 I'm going to handle, handle you over to this hard to handle boy groupies. How are you getting on that, Lee? All I'm tired of seeing. Are you enjoying being viral? What do you mean viral? Well, you did a video yesterday, you went viral, didn't you? No, we did a video. Yeah, obviously, as usual, I look like the boring old fart. You did look a bit farty, all right, I? Yeah, but that was acting. No, that's you! Don't you d- no, no, no, no. I was acting, and you were, like, oh, look at me, Lee. Overacting. I'm the morning. Look, I'm so great. No, I, but you are, do you know? Someone called me a boring old fart. I seen that. How hurtful was that? Completely not hurtful at all, by the way, just in case the person did it listening. They want to do it again? No, it's, no. But it's good to be yourself, Greg, in these videos. Do you know what I mean? That wasn't myself, though. Were you not? No, you know, it wasn't myself. Yes, you know, that's nice, you know. It's good to be comfortable in your own skin, you know. It's okay. Right, okay, well... I want to play with you. That's Oscar. I deserve an Oscar for that. You did? All the tickets. To go along with my Oscar reward. I tried to kiss you in the head, but I was a slap. I'm only going to slap it up in a HR job. Oh, thank you. Have a good luck. All right, Lee, take care of yourself. Nine o'clock and time for a news update, and it's over to Donal Kavana. Good morning, Donal. Thank you, Greg. Good morning. The chair of Donegal County Council's defective concrete blocks committee says issues with the council's online portal have been resolved and it will be back online and functioning properly within days. Councillor Mark McDermott was responding to comments from Milford and District Resource Centre manager Declan Meehan who called on the council to get its act together after reports that people couldn't upload invoices onto the portal. Mr. Meehan, who plans to contest the forthcoming local elections, questioned whether builders and others would engage with the scheme in terms of staged payments if the portal wasn't functioning. Well, Councillor McDermott says a resolution is imminent. The new system and the new portal is something that had to be rewrote when the new scheme came in. That was in place a number of weeks back, but the system actually didn't work. There was an issue with it. It had to go back to IT to be relocked it. Now the system is back with the council ready to go within the next couple of days. That system will be up and running and that should make life a lot easier for both the homeowner and the professionals. The deal done with the DUP to get the Northern Executive and Assembly running again will go before the UK House of Commons today with suggestions that the Assembly could meet within days. Meanwhile, bus and train services aren't running across the North again today as workers at TransLink stage a further work stoppage over pay. With the return of storm and imminent, workers are being asked to defer future strikes because money will be available for increased public sector pay as a result of the deal. While the Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is confirming there will be more money on the table for public services. This will release over £3 billion in funding to support Northern Ireland's public services and provide a solid foundation for the executive to deliver better outcomes in the day-to-day lives of the people of Northern Ireland. And on the Goll County Council in Falkshire, Ireland are discussing a proposal that they pilot a bespoke festival and events development programme that will target a number of festivals and events within a three-year funding commitment of €4,000 per year. Accompanied by a series of other supports, details emerge this week as members passed a motion from Councillor Barry Sweeney that the current model be amended at present applications for funding are invited in January or February each year with decisions announced in March. However, because any money granted has to be spent by the end of the year, Councillor Sweeney says that effectively precludes festivals in the first two months from the scheme. I exclude some of the festivals that would be happening earlier in the year and as you know now we've got the bank holiday weekend coming up, there's some great festivals and events happening around the county. Like for example, Fale and the Man in Bundorn is one that there's a lot of celebration of St Bridget and of women of the area and it's difficult for them to plan and fund their festivals without this support. It's not a massive fund but it is very helpful to a lot of these small festivals. Well, the forecast after a sunny start would become cloudier through the afternoon with patchy light rain drizzle and mist developing later. Temperatures steadily rising and are 10 degrees Celsius by evening with light winds increasing moderate to fresh southerly through the day. Patches of light rain drizzle and mist tonight. Overnight temperatures unchanged at between 10 and 11 degrees Celsius with moderate to fresh and gusty Southwest winds stronger times in coastal areas. That's Highland Radio News. Back with news in full at 10 o'clock. Check all of the news on our website, highlandradio.com. You know when you're flying back from some winter sun, you take an epic cloud pick but it's got your sunburned reflection in the window. Well, the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has built an AI that removes reflections and even touches up your pick so well you'll be drowning in fire emojis. Galaxy AI is here. Find out from Samsung and get up to 730 euro off when you trade in your old smartphone. Purchased by 29th of Feb, 730 euro based on Galaxy S23 Ultra 256 gigabytes values vary by model and condition, T's and C's apply. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9 to noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, a very good morning to you. Four minutes past nine on this Thursday. It's the 1st of February. What a long year January was and you're welcome into the second month of the year. And it is, as I said, five minutes past nine and it is the 9 to noon show. We're with you for the next three hours on this program. Lots coming up on the show as always. We're gonna keep you across all the major topics that are making you talk at home and I'm sure at and about or wherever you are. Later on too, we're gonna be talking history with Dr. Joe looking forward to that. We're gonna be speaking about the person after which McGill summer school was named after and talking about a little bit about that history as well. And that normally takes us down a path where we start talking about lots of people. Anyway, that and so much more besides and we want your views in your comments and your emails. I'll tell you how you get in touch with us, will I? It's 086625,000. That's WhatsApps and texts. Just to invite you by the way, if you wanna have your say via WhatsApp voice note, feel free to send us the voice note and we can play it out for you as well if you feel that helps you get your point across and not everyone really is as comfortable typing words out as other people are. So we want everyone to have their say. So if you prefer for whatever reason, it could be that it could be just the way you prefer to communicate. Hold the we mic down and send us a voice message if you wanna have your say that way. If you wanna give us a call, 07491 25,000, Caroline as always taking your calls and Shannon working away on the program as well. And you can email comments at highlandradio.com, right? Let's get through a look at some of the newspapers now. We'll start with just the second page of the Donegal News this morning. Planners at Donegal County Council sought more information from the applicant of a proposed Islamic Cultural Centre in Letter Kenney, Letter Kenney Islamic Association, CLG lodged plans in November 23 for the construction of the centre in Lisnenin. The proposed development comprises a grand and first floor mezzanine prayer hall, areas for males and females, a coffee dock and sandwich bar area and a library and teaching room. Proposed plans also include the construction of an access road, footpaths, car park and bicycle rack site works, landscaping and bin enclosure and so on and so forth. In a chief executive order issued in recent days, planners are requesting the applicant submit an archaeological assessment of the development site carried out by a suitably qualified archaeologist which is standard practice with a lot of these planning applications. So that is, we understand the plans for the centre are progressing and they are going to get that report and submitted to the council. The Derry News this morning, management of Derry's Northwest Regional College have been accused of bullying and harassing teaching staff in an attempt to break ongoing strike action. The claim from a lecturer who contacted Derry News followed receipt of a threatening in inverted commas letter signed by principal and chief executive Leo Murphy. In his letter, Mr Murphy referenced the action short of strike being undertaken by members of the university and college union in the college. Now let's get on to the farmer's journal. And the Department of Agriculture has moved to allow more cows and calves to meet the terms of the suckler carbon efficiency programme following farmer outrage over changes to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation indexes. Heifers out of geotyped cows in Skepherds that are not eligible for Skep on their own genomic evaluations can now become eligible if their size and dam meet a minimum requirement on the September 23 ICBF evaluation now evaluation of bigger pardon. So it's just good points to the complexity of farming when you even struggle to read it, let alone understand it. I know lots of people out in the farming community do but there you go, that's the hoops that the farmers have to jump through. Onto the Irish Times this morning and the British measures which secured the Democratic Unionist Party's return to power sharing are expected to become law today paving the way for the imminent restoration of the North's of Northern Ireland's political institutions. MPs will vote on two pieces of legislation following a debate in the House of Commons but this is a formality as it has the support of both the British government and the main opposition party. The outgoing speaker of the North's Assembly, Alex Maskey wrote to MLAs yesterday to inform them preparations were being made to enable a sitting to take place at short notice. In January 2020, the Assembly was summoned within 24 hours and a similar timeframe may be necessary on this occasion. He wrote, Saturday is believed to be the most likely day for an Assembly recall when the first order of business will be to nominate a speaker and fill the first and deputy first minister's roles. So it seems like it is going to happen. And look, every society, for all their wrongs and rights, of course, every society functions better. It would seem with a elected government in place. And that's the way it's going to be in the North in the coming days. A warning for those over 55 older people and pensioners have been warned to stay vigilant after new figures showed a huge jump in fraud scams in the first half of last year. The industry group that represents banks found there had been a 26% rise in attempted scams compared with the same period a year earlier with victims' conduct of a total of 8.6 million euro. It said the over 55s were particularly vulnerable to financial scams with large numbers getting hit for upwards of 5,000. And they come in all different shapes and sizes and we cover them extensively on this programme. And I've always done so in the hope that we help through the people that we work with, avoid people listening to this programme getting done by scams. But it happens all the time. We have to be extra, extra careful. I would love to see the phone companies, the phone networks, the handset developers, the banks, the lending institutions, all do a little bit more or find a way whereby we can validate the messages that we receive that has to be a way. I would love to see them do that because the scammers can throw out such a wide net. They only need one or two of us to fall foul and their money is made. More woes at RTE. The RTE Daily Mail reports, along with most of the papers, a 400,000 golden handshake for RTE's former Chief Financial Officer was signed off by the current head of HR under instructions from former Director General D Forbes. RTE Human Resources Director, Eamor Cusack, issued an approval letter for Breeder O'Keeffe's exit package, falsely stating it was signed off by the executive board of which Ms. Cusack was a member. So this is like 400,000 euro of taxpayer's money. Now, you could say, well, maybe it's half taxpayer's money, half ad money, I don't know. But anyway, whichever way this is our money that people are obliged to pay, 400,000 euro of that was given to someone, was given to and signed off by D Forbes. 400,000 euro Ms. Cusack initially asked Ms. Forbes if it was a good idea for the CFO to avail of the scheme, questioning how it would deliver cost savings, but proceedings to write the letter that made this agreement between Ms. Forbes and Ms. O'Keeffe illegally binding. So there's no out. RTE's Director General Kevin Backhurst said yesterday he was shocked at the revelation. Now, 3,500 regular people out there today are facing court for the non-payment of a 160-year-old license fee. 3,500 people. Now, you can imagine the stress you get a summons through the post, or you may have to go to court, or you feel you're obliged to do so, and you face the rigors of the law. D Forbes at the moment can't answer questions. She's not well enough to answer questions. Many of the board are still in place in RTE. Breeder O'Keeffe, okay, this exit package with D Forbes. It's legally binding, it's locked in, it can't be changed. And that's it. And everyone's disgusted, oh, this is terrible. But no consequences. And yet 3,500 people across this country are worried that they may have to go to court because they either choose not to or can't afford to pay their TV license. There's a serious difference between the laws, it seems, and how it applies to you, particularly it seems the more money you have. I don't know if you have any views on that. 08,660, 25,000. Also widely reported, and I'll take it from the Irish Daily Star. Remember, if the defence forces will be able to wear fake tan, woo-hoo, nail polish and grow beards under new regulations kicking in from today. And that's just the fellas. However, those wishing to grow facial hair have been warned its length will be monitored while females must wear their locks in one of six different approved styles. Now that might sound generous, but in North Korea, there's 14 styles of hair that women can choose from. In the army, it's only going to be six. It also comes after the Commission on the Defence Force recommended outdated bands should be abolished two years ago. But army chiefs have warned the appearance will still be subject to close supervision to ensure that nothing should detract from the uniform. Permission to grow a beard must first be obtained from a commander, officer or a medical officer if the member is excused shaving due to a skin condition. The hair can be no more than 13 millimeters long and must stop one inch above the Adam's apple and form a straight line below the cheekbone. Personnel still in training must stay clean, shave and women. They can use nail varnish, but must use a range running from nude to baby pink. Sergeant Major Keith Caffrey, who's in charge of reviewing grooming standards said, they will apply it to their unit commander and there are specific reasons to not approve it, particularly in the operational environment. The nail polish, fake tan and beers, all okay for the army. As I say it's widely reported, I'm not sure it's going to vex people out there one way or other, is it? Maybe it is. Let us have your views. I'll wait six, 60, 25,000. Maybe someone feels very passionately that that should not be the case. The Irish Sun today, the GEA is terrified by the scale of cocaine use among players it's claimed with one big name county star seeking professional help for their drug addiction. Experts say the use of cocaine has gone through the roof at club level, while dozens of inter-canty players are being treated for drugs, alcohol and gambling issues. Limerick Hurling legend, Keir and Carrier psychotherapist who specializes in addiction through his company, my move canceling yesterday said the cocaine issue has gone through the roof at club level and I suppose, you know, the GEA is a community organization and I imagine what happens within sort of the GEA and those involved in playing the game is gonna be reflective of what's happening in society because they are just regular people doing regular things that we are and I'm not about drug taking, I'm about, you know, working and all the other stuff, studying and what have you. And if there's a lot of cocaine being used across society, which there clearly is, it's gonna be reflected amongst the playing membership of the GEA. But the organization, the association concerned about that. Do you share those concerns? Oh wait, six, 60, 25,000. This is a bizarre story that was in the Irish Daily Mirror. Mary Lou MacDonald was accused of being disrespectful in the doll for wearing a mesh top in a bizarre dressing down sent to the camcorder. The Sinn Fein leader wore the floral print, net garment with a white t-shirt underneath and paired it with a black blazer on October 11th last year. And it's very incredibly modest. For those of you watching, I'll just show you the picture of it. I mean, it's incredibly modest there. I don't see how anyone could complain about that but someone did. She also sport reported, she also sport spotted, sorry, sported a pair of red framed glasses with pendant earrings while blasting the government about the budget they announced the day beforehand. Now I'm sure I will never sit here and read such a detailed description of what a man has worn in the doll, but that is the world we're still living. The deputy's ensemble seemed to be too much for one furious person who decided to write a complaint email to camcorder, Sean O'Farrell, demanding that a dress code be introduced. The email was not sent by a fellow 2D and had to be from a member of the public. The person declared they did not want to see Ms. McDonald carrying on like that and be allowed to get away with it. The letter which was obtained by the Irish Mirror through a freedom of information request said, I think Mary Lou McDonald's top is a disgrace. All right, okay. Well, someone clearly, someone clearly with little time on their hands, I would say. The Chicano Tribune, a complaint about a controversial TG Carr documentary on the explosion in Chrysler on October, 2022, has been partially upheld by the National Media Watchdog. Commissioner Mann said the documentary, which was broadcast on February 8th, 2023, four months after the incident in which 10 people died, had breached the Broadcasting Act 2009 by causing harm offence. The National Media Regulator said TG Carr had not sufficiently demonstrated that it took due care in broadcasting material which could cause distress, particularly given it was shown just four months after the tragedy and before a guarded investigation into the explosion was completed. It also ruled TG Carr could have avoided causing distress to bereaved families by consulting them in advance of its transmission. Now, the thing about it is as well, and this is so raw and so current, even the Commissioner Mann response to the programme, you could argue lacks sensitivity in that it details in its response what was wrong with the documentary and it outlines, and I found it actually, I did watch the documentary because I thought I had to if we were going to talk about it. I was opposed to it being broadcast in the first instance but TG Carr were clear that they thought it was the right thing to do. But even the response from Commissioner Mann, it's almost even, I would imagine more difficult reading because it writes down in words what was wrong with the documentary and sometime has passed, but that still is very difficult and people reading that and even reading the Commissioner Mann findings might not be clear who the individuals that they're talking about are. I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to sort of read it because that in a way would add to that distress but that's how sensitive this matter is so even the Commissioner Mann, arguably I think, could have been a little bit more sensitive in their language in describing what was wrong with the TG Carr programme. But anyway, as I say, they were told in advance that it was just not wise. They went ahead with it and were quite determined to go ahead with it but anyway. OK, that's the Chirconal Tribune front page there. All right, all those papers available for you today. Now, just a reminder for you that you can watch this programme every day if that suits you in your life, if you're at home or what have you. We're available on your smart TV and your Firestick or Google TV through the YouTube app. You type in Highland Radio Ireland and we're streaming live. So you can watch us on your big screen TV, many of you do, which is great if it suits you and your lifestyle. And also, we're on YouTube and Facebook across your mobile devices on Facebook, it's Highland, Hobble Highland, Radio News and Sport. The 9 till noon show with O'Hara's of Fonsford. We take 18 hours to craft our new 18 hour fermented sourdough bread. Now is the perfect time to enjoy a slice. Farmer Fury forces skep changes for more in your Irish farmers journal, His Paul Mooney. Find out how the department is backtracked in controversial suckler scheme. Acres payment delays hit 28,000 farmers. New eight euro PO sheep scheme. Farmers to be charged for unsold calves and marts. Fresh blow to future of nitrous derogation. The latest from the Barnestay court case. Plus could the county council inspect your farm? We have all you need to know. Fall inside the Irish farmers journal on sale now. Are you building, rebuilding or renovating? Quad heat pumps or solar panels would suit your build. Come along and speak to the experts. If fish and renewables on heat pumps and solar panels, get advice on installation and grants available. If fish and renewables will be at the home build, rebuild event at the Magirica Hotel that are Kenny from the second to the fifth of February. See you there. Hi, Paddy here at Shane Connelly cars in Donegal town. Are you looking to upgrade your car? With Shane Connelly cars, you'll find mix and models for every budget. Great finance options and we also accept returns. Check out ShaneConnellyCars.com or call into us at Shane Connelly cars from down her road, Donegal town. B&S Credit Union Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Do you currently have vacancies that need urgently filled? Have you tried various ways to find new staff but didn't succeed? Let Highland Radio help you source and fill your current vacancies in the most cost effective way. Simply sign up to our new job spot and we will tell our listeners about your vacancies, both on air and online. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during our primetime shows, we will broadcast the latest job opportunities across the Northwest and into Counties Derry and Turon. All job listings will be available online at HighlandRadio.com. For more information, contact the advertising team on 07491 25322 or email advertising at HighlandRadio.com. Highland Radio, we're here for you. Okay, you're very welcome back to the Ninetyl Noon Show. We are joined on the program now by Councillor Michael McClafferty, who is the Kearlock of Glenty's Municipal District. Good morning to you. Thanks for joining us. Hello, Michael. No, we don't have Michael there. Michael McClafferty is going to be joining us shortly. He says it's time there were laws for pedestrians to be mandated to wear high visibility vests. So we're also joined on the program by Ronan Gallagher, who is co-founder of the Wee Greenway Initiative. Hopefully you're there, Ronan. Good morning to you. Good morning, Greg. Thanks for joining us. Okay, what is your view on the proposals, which we'll hear from the Councillor in a moment, that high vis should be made mandatory? Well, it's an emotive issue for many people, for pedestrian cyclists and obviously for elected members around the country who believe that, I mean, 2023 was a very bad year for road fatalities. We had 184 people killed, and that was a 19% increase on the previous year, and that was the highest total since 2014. So I understand when members look at ways of trying to make people safer on our roads, but trying to enforce or trying to make it mandatory for pedestrians and cyclists to wear high vis is not the solution, and there's no evidence internationally to show that that would be the case. Is it part of the solution, though, Ronan? Would you concede that? That's a very good point. I don't wear high vis myself on roads, whether I'm walking or whether I'm cycling. If someone wants to wear high vis, that is a personal choice. But the University of Bologna in Italy did a study over a period of 15 years where they analysed road collisions involving cyclists, and bang in the middle of the study in 2010, the Italian authorities mandated for high vis. But the study showed that there was no conclusive evidence to indicate that wearing high vis vests for cycling, in this instance, reduced road fatalities or road injuries. And in some instances, it actually increased. But that's a study, okay, but as a driver, if I'm driving along the road, I see people wearing high vis and I know they're there, and then at other times, unfortunately, and most drivers will have had to have done this at some point, you come on someone walking in the wrong direction or whatever in black clothing. And it's only for the grace of God, sometimes you feel that you didn't mow them down. So surely, I mean, I'm not disputing the study because I don't have the qualifications to do so. But surely you're less likely to hit someone you can see than someone you can't. Well, you're less likely to hit someone if you're not going fast. So traffic law is uncompromising about the duties of a driver. So a person shall not drive a vehicle in a public place without due care and attention, and on top of that, without reasonable consideration for other persons using the place. That is the Road Traffic Act. But Ronan, just in relation to that study that you quoted, can you say for certainty, was it on rural and national roads? Was it rural driving, city driving? Was it areas with cycle lanes, without cycle lanes? Because I want to make sure that we're comparing like with like here because my experience is driving onto any other roads. I accept that. So the study from what I understand looked at, and this was in Italy, and it looked at all incidents involving cyclists and all the road users in that period. And it didn't discriminate against what type of road that it was on. But that's, no study is without criticism. That's the first thing to say. But just going back to the Traffic Law, to the Roads Act, I mean it is very, very clear about the duty of a driver. So I drive on rural and urban roads. I cycle and I walk on rural and urban roads. And my experience, and my experience is as valid as your experience or as the member's experience who's called for Hivas to be mandatory, my experience is speed is the problem. That is the key aspect that we're discussing here. So people talking about Hivas from a cycling and pedestrians point of view or from, you know, the wee greenways point of view, that we would see that as a distraction from the need to stop distracted and in a tent of driving. That's where the major issue. Yeah, but if a lorry or a tractor is on the roads I would drive on, which generally don't have hard shoulders, they're really quite narrow. If a car, a tractor or a motorbike is driving on that road with no lights on. Okay, you can't expect me to assume responsibility for their poor driving. You know, you can't say, well, I must have done something wrong because I didn't see them and I smashed into them. It's generally accepted that they must have front facing light, rear facing rear facing lights. And I would apply that in this situation because we're talking life and death to pedestrians and cyclists as well, to give everyone a fair shout. I could, I'm not a very fast driver, but sometimes it's really, really wet. Sometimes I'm being blinded by LED lights and you could say, well, they shouldn't be legally there. But at the end of the day, surely it's better if I have a better chance of seeing someone sharing this space with me than not. Yeah, and I won't dispute that. But just with regard to being able to see a cyclist, particularly at night, it is the law for a cyclist to have lights at lighting time. So I would never cycle in the dark without lights front and back, apart from it not being safe to do that. It's also, I'm legally obliged to do that. And I wouldn't, I would encourage people to do that. But really, I do feel, you know, and if we look at the statistics for last year, and if we even look at, you talk about rural roads, so if you take Donegal in this context, there is over 6,270 kilometres of road in Donegal. And all but 1,200 kilometres are classified as local roads. So there is a lot of factors at play here. So there is the road network. It's the size of vehicles. It's how powerful vehicles are. I mean, the size of SUVs are probably too big for local roads in rural Ireland. Yet we, everyone wants to drive tonight. So like, I'm not being a motive, Ronan. And I don't, I don't, I don't know what your family makeup is or anything, okay? But if you had, say, you know, two teenagers that were walking to a friend's house from your house to another house at night time, would you not, would you not prefer that they were in high-vis than not? I probably wouldn't. I don't, well, I don't have teenage children. But that's actually good, because to be honest, I'm sure you don't, if you know what I mean. So I don't want to sound like I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm just curious. If you did, it makes it easier for me to ask the question then. If you do have two teenage children, you're living on one of these roads with no hard shoulders and they wanted to walk half a kilometre up to a friend's house in winter and it was dark, you wouldn't say to them, listen, stick on your high-vis. No, but I wouldn't say to them, don't put on high-vis. It would be a, it would be a personal choice. But what I would, what I would like to, that's, it's a very good question and it's a very good situation to think about. I would like to think that the people who are using that road that my teenage children are going to walk on, I would like to believe that the drivers, the humans behind the wheel of a car will drive properly on that road and will, will, will drive thinking we might encounter pedestrians. I would not, my children's lives in their hands, I really, really wouldn't. But I, and I'm not judging you and as I say, I'm glad you don't have it because it might sound like I'm trying an emotionally black male you, which I'm not, and I think you know that, Ronan. Stay with me, Ronan. I accept it, yeah. Okay, yeah, good. Ronan, stay there because Councillor Michael McLeafrey is with us now. I suppose just listening to, to Ronan there, Michael, and I suppose in the context of your calls, what have you got to say? Greg, to be quite honest with you about it is, Ronan's entitled to his opinion how he sees life going forward, but I see life going forward at the moment in the utmost manner of safety for, for, first of all, for school children going to school, adults, teenagers alike, whether they're walking from house to house, or they're walking in a side road or whatever, or back roads around where I love myself, something to assume as yourself, Greg. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask people to wear a hive as a vest. You're not asking them, Michael. You're looking for it to be a criminal offence not to wear a hive vest, which is a bit of a jump from asking. Well, we're looking for it to go mandatory, Greg, as such, yes. No, maybe the criminal's asking about it in the context, but anyway, we're looking for it to be enforced, as such, that's what I'm looking for, Greg. That was a point behind my motion, as such, to be fair for the public out there. But as I say, and that is of safety. Like, for example, in 2023, 44 pedestrians killed the year before that 22, 43 killed. Like, now, whatever the reasons were behind it, we're not going to get, I don't know exactly, we're not going to get into that. But the point is, over the decades, out walking, so on, et cetera, there were a number of cycles welling through them. There's been three, three scooter deaths, I believe, as well in 2023. These scooters was actually adopted onto this the last year, well, as you're aware, for people wearing these, are using these scooters to put on Havers as well. But the point I think here, Michael, this is though like, you know, and really want to be sensitive to anyone who's lost someone on the roads, but we have to have these conversations too. I think Roland's point, and he's well capable to make it himself, and he can come back in when he relikes, is, you know, the motion, you could argue, presumes that it is the fault of the pedestrian. We don't know if all of the people were wearing Havers or not, and it sort of doesn't talk to the blame, maybe, that the driver has to take. Well, I did say, Greg, and I did say in the chamber that the driver, obviously, as if somebody gets knocked down, somebody seriously injured or worse, and then it's alongside that then, the drivers still have ways for the rest of their life. Like, it's not pointing the blame, either way, such, Greg, it's best not to intend to knock the motion. And if people are taking that way, I apologise for that. But that is not the intention of the motion. The intention of the motion going forward is, when we see how this all pans out, is to just, to be, for people to be safe on the road, that's what we're looking for, because as you see yourself there, you're going down a road, wherever, a dark road, on left road, no footpaths on the road, which many people don't even know how to walk on, through no fault of the road, but they've no choice to get from there to be. You're driving along in your car, if somebody's dressed in dark clothes, you do not have a possible hope of seeing them, depending on the condition of the night. And it may have been through no fault of your own, either. You're driving down a road, there's a car coinciding you, the opposite direction, close by, whether it be bright lights on, LED lights, whatever, as distracting, you're focused on that. You may not necessarily see the person immediately alongside you. Ronan, like, I find myself as well, do you know that, you know, driving is not perfect, and you're a driver yourself, Ronan, as well, of course, as you've mentioned. But driving is not perfect. So I've found myself driving perfectly safe or how I deem myself, or, you know, and having to take, maybe there could be an animal or something like that there, having to take some evasive maneuver, whatever, maybe encroach a little bit over the white lines into the left. Again, in that scenario, I'm doing everything I should be doing, but I'd be able to make a more informed choice about my reaction to such an incident, if I could see the pedestrian. And I think cyclists generally do have lights, but so maybe focus a little bit on pedestrians, if I could see, have the best chance of seeing that pedestrian, because your argument, Ronan, which I respect, and that's why we invited you on, your argument really is, it's almost as if everything else is perfect, and it's just a pedestrian or a cyclist, and it's just cars on the road. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I know. I mean, I'm sympathetic, you know, to individuals. I mean, I've spoken to people who have had closemuses when they've been driving, you know, maybe they've come around a bend and the pedestrian is there, high-hedge, bends, you know, dark, and maybe they weren't wearing, you know, bright clothing. And it's, you know, this person that said, you know, my God, I mean, I nearly hit that person. But one of the things which you never hear members discussing, and although the member here has just alluded to it slightly, is driver behavior, and again, I go back to this, traffic law, it's uncompromising about the duties of a driver. But in fairness, Ronan, like we have- Driving a vehicle in a public place without due care and attention, that is against the law. Yeah, we talk constantly though. We do talk constantly in fairness, Ronan. We do talk constantly about speed, seatbelt wearing, cars being safe to drive. We were the first county in Ireland, or the second county in Ireland to host road safety road shows which demonstrated to younger people the dangers of driving and the importance of safety. So I do, like, I don't know what it's like in other counties, but I do think 90% of the message coming out of Donegal is towards drivers and now we're focusing a little bit on pedestrians. And just let me ask you, Ronan, have you not found yourself coming around a corner and there's someone in dark clothing and you've gone WTF? I've found myself in that situation when I've been driving in daytime and in the evening, but I've been driving with reasonable care, so I'm not coming around the corner at 60, 70 kilometres an hour when I have no chance to react. And I've been able to pass and I've been able to break safely. One other thing you said, Ronan, is that you choose not to wear high vis. So is it fashion? Is it comfort? Why do you choose not to wear high vis? Because it's a conscious choice you make. It's a conscious choice and it's not a choice of fashion. It's just a choice that I don't feel that I need, I shouldn't be in a situation that I need to swaddle myself in body armour or high vis to make that short journey on a roll because somebody else out there may take my life. And the big issue here, and I mean I've cycled, I've walked, I don't live in Donegal anymore and I lived in Donegal for eight years. I now live in another county, another rural county with the same type of problems with people, with no footpaths on rural roads. So this is not a problem that is just for Donegal. This is a nationwide issue. And what we have here is we have non-enforcement of the existing roads act because there are not enough Gardi, that is the bottom line. But you would know from your time, Ronan, you would know from your time in living in Donegal and travelling around Donegal and it's not exclusive to Donegal. There will never be a time and it is completely impossible for Gardi to police the roads to eliminate speeding. So there has to be responsibility here. Stay where you are and I'm going to come back to you, Michael, as well, because you triggered this most recent debate on this. But I want to introduce David, too, who's a driving instructor. David, and you've heard both sides of it there from your perspective. You play a really vital role actually in educating people. What's your view? Yeah, well, I didn't catch it all, Greg, but I caught quite a bit of what your contributor, Ronan, said there and I caught some of what the councillor said as well. Now, the first thing I would say when I was talking to your producer there, and I have been a driving instructor for 12 years, every single day that I go out with my pupils, I am doing my best to instill road safety in them. I talk to them about road safety constantly. I mention the terrible figures that we have seen last year, which was horrendous. The start of this year was just off the scale, as we all know. The one thing that I would like your contributor, Ronan, there, when he came on at the very start, he said this is a very emotive issue. What is emotive about asking or advising someone to wear a yellow vest that might save their life? What is the motive about that? The only time that it's emotive, Greg, is when a pedestrian or a cyclist is knocked down on the road and they're killed. But David, for the purpose of this conversation and to be fair to Ronan and Michael, you don't have to frame your opinion in the proposal that it would be legal, it would be mandatory to wear it. You know, I mean, listen, there's lots of things, your people say don't smoke, but you're allowed to smoke. What this is saying, what the proposal would be here, is that you would be obliged to, in other words, you'd be potentially liable under the Road Traffic Act, or some act or other, if you weren't wearing high vis. Well, do you agree with that? Because that's the crocs of what triggered Ronan to ring out. I'm sure Ronan doesn't care what advice is out there, or not doesn't care, but this is about making you a compulsory. Yeah, I mean, fair enough, like, I mean, the compulsory thing is, you know, okay, I mean, if that's the only way I can contribute to it, but I mean, I would like to contribute to the conversation in a broader way, from an instructor point of view. I mean, to make something and to say to everyone, okay, you must do that. Okay, maybe that, I don't know if it's a step too far, but you know, that's maybe something that's very difficult to police and to enforce. But I mean, from an instructor point of view, I would just like to go back to some of the things that Ronan said, and you asked him the question, you know, if he had two young people that were members of his family, and they were going to walk along a dark road at night, would he advise them to put on a high vis vest, or to put something on that's visible to other drivers? And I mean, I find that kind of, you know, I have two daughters, I have a granddaughter. I mean, I just, I can't kind of take that on board there that somebody wouldn't say, well, you know, I think it would be advisable, you're going out on a dark road, maybe it's wet. As you said earlier, there's no hard shoulder on the road. Can I, listen, Greg, you drive, probably all of us that are contributing to this drive. After dark, no, and I mean, again, it seems to be a little bit weighed heavily against the motorists here. But you know, and we know that speed is a serious issue in this country, no one needs to tell us that. The majority of people in this country are driving too fast, especially in urban areas, and I would be the first to agree with that. But there's such a thing as a personal responsibility as well, for a cyclist, for a runner, for a walker, for a jogger, whatever the case may be. There's such a thing as personal responsibility. That people must take personal responsibility. They can't assume, they have to look at the other way around. They can't assume, okay, I'm going to maybe feed into what Ronan's saying now. They can't assume that everybody's coming around that bend at 30 kilometers per hour. They can't assume that, or you know, a motorist can't assume that every cyclist is going to have a rear light on if they decide not to wear a Haivas vest. You know, it's a personal responsibility as well. Okay, Ronan, come back in to this, Greg. That's close, Ronan, that's what we mentioned to him. I mean, so I'm not disputing that if someone wears bright clothing or Haivas, that it may help a driver to see them better in daytime or in the evening. Not a case of me, Ronan. Well, what I'm disputing, what I'm disputing, but just let me finish, please. But spotting is one thing, but driving safely around that person is another thing. And that is where I go back to traffic law, and this is where the instructor should know this. The traffic law is very clear about the duties of the driver. The person shall not drive a vehicle in a public place without due care and attention, or with a reasonable consideration for other persons using that place. That is very clear. The issue, and you alluded to it earlier about speed. Speed and driving onto the influence of drugs, whether it be cocaine or alcohol, they are the elephants in the room here. Okay, so, Ronan, what is the response? Our roads are too narrow, and people drive too fast to react. Okay, so, Ronan, just to be out there. In relation to the roads that you drove on up here, no hard shoulder, you know yourself, white line up the middle between two towns, we've talked an awful lot about, you've talked an awful lot about the responsibility of the driver, and that's grand. What is, in your mind, the responsibility of the pedestrian? In, at night, on these roads, it's very clear what you think the driver should be doing and the rules they should be following. I'm just asking you, what responsibility do you believe the pedestrian has? Well, a pedestrian should walk with you care for all the road users. I don't deny that. I mean, if someone wants to walk down the middle of the road at night time, they're liable to meet a vehicle head on, and that's not a situation that I would like to see. But I'm not trying to duck the question. I'm just telling you that the law is clear, that the responsibility is on the driver. But what responsibility, not through the law, but what responsibility is a member of society? Does that pedestrian have, do you think, to contribute to road safety? That person, that person should think about what they're going to do. If they feel, if they feel it will make them safer wearing hives or wearing bright clothes or walking with a light at night time, then that person should do that. But I can tell you, my experience is that that's not the case. Okay, Ronan, listen, thank you very much for your time. Ronan Gallagher, who is co-founder of the Wee Greenway Initiative, also David, a driving instructor. And just to finish with you, Chancellor Michael McLeafrey, I mean, you proposed the motion, I presume it was passed. What would you like to see now, just in a moment or two, if that's okay? I would like to see going forward, I think as the motion is put forward, for people to become mandatory, if they're out along the road wearing high verse vest slash arm bandage that was touched on as well, or a good quality slash lamp, so that the motorist of the day can see them walking, there's no issue with seeing them, and hopefully it will, it will, it will make them safer going forward. Do you believe it should be the law? Do you believe they should be obliged, that they should be mandated? So if they don't, they can be stopped by the guardie, given a warning, potentially fined. Because like you, my understanding, if I'm reading your motion correctly, is you want it to be mandatory for people on the roads, cyclists, pedestrians to wear high visibility vests. Do you still stand by that? Yes, that's correct. Okay, good stuff. All right, that's good. Most people agree with you, so I'm asking you, most people agree with you. But no, that's fair enough, Greg. And on the standard view, your job will do as well. So it's out of mine to do, and the other gentlemen there as well, from the respective points. But one thing I want to say as well, you mentioned the guardie there. I've known myself, and this is, no, I've known myself in the last couple of years, where the guardie have stopped along the road, handed out an arm band, handed out a high visor, whatever. Obviously, I would imagine had a quick two-minute conversation with a person after the moment, or the night story, and carry on again. I know that's for a fact that has happened. And I, no, praise the guardie for doing that. But the whole thing going forward here, this is not about attacking anybody. This is about road safety, road safety going forward. That's all I'm looking for. And no different, I'm not a parent myself, but there's no different parents out there, you're trying to yourself, Greg. Parents teaching their children, going up the ways of life, manners, good manners, everything else. Road to the road is the same thing. You wouldn't want your small cell going up, running out onto our road. So I don't see why they would expect it. By the way, if you're rushing to the road safety authority website to order high visibility vests, it was pointed out by Kerry Cancer that they're, through their RSA website, they're currently out of stock of all high-vis items, which is really quite bizarre. Okay, Cancer, thank you very much for your time. We might come back to this. Lots of people calling in, lots of you texting in. But we do have a break to take. Stay right where you are. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook, and at highlandradio.com. The 9 till noon show with O'Hara's of Foxford. Our new Baker 51 authentic sourdough celebrates 72 years of baking. Now is the perfect time to try it for yourself. 79 Euro. Nutri is overgold in both gold mineral range by 2.5 litre, yet 1 litre free. And there's 10% off the flexi-thin, classic waterproof jacket and trousers in store and online at homeland.ie. Nationwide delivery available. Offers available until March 31st. Return, refund, recycle. Ireland's deposit return scheme is coming. From the 1st of February 2024, when you buy a drink in a bottle or can with the return logo, you'll pay a small deposit. Once you're refreshed, return your empty, undamaged bottle or can to any shop or supermarket and get your deposit back. The results? Less litter? Less waste? And better recycling for Ireland. For more, visit return.ie. Well Grace, how are you today? I'm good. I've just been down to the mid to major fireplaces showroom in Chrysler. They have an incredible selection of over 40 colours for kitchen work-tops. And guess what? For a limited time, they're offering a 40% discount on any electric fire when you purchase a work-top there. 40%? That's an amazing deal, Grace. Absolutely. And trust me, if the discount alone doesn't sway you, there are a huge selection of fireplaces stoves, wood pellet burners, beams and stone cladding, certainly well. Contact mate to measure fireplaces, Chrysler on 074 91 38 365 on Facebook, Instagram and on mtmfireplaces.ie. Are you building, re-building or simply improving your home? Come along to Donegal's premier gathering of home-building professionals in the Northwest. Donegal NewBuild and Re-Build 2024 will take place in the Mount Ehrigal Hotel at Ercanney from Friday 2nd until Sunday, February 5th. Admission is free to this three-day event. This ad is sponsored by McDade's Bathroom and Tiles. The 9 till noon show with O'Hara's of Foxford introducing our new Baker 51 authentic sourdough bread a delicious new addition to the team. Oh, Kira, congratulations. Look at her tiny fingers. She's beautiful, just like her mommy. Oh, thank you. Have you got a name yet? Well, we're thinking... She's going to Carla, Brooklyn. Brooklyn, Massachusetts, Phoenix, Arizona. Your vote is your voice. So if you don't speak up, someone else is deciding for you. Baltimore, Kentucky, Murphy, O'Neill. Who's that? Hospital porter. Just back from his American road trip. Make sure you're registered to vote. Go to checktheregister.ie and be a voter so that it's your voice that's heard. From Omkommission Taohon, Ireland's independent electoral commission. Brooklyn, Massachusetts, come to Antihana. Is that the new Opel? Yes, of course. Does it really look that good? Yes, of course. Is it fun to drive? Yes, of course. Is it packed with smart tech? Yes, of course. Can I test drive it right now at Heron Auto Opel? Yes, of course. The new Opel Corsa now available. Hybrid and electric coming soon. See Heron Opel.ie for details. Easy Living Furniture's biggest ever winter sale ends this Sunday. This is your final chance to avail of these amazing discounts as this whopper winter sale must end Sunday. Absolutely everything reduced across sofa, dining, bedroom, mattress and accessories. Winter sale must end Sunday at Easy Living Furniture, Crescent Link Retail Park. Weather updates brought to you by Grant. Building a new home? Choose Grant's a triple plus rated air owner air to water heat pump and new flex under floor heating. Visit grant.ie. Okay, today we'll start off sunny, then becoming cloudier through the afternoon with patchy light rain, drizzle and mist developing later. Temperatures steadily rising to 9 or 10 degrees by evening. Light winds increasing moderate to fresh subtly through the day. I cannot believe that Ronan does not agree with you, Greg. Surely high vis vests help. It's an old brainer, says Kevin in our draw. Those that are driving on the road need to take care and walkers need to take care too. I'm a careful driver and I've never had an accident yet. I've been close a few times with walkers in dark clothing. Not all drivers are good. Pedestrians need to be aware too of what they're doing to be safe on the roads. Another, I would agree with Councillor McClaffety, 100%. The road at Derry bag, the cars fly on it. People wear dark clothing and your life is ruined if you knock someone down. And I think really what Ronan is saying as well, and it's picked up here in this text, is that cars are flying on it and that's, you know, we need to put more emphasis or further emphasis on drivers. And they're rolling all of this. That's, I think, to paraphrase somewhat what he's saying there. You would need a third lane for pedestrians on the road. If a car is reversing, pedestrians should stand back and not be another obstruction. Pedestrians should walk on footpaths. There needs to be rules for pedestrians. Pedestrians, says this listener, think they rule the road. Caller says that the argument of speed is skewed in that they are making cars that can do high speeds when the high speed limit in Ireland is 120 kilometres per hour. And that's often been the case, hasn't it? Couldn't agree more with Michael. Good to see someone with a bit of sense. They should get a good fine. If they don't have high-vis jackets on, Ronan is making no sense according to this listener. With all due respect to both the walker and the driver, I feel it is irresponsible of walkers to walk on the main road between Glenty's and our draw in the dark, even wearing the high-vis vest. It is difficult to see the walker on a wet night, almost impossible. There is a track in Glenty's and lots of walk areas within the town boundary that include footpaths. Another, Greg, asking me if you hit a pedestrian cyclist at 30 kilometres per hour, which isn't speeding. Is he trying to say that speed to hit somebody is OK? Tell him to cop on. And typical cyclists think they own the road. But that being said, we appreciate Ronan coming on and expressing his views. Many people might share them, you see, but because it might be seen as a controversial view, not everyone will express it. It would be interesting to know how many pedestrians involved in collisions were not wearing high-vis clothing, especially at dusk or when it's dark, and it's information we can try and get together. What planet is Ronan on, saying he doesn't wear high-vis? How irresponsible. We see it every evening, people walking in dark clothes. It's so dangerous. And last one, before we take a break for the news, everyone should be wearing high-vis vests when out walking, et cetera, and should be fined if they aren't. The majority would seem to be of that view. Keep your calls and comments coming in on that. After 10 o'clock, we're going to be talking about the new deposit return scheme, which is live and active now. Is this something that you are happy with or unhappy with? You know, maybe you are a very thorough recycler, and you think this is a bit of an insult, but now you have to pile your plastic into a car and drive to a shop. Maybe you think it's the best thing since they started slicing bread. Really interested too, to listen to people in the business industry. Have you, if you want it, does this add to your business? Does it distract from it? Let us know. Views on all of those issues on 08, 6, 60, 25,000. Welcome to Boots. How can we help? Is it normal that it stings when I want to support my immune system? With a fungal nail infection. And why can't I maintain my earwax build-up? My retreat and hairline. Maybe my blood pressure is light, regular or super plus. Whatever your question, ask a pharmacist first and get advice without needing an appointment. Boots. With you for life. See boots.ie for details. Forward emphasis international are actively recruiting for customer service advisors with both in-office and hybrid opportunities available in our Mellonhead and Bunkrana locations. Fully funded insurance and financial services qualifications delivering attractive career path opportunities are available. Please visit their website www.forwardinfaces.ie and apply via their careers page. The three-day Donegal Newbelt and Rebuild Home Show. We will be speaking to some of the exhibitors and organizers to preview this event. Admission is free to the show. Live on air online and on the Highland Radio app. This is Highland Radio News. Good morning. It's 10 o'clock. Donald Kavanaugh at the News Desk. The chair of Donegal County Council's defective concrete blocks committee says issues with the council's online portal have been resolved and it will be online and functioning properly within days. Councillor Martin McDermott was responding to comments from the Milford and District Resource Centre Manager Declan Meehan who called on the council to get its act together after reports that people could not upload invoices onto the portal. Mr Meehan who plans to contest the forthcoming local elections questioned whether builders and others would engage with the scheme in terms of staged payments if the portal wasn't functioning. However, Councillor McDermott says a resolution is now imminent. Donald is something that had to be re-wrote when the new scheme came in. That was in place a number of weeks back but the system actually didn't work. There was an issue with it. It had to go back to IT to be re-locked at. Now the system is back with the council ready to go within the next couple of days. That system will be up and running and that should make life a lot easier for both the homeowner and the professional. The deal done with the DUP by the UK Government to get the Northern Executive and Assembly running again will go before the UK House of Commons today with suggestions the Assembly could meet within days. Meanwhile bus and train services aren't running across the North once again today as workers at TransLink stage another work stoppage over pay. With the return of storm and imminent workers are being asked to defer future strikes because money will be available for increased public sector pay as a result of the deal. The Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has confirmed there will be more money on the table for public services. This will release over £3 billion in funding to support Northern Ireland's public services and provide a solid foundation for the executive to deliver better outcomes in the day-to-day lives of the people of Northern Ireland. Officers from the PSNI's International Policing Unit have arrested a man in Derry in relation to a fatal road collision in the Republic in 2022. The 27-year-old is wanted to stand trial for alleged dangerous driving causing death in County Louth in July of that year. He was detained under an international warrant by officers from the Waterside neighbouring policing team in Derry last evening. He'll be brought before an extradition court in Belfast later. Donegal County Council and Folger Ireland are discussing a proposal that they pilot a bespoke festival and events development program that will target a number of festivals and events with a three-year funding commitment of €4,000 per year, accompanied by a series of supports. Details emerge this week as members pass to motion from Councillor Barry Sweeney that the current model be amended. At present applications for funding are invited in January or February each year with decisions announced in March. However, because any money granted has to be spent by the end of the year, Councillor Sweeney says that effectively precludes festivals in the first two months from the scheme. Exclude some of the festivals that would be happening earlier in the year and as you know now, we've got the Bank holiday weekend coming up. There's some great festivals and events happening around the county like, for example, failing a man in Bundorn is one that there's a lot of celebration of St Bridget and of women of the area and it's difficult for them to plan and fund their festivals without this support. It's not a massive fund but it is very helpful to a lot of these small festivals. Motorists in Etter Kenne are being warned a number of roadworks are to take place over the next seven days to facilitate the installation and replacement of ramps. Traffic management plans will be in place for single-line traffic where possible. Traffic may be diverted at times, works have been carried out at Leck Road, Drumminy Road and Orchard Grove. All those works are weather permitting and beards, fake tan and nail polish are now allowed for members of the Defence Forces. New rules come into force today as part of Everts to modernise the force and attract more young people to join up with more. Here's Emma Tyrrell. More relaxed grooming rules for members of the Defence Forces will allow female members to have their hair done in one of six different approved styles. That's instead of the current short or in a bone with the net options but men will be more limited with mullets and Mohawks, non-runners but men can look for permission to grow a beard that will be monitored and can't be more than 13mm long. Female members can also now wear nail varnish but they'll only be allowed to pick from five shades while fake tan is allowed but in moderation. 10 and 11 degrees Celsius with moderate to fresh and gusty south-west winds strong at times near the coast tomorrow mostly dull with patchy rain drizzle and mist toward tomorrow evening rain will become more persistent top temperatures on Friday 10 to 12 degrees Celsius in moderate to fresh south-west winds. That's Highland Radio News we're back with news headlines again at 11. Check all of today's news on our website highlandradio.com for now from the news team. Good morning. The between notices for this Thursday morning the 1st of February. The death has taken place of Jim Curran for her Port-N-Bla Donphanahe. His remains will repose at his late residence from three o'clock this afternoon. Funeral masks in Holy Cross Church Donphanahe on Saturday afternoon at three with burial afterwards in the adjoining graveyard. The masks can be viewed live on mcn.live. Family time please from 10pm to 11am. Family flowers only please to nations in Louis-de-Zard to the Patient Comfort Fund letter Kenny University Hospital care of Annie Family Member or James Harkin funeral director. The death has taken place of Eddie Mullen 22 Lampton Court Straban reposing at his son Terry's home at one Bally Grove Straban from 12 noon today. Funeral from there on Saturday at 10 to noon for Requiem Mass in St Mary's Church Melmont at half past 12. Interment afterwards in Straban Cemetery Donations in Louis-Flares Please to the Foyle Hospice care of quickly funeral directors. Family time please from 11pm to 11am. The Requiem Mass can be viewed live via the parish webcam. The death has occurred of Bridget McLaughlin neighbour old post office Linsford and six Crona View Cochill Road, Bunkrona. Bridget will repose at McLaughlin's funeral home lower Main Street, Bunkrona from three o'clock until seven o'clock today. Removal this evening at quarter past seven to arrive at star of the Seed Church Desert Technique for half past seven for Mass in honour of St Bridget at eight o'clock. Funeral Mass will be celebrated there at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning with burial afterwards in the Adjoining Cemetery. Family flowers only please donations in Louis-Flares to Bunkrona Community Hospital patients comfort fund care of Annie Family Member. The death has occurred of John McFadden Bali Bose Falkara remains reposing at Sweeney funeral home Bali Bose Falkara from four thirty to six thirty this evening with removal to St.Villian's Church Falkara to repose overnight. Funeral Mass on tomorrow Friday at 11 with burial in the Adjoining Cemetery. The funeral Mass can be viewed live on mcn.live or on Sweeney funeral directors Facebook page. The death has taken place of James Jim Patrick Gallagher Fallart Calhame Letter Kenny originally of Core Point Letter Mac Award Reposing at Eternal Lightchapel of Rest Mountaintop Letter Kenny from half past two to half past four this afternoon with removal to St.Villian's Cathedral Letter Kenny for reception prayers at five o'clock. Reposing overnight for 11 o'clock Requiem Mass tomorrow Friday morning which can be viewed live on churchservices.ie followed by burial in Kilbridge Cemetery Letter Mac Award. Family flowers only please donations if desired to the emergency services Letter Kenny K.R.O.F. Pascal Blake funeral director The death has taken place of Maj McMonagle Ney McFadden Upper Derry Real Falkara Her remains are reposing at her late residence. Funeral Mass in Holy Cross Church Don Fanny tomorrow morning at 11 with burial afterwards in the Adjoining Graveyard. Mass can be viewed on MCN Media.TV Family time please from 10 p.m. to 11 a.m. and on the morning of the funeral. Family flowers only please donations in lieu of desired to Letter Kenny University Hospital K.R.O.F. Annie family member or James Harkin funeral director. The death has taken place of Ashlyn Little Ney McShane Shankregan Strunaller formerly of Kilkar Her remains are reposing at her late residence with Rosary Tonight at 9. Funeral from there tomorrow morning at quarter past 10 for 11 o'clock funeral mass in the Church of Mary Magdalene Strunaller with burial afterwards in Drumbo Cemetery. Family time please from 10 o'clock tonight and before the funeral tomorrow. Family flowers only please donations in lieu to Breastcare Center Northwest K.R.O.F. Annie family member or Terence McClintock funeral director. The funeral mass can be viewed live on ChurchServices.TV And the death has taken place of Mary Doherty Ney Padden upper Dromore Letter Kenny Mary's remains will repose at her late residence today from 2 o'clock until 10 o'clock celebration of Mary's life and prayers will take place at the family home at half past 11 tomorrow morning followed by interment in Conewell Cemetery Letter Kenny. Family flowers only please donations in lieu of desired to the palliative care team Donegal Hospice K.R.O.F. Annie family member. For family information and more details regarding wakes and funerals please go to highlandradio.com in store at Aldi with loads of your favorites getting the price drop treatment like high protein mousse 200 grams was 175 now 149 melt in the middle fish cakes two pack was 349 now 299 an Irish lean beef burgers two pack was 289 now 249 oh lean burger lean price follow the path to lower prices go all Aldi prices checked 8 to the first 24 details aldi.ie forward slash save and now in rose 2023 best local original news program the voice of the Northwest the 9 till noon show with Greg Hughes it's great to have you back after the break there good to have you if you've just joined us it is the 9 till noon show busy first hour lots of you messaging in on whether or not wearing high vis should be mandatory the majority at this moment if this were democracy that we live in are in favor they say I to high vis being compulsory for cyclists and pedestrians we're going to get to some of those comments and maybe a few calls it later on very shortly too we're going to be talking about this new deposit return scheme really interested in the public's views on this what do you think about it are you excited are you nonplussed also if you're a business owner they're quite expensive these machines there is a grant but doesn't call cover all the costs and maybe you might see yourself as a competitive disadvantage I don't know I don't want to put words or thoughts into anyone's mind I'm not capable of it either but we just want your views 08 660 25,000 or call 07 491 25,000 all that to come but without further ado it's jackpot day it's time for vision Ireland bingo on highland radio it's Thursday the 1st of February jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 8,000 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is as for its game number five the jackpot number is 32 this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers 6 54 76 32 11 46 74 59 72 and finally 17 phone your claim to nine one zero four eight double three before eight tonight leaving your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your vision Ireland bingo information at highland radio dot com it's the right price tiles and wood flooring half price sale get up to 50 percent of all tiles wood flooring bathwear cladding everything's reduced tiles from only 899 per square yard and wood flooring from only 1199 per square yard right price tiles and wood flooring half price January sale extended until bank holiday Monday do you hear that that's the sound of a butcher cutting through his costs a tech company developing their sustainability plan and a brewery getting production flowing nicely it's all in a day's work for small businesses all across Ireland so whatever your business your local enterprise office is here to help you save time money and energy to see how visit all in the day's work brought to you by your local enterprise office and supported by enterprise Ireland to the local authorities and initiative of the government of Ireland orio the robot is not just helping with service at Kelly's diner he's also adding a little twist to birthdays there if you're celebrating at Kelly's orio can even be persuaded to sing a very special happy birthday it's a great treat for small kids and plenty of big kids too for the chance to see and hear orio the robot in action visit Kelly's award-winning diner today at mountaintop letter kenny for his communion and confirmation catering also now available the nine till noon show with ohara's of foxford introducing our new 18 hour fermented white bloomer scoring the bronze at blast nahiran now the green minister of state with responsibility for communications and the circular economy ashin smith joins us now good morning minister thank you for your time good morning thanks for having me on your show and it's good to get to talk to you as we see the introduction and implementation of the deposit return scheme what's the aim of this scheme the aim is to clean up the landscape i've had some great holidays in donny goll I went up a year ago and went to the Irish College the other squirrel in Glen Colin Pekelia and I've been in in a show and and what I noticed was unbelievably beautiful landscape particularly in good weather but also a lot of cans and bottles in the road verges and beside the lakeshores and along the coast and you'd see that in every county in Ireland so the the aim of this scheme is to reduce the number of cans and bottles that end up in our landscape ruining our landscape and do you think that will be achieved will this do that I really think it will so I think that what we're doing is from this day onwards you're going to see that cans and bottles in your local shop will have a little logo on the side with the return logo on it that means that there's a deposit on the bottle 15 cents for a small one 25 cents for a large one and when you bring them back you get the money back and what we see in all the other countries around the world and 40 countries have done this is that you get return rates of about 90 percent so we're going to see far far fewer bottles and cans lying around in our fields in our in our landscape and that's going to be better for everything it's like we have a right to live in the clean environment and it's also good for tourism I get that minister but you know say there's lots of people listening to this program that are are very good about recycling you know they've got their separate colored bins they wash out their stuff they put it in their bottles that whatever now they would be expected to segregate their cans and bottles from that waste get into their probably ice engine vehicle and drive to their local shop to dispose of them where's the reward for those people that are being penalized and having potentially if they don't have a reason to go to the shop further damage the environment to fulfill the needs of the scheme you know you're right that most people are good about it about 60 percent of people are doing the right thing and putting their bottler can into into a green bin but then there's another 40 percent and a lot of this is people who are drinking drinks on the go who are in their car who are just showing on the ground so in order in order to reach that those people who are who are not doing it so we're punishing we're punishing we're about people who feel we're punishing everyone for the people I just can't see and I hope I'm wrong minister and it is we have to wait and see if someone will drive along our beautiful county that you've seen with your own eyes roll down the window and chuck a plastic bottle or a can out I can't see them maintaining the integrity of that bottle and can heading to the local shop and sticking it in a machine for a voucher refund you know what I mean like how is that are those people really going to be monitored by this refund scheme not monitored motivated sorry they will be motivated and if it works in every other country I don't think there's something different about Irish people that we can't do this I think it's something we can do together and I think we're all going to get the benefit from it and I think that at some of your older listeners I mean just as old as me will remember in the 70s and 80s that we had a scheme like this before for glass bottles so you know you left them on your doorstep though a minute glass bottle yeah you left them you left them you left them on the doorstep for your movement for milk bottles you left them on the doorstep and for lemonade bottles you brought them back to the shop and you got money back to them where you can leave them back in the pub for beer bottles so then we switched where the manufacturers switched from glass bottles for lemonade to plastic they were so cheap they didn't bother having a deposit return scheme and now we've got unbelievably one billion bottle one billion plastic bottles and one billion metal cans being produced every year and there are just so many of them are ending up on the ground that we need to do something to fix it so there really will be a benefit for everybody and I know I know that for some it is a change it is a big change in the way that you handle your bins I know that it's different but I think that we can do this together all right but I think this perhaps for the majority of the country might work border counties for an example a lot of the cans and bottles that you've seen on the side of the road and I'm not saying they were dumped by people from Northern Ireland but certainly came out from Northern Ireland we aren't able to recycle a can of coke we bought in Straban in Lifford are we I mean where where is the sense in that again this feels like it's a rule that benefits really the majority of Ireland but doesn't necessarily consider the border regions yeah the border region is going to be a challenge and I know that that in the UK they want to bring in their own deposit return scheme and I've got on to the minister and Westminster to say that I want to coordinate with her I want to have an all island scheme that works for everybody and we haven't had a minister in Northern Ireland they haven't gotten an executive but they're going to get one soon and I'm going to be very keen to coordinate with them and make sure that we have a scheme that works on both sides of the border I'm also concerned to make sure that there isn't smuggling so we've done a lot of work to make sure that people aren't bringing bottles over and you know and adjusting them or putting on new barcodes to try to get money back so that's a concern as well but you're absolutely right we need to have something that works everywhere in Ireland and particularly in border counties okay what percentage of the bottles and cans returned will be recycled so at the moment about 60% of the bottles are plastic bottles are being recycled in Ireland are they being recycled in Ireland no they're segregated and they're shipped abroad for recycling but are they recycled but minister are they being recycled abroad you can't say that oh yeah they are no I mean absolutely so for example I've been to I've been to Shabba Plastic in Monaghan I've seen them melt down the plastic bottles turn them into pallets and then turn them into bin bags so I've been I've seen the whole process and what about cans what percentage of the cans what percentage of the cans will be recycled so ultimately I'm expecting that we're going to reach 90% for both cans and bottles so and I think we'll take us about two years to get to that point none of them will be burnt none of these bottles will be burnt anyway well they certainly won't be incinerated none of them well in fact what happens to them is they're all going to be taken to Limerick to Limerick polymer and because we're going to have such a large quantity for the first time of very clean and segregated plastic bottles and cans it'll actually create the market for having a full recycling centre in Ireland so I expect that we're going to be able to set up a full a place where where bottles can be melted down turned into new bottles without having to ship them abroad because obviously it doesn't make sense to be shipping things out of the country and in fact a lot of waste is shipped over the border there's a lot more recycling for example the food done north of the border than the rest of the border and a lot of that doesn't make sense you want to recycle things close to the source for their produce finally what are you going to do for small businesses they feel disenfranchised by this they can't afford the machines they're at a competitive disadvantage what are you going to do for small businesses well in fact a lot of small businesses around the country have taken them up I know that there are 31 places shops in Donegal where you can bring them back and they're not just the Lidl and the Aldi and so on they're also Gallehers and Kavanaugh's McClaffordies, Urisbar and Goethe-Herk the Centras and Rafoe and Donegal and Movil so what we've done is we've provided a grant for the reverse vending machines for the machines to take back the bottles so that will cover up to half of the cost of putting that in and also there's a little bit of money paid for each can or bottle that is handles that is a handling fee for the shopkeeper for each can and bottle that they managed to take in so what we've seen in other countries is that at first all the big shops go for it and then after that there's a second wave of smaller shops saying we need to do this so they're already in a yeah but they're already in a really difficult trade and environment here they're already trying to compete with people in border areas going across the border and shopping for their cans and the bottles and they're competing with your Liddles and your Aldis and what have you as well who had them in at the get-go and they can't actually you've mentioned there's 30 there's many more shops on that in this country you know yourself they simply are robbing Peter to pay Paul to try and stay competitive to pay the $30,000 for one of these machines I mean can you I know for them in fact I've been into cost-cutter this morning to see how they're getting on near to where I live and what the shopkeeper has said to me is this is going to pay this pays for itself it brings football into his shop he gets a ground towards the cost of the machine he gets a handling fee for each bottle or can that comes in and he wants to have that so it's not an incentive to people to to go to a big shop instead and also there's a there's a finance arrangement so that people can so that shopkeepers can pay for it as the machine goes along but he expects that he's going to be able to pay for his machine in the first three years and after that he'll be he'll be making making a profit out of it so it is I think it's something that that small shops will want to do I think more of them will come on board as the scheme goes on there is it there are grants there is help if you go to return.ie there's a whole part of the website that will show you for retailers how to get on board at the scheme there's also a map on that website return.ie and that will show your listeners where's the nearest space they can you see there hands and bottles yeah but and that's where the competitive disadvantage that's where the competitive disadvantage is here where you are promoting the places that have it and those that can't afford these machines are being forced to do so even though they can't afford it but anyway you answered that question and you talked about the the font but I don't want to delay you any further I imagine there's quite a lot of demands to speak to you this morning so thank you for your time right now that's Ashene Smith Green Minister of State with responsibility for communication and the circular economy but let us get the views of people out there in business and see what their reaction to this is we'll start with Kieran McKenna owner of McKenna's Launders some in Bunkrana and of course quickly's point as well good morning to you Kieran thank you very much for your time hey good morning Greg good morning right you heard the minister there I suppose just really from your perspective as a business person what's your reaction to this scheme and its introduction well I would have liked if the minister had a state on you know on the call because you know like other ministers most of them are delusional as to how a small business operates he talked about shabber of plastics and monon you know which is only a small factory on the side of the road your listeners will see it when they're traveling between on the Chassib Laney bypass and if he's saying that that factory is currently recycling 60 percent of the the plastic and chance in this country at the minute you know he's definitely he's definitely off the scale you know you're great right Greg we operate here in the Nishon Peninsula and you know while different border areas there's different you know the Nishon Peninsula is unique that people who who live in in Nishon a lot of them work in dairy you know and they will bring out say a plastic bottle maybe that the drank at work or whatever else and that that product does not allow it to be returned and so many visitors that come to to Nishon throughout the summer who who are greatly welcomed you know they're they're important part of our economy again the product that they will bring out will not be able to be recycled we are a small business he quite right said there's a grant but the grant will nowhere near you know paid for the cost of the machine there's big pressure then from bigger bigger retailing companies to to follow suit and put in a machine so typically for our for our two stores if I was to put in put in the machine and infrastructure that was needed with it it would cost me over 30,000 euro for the product that you talked about that's not able to be recycled I have to provide a bin and then I have to recycle that product at my own cost wow so yeah okay and so every every item that would be taken outside from from and and any listeners here from Northern Ireland that they come to Nishon they're more than welcome and we wouldn't discourage them from from using the facility or using a bin outside or store but if if if somebody brings a a bottle back that that that that is they can be ratefully recycled and the machine doesn't accept that that goes into the bin also so if I if I bring say for instance I do so much cost attached to this but Kieran say I do a weekly shop ministers or yeah I was just gonna ask you say I do a weekly shop in the north which I don't and I I buy you know six packs of cans or a large family and I fill a black bag full of those if I walk into your shop with a big black bag full of plastic and cans your obliged to take them are you under on the face of this law well I I could be stand to be corrected but if you have obviously if you had somebody with a small carrier bag now a big black bag would be a lot but it say on a small carrier bag that person's not going to bring them home Greg you see it at bottle banks you know yourself that whatever doesn't go into the bottle bank they're just leaving a box you know I'm not saying the 99% of the people that you recycle would be very responsible but them products if it doesn't went to the machine they've went to the effort to separate them and everything else they're they're they're not for taking them home they will be either leaving them in the bin that we have to provide or the maybe they will go across the road or go to the nearest recycling point where they can put them in but it's an area that that that there's still you know the minister talks about that he will be right into the whenever we get a government you know established in Northern Ireland but there's so many other things you know that that that are against small businesses you take we're we're after coming out of an energy crisis we have minimum wage you see so many small restaurants throughout the country that they're closing and this this is just another scheme that that was put that the chart was put before the horse you heard the minister say they don't even have we don't even as a country we don't have a facility in Ireland to to recycle all this plastic in chance so surely you know somebody in his position should have looked at to develop on a plant that could take it all first and then we get into it and then you'd have small retailers like myself who would be fully engaged and fully fully fully behind you know that that we can see an end product here they call that the they call that the just transition and it's another thing where the cart seems to have been before the home was here yeah yeah mean you could call us something else but we're taking off air it's it's yeah okay listen Kieran it's it's typical it's typical of a minister to come on and say how great the whole thing will be you know I I I have looked for an exemption for the machine just because our store is is is within the square footage that you're allowed and in six months time if I feel that this is this is definitely the way to go you know I will have no problem in implementing two machines but at the moment like like so many small businesses we can't afford to do it and we're being pressured by by bigger groups retailing groups that there are in the country well listen Kieran you're you you and your business place an incredibly important role in having the service available to people in Bunkrana and Quigley's Point but through the employment and spending on projects from the local area so hopefully nobody's discouraged from shopping local through this scheme because without businesses like yours communities start to crumble here and thank you very much for your time I do appreciate it John and again this has two hats on as as a business person and also as a local elected representative good morning to you Councillor Good morning Greg good morning to you listeners thank you again I think that the the elephant not the elephant in the room but the obvious situation here is one a this is not really a border scheme because our lives are a little bit different up here but B2 it's not really good for the small business person it seems well at this moment in time Greg the small businesses as Kieran has eloquently put it before were under extreme pressure just to remain open when we're competing against the larger entities that are that are operating within the county and the small iowich business that rural Ireland is made up with and which provides most of the employment in rural Ireland we are under threat we've had as Kieran alluded to we've had an energy crisis where we've been paying between four and five times the amount for electricity we've had multiple wage increases which are welcome but obviously all of these inputs going up it means that the viability of the small business is getting tighter and tougher and tougher every year now this scheme on the whole I mean I commend the efforts of the Green Party for trying to increase the level of recycling that takes place within the country according to and Ireland study last year we're already over 70% recycling over plastic bottles though his target is 90% to close that gap of 20% I think there's a number of different ways that this could have been done in a more sensible manner but turning the small local shop into a waste collection agency is not is not the way forward and it's already as I said we're already under pressure and this could be the straw that breaks the camel's back and with more supports I think for smaller businesses so that the playing field was level and I would say again I have a been my bonnet about rules that are good for the country as a whole but if you start looking at border counties not so good for businesses that are already trying to compete it just is ill it feels a little bit ill thought through you know this is where we're going to be perhaps you know people will be glad to get rid of this stuff and if they can get a few quid fine but why didn't we do it correctly and take a consideration of the border take consider into consideration the small businesses and offer them more support hey you know if there is a clawback on this maybe the government could have front-loaded the cost for the small businesses and took the clawback there or used it as some sort of a compensation for the challenges that you've talked of i.e. you know higher fuel prices electricity prices and what have you I'm just saying with a bit of thinking this could have actually got over the line with very little controversy Johnny without a doubt Greg I couldn't agree more as they had a comment spoken to to the small retailers and not just dealt with the large entities then we could have steered them the right way but I don't think it's our responsibility to deliver this scheme you talked about the the grant support the maximum grant support that you can receive from the government is 3 000 euros towards the purchase of the smallest machine that you can buy Greg is 12 000 euros so at a rate of 2.2 cents per unit returned a small retailer like ourselves we would have to handle 545 000 455 bottles before we could break even and I mean anyone can tell that over half a million bottles stacked together that's an awful lot of green bin bags that we'll have to pay to to bag them and as Ciaran alluded to what about the percentage of non-returnables that we'd have to then dispose of ourselves and worse than again we're going to have to build a facility lock up your waste and the whole things for posture and there's those and you know when you think about it there's different sized cans that don't work the little bottles that you give to children going to school don't count there's an awful lot in here and that's also too scrutinizing whether something's dirty or not you know the cap has to be on that I believe you know the can I think you know can't be dented I think the cap doesn't have to be on it well the can certainly can't be dented it can't be squashed it can't be squashed all right okay the cap's on that I suppose the bottle will stay to I could speak one more point just in relation to this because it wasn't touched upon I've done some research into this now this type of scheme is all written in the rest of Europe different countries in Europe and they all use different logos but now they've clearly stated that no importation of products without the logo can take place now for the average market that's that's goes against the the European competition laws for free trade and it's not we're trying to get to 90 percent recycle with the 2030 there's there's there's an awful better way to do it but but flagrantly going against a free trade legislation doesn't make sense and as you said we're on the we're on the periphery of the UK here at present until we eventually have a united Ireland so we're already going to have a northern sharper coming down here to the beaches beautiful scenic beaches have been shown and and those those containers and that rubbish isn't going back up the road and when they pull into nice door to try and use the machine if we go and buy a machine at present just like here we're going to we're going to hold back for a week or two I've put in for the distanciation because of the the size of the shop but the chances are that's a bag of rubbish when they're told that they can't return it it's just going to be dropped at your front door we have a small little bin at the front door and during the summer months I empty out then every day of the week because the amount of rubbish that's just tossed in there from from people visiting the beach so it's we're a long ways off a a proper solution to this and even the brown bins initiative that's coming into rural Ireland as well you touched on it yourself people are always driving around the country picking up food waste it's just it's disconnected thinking that's not joined up they haven't met or spoken to small retailers and as you said yourself it's the character for the horse yeah and it's just about it feeling fair and you know yourself Johnny too and a lot of all of these issues I think we all want a planet that is fit for our children and our grandchildren and our children but it's just there's so many contradictions in the messaging and things that don't make sense and and and there in lies the problem people's good will almost goes goes wasted listen thanks for for your views on that that's councillor John and McGinnis they're also a business owner lots of you calling messaging in we'll take an outbreak come back to some of those after these watch the show live now on YouTube Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com The 9 till noon show with O'Hara's of Foxford it took us 72 years to perfect our deliciously authentic Baker 51 sourdough bread one bite and you'll agree true taste takes time Farmer Fury forces skept changes for more in your Irish farmers journal his Paul Mooney find out how the department is backtracked in controversial suckler scheme acres payment delays hit 28,000 farmers new eight euro P.O. sheep scheme farmers to be charged for unsold calves and marts fresh blow to future of nitrous derogation the latest from the bar and estate court case plus could the county council inspect your farm we have all you need to know all inside the Irish farmers journal on sale now in the final clearance of what's the men's wear there's great savings across top labels a great selection of footwear shirts and knitwear half price selected suits and kids clothing also half price there's dress shirts two 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Volkswagen commercials in letter Kenny today see connelly's.ie for day today health care needs generations have trusted the experienced staff at McGee's chemist letter Kenny from coughs and calls 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 letter Kenny for health care help and advice you can always trust now you're welcome back to the program I want to go to Joe Sweeney who is IFA chairperson in Donegal following a meeting of the IFA national council yesterday it was agreed to hold a show of solidarity with farmers across the EU in each county in the Republic good morning to you Joe thank you very much for joining us thanks Greg right okay so tell us why the IFA are choosing to take this action across the country taking this action across the country in solidarity with our farmers across the EU because we're just fed up with the EU taking in rules and regulations and not giving the farmers probably a proper voice all the rules and regulations are coming in we had sort of the likes of the the green deal for up to farm policies we have an over complicated scheme we have a lot of schemes that have been at the present a lot of small schemes and it's making just awkward for farmers we have we have lit payments with nitrous derogation natural restoration law and the proposed murder trade deal now on the table as well obviously we were seeing in in France for an example we're seeing the French farmers blockade Paris bails out on roads you know they're trying to effectively shut Paris down to get their point across and I don't mean this disrespectfully but you guys are going to sit in the dual carriageway in letter Kenny why aren't you why aren't you on behalf of your members taking the type of action that we're seeing in France what's different about Irish farmers to French farmers well there is actually no difference but this is just the first step and and and and just letting them know that we're here we're just doing it in solidarity with the French farmers and what's going on across Europe we're not looking to the the store traffic or be a bit a nuisance to the public but it's just a first step and it's just in solidarity with their friends in Europe and do you see an escalation amongst the Irish farming community in the future that perhaps maybe not going quite as far as the French farmers are but certainly beginning to disrupt you know life to try and make their point the same way the French are doing well the thing about is we we have to look at food security Greg and you know we all talk about disruption and we talk about importing food and we talk about farmers and that sort of stuff but like where's the food going to come because all our younger farmers are not going into farming they're they're moving away they're they're taking other jobs and it's because the whole system's over over complicated so there's no one listening so that can work that will work for a while and can work for a while but it's not it's not going to work the whole time and it's only going to be too late I want to realise that there's no food because no one thinks about that part of us yeah but what's going to change things though Joe the softly softly approach in Ireland isn't working if you speak to people in the farming community yes some see a future for themselves but the majority of that I speak to particularly small farmers medium-sized farmers with all the challenges that they're facing at the moment don't see a future for farming in in this country so at what point do we stop talking about it and you as an association actually try and start doing something about it maybe beyond the words and as I say I mean that with absolute respect yeah well that's probably why we're taking this approach tonight it's just to work and see where we can where we can take it it's a very difficult one but we have to take a stand somewhere and we're just going to we're going to do this tonight anyway and see where we're going to go with the first step and see how it works and see what happens after that because I do know sometimes in in Europe things are actually worse than what happens in Ireland sometimes our things in Ireland might be even better than in Europe believe it or not at the minute we're just taking we're taking that approach to just sort of come out and support Europe and show solidarity get to you listen thanks for that Joe Sweeney IFA chair in Donegal there are going to be acts of solidarity right across the country and in Donegal it's at 7 p.m. this evening farmers are meeting along the hard shoulder on the dual carriage we're heading into letter Kenny from the manor round about just tractors on the hard shoulder no other machinery the idea from what I'm hearing from Joe is not to discommode the public but to show solidarity right across the country 08 6 60 25 000 is the WhatsApp and text number which you've been keeping us really really busy on thank you so very much indeed shall we talk about the recycling scheme I can't see this new recycling scheme working to be honest especially in busy households some people do online shopping now to help ease their busy days what a really interesting point not only some people a lot of people do the online shopping now I think you're right Greg those that took their takeaway wrappings and empty cans and bottles out the car window and the countryside will not stop it'll be ironic if one of them hit Ronan okay it would be ironic and I appreciate you sense of humour there yeah I just I can't see all of them going all right well I'm not going to chuck it into the hedge row I'm going to take it to my local centre and get 15 cent for it you know trying to protect the environment but we have to drive in our cars to recycle and make sense of that more green party BS that costs everybody a fortune roll on the election until we get rid of them he sounds like a TY student who is doing a project for school there's no party by the way no just so we're all voting there's no party of the the main parties as far as I'm aware that she opposes this scheme or is presenting a rollback on it the Irish Times today says the recyclables will be shipped abroad while return told me on the phone it'll be incinerated in a limerick so I have to drive 30 kilometres return to get my money back but the return company profits ask the minister who is kidding who well I can only go I can ask a question of the minister and he answers it I have a certain amount of information my understanding is is that we burn most of our waste or ship it abroad and God knows what happens to it there but listen there's all different types of views I actually 100% agree with the minister on this it's a great idea and it was a great idea years ago when it was an operation for glass sadly I think that the people that are throwing the rubbish along the roads are not the people who will be recycling excellent point of view and thank you by the way we want all points of view and really do appreciate that but does it mean that the price of the bottles will increase at the point of purchase thank you will you get nothing for nothing would be the way I would say that Liam says the minister is talking rubbish and not recycling it either I do not see any big issue with cans and plastic bottles being discarded he is exaggerating most people use the recycle bin or is it that really the recycle bin should be renamed the incineration bin or the export bin no centre for returning bottles or cans in Glenty so the nearest is Dunlowe Electric Henney 30 or 80 kilometres return trip such hypocrisy but you see in Dublin in Cork in Limerick in the cities you see these laws are for cities because really we need to all move into the city and then we can ride the electric buses and we can recycle our cans and we won't use cars and we'll cycle and we'll walk and like this whole movement really is not like we're part of it but it's not really designed to work in a rural area I don't think is it that's how it feels anyway how is the small shop going to store these bottles and cans coming back how will it be viable for them it's going to take up stock room it's absolutely different for larger stores yet we see they're on big pockets of land and say for instance your little Lialdies I saw a couple of their machines installed outside and they don't even have to have them inside and the spaces are so big they're often on such big pieces of land that it's you know it's a piece of cake for them there's gridlock in letter Kenny by the way does I don't know what's happening at the dry arch letter Kenny total gridlock around outbound haven't moved in 15 minutes I don't know but I'm sure someone out there does right back to comments on these and your comments too on the high vis coming up as well I can't see how the new cash for empties being so much of a success unless you're buying dozens of bottles every week it won't be worth while storing and accumulating them in the home it'll be much more convenient to chuck them in their recycle bin who's going to carry a few bottles or cans to the local supermarket just on the chance that they might get a few cents cash or reduction in the shopping in regards to recycling taking back plastic bottles I always put them in my blue recycling bin which I pay for so what I will be doing from now on is not use my blue bin anymore and throw it all out in the rubbish I'm not paying twice to recycle and pay for petrol to transport plastic plastic bottles back to the shop indeed Greg it annoys me to hear the slick ads on for the new recycling bottles and cans advertisers making millions people who get online shopping cannot avail of the scheme also small local shops won't be able to afford these new recycling bins and that's where a lot of us buy our bottles and cans is it to encourage us to only buy our drinks in large stores what about hotels and caps where will bottles and cans be recycled what about your bottles of Budweiser and your wine bottles can they be recycled they're glass as well as you can already recycle them can't you four lanes at a standstill from the poll star to the dry roundabout still only half way after 20 minutes again anyone out there you've passed through it let us know what's going on letter Kenny to Bonagy it stands still where does the emergency services go if they're looking to get through will not up the wrong side of the road because they could get in trouble for that they've been told they can't do that I have sources suggest to me which I think is something I wanted to talk about in the past by the way did you know that if there is an emergency someone's in the back of an ambulance and they're coming into letter Kenny and the two lanes going into letter Kenny are absolutely chock-a-block and the traffic coming out of Kenny is light that an ambulance can't go up the wrong way with the lights blaring because they will find themselves potentially getting reprimanded or find themselves being told by the Guardian that what they've done is illegal and it's the exact same as any other traffic offence do you know that maybe that's something that you agree with but I'll tell you one thing it's a tough call and it's a tough position I think to put ambulance drivers in that they're being told this is my information from a whistleblower I suppose you could say that if you drove up the wrong way up the dual carriageway even in an ambulance lights blaring with someone on death's door in the back of the ambulance that the driver could find themselves sanctioned and criminal sanctioned too from the police from the Guardian for going up the other side of the dual carriageway can you believe that what do you think is that something that surprises you shocks you or maybe you agree with it 08 660 25000 The 9 till noon show with O'Hara's of Foxford it takes 18 hours to perfect our new 18 hour fermented sourdough bread one bite and you'll agree true taste takes time is that the new opal yes of course does it really look that good yes of course is it fun to drive yes of course is it packed with smart tech yes of course can i test drive it right now at manor motors opal yes of course the new opal course now available hybrid and electric coming soon see manormotors.ie for details extra sleeping no morning traffic sounds like a bank holiday is coming so i want to make a sunday roast a monday roast at centra we're in a spin about our bank holiday offers like an award-winning 100% Irish rotisserie chickens from the inspired by centra range for just 650 until february 14th centra live every day do you suffer from high cholesterol menopause symptoms digestive issues anxiety aches and pains or a lack of energy the highly trained team at the natural way letter candy can provide advice on natural remedies for a number of individual health issues the natural way also has its own brand of herbal treatments to help fight fatigue relieve digestive discomfort maintain a healthy immune system and alleviate common menopause symptoms the natural way letter candy shop in centre your one stop health shop easy living furniture's biggest ever winter sale ends this sunday this is your final chance to avail of these amazing discounts as this whopper winter sale must end sunday absolutely everything reduced across sofa dining bedroom mattress and accessories winter sale must end sunday at easy living furniture crescent length retail park highland radio weather updates brought to you by grant building a new home choose grants a triple plus rated air owner air to water heat pump and you flex under floor heating visit grant.ie right it's going to become cloudier throughout the afternoon with patchy light range drizzle and misdeveloping later temperatures increasing though to nine or ten degrees by evening light winds increasing moderate to fresh southerly through the day what is going on at the dry arch around about stuffing stocking traffic on the new port road for the last 25 minutes how ridiculous can this town get again waiting on someone to let us know what's going on when the pedestrian lights are broken at a crossing on a canal across from tk max some car drivers is so thick they won't stop to let folks cross over also pedestrians should raise their right hand to stop them I do and folks think I'm crazy I don't understand Donagall's psychology honestly can't believe what Ronan is saying pedestrians need to make every effort to make themselves visible would he suggest the use of headlights on cars at night would be optional that comes in from Jim in Balabuffet a caller says that the blame is always on the driver if there's an incident however he had a near miss yesterday when a jogger ran straight out in front of him on the road not paying any attention to the oncoming traffic another caller says it's only common sense to wear high vis jackets when walking but we don't see them that often you know the reason this conversation is happening really is because so many people and we see them all the time when you're driving or even when you're walking I'm sure you walk past all the people that aren't wearing a high vis and you wonder really do you roll in the dice like that that man is rung in relation to not having to wear high vis when walking or cycling by law tractors need to have a flashing amber light so other road users can see them coming surely if a tractor which is a lot bigger than the majority of other vehicles needs to be seen then things smaller than other vehicles need to be able to be seen by other road users as well pedestrians and cyclists have no legal need for insurance so that's why they can do what they like they are allure into themselves the listener says Greg every breathing human being is responsible for behavior that contributes to their own safety and the safety of others whether they be drivers cyclists or walkers all responsibility should not be laid on the vehicle driver all are equally responsible for road safety all right Gary joins us on line one maybe to give us an update on what's happening with the traffic in letter Kenny Gary thanks for your call what's the story Greg yeah they're resurfacing the hull of Lurgy Brake so therefore they're stopping all the traffic leaving letter Kenny so there's no traffic allowed out to Jula Caradry just because the resurfaces in the hull of Lurgy Brake so no traffic can go out towards Lifford or Derry stopping at there's everything's been stopped at the dry arch around a bit so even though I wasn't I was stuck on there for about 35 minutes heading out to Derry Road I'm going out to Jula Caradry there's nothing on the Jula Caradry but that man that man was on there the last week while he was chatting about the farmers block on the the Jula Caradry we can do that we don't need the farmers good we can do it on our own so the traffic skewed all the way to Jula Caradry also out to the terminal junction well okay right so okay because one road because one road in order Kenny's been resurfaced the hull of letter Kenny has to come to us Redlock unbelievable stuff it's about Sully thanks for your update I really do appreciate it Gary that's what's happening the 9 till noon show with O'Hara's of Foxford we take 18 hours to craft our new 18 hour fermented sourdough bread now is the perfect time to enjoy a slice winter seal now on at Cherrymore Kitchens and bedrooms 10% of all purchases for a limited period teasing see supply see in store book a free consultation today in our Donegal Town showroom on 0749725822 luxury kitchens and bedrooms at affordable prices expect more and get more at Cherrymore kitchens and bedrooms at Seat we created the terraco so people could enjoy an SUV with seven seats then we made it so good looking that everyone kept saying oh my what is that it's stunning 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eight thirty and sunday the fourth at seven thirty don't miss what promises to be an exceptional weekend of bluegrass in our draw friday the second to sunday the fourth of february for accommodation and more see our draw.ie this bank holiday weekend it really could be that's right there's one bank holiday a millionaire guaranteed in the lotto plus raffle a millionaire that would certainly put a bit of into your long weekend so play lotto with plus this saturday for your chance to become ireland's newest millionaire the national lottery this bank holiday weekend it could be you play responsibly play for fun with all the stories that matter across the north west it's greg hughes on the nine to noon show on highland radio okay coming up in the next hour more of your comments on some of the big issues of the day we're going to be talking history with dr joe all that and so much more besides but first let's get a news update and it's over to donald cavernor thank you greg good morning the chair of donningill county council's defective concrete blocks committee says issues with the council's online portal have been resolved it'll be back online and functioning properly within days councillor mark macdermitt was responding to comments from milford and resource centre manager dicklin mehan who called on the council to get its act together after reports that people couldn't upload invoices onto the portal officers from the ps and i's international policing unit have arrested a man in dairy in relation to a fatal road collision in the republic in 2022 the 27 year old is wanted to stand trial for alleged dangerous driving causing death in county louth in july of that year he was detained by virtue of an international warrant by officers from the waterside policing neighbourhood team in dairy last evening he'll be brought before an extradition court in belfast later three people have died in a crash in carlo it happened at around half past 11 last night on the n80 at lea on the wexford road a fourth person is in hospital with serious but non life threatening injuries the deal done with the dup to get the northern executive running again will go before the uk house of commons today with suggestions that the assembly may meet within days meanwhile buzz and train services aren't running across the north again today as workers at translating stage another work stoppage over pay with the return of storm and imminent workers are being asked to defer future strikes because money will be available for increased public sector pay as a result of the deal Hickwell has published a report following an inspection at abbey village group homes in kilmikrennan it was an announced inspection as part of the registration renewal process no non-compliances were noted and a plan to address a number of minor issues has been included in the publication and has claimed a five year wait for weight loss surgery in ireland is pushing people to go to turkey shawn crow the chair of the iraqlis committee on health says waiting lists are unacceptably high it comes as more people are living with obesity than ever before and they're the headlines back with more at noon thank you very much indeed donal and just to remind you if you are stuck in traffic in and around letter kenny lots of you are there seems to be some resurfacing work happening at the balabuffet road effectively and it's causing gridlock we're going to keep you updated on that over the course of the hour so stay right where you are back after this really short break the 100% electric new nissan area is now on irish roads which means you'll discover the game changing silhouette that sets it apart as well as its luxurious interior inspired through japanese design then you'll discover the smooth acceleration quiet operation and advanced technology that makes every driver pleasure the new nissan area for 43 500 euro test drive it today and discover outstanding nissan innovation that excites dealer delivery and related charges apply okay uh i support the motion that high vis should be mandatory every pedestrian should wear high visibility clothing during the day and the night another caller says i'm driving up and down past the new greenway in castle finnel to lyford is there going to be lights on this greenway not quite sure let us know mandatory wearing of life jackets at sea has saved many lives and the mandatory wearing of high vis vests would save many more actually a really good point there cyclists should have to pay road tax if they want to use public roads believes another caller i agree with that man that everyone has to take responsibility responsibility for themselves the driver is blamed for everything so that's someone in ronan's quarter there corner the green party want to do away with rural island don't stop them from flying all over the world then preach to us about saving the environment and i think that's referencing a story yesterday which shows that the just in terms of green ministers traveling around the world flying around the world for st patrick's day they will produce the equivalent and this is them singularly not the whole plane by the way just to be clear i presume everyone knows that so it's not the plane in and of itself it's actually the seat in which you're on if you were to break it down is the equivalent to all of the emissions of two family cars for a full year i've been buying bottled water and it has no our logo on it to be used in this scheme what's the point of paying an extra 25 cents if you use your recycle bin at home when will these logos be available on products interesting point the minister says a grant is available for recycling machines the grant that is provided by the government will have that many regulations that it will be hard to get by the time the person gets the grant all the good of it will be gone cost will be put into trying to prove why you need the grant another caller says i'm a smaller retailer and i've had to stop putting my bin at the front as customers are filling it with household waste i don't mind disposing of the waste but people jamming it and making it overflows the problem i have to clean the mess then and you see you're not on your own some local authorities have removed bins because the public use them if you know what i mean now i know yours is a private property and it's easier not to have a bin than it is to maintain that bin aimon rine says a listener is getting his pay back for getting into bed with finna fall and finna gale and the country has to suffer this badly thought out system in the context of the green agenda can greg ask for comments on the fact that shell a uk petrochemical company is just tax profits of i presume that's 22 billion for last year well listen there's big money in oil sitting 25 minutes in traffic leaving letter kenny on the port road any idea what's going on what we talked about that it appears to be road works on or out in the direction of largie brack and it's as our frustrated driver said a little earlier on it's locking just locking the whole town up i'll be buying my bottled water and cans in the north now and i will not be using them machines says a listener right okay we're joined on the program now by jerry early jerry early who's an island fisherman's representative thank you very much for joining us jerry i do appreciate it thank you thank you great now we're speaking off the back of a 12 meter fishing boat which ran aground earlier this week off the coast of donna gall and it sort of talked to a wider issue here jerry yeah as opposed you know the good thing about this Greg is that as all the lads were rescued were lifted off by the rescue helicopter who were paged our life was paged yesterday morning at six a.m. and we told those of us to look around at an inch man which is just west to gi door so by the time our lads got there our lads and ladies got there they were they were joined by the rescue 118 helicopter who did as always fantastic working getting the lads off you know but look at as opposed on the dust plus you know we're thankful first of all Greg that they're all safe the skipper and the crew are safe but I mean it points to the bigger issue as far as I'm concerned that you know these lads are are having to go further work longer and you know because of lack of lack of fishing opportunities lack of quota so yeah it's look at I mean like I say it's it's it's it's granted the boats you know that that's that well but you know there's a bigger issue here and it's still the case Jerry that really we have a system that if people want to fish throughout the winter they're restricted where they can fish i.e. further out to sea but they're also restricted in the size of their vessels so effectively if they want to keep working and want to keep earning more money they're almost being compelled to take a risk the ordinarily wouldn't want to that's exactly it I'm not shallow Greg I mean this is a 12 meter board a minute I was a fan boat this this young man who you know an island pressure man from from West Donegal he you know he wanted to stay at home when he built up business but I mean since he came into the business it's just been one cut half of the other Greg and it's it's forced them into areas as opposed to they don't want to go into but I mean at the end of the day he is more of it just to pay he's insurance to pay he's crew to pay so so yeah it's it's really Greg as opposed to highlight that the intro fishing sector is on his knees totally on his knees and and young you know young men like like like this yesterday or just forced into position that that I don't think that they should be in you know there's only so much that they can take but you know if they're not out their their their debts are are building up and and they're being forced to fish all year round Greg and look at it it's not it's not acceptable and what it also does is it means every single hour during the summer is spent at sea I know that personally myself does it also not need to be some sort of supports for these inshore fishermen during the winter time because as I say you know it's hard to retain crew often you can't go out you can't take these risks so your boats are you're tied up and you're you're you're hamstrung you know I can't see I can see even more having to leave this business because they can't get the money in the summer to get through the winter is that a big concern amongst the inland fishing community? Of course it is Greg and it's not been helped in the last 15-20 years where all the fisheries the the typical fisheries they would fish all year round and and and safe waters and and you know cam waters or cammer waters have been either closed due to lack of in my opinion lack of evidence and hiding behind scientific evidence to me and most times that the the science is neglected Greg or the fishermen you know that know what's happening on the ground and it's a real real sense of and honestly you know I mean you know this has happened before and it'll happen again where where where lads have been forced into positions that I want to go into and and you know I'm calling on the minister I'm calling the department the marine to get supports for for these lads that you know when they're not fishing at least they have some sort of income and and again it's you know this is all means tested and and you know go through the loopholes I mean to get any sort of supports where I get it's it's it's just not worth the bother because there's so many loopholes and there's so many you know it's a real real sense of frustration for us all I know this is really obvious Jerry but I'm going to have to go there you know we saw a almost a procession of mega trawlers coming from the north to fish in Irish waters it's so frustrating that you have these fellas and women but mostly fellas I think it is anyway but that's irrelevant who can't fish during the winter or have to take great risks crazily driven out to see effectively to try and make a few bob whilst our waters are plundered by these mega vessels that have free rain and we don't really even have a navy to make sure they're they're abiding by the law they just come into our waters and scoop up whatever they want to scoop often it's not even landing in Ireland so there's no benefit to us at all whatsoever I just can't imagine how bloody frustrating it must be for someone whose boats tied up to Green Passel Pier or Downing's Pier or the Pier now or wherever it might be yeah and you've nailed it Greg and this is not just you know affecting the inshore sector this is affecting all the boats and downing all I mean if you go down to Kelly Beggs today there's the sign as the boat's tied up and they don't have quota to go out whereas Norwegians Faroese Icelandics you know they're coming down into our waters I mean if you look west of the if you go on to Marine Tracker that's the most fishing a lot of people have now but if you go on to Marine Tracker Greg and look out west of Ireland it's a highway like it's a pure highway of boats and none of them are carrying a Irish flag it's ridiculous in this day and age Greg that we have the richest fishing waters in Europe and this is you know it's a top down or bottom up the way you want to look at it I mean if these boats were weren't out there there's more fish inshore there's more fish inshore I mean look at it I'm not going to get into the nuts and bolts but I've been saying it for 20 years almost and I'm getting tired of the sound of my own voice in this but I mean it's wrong on every level Greg that you know the fishermen always seem to be at the bottom of the chain it's kind of interesting because I am on I am on the marine website and just looking at the dozens and dozens of boats that are fishing off the coast and there's a massive range of them and the only one that's actually identifiable is one that's fishing out of Kili Bags all the rest are there's no way of tracking them I'm sure those in the business probably know how to track them but the majority of them have no idea at all just for the regular use like myself except two that are out of Kili Bags which is which is really quite bizarre but anyway okay I just you see the thing is is though Jerry and I was having this conversation with someone who works in this industry very very frustrated sitting when they can't be making money no life in the summer because they're out at sea for every hour that God sends and when this when this next generation that would have followed their parents into this business when that chain's broken it's like when you fight in a fire you know you cut trees down to fight the fire sometimes to stop the fire spreading and it just feels that unless something changes really really quick if it's not too late already that the fire break has been put in there and there is actually no it's a it's a sunset industry there is no one left to continue the tradition of of inshore fishing yeah and I mean Greg it's a breaking point and it has been going down and going down and going down but I mean I mean yesterday what happened this young man you know who invested vast amount of money to to stay in the industry and and you know got a lovely boat and got loads of gear and tried to just make a living for himself you know it's nothing more nothing less than that Greg and to see his his livelihoods taken away from him you know and one fell sweep because again you know did he have to be out you know he absolutely did have to be out and it's it's just look at I think that that all supports that that are forthcoming you know that should be should be made available to this young man and this family you know proud proud island men that that you know I know today that they're thankful they're alive but I mean at the end of the day Greg their livelihood is is lying in a rock doing on his man you know and that that's look at that talk for us all you know in design it's just difficult to see and I'm not conflating clicking on these boats and the ones that have flags they're Norwegian flags or Icelandic flags or whatever and here we are it's so so frustrating and I'm really glad this topic came up today what I'm not glad is that it came off the back of of that awful situation for that young person thank you very much for that Jerry as always I really do appreciate it Liam hello good morning Greg you're a big advocate for the industry but go on well a Jerry he's like myself he's fashion from an early age grew up with grew up on the coastline with the older fashion men familiarising yourself with what you around around your waters and grow up to see what way the fashion's gone well I would say the unsure fishery is dead on the street you're going to green cast go down the morning and start pressing to see the Mount of Wee boats is there and the price even that that boat was lost the last day there yesterday the day before the night before it was a good job the Coast Guard got them off and fairplayed them and we've seen this and this it didn't end up a tragedy what has happened along the coast for a lot of years and a test of pressure a test of pressure these men have to go out to fish and have to go out and stay out to get there with the markets down all the rest but what I see here even greencastle is a graveyard of wee boats what's going to happen these wee boats they can't afford to keep them especially with oyster fishery and the foil has depleted has depleted and a lot of the fishermen will put it down to poor management we have no voice no no politicians no politicians whatsoever from every party have turned of line idealists they've turned of line I they've turned turned their backness master mcconnell go walk out the pier he'll spend millions on a pier out the pier I will quite honestly we don't see what what the difference of this breakwater we'd call it a dam out the pier it hasn't made the pier any better and mr farne in the town shouting what about the fishing the scene to go past the whole inshore fleet none are harbour and to get about them and there is no young people coming into industry I was on there he said 20 29 I'm not 30 maybe a couple of younger boys at 25 26 that was on this harbour but there is no people come behind they can't afford even to get onto the game because it's too too expensive and even those that are out fishing at the moment even those outfishing at the moment I can't find a boat with an Irish flag I'm going oh I found one it's the old glarry that's the that's the only boat I could actually find yeah that's a boat out of killy begs that's a large vessel he could make in passage yeah that's the only one I could find hello yeah that I'm listening to you know as I say I'm listening intently to you but also clicking through and I've managed just to find one one boat and that was the old glarry out of killy begs as you said but what what is the what is the future then because if you hear the announcement say for killy begs now it's about it feels it's about offshore offshore wind it feels like it's about cruise ships you know the the conversation when we talk about our peers even the green castle breakwater that you talk of yes obviously for the fishing industry but one of the advantages being seen is that it might might make it better for leisure craft and what have you do you know what I mean that's happening right through the course but we know what's what as when they're going to get rid of us when all the don't they call Cody Cody all not not the don't they call Cody Cody Cody all the parties involved with the Donegal Fisheries Board and all the rest as when they're going to get rid of us because they they have about to three miles off the shore now for four shores on their housing and all the rest so as when they're going to when they're going to pull the plug and all of us like the harassed here a border as you seen there this week with the with assembly up and going again with the border we we can't even test tester oysters even the file now can't even go through England because Britain will not accept the test but they're going to Holland you have to go down to the bottom of the country and go through France to come back up through through up through Germany and Holland that there if you want to go to your northern European markets all right Liam listen it is we were a shared island we were a shared island and it's a shared a shared body on the 1952 Floyd Fisheries Act with the two governments but they can share the place in regulation as we have told it we've told it for long enough and our fishery this year the oyster fish this year lasted six weeks that was not sustainable for any small and short boat they used to be a muscle industry here we had a salmon industry we are oyster industry they're slowly depleting us and I would say for any of them down there now I don't see nobody around out here I've seen a book come on as one of the Roger boats coming on with their crew they do their gear on and head back out again from that from that way with the next book comes on the pier as like a ghost pier right Liam listen I'm going to have to leave it there a small and short boat yeah and I'll tail break it and nobody's helping us okay as a culture yeah there's more in it there's more to it there's a bigger conversation we need to have about the future of inshore fishermen and the plight that they have I know there was a a delegation from one organisation that represents inshore fishermen that was down in the shannad last week or the week before I didn't get any notice of that so I've been interested in talking about that but anyway Liam listen thank you for now take care of yourself we're going to be talking history with the man Dr Joe after these the county's number one talk show The Nine Till Noon Show on Highland Radio The Nine Till Noon Show with O'Hara's of Foxford our new Baker 51 authentic sourdough celebrate 72 years of baking now is the perfect time to try it for yourself Farmer Fury forces scape changes for more in your Irish farmers journal His Paul Mooney find out how the department has backtracked them controversial suckler scheme acres payment delays hit 28,000 farmers new eight euro P.O. sheep scheme farmers to be charged for unsold calves and marts fresh blow to future of nitrous derogation the latest from the barn estate court case plus could the county council inspect your farm we have all you need to know fall inside the Irish farmers journal on sale now are you ready to elevate your driving experience look no further than iMotors your only Nissan dealership in the Northwest the Nissan X-Trail has been crowned large SUV of the year that's right it's not just an SUV it's an award winning experience on wheels available in four wheel drive and a seven seater visit us today at iMotors.ie to find out more transform your home with a visit to McGinley's Furniture letter Kenny located at the Port Link Business Park just off the Port Road you'll find a huge selection of top quality sweets beds and mattresses also slide robes and custom made dining and occasional furniture with prices to suit every budget see the great choice for yourself at our showroom McGinley's Furniture Port Link Business Park Port Road Letter Kenny click McGinley's Furniture.com congratulations on making it through the 500 days of January now enjoy the bank holiday with Centra's great offers like inspired by Centra selected breakfast deal any three for six euro selected good fellow stone bait thin cross pizza two euro and Santorita 120 Sauvignon Blanc eight euro shop smart feel good Centra live every day enjoy a call sensibly okay we are back with Dr Joe Kelly our historian we're talking history good morning to you Joe thanks so much for joining us why are you good Greg because the location morning to yourself and to your listeners there in Highland radio yeah long time no speak now the annual Patrick McGill summer school in Glentease was inaugurated in 1981 it's become a well-established event under the Gauls summer calendar but who is the man behind the name Patrick McGill an interesting person I presume Joe a very interesting man and maybe in today's environment would be interesting if he was alive how he'd be looking at Donnie Gaul and Ireland and the bigger wider world look he's known for his writing his publications his books his novels his poetry his dramas the different bits of literature that he had written and it was very much of a socialist mindset talking about the life he was living and the perception he had at that time so look at maybe to begin he's born in 1890 on Christmas Christmas Eve or Christmas day sorry and so that places him in a context of a changing Ireland this is pre-1916 this is pre-independence and look he describes very clearly his depoverty and growing up in Glentease and the difficulties that that entailed and he had a family there was 11 of them in the family his younger brother died when he was when he was 11 or so and he went to school he didn't get much schooling he maybe got you know an odd month here and there he was out Tattie Hogan and he went to Scotland to work as a young man of 15 so life was hard and the hardship there and the challenge so look at that's the background he came from and we do we do get an insight into you know 1890s Glentease through his work throughout his life I well I mean he wrote a number of novels probably the two most famous one would be Children of the Dead End appropriate is that maybe to to the Children of the Days don't he call Children of the Dead End and then he wrote another book called The Rat Pit and you know the protagonist in that book there would somewhat say it was utter about graphical and the sense that he was talking about his own life and how the challenges that he had himself Tattie Hogan going to have to work as a Navi in Scotland and the different challenges Talk to us about because when you mentioned about Tattie Hogan and being a Navi in Scotland obviously you know it's within living memory for a lot of people as well but some people may not be familiar with it at all so what would how would a young person find themselves getting that job how would they get there what would that job and tell what might their life be like in Scotland well first and foremost because of the poverty the family income had to be augmented there wasn't enough finance to be made off your farm so children were hired out to the lagoon that's the first thing and that would take in some income and then the older ones when they'd be 15 or so it was kind of nearly a rite of passage when they were no longer hired out to the lagoon they were sent usually with their father uncles whoever to Scotland and they went out to these farms in Scotland and just worked tattie Hogan gathering potatoes or turnips and it was a hard hard harsh life very hard work long days not necessarily fed the best and it talks about one okay in Scotland about how one of the houses that they were in they looked at a lot of houses little blinds little described how the rain came down through it and the floor was all wet and they had nothing to do but stand there all night in the rain wonders today with their mica houses you know how reflective of that is today's society but he basically talks about that he's a very lucky to work as a navi himself in real life in Scotland a navi would have come from the phrase a navigational engineer someone that would have been working on canals but later that went to roads and trains and such and he anybody that was doing those kind of constructions and he worked on a dam in Scotland the caledonian railway he worked there as well and he worked on the kind of low and dam as well but while he was there he started to write about it was about 1909 when he was about the age of 20 and he wrote a book and actually got it published here and back home in the Derry Journal published it from his first book Greening's from a navi scrapbook in 1910 is it any good have you read it yeah yeah yeah I have and I've read most of his works believe it or not and basically what it was was a series of poems I look I mean the stuff is just it indulges me you know one of his poems going home I'm going back to Glent East when the harvest fields are brown and the autumn sunset lingers on my little Irish town where the gozomer is shining where the moonlands blooms blow I'll take the road across the hill I trampled so long ago it's a far I'm on beyond the sea but yearning voices call will you not come back to Glent East and your wave washed down he got I mean it's lovely but it and it's melodic but it's quite simple too if you know what I mean sometimes sometimes poetry can be quite pretentious but it paints a wonderful picture quite simply with simple language very earthed and very much in with the nature and with his experience and he had the good fortune when he he went round selling these books then when he got printed door to door and there was a newspaper man Neil Moreau that was working for a newspaper in Scotland at the time a journalist he liked the book some way it got into his hands and he published one of his poems in the in the scottish paper and because of that he ended up selling about 8,000 copies so he made a few pounds out of them while he was still working as a Navi as a liberer and one of these people that had read then the book I heard about the book was a canon John Neil Dalton who was actually the private tutor to Queen Victoria's children King George later King George the Fifth Prince George and also to Prince Albert and he heard about Patrick read his stuff and said would you come and work for me helping me translate manuscripts in Windsor Castle and so Patrick initially he went to work in Scotland or not in London after that as a newspaper reporter so what age are we there now sorry I always be fascinated as the age progression here so what age might he have been heading to London as a journalist it was about 21 when he moved to London about that age and worked for the Daily Mail initially but then he got a job as I said with this canon Dalton that was the tutor to Queen at the time and while he was there that's when he started to write The Children of the Dead End and he talked about Glenn Moran which was Glenties basically and it was very much if you read it it's very much describing the life in North West on Ego it could be said of the time and then later on then he followed on with the Rat Pit which was the main man in the Book of the Children of the Dead End the protagonist his Dermot Flynn his wife Sweetheart was sorry Sweetheart was North of Rhine and they had a child outside wedlock and then things went wrong she was ostracised and poverty and then she went into prostitution and death so we're very very controversial maybe at its time but just in relation to the source material Joe did he use his life in Glenties and his experience and his upbringing and the poverty you know as a backdrop to his books or did he use his books to highlight the plight of some people do you know what to mean what what do you get the sense of his motivation was was it I'm not saying it was exploitative but was he using his platform and his abilities as opposed to shine a light on on on the realities for some or what would your read of it be yeah that's a very good question and and I think the answer is he did both I think that he understood his his environment at which he emerged and articulated that in his books but at the same time he had a social conscience which wasn't necessarily an agreement with with the powers that be at the time and like he was ostracised and he was it was condemned from from from the altar so to speak because he was seen as challenging the status quo and I mean he really despised the Gombean men the men that owned the shops that would when people ran out of food spuds and they hadn't any any other foods they would get grain on rent and then there was an interest put on that and the prices were usurped and it became very expensive and and he kind of was annoyed that the Catholic church of the time so to speak sponsored that in the sense that they lay in with the the Gombean men because they were providing them with finance and he often questioned was this what the carpenter of Galilee was about was this what this is and so look that was a very very controversial time and he did challenge the authoritarian church Father McFadden who was from you don't well he was from Carey Gart but he served in your door during the land war and he was jailed on two occasions but he was later appointed to Glenties and he built he built a large house there and he was very critical often about him and smoking potbellied priests smoking cigars and had a lavatory that cost 300 pounds so he was very very critical of Father McFadden yet if you go to Ghidoran Clonili Father McFadden was seen as a hero because he was in jail and standing for the tenants back in the 1890s So more generally then how was his writings received at home was he seen as a you know a hero of the poor always say oh look he's a fast talker now over in London with the big wigs yeah again I wonder I think at some ways because of the social status of the time and the influence of the Gombean men in the church he was a little bit ostracised I would imagine not necessarily purposely by his own community but that's what they were led to believe that this wasn't a good man this was a man that was bringing atheism or maybe bringing a different perspective challenging the status quo and that we couldn't have this now he fought in World War 1 he joined the London Irish and he fought in World War 1 and he got injured and loose in 19th early on in one of the first battles and he was then recruited by MI7B it was a more a propaganda ministry that was there at the time he worked with the author of Onee the Pooh he was working in the famous art of that children's story they were working there promoting propaganda stories to try to encourage the men to continue fighting but he also thank God we don't see thank God that stopped now yeah well I don't think so no comment I think the governments are doing this all the time I know exactly but they saw his ability obviously as a journalist and because he had a few books and they says right you are the man for this job so what happened to him post-war then? well during the war he actually then himself he kept copying his notes and obviously no he wrote books during the war didn't he? yeah yeah you're correct and he uh he was a he was a stretcher bearer first which meant that he was out in the worst place possible because he saw the carnage and the death and the pain and just a horror of it I mean canon care from Fannett who was a wartime chaplain as well a catholic chaplain and he died and got a heart in 1956 and he talked about it being a birth into reality like the realities of war was just horrible and so then he became a rifleman but because of his injury he was obviously he came back to England but he wrote three books The Amateur Army The Red Horizon and my favourite The Great Push and so people would know the poem and you know The Death of the Fairies before I joined the army I lived in Donegal where every night the fairies would hold their carnaval but now I'm mountain flanders where men like wheat tears fall and it's death and not the fairies that's holding carnaval like just so beautiful the carriage of the death but understanding it from the fairies and you know the idea of the carnaval and just in terms of the structure there was not to say I am in no position to criticise his early work and you've only just picked out two examples but there does seem to be a bit of more maturity to his later writings than his earlier writings in terms of you know his attitude to life and his structuring of the sentences well he was basically challenging us you know what was this butchery about you know why has this been done and he tried to use simple simple language it would remind me a little bit of Patrick Cavna in certain ways and you know one thing you have to remember is he didn't get a terrible lot of schooling he didn't get a terrible lot of education maybe you know he said himself a couple of months in a school in Glenties because he was away working tatihoken and hired out so as you know for a man that had been given so little formal education to be able to write the way he did is pretty amazing and maybe should be to all of us that you know education shouldn't limit us or lack of education shouldn't limit us to develop our own educational ability and I think if anything that's that's what he proved but you ask me is later after the war he did come back to Glenties once after the war supposedly and hired out a a pony and trapper went up and down Glenties whether that is true or not to show that he had written to higher levels and that he supposedly was wearing his British army uniform whether that's true or not that's what the local folklore and Glenties would have us told quite the quite the homecoming parade yeah and again you know being seen as here's the man coming back among us that's not one of us and sees things definitely the world we do and again what I what I said earlier on he was challenging the social system of the time in the Gombenism and the clerical control and you know something he was correct in many of the things that he was challenging and we can say that honestly now but maybe at the time that wasn't appreciated or he was part of the dismantling not necessarily that it's a good or bad thing but he was part of and you see that right now in modern life the way what is normal now there are those working to change what is normal now whether that happens or not who is to say so I mean like let's let's fast forward so he's 25-30 now he's living in Donegal and this is you know supposing to some extent go ahead did you want to come in there Joe give me some back to Donegal you want back to no but I'm saying now let's drag him oh yeah sorry let's drag him into 2024 and we can go back if need be but we have to move along like what would he be writing about now what would his poems be about now what what you know material would he be writing about well I mean I think there be a number of things that he'd be saying like who's a new church we've seen the demise of the Catholic authoritarian church and I think anybody would would say that's a welcome thing it says church should have been based on faith not on authority and he challenged the status quo that time but then who's the new church see people made this idea that you know the church has demise and is authoritarianism but that vacuum has to be replaced by some other some other people or some other institutions hierarchy or authority or whatever you want to phrase it and is this the government you know we used to fast on a friday that was the old catholic thing and maybe people we still do sometimes but you know the new church and the Sadducees of our government for example are telling us that we should eat less potions of meat on our on our plate I mean is this the new religion of of of green agenda government I don't know and yet we're told that we're going to have to cull you know 200,000 of our cattle 10 percent of our cattle that's what we're being proposed to and particularly in rural Donegal and particularly given and you can argue the toss about the famine or was it a famine or was it what it was is but food dependency people presume that things can never be they can never happen again that happened in the past we are also moving towards not being actually food dependent self dependence you know and that's that's yeah that and that's a very very if we're going to remove 200,000 cattle from every stock I mean the price of milk is going to go up the price of butter is going to go up the price of everything's going up and that's the ordinary tenant and what I find very strange about that and maybe this is maybe where Patrick McGill might be looking at is last 2022 the number of private jets in Ireland doubled and here all the emphasis is on reducing the herd and not on the I know but but but jets all of aviation only accounts for two to three percent of harmful gases but anyway just that's not the point so it's it's kind of interesting here and I have to choose my words carefully because the character you're portraying of Patrick McGill is actually how some people might see the McGill summer school to some extent there's crossovers there and I don't say that as a negative I've attended many's of time but that that you have all of these Dublin based not exclusively but international people kind of coming into Glenty's and sort of saying how things are and I kind of sort of see McGill if he did return in his uniform and going up if it's kind of some might say as it feels a little bit familiar right that's not a criticism but I'm I'm seeing some some some correlation here but not in a particularly negative way you're slapping me down for that oh no I'm getting you I'm getting you and like you know I I've heard your interviews before after last summer's McGill summer school there were some criticism that politicians were just arriving there and dumping their speech no challenge no room for free play of talk no debate to no knuckling down and really debating the real issues there's been that criticism at them I don't know but I just wonder if Patrick McGill was alive today would he be invited back to his own summer school that's that's that's what's fascinating come here last minute what's his legacy then um I don't know I think one of his legacy is hopefully is that his ability to challenge the status quo at the time that he had the ability in his time to to read his environment in which he was living and we too need to do that and like for example his book children of the dead end how appropriate is that that for us today last year 21,000 Irish young men and women sought Australian holiday and work visas student visas and work visas 21,000 because maybe possibly they can't afford to live in Ireland they're going to go to make money to come back to build a house are those words really profound today are we still living in children of the dead end Donegal of the dead end and and what would he be challenging to make sure that that legacy would would would no longer be what must we do what can we do and you know asking the right questions and then looking for the right answers I think that's what his legacy is and and that's always a duty in all of us you know that there's an article I think it's 9.3 of the Constitution it's a duty of every citizen fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the state and we have a duty towards the citizens of this country to ensure that this isn't the country of the dead end and to make it a lot better than it is all right but he to do that and we're still talking about that you know 140 years later after his birth okay thanks very much as always Dr Joe really appreciated Dr Joe Kelly there The 9 till noon show with O'Hara's of Foxford introducing our new Baker 51 authentic sourdough bread a delicious new addition to the team on business matters this Sunday after these six o'clock news my guest is Adam Graham of recharge recovery room at the aura leisure centre in letter Kenny business matters in association with the faculty of business at ATU Donegal for a career in financial governance consider the level nine MA in governance and IT in financial services call 9186206 or email donald.hanigan at atu.ie today winter sale now on at Cherrymore kitchens and bedrooms 10% of all purchases for a limited period teasing see supply see in store book a free consultation today in our Donegal Town showroom on 07497 25822 luxury kitchens and bedrooms at affordable prices expect more and get more at Cherrymore kitchens and bedrooms Sailor Bill returns to the Baller Theatre on Saturday the 3rd of February and made a music and crack with special guest Chelsea Evans tickets are 15 euro are available on the Baller website at ballerartcenter.com or by calling to the Baller Theatre front desk Tesco Club Card gives you the power to lower prices to help you wave goodbye to the January blues and say hello to the bank holiday weekend like cringles 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light winds increasing moderate to fresh southerly through the day now we're going to talk about safety internet a day or safer internet day takes place next Tuesday February the 6th and it's celebrated around in approximately 180 countries worldwide Fiona Jennings is head of policy and public affairs at the ISPCC good morning to you Fiona good morning Greg and I suppose it's about raising awareness of a safer and better internet for all and especially of course for children and young people so how is that achieved through safer internet day suppose the question being what is safer internet day yeah so safer internet day it's really a landmark our landmark global day that where everybody around the world celebrate I suppose everything that about the internet and also as well it's used as an opportunity to highlight I suppose the importance of it the role that it plays in all our lives but also as well for children and young people it's an opportunity I suppose for them to kind of talk about any concerns or challenges that they fear around the whole online world develop so this year with the ISPCC internet center we'll be having an event where we'll have loads of young people coming together to teach about tech in our world which is the team that they've picked for this year so that was the panel of our colleagues and our partners in the ISPCC internet center web-wise so the youth panel there they were the ones who set the team for this year if you like so tech in our world and they'll be looking at things around the whole area of generative AI what that means for them but what that means for their future careers and their lives online as well I think it's really important that the conversation is involving teenagers and young people is led by teenagers and young people because in terms of grown-ups influence you know it's a difficult space mom and dad probably it sounds like they don't know what they're on about or you can't talk about something you don't understand and I'm not saying that's the case right or even you and I Fiona to our best will in the world it is a conversation that really has to be had amongst young people as well so that they feel they have influence in this because all most of them will understand the pitfalls and the dangers I think but find themselves falling into them too Oh very much so and so that is the brilliant thing about say for internet day is that it is very much youth led around the world and as you said Greg as well yeah they understand maybe the nuances of the issues maybe sometimes better than adults do and I think what's really impressed us this year with the young people who've set the agenda is just how I suppose in touch there with what exactly is going on but also as well how future focused they are and I think that's really really important and that they're really looking that they realize that you know you know we still talk about the online world and the offline world has been almost two separate places but for them you know both are incredibly enmeshed they are the one and you know they can very much see that you know both lives and both worlds are going to have to coexist and they're going to have to be part of it and I think that's a really good point you make and I think as adults or grown-ups or whatever we have to realize that there is complete integration and it's only going to you know with with the improvements in AI if meta achieve what they want to achieve in terms of augmented reality you know we've seen it through the but anyway the point being is is they aren't really whether people like it or not two separate spaces and the idea that we can tell children that that's the case or younger people I think it's old information and it's not just online based there's work happening within schools we talk of these young people leading these programs a lot happening in schools across next Tuesday as well some students schools have their mocks on but anyway that's besides the point but anyway quite a bit happening in school throughout Tuesday yeah so look web-wise as I said web-wise our partners in the OSA for Internet Center are leading out on the whole area of liaising with the schools getting schools to sign up to share what they're doing for SAFE for Internet Day so we're already looking forward to see what they're doing but yes each year the numbers increase in terms of participation in the day and whilst it is just one day in the calendar you know we're always encouraging as schools children young people themselves to continue the conversation you know for the remainder of the year as well and to build on you know the theme from SAFE for Internet Day but yeah very much and it's a brilliant opportunity I suppose for schools to get involved and web-wise also as well have their SAFE for Internet Day ambassador programme so again you know training or education children and young people then who go back into their schools as well and cascade that learning down if you like among their peers as well yeah and I wasn't earlier on diminishing the important role that parents and guardians and anyone with influence has on young people that is a vital role to run alongside this and you know the basics still are there about you know educating our younger people about safety online making them understand I suppose that you know what might be posted online today is there forever it doesn't really matter about your privacy settings you know the amount of time one spends online is it actually good for you you know a lot of the the basic stuff that we still have to continue to communicate I think oh very much so and if anything last year's day for internet day really showed that to us as well where the young people again they want to relook again at the whole area of cyber bullying so that's something that you know we may think we have solved or we may think we have enough policies in place to address it or enough services but for them it's still very much a live issue so exactly great you know as you said like well they are future focused you know around the whole digital space you know the same issue still very much keep cropping up year on year as well so that's why I guess it's just really important to keep the conversations going they're not one-off conversations so it's really important to keep talking about those issues and I just don't want the status quo to be that you get bullied online all that you get that you have to send images to someone or whatever do you know what I mean I think we have to push back on that and say actually you know any of that stuff is not really acceptable and again we all have a role in that okay is there anywhere we can go to sort of get more information on I suppose web-wise and also about say for internet date like IE you know maybe topics for parents and guardians or information points so that they feel they're speaking with some sort of authority on these issues so first of all I suppose yes web-wise.ie has all the resources for teachers and for children and young people themselves with curriculum aligned to lessons ISPCC has its digital ready hope that parents can log on to and take the quiz and just test their own knowledge and then they'll be linked then referred to other content there that should support their learning and also the National Parents Council at npc.ie have resources but also as well Greg just to say our other partner in the say for internet center is hotline.ie and they will provide a really important function as well of where people can go and report any concerning material that they might have as well. Okay good stuff thanks for all that information we really do appreciate it have a wonderful day and take care of yourself that was Fiona Jennings head of policy and public affairs at the ISPCC and that's another Thursday almost in the bag just to remind you tomorrow Caroline anything in particular between 10 and 11 that I need to mention tomorrow ah I thought so that's why I was asking producer Caroline says Seamus Gunn is going to be on after 10 o'clock tomorrow answering your legal questions it's always a very busy item so get them in now and first come first served is as best as I'll try and do it for you so Seamus Gunn is going to be answering your legal questions tomorrow we also have our Friday panel which is assembling between nine and 10 we'll probably talk about some of the big issues that we've been talking about today I think particularly you know the return scheme the deposit return scheme might get a mention as well should high visby mandatory and that means I can sort of take a lot of the comments that I didn't get to today into that conversation as well and that's not set in stone but it's likely and then of course we're going to easy into the weekend with our that's entertainment item which is just really talking about things TV radio podcast theater cinema and all that type of stuff that's all coming up for you tomorrow I normally rush that so I didn't want to do that there's that other thing that um that other thing Caroline that um readouts that I have I don't have it at the moment I'll tell you what I do I'm going to pay this piece of information just before we go about dementia because it's something we're doing all week in association with the HSC and it's just to make people more aware of dementia 63% of people with dementia live within their community which shows us dementia is not just a health concern but also a social issue that needs a community response we all have our role to play and dementia understand together and the HSC want us all and listeners to understand the importance of staying connected and engaged on the well-being of people with dementia and themselves so we're going to leave you with an interesting important message on this topic have a wonderful Thursday the right to be active citizens in their communities but sometimes they need support to stay connected and engaged it starts with understanding that everyone with dementia has a different experience so talk to them and their family ask them how they are and how you can help look around your community is it dementia inclusive is your local social or sports club welcoming people with dementia is your shop accessible and our spaces and amenities easy to use it is often the small things that make the biggest difference by being that one person who asks what can I do you are making that difference for more information visit understand to