 I had an amazing time with so many beautiful dresses and mum was able to pay a deposit with a perfect communion dress. For your communion day, go to Michael Honey's Balboffay. There you have it. Thanks for your company this Thursday. We're going to hand you over to Gregory Hughes. Greg, come on in to you. Lee McCables, my cable's getting tied here. Oh, see, I can untangle your, I was going to say a different word for cables, but no. Me wire. Your, yeah. You said it, not me. What's wrong with that? Sorry, if I said something wrong. No, but it's just, you could take it the wrong way. Come here. It's about tangled up, but it'll be all right. See, it's very long. Okay. Come here, how are you keeping? Do not so bad. Good stuff. How's the show? Anyone win the money? I know I do, but a crack this morning. Anyone getting close? Yeah. Really? Mm. Oh, no, today? Stop it. Don't be asking questions like that. Why? You're putting me. Do you know? No, I'm not. I'm just saying, did anyone get close today? No, well, just keep it general. Is it something you wear? Oh, stop now. Would you question me? Button's coming in for you. I have to ask the tough questions. I know, but it's not. Your problem hasn't really started yet. What's at 9 o'clock, hasn't it? You can have me in after 10, if you want. No, you're all right. I don't think you want. Say, say, and you wouldn't have me in there. I don't think you would. All right, Leelis. Thanks so much. Have a good show. See you tomorrow. All right, 9 o'clock. Time for a news update. It's over to Michaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. The latest ESRI report revealing Donegal to have the highest need for long-term residential care beds in the country is further evidence of worsening regional imbalances according to a South Donegal deputy. Deputy Marion Harkin says she has repeatedly urged the government to intervene to secure sufficient long-term care capacity in the northwest. She says an overhaul of the Fairdale scheme is needed as older people remain locked out of accessing care in their own community. Deputy Harkin says government is feeling to consider the aging population of the country's more rural counties. The numbers of people aged 65 and over in that the Saigon-Eatrum Donegal on average range from about 18, 19 percent. Whereas the number of people of that age in Dublin and Kildare somewhere between 12 and 14 percent. So the need for those homes in the northwest is much greater than the need in Dublin and Kildare. High-patient numbers at hospitals are having an impact on waiting times for ambulances. CipTui is calling for urgent investment into services to prevent patients waiting for significant lengths of time for an ambulance. It's after an elderly patient with a broken hip waited over four hours for one. CipTui ambulance sector president Greg Lyons says it isn't a once-off. It's more prevalent at the moment due to the increased surges in hospital demands and ED. So we tend to have more waits and EDs for longer periods of time, which obviously leaves us more vulnerable to getting to calls or outstanding and our own communities are affected by that. So it's more common than we would like to see. Two more names have been thrown into the heart of Donegal ahead of this year's local elections. This week, Achilles Begg's man, Manus Boil, was selected along with 25-year-old youth worker Jason Harley from France to go forward for the Finnegiel Locust Selection Convention for the 2024 Council elections. The pair already have strong connections to local politics with Mr Boil being the son of former County Donegal Concert John Boil and Mr Harley, the nephew of the Gehirlog of Donegal County Council, Concert Martin Harley. The Finnegiel Selection Convention will be held on January 19th. For whether or not today will be mostly dry and cloudy with occasional sunshine. Highest temperatures of 5 at 27 degrees. That's all from Highland Radio News for now. We'll be back with news again at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. And our Super Value Team will save the day. From start to finish. Terms and conditions apply. Vouchers include two 10-year-old or 40-year-old spend. This car insurance is underwritten by AXA Insurance DAC. Super Value Financial Services DAC, trading as Super Value Insurance, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The County's number one talk show, The Ninetown Noon Show on Highland Radio. And now, it's time for the talk of the Northwest, The Ninetown Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello and a very good morning to you. It's approaching five minutes past nine on this Thursday, the 11th of January, and you're very welcome along to another edition of The Ninetown Noon Show. And it's a busy one as always. You've come to expect that now, I hope, and we want you involved in that conversation. 086-6025,000 is the WhatsApp and text number. 086-6025,000. Or give us a call on 07491-25,000. And you can email us from anywhere in the world, comments at highlandradio.com. Now, if you want to watch the show, you can go to our YouTube channel, Highland Radio Ireland. You can watch us on your big screen TV or on your Firestick. If it's a smart TV, of course, it has the YouTube app built in. And we're across all your mobile devices on YouTube and on Facebook, Highland Hub, Highland Radio News and Sport. Okay, a busy Thursday morning, as always, for the newspapers. Let's start with the Terconal Tribune and the timeline for adopting the Latter-Kinney Area Plan seems set to reach an end game after intervention by the Minister for Local Government and Planning. The Council has been directed by the Minister to omit certain items in the schedules agreed in Lyford in November. The Minister's notice of intention to the Council shows deletions of zoning objections or objectives from the adopted plan. The locations referenced for change of designation are at Glencar Scotch and Kiliclug, Grieve, Kiliclug, Castlebane, Bally McCool and Bonagie. Councillor Michael McBride said that he had sympathy for those landowners who may lose their primarily, primarily residential status. A big story there for some in letter Kenny. The Donegal News this morning, a Donegal Priest has highlighted what he says is the growing number of deaths in the county associated with addiction and mental health issues and called on people who may be experiencing problems to show courage and seek help. Father Keir and Harkin said very few families escaped the scourge of addiction or mental health issues. However, he said more needs to be done to make it easier for people who are in trouble to make that leap and ask for help. There is no shame in seeking help in life, he said. The Democrat this morning, man charged with causing death of girlfriend and crash. Kilmer Crennan man has been charged with causing his girlfriend's death in a road traffic crash in 2022. Charlotte Kelly died after the car in which she was a passenger crashed on June 1st 2022. The car was being driven by Ms Kelly's boyfriend Connor Liner. On to the dairy news this morning. Our father isn't just another statistic. The story behind that headline. That is the view of a dairy family whose father was murdered 50 years ago today. John Don died instantly when a bomb which had earlier been placed in his car outside his east way gardens home in Cregan exploded in May Street in the water side. The explosion occurred exactly at 1pm on January 11th 1974 close to Ebrington Army barracks where John and a woman Cecilia Byrne also from Cregan were employed as a civil civilian workers. The Farmers Journal this morning. We read that cattle farmers in board beer quality assurance scheme should only buy livestock from other certified QA farms. The food marketing body has recommended their proposal is one of a number of possible reforms of the origin green producer standard board beers flagship sustainability program which are being debated with industry stakeholders. The controversial proposal seen by the Irish Farmers Journal states that bought in livestock should be purchased from board beer certified herds. Such a move could risk creating a two tier market for livestock with a premium potentially being paid for animals from farms that are in the board QA scheme. The Irish Times this morning RSA earned half a million euro from no show driving test. What an income the road safety authority took in more than 500,000 euro from no show driving test applicants last year amid criticism the system continues to allow drivers to cure multiple successive learner permits simply by not showing up and the simple solution to that is is you don't get to renew your permit until you produce the document that says you sat your driving test. So what this means is we have more learner drivers who just for one reason or another want to retain their learner permit so they book a test they don't turn up then they can renew book a test don't turn up then they can renew at the same time we've got thousands upon thousands of primarily young drivers mad to get on the road and they can't get a driving test slot. You know so there could two problems could possibly be fixed at once just to remind you that current regulations allow drivers to renew learner permits by making an appointment for a test but park the road safety advocacy group which sought the data has continued to express concern that many never sit the tests this year moves sorry this this year moves towards reform have been promised by the department of transport minister of state and responsibility for road transport jack chambers and the RSA right on to the Irish independent this morning if you are still one of those that post letters or perhaps you have to post letters the price is going up again the national stamp will increase by five cent next month bringing it to one euro forty cent which is expensive it's a great service though but I mean it's got expensive there'll be no increase in price for international letter stamps or the national digital stamp though the price of large envelopes and registered post will also rise from Thursday February 1st all existing stamps marked n for national and w for worldwide or with a specific euro denomination remain valid and fully usable fully usable after February 1st so in other words if you have stamps already some people do buy them in bulk if you have them they are still good to go on post said the new increase reflects a six percent rise in its cost last year due to sustained transport fuel and energy inflation the Irish Daily Mail reports of another government u-turn on accommodation which was primarily earmarked for mail asylum seekers as it continues to come under pressure from groups of protesters and it's a funny thing that's going on in that they're just most recently there were two uh carlo and balan robe two properties that were designated for refugees single males I don't know what single males they're all fellas I don't know if they're married or single or whatever they are but anyway just international protection men and protests a bit of a frora kicks up and then all of a sudden it's families that'll put in there these decisions are taken overnight but the government insists and senior ministers insist that this is not because of public pressure this is not because of local protest this is not because local representatives are making representations it is because it just so happens after they've sent out all the documentation documentation that they make a decision simply to put families in there instead of fellas and the government is sticking to its constant that they will not concede and maybe maybe they're not you turning from public pressure but they will simply not concede that these decisions are being taken because of local protest they say it just so happens that on these two occasions and others that they've changed their minds okay which is is there's two things going on they're telling the absolute truth and that's exactly what's happening or they're going on radio and into newspapers and and misrepresenting what the situation is is a lot of people think it's the latter I'm sure they believe it to be the former well after demonstrations in Bal and Robe County mail led to a reversal for plans for 50 male asylum seekers to move to Carlow town they've also been abandoned with the Department of Integration saying it will now prioritize family in a bid to quell further protests the government is planning to acquire at least three large buildings around the country which will be used as reception centres for asylum seekers this follows projections that the arrival of 15 thousand asylum seekers is likely to be the new normal every year on now to the star isn't it yeah it is we talked touched on this yesterday with senator francis black so i just thought i'd read the update on it this morning a legal battle over whether Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide opens today at the UN top court preliminary hearings will look into south Africa's fall call for judges to order an immediate suspension of Israel's military action Israel strongly denies the genocide allegations and somewhat ironically this is legislation that was introduced in the wake of the genocide of Jews by Germany it can take years to go through this process but as was sort of suggested there the UN can though it's not legally binding and it can't be enforced the UN can call for a suspension of all activity whilst it takes years to actually hear the allegations south africa's um south africa's ruling african a national congress party has long compared israel's policy in gaza and the west bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule israel normally considers un and international tribunals unfair and biased but it is sending a strong legal team to the international court of justice to defend its military operation launched in the aftermath of those brutal october 7th attacks by hamas the irish daily mirror this a little bit of interest for us perhaps because of drugs being washed up on our shores and the general sense that it's a free for all out there in terms of the movement of drugs that we get lucky sometimes the ship breaks down a boo a boy booey a boy doesn't work they end up washed up on the shores but anyway the government is to buy a new primary radar system that can track down drones unidentified aircraft and shipping to stop the drug smuggling gangs the uh lock heed martin tpy 4 is expected to cost between 300 and 500 million although the final price is not agreed yet analysts believe it would take four years before it's fully installed and operational sources say the deal to buy the system should be concluded by the end of this year um at the latest so it's going to take some time but we can keep an eye on it down the line if we're all still around and uh the sun finally um watching others visibly dislike vegetables might make onlookers hate them to a study claims i don't think this is any shock i know loads of of and i think we see this every day in that um you would see often you know parents or someone have influenced the house not like something in particular a bit tomatoes vegetables whatever it might be and then you find that the children in the house unless you actively sort of try and work around it they don't like them either um so it's learned behavior so maybe it can happen with adults as well there are such indicates that observing facial expressions of others eating raw broccoli can influence whether or not we like the veg humans learn which behavior pays off and which does not from watching others experts uh so if you're sitting and you're struggling with your veg at home and you want the young ones to be eating veg you don't we don't we have that go yummy yummy you have to pretend you have to pretend you enjoy it even if you're not enjoying it that's what they say anyway okay our first guests on the nine till noon show will join us after we take a quick break stay right where you are the newspapers are 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collection open monday to saturday 9 a.m till 5 30 p.m get yourself down to paderson's massive january sale in our bubble tinnatree hostile yanef air alarm jatic gorylta lurk contorty salera agus beak balag elahe planal to agate fight till the leddener um ho voltot or hotone iq fire island punk ii arnhort kult iq realtas neheran highland radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letek entity doblin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time ass it's 18 minutes past nine now we've had a couple of comments on this as you can imagine over the last couple of weeks if you are from letter kenny or in and around letter kenny you may have noticed an increase in graffiti it's not gang related stuff necessarily presates all different types of stuff you might have seen repent or jesus love you jesus loves you and other stuff showing ups sprayed all over the town now this has caught the attention obviously of councillor jimmy cavernor who joins us on the program now jimmy thanks for your time today thank you great so it is a bit random and i think at this point obviously there's a mixture of hey listen stop to face in the town but also be it's a bit random and who's responsible for it but be that as it may you want to handle you want to handle got on this issue jimmy yeah greg it's you know as you say the messages that are there are not particularly vile or anything but but nevertheless it's vandalism and you know it defaces the town and and it costs a considerable amount of time and resources from the council to to clear it up again they're in the process of doing that now and i thank them for that but you know that that's time that could be spent elsewhere and it's money that could be spent elsewhere and it's also an awful great on the efforts of the teddy towns committee and in the town who you know it's taken up their time as well and i know the volunteers with the teddy towns are involved here as well i'm trying to clean it up but it just asks people to to desist from it it's also on a seared appearing on the back of of uh of road traffic signs and you know that's potentially a distraction to a driver as well and there could be there could be a danger in that so you know it's it's it's also great i think and you and i'm sure you would agree on this that any town you go to and you and you see that it makes you wary of the area that is in it makes you wary of the place regardless of what the the messages are saying it gives you a feeling that the place is neglected and that it's unsafe and that's that's proven to be the case too everywhere you know so so it's just a bad practice and uh you know people should be aware that that it is vandalism it's criminal damage and it isn't a fence yeah and as you say it it sets it on regardless of the messaging it's very uh it's very untidy yeah absolutely um and uh you know again it would appeal to people to think about the the teddy for the town's committee and the work that they do and the work that those volunteers do all around the town all year long and you know it's it's it's awful for them then to come out and see that this is our plastered and graffiti it's all over the town that's you know it's here in the bus shelter at the cathedral uh it's out gort lee direction huge duffy car park as well as plastered with it and and uh opposites and during this college on the wall there to pitch to see it there too and you know it's the same message uh it seems to be everywhere so is it the same group of people or is the same person that's doing it but uh i think you know the council need to do more than just clean it up now we need to look at ways of trying to find out who is doing this and there's probably a role for the guardian as well but we need to find out who's doing it and we need to put a stop to it i think people don't realize that it is a serious matter but it is yeah and of course you can uh implore the council to go out and clean it up and that might be fine they might be able to do that uh with the limited resources that they have uh but if these people are determined it just happens again so we need to sort of get to the root cause of who's doing it why they're doing it can you find some other way to spread your message because even though for some the message might seem wholesome it still is graffiti it's seen as vandalism it is a crime and as you say there's an awful lot of people who are working really hard for nothing to to keep that of kenny nice uh for the tidy towns and and just for general life for life in general uh jimmy it's a bit of a slap in the face for them yeah absolutely greg and you just found the whole thing up there and in those couple of sentences that's doing all of those things you say and and uh we need to get we need to get a handle on it and we need to get a stop and we need people to see the seriousness of it uh even though which you said the messages might be benign enough that's not that's not the point and as you rightly pointed as well there's plenty of ways of communicating nowadays with the uh dab and stuff and walls all right okay no problem thanks for that all excited for the election year ahead jimmy well i wouldn't just use that is that weren't exciting doing a bit of heavy lifting there is it it's coming out of space you're ready whether you're well you're getting ready whether you're excited or not remains to be saying okay i know exactly and most of it oh much of it on here too we'll look forward to chatting to you into the future thanks jimmy take care of yourself that's uh finnegale cancer jimmy calvin are there 08 660 25 000 if you have any uh understanding as to why this type of messaging is appearing it does seem to have a religious tone not exclusively but you know repent which uh uh jesus loves you as well which i'm sure he does you don't need to read that on uh dubbed on the side of a football pitch to to understand that to you uh on that issue the estate beside me uh the swilly in pulpit letter kenny i noticed green graffiti yesterday thought it very unusual to see uh indeed um and keep those coming into us 08 660 25 000 hi great just wondering when the council will have the bridge at balan afad on the main road to trend to compete it's now out of action since the 20th of december traffic is the nightmare on the back roads and people can't get out and about since this road is closed as there are elderly and the traffic is too heavy for them to drive in the slip roads are all damaged along the grass verges with cars trying to pass one another well we can try and find out for you hi greg i'm the subject of learner drivers there must be a better way of renewing the learner permit my daughter has her permit for 18 months but due to rising costs of everything she's yet to have a a single lesson am i right in saying in order to renew her license she will need to arrange a test which she doesn't want and cannot pass is it any wonder there is such a long wait list for driving tests when you have a huge number of people applying who don't actually want one i'm not let me double check that for you i think you can renew it a number of times i'll have to check i don't want to mislead you i don't think you have to renew after its first uh i think you can renew without a test once or twice but let me double check that that may well have changed okay um is calling out single men asylum seekers misandrist if it was a situation of calling out single women or mothers it certainly would be called misogyny this and the narrative that major victims in war are women and children believe it or not is more information and programming of societal belief systems that alien sorry that all men are perpetrators and women are victims which we all know is untrue it is a presumption it seems from some that every person that comes into this country if they're not from here is in some way a predator or is going to harm or what have you um i think that's that kind of conversation has been allowed to fill a space where no conversation was happening before where things weren't being messaged that people weren't given an understanding uh read the asylum seekers has anyone ever explained why no ukranians have ever been placed in direct provision surely the government policy read them and other nationalities is overt racism it was a different uh it was it's a different system into which they come into this country um so they didn't come in under the same system and then one was to the left and one was to the right they were granted uh before they even arrived here they were granted protection uh on a european wide basis now that doesn't mean that there are question marks over the different treatment of different people depending on where they're from but uh from a policy perspective there are two policies there is such i wouldn't believe a word the government says my ass the reason families get houses because people said no and protested and well done to them i'd have done the exact same okay uh postage to rise i suppose someone has to pay for the electric fleet of vehicles uh postman pat is driving these days well they're saving money on diesel and stuff i'm sure and just before a quick break here can you ask greg to mention the first fortnight variety concert in on green on tonight it's at 8 p.m you can pay at the door and tickets are just seven euro not bad for a thursday night out is it it's a fortnight the first fortnight variety concert in on green on kicks off at eight i don't know who's playing or what the layout of it is but sure maybe someone will pass that information on and i can put that out there i noticed the new four lane road no longer has a speed zone sign on it does anyone know what the speed on it is as the ghost safe van often sits on it it's 60 now whether that's legally fully come in to uh i'll clarify but it is 60 it's gone up to 60 um if there was a ghost safe van there i go pass it 50 just close 100 sure please ask the listeners to feed the little birds they're dying of hunger no white bread that comes in from obviously an animal lover named bridge it so uh feed the birds i think people sometimes are a bit nervous of attracting other things but there are ways that you can uh feed birds to give them uh the best chance at life but at the same time not attract other vermin all right so let's take a break we'll be back uh with more after these watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com the nine till noon show brought to you by kelly's toileta with over 45 years of experience trust us to help you on your electric journey if you're having trouble with online banking or checking emails and just don't feel confident doing things online you're not alone sign up for a digital skills course at your local education and training board you'll find the support and skills you need to become more independent online free text learn to 550 or visit 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tertiary education cluster applications close on the 19th of january at noon visit nwrc dot ac dot uk to find out more harkin fireplaces in lyford is lighting up the new year with their massive january yard sale discover an impressive selection of fire places stoves electric fires gas fires and elegant kitchen work tops all on sale don't miss out on your perfect fireplace or kitchen work top at an unbelievable price harkin fireplaces massive yard sale is now on the sale you have all been waiting for at clear clothing letter kenny two days clearance 50 off all winter stock this friday and saturday clear clothing letter kenny okay you're very welcome back to the program you may have heard us mention on the show yesterday that more than half of irish people have never attended a woman sporting event new research has shown this compares to less than 30 who've never attended a men's event the research commission by little and red sea has revealed that 59 percent of irish people said they'd prefer to watch men's sport on tv than actually attend in person a females sporting event we're going to discuss this now with a couple of guests we'll say good morning first to maya alcorn rugby player for ulster from termin hi amaya good morning how are you it's great to have you on the program uh when you hear statistics like that does it surprise you maya at all um unfortunately not um it is a pretty shocking statistic but as a woman in sport who's played a number of different sports it's really not surprising um no and but i just wonder is it a perception or a reality i mean how can you judge a sport if you've never really actually gone and seen it in the flesh no completely um i think it's not um it doesn't reflect on the quality of the sport or whether the women's would be better than the men's or not or whether they'd be equal i think it's just a lack of representation especially in the media and a lack of knowledge as well um rather than people judging or thinking that the women's aren't going to be as good as the men's uh do you when you say like a representation in the media do you think it's just by default a men's game will take priority or a men's game is likely to be on a premier channel and maybe a women's game might be on a news channel or something unless there's a really big event it happens to be a really high profile sport is that what you're saying is is that the the rather than sort of trying to change attitudes like sky did with the premier league i mean you you might be too young to to remember this but you know people didn't watch football like they do now but sky says right we're going to put so many games on and people says oh but then people won't attend them in person and it turned out into the massive juggernaut that it is now do you think that that particularly our own channels need to take your risk and actually showcase and platforms women's sport and wait for the audience to follow oh completely absolutely um i think representation and showing these games is probably the biggest thing and the most important thing we can do and to further the women's game as well and across all sports like growing up when i was younger well like we went to a lot of sporting events but we weren't at them all and even from tv i would have said like i would played a lot of da and a lot of rugby and i said i would have want to be like carol lacy or branna driscoll like but now because so many women's events are being streamed and are being shown on the tv young girls can look up and say oh well i want to be like kitty cave when i grow kitty mccabe when i grow up or i want to be like lucy mill hall or kitty taylor or she did at leke um it's just not where it needs to be i suppose the media coverage has been so much better in recent years even myself like we had inter-provincial games and even at club level we had games in the ail all out in league in dublin i play for black rock as well and they were televised um as were the inter-provincials um and it did increase the numbers at the events but there's just so much more to be done in that regard and but i do think that representation and having the media coverage of these games is the first step do you think there is a a quality difference between uh and it varies like across sports but let's take rugby for instance do you think it's fair to complain to compare the the female game rugby to the men's game do you think the one and the same are the two different offerings like how do you how do you view it um i suppose you have to look at from two sides there is yeah if you're going to look at if you're going to look at the quality you're not going to have the same game if you're going to look at a man's game in a women's game it's going to be different um if that was the case that we knew that the man and the woman would be the same then we'd be playing together like and there's a reason that they're not um especially though there's so much more funding and so much more um and trust and so much more going into the men's game and i don't think you can expect it's unfair that the women's game has got so much less attention and so much less funding and we're expected to be playing at that same level as the men so i think that the lack of funding and the lack of facilities and all down that kind of line is where it's lacking and where so it's almost it's almost unfair to compare the final product when you're not actually comparing the input to help create that yeah completely you can't put a complete lack of everything into the women's game and expect um it to be at the same level as the men's i think that if you said okay right the resources we're going to give the exact same to the men and exact same to the women i think it would be a very different game and to be honest the quality and the talent that you do see in the women's teams is unbelievable given the lack of resources the lack of funding like most of these girls if you can look at the Irish women's team um you look at 90 percent of that team or have full-time jobs um there are contracts available from myself i was contracted for three years there but i'm a student that's that's feasible there's people their full-time jobs their teachers their lawyers their anything really and they can't like justify oh i'm going to take 15 20 grand a year to be contracted full-time that's everything that's your only income and you're expected to be there full-time you can't weigh that up people are going to have to stay in their jobs but they're also going to play for Ireland as well so you have full-time teachers um training after work on the weekends given anything they have to anytime they have spare and that's the training that we have in the women's game um compared to the men's whereas in the men's that's their full-time job and they're being more than compensated for it um and sure we've seen the success of the Irish men's team like i no doubt the women's would be the exact same if those resources were provided yeah i'll come back to you my stay with us because we also have Maureen O'Donnell former donna gold player highland radio football analyst as well uh Maureen good morning to you good morning Greg how are you i'm good i'm good just your your overview i suppose in terms of um more than half of Irish people have never even attended a woman's event in person uh that's less than a third for for fellas and um 60 percent of Irish people said they'd prefer to watch men's sport on tv than attend a female sporting event what what's your views of that i mean that i don't think we can dispute that though those are stats it's what we can do about it going forward or or how we find ourselves here Maureen well you know firstly i suppose it's it's a massive discussion and and this whole thing is a bigger discussion than ourselves we'll put together today but it comes at a very good time for for the ladies leading into the the little ladies league the alliance league now in terms of a bit of publicity and trying to get people out so it was a very smart survey on little's behalf you know to do this but the figures are staggering they're interesting like those 60 of those 60 percent as well you've got to remember that there are percentage of them out there that aren't just simply not interested in sport you know uh first of all so you know when you take that away are the figures really that bad like when i look at when i played sport back on an all-iron final in 2003 there was about 5 000 people maybe in attendance at crow park now we have record numbers like i think last year in the all-iron final there was 56 000 in crow park which is a capacity of 80 000 and any men's all-iron day so you know when you look at what the how this come along over those 20 years you know when that's down to largely down to all of the money that's been pumped into ladies football and the advertising and the media coverage that we have got so far i think the biggest contributing factor now at the moment is that men and women are still not on an equal platform when it comes to media coverage the men's game will still get priority on an agate day on cv will that ever change i don't know but there's no logic to that like because say for instance let's use katie taylie for an example who's who's possibly the the best known sports person she's immensely talented do not get me wrong but she teamed up with boxing promoter eddie herron and he was telling us how fantastic she was they produce documentaries that we have an understanding of her we get behind the scenes they tell a story to the point where you're salivating at the the mere notion that she could ever box in arland again so she feels the three arena once she feels it twice she could fill crook park and she certainly could have she certainly could with a trilogy fight but it wasn't it it's not there is a level of organic support there right but the absolute sport that lifts her to heroic status is driven to by us getting to know her and know her story and have we ever really done that with you know women's sport in this country where we actually sort of try and build it let us know why it's so important a particular game or a particular player do you know what i mean i think that would be really valuable and i think it's essentially in any sport because these superstars they don't just appear out of nowhere they are built and made too absolutely and again you say that comes down to media coverage it comes down to advertising the women's game and you've got to look at the huge contribution from little and tg kaha this year if you look at the women's komogi and then you look at the women's uh gaelic football there's far more games gaelic football games on the television as a result of tg kaha's promotion of it than there is an rte one where you have the men you know you have the women komogi up against the men's the men's gaelic the men's harling and they get very little recognition or very little of the komogi ladies games are shown in rte whereas nearly all of the games even club finals now for the ladies are shown from tg kaha so the support and the media coverage from tg kaha the money that's been pumped in from little has really done like maya made a good point when we were growing up it was all men we've seen around us now we're getting to see women but this has to come down a club level too as well when we walk into dressing rooms and club level can no longer be the megal morphies just up on your walls you've got to get you know ladies like neve mclothlin up there you know the amadougans the picky walls all around their different counties so that the underage ladies whipplers are seeing these heroes it all comes down to what you see so maya like sometimes i wonder is it about the sport or is it about about the gender because you know the one thing we've seen and i don't want to give it any any oxygen as such but you know joey barton a former premiership footballer seems to have lost the pot and he's decided just to have an absolute go at women's commentators women commentating on men's sport and then really it's sort of spread out to the women's game versus the men's game and and what it's exposed to me if you look at it it's not really an anti women's sport attitude what i'm seeing and he's got 2.8 million followers by the way so this is not an insignificant amount of people it's actually more anti women it's almost like why are you playing any sport at all or why are you even calling it a sport it's not about the quality of the game or the the quality of the comment it's literally just about how can we chop women down here yeah like i'd like to hope that opinions like that are in the minority but unfortunately that's a lot of the time not the case um i think it's such an outdated attitude but it is an attitude that's still like meant it still remains and it is still rampant so yeah like it's it's kind of heartbreaking to be hearing it especially as a woman in sport who knows what it takes and knows what has to be put in um to be a successful athlete especially in the today's climate like it's we nearly have to put in double the work to get the same results and it's it's it's really disappointing to see that kind of attitude especially so someone with such a huge platform and such a huge following it's dangerous especially for young boys and girls as well following that or listening to that and that's what they're hearing that not only are women not as good at sport but they shouldn't be playing at all um and i suppose like i'm so lucky to have that attitude and i have always had that attitude that you can be just as good as your male counterparts completely um but unfortunately that's that's the that's the message that's been put out to so many people today but i would hope that that opinion is a minority opinion see i would have thought it would have been just so shut down by now like if it was you know that it would be hell on your second now instead he's on gb news he's on talk tv he's been invited on channel five he's been because it seems to be a legitimate conversation so it's not that that's what would concern me that maybe it isn't a minority view that's that was so ridiculous because it's being given oxygen and and if you look at the timelines it's like almost 50 50 more is that something that that that that concerns you that are we talking about an attitude to women's sport or are we talking about an attitude to women oh well it's definitely listen when you got this guy with so many followers and and as you say the dangerous part about it is he's been given a platform you know and it is there are people out there who are really opposed to women not being chained to the kitchen sink like so it comes down to gender at the end of the day and it will always be about gender it will always be about a man being you know physically better at the game they say men will be faster at the game it's a faster these are some of the things that i've heard over the year it's boring to watch the ladies football it's so slow it's whatever but then i've also heard people that have gone to games or watch the games and they're so like oh my god it's a much better game it's a cleaner game it's less cynical and stuff like that but you know that's why it's important to get the likes off give the likes of katie katie taylor and katie mckay of this platform to show that you know they're equally as good as the men at their sport you know there is no difference you talk there about is there a difference between the women and the men there's no difference the skill level is the same the talents the same the effort that's been put in is the exact same the only difference is the physicality of men compares to women like that's why women don't play along the men because they're physically not able to compete at that level and vice versa but on in terms of the standard where we're at in terms of ladies football and men's football the standards are just as high but someone like this creating creating news like that that women nowadays don't belong in a football field or in a boxing ring you know it's absolutely crazy and anybody to be given a dare but you know yourself there are opposers to every discussion you have you're always going to have the people that are that are opposing it and you all have that so bloody draining i don't want anyone to agree with me and i have different views on different things and i'm just trying to create a conversation here but it's so draining that the the how conflicted we are now and so and finally Maureen i'll start with you and then go back to Maya an expert was brought over who was involved in a world record 92,000 people attending a beach volleyball tournament this is all part of a strategy and you quite rightly pointed out Maureen it's not an accident it is clever because it's getting a conversation going what would you like to see i don't know if you want to focus on gea or women's sport in general going forward that you know would dispel a lot of these myths encourage more people to go in and sample the game because i can't think you can judge something until you've really seen it you know properly can you absolutely greg and listen at the end of the day uh the at the minute the present problem with what the sports say the gea and the lgp vays are not amalgamated so that first of all needs to happen i think and the country here that we're all under the one platform all under the one umbrella and then we can fight we're all then equal and i think then i think it comes down to i i think that in terms of showing visually on television or mostly on television and the newspapers even on the radios that some of these big ladies games have to take precedent over some of the men's game you know as well whereas you know ladies are playing a big final and a men's league game maybe gets aired on on the radio or on tv instead and i think until that starts to happen you know you're not going to change the mindset of the people watching these games because you know this this puts you know their force then maybe into watching the game and seeing how good the quality of the game is but it's about people getting out there it's the messaging so this is what i was talking about earlier on with how uh katie was built it was told how important it is it's a top of the bill it's the first you know loads and loads of firsts we are actually quite easily to manipulate you know spectators are so if we're told that this is the biggest game you know you have to market something as well for example kitty taylor in america she played uh amanda serrano yeah serrano and madison square garden it was the first female boxing to headline in madison square garden and it sold out at 20 000 capacity now unless they took that step to do that and give provide them that platform katie taylor sort of became a whirlwind overnight from 2016 one of her earlier fights till her sold out capacities at the three arena and as you say she would have sold out crow park had she been given the opportunity she wanted crow park she wasn't giving it so until we give these leading ladies the platform to show that they're every but and all they can get all the support as they want we're you know and i think that comes down to the people and organizing organizing it the opportunities created it's all about opportunity and it's all about money you know it really is a business as well and katie taylor was on tv she did documentaries for a start and we've seen her on tv lately doing documentaries these people are becoming household names like look how quick vicki wall and emma duggan from meath over a two-year period one on all iron and final common from playing in division two media broadcast now they're they're now household names among many young ladies poplars and poplars so it really is about pumping the money and getting the advertising out it all takes money as you well know greg and you know this is the issue between the ga maybe and the lgfa and out the minute yeah and and just on that you know if you not if you are know you do but if you sort of see how you know parents of very young girls in football are treated in terms of games and when they're happening or not happening or being moved or how you get to them and from them compared to their their brothers uh who are in boys teams it starts very early the differences are are very clear very early uh maya is there anything that you want to add to what morrin said there um yeah i feel like it's such a huge conversation and that's what we could have all day um and i was grateful for the opportunity to be able to start that conversation and hopefully that has sparked conversations and households like in friend groups throughout um i suppose like the main thing we i would love to see is representation uh and i suppose media coverage is all well and good um and it is a very important aspect of it but if those same resources and same facilities aren't provided then what you're covering on the media isn't going to be yeah um like it's not going to be the full potential of the sport um and as well as that media coverage like positive media coverage is so important but as you said with all with that negative opinion that um women shouldn't even be on a football field the media does also need to use that platform to respond swiftly and shut down those negative opinions um so i suppose it's like a multifaceted um yeah no i am not um yeah no i think just representation is yeah no i think that's it yeah we can talk about plugging it and protein it but you have to also support the infrastructure to build the quality and standards but i think that's a really a really great point maya thank you so much for your time really appreciate it maya alcorn who is a rugby player for ulster from term and play gea and other sports as well and of course morino donnell former donnelly gold player highland radio football analyst lovely to have you on the show as always morin have a lovely day you too bye bye take care okay back with your comments after these the nine-tail ninja show brought to you by kelly's toyota port road letter kenny stockings of a wide range of used passenger and commercial vehicles are the signs of aging creeping up on you are you not happy with the way you look or feel at letter kenny medics private clinic we're here to help you offering botox anti-wrinkle injections derma fillers skin bio injections botox treatment for grinding and clenching teeth hyper hydroses that aids excessive sweating let our doctors help bring back your confidence and look after what is important to you to see what real results really look like book your immediate appointment with no waiting times at letterkennymedics.ie letter kenny medics we listen if you want to talk if you're making some changes in your home visit 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practices this role is full-time monday to friday based on our site at sensory complex email your cv to jobs at sensory cinemas dot ie closing date for applications is monday 22 of january 2024 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 new flex underfloor heating visit grant dot ie okay today mostly dry and cloudy with just occasional sunshine highest temperatures of five to seven degrees uh in a light to moderate north westerly winds some comments as we head towards news at 10 already um let's see here the standard is not as high in women's sport as men's as they cannot be as fast or as strong as men standards and world records are based upon skill women can be equally as good but not as strong or fast as she so she's incorrect katie taylor is unique and yes she should get croaker definitely how would a woman's ge or soccer team fair against men how would they meet the standard uh sadly what men and women don't play against each other you don't have uh uh 13 year old boys playing against 30 year old men there are different grades in boxing you don't have a heavyweight fighting against the lightweight there are loads of examples uh you know divisions leagues as two players of different strengths and abilities uh not playing against each other so i don't understand why they default argument is why should men uh what women play against men they're they're slightly different depending on the sport uh products um without the g uh dara daryn says on facebook or on youtube without the men's gea the women's game wouldn't survive or just little antigee cahir um who thinks i'm someone thinks i'm a people's please or i'm not let's just have a conversation we can't lose the the art of conversation that everyone has to sort of all of a sudden think i'm i'm this woke person and all right i don't know that kind of stuff just because i'm trying to tease out a conversation um i'm just not interested in fighting i love chatting and coming up with differences of opinions or agreeing or disagreeing but just chopping each other's down with insults it doesn't entertain me at all greg how many female broadcasters do you have i have none uh highland radio we have um more in o'Donnell uh we have gene corrin rosamy herity trudy o'Donnell shane black is here lucy peoples funula rabbit owns the radio station she's the boss uh we have seven people working in current affairs five of them are women um sales team is uh primarily women as well and uh the decision makers are primarily women my boss is a woman caroline or is a woman shannon only in the door two and a half months and i'm already uh seemingly below her in the hierarchy uh because i'm told what to do by an upstart anomaly jokin uh so i mean well uh there's there's a lot of representation there as well particularly in uh decision making positions but it's a valid question um and any valid questions i certainly will try and address don't worry about that um how come there are ladies involved in the pundits on soccer and rugby on ladies football there are no male pundits for example during the women's world cup there were no male pundits commentating well if you are to sort of i don't think that's a good idea either to be honest with you but i presume you know they're talking about uh trying to uh they're talking about trying to uh have equal representation and the representation of men up until now is a hundred percent so i don't think we uh as men if you don't mind me saying and you can uh can contradict me for like i don't think we're under threat you know what i mean women's sport is is the one that's under threat uh you've got um you know there's many challenges there which have been pointed out as well which i'll try and address once i choose the world's words correctly fellas are all right you know um there's there's no great deal of uh problems with them in terms of getting on the telly getting exposure and all that kind of stuff all right but listen thank you keep them coming in let us take a break for the news and the obituary notices and we'll be back afterwards with loads more on thursday's nine til noon show keep your texts and comments coming in the nine til noon show brought you by kelly's toyota where you can care for your car with toyota relax giving you a years warranty with your service terms and conditions apply well grace how are you today i'm good i've just been down to the mid to measure fireplaces showroom in craisla they have an incredible selection of over 40 colors for kitchen workshops and guess what for a limited time they're offering a 40 percent discount on any electric fire when you purchase a worktop there 40 that's an amazing deal grace absolutely and trust me if the discount alone doesn't sway you there a huge selection of fire places stoves wood pellet burners beams and stone cladding certainly well contact made to measure fireplaces 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supplier you'll find own brand products in almost every department so why not seek out the savings at kelly centra mountaintop letter kenny the sale you have all been waiting for at claire clothing letter kenny two days clearance 50 off all winter stock this friday and saturday claire clothing letter kenny on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning i'm akilah clark with the news at 10 o'clock the green party leader says he would prefer a general election early next year there has been increasing speculation about the possibility of a poll late this year with sun and gold deputy pierce don't worry this week expressing his hope that next an election will be held this year a man ryan meanwhile has indicated he would be prepared to enter government with shin fane he says the current government should continue in office until 2025 early part next year and i tell you why they're very they're not many stable governments around the world at the moment the world isn't a fairly shocking state and we do have a stable and effective government to my mind we have our differences in government but we work well together i don't see why we shouldn't mean why two more names have been thrown into the hot indonegall ahead of this year's local elections this week kelly bags man manna spoil was selected along with 25 year old youth worker jason harley from frances to go forward for the finnegale local selection convention for the 2024 council elections the pair already have strong connections to local politics with mr boil being the son of former county council john boil and mr harley the nephew of kehirlock of denigal county council concert martin harley the finnegale selection convention will be held on january the 19th the latest esri report revealing denigal to have the highest need for long-term residential care beds in the country is further evidence of worsening regional imbalances according to a south denigal deputy jeffrey marion harkin says she has repeatedly urged the government to intervene to secure sufficient long-term care capacity in the northwest she says an overhaul of the fair deal scheme is needed as older people remain locked out of accessing care in their own community jeffrey harkin says the government is feeling she consider the aging population of the country's more rural counties the numbers of people aged 65 and over in that the saigoli from denigal on average range from about 18 19 percent whereas the numbers of people of that age in doublin and kehir are somewhere between 12 and 14 percent so the need for those homes in the northwest is much greater than the need in doublin kildare patients are facing long delays in getting an ambulance as a result of overcrowding and emergency departments at hospitals one elderly patient had to wait four hours for an ambulance while suffering with a broken hip sceptu's ambulance sector president greg lyons says it's not the first time it's happened when eds are delayed and shuffling people from ed up to hospital beds hospital wards we feel the knock on effect because our staff around these professionals aren't released so patients remain on our beds so we can't basically follow through the system clear the call and go to the next call that's always outstanding graffiti and letter kenny is said to be getting out of hand denigal county council is facing calls to tackle the ongoing defacing of road signs and buildings in the time there has been a noted increase in religious references being painted around letter kenny while a cleanup is underway cancer jimmy kavner believes more action needs to be taken it just asks people to desist from it you know the council need to do more than just clean it up now we need to look at ways of trying to find out who is doing this and there's probably a role for the garrity as well but i need to find out who's doing it and we need to put a stop to it i think people don't realize that it is a serious matter but it is primary school students should spend one year learning every subject through irish in order to enhance the level of competency in the language a debate has arisen this week around the teaching of irish in skills and whether the subject should remain mandatory for all students there are concerns a move to a non compulsory model will lead to a drop off in irish users while the department of education recorded 60 000 students applied for an exemption from the language last year labor's education spokesperson adan o'reardon says dedicating an entire year to the language could help to normalize it in a skills setting there should be a year per year at primary school which is taught exclusively through irish every single subject through irish and i think if that was done students would have a better appreciation for it and would leave primary school wish um a better competence in the irish language currently that isn't the case weather night today will be mostly dry and cloudy with occasional sunshine highest temperatures of five to seven degrees that's all from highland radio news for now we'll be back with an update again at 11 o'clock until then you can keep up to date with the latest local news on our website highland radio dot com good morning the obituary notice says for this thirsty morning at january the 11th the death has taken place of mary nickles name mcgonigal glen carrod letter kenny mary's remains will be reposing atterly at residents today and tomorrow from 12 noon until 10 o'clock with rosary both nights at nine o'clock funeral from there at half past 10 on saturday morning going to st junan's cathedral letter kenny for 11 o'clock recreation mass which can be viewed live on church services dot tv internment afterwards in comwall cemetery family time on the morning of the funeral please family flowers only please donations in layoff flowers if desired to the friends of letter kenny university hospital care of any family member the death has taken place of margaret helpen neo donnell one westbrook close bonkranna formally drum and dairy remains reposing at her residence funeral from there tomorrow morning at quarter past 10 going to st mary's church cock hill for 11 o'clock recreation mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining graveyard highest private from 10 o'clock until 11 o'clock family flowers only please donations if desired to the irish kidney association care of any family member the death has occurred of caroline stanley glennwood park letter kenny formally of cronford and carry guard highest private please reposing at the eternal light chapel rest mountaintop letter kenny from two o'clock this afternoon with removal to st junan's cathedral for reception prayers at five o'clock reposing overnight recreation mass at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning which can be viewed live on church services dot tv followed by private cremation in lecland's crematorium cavern no flowers please donations if wished to the dunningill hospice care pasco blake funeral director the death has taken place of arty galler nine linkside park stirban reposing at his home from 12 noon today funeral leaving his home on saturday morning at quarter past 11 for recreation mass in st mary's church melmont at 12 noon interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family time please from 11 o'clock to 11 o'clock the recreation mass can be viewed live at melmont parish dot com the death has occurred of mary brawley named mackalere hillhead castle thin remains reposing at her late residence funeral from there tomorrow morning at half past 11 for recreation mass in st mary's church castle thin at 12 noon followed by interment in the adjoining church yard the recreation mass will be streamed live via the urnate castle thin parish facebook page family time from 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock and on the morning of the funeral the death has taken place of mary agnes foie name mcnulty whispering pines balla derg letter kenny formally of main street strunner her remains are of housing at her late residence funeral from there tomorrow afternoon at quarter past 12 going to sinjunan's cathedral letter kenny for one o'clock recreation mass which can be viewed on church services dot tv followed by interment in st mary's church cemetery she's shown nail ballet buffet family time please from 10 o'clock until 12 noon and on the morning of the funeral with rosary tonight at nine o'clock family flowers only please donations in lay off flowers if desired to the dunagal hospice care of any family member and the death has taken place of jack baskin kill old fulcara jack's remains will repose at his late residence and kill old today from 11 o'clock until nine o'clock funeral service in st ann's church kill old tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock with interment in the adjoining graveyard donations in lay off desired to the patient's comfort fund letter kenny university hospital care of any family member or sweeney funeral directors fulcara house private after nine o'clock tonight and before the funeral tomorrow for family information and more details regarding wakes and funerals please go to highlandvideo.com yeah we're good mates yeah look i'm always there for him 100 too thick and thin and sure he likes having me around anytime he's going out i'll get the shout you know and someday i'll probably kill him smoking isn't the friend you think it is quit for 28 days and start taking back control find out how at quit.ie or free phone 1800 201 203 and now in rose 2023 best local or regional news program the voice of the northwest the nine till noon show with greg hughes and you're very welcome back to the program we're into the second hour a very good morning to you 08 660 25 000 your whatsapps and texts to that number or give us a call in 07 491 25 000 feel free to join us and comment on social media we are streaming on your big screen smart tv or fire stick or google tv on youtube at highland radio ireland give us a like and subscribe it's useful and then you'll know when we're live you can take us on your mobile devices with that app as well as on facebook highland hub highland radio news and sport hi greg on the point of whether the government is engaged in misinformation on the asylum seeker issue it's clear that they have an unwritten policy to mislead the public on this issue for example leo faradkar was presented by a journalist with a quote he made in the doll a few years ago where he stated that asylum seekers are required to claim asylum in the first EU country they land in as required by the Dublin regulation he avoided confirming he said it despite it being published in the doll publication merriam square when he didn't say that he didn't say it he said that he couldn't remember saying it or the context of it and he said that he would check it and then address it again a faradkar went on to state that the Dublin regulation does not require asylum seekers to claim asylum in the first safe country they land in this was misleading asylum seekers arriving from the three refugee camps in italy lebanon and turkey as well as ukrainians are permitted to arrive without the Dublin regulation applying due to the government signing an international agreement however all other asylum seekers are required by the Dublin regulation to claim asylum in the first safe country in the EU they land in this was agreed by all member states in 2014 and remains in force only last month there was a high court decision in ireland onto that regulation to send an asylum seeker back to belgium there has been no agreement between the EU states to alter the Dublin regulation that being said i think there is a little bit of tubing and throwing at EU level in relation to our interpretation of that because of course in terms of direct flights into Dublin that would mean that we would have no refugees from quite a lot of places if you know what i mean and certainly you're not going to come in on a boat avoiding mainland europe so i think there in maybe what like wherein lies the confusion and the debate as it relates to that but listen leo veracar did not deny saying it he simply said that he'd have to check the records attempts to fool the population to accepting mass immigration are no longer working the state must take action now like den mark and exercise it's right to output to pull out of the lisbon treaty on EU immigration is the population as a whole not accepting emigre immigration like there has been quite a lot of objection to it in places the numbers are i think the most i saw was two or three hundred it's not like you know we've a population of pushing on for six million now and when there are protests you know you might see a tent with about seven people in this is that the general view of the mass population the majority of immigrants that have come into this country are in this country now and you don't hear a ton of complaints about it again i'm not this is not my point of view by the way i'm just interested in a conversation there is this default view that the mass the population as a whole doesn't accept mass immigration is that actually the case and as to say i'm not stating an opinion i'm asking a question the international court of justice hearing is thursday nine a.m please log in with every device you have you don't have to watch the hearing though this hearing is historic we want a million of people to log on watch the case live on thursday 11th on this link u n dot org dot forward slash e n that's the hearing on south africans claim against israel of genocide i watched a lot of sport and the cleverest god i ever saw was a woman in the oil island club final term and v cork people don't realize what they are missing women are not as fast or as strong as men so will never match the level in most sports a lower level irish gea men's team would slow to the women's county team etc but again i don't see the i don't want to watch women play men so i don't see the purpose of that i mean i watched the women's sport and i watched the men's sport uh the the women's boxing just and i'll read you comment on but like women's boxing i'm not a huge fan of it right but it's not because they're women i but i'm not a huge fan of very light men boxers either because you're less likely to see uh as horrible as this sounds you're less likely to see shocks and and and um knock downs and what have you you know uh but some people like that technical 12 round i don't mind that either don't get me wrong but it's not my preferred uh it's not my preferred um uh it's not my preferred sport but it doesn't mean i compare women to men the light fellas i don't i don't particularly bar a few standards i don't particularly follow the straw weights and what have you uh because they don't have very concussive punches if the truth be told uh so you know just because i i prefer men's boxing over women's boxing it's not because it's women and i don't want to see women fight men it's just simply two different products and i prefer one to the other but anyway Clarissa Shields would be KO'd in the opening round by Keith Thurman who uh who she has challenged etc that's of course she would and her challenge was nonsense top men in sport are better than women in 90% of sports the level and standards of sports are the real reason and this was proven in us in american football see bill burr even the the women did not support their own female players i do prefer women's international soccer to watch and of course i love katie taylor etc but they'll never meet the power and speed of men's it's just a biological fact again but but i think they want to stand out in their own sport rather than be competing with or compared to men last one just before we take a break for the jackpot bingo numbers my wife had a hospital appointment in letter kenny she went to touch kenny without her purse she took out a parking ticket when she came out of the appointment it was three euro she'd no money she had 250 and changed in the car which she went to pay for all she needed was 50 cents she asked someone for money they said no another lady started to approach her to give her the money and her husband pulled her back so she couldn't give it to her the third person only had a card so they said they were they couldn't help finally an older gentleman helped he only had a card and he agreed to pay for it she gave him the 250 that she had i'd just like to say a massive thanks to that gentleman you know who you are she was in for a pregnancy scan she's six months pregnant and she'd no jacket yesterday was a cold day she was standing there for 10 minutes before someone came to help her i couldn't just believe it that no one was willing to help she's pregnant and was out in the cold in need i know myself that if someone even needed 10 euro in letter kenny i'd give it to them so what do you think about that the lady um by the sounds of the description from her husband um she's clearly pregnant visibly pregnant um and she forgot her purse had to pay her ticket three euro she only had 250 she asked for 50 cents someone said no now she's out in the cold pregnant second person was going to give her money but her husband intervened third person only had a card couldn't help they said and then we had an older gentleman that did help took the 250 paid the three euro and the listener says you know who you are the person themselves wouldn't have left someone stuck like that what do you think about that are we changing are they just or just were they unlucky because we had a fantastic story yesterday of a lady who's a car broke down and two fellas went above and beyond to get her uh to get her um up and running again daren says 75 percent of the population want immigration stopped you know this gregg so please don't act like you don't i know there was a couple of surveys the uh there was a survey that virgin media did and that's the one that's the 75 percent i'm not disputing it i'm not disputing it but there's also another survey at the weekend that you will never hear quoted uh people were asked what their priorities were and this was a national independent survey from an actual surveying company for for people is 50 house it was much less in terms of immigration okay so listen i'm not going to be brow beaten into believing the entire population uh is anti-immigration and more that so than any of us should be brow beaten into thinking that the majority of the population is pro-immigration we simply don't know you're quoting a survey daren i'm just talking of another survey at the weekend i genuinely don't know the facts but i appreciate it it's not something i want to get in there to a tetate with because as i say we all have our own views and they vary right good luck if you play in the bingo today the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio it's time for vision arland bingo on highland radio it's thursday the 11th of january jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 7400 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s9 it's game number two the jackpot number is 77 this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers four 85 48 45 61 eight 62 57 11 and finally 84 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 arland bingo information at highland radio dot com the ultimate abba sensations tribute comes to anchor chotel ghidor on friday january 19th and the villarose hotel ballet buffet on saturday january 20th tickets available from hotel reception and online at event bright hi paddy here at shea and connelly cars in donningall town are you looking to upgrade your car but she and connelly cars you'll find mix and models for every budget great finance options and we also accept radiance check out shea and connelly cars dot com or call on to us at shea and connelly cars from london road donningall town hands off our land for more in your irish farmers journal his paul mooney the new yfa president is about to fight the confiscation of farmers land board b a qa proposal tells farmers who they should buy cattle from t-shirt vows to resolve that issues and tam's grants minister backtracks and acres payments plus don't miss our top tax saving tips that could save you thousands including farmer case studies and advice on how to minimize your revenue bill only inside the irish farmers journal you cannot afford to miss it the nine-tonin show brought you by kelly's toyota port road letter kenny home to a wide range of toyota commercial vehicles your perfect business partner okay 21 minutes past 10 you're very welcome back to the nine-tonin show uh hi greg my 10 year old daughter loves sports and wants to play soccer and basketball in letter kenny but was told no we've no spaces available how's that promoting sports for girls greg you're missing the point the standard of women's sport is not as high as men's as your commentator stated this is not insulting but the fact the reason why genders are mostly split up is because of that and not the sport itself thank you for your opinion exactly greg the women doing all the work in there and the men getting the glory nothing ever changes anyone wants to go in and get the glory uh yep you're more than welcome uh how is women sport under threat it is more popular than ever plus there where are all the women supporters and sponsors etc are they not 50 percent of the population both women and men want to see coverage of the highest standards of sport and that is what they usually get to see except in situations of minority sport like curling and handball etc they say another brilliant interview with the girls as Maureen says excellent timing for such survey results to be released could they be asked what their opinion is on uh jennifer hermoso and rubiales instant a female listener i'm not sure i know exactly what that is i might have to have a quick look on that i suspect i i think it might what it might be but uh i'll come back to that um hi greg you described hermos actions on october 7th as despicable in one word how would you describe israel's actions since then and indeed since 1948 well the entire conversation was based on uh israel uh being um accused of genocide it's an incredibly in 2024 it's an incredibly strong accusation and one which they will struggle to defend absolutely no doubt what's happening in gaza is absolutely horrendous it's horrific and i've spoke many times on the program about this uh what they're doing to innocent people uh what they're doing to children four five thousand children wiped from the face of this planet uh areas where no one lives anymore being completely and utterly flattened um so i'm pretty clear where i stand on that um thank you uh senator i agree wholeheartedly uh the irish government will do what the u.s and europe tells them it's pathetic america is behind most of the world wars if people are to find out the truth by the way israel killed some of their own citizens in the october attack not just hamas and also have killed many of their own hostages this war has always been their objective they are run by zionists backed by the u.s with a weak europe behind them too it's disgusting and absolutely genocidal the war in ukraine and russia is a proxy war backed by the u.s and nato putin had wanted to sign two peace agreements twice with ukraine before this started but the uk made sure that didn't happen i mean there's all this all the stuff going on like i mean i framed it as a a quasi proxay war right at the very very beginning of this over two years ago so i don't fully disagree with you that being said it is the ukrainians that are fighting it's the ukrainians that are uh losing hundreds of thousands of people fighting that war and they do believe that russia is um that russia is looking to wipe them out and other countries uh in the eastern part of europe as well that russia has an interest in there is no doubt though that through ukraine the west is fighting russia a proxy war for their own reasons and for the same reasons as well so i think we all probably agree and disagree um these people forget that the war in palestine started when hamas posted videos of themselves attacking the kabut serenading on naked bodies and hacking the head off another with a hole followed by thousands dancing and cheering in the streets of gaza israel warned people to evacuate areas but hamas set up roadblocks to stop them leaving and so increase the number of dead to encourage surrounding countries to attack israel and i've a few more coming in on that that you sent me kindly yesterday and i will get back to that but i want to move now to welcome on to the show kevin bradley the mayor of letterkenny milford municipal district kevin good morning to you thanks for joining us uh you're muted there kevin sorry if you could just unmute for us i'd really appreciate it and we'll be able to hear sorry no problem whatsoever kevin good morning to you the morning all your listeners right okay now there is a public meeting well sorry the council is inviting the public to have its say in developing the future future plans for the old courthouse in letterkenny as a tourist attraction so is that the option that's on the table now kevin it is going to be a tourist attraction and it's just what type of an attraction it is that's what's well they're leading it up to the people that are having a me a public drop-in center next wednesday the 17th from 2 to 2 p.m or 2 p.m to 8 p.m and they're asking the public to come in there's an exciting time here for the public it's a fantastic building on the heart of letterkenny it's good to see it on the regeneration of it they got the money down from the u r d f and it's great to see the thing in progress and asking people to come in with their views and visions for a tourist office for a museum or for all different functions to call and have their opinion on and say what they want to say yeah and it's not just as a as an attraction in and of itself but as a way of attracting more tourists into letterkenny you know a lot of talk there's a lot of talk about the wild atlantic way and what have you but we you know no i'm sure letterkenny it does see its fair share of tourists it wants to increase that share the same as those in east donningall so whatever it becomes it's to to to be an attraction but to as they say attract more generally there's a unique building great as a matter of a lot of history to that building and there's an ideal place right in the heart of letterkenny so to be great if people will come we'll pass and we'll call in and get a look on and make put their views and what they want on that center it's a great place i think when most do you have any preference because i think when most people go somewhere what interests them is not the stores that they can see in their own time it's the people and it's the history of an area you know i think that's how you form a a connection with a place would you like to see sort of uh you know a historical element to this personally i would love to see a historical part of letterkenny brought rebeck there are a history and letterkenny that we used to be the hiring fair it was always done there during through the years at that very well done there are a lot of history that's brought on for the thing up and going it would be great to see it going yeah it's really important everyone has their say too if you have any interest in letterkenny or this building at all to get along it's on wednesday the 17th of january and you can drop in anytime between two and eight p.m all right kevin and you'd encourage people to turn out thanks very much indeed that's the mayor of letterkenny milford milford municipal district councillor kevin bradley let's get back to some of those comments and then i do have to take a break um we were talking to about the horizon the post office scandal still haven't got a chance to watch share that program yet but i will we spoke to a lady uh who had a post office in claddy that was accused of stealing money um and was threatened with imprisonment and what have you um and the story has moved on really really quickly because of uh that drama that's been put out by itv uh greg the company who made the horizon system for jitsu i think it was i believe you're correct had a full team of people who were able to access individual post office systems what they were trying to do was to correct mistakes that horizon was making but if they couldn't fix it the money was going missing the post office denied for ages that the system could be accessed from outside that's a good show maybe not so good if you were affected by it yeah i understand where you're coming from i never realized what happened to claddy post office they were wonderful people with a fantastic wee business i greatly missed their shop and post office another powerful story made me so angry and sad to watch and learn what happened to all these people yeah they all thought they were the only one only for mr uh baits there uh greg big shout out to all the firefighters in bonkrana fire station for saving five lives in the fire in bonkrana heroes of our community indeed that should never be forgotten uh just two more today's holocaust is the holocaust of palestinians a holocaust perpetrated by the israelis supported by most rabbis synagogues and jews worldwide with regard to israel being charged with genocide our government are afraid to upset the usa or all the rest of the country supporting these murderers because the economy is more important than tearing the limbs of children and innocent people powerful words but it's it's not that it's not happening you know and uh in reality um the senator yesterday pretty much said that was her view as well watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com the nine till noon show brought to you by kelly's toyota where you can now test drive the new toyota chr combining standout styling an engaging drive and class leading efficiency do you need a uk address save hundreds of euros on custom charges shopping online with space hub dairy we provide a full virtual address mailbox service for all your business and personal use save hundreds possibly thousands on custom charges with space hub dairy call 04871878077 or online spacehubdairy.com for more details get the power to save even more money for back to school with tesco club cards random damn prices get three for five euro and over 40 products including selected denny irish carved ham and glennis organic kids vanilla yogurt four pack plus get capris on orange 10 pack was four euro 99 now two euro don't forget you can now turn club card points to vouchers in his app in our app the power to lower prices tesco every little helps product subject to availability prices very inexperienced stores it's the right price tiles on wood flooring half price sale get up to 50 percent of all tiles wood flooring bathware cladding everything's reduced tiles from only 899 per square yard and wood flooring from only 1199 per square yard right price tiles and wood flooring half price january sale is now on personal improvement deserves recognition that's progress you can feel and the very definition of the oudie 241 range from the striking style and comfort of the enhanced oudie a6 to the era defining iconic oudie a4 with competition addition and the quietly efficient oudie q4 e-tron electrified driving with no compromise test drive the oudie 241 range at an oudie dealer near you today now we're joined on the program by david good morning to you david thanks for your time today appreciate it good morning right so uh you decided to buy an electric car six months ago what's been your experience no i had electric car before that previously for a year and i changed my electric car six months ago i beg your pardon right so in other words you you've had you've driven electric for a year and a half now at this stage yeah and what has been your experience because you said in a phone call to us that you're thinking now of returning to hybrid i have to return to hybrid because if i want to do a long distance say from here to gallway uh they're what i call the 99 percent of the time when you go to a charger the charger either broke or somebody has unplugged it the wrong way and left a charger left lead in it uh it's just i can't understand why these petrol stations and the restaurants especially a petrol station where restaurant doesn't have chargers in it i don't know do they get grants from the government for put man chargers or not how i presume they do yeah so i mean you've been driving electric for quite some time now so you've had a proper time to assess it you've no issue with the technology how the car drives and all that it's simply the fact that if you don't absolutely absolutely love me car i got a new car from dmg motors and uh go and done it all time great blessed to deal with great great backup everything was hot hunky door the car is lovely but it's just if i have an emergency where i have to go somewhere i can't guarantee it i'm going to get there because like when i charge my car up i get 344 kilometers on it and that's as far as i can drive without getting charged again and do you get the 344 kilometers that it says david yes uh not really no you would get maybe 300 kilometers right okay still not bad no that's the ennick yeah but like there's a new one coming out now uh from uh watercraft the same company and the watercraft david hybrid which does 100 kilometers on a charge and then you go on to petrol then yeah now so so the car is grand the experience was grand charging at home is fine it's when it's the um it's the uncertainty about finding chargers working out and about which is we're supposed to be ever you remember they said we were all switching to electric by 2030 and every other six months the announced that they're investing another five million in charges and other 10 million in charges and the last time they did it a kind of uh a kind of uh was a bit cynical because yours is the reality here they keep talking about providing the infrastructure but it's not coming david that's not a joke when you go out for a run and uh you're sitting on pans and needles no one thinking are you going to get back home again and that's what it's like so the next thing you've got the arachn often you're driving slower well if you if you have to drive like if you have a bad weather like we had there three four weeks ago you're driving in the rain and you have the heater on and everything's on your lights and everything else like you're going through your charger a lot quicker like i can't see why they don't put them at the petrol station a petrol station gets so much in every liter of petrol itself why not do the same i wouldn't mind paying an extra five euros for to get my car charged to give it the petrol station because they've got the charger and i wouldn't that wouldn't be a problem as long as i know i can go somewhere and the thing's working and how often are they not available versus the not working you could be well they couldn't there are a whole lot of times they're not available there are people plugs into them they go way down the town and maybe the car's sitting charged yeah and you can't get into it you know what i mean uh like uh if you go to red castle hotel there's three sitting in the main street that's encouraging the golfers to come because they can go out and play a game of golf plug their car in and away they go then or they can gun for a meal i was in a restaurant there last week sitting in the restaurant looking at petrol pump sample but no chargers in the four quarter anywhere where i could have stuck my car on for an hour while i was on having a meal and in this day and age two obviously you know uh beggars can't be choosers but you want the modern fast chargers as well that you can get 80 percent into your car in you know 15 or 20 minutes that's what you know that's what we need that's i well like of a restaurant looked at it like i'm sure if you put it on there you're you seem to get things done if you put it on there at the restaurants to get chargers in as they looked at it i'm coming down the road and i know there's a charger in that restaurant that's where i'm going to go to have a meal and charge my car yeah the restaurants one one is getting a meal for me and my family and getting the car chairs how do you know where say you're going up and down from sly go uh do you know where all the chargers are at this sat-nav you have to put it on the sat-nav just okay because little analogy and then go ahead as a safety you can put it on the sat-nav and i have a charger of maybe 50 miles up the road and when i get there it's not working where are they're in the petrol station or a nearest restaurant or even the hotel where you can pull into the hotel and get a charge you know the people in a hotel the restaurants and the petrol station they're going to look after their chargers yeah i got you so listen you're a year and a half into electric car ownership six months into your latest model you love the car you love the service you love how it drives but because of the lack of infrastructure you feel you've no choice to go to hybrid do you feel let down because we're all encouraged to go electric um well i've done everything i've got a charger at the house i've got thrower panels on the roof i went on down the road of doing everything to try and make this world a better world yeah and uh like it seems as if they're just turning you back boys again are you going to hold out or if you made your mind up well i'm going to wait till i get the i've talked to dmg motors and i'm waiting in this new car to command to see what she's like and like uh things doesn't improve the it's the only road i can go and look we spoke to i had emergency and i had to go to gallway hospital yeah i can't be i can't be sitting half ways up the road and not be funny go you know i know we have spoken it's not just people that buy the cars david we have spoken to people that sell cars in the past that are equally frustrated because people like the the gentlemen said people are coming back with the cars after a few months they love their cars but they can't trust the public charging infrastructure and they get the range anxiety and and and the reasons that you've been outlining as well i went to slago and uh one day there and i was in the way back home again and only i could call into dmg motors and charge in their charger i would have bothered getting home and like the people in there they're so good there's a one salesman on their wall it couldn't do enough for his customers well i hope david uh and i know it's a serious issue after the plug you've given dmg motors i hope they knock a grand off your next one i wouldn't care i wouldn't care if they don't because i know i know and dmg motors are they are so good okay right listen thanks very much david keep us updated as to how your electric journey goes because as i say you love the car it's just the fact that you let down by the infrastructure maybe you could go to somebody you know in the government to see if there is a grant for these people to put on these charges and then could you could you let us know on there and let them know on there that there's a grant there and they're they're gonna make so much money of our charger no problem we can certainly look into that but as i say i've just been let down i'm frustrated by announcements of this fantastic network of charges i think you'd like to carry yourself i did i had a had a nissan leaf from my motors loved the car it was fantastic yeah um it was it was early days and the range wasn't huge but ever since i felt like i went backwards if you know what i mean david there there's a lovely way to drive and um i'll tell you what i still do if this is the gods on this truth uh if i'm driving down a hill same coming down lurgie brack david i still you know with the braking the way the braking recharges the battery regeneration yet now in the car that i'm in at the moment i feel like i'm wasting uh that energy if that makes sense because it's not electric it's a it's a petrol or diesel and you feel going down hills now i still feel that i'm wasting that regeneration electricity so listen i love electric cars i really do i'd love to i'd love to own one myself um uh happy motoring david i listened to the radio to see what you say about the government i'll not let you down i'll not let you down slant imagine why thank you very much indeed david i weight six sixty twenty five thousand um i'm in a shone and one evening i had a slow puncture and i went to four local philistations out of four stations only one had working air so i'm not sure this idea would work uh yeah indeed i am a fan and maybe i'm not sure of tire experts uh or those that sell tires are are are into this but those little canisters that you get that uh temporary philotire partially philotire at least so you can drive home um i wouldn't uh i would be inclined not to drive without one of them they've saved me a couple of times you know you screw onto the valve uh you hit the button and it pumps a certain amount of air into your tire and it fills it with the liquid that tends to block the uh the puncture if it's not too bad i find them very useful i'm sure i'd say garages hate them when you land and they take the tire off and it spills everywhere or maybe they don't very short sighted of garages not to jump on the electric car bandwagon as in the near future there'll be no petrol or diesel for them to provide some people agree some people disagree on that one but yeah how much does it cost to charge the car david is gone now uh we can check with david i uh know someone with an electric car and i think it costs about it was costing about 22 or 23 euro uh but the prices have gone up and down since then so i'm not really quite sure i think really in terms of it being about saving money the days where you you would go electric because it's cheaper or much much cheaper i'm not really quite sure that's the i mean you'll save money on the the the servicing and and what have you uh i'm not sure there's a huge difference now between uh driving on electric versus petrol or diesel but anyway open to correction let's have that conversation people need to be aware the price of replacement batteries for electric cars they're astronomical it's not just going to the garage for a few minutes to get diesel or petrol and off you go or to get serviced and parts replaced it's prices of nearly a new car i've seen i've seen these posts on social media but like you for instance you can get huge you can get big mileage and lots of years on on batteries as well and also i've seen electric cars that are seven or eight years old or six or seven years old and it shows you the battery capacity still up on 100 but i do also see a lot on social media whereby they say your batteries are no good after two or three years and cost a million euro to replace there is an anti an anti they are expensive to replace don't get me wrong uh but the the claims on social media how soon you have to get them replaced are a long way off i would suggest uh the charge will drain heavily during the bad weather or as in the us won't go at all in heavy snow plus the most wary part of me would be the radiation emf from the car while in the car or charging from your home so much be aware of before buying i drove an electric car as well there was a slight change in performance in very cold weather um but i was still able to do the back and forth that i used to do and i drove the car for two years i believe and there was no reduction in uh the there was no red and this was early on this is going back but there was no reduction actually in the capacity of the battery or its drain uh as it relates to emf my house is full of 5g and got a 5g phone in my front right pocket right next to the you know what so i don't know um i wouldn't be too worried about that side of it that's just mates up to you what you think okay back with more after these the nine-tone in show brought you by kelly's toileta with over 45 years of experience trust us to help you on your electric journey the sale you have all been waiting for at claire clothing letter kenny two days clearance 50 off all winter stock this friday and saturday claire clothing letter kenny the mcdonald's savor meal deals have it all like the classic cheeseburger savor meal deal including medium fries and a drink for just six euro with the delicious double cheeseburger meal deal which is twice as nice for just seven euro but there's more for six euro you can get the mouthwatering mayo chicken meal deal in a delicious bun i'm talking so fast because we all like getting our money's worth and that's why i've only got 20 seconds to tell you about the mcdonald's savor meal deals from 11 a.m not available on delivery i saw your be good baker running boy again the other day she's out to elm mister brennan ah yes she's he i've never seen her stand still and she's running rings around the rest of us when our brennan's be good bread only 60 calories a slice 60 calories is i that's just a whole meal is it now she's he it's the whole meal the whole grain and a waste 60 calories a slice and high in fiber whatever way is noisy that's why anything baked is better with brennan's today's bread today it's the seal of the century at milford tiles unbelievable deals now on 20 of all tiles and bathware in store free standard underlay with all wooden floors footers and delivery service available that's milford tiles big january seal now on call 083091 0707 highland radio weather updates brought to you by grant building a new home choose grants a triple plus rated aerona air to water heat pump and uflex underfloor heating visit grant dot ii today mostly drying cloudy with just occasional sunshine temperatures five to seven degrees in the light to moderate northeasterly wind right okay kevin joins me on the program now hi kevin good morning great happy new year and happy new year to you kevin um unfortunately though you suffer from shingles so what is shingles well shingles is the nerve endings uh common to the skin and you would nearly think that somebody has stuck about 500 elliptic probes around that area it's affected and they're hitting you with about 150 volts continuously all day every day to the go away now that's four years ago i was in the hospital when i contracted shingles and the hdu department and i went from the middle of me chest right around to the middle of me back and the i got sorted in the hospital i had to go to go away and then geogram so there was a whole set up there because they're contagious as well for a certain period of time so that was all sorted but i got home and the pain is unreal unbelievable pain i thought god as i was ever going to stop so it's down with me doctor doctor prescribed patches lidaki and patches now these are four extreme acute pain these patches aren't they acute pain on the skin like that they're like all other patches that secrete the lidaki and into the skin right what you do get some relief from the the shingles now this went on for a period of about six seven months and i was using five patches of a now the boxes have come in a box of fives and they're between 20 and 30 pound a box right so over the period of the six months there's somewhere in the region between two and a half and three and a half thousand euro spent on the treatment of the shingles for me right i'm telling just for me also in between times i'll be getting like a morphine tablets as well a weeks in between just to try and get things passed over so that was four four years ago now that's all affected with the shingles yeah four years down the line yeah and i've had had a guy on the phone cures five times around him and he looked he looked at the hunt he said to me he says look he says kevin he has a very bad dorsal he says of course he should have been cured but i was looking i've seen that the shingles vaccine coming up and i thought oh great i'll go to the doctor and find out about this because there's no saying that the shingles won't come back on me so i thought we'll go and get the vaccine sorted so i went down with the doctor said to him oh by the way shingles vaccine i said that's a private script and i said right uh so i went down to the chemist put on the script and she came out to me and said no kevin that's very expensive you have to get two two injections over a period of six weeks or whatever in between the fourth one and then the other one then six or eight weeks down the road 200 pound two sorry 200 euro an injection right that's 400 euro oh my god and they're free in the north well just to clarify can i just clarify the cost if that's okay in britain and northern ireland and this came in from the first of september 2023 healthy people aged 70 to 79 uh can get a vaccine uh people aged 50 and over with weakened immune system they get the free vaccine uh healthy people 60 to 70 uh will become eligible for the vaccine over the next five years where they turn 65 or 70 and uh you are eligible for the vaccine after your 80th birthday they say this is because it can occur in any age but it's primarily in those age brackets so it is free but uh under new under the regulation since september 1st 2023 it's for those age cohorts in the uk in ireland they say a shingles vaccine is available on the market but it's not given routinely in ireland the vaccine is not available through the medical card or the drug payment scheme go and see your gp get the script as you did but you're facing a bill of 400 euro it's crazy that someone in lyford cannot avail of this and suffer what you did and someone in straban uh can get the vaccine if they're of the of the right age or if we can't immune system it's it's crazy isn't it but you you take go back to what i said about the cost to treat my shingles the somewhere between two and a half and three and a half thousand euro yeah whereas can the hse not see that prevention is a lot cheaper than treatment yeah for sure the treatment because you know i mean i have a medical care thank god like but uh the the the pain and what it does to mentally physically and every other way can you imagine just being hooked up to a machine that's hit me with about 150 volts yeah all around that whole area i can't imagine wherever the wherever you're affected now that's unbelievable i still get every night i get a few jags either under and around the armpit around the back or at the front of the chest and that's four years down the road so it's been a long slow process i don't use i don't need patches anymore but i kind of thought wow there's something badly wrong with the system in this country when they can't figure out look see people of my age which is the age cohort that you mentioned there are very very susceptible to getting shingles out of the blue no reason at all yeah and they did a big publicity on it can i just say one thing to back up your claims about prevention being better than cure if you don't mind kevin just some statistics in the first five years of the vaccine program in britain there were 40 500 fewer gp consultations for shingles related diseases 1 840 fewer hospitalizations now that doesn't talk to the vaccine uptake so obviously not everyone's taking the vaccine but of those that did it led to 50 000 10 000 a year less people attending the gp so if the irish government or the hsc needs any evidence that prevention is better than cure at least financially god knows not just for the pain that you went through there's the evidence right next door to us the evidence is there that a vaccination program greatly reduces the amount of people that need to see a gp for shingles yes we have the vaccine for the flu the vaccine for pneumonia we have the vaccine for covid we should be getting the vaccine for shingles now like i mean i have a lot of weed things medical things that are leaving me very kind of open to all sorts of different things but i'll go for the vaccine for everything that i could i know is going to help me and the fear of these shingles coming back now i'm going to have to buy them buy this vaccine right but i just can't afford the moment that's terrible i know i know i'm comfortable if you could get that vaccine kevin that anxiety of of a return of shingles because you put in an awful awful time of it if you could get that vaccine for free or hopefully you can get the money together to get it that would make your life much better with everything else that you're dealing with if you didn't have to worry as much about the risk of that returning you would have a more productive happier life i presume with every other with the other challenges sorry that you say you're facing yeah i would that would be one one thing less after let's pick it and get rid of put it away stick it in the corner and that's it going all right you know but at that that's something i do believe that that that we in this country from the top is the hse government whatever is getting things all wrong prevention do they the next time please go i'm pushing wood here that i don't get shingles but the first thing i'm going for is idk and patches and i don't care while i walk out of the chemist with a thousand pounds worth of them under my arm going out the door i will be slapping them on me all right okay you know yeah because it was the only thing it was the only thing that gave me any kind of release now there's a whole lot of people out there that have had shingles and suffered from and they know exactly what i'm saying yep yep acute pain kevin listen uh hopefully um hopefully you're listening to i appreciate your time today thank you so very much indeed let's say is greg relating to kevin with shingles the vaccine will not prevent getting them it may only ease symptoms here in northern ireland you have to get two doses i think uh with a six month span i'm not disputing what you're saying but according to the nhs they say by having the vaccination you will significantly reduce your chance of developing shingles so i'm not contradicting you clad i'm just saying what the nhs in england are saying but they also do agree with you that if you do go on to develop shingles the symptoms are likely to be milder and the illness shorter than if you did not uh have uh the vaccination and in terms of how the vaccine is given uh it's given uh as there are two different vaccines available you'll be offered the vaccine that is right for you uh shindrix is a non-live vaccine and you will need two doses to give you the best longer lasting protection for most people the second dose of shindrix will be offered about six months after the first dose uh there are others ones to um but listen so we're we're not far off the same page the nine-tailed ninja brought to you by kelly's Toyota port road letter kenny stockings of a wide range of used passenger and commercial vehicles it's time to take off the air lingus january sale is here with over four million seats on sale fly direct to amazing north american destinations from 179 euro each way as part of a return trip experience the buzz of new york explore san francisco seek trails with the family in orlando and many more destinations don't miss these incredible offers book now at air lingus.com air lingus you're very welcome season sees apply salons january 15th travel between february 1st and may 31st on the in ruditar rougott no debate huck ruddy bilga karasca the VR launcher hey Yes, I've been working on it. Yes, I've been doing it. I think you are very good at this. How do you get this job done? Ah, but we don't have any problem with that. I have the same talent as you and I have been working on this job for a long time. I'm working in a shop and I work on it for your mental health. I'm going to be happy to work with you. If you're starting a new business in 2024, let bizprint help with all your printing needs. Logo design, invoice books, business cards and promotional products. Call Bizprint in letter Kenny today on 9-1-779-55 or visit bizprint.ie Last chance to enter the Donnie Gawls signage competition with Homeland and New Trees Animal Feeds. Entries are closing soon so hurry! Entry is free and includes five categories. Dairy, Beep, Sheep, Round Bale and New Entrant. First prize 300 euro vouchers, second prize 200 euro voucher in each category. For full entry details visit homeland.ie. Closing date January 19. iMotors are your main Nissan dealership in the North West. A trusted Japanese brand for generations. Contact iMotors to find out why people who make the move to Nissan never change. To check out our two for one offers visit iMotors.ie The Counties number one talk show. The 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. It is 11 o'clock it's time for a news update and it's good morning Makayla Clark. Thanks Greg good morning the Green Party leader says he would prefer a general election early next year. There has been increasing speculation about the possibility of a poll late this year with Donnie Gawls deputy Pierce Doherty this week expressing his hope that an election will take place this year. Aiman Ryan has indicated he would be prepared to enter government with Sinn Fein. Well three more names have been thrown into the heart in Donnie Gawls ahead of this year's local elections. This week Kili Begg's man Manus Boil was selected along with 25-year-old youth worker Jason Harley from Francis and Joseph Malloy a postmaster and shopkeeper in Ghidor to go forward for the Finnegale local selection convention for the 2024 council elections. The International Court of Justice is hearing whether or not Israel is committing genocide against the people of Gaza. Israel strongly denies the allegations being made against it in the case being taken by South Africa. Colombia and Brazil have expressed their support of South Africa with over 23,000 people in Gaza killed since October 7. Patients are facing long delays in getting an ambulance as a result of overcrowding in emergency departments at hospitals. One elderly patient had to wait four hours for an ambulance while suffering with a broken hip. The latest ESRI report revealing Donnie Gawls to have the highest need for long-term residential care beds in the country is further evidence of worsening regional imbalances according to a South Donnie Gawls deputy. Deputy Marion Harkins says she has repeatedly urged the government to intervene to secure sufficient long-term care capacity in the Northwest. Graffiti in Latter-Kennie is said to be getting out of hand. Donnie Gawls County Council is facing calls to tackle the ongoing defacing of road signs and buildings in the town. There has been a noted increase in religious references being painted around Latter-Kennie. And primary school students should spend one year learning every subject through Irish in order to enhance the level of competency in the language. A debate has arisen this week around the teaching of Irish in schools and whether the subject should remain mandatory for all students. Those are the latest headlines. We'll be back with an update again at 12. Thank you, Michaela. Whether you're adventuring, salsa dancing, or you just popped out for some milk, you're not always home. With Unpust, that's not a problem. You can set up a safe spot for us to put your deliveries when you're not in or rearrange delivery to your local post office. And if something's not right, you can quickly return it with a collection from your door or drop at your local post office. Online shopping made easy with Unpust. Unpust for your world. Okay, on to the program now. We say good morning to Jessica. Jessica, thanks for joining us. Good morning. How are you keeping? Oh, good. As good as can be, I suppose, with what we're dealing with. Yeah, and Centre's on your father. He's only 54. And on the 1st of August, 2022, he was diagnosed with motor neuron disease. Is that correct? It was, yeah. Obviously, that has a devastated impact on him and the whole family to get that news, Jessica. What was the prognosis at the time of the diagnosis? What were you told? Just that they couldn't really put a timeframe on it, but to prepare ourselves that basically what was going to happen, daddy, and how you would deteriorate and how things would go. Now, we were looking up that within the first year, there wasn't much of a change until probably April of 2023, where we started to notice. And he's gotten a lot worse. Significantly worse. What level of movement or mobility does he have now? So from June of 2023, he was in an electric wheelchair. He then had to come out of that and be in a push wheelchair, where now he has nothing at all. And obviously, that means that in terms of feeding him, washing him, going to the bathroom, getting in and out of bed, that all falls down on the family at this point? Yeah. So it's between my sister and my mum and myself. Okay. And for daddy, he was a young, fat, healthy man before, and it's just not nice for him to depend on his wife and his two daughters to get them out of bed and get them out of the shower, to grade them for him. And it's not nice to watch. Are you still able to communicate effectively, Jessica? So he has an IEGAs tablet that he can talk to us through. Right. It's incredibly difficult. And lots, a lot of people listening will be able to relate to this. Unfortunately, we do seem to be hearing lots of cases of motor neuron disease. And I think even more so once we had high profile cases that sort of opened up the conversation more so. Are you finding that since this has come into your life, that you're learning of more people who have this condition? We are, yeah. Definitely. In terms of care or resistance, am I correct in saying that towards the middle of last year, you had to sort of acquire some, did it privately or was it provided to you? Not so. We were convinced we wanted to care for daddy ourselves. We didn't want cares, but we were told that for daddy, that we couldn't care for him because he needed people that was properly trained. And we have yet to get cares. The HSE has come back and said, because daddy is under the age of 65 and doesn't have cancer, he's not a priority. Right. So even though you've made the decision that you would accept the services of carers, there's not available for you. There's not available in that area. Nope. And this would have been a big conversation with your father because obviously very proud. He probably would have preferred not to have a situation where his daughters and his wife were caring for him. So it was a big step presumably for him to okay bringing external care at that time. He was happy enough that he was all right with us getting cares. It was me and my sister and my mother that didn't want them. Okay. But we're told that for daddy, we had to just let them. Right. So I mean, as you've listeners have been listening to, it's clear that your dad needs the assistance of carers. You've been sort of okayed for them. But you've been told, and I see if outlined because he's under 65, because he doesn't have cancer, he's not on a priority list is not top of the list. Anyone presumably that comes forward who is diagnosed with cancer or over 65, they will always be ahead of your father. Is that how it feels? Yeah, it is. And back in October of 2023, he was in the Foil Hospice and they told us that daddy had only a few weeks to live. And even when we were told that they still couldn't get carers to come out to the house and care for daddy. Now luckily he's still here, but it would have meant that we were still left with it. Even though he had been told, he wouldn't make it to the end of October, starting November. And you're being told not only you're not a priority at this point, but there's no carers in the area. Yep, they're saying they can't get anyone in the area. And are you in the Republic or the North Jessica? Sorry, just to be clear. We're all in a show. In a show. Okay. And we're going to make as many representations on your behalf as we possibly can be. I'm sure you have as well, but look to politicians, the HSC, to whomever might be responsible or could have an input into this, because the only one reason that you would even dream of a presumer of speaking publicly at this point, Jessica, is because you need the help and it's very difficult for you as a family. Taking valuable family time away from us when we're caring for him 24 hours. Now as much as we do enjoy it, it's starting to strain daddy. And as it gets more difficult, we're going to end up hurting him or hurting ourselves. Okay, so we're in a shown area. And at this point, as you say, he's not being seen as a priority that kind of I imagine when you're told that when you see your dad and how much you all love him. And for his situation to be framed like that, it adds pain to an already incredibly difficult situation, Jessica, because you start going why is he not as important to somebody else? Yeah, it does. No, it's okay. Well, will you leave it with us and we'll make inquiries if that's okay, contact the various agencies, see what the situation is. And we'll keep you informed, Jessica, but we are going to try our best to try and highlight this as you have with us today and see if we can make any advances on this. I hope that anyone with any influence who would know Jessica's story and is in an office somewhere could do the right thing and make a decision and give this family the help that they need. Things like that do happen, Jessica. We hope they will, but we'll make our inquiries as well. And just see what we can do. Hopefully something comes from it because it's clear that you have the time that you have with your father, you want to maximise that, of course. We do, yeah. Okay, Jessica, thank you for your time and best wishes to everyone. I know it's a very difficult time for you all. Right, okay. As I say, if there's anyone with influence in that area, please, we're going to make contact with the various agencies to try and help. But if you can help, please, please get in touch with us and we can help you to help that family. I don't think there's anyone working and I hope there's no one working in healthcare in a position of influence power that wouldn't say, right, that's a case that we need to look at here. They don't know how long they have with their dad. They want to maximise the time. They're struggling to do it on their own because at this point now he can only move his eyes. Right, we'll stay on that, by the way, and I'll give you updates on that story as we get any further advances. Caller says, back to some comments here. I'm just wondering, would anybody that drives electric cars by 45 year old model, it's like buying second hand phone battery wouldn't last as long, so more charging points needed as range wouldn't be as good. But if the truth be told, how many people are driving cars now that are older than, I don't know, you see very few cars now that are older than 2008. I'll cut it at that because I think 2008 ice-engined cars are, once you go under 2008, the tax can be more expensive. So I think most people, the majority of people aren't buying 45 year old cars. You might have some that do, of course, because there are vintage cars and all that type of stuff, but the majority of cars that people use on a day to day basis, I would argue are 2008 Op, or even more newer than that. Now that's not to say there aren't people driving older cars, but if we're talking about, you know, typical of this country, no plan in place for anything. And Ryan tells us all to go electric, all he does is create problems. We have to use smokeless coal, it takes hours to get it going in an open fire. We're living on one pension and now have to use heating, though we can't afford it. When are we going to get hydrogen cars? The jury's out in hydrogen that hydrogen might be adapted for heavy goods vehicles and what have you. I would follow some people with influence in the electric car market and they don't believe that hydrogen will be generally adopted. Now, of course, if you've got an interest in electric, you don't want hydrogen, do you? That's like if you've got an interest in petrol and diesel, you don't want electric, but people with influence in that area seem to think that hydrogen will not be practical for your domestic car, but might be for lorries and tractors and what have you. We'll wait and see. Hi, Gregory, car charging points. I heard on another radio show that there's a new system just launched where you can book someone's home charging point to charge your vehicle, as long as they are registered on the program. It's just like Airbnb for charging points. Interesting. How widely it'll be used, I don't know. That sounds to me like someone who's gone on Dragon's Den. Sounds like a great idea, but we'll see. Maybe it's bigger than I anticipate, but I don't know. I mean, people rent out their parking spaces next to the airport, so I wouldn't be surprised at anything. What about the price of replacement batteries for electric cars? Children are forced into crawling into mines in Africa to get the cobalt and nickel for the batteries. Is that acceptable so rich people can continue to drive? I don't know, yes, but look where we get our oil and what they do with that money. Do you know what I mean? If you want to go down that route again, I hope it don't sound like I'm a contrarian today, but if we're worried about how cobalt and nickel is being farmed, well, we also need to worry about what's being done with all the money that's been made from the oil industry. What are they doing with that money and how do they run their countries and how do they treat people in their countries? Do you know what I mean? We're supporting their countries. Gregory, be careful about misleading people about the cost of servicing of electric vehicles. I've heard reports of servicing being more expensive for EVs. I don't have an EV and only saying what I've heard. It would be interesting. Garages could give an idea of what it costs. Well, I had electric vehicle for a couple of years and the servicing was minimal because there are very few moving parts. There is the motor now in terms of what is done to the motor, but in terms of like, you know, other stuff that can go in an ice engine car, I didn't see that. The Minister for Transport held a conference sometime last year to promote electric cars. When he went to plug the car in, it wouldn't work. The newspaper is all reported on this and it's just so ironic, a perfect example of why I will stick to petrol. Fair play to you, by the way. I'm not trying to... I'm not in any way trying to convince people one way or other. Pottery Pierce defended the use of the Irish language by a car toner in letter Kenny Courthouse. Okay, interesting history. This is the type of stuff if I go somewhere that interests me. Hi, Greg. Sorry, I must have missed the highlights of the men's soccer team in the World Cup in 2023, just saying that if people want to see the ladies in action be in Gaelic soccer, boxing, basketball, they'd be pleasantly surprised at the skill and talent in women's sport here, here. Back to electric cars. I agree, the backup for electric cars is shocking. Now, come here. Seriously, I'm all for a dad joke, but you're taking the Mickey now. Yeah, they're upside down. Shannon, can you rotate them 180 degrees? Thank you. Thank you. Perfect. Well done. Thank you so much, Shannon. Uh, Isabel and the team in Donegal Hospice say they can... Carrying on the money, joking. You know, giving out to me while I'm on air. This is important. Isabel and the team at the Donegal Hospice say they can offer Jessica and her dad some home support. Okay, can I just say, Isabel and everyone at the Donegal Hospice, I couldn't be a bigger fan of the Donegal Hospice. We're all... We all, not all, many of us have been touched by what they do there or might be in the future. Isabel has gone to us from the Donegal Hospice to say that they can offer Jessica and her dad some home support. Now, that does not... I don't know what the level of that support might be, right? But that does not mean that we will not continue our inquiries elsewhere. But just off the back of that phone call in a couple of minutes, Jessica, thank you so much and all of your brilliant team at the Donegal Hospice, they can say, they say they will offer Jessica and her dad some home support. We'll put them in contact with each other, okay? And see what comes from that. So, again, it was weighing on me and I feel that hopefully now that's to some extent that that will improve that situation. We'll keep you updated on that. The County's number one talk show, The Nine Till Noon Show on Highland Radio. The Nine Till Noon Show brought you by Kelly's Toyota, where you can care for your car with Toyota Relax, giving you a year's warranty with your service. Terms and conditions apply. All the half-price home gym equipment are gone. They're definitely gone. Drop by your local home store and more. Visit us online at homestoreandmore.ie. New store now open in for Scatty Center Blackrock Dublin. Home store and more. A happy home. The two we live happy sale is here, with savings of up to 250 euro per booking. Free child places, even in the school summer holidays. Plus, low booking deposits from 50 euro per person, with holidays to suit all budgets. Relax and get booking. Tui, live happy. Offer T's and C's apply. Hi, Mark here from Highland Motors at the Mountain Top in Lettuce, Kenny. What would you look for in a new car? Maybe a reversing camera with reversing sensors, bright LED headlights, or maybe you're into your tech, like Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. Wireless, of course. If you also like great comfort and want all of this at a really good price, the new Citroen C4XU edition is the car for you. Call on to me at Highland Motors at the Mountain Top in Lettuce, Kenny. Oh, and that really good price? $29.9 on the road. Highland Radio time checks with Expressway. Travel Route 32 from Lettuce to Dublin when you book online and travel for less. Expressway, bringing you the time, Mark. 11.18, you're very welcome back now. As we mentioned at the start of the program, the price of a national stab is going up. Garrett Bridgman is CEO of on-post commerce, mails and parcels, and he joins us now. Hi, Garrett. Morning, Greg. Thanks for having me. Before we get into the reasons why, and the kind of self-explanatory, how popular is national posting now? I mean, is it mostly banks sending out statements and what have you, or what is the sort of demographic if that's the right word of the national posting system? Yeah, so obviously what we've seen the last number of years is we've seen a big increase in people sending parcels. And people sending parcels from, you know, personal parcels to people, obviously we're all buying more online. We've seen a huge growth in that over the last number of years. But in terms of our mail service, really what we've seen is about 80% of the mail that goes to our system would be sent by banks, utilities, sending kind of business communications to their customers. So there's still about 20% of people who send personal communications, you know, to each other, gifts or cards like Christmas or birthdays or, you know, Valentine's or wedding invitations. So there is still a people sending a lot of mail. I mean, we do actually deliver over a million letters every day still in the country, which is still a very big number. It certainly is. But the cost of doing so has increased and I presume on post can't absorb those costs. So that's where we're seeing these increases. Yeah, well, really what we've done is we've kept these increases to a minimum. We don't like putting the price of our products up. But what we've done is we've put a 5 cent increase in the year, which is about 3.7%, which is below inflation. And really the necessity for doing it is to, you know, our costs have gone up. And actually, if you look at our input costs, we're heavily weighted in terms of things like fuel, vehicles, transport, energy, and they're actually up 6% this year on last year. So, you know, big increase, but we've kept them to a minimum. But what we'd say to customers is like, you know, well, first of all, we're still way below the EU average, which is 173. And we're below our neighbours in the UK for the first time ever. And we still offer, you know, one of the highest quality of services of mail in not only in Europe, but in the world. But we'd say to customers out there, because everybody has a few stamps knocking around, they have them in their wallets, or they might have some Christmas stamps left over. The stamps that you have today are still valid and you can use them in the new price range. So they're still valid and you can still use them. And then for like our business customers who are incredibly, incredibly important to us. And our consumers, there's discounting available as well. So if you buy a booklet of 10 stamps, it's still 135. A lot of people have business have these sort of digital, these machines that they put their letters into. And it's not a physical stamp. Is that what a digital stamp is? What's a national digital stamp? I don't even know what it is. Yeah, so digital stamp, really what came about this is that, you know, we've all been there where, you know, we want to post something to somebody, but we can't get to the post office. It's the weekend and the post office is closed, or it's late at night and your business has been working. So what you can do is you can buy an actual digital stamp from a post, download the app. And for two euros, you can actually download the app, put in your credit card details and we'll send you a 12 digit code. You write that digit on to your envelope and that item then will be delivered the next morning. What you'll do is you'll get a text to tell you when it's delivered, which is really, really handy. So it's like registered post to it, not it's not like the end game is. So how much is a digital stamp? A digital stamp is two euro and that's not going up in price part of the increases. And the great thing is we're launching an international digital stamp later at the end of this month because a lot of us are sending cards and communications to our friends across the water or worldwide and really getting that text notification to say your card is being delivered is fantastic because it gives you that comfort of mind, especially if you're sending something internationally. After Christmas, Garrett, and listen, this might not be in your area of expertise, but after Christmas, we got a rush of calls and then it started a big conversation and dozens and dozens of people posted stuff to Australia, be it envelopes, you know, like cards, envelopes and parcels. And we had dozens of people that they weren't delivered. Now, I have no doubt that on post got them to the ferry or the plane or whatever might be. Have you heard of this, Garrett? Any insight as to what's happening over there? Is it because of the type of stuff we're posting or is there issues with the Australian Postal Services? Again, the answer is not my area of expertise. That's fine too. Yeah, no. I mean, we obviously, a large part of our traffic, a large part of our customers' products goes internationally and we deal with all the international posts. We haven't heard anything specifically around Australia and are having any issues out there. So what I'd say to any customer listening, if you have any issues or any of your items, we have an award ringing customer services team who just ring in and they will answer any queries I have. And they are knowing for, you know, going to the end of the world to find your item and find out where it is if it hasn't been delivered. But it should have been, but as I said, we haven't heard anything specifically about Australia during Christmas. Yeah, that was generally accepted. If there is an issue, it's on that side rather than this side. All right, Garrett. Thanks for your time, Garrett Bridgman, CEO of on post commerce, mail and parcels. Some comments here. Totally agree. Shingles is a terrible condition. My 86-year-old father contracted it in his face in 2007 and still suffers this day with after effects, as did our earlier caller. I mean, he's pleased now that he's not having to put on patches to relieve the acute pain, but still gets the tingles, the tinges or whatever you might describe it. There's another listener whose father had it. Hi, Greg, would you play Come Home, Danny Boy, Please by the late great Seamus McGee. May he rest in peace from an initial listener. And indeed, there's a huge outpouring of goodwill and nice messages and nice words for Seamus McGee after his passing was confirmed. Yesterday, Caroline, we have it lined up. When am I paying that song? We'll play it a little later and we might play out with that because Daniel O'Donnell is going to speak to us just to pay his tribute as well. And sometimes I think when Daniel does that, he's speaking on behalf of all of us, if you know what I mean, or those out there listening with a love of music. I think he articulates things almost on the music community's behalf, if that makes sense. So he's going to join us a little later in the program. All these counties outside Dublin should pay the employees the same way just Dublin employees that comes in from dark. Yeah, Greg, there was a poll done on over 75% don't want mass immigration. Yeah, I'm familiar with the poll. I'm not contesting the poll. It was done about 11 months ago. There was lots of questions in it in terms of unlimited immigration at all. You know, I can't emphasize I'm not contradicting anyone out there, right? But the exact factor incredibly important, i.e. what was the question, what was the response? I'll get the poll. I'm not contesting the poll. I'm not saying it's wrong, okay? But there were different questions contained within that poll. And the way it's been reported in the months afterwards, it's not exactly how it is. It doesn't disprove the poll, okay? But I just believe that facts are so incredibly important. Greg, the personal people who were spraying this graffiti around letter Kenny are not doing anything good for the cause of Christ. Graffiti on public spaces is when done without permission is antisocial behavior. It's vandalism. Wrongdoing is vandalism. And even though it's within the law, it's illegal. Jesus Christ never broke the law. He fulfilled the law. Therefore, this behavior is doing nothing to help the cause for which it is intended. That comes in from Mary. Not a nice story what happened to that lady in the hospital car park who didn't have the full money for the parking fee, but I kind of do not blame the people who didn't help. It's scary times with scams and whatnot. People are just being cautious. Yeah, definitely, definitely. I get you. Yep. There is an element of that. But this is a woman in the hospital car park looking for 50 cent who's clearly pregnant in the cold without a coat. But I take your point. The standard of women's sport is lower than the men's because a difference in access to practice and training repetition to the point of automaticity, if that's a word, is what is required in any training. That's far easier to achieve if sport is a full time job rather than something you're forced to fit around your job, which is a point that Maya was making as well. No consultation about the 30 or 50 Ukrainians being housed at the pub in our area of the Galtuk, which will now lose its Galtuk status because there are more Ukrainians than Irish speakers in the village. Does the eradication of Irish culture not merit public discussion? Yeah, of course it does have the conversation. Give us a call or we'll call you and come on and talk to us about that. No problem if you want to discuss it. I'm just listening to the views of people on women playing men's sport. Well, I'm a man and I have no problem with it at all. You have to do is look at the Ireland's women's soccer team. They would beat the men's team, no problem. And as for boxing, it would be a brave man to get into the ring with Katie Taylor, just my opinion. Rachel Blackmore, one of the best jockeys in the world and is female and other on the gender balance in sport. People have that much to think about that they're thinking about women in sport. They're very used to seeing men playing by highlighting women in sport. You're wasting valuable airtime. When you could talk about more important issues, people are used to men playing in sport as they're stronger girls are only playing in sport recently and people aren't used to seeing them say, is that listener? Okay, I'm surprised point of view. Since there's always something more important to talk about, but there's light and shade, different subjects, different topics. So I appreciate it. Let me see. Electric cars, David, who is a love, he loves his electric car, he's a fan of his electric car, but he just can't trust the network to charge it. David is right about electric car plugs and hybrid cars is the way to go best of both worlds no range anxiety. I'm driving my second plug in hybrid Kia Sorento for my motors and drum keen very pleased that comes in from Michael in drum keen who didn't travel too far for his car. Well done. Let me see. Regarding a by the way, we have Minister Raymond Ryan on the program tomorrow. I want to get some I want to get his views on I want to get his views on houses being rebuilt in this county to old building standards. I just can't wait to hear what he has to say about that. And not to catch him out not but just to get the Green Party leader who is a member of the government coalition to explain why he thinks it's a good decision that we rebuild houses in 2024 to 2008 standards or 2005 2008 standards. And we'll probably go into yes but there's a grant available but why is there a grant available just should it not be more streamlined so I can't wait to ask him about that and get a definitive answer for the people that are affected by it. I'm very interested in what is the government's commitment to the 10 t road projects bridge in ladder Kenny etc. Is it on the cars? What is the time frame? The last time I spoke to him there was no time frame. Is there a time frame now are things moving ahead? Maybe he has a surprise announcement. I haven't a clue. Another issues as well. So it won't be live because of he's got all the appointments so I'm going to come in early and record it. If you want to message 08 660 25000 I can't reel off a whole load of stuff we have a short period of time and people are inclined to answer questions in a long format so you don't get as many questions because they want to be thorough of course that would be the reason. But we're going to do that tomorrow and play that then tomorrow after 10. So those are a couple of issues there are more in the back of my head but things I think very important that we got a bit of clarity on you know I mean we're talking about is the government fully committed to funding and seeing the progression of that route when everything is dotted and crossed? When is it going to happen? What's the time frame? Give us a time frame. He knows he's coming up here. He knows he's going to be asked about it. So if there is a time frame we'll hear it. If there isn't I think maybe should we start questioning whether it will happen or not as well. There's very little road building activity going on in this county at the moment. Does that work at the McGrory's Bray? I think there's a bit of work out in Glentys outside of that. What else is happening? Is there any work on significant road development in Donegal happening at the moment or even in the pipeline? Now I'm open to correction. Is there anything we've got that work at McGrory's Bray which is really for cycling but also will improve road safety and I think there's a bit of work going out in Glentys but other than that are there any major road works planned? Anything that might actually happen? Looking forward to a conversation with Pat the Cope Gallagher. He's on the programme next. I want to know what his plans are. Hopefully he'll answer the questions. He'll answer me one way or other whether if he's made a decision he'll tell us if he hasn't he won't but we'll find out because I think I've pitched and I've said it on the programme before. I think Pat the Cope Gallagher has the potential to have a really significant influence on the general election in this county when that is finally called but we'll get his views sorry into intentions on MEP ship as well. That's coming up in a couple of minutes. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com. Do you need a UK address? Save hundreds of euros on custom charges shopping online with Space Hub Dairy. We provide a full virtual address mailbox service for all your business and personal use. Save hundreds possibly thousands on custom charges with Space Hub Dairy. Call 04871878077 or online spacehubdairy.com for more details. Hands off our land for more in your Irish farmer's journal, his Paul Mooney. The new IFA president is vowed to fight the confiscation of farmers land. Board B, a QA proposal tells farmers who they should buy cattle from. T-shirt vows to resolve VAT issues and TAM's grants. Minister, backtracks and acres payments. Plus don't miss our top tax saving tips that could save you thousands. Including farmer case studies and advice on how to minimise your revenue bill. Only inside the Irish farmer's journal, you cannot afford to miss it. Why leave all the magic moments or great scenes you've captured on your phone, sitting there or in the cloud when you can have them printed at McGee's chemist. Using the McGee's app or one of the in-store kiosks, you can upload your photos from your phone, Google Photos, Facebook or Instagram and have them printed instantly within an hour or in by 10 and ready by 5. See McGee's.ie for more details. Hold your memories in your hand with McGee's chemist, Letter Kenny. OK, you're very welcome back to the program and it is a good morning to former MEP, former TD, Pat the Coke Galaher. Good morning, Pat. Thank you so much for your time today. Good morning, Greg. Right, now you had been tipped to run for FinaFall in Europe. Of course, you've got a track record, as I mentioned, as a former MEP. Were you open to that idea at a point in a since change your mind or what has been the process there, Pat? Well, the background, Greg, to it is this, that the party-invaded nominations from the membership throughout the huge constituency of Midlands, North West, and of course that was right down to Lee Schoffley. And the last time that that constituency was in place was in 2014 when I ran and lost by a mere a few hundred votes out of about half a million votes. But then, having said all that, I didn't look for any nominations. I was surprised, actually, to get a call from headquarters early in December to say that I had received sufficient number of nominations to go before convention. And rather than decide immediately, I thought with respect to those who nominated me from Donegal and other parts that I should give it some consideration. So there was no difficulty with that. I did that over the Christmas and of course we had the untimely death of our good friend, Noreen McGarvey. So I decided that I wasn't going to consult with anybody until last weekend. And I decided, finally, that I wouldn't contest it. That it meant I would have to embark on a huge campaign throughout all of the constituency. And I'm familiar with that from the past. And I was physically able, as it was, when I embarked on a campaign from Connor Doster in 1994. But I also began to consider that there was another candidate that nominated from Donegal who has been out and about for about six months, that's Andrew Nyle Blaney. And I certainly wasn't going to be the one that was going to split the Donegal vote. And I took the decision at the weekend, I've written to the membership in Donegal to tell them that I wasn't going to contest convention. And I was calling on them to support the Donegal candidate. Okay. And that's as clear as that can possibly be. We will talk about the European elections. But in terms of your future patch, you know, this is regardless of anyone's political party. It's not a commentary on that, but many people will say that you are as busy as any TD still now in terms of of assistant people and constituency work. The only thing missing, of course, is the fact that you aren't actually elected to the doll. We could have a general election late this year. It's probably early next year. At this point, have you decided whether or not you would be interested in running for national elected government again? Well, just let me preface my remarks by saying since I lost the seat in February 2020, I have been extremely busy every day of the week, responding to calls from former constituents who ring me for advice and for assistance. And of course, while I lost my seat, Greg, I haven't lost the context that I built up over a period of almost 40 years. And once one calls me, and if they have an issue that one needs to raise, I know immediately how to handle that. I know immediately who to contact. But you're quite right. I don't. I'm not officially a public representative. So therefore, I cannot submit parliamentary questions to issues that I want to raise. But I have plenty of colleagues, former colleagues in the valley who are prepared and can do that for me. So once I have the approval of people to make representations on their behalf, then I can do that. So I'm unofficially a public representative all the time. And I think that gives rise to the view that, well, I must still be interested. I'm not doing that because I'm interested in becoming a candidate in the general election. And doing that is because that's what I've been used to over all of these years. So to answer your question, I haven't given consideration to the next election yet, but I do believe that it will be sooner rather than later, even though Amon Ryan said, I think it was in your program this morning on Highland that he felt it should run until the end. But Leo Radker and Consist, that has said at all times, well, he's not going to call an election in the winter again. Now there's another factor, Greg, that should be taken into consideration. When I went for Europe with 24 hours notice in 2009, if you might recall, I was back in the valley and we had two candidates, Shannon Yarkton and Pascal Mooney. Shannon Yarkton, who succeeded me, decided that he was withdrawn his name. And to be honest, which I get 48 hours notice and I went and I got into the campaign. Now then at that time there was no dual mandate. So there had to be a by-election. Now the government at no stage could keep pushing out the by-election every time it was raised in the DAL if they had the majority. And then Peer Storty took a case to the courts and the judge ruled that if there was a vacancy in the DAL, the by-election had to be held within six months. So we presume now that there may be two or three PDs elected to the European Parliament to relinquish their seats immediately and the by-election would have to be held before the middle of December. So and then if they lost those by-elections, they wouldn't have a majority. So that's the view that I have that they might decide to go. So with all that considered, and I know like that there is internal conversations that happen and what will, if Charlie McConnell is running, if he is, and if it's the right thing to do strategically, because I know you're a feet of fall man through and through, but if the cards fall in a certain way, it's not something you're ruling out. You would be, or is it something that you want to do? Because there's lots of people listening that are really keen to find out your intentions if you'd be prepared to share them with us, depending on all the caveats that I've mentioned. I would like to think you could share them with you, but I'm not in that position, Greg, to do that. But let me say that if there's to be a strategy, then there has to be a candidate in the Old North East and the Old South West that I represented up until 2016 when I was elected for all of Donegal. So and then we have some very able councillors and of course that would have to be taken under consideration and there are others there. So I'm not going to stand in the way of any of those people, but it's much too early to take any decision. You're not ruling yourself out and if the party approached you, I think you probably respond favorably as the reading. I'm not going to ask you to reiterate. You've been very clear, but that's the reading I'm taking. I can't confirm or deny the reading that you're taking. That's great. So I'll have to do another reading on my reading on what you've said, but anyway, come here. Before that anyway, we have the local elections, which are going to be very important and that you said in a press statement. That's your priority to work with the party to sort of maximise the vote and the returned councillors as part of the local government elections in June. A date we do know. Yeah, well, I've always said that the University of Politics is in Lifford in the local elections. I ran for the locals. I got elected in the few years afterwards. I went to the DAL. So I've learned a lot there and the local elections are rightly important. But if we look at the local elections in 2019, Greg, shouldn't fainted very badly in those elections. And we thought at the time that Leo Bralke would have gone to the country, but now he procrastinated and went on until January 2020 when he decided to call an election because he was under pressure to do it. He didn't do it. He always won a card. He did it because the rural independence were putting down a motion of no confidence in one of the government ministers and it was felt that they would have lost that. That's why he went to that time. So I think he may well go from sources within the government are telling me that we should be ready for an election possibly in September. And of course, if they do badly in the local elections, that might decide that he would carry on. It's just very difficult to call. But there was one thing I would say that when we don't have to go to the country at a particular time, we shouldn't have to go in the middle of the one-third. I experienced that when possibly you went around at all in 1982. When we had an election in June 81, when I was first elected, then it wasn't the call of the Tisha. The Tisha of the day lost the confidence of the DAL with a one-third election in February 82 and another one in November 82. Those were necessary, but when it's not necessary to call it in the one-third, it should be in the summer, spring or autumn. Excellent stuff. Thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it, Pat. That's former MEP, former TD Pat the Cope Galaher. The nine-til-noon show brought to you by Kelly's Toyota, where you can now test drive the new Toyota CHR, combining stand-out styling, an engaging drive and class-leading efficiency. Keep out the cold, cold, cold, and ring-flemming for their full range of garage doors, agri-doors, insulated doors, milking parlor doors. Flemming, 91, 48, 234. Step into style with green shoes. Stocking the latest styles from all your favorite brands and footwear. From Doc Martens, New Balance and Echo, to Riker, Birkenstock and Bugatti. Shop in-store in Green Shoes Market Square, Levy Kenny Shopping Centre and Fulcara. Or shop from the comfort of home on greenshoes.com. And have the latest styles delivered right to your doorstep. Shop LK and one for all gift cards accepted in store. Green shoes, perfect fit for every foot. On Business Matters this week, after the six o'clock news on Sunday, my guest is Eugene Galon, of Reddy Meals company Bon Appetit, which is currently expanding into new premises. 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Lots of you messaging in as it relates to electric cars and shingles and other issues. If we don't get through them today, trust me, we will tomorrow. We do appreciate every single contact we receive from you here on the nine till noon show. So it was with great sadness that we learned that Seamus McGee passed away a fabulous singer, a legend. He's been described as by many and it's one of those passings. I think that people who've grown up to and have memories associated with his music that they feel, you know, it feels like a personal loss as well. He was short talk piano and accordion by Leo Brennan, father of Anya, and Marie Brennan, his primary school teacher, master Duggan is the father of Noel and Padraig, both of whom are members of Clannad. So through his friendships, his learning, both educational, you know, regular subjects, but music all intertwined with some of the best in terms of music. And one of the best, if not the best, certainly out of our parts is Daniel O'Donnell, who joins us now. Good morning, Daniel. Thank you for your time. Good morning, Daniel. Can you hear me? Okay, I'll go to Daniel in a moment. He's obviously dealing with something else. Just to remind you that Seamus was the lead vocalist of the national show of band who offered him the position of lead vocalist with the band and he went on to perform all over the place. Daniel O'Donnell is with us now. I hope Daniel, are you there? Hello. All right, he just isn't there. So let us, whilst we line Daniel up, listen a little bit to Seamus McGee. Back in the 60s, I remember Irish men emigrating to build themselves a better life all over the world. For some, it didn't turn out that way. You see, for one reason or another, the bottle became their best friend. So they went on the streets to try and hide the pain, the heartache, and the shame. The song was dedicated to them, their families, and their friends. In the West End, I saw him sitting there. He called out, hey young man, what's the time? As I went to tell him, I said, I see your Irish heart, do you come from? He looked at me, with hearing eyes. Okay, that is the late and great Seamus McGee. Daniel O'Donnell, hopefully you can hear me now. Good morning to you. Hey Greg, I don't know what half I'm going on. No, do you know what? I know exactly what happened. I know exactly what happened and it's completely my fault. I had the wrong fader at my apologies, Daniel. Yes, no, we thought it fitting to speak to you in memory of Seamus McGee. A lot of people moved by his learning of his passing yesterday. Yes, I think everybody's shocked to hear that Seamus had passed away. I had spoken to him on Tuesday. I rang him on Monday. I heard that he wasn't well and I phoned on Monday and I didn't get him and then he phoned me back on Tuesday and you know, I was asking him how he was and he said that he had been in hospital and was having a few setbacks but hopefully, I mean, the way I left it was, I'm glad that they're you know, getting a better and hopefully he'll be home soon. Never did I think, you know, when I heard on actually Path of Copted, let me know first that he had passed away. It was a shock, you know, just when you listen to Come Home Danny Boy there, I suppose that's the song most that, you know, we associate with Seamus because they wrote it and it was a big hit for him, I suppose, and it brought it brought home to so many immigrants that were living away and it was the story of so many. But he had a great love of music, a great love of country music and he sang Jim Reeve's songs as good as not better than anybody else, you know, and when I started out, Seamus was on the road at that time and, you know, we were, did a lot of things at different shows together and yes, I mean, I know a lot of people will be very sad for his passing, but you know, we need to send our sympathies to his family, you know, to Sarah and you know, to the children, to Keane and Keane and Keane and all his own immediate family and friends. It's just such a sad time, we're never ready for somebody's passing, be it certain or if somebody's sick, but it is a big, big shock and, you know, his music, I'm sure he's playing and many homes around home today and his memory and people are remembering their and memories of Seamus just as I am. But in a way, hopefully that's seen as a beautiful gift for the family and time and the family and friends and that, you know, obviously this is a very personal loss, but it's a shared loss and, you know, hopefully they get comfort from others sharing in that because of the great impact he had on their lives and the love people had for his music. In other words, whilst very sadly he has left this world to a better place, he lives on through his music and his contribution and all he achieved and the people he touched. He will and for many people, that's the case and there's many fans of Seamus, I know that will be very sad today, you know, on hearing of his passing, and but a lot of songs, I mean, I mentioned come on Danny boy, but there was a lot of songs that Seamus made his own and, you know, I'm sure that they'll be played and you're probably playing them there away at the minute. So I'm not hearing what's what's been played, but just I really think it's so important for the family to know that we're all thinking about them. And that's all you can do. You know, there's nothing can take away the sense of loss that that they'll be feeling. But he did leave a great a lot of, you know, give a lot of comfort to people through his music. I know that from different people who who I would have met and especially come home Danny boy, people absolutely loved that song, you know, himself and his cousin Danny wrote it. And, you know, it could be forever. The song I suppose that when we think and Seamus that we will always remember. And that is what we will play out with. Thank you for your time this morning, Daniel. I really appreciate it. Thanks very much. Take care. Best wishes to you and all. Okay. That is Daniel O'Donnell Payne tribute to the country done ago singer, Seamus McGee, who very sadly passed away. We'll be back with the 90 noon show tomorrow from nine. We have our Friday panel. We'll have that interview with Amy and Ryan. That's entertainment and so much more besides. But for me, Greg Hughes and Caroline Orr who researched and produced and Shannon working flat out in the program have a lovely Thursday and we'll leave you with Seamus McGee. And this is his track, as you heard from Daniel O'Donnell, the one that perhaps is most associated with him. In the west end of London, I saw him sitting there. He called out a young man, what's the time? And as I went to tell him, I saw that he was an emblem of all Ireland on his coat.