnerable people and then ethan obviously is immersed in honey where he lives they have lots of hives and the entire family have a hive each and they basically wanted to see why we weren't utilizing heather honey better in the local area everybody seems to go to manuka um especially for medicinal purposes so ethan just embarked on several several scientific investigations um again using facilities in atu and kili bags because we just didn't have the equipment then that was needed um to prove basically that heather honey uh in many cases was better medicinal than manuka i mean this all started because his brother actually is asthmatic and he wanted to have a look um he wanted to go down that route just basically see what i mean in terms of being shortlisted to to go on and present um the bar is incredibly high but then the bar to win is incredibly high as well i mean we are talking about some of the best young brains that we don't really know uh the the their options are unlimited almost in what they potentially could go on and achieve in the world of science in another areas so to come out on top of the first pile and then the second pile really is a remarkable achievement this is very technical scientific stuff here yes i mean as i said it all starts with a very simple idea but they then are judged several times over there's a panel of 80 judges you know and they're all you know experts in their field so you would have doctors and professors of microbiology etc interviewing them i mean ethan's only 15 and ethan is in third year and by god i mean after every interview the teachers aren't allowed to be there for the the judging interviews and we would reflect on it and i just thought to myself do you know what he has nailed every question you know and and it's all about it's about being passionate about it as well i mean he's immersed in it and loves it so you know like this i suppose it's all about making memories for the students and you want to make sure that you're hitting every sort of interesting gift and that's where you know we can offer the sport at the camp at glinty's we can offer the musical stuff and then we also want to offer you know the um the science stuff as well to make sure that everybody gets a fair chance all right uh ethan so uh good morning again ethan where did your uh and ruth has been outlining it to some extent but why did you particularly want to focus on this uh area yourself um well really i got into it because uh my dad was always pushing me to take honey um because it is a superfood i never thought it was so good for us and that's really what i was trying to uh uh to teach people and show that we have a hidden a hidden superfood that's not really talked about much um i wanted to uh i wanted to tell people that you didn't have to pay so much for some uh for high quality and how do you go about proving that ethan without being too technical because ruth was telling us uh of the uh the some of the process that you had to go through in terms of using uh facilities in kilibags and the atu facilities and what have you but so what did you try and then perhaps prove uh through the process well um honey has a lot of a lot of amazing properties like antimicrobial antibacterial antioxidants and anti inflammatory uh so what i did was i really uh phoned in on a few of the important ones being antimicrobial antibacterial antioxidants um and what i did was i actually went to atu and letter kenny uh it would because what i did was i i was actually uh allowed into one of their controlled laboratories where i done uh three tests uh a well diffusion for the antibacterial uh broth inhibition for the anti microbial and uh dpbh for the antioxidant uh it was it was it was a huge help atu were really good help i can't stress that enough uh i got i got in touch with a microbiologist there named uh jillian carney who really uh gave me a crash course in microbiology which is really what the tests fall under microbiology and chemistry um and so that's really how i got uh my uh my conclusion really and your conclusion was just to recap well um i did find manuka honey to be better what is that what so what is that honey sorry manuka honey what is that oh sorry so manuka honey is uh it's it's from the manuka bush uh which is normally grown in a climate like uh australia or new zealand uh it's really it's like the self-proclaimed king of honey it's um it's everywhere and what i was trying to put up was it's it's just really advertising what they're doing and uh what i came to was there's not really a best honey for uh everyone there's more of a best honey for you and not being local honey yeah that's that's quite interesting too honey is a superfood because i don't think there is another food that if uncontaminated doesn't spoil honey will does not spoil perpetually does it it does it doesn't spoil um that's remarkable in and of itself um and that's because of uh it's low moisture content uh you see you see you can get uh anything called pastries honey or adulterated or blended honey even uh which is what you find in those uh with the bottles supermarket uh and what they've done is they've actually uh boiled it and they've turned it into more of a sweet sugary syrup and they've mixed it with all these uh contaminants and that's it really ruins it probably shouldn't be called honey exactly um it really isn't honey uh real honey so where do you go from here Ethan in your career now i mean obviously i mean you're really young um but obviously you're you're you're brilliant uh you don't get first place in this competition in this area if you're not so like have you always had an interest in science or is this little spark under you or where do you want to go for other i mean listen i can tell you right now you'll have no problem getting a job with a honey company i mean that's you're sorted now but in terms of what you really want to do um Ethan what what what's your plan as much as you can formulate at your age um well you're on about uh if i had an interest in science beforehand i i like science i didn't think i'd go into it but after this whole experience uh i explore in the world of chemistry and microbiology i it is a definite uh future career option that i might take see the thing the thing really with this is you can go anywhere and the networking you get from the competition is amazing um like you're meeting all these politicians and you're not just meeting politicians but you're also meeting uh other businesses and they're also sharing their ideas there and it's um it's like a it's like an open day all around ireland yeah i mean obviously ethan looks incredibly impressive you've a brilliant uh brilliant way of communicating and a brilliant way with the language as well as everything else so well done on that ruth i mean you know it's lovely to be a part of this as well i'd imagine you as a teacher and we talk about how you know music teachers and art teachers can bring out certain sides of students and uh between you and the team here you know something as lit inside ethan now that this is potentially where he might go and who's to say where he may end up it must be very satisfying from your obviously it's ethan doing all the hard work but it must be very satisfying um as a science teacher yourself just to to see the you see you see a blossom there don't you and who's to say where it might go it must be lovely well you're a hundred percent right there it is all ethan's hard work you know um and it is definitely a team effort i mean ethan will also tell you that without the parents we couldn't have done it without the school the staff i mean the the principal mr matinee the vice principal ms mcneil they were so accommodating with cover with all the texts um you know congratulations but look you know it brings a real good feel factor to the school you know and again as i said it's just one of those other little areas that you want to make sure every child can tap into um it is amazing i have to say about the young scientists the doors it opens i mean you you have companies coming up to you and you have like you know we had ucd coming up to ethan at one stage ask them to join in whatever has that kind of evolved over the years because i remember some of my early interviews around this competition it didn't seem quite maybe it's just it just didn't seem quite at the level what we're talking now like has has this dragged not dragged up is this sort of improved uh in terms of the the the the the the the technical nature of it all the the the complication of it all if you know what i mean like or is the sort of competition always sort of delivered these types of projects well no i think you will have an array of projects when you get there i mean you could have it's much again you could have the very simplest idea and it it really is how the student will deal with that and get their solution but i think what probably has improved over the years certainly is it's prestige and the people and the companies etc that are involved i mean we had somebody talking to ethan about possibly using his honey in africa you know um it can be used there is a problem with a fungal asthma there um self aid africa we're talking to him we had someone from marie keating foundation discussing something about how they use honey sometimes on um skin abrasions and could he possibly donate someone to see how they get on you know it's just the amount of doors this yeah well listen i wasn't i wasn't gonna ask ethan this because i didn't want to sound stupid but you know what i sound stupid every day so i'm gonna ask anyway the honey that you were looking at give me the name of it again ethan manuka honey right manuka honey now that comes from certain bushes isn't that what you said uh the manuka bush yeah right but it's obviously then it's the bees have to populate this bush and then go back to the hive and that's how they produce this honey is that how it works yeah yes yes so you have these bushes growing around your property so you have a specific type of of honey well um see the manuka bush it wouldn't really uh it wouldn't really flourish in the climate of Ireland so it's mostly it's mostly uh you find that mostly in like the oceanic region of Australia and uh New Zealand now the very common flower or uh bush to grow around where i live is the ling bush or the heather and the wildflower and that's really where uh the heather honey comes from ah right okay now we're getting there okay you understand tonight brilliant and Kimmy what did it feel like having these big wigs approach you ethan um nervous nerves were um well i mean it was it it was nerves and then there was excitement and they were sort of balancing it out i mean it was it was really really cool to be talking to uh the big the big businesses and the big the big people um it was and it you know it gives you a bit of experience for if you if that's what you want to do later on all right finally ethan what do you do to relax what's your idea of fun when you're not at school or or working on honey or whatever you might be doing um the answer to that probably be either out with friends like uh messing around the snow for example or sports uh we're a very active family all right ethan well done you seem to take all the boxes all right well done ethan do hers third year at st columbus comprehensive college glentes again ruth another example of how bright our future is if we uh if we support our young people and give them every opportunity to reach their potential i mean you know the the world's their oyster and let's hope they you know we don't lose their their talents and their skills uh because we need them and but but it's really positive the likes of ethan and others are there all of the ones really that took part at the b uh the the what is it the bt y is bt yc 2023 competition all right okay listen well done to to to you and the rest of the crew for supporting the young people as well the great work that you do thank you so much indeed it's been lovely having you on the program thank you greg take care of yourself thank you so very much indeed the nine till noon show is brought to you by letter kenny credit union offering low rate car loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today this January staying in is the new going out at kelly centrum mountaintop with mega deals in fresh healthy ready meals range with great deals in our award-winning off-license and winning offers and fresh meat and produce kelly centrum mountaintop 2022 winner of the national four court retailer of the year factory beef prices set to rocket for more in your farmers journal is paul mooney chinese bonuses tighter supplies and soaring demand are pushing beef prices skywards angry suckler farmers have their say in exit schemes farmyard thefts off the ritter scale we investigate quillian gresham house tell us about their land purchase tactics the latest land leasing prices plus their special on cabin cameras milk replacers and calf feeders and don't miss our ceo and college guide inside this week's irish country living you cannot afford to miss it in cold weather why work with a red nose and blue fingers hate your garage or shed with a kerosene blow heater from gortley sales and hire in letter kenny call into gortley sales and hire in letter kenny where you'll find heaters of all sizes for sale and hire at great fan you the mass of january sale is now on at paderson's kitchen the hall liver mass of savings on kitchen's beds sofas dining sets and giftware with up to 50 off selected mattresses hundreds of products in stock and ready for delivery or collection open monday to saturday 9 a.m. till 5 30 p.m. get yourself down to paderson's mass of january sale achieve your fitness goals this year with the latest arrivals at michael murphy sports and leisure new trainers from asics brooks and new balance and active wear from under armor and adidas you'll find everything you need to stay motivated including the donnie gall g a peak range in store and online with free next day delivery on orders over 85 euro at michael murphy would you like to join the hindland radio news and current affairs team if you are an experienced or newly qualified journalist why not apply to join the hindland radio team in breaking the latest stories across the northwest and beyond you can apply by forwarding your cv to hr at hindland radio dot com or by post for more details check out the job spot section of hindland radio dot com we've been told that our glasses closing its irish stores all of them which includes the one in letter kenny i don't think this affects north and island by the way uh disappointing actually i um always thought i was not going to keep them in business i'm feeling sorry for the staff and they're always very very helpful but some stores will close in march following the end of their leases with the remaining to close by july sorry june 24th there's been no confirmation as to when the letter kenny store will cease trading whether it's coming up shortly or that later date the mandate trade union says it will work with the company to get the best deal for its staff but um our goss in letter kenny very soon to be no more with that information just being given to us this morning 08 6 60 25 000 whatsapp some text to that number or give us a call on 07 491 25 000 trena o'connor is a criminologist and joins us on the program now good morning to you trena good morning how you doing it's great to have you on the program right now the cabinet signed off on proposed legislation that could see criminals who were convicted of grooming children into a life of crime face up to five years in prison if convicted now what i'm what i when i see in my head when i hear that not specific not only but would be safe for instance you know maybe people dealing in drugs that don't want to get their hands on the product or the money they see young people in the area and they throw them a few quid to cycle around on their bikes and do their dirty work for them with the promise that they'll end up driving a big land rover or having a gold chain or what have you would that be a typical example of what we're talking about do you think yeah absolutely that is one example so young people can be lured into criminality with the promise of the riches that it brings and i suppose what a young person critically they don't have that thinking piece they just see you know an extravagant lifestyle the luxurious goods that they can buy they they're all of the different brand and jackets that i can get i won't mention them and and they also see people who are involved in criminality who have you know vast wealth and they kind of exploit it throughout their community to intrigue young people to get involved but there's also the other side where you might have a young person who has what we call a dual status so they may be involved in criminal activity themselves but they may also be a victim of crime and it's where for example they might have a drug debt so they're in what we call debt bondage to a dealer and and then their coerced are groomed into behaving in an anti-social way for example maybe drugs related intimidation to other people who are in debt bondage and this is almost like a modern day slavery because for a lot of these young people they would find it difficult to tell their parents are somebody in the home that they've got caught up in this cycle and for various reasons for some of them in the areas that i work it would be because there's already issues in the home their parents may be dealing with their own issues you know around addiction or could be violent and all of them things make these young people even more vulnerable to these gangs so it's a very complex thing there's no one reason like some people talk about young people oh they just go into crime because they think it's glamorous but it's not your style it's the problem i have with this though is is that firstly i presume as part of that recruitment and that coercion words like grass rats snitch are are used very very early on to try and maintain that bond and that loyalty and that brotherhood or that sisterhood but secondly would the people likely to be exploiting children like this and with the sanctions if they're found guilty of grooming for criminal activity most likely to be the lesser of charges they might face if they were ever caught i just wonder really in effect what this will do because these people are filling a vacuum i think these often these children might feel there's no hope for them or no pathway out of where they're at i would love to see that i'd love to see us target them in that area and say actually you know what educate them before they're groomed and say this is what you can achieve and this is how we'll help you do it this feels to me like it looks like it's fixing your problem but i actually suspect it might not i hope i'm not being pessimistic uh tree now it's just how it feels to me yeah absolutely and your point is very valid but i think all of all of the different approaches need to happen i think we need to prevent it of strategies but i think this legislation what i could do is it could add on an additional sentence to somebody who's caught for being involved in criminality so it gives that you know you'd be you'd be convicted of lots of different sentences so it could add on that five years indeed we may look although unfortunately kind of doesn't work like that because we saw with the recent announcement of the coercive control legislation that what ended up happening is is that people weren't actually convicted of that they might have been a question for it but were they they pled or they were charged with an easier to prove charge such as a blackmail or or something but anyway uh again i sound like i'm being really negative but i'm not tree now no you're not you're raising very valid points but i suppose with any new legislation it takes a bit of time for it to be embedded into law and it takes it will take a bit of time before we see how we can truly use this legislation i suppose to prevent it aside for me is key because early prevention and an opportunity for young people to have trusted adults and that's where we need wraparound support for young people who we identify as truly vulnerable and that's why we see the importance of you clubs in areas and i mean i speak to this about resources and we look at all this new building that's going on with the homeless crisis and there is a provision within all of these new estates for childcare facilities to be there up to the age of 12 but what happens to the poor teenagers after 12 where's the provision for you clubs where's the resourcing for you new clubs so we're very often on the on the back for fighting fires where really and you're correct and right we should be there in the beginning creating pro-social behaviors and support for young people if they are in an issue anywhere that they can come and speak to somebody do you think maybe there's a role for the media or general conversation in Ireland how we discuss criminality like let's just say for instance some of the stuff that makes the newspapers or the radio would be say gangland stuff now i know this is an all relation to that but i don't know if people watch that or read it anymore with shock i think it's almost like an episode of a tv show or it's almost for entertainment i don't think really we delve into the nitty gritty of what real life is at the very lower levels and most of the levels right from the top for if you get involved in in criminality i think there's a almost like a polished hollywood view to it i think we need to start talking about the real the real tragedy of it all yeah absolutely but i think i think the media have to report crime you know because people are interested in crime and as a criminologist i can tell you everybody's interested in crime and everybody's an amateur detective you know so people really want to know about crime because it impacts everybody everybody's impacted by crime but the way that we report media i think some of the language that we use needs to be looked at and so that we're not glamorizing and i definitely agree with you but i think there's a lot more people looking at exactly the lived experience of people and i think true social media and i know it gets a bad rap but actually true social media we're seeing young people being able to tell their stories and you look at some of the stuff around domestic violence for example and coercive control we had people just ordinary people who were experiencing domestic violence coming out on social media and then from there that conversation around coercive control happened and local communities able to maybe to speak more openly in an organized way not in our backyard through a twitter or facebook group as well which i presume that's that's that can help yeah just positives and just negatives and obviously we don't get everything right and the media don't get everything right but i do think that the conversations are out there and and the use of social media in this way can be very positive because it allows people to tell their story they don't need to have a platform because if they don't have a platform within the media well then how are they going to elevate their story but they can go on facebook or they can go on instagram and that then can grow legs and conversations can come out of that too so it's a step in the right direction it's it's part of what needs to be an overall plan and it might take a while to bed in but overall it could be positive would that be our synopsis well that would be my summation of it all i think anything that i think well just a little thing that i think is important whenever we bring in tough on tough on crime laws particularly when it's to do with young people we need to make sure that the welfare of the children is at the heart of the legislation and i suppose in this situation we have to remember that sometimes young people are grown within the family and if if on conviction if the conviction is hanging on the ward of a child we need to make sure that we're not exploiting the child further yeah by putting them in this situation because if we're asking them to turn that back on their family without the proper support and if for some children that's that's what they would have to do to get out this cycle that's why it's very difficult for them when it's family and generational criminality so all of them welfare need to be looked at so it shouldn't be just a policing issue we should have multidisciplinary teams that include the likes of victim support banardos cams all of them people around the table criminologists like myself so that we are psychologists so we can talk about actually how this impacts the child and not forward or exploit or traumatize the child could you see this maybe it's some way having a positive impact in breaking a cycle do you know say for instance there's parents involved in criminality and their children following them into that life do you know what i mean it can be multi-generational i wonder could this be used to sort of maybe address that as well because that's a everyone i mean sometimes it's nature and nurture isn't it you know and it'd be it'd be nice if this gave some young ones some hope of not going down a certain path yeah i definitely think it will i think for young people who like because i i work with a lot of young people um who would have you know a name that would be attached to criminality but they're not necessarily attached to criminality and i think for them this would give them some hope that you know if if within their family people are convicted of grooming and that then it kind of gives them a pathway out of criminality so i definitely see is a positive stop it for for young people like that and so yeah absolutely i just think it's it's always positive when we put the welfare of your child at the heart of legislation particularly when it comes to grooming and exploitation because child criminal grooming and child sexual exploitation are two things that we're seeing more and more across across the world it's horrendous and i think for most people it's unimaginable how anyone could do that to a child but then i don't know training just before let you go more broadly uh your role as a criminal criminologist what what do you do or i presume there's certain areas within that people focus on what what's your uh so my background is psychology that's my forced expertise and then i'm specified into criminology and and a lot of the work i do is looking at other systems because um i've looked at criminal justice systems around the world and i've also looked at the actual ology of crime so the psychology of crime so i i walk for a lot of different people and and then i also walk in a deprived area and i walk with young people who are given a second chance so we use them with started processes and very often it's about stopping the ordering of young people it's about creating initiatives that will allow young people to take responsibility for the crime but also create a pathway back to pro-social behavior so that would be a lot of work that i would do i walk with lots of different agencies obviously i can't talk about a lot of the work that i do because a lot of it is confidential but i i apply psychology to um the prevention of crime in in in a lot of ways. Lovely okay uh thanks very much Trina we really appreciate your time this morning and your insight as well thanks so much have a lovely day and you thank you take care thank you so very much indeed Trina O'Connor they're a criminologist just reacting to that new is it new legislation yeah it is new legislation and the bill is designed to prevent criminal networks from exploiting young people to commit offenses and it aims to break the link there between gangs and vulnerable youths 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 if your new year's resolutions are already struggling consider taking a leaf out of the gAA fans book of unwavering commitment keep your goals 6.5 meters wide commit to shouting at the top of your lungs as often as possible and focus on counting points instead of calories the new season is just getting going don't miss a moment with a gAA available now on gaa.ie forward slash season ticket are you in the gaa where we all belong on district business matters i'll be joined by letter kenny chamber of commerce ceo tony forrester and founder of pumpskins catrin divide so join me cure new donnell for business matters on sunday evening after the six o'clock news the business matters podcast is also available to download at hilevideo.com business matters in association with atu dunnegaul's faculty of business if you're an owner or manager in food production business consider the new one-year level eight higher diploma in food business and product innovation it's just one three-hour lecture weekly call 911 8600 or email gary.miguel at atu.ie supervalue makes saving money as easy as one two three one we match aldean the products you love like supervalue express basmati rice to 50 gram 65 cent supervalue fragrance baby wipe 64 piece 95 cent two get thousands of special offers and three money off outures every week on the app supervalue makes saving money as easy as one two three we need to call aleen the clan rehotel presents nathan cardering concert this friday 20th doors open at seven show starts at eight p.m. tickets are 30 euro each and available from the hotel reception that's nathan cardering concert this friday night at the clan rehotel letter kenny okay you're welcome back to the program and we're joined on it now by james cutahy founder and managing director of well-dits engineering in car and donna and more in car cutahy as well director of well-dits engineering also in car and donna good morning both of you hopefully you can hear me okay good morning yes we can good morning great and cutter he's the cutter he's the correct pronunciation isn't it yes it's a company name actually well we'll forgive you for that because you're bringing great enterprise and business to car and donna it's a lovely name right okay tell us a little bit about the company james i'm going to ask you to talk to us a little bit about well-dits and it's uh it's history yeah um it's history started with me father um my father was a a meadow work teacher at the open school but he always used to do a bit on the side and he wanted a couple of people at the road here making stuff in the private sector uh gates and ballast streets and doing a lot of agriculture repairs um back in the mid eighties when i finished my college my father said he said there's nothing for you around you will have to go somewhere and so like everybody else around here i emigrated to i went to london and i went into the engineering sector this i started an engineering business there and it worked there for about eight years you know doing that uh running a business but i had a little help and i came back here and i started well it's limited and it's been sort of slowly growing away all the time yeah it's it's really scaled can you work on bigger stuff that other companies maybe don't work on we do work on stuff that other companies everybody gets into their sector um i can tell you what i do work on and what i don't we do a lot of work on um the uh pharma medical and robotics um we do a lot of work for other engineering companies we laser cut out components and fold you know we do a lot of something right sometimes we're working on stuff that i don't know what it is nor do i care are you to some extent problem solvers as well then yeah we do uh some of our customers require um engineering solutions you know drafting and design and help and suggestions but not all but some of them we provide that as well right Maureen um the latest uh the the the latest work is a contract with a Spanish company um two of all things to sign and manufacture roll toll booths right so talk to me about how what what what the importance of that and what what work it involves so actually how this came about is from a recommendation from another Irish company that we were working with and the Spanish company was pitching to them and they said you should really include these people in your pitch and they were reluctant to work with us because they never they didn't know anything about us they had Spanish they're a Spanish and a French company that they used and we chipped away at it and persuaded them look it was a chance and we chatted on we showed them our design capabilities they came to well they came to visit quite a few times to see if we were the right people and then finally the award is not only the the first contract but we're now in a position where we're starting to export to Mexico so we're quite excited about that we're going to Mexico at the end of the month i mean it really is impressive that this company in the northwest of Ireland is doing this work in Spain and in Mexico because presumably there's an awful awful lot of options you'd imagine closer to to to where these will eventually be installed so they obviously saw something very special about weld it's that that they that they signed up to these contracts well what they said to us beyond our design capability which they loved they thought we were brilliant at jumping in and being very enthusiastic to help someone solve some of the problems that they weren't getting from their Spanish company that they really wanted it from they said they just wouldn't flex but we were flexing and trying to understand them they said that flexibility that obsession with solving the problem more than just thinking about the money haven't but just kind of help me solve your problem you know really helped are these manufactured to the finished product here and then shipped or are the components created and then shipped and assembled on site do you want to do that one yeah we design and manufacture the machine here we get help from the Spanish company they design the software and the components to the one we we manufacture the cabinets and we fit the components and fit the wiring and so they are ready for shipping man yeah all right and James are you at this point because you don't know where this might go are you able to do this within your current capacity or have you had to expand or what does the future hold do you think now we're having to expand we're having to expand anyway but that's a problem here up here in Donegal you can buy a new laser or you can buy any machine to do anything but you cannot buy labour you know and we are short of skilled welder fabricators here I mean you've got you've got quite a few engineering companies you've got engineering and they show engineering which are up here at Von Krana and you've got E&I in one foot and E&I in another clinic there isn't enough skill set to meet the demand well maybe there are relations listening of people that maybe they're abroad at the moment and looking to come home or maybe they're watching our live stream on facebook or youtube but they might see a clip a clip later there's an opportunity here if you have the right skill set in this area to come home and get a good job I think yes James yeah I know that the ETB are doing their best to set up the fabrication force here in Donegal at the moment if you want to be if you're an apprentice fabricator you have to travel the length and breadth of Ireland as far as caught but we're hoping now in the near future that we're going to have that facility here up in Donegal in order to meet the demand you know and finally Maureen it's great to see you know this type of manufacturing happening the fact that it's happening in corn on the initial and peninsular as well you know it's nice to see an expansion and a growth in that area and perhaps even addressing something of an imbalance there yes the obvious gender imbalance yeah well I suppose my father was he taught he taught mathematics and naturally all of us god you know did maths went I did apply physics and electronics at university I'm not practicing like that I'm actually doing a finance role here in the marketing role in the business but I think it has been beneficial we have a few women on the team we've got Barbara we've Elise we've married and it does it does help to move things forward it's not just a very masculine orientated business it's it's a blended balance and we have many nationalities with us as well we've taken on two Ukrainian people and it's really successful for us well done I mean it's it's exciting times and success creates problems but sure that comes with success you're gonna have to you're gonna have to figure out these recruitment problems it's nice to have these sort of problems than having the opposite problems that so many people are having so we're feeling optimistic about the future and we're looking for people to contact us if they're interested in joining both designers and fabricators of the state and who knows how the world will be I mean if you think of all the big multinationals that are out there most of them started in a garage you know if you if you think of yeah and who knows who knows where we might come or not come but we'll give it a go anyways and James I'm not sure if your father's still with us or not but as the founder of all of this what does he say or what would he say looking down at what he's right now and how he's have grown and expanded and and where the company's heading yeah I'm sure I'm sure he'd be very proud and he'd you know he'd like to be part of it one of the good things anyway is it seems that Karen Donner is in the process of turning around a bit you know back in the 80s when he said I doubt you'll have to emigrate you know there's nothing but what I can say now is there was a survey done back in the Western Development Commission done a survey back in 18 and the conclusion from that was that Karen Donner was the second lowest number of manufacturing jobs in this area and out of 35 times so I hope that we can contribute to change in that a little bit I mean in the most obvious way you were given the advice which your dad thought was best for you to emigrate because there was nothing for you here now you're back and you're looking I'm sure you'd welcome people emigrating back to Karen Donner to work it's a it's a turn around a significant turn around for the region I think yeah we afford this for here in the staff you know return from brilliant great keep it up congratulations I don't think I'll be buying a a toll booth off use any time soon but sure look at if you want to knock me up a set of gates or something I'd you're finished with the gates no I know I know I know I'm I'm I'm money messing well congratulations it's a lovely story and these are clearly lovely people as well continue success into the future and thank you so much for joining us today thank you bye bye okay that is James Kodahima founder and managing director of weld it's engineering car and Donner Maureen Kodahudi director of weld it's as well one of the few female directors of an engineering company worth noting as well and it's just I think that's a nice story from the dad saying you know you're gonna have to go away to get work with him back now saying come home I've got work for you right okay great stuff the 90 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 it's the right price tiles and wood flooring half price sale get up to 50 percent of all tiles wood flooring bathware cladding everything's reduced tiles from only 899 per square yard and wood flooring from only 1199 per square yard right price tiles and wood flooring half price January sale is now on stylish nights and memorable delights await at radsligo.com with our fantastic January sale escape at all with 25 off b&b stays and enjoy a well-deserved breakaway indulge in afternoon tea overlooking sligo bay relax with the treatment at the spa enjoy a delicious meal in the brasserie and waves bar more surround yourself with the best of sligo's outdoor pursuits right on your doorstep 25 off sale ends 31st of january book now at radsligo.com at ulster bank our team is continuing to close current and deposit accounts along with some of our branches at this time if your notice period and your deadline has passed your account is now queued for closure all personal and business account deadlines are fast approaching you must take urgent action if you are still relying on your bank account and in need of more support please contact us immediately visit ulsterbank.ie your local branch or call 0818 210 260 call costs may vary and calls from mobiles may not be free ulster bank our land act is regulated by the central bank of Ireland is this it is this our life or barely to beat the traffic in the van same voices on the radio same tunes the irish naval service will take you somewhere else it'll take you to the edge to deep water in any weather to challenge yourself to learn the life skills any employer will look for when you move on and the good news the irish naval services recruiting right now visit military.ie and be more in the irish defense forces highland radio weather updates with ireland west airport discover edinburgh this summer with reiner's three times weekly service stunning architecture endless winding streets and an awe-inspiring castle ireland west airport don't just take off take it easy okay now the showers will clear to leave mostly dry weather for the rest of today with sunny spells although some mist of fog may linger locally with little or no wind cold one to four degrees hopefully some sign of a thought tomorrow uh we were chat we heard from a listener earlier on can you believe this that we're going to do their theory test in letter kenny and they wanted to cancel it because it was too dangerous to leave the house but they were told that if they don't come in and sit their theory test this is the road safety authority they were told that if they don't sit their theory test that they will lose their money no what a way to start your driving career brian good morning to you good morning right i'm okay and the rsa also run the nct what was your experience with that outfit well i had a vehicle and just before christmas and i had to go back get a couple of things done and go back yesterday and i couldn't get back yesterday because of the weather i have a small light commercial back wheel drive which you wouldn't know what that would be like and there's no just a sleigh so i've been trying the men in fairness the garage have been so helpful trying to get it sorted but the message back from the rsa was that unless mattering as you are read alert weather warning there's no excuse to not be there are you coming towards the end of the real test are you coming towards the end of the retest period i'll have to go and get a full retest after the day yeah okay that's stupid and i thought this test was about road safety yeah um it'll be very irresponsible to take this vehicle on that road today it'll just be like a set of skis you know did you get to speak to a human no i've been dealing with the garage and they have been dealing with the rsa down down the country but they said they just there's no they won't move there's just no movement you know very very frustrating it makes no sense sorry it's very frustrating it makes no sense brian well i had to pay for a vault test and i had a vault test just i think it was christmas week or just before christmas yeah and it was impossible to get the mechanics over christmas or new year that's why this comes so close to the airline but um i just i just find it a bit strange if this is about road safety but i'm just beginning to wonder it's about road safety or money money money money brian and another thing too it's there's there can be long waiting list lists to get another nct so your car might be or your light van it might be uh months before it's actually tested now yeah yeah but the strange part about it when the covid was out it's worst we could drive as long as we wanted without a test i mean i'd drive in a year without a test because it wouldn't take a vehicle and during covid and there's going to be no danger then but i'm not allowed two days over just seems a bit strange i thought i'd just highlight that it's very strange we are on to the rsa to find out like i would like someone from the road safety authority to explain both of these cases today because uh there i would they would struggle to make sense of it thanks very much brian leave it with us okay we'll try and get you another appointment or a refund or something and uh also uh the other situation the person going to sit there theory they can't get out of there they can't get in there but because it's a it's not a red alert they say that you're losing your money you're losing your spots uh greg brian congratulations and well done to ethan and the college uh where is there a heather honey solder certainly i certainly would buy it thank you i didn't ask where it would be sold but listen listen we'll get on to ethan and see if there's uh i'm not sure if they're producing it on that level uh or not um but hey it's brilliant stuff what's going on isn't it good morning greg perhaps you could help expedite getting me a bulk gas delivery to my house i'm 70 years of age i ordered a gas delivery on the third of january and when i called on monday to find out uh why i had no delivery i was told that i had not even been scheduled i've been out of gas now since this monday and have no heating or hot water i'm living in an isolated area i emailed a complaint to both customer services and to the managing director on tuesday morning without any response flow gas did we get on to them carolina we're gonna check that we have gone on to them all right we're we're on on on your behalf okay we'll see come on flow gas there's a lady there 70 years of age no heat no hot water look at the weather um let's help sort it out uh only ever had the tv on as i hadn't wallpapered in that room well done tv is uh so passe greg when we want to watch something we do it in our own time and not be innately bombarded with tired advertising designed to make us consume if we look at the current cost of living crisis it should give us an insight into whether or not consumerism is still working or should uh take a closer look at the way they function in the creative industries and what has gone wrong really okay you really fought that through thank you very much indeed for it uh dublin versus mica scheme dublin wins as uh it's cheaper per vote plus donagall has found out a long time ago that voting finnegelf in a fall is meaningless to forgotten donagall it's discrimination greg it's numbers voting next year donagall doesn't matter we're working people playing games smarty pants people our minister is working so hard for us that he can't take five minutes to talk to island radio hope we remember this disdain for us when voting day comes it's not just today by the way it's tomorrow so it would be monday then well i'll wait till monday i'll wait till monday after questions and and i think people deserve an explanation it's not a uh a witch hunt or um i gotcha it's it's people have very genuine questions they want an explanation as to why we aren't important here compared to our dublin friends yesterday's government's announcements regards a hundred percent cover for corrective safety building work for flats down the country provides full proof of the double standards from these people in power disgraceful i totally agree with you on the cost of running rte there was a time it was a vital service to this country but not anymore news documentaries dramas chat shows are so much more and widely available from many forms these days and i see no justification for paying anyone over a hundred thousand a year you see the thing is this right i'm not speaking on behalf of island radio for a second i'm speaking as me as an individual radio listener like they start a new let's say they start a new breakfast show they'll go right we're going to do a ten grand competition to give that breakfast show a plug that's a breakfast show that will be competing with every rate breakfast show in the entire country this is just on radio and they'll go right we're going to put ten thousand we're going to put ten thousand into a competition for this breakfast show to give it a good start how many 180s or whatever it is now the tv how many 180s does it make just to take around letter kenny boncran at don low don don't go down just to make up the prize fund because they want to plug a show i think it's i can't believe people tolerated at all and look through the the programming list today on the tv it's all shows you can watch on free view all right anyway i'm off we're back with you tomorrow morning at nine o'clock we have our friday panel we've got that's entertainment and so much more besides um thanks to caroline all who researched and produced the show john breson's coming up around the northwest next have a lovely thursday save save hopefully this is the last day of the really bad conditions out there the nine till noon show with letter kenny boncran