 representatives. The meeting will specifically discuss how real progress can be made on repairing Micah-affected homes following the approval of the legislation in July and on delivering social housing across the county. Minister McConnell says there are many still seeking answers and clarity on redress. He believes there is room to advance more applications for Micah homeowners. It's my strong belief that there's a significant number of applications which you can make real progress on with the right cooperation between the county council and the department get answers on and clarity on in the short term so that they actually can get approvals. That's going to be the key objective of the meeting today to discuss how the county council working with the department can ensure that we make progress on those applications which are outstanding. Public hospitals will not cope this winter without the help of private hospitals. That's the view of I&MO General Secretary Phil Neay who is calling for early agreements to be made now. Her comments, comments aren't embraces itself for a winter of COVID on flu and deals with significant staff shortages in hospital settings. Phil Neay says if changes aren't made now procedures will continue to be cancelled. We're anticipating that our hospitals that are already overcrowded will not cope this winter. That's why we've asked for an early agreement with private hospitals so that we can make sure that acute services are not overwhelmed to the point that if you're a patient waiting for a procedure today that you're getting a phone call to say sorry we don't have a bed and we're canceling your procedure. There are fears someone could be seriously injured unless safety measures are rolled out on a main route and in is shown. Kanzarina Dunhey says residents in the Turban area off Burnfoot are living in fear due to the volume of traffic traveling on the road from Derry to Bonkrana. She's calling for traffic calming measures to be put in place. A number of residents in the Turban area off Burnfoot they have been saying that the problem there is that they find it very difficult to get across the road to the shop there. It's a very very busy road. It's also actually a regional road. It's a very wide road at that particular park where the shop is and with the bus stop there and people trying to get across from the bus as well. I have asked that the engineer would look at some kind of a safety measure to be put in place there. Whether I'm mostly cloudy today with some sunny breaks at times and the chance of a few isolated light showers, highest temperatures of 15 to 17 degrees. That's all from Highland Radio news for now. We'll be back with news again at 10 o'clock until then. Good morning. At Ulster Bank we are closing and from the 8th of October all customers whose accounts have passed the six month closure notice period will no longer be able to use their accounts. For our customers making nursing home payments for themselves or on behalf of a loved one make sure your payments remain uninterrupted by switching your account now. For more vulnerable customers who need extra assistance please call our vulnerable customer line on 1800 656 001. Call costs may vary and calls from mobiles may not be free. Ulster Bank Garden Dac is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The Ninetown Noon Show with St Unions GA Club Development Draw 40,000 EUR 1 Prizes First Prize Ahayunday Kunakyaar Plus 9 Other Grid Prizes Tickets now available online at stunionsgadraw.com or any club member. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest The Ninetown Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, a very good morning. It's just about to turn four minutes past nine on this Monday the 19th of September 2022. How are you keeping? I hope you're well. Tell us how your weekend was. Anything we should be talking about? 08 660 25,000 WhatsApps to that number and text. I think more of you WhatsApp now than text, which is understandable. The phone lines are there for you though. Don't forget if you want to speak to someone. We have Donna Marie and Emma taking your calls today. And you can send in your emails to comments at highlandradio.com as well. And if you want to hop over and watch the show do so on our website at highlandradio.com. You'll see the watch live button there. Or if you prefer, go to YouTube Highland Radio Ireland or across our Facebook pages. So no excuse not to get involved in the conversation one way or other. All right. Let's have a look at the newspapers today. We'll start with Monday's edition of the Dairy People Donegal News. Plans to fly the national flag at half massed outside cancel buildings today have divided opinion among Donegal cancillors. T-Shock Mehal Martin's office contacted all local authorities on Friday requesting that the flag be lowered to mark the funeral of Queen Elizabeth. That's the Queen of Britain. In an email to Donegal Council Chief Executive John McLaughlin, the T-Shock asked that arrangements be made for the flying at half massed of the national flag from all buildings, if any, under your control equipped with a permanent flagpole on Monday, the day of the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Mr. McLaughlin relayed the request to elected members on Friday morning, but not all are in agreement. The Donegal News wrote to the county's 27 councillors on Saturday after West Donegal Independent Mehal Colin McLaughlin aspect branded the proposal a disgrace. Speaking during a radio interview on Friday, I'm not sure where that radio interview took place. It's not mentioned here in the front of the paper, the Donegal News newspaper. Speaking during a radio interview on Friday, why would be flying on national flag at half massed when still even yet we have the British military occupation to the six counties? I'm not sure if that was here or Arnegie or National, I'm not sure at all. Anyway, what do you think? I'll wait 60, 25,000. Do you agree with Mehal Martin's request to fly the flag at half massed or not? Let us know. The Irish Independent, 300 euro extra on your energy bill before you flick a switch. So I'm not sure what the motivation for the electricity and gas providers are, but they are obviously very much aware that our money is being taken from us to be given back to us by the government to ease the cost of energy. And yet they are planning on imposing huge increases in standing charges during the energy crisis. Some suppliers charge up to 700 a year in standing charges, regardless of how much energy a customer uses. So in other words, if you are connected to the grid, you don't use any electricity at all. Your bill is 700 euro. That's a standing charge. An investigation by bonkers.ie in the Irish Independent reveals providers have pushed up the standing charges for residential customers by more than 300 euro in some cases. Consumer advocates have questioned the fairness of hiking standing charges for hard-pressed householders. The standing charge is supposed to reflect the fixed costs associated with providing gas and electricity supply and not the unit cost of energy. The charge cannot be avoided and has to be paid no matter how much electricity or gas a household uses. Michael Kilcoin, chair of the Consumer's Association of Ireland, called on the government to change the rules to allow the energy regulator to have a role in setting the setting of the standing charges. It's a horrible little charge because no matter what you do, you can't avoid it. It's guaranteed money for the gas and electricity providers. And as I say, they know that the government is handing out extra money to people to try and ease the cost of their living, but they're plonking it on either directly or indirectly the standing charge. It's just actually completely unfair. Whatever else, in other words, one might want to use, it is completely unfair because these companies are making record profits. So it's not like they're trying to insulate themselves from losses. So it's completely unfair. They are making record profits but still putting on charges that we can't avoid in a crisis. And there's nothing we can do because we have to have electricity. We can't really protest it in any meaningful way. The Irish times, the United Kingdom comes to a halt this morning when the funeral ceremony of Queen Elizabeth, the second pauses at 11.55 to allow for a two-minute reign of silence. It's really quite remarkable what's going on in Britain. I find it remarkable just when you see people queuing for hours and end and we're going to speak to someone who did just that. But I mean, the cancelling flights out of the London airport so as to keep noise down. Do you know that kind of stuff? I get it. It's fine. It's not none of my business, but it's really quite remarkable the lengths to which they're going. The mark of respect represents the still point of a day which is at once a sumptuous display of royal and military funeral pageantry, an intense security and logistical operation and a vast outpouring of public affection for the late monarch. Operation London Bridge, which began as soon as the Queen's death was announced to 11 days ago, will conclude when she's laid to rest in the Royal Vault at of St George's Chapel after a private ceremony at Windsor Castle. More than 70 heads of state, including US President Joe Biden and the President of France Emmanuel Macron, arrived in London over the weekend for what represents an unprecedented concentration of world leaders. They will be seated in the South transept of Westminster Abbey some two hours ahead of the 11 a.m. service. President Michael D. Higgins and T. Schochemihel Martin both signed the Book of Condolence at Lancaster House yesterday Mr. Higgins and Mr. Martin were accompanied by their respective wives, Sabina and Mary, in paying their respects at the... I can't remember they had to pronounce that word. I'll come back to that. It's in Westminster Hall anyway. It's the big ceremonial area. Okay. What do you think? Will you be watching it? Are we going to lose all of our listeners and watchers at 11 o'clock? Are you going to switch the telly on and watch that funeral? Let us know. 08, 6, 60, 25,000. Don't let us know that you won't be with us. It's just curious as to why you might watch it. You know, we like a good funeral and we're pretty nosy, aren't we? So for a lot of people, that would be reason enough to have a gander. But anyway, let us know. Irish Daily Mail. There is grave concern at the heart of government that the ongoing energy crisis now poses a real threat to Ireland's record, full employment figures. The figure of 2.5 million people in work has played a key role in driving Ireland's current fiscal surplus. However, on these is growing that there could be a cross-contamination between the ongoing extreme power price increases in Ireland's employment figures. Well, listen obviously. I mean, there's a lot of businesses simply will not be able to stay in business, certainly at full whack for the winter. How could you when you get in bills for 10, 20, 30,000 euro for electricity when you run a calf? I mean, who could afford to stay open at all if not even just part time? So of course, people are going to lose their jobs. One minister warned it's now recognized that the government needs to respond in an overwhelmingly impactful way to this threat. Economically, we're facing into a winter of fear. The challenges are huge. We need a COVID style onslaught to tackle the crisis. Tarnished Leo Vradkar also warned an intervention similar to the major COVID employment support scheme may yet be required. Though we do need something, but you just I don't know the logic of paying people if they're not working in the same ways we did previously. But as I say, people have has to be supported. I just I wonder are they analyzing if that's the right way to do it. The Irish Daily Star, the public really need to worry about getting their flu vaccine over fears. The health service will buckle under the twindemic expected to come. A top pharmacist has warned. Now, I wonder what the flu vaccine uptake might be like this winter. It seems very important in offsetting the worst effects of flu for vulnerable groups. Those that are vulnerable to the worst excesses of flu really is what I'm saying. I'm not judging people or anything. But maybe people feel they're injected out of it. I don't know. Let us know what you think out there, particularly if you are one that might get the flu on a regular flu job on a regular basis. Are you going to get it? Perhaps with a booster this year, do you feel that it's the right thing for you to do? Well, a combination of COVID-19 and the winter flu will batter Ireland in the months ahead trends suggest. But three in five Irish adults claim they are not concerned about the winter flu season. Alloids Pharmacy Research found. It follows the latest trends in Australia where the winter flu combined with COVID-19 led to a difficult winter for the health service. This year Australia saw the flu virus affecting all age groups, and not just the elderly or vulnerable. And we may call flu vaccines based on what's happening in Australia in their winter. And that's why they are looking to Australia to see what might happen here. Although there's no guarantees. Speaking of businesses closing, in the Irish sun today, pub licenses are changing hands for record prices of up to 70,000 euro despite the decline of the boozer. Supermarkets and petrol stations are on those snapping up limited seven-day pub licenses. They can be used for anyone opening enough license as well as a pub. Some 349 bar shut down during the pandemic with licenses renewals falling from 7,137 in 2000 to 6,788 in 2021. So the pub licenses are being snapped up by businesses, off licenses. Did you know that? Did you know you can cross over a pub license to an off license? I did not know. Under Irish law, there is a cap on the number of licenses. So any new drinks businesses has to buy a license from another business willing to let theirs expire. William Gabbett from John Shaw Auctioneers has licenses for between 62,000 and 70,000 euro. He told the Irish sun, they're worth anything from 50,000 to 70,000 depending on who wants them and what and who doesn't. But generally, 60,000 euro would be a good price is a good price. Okay, interesting. I say you learn something new every day. I did not know that. Lastly in the Irish Daily Mirror, this morning the chair of the EU tax subcommittees looking for renewed assurances that Ireland is still committed to a minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. The call comes amid lingering concerns from EU institutions about the country's ability to regulate several tech giant headquarters in Dublin. Dutch MEP Paul Tang and five other MEPs from the subcommittee are due in Dublin today for a two day visit. They will meet finance minister Pasquale Donhu, a rep from revenue and groups including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Irish businesses and business and employers confederation. Mr Tang, an economist said previously that his aim as chair of the European Parliament's FIST Committee was to spark debate in capitals of EU nations about fairer tax systems. And of course, we have a huge corporation tax here. We're spending that or we're not spending it, but that's what the government will be spending during the budget. And the fear of course is that if you increase the corporation tax that you could lose it, you know that we would be less competitive and so on and so forth. All right, that's a run through. The paper is so far today. Let's take a quick break and then we'll be back with more on the 9 till noon show. Stay right where you are. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra, mountaintop, letter Kenny. Would you like to win a Hyundai Kona car? Well, that's the first prize in the St Unions GA Club Development Draw who are sponsors of this week's 9 till noon show. There's nine other great prizes and tickets are now available online at stunionsgadraw.com or any club member. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. Your next move matters, so why not move better? Start your move to permanent TSB today. Apply in-app for our award-winning current account. So don't just move bank, move better. Apply in-app today. Applications for Explore Current Account in-app in sole name for over 18 personal customers, residents of Republic of Ireland only, fees and charges, terms and conditions apply. Awarded bunkers.ie best current account 2022. Permanent TSB PLC is regulated with the Central Bank of Ireland. Armaculla jewelers in letter Kenny are synonymous with fine jewelry, quality watches and gift wear. With stores at Main Street letter Kenny and the letter Kenny Shopping Centre are online at armaculla.com. 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We provide a full virtual address mailbox service for all your Christmas parcels and posts. Save hundreds possibly thousands on customs charges this Christmas with Bishob Derry. Call 04871 87 8077 for more details. Okay, let's go to Brenda originally from Chrysler here in beautiful Donegal but a pub owner now in Windsor. Hi Brenda, good morning to you. Hi Greg, how are you doing? Good to speak to you. How long have you been living and working now over in England? Brenda? Okay, all right. Now tell us you have... You joined this queue that has been across the news channels for the last number of days to pay your respects to Queen Elizabeth. Is that correct? That's right, yeah. On Thursday. What was the experience like? Oh, that was an experience. Greg, yeah, it was. You know, queuing up, speaking to the people. It was, yeah, really good. And then when you get in there and you see the coffin and everything, it's like something, you know, you know it's history, you never see it again. Yeah, how long were you queuing for, Brenda? 13 hours. Wow. And then once you actually get into where Queen Elizabeth is lying in state, how long does it take to move through that part? Oh, well, you'd only be in there for maybe half a minute, maybe, but they were changing the guards when we went in there. So we got a wee bit extra, you know. Yeah. And we had David back from behind us. Oh, right, okay. Because he queued for quite some time as well, didn't he? He did. He started queuing just maybe about an hour after me, I think it was. And did he keep himself to himself? Did he mix with the crowd or? He did. He kept himself to himself. Nobody knew, really, until maybe about one o'clock in the day time, people started saying, oh, there's Beckham. And he's going, oh, yeah. But he did keep himself to himself. And yeah. Yeah, because he donned a pinky blind style cap, didn't he? Maybe by way of... Yeah. Yeah. Right, okay. So you got a bit longer there because of the changing of the guard. But what was your emotion having queued for so long and then to finally find yourself in that room? Like, obviously, you get a sense of being part of something historic. But on any other level, did you feel anything? You know, I was just thought it was like a special occasion, history. And I thought, you know, I live in Windsor. She's like my neighbour. So I thought, yeah. Something to remember, you know. And just in terms of the queue, sorry to keep talking about it. But like, what happens if you get tired or you need to sit down or do they have toilets on the way and how do you go to the bathroom in these toilets and maintain your place in the queue? What's the practical situation there? So you had toilets and there was little coffee stalls maybe along the way, you know. Right. But you get a band. So if you go out of the queue there for so long, everybody knows will you go back into the queue again, you know. Yeah. There was no queue jumping or anything like that. You just crack on. Now there are stewards and stuff, but to some extent did the queue police itself? Yeah, pretty much, yeah. Have you been surprised by the outpouring of emotion? Because, you know, I mean, obviously we're only exposed to a certain amount of media here. A lot of people consume a lot of British media. But anyway, I never really got this sense of Queen Elizabeth's importance on this level. Nothing that would sort of justify as far as I was aware and I'm probably ignorant to this, this sort of national outpouring of grief. Did that surprise you that this has affected so many people seemingly so deeply? It didn't really, because I'm thinking she was been on the phone for 70 years, you know, and such a long time. People did have respect for her and do have. And I wasn't surprised, really, that there would be so many going out, you know, out in the shoes and that. I thought, yeah, I would have expected that. Now as a pub owner in Windsor, are you a fan of the Royal Family or do you sort of obviously respect the Royal Family, but put stuff on to entertain and appeal to your clientele, Brenda? I do respect the Royal Family. I live in Windsor, my kids went to school in Windsor. And, you know, we had a great platinum party just back there in June, I think it was in the pub. Of course, people respect the Queen and they want to celebrate her death just as much as her life when she was alive, you know. So what will you be doing today for the funeral? Because it is a pub, but pubs are staying open, I think, and you really are very close to the action there, so to speak. So what are you going to be doing today? Well, at the minute, I'm making smoked salmon sandwiches. So we're going to open about half past 10, and then people will come in that want to watch it together and will be closed, it's probably six o'clock, you know, and after Windsor everybody wants to watch it. So yeah, we'll watch it together and have some sandwiches and drink a drink. So it'll be like, it'll be obviously solemn, but then maybe something of a, not a celebration such afterwards or a toast to the queen or what? Yeah, it'll be a toast to the queen. I think it'll be a bit of a celebration, you know, too. She was an elderly lady. It was always going to happen, and so be it. This is it. Celebrate her life. Yeah, I can't help but feel a lot of people, particularly in the media in Britain, have been keeping their powder dry, that they're sharpening the knives for the royal family after this has died down. Do you get a sense of that and do you think maybe that change? I know Charles has suggested he's going to make some changes to the royal family, but do you, I just have a feeling the media in big style are going to turn on the royal family following Queen Elizabeth's passing. Do you get a sense of that? Yeah, well, I do think there's a supporting challenge, you know what it's like. They can turn on them as quick as anything, yeah. They probably will, I suppose. All right. Finally, what channel will you have on in the pub? Well, the minute I've got ITV. Right, okay. Three television, ITV. Right, yeah. BBC and whatever, you know. And I met you at the London Vintage Show, by the way. Very good. Oh, yes, of course. That was a good day, too, wasn't it? It was a great day, yeah. Fantastic. Okay, very, very good. Okay, that's nice, Brenda. I didn't realise that connection until you mentioned it. Anything you want? I want to wish happy 50s to my sister-in-law, Sheena McCarris, 50 on Wednesday. And good luck to Elliot, her new university. She'll be coming across the pond to Manchester. And, of course, you'll be able to keep an eye on her, although you're some distance away, you're still on the same landmass. And no talky ever coming home, Brenda. Well, I'm thinking of trying to buy a little place there, you know, beside the sea. Oh, lovely. It's a lovely place, as you know yourself. Yes. Don't fan any of all of this. Excellent. That's a great place. I've had half the people in the pub over there on holiday. I'd say so. You're doing your own little tour. Your tourist office in Windsor for Creaselut on family heat and downings, yeah? Yeah, yeah, definitely. All right, Brenda, listen. I'll let you get on with it. So, on the menu, smoked salmon sandwiches. Cucumber, presumably. What else? Yes, definitely. Pork pies. And sausages, sausage rolls. No pork pies now. Too classy for that. Let somebody else bring them. Okay. All right, Brenda. Come here. I don't know what to say. Enjoy the day, but you know yourself. You know yourself what it's like. Okay. Thanks, Brenda. Lovely to chat to you again. Thanks, Brenda. All right. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. That's Brenda from Creaselut. I didn't make the connection. That's another person, Donnie Goldperson, doing well in London that we got a chance to speak to when we were over at the Chairgonal Gale site for that event. Actually, quite interesting, but you might be aware of Tom O'Halloran, the Irish gentleman in his 80s. Do you remember he was the subject of that awful crime he was murdered? Well, his funeral is taking place on Saturday, the 1st of October, and a celebration of his life is being held afterwards in the Chairgonal Gale's Clubhouse in Berkeley Avenue on the 1st of October, which is where the London Irish vintage show was held as well. So, as I say, just as an aside, but it's an important thing for some people. 100% yes, I'll be watching the funeral. It's going to be such a historical event, says this listener. I would not miss it. She was a lovely lady, and out of respect for you, I'll be watching from Bunkrana listeners. So, out of respect for her, she'll be, for me, for her, I presume, I'll be watching, and that comes in from my Bunkrana listener. One down. We're going to be losing one at 11. Oh, wait, 60, 25,000. Are you going to be watching? A very sophisticated scam going around, by the way, by people pretending to be from air. They called and had all the information. I know a lady who lost 400 euro. It was to say we were getting money bad back due to poor reception. They've called three times since. Wow, okay, this is sophisticated. Let me see about air, because... Sorry, I'll be back. Oh, here we are. Yeah, there's articles about air again, and their customer service. Here we go. Air was denounced as a national disgrace by customers for its poor service. Among complaints were no TV over Christmas, rainfall cutting out the internet, and pensioners being left without functioning panic buttons. These are all complaints against air. Well, what are the scammers doing? So, really be careful about this one. The scammers are calling people claiming to be from air, offering them refunds because of their poor service, but they look for your bank account, and then they take your money. So, really, it's very hard to get through let alone them calling you, so if you get it from air, you probably know it certainly is a scam if they're offering you money. All right, let's take a break. We'll be right back. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook, and at highlandradio.com. Or any club member. In 2018, Toyota cut through the confusion, completely ceasing production of diesel passenger cars, lowering harmful emissions, and providing certainty for Irish drivers everywhere. And Kelly's Toyota, proud to be part of that hybrid electric journey. Visit Kelly's Toyota, letter Kenny or Mount Charles today, to see what makes Toyota Ireland's best-selling car brand in 2021 and 2022. You'll never take a wrong turn with Toyota, built for a better world, best-selling claim based on most recent monthly figures. Green Shoes in letter Kenny and Fulcara have shoes for every occasion. All your favorite brands, from Una Healy, Tommy Bow and Echo, to Kate Appleby, Marcosi and Skechers, plus many more. Shop LK and one for all gift cards are gratefully accepted in store. Green Shoes in letter Kenny at Market Square and letter Kenny Shopping Centre, Fulcara and online at greenshoes.com. Green Shoes, with the perfect fit for every food. Whether you're traveling for business or leisure, fly local and choose City of Dairy Airport. For a convenient, friendly and reliable service, choose City of Dairy Airport. Direct flights to London's Dansted, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and New York. Book now at cityofdairyairport.com. Voted the number one airport in Northern Ireland. Give your home a whole new look for less with the Foyan Company Autumn Sale. Get great value with up to 50% of selected lines across all departments. Redecorate your home in time for the festive season with great discounts on display sofas, ready-made cushions and curtains. Breathe new life into your walls with great savings on wallpaper and paint. Order now for guaranteed Christmas delivery. Don't miss out on fantastic savings in store and online at Foyan Company's Autumn Sale in Erichenni and Balli Buffet, whilst stocks last. OK, we're joined on the programme now by student nurse Luke. Luke, thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. No, no bother at all. Happy to be on. Luke, why did you decide to go into nursing? So, I actually, I was on Highland Radio way back when I was a student and, you know, I was so proud to say, you know, I'm really, I'm determined to be able to help, you know, in any way that I can. I absolutely love helping people no matter what stage they are in their life. And ensuring everyone has access to dignity is one of the things I've always had, you know, even in my voluntary work. And, you know, nursing was a no-brainer for me in a place that it was a job that I wanted in a way that I could always have work and, you know, be paid something for it. But know what I was walking into with all that. Right. Well, we'll talk it through. Did you, Luke, always have the intention to sort of train up, become a nurse and work in Ireland? Or were you going to, had you planned to maybe, or do you plan, sorry, to have a year in Australia or Britain? Or what do you see your future as a qualified nurse as? So, absolutely. I always dreamed of just working in the Ladder County Hospital, the University Hospital, or in Scalias as a nurse. Just to give back and help, really, that's your motivation, isn't it? Absolutely. But then, you know, having seen HSD conditions after even I myself stayed in a hospital, and I understand that it is not the nurse's fault, it is, you know, those managing the hospitals. Greg, I lied in the corridor with nowhere to change properly for three days you know, when I was in Scalias Hospital, and I was made by Nick Alvin, I mean, in Ladder County University Hospital for about eight hours, you know, in A&E, and it was dreadful. Yeah. See, what worries me too, Luke, is this, I think there's at least three cohorts of people. There are those that go into the hospital and they pass through it smoothly and come out and they're happy and fair play. Maybe that's the majority of people. There are those with the experience, like that you had, Luke, but I think there's a group of people out there as well who should go to hospital, but they don't because they're fearful of what lies await and who's to say what negative impact that has on their condition or their life. Absolutely. That's what worries me because I think people are afraid to go in there because they hear of the indignity at times, you know, because they hear of the long waits and they try and, you know, and they shouldn't and really people, whatever we talk about the hospital, if you feel sick, go to the hospital, you will be seen, but I just fear that people don't go to the hospital and you just wonder the outcomes for them, Luke. Although absolutely, but look, we all have to speak about our own experiences and how we find them and how we came across them because only when we talk about things we can try and improve them to some extent. We can't bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything's perfect either. Absolutely. But I completely understand that it is not the nurses and it is not the doctors, it is the management and I think if we just have better management it will be a lot better. Right, talk me through then your experience as a student nurse because that's why we invited you on, Luke. I just wanted to touch on a few other things but I want you to describe, you know, it's like that tiktok trend, isn't it, you know, expectation versus reality. You could probably make a good one on this stuff, I think, Luke. But anyway, talk me through it. So basically you sign up and, you know, you're all, you know, you see AO points or UCAS points and you're absolutely open to sign up for the course, you know, and you're really excited to be meeting everyone and then it's time for placement, which is fine. But then, for example, say, for example, the students in the ATU letter, Kelly Katniss, they get some random placement, then say, for example, Karen Donna and they're from Donegall Time. You know, I have to come up with the money to get a place in, you know, Karen Donna and if you don't drive like me, you're expected to find a way to and from and whether you can claim that back is, you know, down into a board, a nursing board and then they'll decide whether you can claim that money back or not and a lot of people do not get the money back that I know of. So how long is a placement and what hours would you work? What would you be expected to, what duties would be expected of you, Luke? So you are expected to do what you have been taught so far. So say, for example, I'm one of the second year and basically you are given a list of things that you can do in first year and skills throughout the year and skills classes and basically in first year, you know, I was doing a lot of person-centered care, you know, ensuring people had dignity, that people were clean and, you know, everyone was comfortable and ensuring that if I see many problems I would highlight it to the nurse. But a third year nurse could be doing, helping put in IVs, feeding tubes, you know, everything a nurse can do, but obviously he or she would have to be monitored. But the thing is with the hours, you'd be working as I work 12 hours a day, you know, three, maybe four times a week and, you know, no pay, you know. So I mean, I know you're learning but it must feel like you're doing the job of a fully trained person for free effectively. Absolutely. And it is kind of heartbreaking when, you know, you see people and they're doing the exact same work as you maybe sometimes, you know, God, please God, it was a quiet day and I would never say that in the word, you never say it's a quiet day. It's a distinct but, you know, you're sitting there and, you know, you're doing the same kind of idea of work with someone else and then you go home and then you see your bank account and it's in the negative, you know, and you have to work and maybe say, for example, a 48 hour week and then, you know, like myself, you know, I have a job in a care home and then I'd be exact, not to work maybe another 12 hours and I'm on minimum wage as a care assistant, you know. So it's like, it's crazy and, you know, then, you know, you remember that the doll actually did have a boat and paid student nurses and did vote against it. Because I think really you're not looking, obviously, for a pay, presumably equal to that of a fully qualified nurse, but you certainly, if you're lucky enough to get a Susie grant, that if you're lucky again might cover your accommodation and maybe a little bit. But all these other costs and expenses to train to become a nurse, you're having to come up with yourself as you say, you might be able to claim some back but it goes to a board and there's no guarantees in relation to that. I mean, it's demoralizing because you are in the business to care for other people. This would almost beat it out of some people. I know, and absolutely. And you know, I went into nursing with the hopes of ensuring everybody had dignity only to find that those who are constantly, you know, ensuring people have dignity have lack of it, which is a funny case of irony in my opinion. And, you know, in trying to show these people what dignity is, you know, the student nurses, I mean, it's tough because then we're staying, you know, we're trying to find accommodation that, you know, a landlord will be happy to let something, say for example, a placement could go on for the duration of about maximum, about two months, really, I'm not sure, a final year you'll be working most of the time. You know, two months, a month and a half, maybe five weeks. And, you know, you're trying to find a place, you know, a landlord that in this climate, trying to, you know, rent a house for five weeks, you know. But as you near qualification, and you're starting your second year, I mentioned now, we talk about recruitment and also retention. We also hear, you know, when you've seen the working conditions in the two Northwest hospitals, I mean, do you start, I know you went into this with wanting to work locally and help local people. But do you find yourself being soured on that a little bit, saying that really, with everything I've gone through now, I would be much, you know, I'd be in demand and far better looked after elsewhere. Do you find yourself sometimes wobbling on this desire to work in a local hospital, as opposed to exploring some of the options that are available for you around the world? Absolutely. I was so determined when I was like 16, 17, and even going into my degree, I was so determined that I'd be working in the Leverkin University Hospital. But then, you know, having seen what all the nurses were saying online, like Ireland's biggest export is nurses, easy. And I would see what some of the nurses were saying. And the nurses in America that were Irish or in Australia and in Canada, they were laughing, they were like, oh my God, you know, the state of the conditions in Ireland and the pay is horrendous. And, you know, there are, you know, in them three respective countries and more, you know, living a very comfortable life with a decent pay and good working conditions, you know, and that's not something we should have to ask for, you know. Because I mean, if the truth be told, if you stick it out here, you can forget about things like home ownership or what have you. I don't know if that is on your radar, but that's, you can rule that out, unless you win the lot or something, you can rule that out if you decide to pursue your career in this country. I think that seems to be the general consensus. It is. And, you know, I was listening to the show the last day and it was on Friday, I believe, it was early morning show. And, you know, they were talking about young people. And, you know, I was so department, you know, and I was hearing about the amount of people that wanted the young people that wanted to move. Seven out of 10, yeah. And I, seven out of 10, and I don't even think that's exaggerated at all. Like, I mean, you go out and you go out to maybe socialize and, you know, and it's costing your life long to go out, even, you know. And, you know, we're young, it's what we, you know, it's not what we do, but it's how we enjoy ourselves. And, you know, it's phenomenal the amount of money that they're expecting us to just have. And we don't have that, you know. And it's unfair to be able to expect people just to come up with this money and then, you know, train, you know, do their training like myself. And I know, like, the quantity of surveyors, say for example, and they have to go and say, for example, get, you know, a year of placement in Dublin. Like, go out for a bed, you know. Imagine having to get a place in Dublin and then expected to pay for it. And I don't know how they, if they can claim something back. But the lives of the students and young people right now is just something else. And we're expected to come up and I'm just one of the people that feel I don't really like going to my parents constantly asking for money. But some parents don't have it. No, you're going to, they don't have it and you know, they don't have it. I get you. Also too, you know, I mean, I think core areas that we are struggling in, there is going to be a crisis in terms of, it's already difficult at the moment, but in recruitment into the health service. I mean, look how many vacancies there are, say for instance, in Britain in the NHS. I mean, they have record levels of vacancy. People simply don't want to work in the health service either in Britain or here. So like, we should be recognizing that now and focusing resources to ensure that those who want to be nurses are trained up, they're looked after and want to stay in the health service here. If we don't do it, it's bad now. I hate to think what it might be like in five or 10 years. Absolutely. I'm like, don't forget the government is consciously keeping, you know, say for example, a 50% tax on petrol and diesel, but they wouldn't put the tax, you know, take the tax up and put it somewhere else. So the health service can fund it. Everyone relies on the health service, the HSA, and for some people in Donegal and Cabin and Monaghan, they rely on the final people that go to Albany Galvan or, you know, up North because hopefully it'll be better. And, you know, it's just, it's something else. And the fact that you're, when you're working in it every day and you're expected to say thank you is just something else that really, you know, it's just the cherry on top. Which just, you know, but you see everything that's going on and you see, you know, you hear everything and, you know, you see how exhausted some of the nurses are. And, you know, I'll never forget when I was younger, like, you know, seeing the nurses on strike. And then it was one of the teachers I had and she never taught me, but I'll never forget she was on strike again. And I'm like, oh, God, I'm going to be next on the strike, you know, it's just never ending cycle. What is the dropout, like, rate? Because for some people it might be... I might be a force representative for my course and my, the guards and my class, it dropped, I think, about 15 guards in total in my year. Out of how many ish, Luke? I'd say, like, maybe about 100 and... 150 kind of... Right, okay, so it's under, it's like around maybe about six or seven percent of people, but I mean, obviously, as things get tougher, that might go up there first year indeed. Oh, yeah, that was the first year, you know. Yeah. And second year, apparently, it's the hardest year, don't remind me of that. Okay, well... But, you know what, it's determination and I think, you know, I think if anything, the determination that the student nurses have to sit there and qualify and help, if something else. How many of the people in your class will say 150 odd in reality? How many of them, Luke, do you think will... You know, because as you near qualification, countries will actively canvas you and offer you this, that, and the other, signing up fees and all that kind of stuff. They might even be trying to sign people up in first year because they're proactively trying to offset problems coming down the line. How many of that 150 do you think will end up as nurses in Ireland shortly after qualification? So, I got the idea of going abroad from my friends and, you know, and they were showing us the condition, they were showing me the condition. And so, I'd say about, I am out of 150, I'd say about 70 with Jane Ireland. Because I think what happens is, is you'll promise yourself, look, I'm just qualified. I'll do two or three years in such and such a place and then I'll come back. You know, I would say that's sort of what people... Oh, that's everyone. Everybody believes that. Whether it's true or not, that's the promise of the return. But really, maybe it's more like, I'm not valued here, why should I stay here? And then, you know, you might say, for example, then, before you go, you might want to work a year trying to save up for, you know, so you can get a nice, you know, some girls try and save up for a year so they can, you know, make sure that there's no real problems with moving so that they have everything that they can afford everything when they go abroad. You know, because, you know, say, for example, they might not be allowed to work for the first three months or whatever. And then they were like, oh my God, this is working them. And then they emigrate and then they work, you know, say, for example, in Australia. And then they see, you know, the far better conditions in Australia. And they're like, I'm never missing back. You know, I've never gone back. And I just... But that being said, it's not that long ago that, you know, we saw nurses gathering great numbers in Australia saying they'd love to come back here if the conditions were better. It's not like they... It's hard to get them back. It's not because they love it in Australia. Some do, don't get me wrong. But a lot of people would love to be working at home close to mom and dad. You're probably getting to an age where, you know, your mom and dad aren't as young as they used to be or your granny and granddad or your brothers and sisters are having children or whatever, you know. But they have to look at their balance sheet and say, I can't afford to work in those conditions but also for the pay that's being offered. Luke, there is some suggestion from time to time. And in fairness, I might have even said it myself in the, you know, in a peak of my frustration that people who are educated here, like nurses or doctors, there should be some level of not obligation or maybe obligation that they have to work in the health service for a year or two post-qualification as if to sort of pay back the money that might have been invested in them by this state. So put me straight, what makes that a ridiculous suggestion? I, if anything, I have paid for it more. You know, the girls here, you know, there's some people who don't qualify for Suzy and, you know, and then they are traveling around the county, you know, and some of the girls aren't as lucky as, you know, the girls in that or Kenny or in Gary that they get to, you know, live in a place that doesn't have as high rent. But say, for example, the ones in Galway or Dublin or or Cork, you know, they'd be paying more in accommodation as well themselves and putting their own money through rather than the government. I don't understand that, you know, I've heard of that and people saying, oh, would you not work here for a year or two first? And I could not get my head around it, you know, it really takes, you know, stepping in my shoes to see what it feels like, you know, working for maybe like working for maybe 48 hours a week, you know, and you're not getting anything for that. And, you know, in first and second and third year, and, you know, you have to say, you know, it was a great experience, but, you know, can I afford to keep doing this? Or, you know, do I want to just drop out and complete the work full time myself? And you have to keep reminding yourself, no, I'm determined to do something. And then, you know, somebody then would say, and say to you, she didn't really do anything, you know, are you not going to work here for the first year? Like, excuse me, you know, it kind of put me, you know, we stay to shock, but what can you do? Come here. How long is the course? You're heading into year two. Sorry to remind you of that. Is it three year course, is it? For me, and so those studying in the north, it's a three year degree. Yeah. And for those studying in the south, it is a four year degree. Um, but I have to say it is far christier to study in the north, but my many of my friends are doing nursing and they are in the 18th year level, can I? And, you know, it's, there is a bit of a difference. I will say that. Okay. And I will say that the boys in the NHS, it's absolutely south. And they are starting to treat the nurses better, the student nurses better, but the HSC has a bit of caution up to do to say the least. Listen to this. My daughter is training to be a nurse. She can't get accommodation and is sleeping in her car. She's in her final year in Dublin and has no other choice but to sleep in the car. That's how bad the situation is. Can you imagine that? And I'm telling you now, and then we're expected to pay for accommodation and then pray that goes through the board, you know. She can't get accommodation. She has to sleep in the car. That's not even the first I've heard of it. You know, I'm a course representative and, you know, people are telling me, you know, oh, they're sending me all these things. There was a boy and he went to BBC and actually got a huge news thing. And he was sleeping in his car in Belfast and it was his final placement. I believe that's three months, you know, in a car. How would it be for you to speak out, Luke? I think it's important to give us an insight from a student's perspective, and it's great to have you back on the show again, but... Thank you very much. I don't think maybe the powers that be might be too happy with someone pulling the curtain back so we can all see what's actually going on. It's not. And that's the realistic, you know, that they... It is arrailed in, you know, on the promise of, you know, like helping people all the way. And, you know, the actual then, you know, going through the process and even coming out of the process is not as picturesque as it is portrayed to be. And it, like I said, it is not the nurses, it is the management. And if we just had better management through the HSD and for those here starting in the North or working on the North, that's an interest to have on a dairy. If we could just have better management, it would make the hospital flow 10 times better. But we don't... For some reason, it's just not there. And I really do wish it was because I know the nurses are working so hard. I know the speech language therapist, you know, the pharmacist, you know, they're really... And they're all training. Like, we all see the health service and we're like, do we want to work here? Well, to see it also, too, what we're hearing is... This is the speech language therapist and she is the one tensioned. You know, she would like to emigrate. Yeah, and speak to people in training in mental health services. You hear the same stories. Oh, yeah, mental health services are sometimes worse. And I'm very sorry if anyone listens. This does want to become a nurse. But it is... It's a tough career. But for me, I love it. I still love it. And... But you shouldn't have to sacrifice so much of you to become a nurse. And I include you emotionally, financially, physically. You shouldn't have to sacrifice so much to become a nurse. Because considering that all the replacements, like, say, for example, those who are doing business or quantities of rent, they're paid, but they're paid, like, fully paid. Okay. And, you know, the nurses ask for the same thing and it's like, oh, no, you know, what, boss. And, you know, this is all part of the plan. And, you know, while it should be part of the plan, so should it have some sort of minimum wage kind of idea, where at least we get something for, you know, for 48 hour a week. You know, it's scandalous. All right. You know, knowing that, you know, members of Dal-Aaron actually voted against us getting some sort of money, I think it's horrendous. And I don't think it's a sin to ask about this. Because, you know, like, say, for example, that perler 11 in a car in Dublin, like, who knows what part of Dublin, first of all, she's standing in a car, you know. But it's not just her. My grandchild did her leaving cert through the pandemic, got her place in college. She had to turn it down because she had no accommodation. So people are having to make a decision. Do you pursue your career options in living your car effectively or not go on to third level? I mean, it's crazy that people are finding themselves in that situation now. Absolutely. And I think an afforded in the first accommodation in the first place, you know, I think everybody knows someone looking to go to Dublin. I'm going to like, why did I pick Dublin? You know, outside of first year, it's not pretty because, you know, then you're kind of more or less on your own in terms of finding accommodation. Because, you know, university accommodation prioritizes first years. And, you know, as soon as you get to Dublin for your first year, you should probably more or less go and look for, I would say, for second year. For second year, you know. You know, it's like that. Luke, listen, I have to go to the news at 10. I really appreciate you coming on and giving us that insight. And I hope this year goes well for you. I hope the powers that be, or maybe the futures of powers that be are listening and understand that we have to look after people like you or we'll lose you. And then we wonder, well, why is there so many vacancies in the HSC? Well, here's where it starts. Luke, thanks for your time. Keep it up. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Take care of yourself, Luke. Lovely to speak to you. OK. Luke there. Would you like to win a Hyundai Kona car? Well, that's the first prize in the St Yunans GA Club Development Draw who are sponsors of this week's 9 till noon show. There's nine other great prizes and tickets are now available online at stunansgadraw.com or any club member. At Bryson Recycling, we love to recycle. We accept a wide range of items at our six recycling centres across County Donegal. Located in Dunlowe, Letterkenny, Strenorder, Milford, Lai and Cairndona, only four euro per car load of recycling with an extensive free area and with contactless car payments now available at all our sites, it's even easier to recycle the right way. Check out BrysonRecycling.org for more details. 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For day-to-day health care needs, generations have trusted the experienced staff at McGee's Chemist in Latter County. From coughs and colds to aches and pains, from vitamin supplements to first-aid essentials, McGee's have what you need when you need it with a full prescription service available daily. McGee's Chemist, Main Street Latter County. For health care help and advice, you can always trust. He's not sure where to stand. He doesn't know a single rule. This game isn't familiar. Neither are his teammates. He's outside of inside jokes. And inside, he's shaken. He's learning how to solo. He's starting to feel like he's not alone. His local club welcomed him in like one of their own. He is one of their own. He's a newcomer. And he belongs where we all belong. GAA, where we all belong. Europe Direct, Letter Kenny will host Harry McCann, advisor to the EU and a member of the European Pool of Young Journalists on Wednesday, the 21st of September, to talk about the opportunities for young people in Europe. To book, please telephone 074-9124950 or email central at dunygalllibrary.ie. Kia Sportage, Dunygalls' best-selling car in both new and used. Call into us in Letter Kenny or Mallon to find out why the Sportage is a Dunygalls' favourite. Take a test drive today and you won't be disappointed. Live on AIR Online and on the Highland Radio app, this is Highland Radio News. Good morning, I'm Achille Clark with the news at 10 o'clock. The first mourners attending the Queen's funeral have taken to their seats in Westminster Abbey. Word leaders including T-Shog meet Hall Martin and President Michael D Higgins will be in attendance. The service begins at 11 o'clock when British Royal Navy Sealers will tow the gun carriage carrying the coffin to the Abbey from Westminster Hall. Brenda Hayes, originally from Crecelon, nine lives in Windsor, queued for 13 hours to pay her respects to the Queen in recent days. She told the 9 till noon show that it's an important time for people who want to remember the Queen. I do respect the Royal Family. I live in Windsor, my kids went to school in Windsor. You know, we had a great platinum party just back there in June, I think it was in the end of the pub. Of course, people respect the Queen and they want to celebrate her death just as much as her life when she was alive, you know. The finance minister says it's surprising to see energy companies hiking standing charges. The standing charge is an amount customers have to pay regardless of how much energy they use, which is meant to cover the fixed costs of the company. Despite it not being linked to energy prices and examination by bonkers.ie and the Irish independent, reports increases of more than 300 euro a year in some fixed charges. Finance Minister Pascal Johnahy says energy companies should be doing all they can, not to put further pressure on consumers. It's very surprising to see that kind of change. While I would expect that the price of the infrastructure and the equipment may indeed change over time, maybe that is what is driving a change like that. But however, it is up to the companies themselves to justify that and any additional pressure on households and businesses, every effort should be made to avoid that. Mike and socializing will be top of the agenda today. At a meeting being held between Agriculture Minister Charney McConnog, Dunningall County Council Management and elected FINA fall public representatives. The meeting will specifically discuss how real progress can be made on repairing mica affected homes following the approval of the legislation in July and on delivering socializing across the county. Minister McConnog says there are many still seeking answers and clarity on redress. He believes however there is room to advance more applications from mica homeowners. Many families who are awaiting clarity in relation to the applications. A number of those unfortunately which are affected by Piotite are awaiting further scientific and engineering advice but it's my strong belief that there's a significant number of applications which you can make real progress on with the right cooperation between the county council and the department get answers on and clarity on in the short term so that they actually can get approvals. That's going to be the key objective of the meeting today to discuss how the county council working with the department can ensure that we make progress on those applications which are outstanding. They are fair. Someone could be seriously injured unless safety measures are rolled on on a main route in Inneshawn. County Arena Donahays says residents in the Turban area of Bornfoot are living in fear due to the volume of traffic traveling on the road from Derrick to Bunkrana. She's calling for traffic calming measures to be put in place. A number of residents in the Turban area of Bornfoot they have been saying that the problem there is that they find it very difficult to get across the road to the shop there. It's a very, very busy road. It's also actually a regional road. It's a very wide road at that particular part where the shop is and with the bus stop there and people trying to get across from the bus as well. I have asked that the engineer would look at some kind of a safety measure to be put in place there. Eklenti's area Council says more must be done to counter illegal dumping in West Dunnegall. Council John Heme Shofari says as part of that process better recycling facilities must be provided particularly Ingeore and Fulcara. He says a number of illegal dumps have been detected in recent weeks including one in an area where previous dumps was cleared just three years ago. Council Heme Shofari believes tougher sanctions need to be imposed. I keep emphasizing that we have to get far more tougher with illegal dumpers in relation to fines and stuff like that. I think the fines are too leading to somebody's caught illegal dumping that there should be a five or 10,000 euro fine. It has to stop like and that's money that we could have spent on other projects in the Eklenti's municipal district. With an eye mostly cloudy today with some sunny breaks and the chance of a few isolated light showers highest temperatures of 15 to 17 degrees. That's all from Highland Radio News for now. We'll be back with an update again at 11 o'clock. Until then, good morning. The obituary notice says for this Monday morning September the 19th the death has occurred of John Joe McElwee, Durgan, Port Salon. John Jermaine's are reposing at his late residence. Family time from 11 p.m. to 10 a.m. Rosary tonight at 9 o'clock. Punal tomorrow afternoon at 1 o'clock in St. Columbus Church Mass Mind and Hermit afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. And the death has occurred of William Gallagher, one Willough Park at Letter Kenney and Kerry Kale. His remains are reposing at his late residence. Recreate a mass in the Church of the Irish martyrs Letter Kenney at 11 o'clock to more morning fall by interment in Milford Cemetery. The requiem mass can be viewed on Church of the Irish martyrs at Facebook page. For more details including any family house guidelines for wigs and funerals please go to HighlandRidio.com At Irish Life we've been helping people make smart investments with their nest egg for over 80 years. For actual trusted advice search irishlife.ie or contact your financial broker or advisor. We know Irish Life. We are Irish Life. Irish Life Financial Services is tied to Irish Life Assurance for Life and Pension Products. Irish Life Assurance PLC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Irish Life Financial Services Limits is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Okay, thanks for all your messages today. Where are all the so-called Republican Councillors today when the flag has been flown at half mass to commemorate a monarch whose troops are occupying part of this nation? There have been a few of them quite vocal. Another 85% of the money lifted on a packet of cigarettes goes to the government between tax and levies. Where does this all where does all this money go? That money is supposed to go to the HSC but it's obviously isn't happening every year in the budget. There's a rise in the cost of cigarettes. The HSC needs to be disbanded. I'm not quite sure that tax raised from cigarettes is ring fence for spending on health services. I don't think that's the way this government operates. It goes into general taxation though and perhaps somewhat argue could be directed in that way. Thank you, Luke for the practical insight as to how things are. The dedication of our students is inspiring but so difficult for them indeed. Good morning Greg. Any students who the government paid for should be staying in Ireland for a minimum of three years. They say they want to help the sick yet all they really want is the money. Well did you listen to Luke's testimony there? Did it change your views in any way shape or form? Let me know if it did or not. As part of the training student nurses should be employed for at least two years before they can leave pay back for their training same as doctors believes this caller but again Luke says that most of it most of the expense is coming out of his pocket. So I don't know as I say have you listened to Luke or did you listen to Luke and did it change your opinion? Do we always fly our flag at half massed when the world when a world head of state dies? I don't know I don't I don't think so I can't recall it ever happening. I would wonder who might have to die in this country for example in the Republic of Ireland for flags to be flown at half massed across all public buildings in Britain and I don't think it's an equal relationship I don't think that would happen would it happen maybe there is presidents I don't know I mean we are our own country here they're their own country there we shouldn't do anything I don't think that they wouldn't do for us this has got nothing to do with the royal family or anything but I mean why why it's almost subservient why would we do it if they wouldn't do it for us and you know they wouldn't and even if it was called for how well would it be observed I don't know but maybe there is a president where it has happened but I don't think you know we are equal as far as I see we are an equal nation and I don't think we should be subservient but if there is an agreement where it would happen in the other direction we'll then perhaps so be it then so but if the the head of or if Ireland's president or its leader were to to pass in their 90s would British flags be flown a half massed in Britain I don't think so but it's not it's whatever people want themselves nice to hear an Irish person on who was in the queue for the Queen the bitterness in general in Donegal about the Queen dying shows ignorance and a complete lack of acceptance of the fact that many Irish love the royals but we will not admit it such as the twisted state of this country just as in applauding the defacing of Roan signs Councillor Collin McGill and Asberg is in the minority on flying our flag at half mass minorities have rights in this country but don't get to totally dictate what happens in a democracy and I think that presumes the majority of people are happy for flags to be flown at half massed here I don't know what the I don't know what the breakdown would be in terms of people who would be for and against that right okay I was phoning social welfare and you cannot get through to anyone in letter Kenny it devotes to a call centre down the country can't get through to speak to anyone and the call centre then sends an email to the letter Kenny office to get in contact with them wow that's bureaucracy I think if you looked up bureaucracy there it is if someone is in dire need of help it could be weeks before they get any gone other days of just calling the office Greg I can't believe you didn't anticipate the outpouring of grief there should be for her Majesty the Queen she reigned for over 70 years and I do feel the King will be supported greatly well listen like I can I can only go by what I read and see and listen to people I thought the monarchy particularly with the you know the likes of the Prince Andrew scandal let's not forget obviously that the royal family had to play really quite handsomely for him not to have to stand trial for really really quite serious and that was crimes that was only allegations that was only last year obviously and there's the constant hoff and puff about the Charles's sons and all that kind of stuff I just didn't think that you know hundreds of thousands of people would queue for 14, 15, 16, 20 hours in some cases to file past I just didn't anticipate it so that's it doesn't mean I was right or wrong I have some strong opinions I just didn't think so I thought the I thought people were sort of their attitude was changing towards the the royal family but I do anticipate the things are going to change really quite drastically as I say the knives will be out once the Duster's settled after Queen Elizabeth's funeral the knives will be out for the royal family and members of it can you get a spokesperson from the council as many staff in the council buildings are deeply humiliated by the national flag flying at half massed colleagues have died with minimal acknowledgement by senior management of their service to the council what the council will just say we got a notice from the government and we did this that in the online I'm not sure there's any point contact them any further after driving past the guard of barracks asked the guard and he said the flag was at half massed for the Queen's funeral the amount of pain the Queen brought to Ireland and now we are flying the flag at half massed if our head of state died not a hope would the flag be flown half massed in England good morning Greg no flag should be flown at half massed for the not our Queen as they say who do these people think they are could you talk about Ukrainian refugees being allowed to drink with food vouchers we can do I wasn't aware that they were given food vouchers and I I don't know how widespread what you say is but anyway yes flag should be flown half massed in respect I spent a good few years in London and still holiday there watched as much as I could on TV let's get on with each other says Mary well yeah but you know what people are gonna say Mary you know how we could maybe really stop improving relationships and getting on and you don't have to go too far from here to to see that some people believe a situation there should change if you're transferring a pub license from one county to another you have to buy two if it's going outside your area you have to buy two to bring it to another town really fascinating okay never knew Greg my ESB bill and this is this is serious stuff here by the way so my ESB bill is 211 euro this month I get a 250 euro pension when my bill is taken out this week I've got 49 euro to feed heat and put fuel in the car and heat the house wow I mean that's pretty much all of their money gone on an ESB bill in relation to the ESB small business owner in Downing suffering massively with price increases particularly electricity this is all on the back of major outages at peak periods of the season indeed actually I was in the area for those and I know exactly when you're talking about Easter Saturday and Sunday for example power cut at 7 p.m each evening for several hours resulting in thousands of euro and lost revenue unhappy customers bad reviews people's holidays ruined damage to equipment and no contact made from electricity supplier with regards compensation absolutely disgusting so there you have it I mean that's a situation there where someone is trying to stay in business facing huge costs but it's a one-way contract it seems because they lost lots of money during the summer because of outages and no compensation or even a phone call for them it's completely unfair and as they say they feel it is completely disgusting the county's number one talk show the 9 till noon show on Highland radio it's time for NCBI bingo on Highland radio it's Monday the 19th of September you're playing on the green sheet the reference number is s6 it's game number 38 the numbers are 4 17 70 21 90 64 60 44 75 and finally 78 phone your claim to 9104833 before eight tonight leave in your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll 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in town why not pre-order and have your lunch waiting great food and service seven days a week at dillans hotel letterkenny with live music every friday and saturday night visit dillans-hotel.ie okay you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show we're joined on it now by ellen daherty who is a mica homeowner good morning ellen thanks for taking the call today thank you greg right talk to us about what happened at your house ellen not saturday night pass but a week before we had a storm and a very bad one and i before my home was positioned we get an awful lot of wind and it blew down my my fence on my wall and to my backyard now i consulted my insurance and they said they didn't cover for rain and i was at my wit's end my house has mica as well and my chimney i'm waiting on that to come on top of me and kill me so night and but the backyard i i haven't got anyone to fix that wall no one now how how big is this wall of course honest to god i couldn't tell you like but it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a significant retaining wall isn't it well it was both with nine inch blocks on a flat i see that now i see some images of it here indeed yeah and uh i was lucky in one sense as you can i don't know if you have had they sent all the photos onto you but i was looking in one sense that one of the cooking stones broke and skated off my oil tank what i mean by that it skated off it and scripted it didn't dent it or it didn't break it thank god because we could have had a very serious environmental health problem on our hands so in relation to just this wall is it has do you think defective blocks contributed to its falling or was this caused by rain it could have happened to any wall but the insurance company is not going to assist you because they say your home's affected by mic if that makes sense ellen yeah um no um actually i have a fair idea that when we built this house that road was a storm road and we never had no ball of rain because the rain soaked down onto the ground and then my husband put a little bit of tarmac but he put a golly you know like he shipped a golly so that the rain would go around the corner and down the lane you know but whoever done the last tarmac in put it up against our fence and the rain broke through the tarmac atom and thereby it went and behind my wall now it wasn't doing that i i'm not sure how long ago that was great but the point i'm saying is whoever whoever tarred that yeah you're saying that what what happens this is something that happened outside of your property may have redirected water or put pressure on this bank and that could have actually triggered this collapse is that your sort of concern there ellen yeah my bigger concern is nobody will give me a loan yeah and 66 years of age and i haven't a hope of getting a loan to pay for that and my insurance won't pay for it but what i don't understand is is that your insurance company are citing the fact that you have mica in your property did they come out and inspected and and i mean they have inspectors they should if you have house insurance i can't see how they refuse to pay out because your main building has mica without actually finding out how um you know stay where you are because professor paul donlops with us as well and we're going to be talking about something else paul hello paul hello yeah professor professor it's uh Greg here are you listening to ellen there have you been able to listen to what she is to say yeah yeah i heard what she said i mean it's a peculiar situation and now let's stay with us because we're going to talk to you about something else professor but uh paul but i know you're you're across all of this stuff i mean the insurance company should at least come out inspect this wall determine if mica was a factor rather than just refusing to pay out it doesn't make much sense to me is it you i mean i'm not sure of the circumstances over to be honest but uh you would think that well we think that we built the different periods of time so you know the house could be built at one point in time the walls could be built at a different point in time and they may be actually unconnected issues and they make a blank assessment on someone's wall based on what an engineer has said about their hormones or s465 is totally spurious so really what they should be doing is a responsible insurer is go out and look at our home and inspect it and get an independent assessment on us that would be my feeling on us yeah ellen have they been out to you who the insurers have they been out to you no he took it on spec and because he was out and he said two and a half years ago well i found my husband dead in december in 2019 in the house and i wasn't myself and last year so he definitely wasn't out last year because i was in go with hospital with covid and nearly died god you've been through it and okay listen well we'll we'll but the thing about it is i remember him being out and he said we don't cover for him he was very emphatic about that okay right okay ellen i think the insurance element to that is a complicated one i did have a landslide myself and i claimed based on the fact that it had encroached over a drain so i don't know if that's something worth pursuing it wasn't actually the wall itself it was returning the drain to its former status that they paid out on but more to the wider point here as well about you fearful in your home when it's clear that you are that you it sounds like you're sitting in the house waiting on this chimney to come down on top of you effectively yeah i would like i was almost a god like could you am i taken down for that yeah you know i don't mean taken down so far that it won't fall on top of me just a bit that sticks up in the air i mean that's if you're not a very very heavy yeah and of course every time the tiles don't stand a chance if that comes on top of them yeah and of course obviously then any time there's bad weather forecast that just makes it even worse for you no sleep i simply don't sleep um i cry myself and pray to god the whole time that the chameleon doesn't come in that way it's no way to live your life that alan with everything you've been through but with the loss of your husband and the trauma of that you being hospitalized with covid and now not able to sleep and crying yourself to sleep alan it's you know i mean if there's one sorry greek i'm just sorry that you i'm no sorry alan i'm just sorry for everything you're going through i'm just beside myself here you shouldn't have to live your life like that it's a very big worry a very big worry i do you like to find do you like to fire alan in the house not now i'm too scared so really i'll tell you why yeah i'll tell you why because the smoke was all over the house i get you so if if if somehow the chimney was taken down level with the ridge tile would you be able to sleep a bit better at night ah what at least i have no fear of what's coming on and happening well if anyone's if anyone's out there that would want to i don't know alan if you'd want to speak to someone who might be prepared to do that for you i don't know if there's someone listening maybe but i mean we don't want you crying yourself to sleep or or winter either at the same time something has to be done here alan i mean we i would love somebody would do that but um i'm a little woman on a pension who would give me the money to pay him you know who'd give me a loan to pay them to do that okay well listen we'll leave it with us i don't know i don't know if someone will will will hear what you're saying alan but it's it's as i said we have to do something because you can't continue through winter feeling like that with everything you've already been through alan um okay uh we'll make a yeah go ahead i do remember i was lighting the fire and sitting on here with over christmas with christmas lights on christmas three you know and it was lovely but it won't be like that this year no alan it won't or any other year until i get my house for us hmm okay okay alan listen um we'll be in touch uh thanks for for speaking to us i'm sorry about everything you've been through and continue to go through at this stage now you should be life should be very different for you so i'm so i'm really so sorry that you're having to live you like that live you live your life like this alan all right okay all right thank you very much okay alan all right okay feel helpless helpless altogether um but professor paul donlop alan's story is is a reality isn't it um that that many people have it affects people in different ways but there's a lady you know who's lost her husband has had her own health issues with covid and living in fear i know that's not specifically what we brought you on to talk about paul but i know you're you're fully across everything everyone's going through as well um i mean i was just listening to alan there and i just kept thinking to myself i come many families and only go all and all our parts of the island to male and county claire etc we're sitting feeling the same and loving with the trauma of having to stay in an effective home while we wait for a very very large delay for this new enhanced scheme to come out you know we all heard about this small confession that they give of allowing people to can't remember the four thousand or five thousand euros to do emergency repairs yet not one of those families can avail of it yet and alan was sort of saying like well who really had me money and an old age pensioner i mean that was set up specifically to allow people to do those types of works but no one can access them i know and it's it's talked about as if it's an amazing achievement and look what we've done and this will make a real difference and it's all bs it doesn't come to pass i mean it's absolutely and and and what there's nothing you can do you can call it out i can call it out you've just called it out paul but other than that the wheels just keep on turning nothing nothing changes but people yeah another thing too that we forget this because we're loving in it you know we we discuss about this all the time but sometimes if you put the brakes on your thought process and go man hold on a minute this shouldn't have happened in the first but not one of we're not one person who's living in the fact of home should we love them in this issue most people should be getting normally worried about the other things in life like getting their kids to school and going to university and getting they getting to work and maybe saving for a holiday and now you've protected them and i'm trying to save money for this cost-living crisis and alan should be able to get on with probably grieving yeah exactly i mean yeah exactly you know and i myself and all campaigners have consistently said you know there will be people who can get themselves out of this but what about old-age pensioners in banks are the banks are not going to lend them money you know so where they're going to get the shortfall and you saw the news last week from the fpsi putting out their rates for how he was going to cause the build-up three bedroom semi-home that's how it's told me and done ago it's went up through the roof but that's not reflected in this game as such exactly yeah yeah it's not and and the fpsi clarified that those rates are not going to do with the defective homes that'll come out at a later date which is going to be less you know me or the the grant that you get's going to be less so i just keep thinking like i don't know i don't see an end to this well i'm looking at their old news you've got to charlie mcconnell look and the thin of foil people like nile blaney senator matt nile blaney people are at the legislative watching this bill go through it all and voted down every single amendment that would make this bill fair senator blaney actually argued that foundations are probably okay if if my memory well how i'm sure it stands by it but that's that's what we were at the i think the reality is is paul the scheme as it stands now with inflationary pressures and what have you is a much worse scheme than the 9010 scheme which was never a 9010 scheme i mean you'd have to ask yourself is this current scheme now with inflation and what have you a 5050 scheme you know like everybody else greg we're waiting for the details we'll not know what what's going to be until ssi do the calculations and for every or march or whatever that is well that's a few matters going to be that's going to be the critical point because then then you're going to be able to go this is what i'll get from my home and then this is the actual shortfall and then you'll hear the national teeth i guess because i just can't see how this is ever going to be a hundred percent regardless of what that dole brain and our politicians and the dole have said now there's a few strands to what's going on at the moment obviously there is the ongoing issue within trying to get access to this redress scheme there's stuff going on in europe to try and ensure this never happens again and other work to try and better understand where we're at and where we might be and it's that i think really we're going to talk about now as a geographer professor at Ulster University talk to us about this groundbreaking study into defective blocks and materials in Donegal what what's happening paul yeah well Ulster University provided some from them to do what we would call as a pilot story where you take a sample samples from a small sort of small sample forms to try and find out what's actually happening so i teamed up with andreas leman from EMPN so it's not many people who know Andreas because he gave evidence of the iraqus committee along with me and during the pre-legislative scrutiny day and he's also presented at the european parliament with us back in march that was a thing that we streamed lives of people and also next gauglione who's over in the states as well too so we sampled outer leaves and also inner leaves from four homes in Donegal and we we were able to step outside the nsaas 465 protocol and basically target concrete the way we wanted to do and have a fresh look at it so we sampled homes that were shown various signs of the stress from minor cracking to complete disintegration and we sampled concrete from the worst affected areas of the walls and also in between the bits that were fully solid and what Andreas has been able to do in Switzerland that no one else has done the data but we can see here from different petrographic tests that are coming back from the border reports is use a technique using the scan and electron microscope and another thing called EDS which looks at the basically the atomic structure of what's going on inside the cement and he has unequivocally been able to demonstrate the pyrite is present the pyrite is oxidizing that the pyrite is releasing sulfur and that is the problem with all these iron sulfide minerals once sulfur is being released at high enough quantities it'll form sulfuric acid and what Andreas has been able to show in this pilot study is that the cement hydrates which is basically the glue of the concrete that's keeping everything together is actually being replaced by sulfate minerals particularly mineral called Tomasite which is a salt that can swell and once you get that process having them in concrete the Tomasite basically replaces the cement hydrates so you don't have any glue to keep everything together again anymore and then the cement the concrete just disintegrates and that's where we get that appearance of weetabix dust really effectively because the glue that binds it has gone yeah well basically with all people don't it all particularly suppose we're very familiar with a lot of the videos that went out during this campaign you would have saw people like Pallie Dever and all the people who make action crushing concrete in their hands this process explains that phenomenon because basically what you've got the glue is gone so can I just ask a question Paul as much as and we'll get on to that important point if you like just so I understand so in the manufacturing process what was done or what was not done that has led to a block being in this condition well I'm not privy what's happened internally in these construction plants but I do know that there are European standards and Irish standards that are in place for quite a long time to allow manufacturers to test for the presence of these defective minerals so for example EN 12620 was translated into the by the NS AIR called sorry the NS AI into their standard called SR16 and in that standard it says that basically if pyrotite is present then you can have special precautions you're not allowed to have more than 0.1% sulfur being released under the concrete that's easily measurable using a laboratory test so that's a question that you need to put back to all the people who use this but really that motivation for it in other words when these blocks were being manufactured there were rules and regulations in place that that should have prevented this happening really is what I'm saying this is not new information that someone could say well look at we didn't know that this all could happen back when these blocks were being made what I'm saying is is that this is still covered by the rules and regulations and the criteria that if followed this should never have happened yeah that's what I think yeah so you've got those standards and the standards are putting the standards are there for industry industry to follow yes I mean the problem as we see is it seems to be no one's following up that we know of anyway you know there seems to be no authority at government level going and and going to quarries and testing them and testing products or testing batches but I mean again I don't know what happens internally in these services I'm not privy to that how important is it that this is widened out this will catch the attention of even more members of the academic community how important is this that this is you know I mean and this will be watched on an international level and people will be drawn into this issue in this conversation how important is that do you see Paul I think it's extremely important you know if you think of what's the journey that's happened here in Ireland coming from the special government report the 2016-17 and that was published that they confirmed that like Micah was the issue but actually they recommended more research would be needed and there was a real hiatus where nothing's happening these reports are coming back from Petal Labs and all companies I got and then there's a denial in governments that there's an issue so we think as an academic you know it's really important to get international eyes looking at this and also what's really excellent about involving other national scientists is that you can bring international best best practice to the table so one example would be bringing Andreas Lehmann on board EMPA labs have got access to research facilities that no one else has in Ireland and Andreas's work has been able to clearly identify the issue of iron sulfate attack and the cement paste and that hasn't been done to do it and it wouldn't have been done in Ireland it just wouldn't have been so we're absolutely committed to broadening this really massive societal issue out and to the wider academic community and Andreas is presenting a paper at the International Conference on the Chemistry of Construction Materials and Karlsruhe in Germany on the plant base literally this week or sorry next week and we're presenting that results to you once there'll be people there who are all working on the chemistry of concrete and chemistry of aggregates and for us we're happy to have our science openly scrutinized by all our science and being challenged you know because the important thing for us is that what we're saying needs to be robust it needs to be challenged and we're happy to do that as academics you know because what we're really interested in doing is getting the know of this problem and in terms of also sharing we are bringing this international team of scientists to Donnie Gull on the 15th of November so there's a joint international conference that's being hosted by ATU it's a joint research initiative by Ulster University and ATU and all of those speakers if you remember back in March Andreas Lehman people from Laval University in Quebec University of Connecticut they're all coming to ATU on the 15th of November and we're going to have a chance for home owners who are and engineers government officials people like Charlie McConnel and Niall Blaney who you're talking to at the council they can all come to ATU on the 15th and they can meet these people first hand and learn what's happening internationally you know this is a very very big issue it's not just Ireland we have the pilot side and so by the fact and all those companies and I think people who thinks this this doesn't affect them I think anyone who's thinking of building a wall an extension or a house or a shed not just now but into the future should be keeping an eye on this as well because you know this is not we can't be sure that this is something that happens in the past it's not happening now and won't happen into the future because there is some concern still about the level of of oversight and regulation and implementation and and what have you so this this affects even people that don't think it affects it does affect them that's a very critical point I think one of the one of the real valuable insights that everyone got at the the day of the sort of and what they call it wasn't really pre-legislative scrutiny but the one day that it was given the review and talk to the officials and find out what was going on about the lack of oversight of what's happening and critical questions were asked you know right across that whole those companies from the housing people department of housing housing agency engineers we even had people on who were claiming that that they knew that there were side deals going on by quarries at the minute going to homeowners and trying to giving them sort of harsh deals to keep them quiet because their homes were made of defective concrete and not one quarry or operator so far that has been selling defective concrete into the market has been shut down so I mean you talking about building concrete blockhouse in Ireland I'd be absolutely terrified yeah and also to so much of this could have been teased out through a proper pre-legislative scrutiny process that could have actually really be of beneficial to the state as a whole not just to current homeowners into the scheme itself and yet it was suppressed and just the bare minimum was permitted and you know looking around at those that were there to hear at regular people there were elected politicians around the housing committee but it's oh that's bad oh is that really happening oh and then that's it just kept crack on with the scheme anyway it was a real lost opportunity I think for this country to do something really really important in terms of the building industry yeah you know I mean their jobs and and and the door is to protect citizens and they look after citizens I mean one of the sorry the chair at one point was like is this happening in Derry and as well is this a problem in Northern Ireland I mean if that's your starting point now no disrespect to him but if that is your starting point and you're on the housing committee and you're listening to this testimony from national and international experts and your input is is this happening like in other words if a concrete block couldn't cross an imaginary border for an example you know it is a there's there's merit to that question in terms of regulation and and how how how it's enforced and what have you but it was just at that point those the type of things I think people on the housing committee should already know that's just one example Paul and I was thinking right okay at that point I think the eyes fell out the back of my head completely well you know I think I think everyone got an eye opener that day like we were we were actually as you know we were given evidence on the private type issue and you could just sort of see how that went through them was just ignored I mean we're like I think a lot of a lot of genuine people who were really interested in trying to get the legislation right and a lot of the TDs are he worked very hard to try and make sure that the amendments would be taken seriously and taken on board and what was the purpose of that the purpose of that was to protect the Irish citizens and get the scheme right and ultimately to protect the Irish executive because you know if this scheme is wrong it's pretty making sex and we're going to be back at the table again but I mean every single area amendment was ran through by the people in power you could see that I mean like moving on I mean like our research group is really committed to try and understand what's going on in Ireland this is probably not widely known at the moment but the Geological Survey of Ireland have an Irish construction materials concrete product research sort of area and what the Geological Survey of Ireland is that they use that that remit to advise government bodies like the MSCI and what's happening with concrete and they had a research call-out around the springtime ourselves also university EMPA Laval University University of Connecticut and Nick Skagli owns company we applied to be accepted under that research project and we found out a few weeks ago that we were successful so our small pilot study that we talked about that also university has funded has now got and will get significant funding to actually look at this pirate type issue in real detail and get to the bottom of it so we submitted a research proposal so this is going back to your question about why do we need to get international people we now have a group of some of the top international scientists who deal with iron sulfide pirate types pirate internal sulfide attack now being funded by geological survey of Ireland concrete products research area they look at this in detail so within a year you know we're going to have a really good robust set of data from people who are independent none of us are connected to any government body we're independent university systems outside of Ireland we're not funded by anybody industry in Ireland so I think we've got a really good chance to submit some really excellent research on this pirate type issue using these these are the cutting edge techniques that have been developed in university laboratories they're widely regarded as as best in the world so I think that's been one of the real sort of wins here for us as academics and the reason why we've reached out the international so that that study should be starting eminently and they're their attention isn't grabbed in this way unless there's something very significant there and a learning curve to be had Paul thanks so much for your time I appreciate it greatly yeah no problem and this this hopefully we'll see people down yep down at the other county on the 15th of November do come down we'll be putting out a press release so people can see I was going to say we'll be talking about that as a standard yeah we'll be talking about that in a standalone way and I'm sure at that point people like those that you mentioned will be asked will they attend and if not why not there's plenty of notice there now so that date one more time it's on 14th of November at APU down in later county right that's two months away so I don't know whose diary would be full on that day okay listen thanks very much you appreciate it that is professor Paul Donlop there by the way calls are coming in from our brilliant listeners out there to help Ellen another homeowner affected by Mike has pledged 300 euro but we've also got trades persons who are offering free labour and two others offering to help in any way they can and we'll be passing all of these details on to Ellen at the end of the show so you good people out there heard Ellen in her she's determined herself that if the chimney was taken down to sort of rich tile height I think the high part of the chimney was taken off she's not using the fire now that she might be able to not cry herself to sleep at night with everything that Paul Lady has been through and continues to go through and you could just hear the emotion as she reflected on sitting with her husband in front of that fire with the Christmas lights on those beautiful happy memories that she knows she might not have again we can't return those but maybe we can return a little bit of peace to her in terms of her fears of this chimney collapsing on her the 9 till noon show with St Junan's GA club development draw 40,000 euro in prizes first prize a Hyundai Kona car plus 9 other grid prizes tickets now available online at St Junan's GA draw.com or any club member want unbeatable value from Sky? here's the deal get Sky broadband for just 29 euro a month plus Sky Q for only 10 euro a month super fast super reliable broadband and Sky Q with your apps and recordings that's Sky broadband for 29 euro a month plus Sky Q for 10 euro a month for 12 months now that is unbeatable value go to sky.ie availability subject to location offer does not include Sky TV subscription new Sky customers only set up fees minimum term and further terms apply for more info see Sky.ie slash speeds there's bingo every monday night at halfway house bingo burn food doors open at 7.30 with eyes down at 8.30 2,500 euro must go the snowball is now 6,300 euro on 45 numbers or less if you're not in you can't win that's halfway house bingo tonight at 8.30 Patterson's The Hall Lyfford one of Ireland's largest kitchen and interior showrooms open monday to saturday 9am to 5.30pm kitchens beds mattresses and furniture all under one roof 50% off our x display kitchens everything you need to make a house a home at Patterson's kitchens and interiors The Hall Lyfford book a private VIP screening at Century Cinemas perfect for celebrating birthdays and special occasions featuring a private VIP screening with luxury reclining seating delicious popcorn and a brilliant choice of movies for further information on our VIP packages call Century Complex Letter Kenny on 07491 21976 or visit CenturyCinemas.ie an important timetable update from TFI local link Donnie Gull's LIGO leadroom Route 953 Mobile to Letter Kenny great news from monday september 19th TFI Local Link Route 953 Mobile to Letter Kenny will be extended to Green Castle and will now service locations including Kuldaft, Leneely, Green Castle and Bridgend operating up to three times per day seven days a week the enhanced route will now provide a new peak time service for students and commuters into Letter Kenny arriving for both 8am and 9am and returning at 5pm as well as improved connectivity to regional bus services for onward travel for timetables, fares and all route information see locallink DSL.ie or call our office on 074 9741 644 TFI Local Link part of the transport for Ireland Network Okay, you're very welcome back to the 9 till noon show now as many of you out there would know students and teachers have expressed concerns that the release date for the junior certificate results is still to be confirmed by the state examinations commission the commission has said the processing of the junior cert results is ongoing with marking complete in most subjects however it did not give a date for completion stating that every effort will be made by the SEC to issue these results as soon as is possible Laura Nielsen is JCP coordinator an English teacher in St Columbus Strunaller and joins us on the program now thanks for your time this morning Laura Thank you for having me Greg Right, so can you talk to me as to why it's important that students and teachers presumably get these results as soon as possible like what is it holding up or what why would it leave a student feeling deflated for example Well I thank Greg because you know they've put so much time and effort you know you see you know how much stress and pressure they're under at such a young age and you know they're now in TY or fifth year and you know they're still waiting on these results and I think by the time they are issued you know which is looking you know at this stage come you know close to Christmas maybe or even after Christmas like the value and the you know the amount of effort that went into those exams is gone really Yeah their work is devalued obviously because it seems unimportant Absolutely and you know I know from teaching from my own third years and I also did the superintendent work during the summer as well for the junior cycle and you know just seeing them on the morning of the exam how much you know it meant to them and you know this is three years that they're you know three years of you know blood, sweat and tears really you know and you can see how much pressure they're under and you know I suppose our junior certs this year you know they they've had it you know a lot tougher I think too because of COVID and you know the pressure of homeschool and it just didn't you know or you know it just didn't suit a lot of them and then for you know to be told that you know their results don't matter enough they don't even have a date you know for when they're going to be issued And it might be slightly different for those going into transition year versus fifth year like are these results important maybe for those going straight into fifth in terms of course selection or is that not maybe as big an issue It's probably not as big an issue now you know I think you know the junior cycle now Greg has changed the only subjects where they do honors or you know ordinary level or Irish English and maths everything else is now a common level you know so they're not under any pressure really to pick levels or anything going into fifth year they know themselves you know but I suppose in a way you know they want they want their results you know they want to know you know what they did the best and you know picking subjects going forward and to their leaf and sir absolutely And psychologically it's like unfinished business isn't it I mean are they able to start enjoying the transition year or their fifth year when really their last year is not it's not done and dusted yet it must feel like it's not absolutely and you know it's not just a piece of paper for them anymore and you know the junior cycle has changed now and what they get at the end of it is it's a it's a junior cycle profile of achievement and it's not just about their grades you know on that on that piece of paper they now have what we call other areas of learning you know so maybe if they weren't you know academic but they have been amazing on the sports pitch or they got involved and loads of extra curricular things and that's all on this piece of paper now and like it is a sense of achievement you know it doesn't matter you know it's not just about the grades anymore and it is it's about everything that they've got involved in during their three years and like that's been taken away from them and again we don't know when these results are going to come out Yeah and of course too there's another cohort early school leavers who would need this to sort of decide their next path or to enter an apprenticeship so they're being held up as well and I think a date in and of itself would show a little bit of respect I think or a little bit of a target you know this autumn ended soon it's like we're two screaming children in the back of the car Laura and we're just being told soon by mommy education minister in the front do you know what I mean just give us a date we can we can deal with it then absolutely you know I think it is I think it's ridiculous now and I think even if we had some sort of concrete date at least we could tell the students you know your work was valued enough that they have given us a date it's going to be complete because at the minute they are deflated and you know I've heard them say and you know what was the point to put in so much time so much effort when we don't even know when these results are coming out you know Finally Laura our young people have been brilliant haven't they in the most challenging time as you and the rest of your teaching colleagues have I mean it was a bloody nightmare a lot of it between the homeschooling and trying to get work together and then all the rules within the building and then the windows open and then the I mean it's been a tough couple of years for students and teachers but particularly students hasn't it Oh it definitely has but you know like Greg from you know from my own experience too they have been absolutely super and you know I just I feel like you know young people are very astute anyway but they just they have been absolutely superb and you know the homeschooling was easy for anybody and you know there was a lot of stress there was a lot of pressure and I just I think that they have been remarkable and we just need to have a some sort of date for them to know that they're they're valued a wee bit of respect for them too absolutely and for the teachers all right lovely to see you lovely to have you on the show thanks so much give up the great work all right bye bye Laura Nielson there bye bye Laura Nielson JCP coordinator and English teacher in St. Columbus of Stronauler your young ones affected by it how is it affecting them 08 660 25000 whatsapps and texts to that number or give us a call at 07 491 25000 07 491 25000 let me see here I have some of your calls and comments lots of them actually yeah it's busy for Monday too I don't know why I'd be surprised I hear I'm here every Monday but I'm always surprised when it's so busy so I really appreciate that we'll get to them and so much more besides in the last hour planning to come keep us informed and entertained and thanks so much by the way for for those of you who moved by Ellen with offers of money and assistance it really really is a beautiful thing and hopefully something positive comes out of it all for Ellen okay let's get a news update at 11 o'clock good morning Michaela Clark thanks Greg good morning Britain's Queen Elizabeth the second is being laid to rest this morning a state funeral which is being attended by leaders from around the world has just gotten underway President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Mee-ho Martin are both attending the funeral while the flying of the national flag at half mass at the public services centre in Dunno has been obstructed due to the placing of a banner across the flagpole on Friday Donegal County Council's Chief Executive informed members that on the back of a request by the Department of the Taoiseach arrangements were being put in place to fly the national flag at half mass today as the funeral takes place of Queen Elizabeth that decision was branded a disgrace by Councilor Mee-ho Carl McGill Osburg who called for council employees not to comply with requests the finance minister says it's surprising to see energy companies hiking standing charges the standing charge is in a mind customers have to pay regardless of how much energy they use which is meant to cover the fixed costs of the company despite it not being linked to energy prices and examination by bonkers.ie and the Irish independent reports increases of more than 300 year a year in some fixed charges 130 new jobs have been announced for the farming sector this morning the agriculture consultants association says 80 of the roles will be advisory positions with the remaining 50 in administration the positions will be based throughout the country including in Donegal two men have been arrested on 30,000 pounds worth of drugs seized in Straban the pair were detected by police who were conducting a checkpoint in the Lyford Road area shortly before midnight when they noted a vehicle turning and driving in the opposite direction there are fears someone could be seriously injured unless safety measures are rolled out on a main route in Ineshawn Councilor Reena Donahays says residents in the Tobin area of Burnford are living in fear due to the volume of traffic traveling on the road from Derry to Bancrana and the Glenties area council says more must be done to counter illegal jumping in West Donegal going to John Himesh O'Farre says as part of that process better recycling facilities must be provided particularly Inkijor and Fulcara those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon Michaela, thank you very much indeed we'll be back with more on The Ninetal Noon Show after we take this break cutting through the spin The Ninetal Noon Show on Highland Radio Do you need a little extra help staying in your home? At Bluebird Care we offer a wide variety of Qmark approved personalised home care services across Donegal and our fully trained and committed staff will always meet your care needs with kindness, compassion and dignity to get your personal home care assessment plan visit bluebirdcare.ie or call our care team today on 07491 29562 and bring care home any shown credit union has recently launched Cultivate an agricultural loan at only 6.55% APR 6.75% call any of their four officers for more information or to make an appointment Inichon Credit Union Bongkranakandunamuville and Moff supporting local farmers Inichon Credit Union is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland In Aldi a nine pack of luxury toilet tissue costs only £3.99 and in Supervalue a nine pack of luxury toilet tissue costs £4.99 just saying and swapping to Aldi could save you over 77 euro on your big family shop compared to Supervalue Now there's something to bear in mind Comparing own label or equivalent brands lowest pro rata use check 22nd of the 8th, 2022 Scooting offers products and prices may vary details aldi.ie forward slash swap Are you interested in returning to education? ATU Donegal's Certificate and Access Studies for Higher Education is a free course available for adult learners early school leavers or those who have never had access to educational opportunities before and want to kick start their third level education The closing date is the 23rd of September For more information visit aldi.ie forward slash access In Ireland we love our sport but whenever the game there are things we'd all love to change I'd make the pitch smaller But if you're a person from a disadvantaged or underrepresented group changing the game can mean something very different I want to be judged on my performance not on who I am Sport Ireland is working to make everyone feel more included Find out how we're changing the game at sportarland.ie forward slash sportform 70,000 daily listeners about your vacancies every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during our prime time shows We will broadcast the latest job opportunities across the Northwest and into County's Derry and Taroan All jobs will be listed on highlandridio.com under our job spot section For more information contact the advertising team on 07491 5322 or email advertising at highlandridio.com Highlandridio delivering your message across the Northwest County's home interiors we pride ourselves on offering you the very best in choice, quality and value on all home furnishings Treat your home with a visit to Coonies today and choose from our large range of suites, tables, beds not to mention our large selection of home accessories Our motto is if you see it you can buy it and we will deliver it to your door Coonies Home Interior's Letter Kenny retail park style and perfection at incredible value Fancy a lunch out today Kelly's Diner and Letter Kenny have a menu packed with great value selections and there's also specials every day or enjoy a three course Sunday lunch from 12 to 3 for just $16.75 Take a seat for the best value launch in town at Kelly's award winning diner Mountaintop Letter Kenny Are you in a low income and worried about an essential expense or bill that you can't afford? The Department of Social Protection is here to help The additional needs payment is available to support you with important expenses such as utility bills or other essential household or personal costs It's available to anyone on a low income who qualifies no matter how many hours you work or if you're already on a social welfare payment This support is provided by the Department's Community Welfare Service To find out more visit gov.ie forward slash a n p or call 0818 607080 A government of Ireland initiative The new TFI Young Adult Leap Card is for 19 to 23 year olds offering a 50% discount on transport for Ireland fares and now also includes many commercial bus operators too Students who are in full-time education and are over 23 can also avail of these savings with a TFI Student Leap Card So save 50% on fares with a young adult or student leap card across the Transport for Ireland network and participating commercial bus operators See leapcard.ie for details and to order yours today Alright, now Coldwater Eden is a new book that's out It's one man's pursuit of Ireland's legendary waves That man is Richie Fitzgerald and he joins us on the programme now Hiya Richie Hey Craig, how are you? Thanks for having me Congratulations by the way I think it's a wonderful thing to achieve Firstly to have a life interesting enough that it warrants a book and can provide material for a book but also to come up with the idea get it together get it published get it printed get it out there It's a wonderful achievement I think Yeah, if you haven't lived a life you know you're not you're not going to be able to write about one and so I suppose I have lived an interesting life and yeah it was all self-done the process of writing a book anyone who's ever written a book or journalism it's very very hard and but I enjoyed it and then I just went out myself I had no agent and luckily Harper Collins were very interested in it and here we are Yeah, it's a brilliant achievement Now, is it almost inevitable that if you're born and raised in Rossnaila, Bundoren in that general area that at some point or other you'll have a go at surfing? Probably I mean I grew up in that very fertile area of Rossnaila, Bundoren, Strand Hill so there is a lot of surfing but it's not a shoe-in there's plenty of people here that don't engage in the sea and back when I started surfing in the early 80s I was interested in the sea from when I was a child in the 70s but it wasn't, you know an obvious track to go down I just followed my brother and sister into the water and I just I felt a real attraction to it especially from that first surf on I caught the bogey and it hasn't really left me since Yeah, was it? Talk to me about that first experience the first ever time that you went out on a board you caught your first wave talk to me about what that was like and how it gripped you Well I absolutely hated it the first time because you know I was a child I was only nine years old I was used to swimming in the sea but now I had a huge surfboard tied to my leg and a rubber wetsuit on and you know the board hit me in the head and I got dragged under and it was cold and it was November and I was crying and my brother had to carry me up the beach but that evening when I thought out and kind of thought about it there was something in it just that feeling gliding across water and I went up to my sister and I said you know what can I go again next weekend and she said yeah I knew you'd like it so I hated it but there was a little nucleus of desire to get back out there and then that blossomed To do it good like you had because you're the Ireland's first pro-surfer you've competed all over the world are you born with an ability that you just happened to hit upon or is it all determination? It's like any sport some people have a natural flair for it and you know Brent you know burned bright too early with me I definitely I did a desire for it but I had to work really hard at it I love to see and I feel very comfortable in waves and underneath the waves and above the waves but I did have to work extremely hard at surfing it wasn't in our family at all my mom or dad weren't keen water people at all so I didn't have this you know lineage and surfing and but look at it it's like anything else if you if you have a kind of dream and you work hard you might get every gold but I certainly reached a lot more than I thought I would have when I was 10 years old yeah and you had to adapt didn't you I mean you didn't have all the best of equipment and all the right gear to get out on the water and you know you had to you had to think outside the box use some old tricks of the trade yeah but I mean Bundor and Rosnayla Strand Hill this area in the 1980s there was no surf shops it was before Rosnayla Surf Club opened so you know we had to use crazy stuff like marigold kitchen gloves over woolen gloves and you know swim hats and gammy wetsuits and you know half half broken surfboards but I think that you know as my mother would have said that's character building and I think that stood to me in the years that came you know now it's quite easy you know all along from Inner Scrone right down to Rosnayla Bundor and there's surf clubs and you know there's surfing facilities everywhere but that's just the way the times go but when I grew up it was very different yes yeah and how quickly then after you started did it become clear that you know this was something you were really good at that this is something you actually could maybe you know it could get you to see the world and to compete how soon after you started did that become clear to you or did others people see it in you first I think a bit of both really I was a dreamer always you know even though I grew up on the beautiful Donegal coast here I was dreaming of Hawaii and Tahiti and all these places so I had that desire to get on the road but I signed my first professional contract contract in 1996 it wasn't life changing money it was a couple of grand to get me to and from contests and I just built on that by maybe the end of the first decade of the 2000s I was making a pretty good living at it but it was one step at a time I was no kind of massive explosion that you know I was influenced by the Britain Brothers and Russ Nihler who are legends of the surf and the Tobin Brothers and guys like Jim Meehan here and the McGlone Brothers my own brothers and sisters but we were kind of the first generation in Bondore and while Russ Nihler and Strand Hill had older generations that did help us to get on that road as well yeah and I mean obviously you had an amazing learning ground for those who don't know or haven't heard conversations like this before what would make Bondore and Russ Nihler Strand Hill particularly good for surfing it's the geographical setup it's a very serrated coastline and you know from from Strand Hill Strait, you know all the beaches the whole way up you've got to it's it's a smorgasbord of different waves so there's beginner ones intermediate ones advanced ones you've got the big waves like Mullip Moore all in a very condensed stretch of coastlines that's very unique not even in an Irish scale but on a global scale have that many world class and beautiful beaches all rammed together within a 45 minute stretch of coasts so you know it's got all the geographical necessities to make surfing any level possible and I'm correct in saying too it's the length of the waves to how slow they break or how long they break for is that a positive element there yeah we've got we've got different types we've got short sharp breaking and you know really hollow waves and then we've got beautiful long waves like the peak in Bondore and then really easy waves like Russ Nihler that anyone can surf and you know more challenging waves like Strand Hill so we've every different type of wave and that's the attraction for a surfer you don't want to surf the same wave over and over again as your ability gets better you want a big mix bag and that's exactly what we have here and we've seen those I don't know the exact terminology but you know those images and in fact it's the image on the front of your book here do you know where the surfer is in the within the wave or at least it appears like that do we have waves like that off the North West Coast regularly that photograph is me surfing Mulloch-Moore in County Sligo so we would call that it yes but I need evidence Mulloch-Moore is a fantastic wave it's you know maybe one of the three best big waves in the world so we have plenty of it we actually have an oversupply of quality waves and that's why you paddle out in Bondore or any of the surf breaks around here and you're going to meet someone from California another person from Tahiti we're French you've got someone from letter Kenny so it's a real mix bag you know and the waves do the talking they will attract people your hardcore surfer doesn't care about weather we had a nice summer this year but they're all about the quality of the waves and we have extremely high quality waves and before we talk more about the book I remember I think it was back in my North West days there was a major surfing competition in the Bondore in general area Rossnalla area do we see enough of that did that ever catch on and if not why not yeah we had we had the European Championships here in 85 97 and 2011 so about every 10 years we have a big event we're due one now it just it takes a lot of organization the right event at the right time with the right people and there's been a few things that have held it back you know the global crash and then we've had COVID so I was actually speaking to Shane Smith he's the tourism manager here and you know some of the surf operators about getting another event in the next year so we will for sure all right good stuff it's due okay that's brilliant right so tell us how you tell the reader your story Rich I think your best place to sort of talk to the public about that I mean obviously it's from that your love of Bundlearn is there of course and your talk of Bundlearn and your first surf and you take us through then your story what did you what journey did you want do you want to bring the reader on well I tried to keep it very readable the book which I hope it is and first reactions are that it is and I've kept it jargon free so it's just a general adult will enjoy the book and I've kept my story of when I started surf to surfing 50 foot waves as as really the the main vein of the story but within that I kind of tell that the cultural and the social evolution that happened in Donegal and Ireland and then when Ireland's surfing reflected outside and when international surfing reflected Ireland on the inside so I tell those stories not chronologically it's not a big long history of surfing but I tell them in snippets when it is necessary so it's a it's a memoir it's a story you know plenty of non-surfers of Reddit I don't think Harper Collins would have ever published a surf book only so it's it's just a lovely story I feel that kind of embraces the coast good bad and indifferent of growing up in in this area and beyond that too obviously surfing is very very important to you it's not just a sport you opened up the shop in Bundoran as well I didn't realise it was you behind that but I mean that's just from time where times when I was in Bundoran more than I am now it was just ever present it's there it's just it was like a landmark yeah like we as a family we opened that shop out of necessity on the main street now there's loads of really good surf businesses in Bundoran but we literally could not get surf wax suits boots you know so half the stock for the first year this is where the candle wax the candle wax and marigolds come from from the visit you see in christening candles at a mom's shop melt them down take the wick out and pour it on top and you know we had all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to get out into the surf so it was really it was just necessity rather than anything else yeah and I think people are going to be just interested in the stories you say you don't have to have a particular interest in a particular subject to enjoy a person's story and observations from within and the travel that's in there and your observations about the perception of surfing you know being male dominated while the women sat on the beach but we know here in Donegal better than anywhere how brilliant women are at surfing also too but there are taboos that have to be broken down I suppose not taboos but those barriers and glass ceilings that's correct I mean we have the queen of Irish surfing here in East Key Britain and Zoe Lally Ross Nala as well but I grew up in a female dominated household I had three older sisters so you know that machismo was definitely out the window but yeah surfing in Ireland was refreshingly it didn't have that masculine edge to it like it did in other places so female surfing has definitely been a huge part and you know I was inspired by surfers like Zoe Lally growing up so it that's just the way it was for me so I never saw it any other way and I really haven't since my daughter surfs my sister surfs so it's yeah it's as female as it is male in this area for sure yeah and it could be easy to forget all people that don't know that you're a pioneer of surfing in this country as well so we get to an insight into that because you're obviously you know not every door is open to and you know you have to there's good stories in your journey in that regard as well anything else you want to add about the book Richie before we wrap it up no just really I hope people quite buy it enjoy it it's a story that I think anyone will enjoy surfing or otherwise yeah okay and brilliant to get Harper Collins on board as well because as you say they saw something really significant in it which is great in a testimony to your writing in your life so thank you so much Richie we really appreciate it and the best of luck with the book by the way it's out now in all the usual places I imagine bookstores all bookstores and Ignatian wide have it well done thank you so much indeed Richie Fitzgerald there his book Cold Water Eden and it's out right now well done all right they say everyone's got a book in them but they don't but he does which is great the 9 till noon show with St Yunan's GA club development draw 40 000 your own prizes first prize a Hyundai Kona car plus nine other grit prizes tickets now available online at stunansgadraw.com or any club member sharing a story is easy to do on the train with your pals or your fluffy dog too you might need a pink unicorn a pirate or a grizzly bear be an astronaut up above past the moon over there so go on grab a book and explore lots of places you're sure to find magic in all of the pages a little story can make a big difference that's why McDonald's have provided over 6 million books in Ireland since 2012 and we won't stop there McDonald's change a little change a lot tune in this Tuesday to the community garden information slot on air after 10 a.m. on the 9 till noon show in association with Sheridan security systems call today and get your zero wire alarm system from 299 euro Sheridan security 91 26025 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 Donegal patients are still being treated with us at Kingsbridge Private Hospital Northwest Post Brexit the process is easy and our dedicated team will help guide you through it so why wait contact us today to find out how you can skip the waiting lists and receive treatment in Northern Ireland visit kingsbridgeprivatehospital.com because life matters is your scooter a little older pre love perhaps what adventures I wonder did it have in the past another family another life bright city lights or a quiet country existence seeing Ireland's best sights we don't really need your car's story with a scooter service you get a complete vehicle health check genuine scooter parts and free roadside assistance for 12 months your local scooter dealer is DMG Motors Clare Road Donegal Town telephone 074 9721 396 or visit dmgmotors.ie at Ulster Bank we are closing and from the 8th of October all customers whose accounts have passed the six month closure notice period will no longer be able to use their accounts for our customers making nursing home payments for themselves or on behalf of a loved one make sure your payments remain uninterrupted by switching your account now for more vulnerable customers who need extra assistance please call our vulnerable customer line on 1800 656 001 call costs may vary and calls from mobiles may not be free Ulster Bank Ireland DAC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland we wish you a it may be too early for Christmas carols but it's never too early to start the Christmas shopping save hundreds possibly thousands of euro shopping online with space hub dairy we provide a full virtual address mailbox service for all your Christmas parcels and posts save hundreds possibly thousands on customs charges this Christmas with space hub dairy call 04871 878 077 for more details okay very welcome back to the program I think someone's actually canceling me a whole column I think has been out and about someone mentioned it was on social media and he has returned a flag in that accounting to full mass that had been reduced to half mass I don't know what they in the consequences of that is but just that seems to be what's happening out there hi Greg standing charges and electric bills should be reduced to 10 for every building across the board there should be no difference between town and country paying about 349 a year and maybe more yeah um let me see I have to say the tv footage of the queen having toast on marmalade with pannington bear is wonderful and also the footage of the james bond helicopter parachute jump at her age fantastic that comes from carol book carol of course you would know that that was for the olympics and she didn't actually parachute I'm watching the queen's funeral what a spectacular event well done to us here too for being gracious about her passing say the call over the radio station should hold a minute silence for the queen there was a lot of services yesterday in donagall so it'd be nice to see the station have a minute silence we're living in 2022 and things have moved on now donagall has the highest percentage of Protestants living here so it would be good respect to them and the unionists in the county the majority of people in this country wouldn't accept the flying of the flag at half mass they wouldn't do the same for us so why should we for them another i was at garth brooks on saturday night with my sister and we were sitting for the concert great night however when we went to leave we were walking out there was no railings to help us down the steps we both had to help each other down why does the gea not have railings in place um right a caller thinks that it's not mic in the blocks it's quarry dust well there's a quite literally a team of international scientists who've studied for a very very long time who have determined what's in the blocks but i respect your view i'm not sure what your background is but they say building materials should wash sand and gravel in the building specifications but that didn't happen in this case what happens is the dust kills the cement and eventually the brooks crumble maybe there's something to that the caller is a builder for over 60 years and the information comes from his personal expertise so i think that's a point of view that definitely would be the scientists might be interested into it might form a more rounded view of what's going on to them um a caller was taken into hospital on friday night i was there all day on saturday i didn't get any medication in the end i had to leave on saturday okay not sorry to hear that uh denis i really am okay let us uh see i think uh happy birthday to leon ponsonby who celebrated a big birthday at the weekend that comes in from all the brogans in donningall town and another birthday celebrated over the last uh either today or yesterday i believe is the late and great big tom all right so happy birthday to uh the late big tom there and anyone else of course celebrating a birthday today right okay uh we have to take a very short break stay right where you are because uh we're going to be speaking to mel morgan founder of the uk state pension abroad might be some interesting information for some of you out there would you like to win a Hyundai corner car well that's the first prize in the st unans ga club development draw who are sponsors of this week's nine till noon show there's nine other great prizes and tickets are now available online at stunansgadraw.com or any club member are you frequently asking others to speak slowly clearly and loudly is listening to the tv or radio becoming harder if your hearing is affecting your everyday life connect hearing are here to help our clinics in letter kenny and and low are open monday to friday where you can avail of our hearing test wax removal and repair services take that first step to better hearing call us today on 07491 13296 connect hearing connecting you to life there's bingo every monday night at halfway house bingo burn food doors open at 730 with eyes down at 830 2500 euro must go the snowball is now 6300 euro on 45 numbers or less if you're not in you can't win that's halfway house bingo tonight at 830 with everyone looking to shrink their bill these days done stores gives you new ways to save on your shop with double savers first you'll save in the aisles when you fill your basket with fantastic low prices across thousands of great products then you'll save again at the till with our five off 25 grocery voucher shrink your bill with double savers new from done stores done stores always better value terms and additions apply that you can be used on next in-store grocery shop of 25 euro or more key of sportage dunnygold's best-selling car in both new and used call into us in letter kenny or malin to find out why the sportage is a dunnygold favorite take a test drive today and you won't be disappointed an important timetable update from tfi local link dunnygold's like only trim root 953 movill to letter kenny great news from monday september 19th tfi local link root 953 movill to letter kenny will be extended to green castle and will now service locations including kldaaf glenealy green castle and bridge end operating up to three times per day seven days a week the enhanced route will now provide a new peak time service for students and commuters into letter kenny arriving for both 8 a.m and 9 a.m and returning at 5 p.m as well as improve connectivity to regional bus services for onward travel for timetables fairs and all route information see local link dsl.ie or call our office on 074 9741 644 tfi local link part of the transport for ireland network okay okay welcome back now did you work uh are you one of the 200 000 irish who worked for three plus years in britain or northern ireland well there could be something in it for you melmorgan is founder of uk state pensions abroad and joins us on the show now good morning meld good morning great okay so who um should prick their ears up for this uh who could potentially uh benefit from this information well i think anyone in the republic who's moved back having spent and worked and paid national insurance in the uk for three and a half years or more uh should have an ability to claim a benefit um i supposed i we my wife and i discovered this early stages of the lockdown we spent five years working in um in warwickshire before moving back to waterford where we currently live and i decided i'd try and figure out if i hadn't stayed pensions didn't think there'd be any opportunity so i spent some time and i got a uk state pension from the uk department of working pensions and they told me quite uh properly that i didn't have a pension and i said i was about to just drop the phone and say okay well that's it and i said well you might have an ability to um to enhance it so i looked into this a little bit further and having had five years um i was able to what they called buy back it's actually payback 15 years to get 15 years extra service uh back to 2006 or 2007 and then i'm entitled to continue to contribute to my uk state pension every year until i retire which will be in another five and a half years so to buy this back because i move straight back and continue to work in Ireland i was giving what they call a class two um classification in the uk which meant that the buyback years was only costing me 160 pounds per year ah that's okay so the buyback 15 years okay it's a lot of money it's 2400 pounds sterling and then every year forward i pay 160 pounds out till i retire so total investment of about 3400 and what is the potential return post retirement uh once i retire i will get 10 000 pounds per annum right okay so effectively i've paid it off in probably about six or seven months yeah and and anybody who worked for a period of time in britain or northern island so a lot of people that may be if you lived in boncran and and and worked in dairy for example and paid your tax and what have you there you also could benefit from this is that correct yes i believe so i mean i've checked that out because i knew i was coming on holland radio because most of my work so far has been in the southwest and in the south um but i do recognize of course and i know don't it go very well that there would not be a lot of people who would be living and continue to live in donny's hall and work across the border um i know in the forum to do ask what was your uk a former uk address but if you didn't have a uk address your uk tax information or your national insurance information that you would get from the government if you're paying uk national insurance would come to your boncran address if you're in boncran so you should be able to use that address and you would still have built up national insurance contribution so it should be the same now this is something that's been looked at the moment in that um there's a window of opportunity here that is closing somewhat is it tell us that about that yes um they revised the state pension in 2016 and put a number of years on the end of it that you could claim back these 15 years up to 15 years and that finishes at the end of this year at the end of this tax year uk style tax year but it does take them about 14 weeks to process now the end of the tax year in the uk as people may know is fifth of april like ours used to be years ago so my recommendation is if you want to apply for this you should apply straight away because i would say by the end of october if you don't have the application in you won't get the response back and you won't be able to make the payment to buy back the years before the end of the uk tax year so i would say november is probably the the deadline after that you can still purchase back up to six years now people may not altogether being years because effectively they may have a lot of state pension entitlements already built up you need to be 35 years of state pensions to um to get a full uk uh state pensions the 35 year contributions so if you get 15 years back let's say your work day cheers and let's say if another eight nine years to go before you retire you pretty much built up everything that you need to build up um so it's a unique opportunity at the present moment in time and my wife and i both did it and okay it's cost us a lot of money but it'll give us i'll get uh it'll give us effectively 20 000 pounds between the two of us when we retire but the interesting thing as well is it's doesn't affect your irish state pension so we will also have a contributor irish state pension which is not affected by this so hopefully you'll be able to one thing my wife said to me before i paid the money said look be a better check because you don't want to be paying back uk state pension for the same years as you were earning them in ireland because they might take it off you all right well if people obviously you and your wife have done much to the ground work if people want more information they can go to a website uk statepensionabroad.com and uh as i say use of experience that and i i hope you have a long and happy and more comfortable retirement as a result of many more besides mal yeah there's a calculator on that as well so that if people want to put in how many years they they've spent working in the uk paying national insurance and what their current age is they'll get an idea of what state pension they can earn right now i must say that if if you've returned and you've worked in the uk and returned to ireland you didn't go into the workforce straight away or soon after you may not get that plus two classification whether it costs 160 pounds a year it might cost you 800 pounds a year there's two classifications but i would say 80 percent of the people i've dealt with it's been plus two which is the cheaper form of buyback but i'd ask anyone to go into uk state pensionabroad.com and this is not to confuse with there's a lot of ads about people you know do you have a private pension in the uk would you like to send it back to ireland this is not about private pension this is about your entitlement with the uk government yeah that you worked that you worked in the uk you paid your contributions and it's an entitlement um akhola wants to know do you know if the person claiming the english pension passes away does the surviving partner are they entitled to that pension then no that's that that is if there's any risk involved um if you pass away there's nothing for the surviving partner they amended that in 2016 but having said that if you can live your life through to when you're 66 and a half or 67 you effectively would get your money back within a year okay brilliant stuff right it might not be for anyone but anyone who's got an interest in that and as you know um many thousands of people in donningall have spent much of their life for some of the life at least working in uh certainly uh in britain and uh we'll we'll we'll get some clarification you will i'm sure as it relates to the northern ireland situation and the your your yeah i'm sure i'm sure that principal private residence at that time but anyway malice and thanks for your time that's all great thank you very much listen to your part with the nurses earlier on the nursing program there's a lot of nurses are in this frame as well i found all right that makes sense the nurses have gone to work in the uk and moved back okay yep that that makes sense all right mal thanks mal Morgan founder of a uk state pensions abroad you can check out their website dot com there and see if that's of any use to you Greg i wonder if the government gave small businesses the equivalent of what an employee would earn if they were on social welfare the business could then top up the payment to the full wage this would help immensely towards the cash flow in a business that could go towards the higher running costs it would perhaps even stimulate more businesses to employ more people and get more people into employment perhaps do this for a year or two just a thought thanks for all you and your team do for the local and business communities in donnie gall good morning greg further to the increases in electricity costs both on consumption charges and standing charges i being a pensioner have decided the latest bill i got two weeks ago i'm going i have decided you're not going to pay it sorry i'm doing some protest but also assuming that government will provide credits to the electricity companies without giving the payments directly to us i would encourage others to do likewise to make the point that we are not going to put up with being exploited any longer okay that is a protest but can i just say that if they decide to cut you off you know reconnection charges and stuff it's not to give in but we have to be conscious of that and to all some supremely conscious of the 100 sorry the hundreds of thousands of people who are on prepay power and they cannot sort of take part in such a protest because as soon as they stop pumping money into their meter they no longer have any electricity a caller says giving the pensioners 10 euros a disgrace it would not even pay for extra fuel in the car or cover any of the extra costs another as someone who only just survives on disability due to long-term illness as it is i'm already not turning on lights have no oil for heating my house at all so it is hot water bottles and extra clothes for me here uh on in it would be worth maybe in your situation to give the likes of st. Vincent de Paul a call and see if you would qualify from assistance from them i think it's worth it would be worth a call if you're sitting in the dark with no heating on i think you know you should qualify some some for some assistance there is also through um the department of social welfare there are some unique payments or one-off payments that you may well be entitled to so don't just you know not give in uh but you know contact the department of social welfare and say uh are there any special payments one-off payments this is my situation this is my i mean there's ads on the radio we invite you to do so i'd very much recommend that you do let me know if you do and if anything comes from it because i'll stop mentioning it if it's lode nonsense but if there's anyone out there and i know it's private you might not want to share but has anyone out there gotten any further assistance from social welfare as it relates to electricity or oil or heating anything like that there that system that's being advertised on stations like this have you used it what do you need to uh where do you need to be able to qualify for it what difference does it make and then i can either tell other people and it's useful to them or else i'm wasting their time and i don't want to do that either and you can help me with that i worked for nine years in dairy and i know and now i now get the pension there a bit each month people should check up on what they're entitled to but sometimes and what this is this is a scheme it seems whereby you wouldn't ordinarily be entitled to the pension because he didn't work work there long enough but you can pay back in and then receive the pension uh that's that's the difference there between your situation and uh what mel was talking to us about greg i've been watching the queen's funeral went out for a refill of coffee had highland playing on the kitchen heard you reading a text from someone but you spoiled the story for me and others saying the queen didn't really jump from the plane uh unnecessary quote um so we want to i don't know what to say so so i'm like ruining it but she didn't jump out of the plane nor did she sit opposite padding to and that was special effects she sat opposite anyway sorry i don't want to ruin anyone's day i apologize i'm not sure if you're being serious or not um it's all other funerals burials cancelled in the uk today's is true i don't know could it be can anyone shed any light on the wisdom of having st unans versus st michael's in glenties and done low versus terminan our draw with fuel at almost uh two euro per liter so many fine venues and pitches in between the competing games it's a very good point actually in this day and age uh i'm going to put that to one side maybe follow that up um wish rosemary begley from karaoke a big happy birthday who celebrated on the weekend from caroline peter jason shannon owen and godson lee and other the queen was not a Protestant the Protestant faith is German and so is the Presbyterian the queen is church of england which is classed as an English Catholic she's closer to the Catholic faith than she is to the Protestant faith says a caller there okay uh i can't stand over much that stuff because i simply don't know but um i'll just pass it on and you can make up your own minds watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com the nine till noon show with sin units g a club development draw 40 000 euro and prizes first prize a high on the corner car plus nine other grit prizes tickets now available online at sin unions g a draw dot com or any club member are you worried about trees on your property northwest forestry services belly buffet are fully insured and have over 40 years experience in dangerous tree removal tree felling surgery and stump grinding for peace of mind call northwest forest services belly buffet for no obligation quotation on nine one three two zero double three circle el t is the new name for repack el t circle el t work to ensure waste tires are managed in an environmentally sound way through our 3000 member outlets nationwide our new name reflects our mission to expand the sustainable uses for waste tires circle end of life tires driving a sustainable tomorrow to find out more visit circle el t dot i he sift tech are running a number of accredited programs this autumn including basic scaffolding electro and butt fusion welding roadworks plant and machinery confined spaces water hygiene for utilities uk construction cards and more funding available on all these programs t's and c's apply for all your safety and training needs visit safe tech dot i when it comes to herding up the latest news views and reviews on farming in ireland nobody does it like the farming independent chasing down key stories trends and topics from the ever changing world of farming and agri in ireland so pick up the farming independent every tuesday and get the lay of the land up close and independent the johnny doherty festival of irish music and dancing our draw friday 23rd to sunday 25th of september three days of kelly's dance workshops pub sessions and concerts featuring zoey conway and john mackenthire on friday in the beehive cherry's the ladies on saturday in the gea clubhouse and dermott burn breed harbour and stevie cooney on sunday in the beehive for more detail see johnny doherty festival dot com okay you're welcome back to the nine till noon show the last part of the program and delighted to welcome back on to the show paul dorsen uh paul good morning to you how are you keeping good morning greg and very well thank you right okay and people will remember you uh you spoke to us a couple of times as it relates to uh getting uh changing facilities um one of a kind uh changing facilities hopefully not one of a kind but certainly one of a kind for now in the county at nine beach right okay so i i didn't do a great deal at the weekend how is your weekend uh rather busy to be perfectly honest they are spent it been taken to the top of schleeve league as we know the house eclipse in europe by 40 persons uh from varying backgrounds there were 16 ukrainian uh people that are staying in killi beg at present and the rest were made up of uh former members of the donningall mountain rescue uh we had a serving guard my son very close friends and members of the ms society and uh members of donningall center for independent living also so it was yeah it was an exciting weekend yeah and this is all in an effort to raise funds for a four by four wheelchair at naran beach which would be another fantastic addition for that area why did you why did you come up with this challenge uh paul well to be honest we just kind of we are actually present as you as you said fundraising for the four by four chair but this was kind of separate so we decided to tie it in uh through the keyword accessibility for all and a friend of mine uh joe milloy who's ex-mountain rescue came up the idea why don't you go to the sea cliffs so then our local guard there was quite a complicated story but a local guard paul mccrossan led the team up there so we went all the way to the top they got me up there and we actually carried a a collapsible chair kindly given to us by dcil uh we carried my son actually carried up on a backpack we put it back together up there sat me in it and took the photographs of some amazing photographs but as i say for a good two and a half kilometers the chair were actually fundraising for actually took us up the pathway and then the guys basically transferred me into a stretcher carried me a large amount of the weight then especially on the descent because it was much more dangerous so it's great to have these mountain rescue guys yeah and it's kind of interesting because it proved uh it proved the the benefits of of these chairs and and i'm not surprised i'm not surprised it's the first time this has ever been done which makes it a remarkable achievement of course because who else would try it paul well that is true we did discuss that it's not that i suppose it couldn't be achieved but uh i suppose it's just uh as i say a lot of guys doing mad ideas and they thought we'd do it then why did you want to go up there was a question well because i wanted to we actually spoke to a chairman tourist uh and in the rusty mackerel down there we would have some food and he says my friend was talking to him and he said you went to these cliffs in a wheelchair and it's never been done why and and my friend just replied because we wanted to and he said that is so irish and also why should you not sit at the top of these cliffs and enjoy these views well exactly the wider messages why not with accessibility especially when you've got friends and people pulling alongside like we did on that day i would never have got to top it there's nothing i mean i'm focused i the focus is on me but the effort was the the guys that put me up there i mean it was amazing without all those people support me i wouldn't have got off the ground to be perfectly honest because it's uh it's a it's a story of unity of determination of as i said why not you know it's it's it goes far beyond almost like the fundraising and everything else it's it's uh i think it's powerful and that is the message of overcoming adversity and fortune it was amazing it was a photograph at the very top where we had the we're right on the edge of the cliff you say i was in the chair and we have a gathering of people from Ukraine and people from Ireland with both flags and it's it's in the a good friend who was there a reporter from the donny gill news harry walsh took the photograph and it's there today it's it was amazing as you said it was about achieving something that hadn't not that can't be achieved but the hadn't up until now and just shows you and so many people have made friends now that'll keep for a long long time that was the same that's what was said to me as well you brought a lot of people together and people that hadn't each other for years have come together so for that i feel uh really really happy because it's not a message for just people with progressive ms it's not just a message with restricted mobility is it for any of us you know if you want to do something set yourself a target and do it exactly do it as long as it's done safely of course yeah and these guys the the core of the this team i'd say uh joe mulloy paul mccrossan the other guy the mount rescue guys there's four or five of them you know i'm an ex-fire fighter myself don't know how teeth it goes and to lie in that chair rather lazily and behold the professionalism of them and then the other people not so no one should work that day everyone's in there totally everyone in that team pulled their way up and down but it was it was fantastic brilliant so you've you've referenced the chair the four by four chair a couple of times is it a case that the chair is available now and it's about fundraising to pay for it or was the chair that was used on saturday similar to the one that you want for narn beach like if people want to sort of recognize what you've done and and contribute what stage are we at in terms of the fundraising drive paul yeah we're we're well past the six thousand euro mark in actual fact uh that was an excellent question you asked there was the company healthcare 21 actually brought the chair down and the guy himself the the salesman for the chair and a member of the was with with us he actually company was to the top he was our technical support if you like so uh yeah the chair is the chair is astounding chair what this is a trial model that they use to show people obviously how it performs so he very kindly turned up early in the morning with that chair we took it off got me into it everyone lifted me into it and we've seen how it performed and he said oh my god it's outperformed what we if you actually look at the chair it's called the the magic mobility x8 it's all over youtube it's an american chair but uh they've got videos of it doing work there over a beach and but my god the terrain up sleeve league as you know it was up the pilgrims path the pilgrims pass as the route we took which is really quite a challenge is a clever guy isn't he actually to see the opportunity here in terms of you know a bit of publicity as well I presume it's a business but also to to to prove what the chair can do to be seen to be very clever good i'd love to see that it's it shows it a good business guy as well yeah which helps videos help me a bit new one go so um the GoFundMe page is up and running you've passed the six thousand euro mark uh on the way to your target so it's go how do people because you know with these GoFundMe's after the forward slash it can get a wee bit confusing so what's the best way for people to find this link they'll get a bit of information about what you've achieved you and the people that were with you but also if they want to throw a couple of euro towards this where's the best way to find the link we'll share it on our socials as well of course well chatting to my wife over that because i'm not very technically advanced in my knowledge and she said the best thing she just put in GoFundMe yarn yarn portnu four by four chair that's what i'm talking about brilliant so that'll get you a general search and you know what's next Paul because it'll get people accessibility as well Greg as you can imagine yeah that's the whole i think we know i think all of us know someone in our lives either directly or or indirectly that would benefit from the amazing changing facilities and also the use of this chair that people who who have a condition that is taken away a bit of their movement can still enjoy what other people enjoy changing in dignity and well resourced in that regard but also being able to go on to it we can't promise everyone a trip up sleeve league but certainly to be able to access that that beautiful that beautiful beach and its inclusivity and it's it's important and i think we all know independence is very important exactly hundred percent all right well done again Paul i was going to say to you what next for you now i mean uh well we'll probably uh uh Joe Malone was a bit of a crazy guy suggested uh mount erigo good man joe well done good man joe yeah uh what's the space of the man okay listen well done to you lovely to hear from you again Paul well done and uh we'll share the link to that go for me as well thank you all right bye bye all right well done bye you too okay that's where we have to leave it on the program today thanks to all of you who listened to the show watched the program messaged in took part any messages we didn't get to i'll carry them over till tomorrow uh thanks to Donna Marie and Emma who worked on the show