 these places as fast as possible and it actually makes sense for the government to actually be involved in building them themselves. Finally for weather this morning will be mostly cloudy with a few shards. More frequent shards or longer spells of rain will develop during the late morning and afternoon with some heavy and thundery bursts possible which may cause localised flooding. Highest temperatures of 7 to 10 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. We all need a top-up known again. If you're pregnant, your flu and COVID-19 vaccines will give your immune system the top-up it needs to help protect you in the months ahead. Both flu and COVID-19 can cause serious illness and pregnancy and your vaccines will help protect you and your baby. So put a vaccine appointment on your to-do list or talk to your doctor or midwife. Visit hsc.ie for more information. From the HSC. Good morning to you. This is the 9 to 9 show on Highland Radio. Donald Kavanaugh with you for the first 9 to 9 show of 2024 and a very happy, peaceful and prosperous new year to all of you out there. It's going to be a busy show the first of the year. But of course we want to get your opinions. We want to get your views and your take on the news of the day or indeed the issues that you want to raise. You can text us on 08-6-60-25,000. You can call us on 07-4-9-1-25,000. Caroline Produce again taking your calls. Shannon taking your calls and taking care of social media for us this morning as well. You can also use social media. We are at Highland Radio on X where Highland Hub on Facebook and comments at highlandradio.com should you prefer to use email. Of course the text number 08-6-60-25,000. Also good for WhatsApp messages as well. As we always do, we'll take a look at the papers before we go any further. And the front of the Donegal Democrat this morning, Noreen was a very gentle, kind-hearted, considerate, warm and caring lady. Tributes have been paid following the passing of councillor Noreen McGarvey, who's been laid to rest at the age of 52. Donegal native Noreen passed away peacefully at Donegal Hospice on Thursday and indeed all of us in the newsroom and on the show here have had dealings with Noreen over the years and she's been nothing less than an absolutely wonderful person to deal with and we knew her long before she was elected a councillor of course because Noreen McGarvey worked very closely with Pat the Cope Gallagher and anyone who knows Pat the Cope Gallagher's work rate will know that Pat the Cope Gallagher's office is one of the busiest public representative offices in the country ever. So anyone that worked in that office was a person who was busy and Noreen was most certainly that. Our thoughts are with her family and we look ahead to what happens over the course of the coming months in the Dlentes electoral area but there's time enough for the political talk right now. All thoughts are with Noreen and her family. Our region dependent this morning landlords will need more tax breaks as minister. That's going to be a very popular opinion first thing in 2024 tax cuts for landlords introduced in the budget can be further strengthened to keep good landlords in the market according to the housing minister Dara O'Brien a temporary tax break worth between 600 and 1000 euro a year was introduced in budget 2024 and Mr O'Brien says that could potentially be increased as part of budget 2025. I'm not sure how popular that suggestion is going to be among the wider populace but we can certainly wait and see. Conversely housing story on the front of the Irish Daily Mail housing crisis shows no sign of easing 30,000 buyers for just 11,000 homes a record number of first-time buyers are chasing the lowest supply of housing stock nationwide for more than a decade a new report reveals there are just over 11,000 homes available to buy nationally that's the fewest since 2012 when there were 60,000 homes on the market. Front of the Irish Times this morning number of Garther Rhodes officers fell as death throws in 2023 and I've heard McKellar with that story on the news over the course of the morning. Also sharp rise in schools seeking emergency funds records indicate just one primary school successful in securing additional funding we've heard several stories from schools in Donegal indeed one school had its case raised in the dollar number of occasions schools which particularly found themselves short of money because they took in refugee children and their class sizes were considerably increased but because this all happened after the Department of Education cut off for funding and for capitation budgets and so on and so forth they got no extra money. Let's move on to the tabloids Irish Daily Mirror this morning Tuberty's right turn or it's supposed to be return it's not the best one ever I've seen on the front of a tabloid paper and we've seen some fairly bad ones over the years let's be honest and star back on airwaves Ryan Tuberty will return to Irish airwaves today for the first time since the RTE secret payment scandal erupted last summer. The presenter will host a new 3R program on Virgin Radio UK in London which will also be broadcast on Dublin's Q102 the former late show star who is 15 said I'm really looking forward to getting back on the Irish airwaves and to the listeners who've supported me since they won and that's going to be really interesting. If Ryan Tuberty is doing a radio show on a UK radio station but it's been syndicated to an Irish Dublin station so he's going to be trying to stick in content for the Irish people who know who he is but he's also trying to win over a UK audience switch. Let's face it despite all the hyperbole most people in the UK don't have a clue who he is so he is going to have to establish himself in the UK and it's going to be very interesting to see how he actually walks that tightrope front of the Irish Sun is pretty much the same story. He's back on the airwaves Ryan and Shine and a sub headline. Wogan's son dad tipped Tubbs for top. You can't beat a bit of alliteration first thing on a Tuesday morning on a bank holiday weekend and it raining outside. Ryan Tuberty has been tipped to crack the tough UK radio market by Terry Wogan's son. Mark Wogan reckons Tubbs whose Virgin Q102 show starts this morning can emulate the success of his late father. Now that would be a tough. Will Tuberty be as big as Wogan? Don't see it. Sorry. Don't see it. Could be wrong. Could be wrong. All the best to him. And the front of the Irish Daily Star this morning. A story very close to home given Christmas pain. She tells of heartache. It'll never be the same says star after brother and uncle die and many people in Donegal only too aware of the sadness which has befallen the given family over the past 10 days or so. She losing both an uncle and a brother and more on that story on the inside of the paper. So that's the way things are looking this morning on our newspapers. There are stories of hope stories of pessimism stories of sadness stories of joy stories looking ahead stories looking back. It's the start of a brand new week and as always it's going to be an interesting week. It's going to be an interesting month. I think it's going to be an interesting year. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Sentra Mountaintop Letter Kenny the 2022 C store national off license of the year. Normally at this stage we'd go for a break but I don't want to go for a break just yet because we've a gentleman in the studio with us and he's a gentleman on something off a deadline. So I don't want to detain him too long. Delighted to say that in studio this morning is Brian McDade. Brian you are very very welcome indeed. Thanks very much. Brian the driver and anyone in letter Kenny will have seen this wonderful colorful car driving around in in recent days and every time you see it there's a few more stickers a few more logos a few more sponsors. The drive around Ireland Brian starts this morning to tell us about the venture. So we can get a bit closer if you would that microphone actually you're a little bit a little bit too far away. So get a little bit close in there. So your dulcet tones can be heard. Yeah that better. That's a lot better. Yeah a lot better. So the drive starts this morning. Drive starts this morning. I've already started. I started in Fannott this morning at half seven. I saw the post actually on social media outside your dad's old office. That's a wee personal thing and I'll talk about it probably later on in the drive you know. This is a kind of a I'm going to be sixty in January and eleventh January and to market I just wanted to do something kind of we'd be different. I'd done the same thing when I was forty I drove a wee money to Monte Carlo in memory of him in Harvey and this one really probably is in memory of my mother. Yeah and I probably was thinking about her when I was doing the last one as well you know. So I know it's a sad time but this is a celebration of her life and a celebration of my father's life you know. We go through the hard time at Christmas thinking about them but the second of January for us we always move on to another year. Our family the four boys was Brian myself Neelus who is in Boston and Cahill in Latter-Kinney and Potter in Latter-Kinney. The car and it's interesting when you're going to drive around the country and you're raising money for for Donegal Hospice which is where the drive officially sort of gets underway with regard to escort in what a little over sixteen minutes time. So we won't detain you over long Brian. I do give you that commitment but it's an interesting one. I was on the fundraising page last week and at that point I think your aim was five thousand five hundred or was aim was six and you were on about five five at that point. You must have hit the target by now. Yeah we have hit the target and we've passed the target and if everything was and we're well over the target but between donations privately and what I've found this time compared to the last time we done it there are a lot of anonymous donations there and I never know who they are and I never know how to thank them so we're going well on the money and that's the hardest part that I find of a fundraiser I hate asking for the money so the car as you say is doing the talking. Yeah. The car as we car at eighteen years old as a wee Toyota and it's 186,000 kilometers on the clock. It's also unique. I don't know much about cars but I know a bit about cars but I've never heard of a Toyota Passel before. No it's actually made probably by Dehatsu and Dehatsu is owned by Toyota and it's a Japanese import car and it come here and it belong to a doctor in the town and they were emigrating to Australia, Darwin and they put the car up for sale and I bought the car on Facebook. I saw that. I mean and we are friends on Facebook so I mean I've been following this and it's very interesting what I remember you put up the first picture and it's hopefully that just looks like a slightly slightly strange arous but em no and it is it is this very interesting model. It's an automatic as well which hopefully will make the drive a little easier or will it? No it's you know this once you get used to automatic and just it's not well powerful and mind you I'm not that small so it has a brave way. Yeah. So it's not it goes well it's lovely to drive a couple I was coming up from Fannett this morning there and even there are a couple of categories actually past me so you know I'm not going that fast. So you know you aren't going to be breaking the speed and getting in trouble with the car the other way. Definitely not definitely not just and it's a drive round at my ease on my own and take in if you want to stop if you see something you know you're not I have a timeline but it's stretched after this this morning it'll be stretched out you know. So car is going great. Paul Reid Reid motorsport done a kind of a look at it a deep look at it and he just very little had to be done a couple of brake pipes to the back and a couple of drives and oil and filter and that was it. Now I have to say Brian I drove from Warford via Carlo to letter Kenny yesterday and that was a nasty old day to be driving it now to be honest it's you've not picked the best time of the year for a drive around Ireland. Now well and do you know this I was coming up this morning and I left Fannett and it was lovely and it started last three and I came into Milford and at the same time you know this I'm sitting on and for me the journey is always a part of the destination you know and I enjoy driving enjoy driving the cars going well and listening to music and it's a CD players in it so there's a lot of old CDs with not scraping them there. Oh yeah. I'm listening to them but no it's I'll enjoy it and enjoy driving in the one through as well it gives you a kind of wee bit of therapy when you're driving and when you're on your own I find it great just you know. Which came first the car or the idea? Oh the that the thing about that car well that car there is going up and down past my house every day and I never even noticed it but the idea was there but yeah I just I was thinking about another money but just can't couldn't get one you know and that wee car once I sat on it the very first day I went over one of the speed ramps up Glencar is this is this is different this is the car yeah you know so the idea was there for a long time and I wasn't you know this I never said to anybody at all not even my family because they would be saying what are you doing that for what you know why bother you know where fuck do it you know what that's what I enjoy and enjoy taking the photographs and I enjoy driving you know some ideas. And will there be some form of I'm sure there will be knowing you there will be a pictorial record most certainly because I mean anyone who follows you knows you get great pictures every day but I mean is there even the possibility of a coffee book out of this because you certainly have the skill to get a really good coffee book of pictures rather than well it'll be coffee but they might be no good there's one certain establishment in town that you're pretty much keeping in business I get the impression because of all the time I see you 80% it's waving to you through windows yeah that's right and the slash in the rain and you're out walking and you're enjoying it you know so I think we're both where we want to be there's a part of me prefer to be where you are but we won't go no it's very good very happy with it and I just as I say the donations is what it's about and that is working well and we just want to keep it going now and get a nice you know donation to towards the hospice that's what you want about it. Well Brian all the best with it we let you go to the hospice and get your is there's a guard escort from the hospice to a Donald park and then it's off to lead from via and run around on mind you not time the garage we're behind me in the street but the day to day they'll be in front of me you know so. Brian I mean as I say anyone who's been in letter Kenny will have seen the car it's a lovely blue car for stoned with stickers it's it's been all over the place particularly parked outside Max on the high road let's be honest about that that's where you see it most. I'm actually a bit embarrassed going to Max because any time you go on to think of looking for a donation and I'm not you know what that's what you've given them so much business to you twice over Brian it's beyond this date. Brian McDade all the best with it oh and by the way in advance happy birthday for the eleventh as well. Thanks very much Brian it's been a pleasure talking to you we wish you all the best with the journey people can I sure if they want to help still still do. Yeah we have an internet page and there's even a QR code on the car and anybody sees it they can actually take a picture of it and it'll do it straight up. That isn't Brian it's been a pleasure. No bother. Thank you very much. The county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on Highland Radio. Hi Paddy here at Shane Connick cars in Donegal town. Are you looking to upgrade your car? With Shane Connick cars you'll find mix and models for every budget. Great finance options and we also accept trade ins. Check out Shaneconnickcars.com or call into us at Shane Connick cars from down her road Donegal town. Highland radio time checks with Expressway travel route 32 from letter Kennedy Dublin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time mask and the time here on Highland radio is 20 past nine and as I say this is the national news show just let you know what what the crack is with Brian a Brian started as we said at fun at this morning now he started as he said a very personal journey it was outside where his dad used to work for the ESB and he is now heading for the Donegal hospice at half past nine gets a garter escort from O'Donnell to O'Donnell Park and then it said Lindon around about half 10 Balaba Fay about one o'clock Locke Esk at about two and then he sitting for mana at about three drive around for mana and then County lead from at seven and hopefully Brian gets a really nice run through for mana as well it should be a very interesting drive indeed. Now we're going to move on and we're going to talk about Port Salon Pier because a project was to have started at Port Salon's pier over the course of the summer in order to draw down funds so that they could have the funds drawn down in advance of a deadline in October and I'm joined on the line by Mary from Port Salon Mary very good morning to you. Thanks Donal good morning to you too. Mary a lot of plans for Port Salon but I have those plans come to fruition. Well that's what we're wondering the community's kind of been left high and dry here at the minute and back in June there was a hardly called public meeting where we were told work had to start on the pier in July and the pier would be closed to the public from the first of July because work had to be completed by the 31st of October in order to draw down funding under the Brexit adjustment and for structure marine scheme so the community weren't happy to say the least but we knew the work had to be done and if this was the time frame then we'd put up with it so that's what happened and work commenced and the October deadline has passed work is still ongoing but in the run up to Christmas week we had awful storms here and the sheet piling that had been put up at the end of the pier has now fallen and it's halfway into the sea and we're wondering why the work started at the busiest time of the year. Why they didn't wait and a funding had to be drawn down it obviously wasn't because the work's still ongoing. Now we know that sometimes the bureaucracy of the way these things work tends to be that effectively money has to be drawn down work has to start and the work has to be finished by a certain amount of time if the work isn't started and finished by the certain amount of time and the money isn't actually quartered off then the money can be lost and we saw a situation develop I mean at the riverine between Straball and Lifford comes to mind where they had to postpone the whole project for at least a year because they couldn't get for sure licenses in time and the money fell so money can be lost and it does sometimes it does raise the financial year does tend to go from you know from January to December so if money isn't drawn down by December which means work has to be finished a month before the money can be drawn down it can be very and maybe maybe what's needed here is a whole new funding system that actually realises that there's no point in trying to do rush jobs in the middle of October just to draw down money when you might be better off doing the job at a different time. Exactly and I mean we were left with the situation where businesses were you know with the fortnight's notice basically told well tough put up with it I mean we are there being these we have a shop over there we have the stores bar the pier is the whole hub of Port Salome and here we are now facing into a new year 2024 and we're wondering well what's in store for us this season is this going to be finished I mean the waste of the money over there I mean you just have to look at the pier now and think to yourself my God they're going to have to start again from scratch you know so we've started in July it's now December so they're almost half a year on this project already and they've got nowhere so I mean we're left thinking well how are these tenders you know how do people get them I mean the construction firm that's over there obviously haven't been able to get it done yet and I'm sorry I'm going to go across you there Mary we cannot make comments about any firms we cannot I mean the weather is going to play a factor no I'm not an engineer I don't know if you're an engineer I'm certainly not I certainly cannot stand over any comment about a company or about the quality of anything that no yeah that's that's fair enough but I mean you just need to look at Port Salome here now and like this is a pair it's a historic pair it was built in the 1850s extended in the 1850s when there were no feats of engineering and here we are looking at it today thinking what's going on and from the point of view and from the point of view from the point of view of the business company from your point of view and from the point of view of local businesses you sort of put up with losing the two months of August of the July August etc last season on the basis that you would say okay we're going to lose out in summer 2023 on the basis that from the start of the season I mean effectively the start of the season these days is Easter that from Easter by Easter 2024 we're going to have a spanked new modern pair that's going to meet all the requirements and everything so you're put up with the first package on the understanding that you would have something in 2024 that would be worth waiting for as such it doesn't appear that's going to happen by Easter if at all by the summer at all by the summer yeah so we're just wondering now where we stand and where the Port Samoan community stands we just feel that we've been just treated like oh this is going to happen and put up with it and here we go again here's another summer now Easter summertime and we don't know we were told that the county council at the time promised us that they would keep in contact with the local community that hasn't happened we're here and we don't know what's going on in terms of the local public representative of Savani with them been able to give you any idea of what's happening or what the time frames are no no time frames at all we were given that it was July until October the 31st and that's all we got we're now in January 2024 and we haven't the clue what's happening yeah in terms of weather in fairness it has to be said that the weather over the last couple of weeks if not months has not been conducive to work like this it's been very wet it's been very windy it's been quite stormy that's certainly not whether that's conducive to work on a pier from that point of view I mean you know is it that we didn't anticipate the weather was going to be as bad as it was well I live beside the sea I was born beside the sea we know you don't start a project in the middle of the year when you're going to be coming into the worst bit of weather I mean a project like Port Salon pier which would should be starting February 10 when the weather is getting better not when we're going facing into the worst bit of weather well certainly I mean we know done we know Donegal weather everybody knows Donegal weather I mean what happened over there at the pier and the run up to Christmas week we didn't even have high seas I mean those workers were like oh there's high seas and we're not high seas you know so Mary we're just left wondering we are trying Mary to get something from Donegal County council maybe get one of the public representatives from the area on just to see if they can add some illumination to the situation thanks very much indeed for your contribution and letting us know what the situation is and as I say I'm hoping we'll be able to get something before too long from one of the local public reps and we'll see what they have to say but for now Mary in Port Salon thank you very much indeed thanks Donal thank you Mary thank you okay we're going to take a short break we'll be back after these watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com Harkin Fire Blazes Lifford ignites the new year with a massive January yard sale starting Wednesday 3rd discover an impressive selection of fire blazes stoves electric fires gas fires and elegant kitchen work tops all on sale don't miss out on your perfect fire blazer kitchen work top at an unbelievable price at Harkin's Fire Blazes massive yard sale from Wednesday 3rd of January Watson menswear's big January sale is now on in store and online with great discounts across top names in menswear like Andre, Tom Penn, RimaZumo, Penguin and Tommy Bow don't miss out on some great bargains in the January sale now on at Watson menswear main street editor Kenny and online at WatsonMenswear.com Expecting a baby in 2024 then get to cool kids like a winter baby sale with up to 50% off selected prams, push chairs, car seats, nursery furniture and high chairs cool kids like your premier destination for baby equipment in the Northwest will take a deposit and deliver for free nationwide shop online at babyaccessories.ie This is the until on Highland Radio we were speaking to Mary just before the break about the situation in Port Salon work began on the pier there in July and Mary and many other members of the local community not happy with the situation particularly as damage was done to the pier in the high winds over the course of the past few days now I'm glad to say we've been able to get councillor Liam Planey who's joining us on the line just to see if we can get an update Liam, good morning to you good morning Donal councillor Planey we spoke to you at the time that this work was being announced and you were confident that the work would be successful and ultimately this would be very much to the benefit of Port Salon and the community there are you satisfied with where this project is at the moment? I don't think anybody could be satisfied with where the pier is and the work is at at the moment with the pier but unfortunately the buyer fund had to be spent before the end of the year that's a European fund that was brought for the pier worked while back the buyer's not that company was let go that was doing that job there were subcontractors I'm doing a job and there was another company taking it on there and then a week or ten days but a week ago there just over a week ago the end of the pier I haven't got any update from Donny Rock any council yet but I will have later on under what the story is on it but from looking at it I'm sure that the pay that the end of the pier probably will have to replace again but the job as people have seen this time and on and the damage that's been done there wasn't going to be completed by the end of the year whatever funding they could draw down from the European funding for the time of the buyer funding was drawn down and I've got a guarantee from our minister that whatever is required to complete the job would be would be put in place and the job will be completed and we're hoping to have it well in the state after this recent damage I don't know what the story is going to be as far as that's concerned but it will be to happen to the engineer later on today now the hope of the local community would have been as I was saying to Mary the hope of the community would have been that okay they had to give up part of the season in 2023 over the course of the summer in order to allow the works to start and there was a lot of unhappiness in the community at that point because of the loss of the peer and the impact that was going to have on visitors etc but I mean is there any guarantee or can a guarantee be given to them that they will have a functional peer for the summer of 2024 because I mean if they were to lose the second season because work on the peer isn't complete it could be very very bad news for a lot of local businesses yeah well there was unhappiness naturally that was until August I think before the work started to appear and the peer itself was closed off the beach wasn't closed off at all from it and some was a small bit of activity from both groups but look there was as is there that was very very badly affected by it and we understand that and people were annoyed but they did realize from most people realized some people didn't that it was for a betterment of the peer itself because if it was let go very long it may not have stood another winter and unfortunately circumstances changed and we were dictated and the tides dictated the damage that was done to the infrastructure up there for holding on to the new concrete and those damage don't had that once but twice and until I get an update done on them that had to be based on one way until I get an update hopefully later on today and I will come back to you if you wanted that stage and I do intend to hold another public meeting down in Fort Sal and Mary herself after the first public meeting did see a number of things not in favor of what was going on down there and not in favor of myself either and she went and got MEP to reach the council to check up things that we weren't down with this but I don't be down there to tell anybody something has happened it was not happening down the way it is and that's where I intend to continue as well given Liam that we have a situation where a lot of that damage happened over the course of the Christmas holiday obviously Donegal County Council wasn't going to have been at full staffing levels over the course of the break is that going to create delays in getting a full assessment of the damage here or do you believe that damage can be assessed relatively quickly? It may be assessed ready Donegal they have consultants down there there's somebody apparently down on the pier along with the subcontractors and I'd love them as well so I'm hoping they be by a short time later from now that I will get some kind of confirmation and not I'm not sure if they're down there today or not but and then I go there to see what the story is if there's people about and take contact with the council engineers and see exactly what is happening or the badly damage or what has to be just a long long act to be taken I'm still hoping I'm still hoping that the damage is down there on the pier so it could be completed before before the Easter all this So the Easter deadline may still be achievable boss you wouldn't be giving any guarantees or you wouldn't really be expecting people to take that for yeah I don't have to see the damage it was done there but I don't think it's too serious and I do believe the stock could be completed before Easter but look I can't I'll get clarification in a while and I'll let you know exactly what's the reason As we understand it some of the damage was done to supports which were holding the new work in and to piling at the end now they were sort of support structures that we know were immediately damaged do we know yet if the actual work that was done already that concrete that was put in place do we know if that's been compromised or is that really something in the concrete had been in place at the time so there hasn't been actual work done that's potentially complicated that we have to go back to the start you reckon they can pick it up again yeah yeah anything had been done I think prior to now I don't think it will have to be undone but look if I get clarification there's no point in me saying he's thinking one thing I'm not known I'll get phone clarification I'll let you know I'll get a public meeting you're planning yeah I hope to have it maybe at the end of this we could begin the next week I think I think I can get the council engineer to come down with me as well because like an important they're there to be of answer questions that I wouldn't be able to answer and in fairness when I held the first public meeting our council engineer came down as well as did our local newspaper editor John McAteer had the role there that evening and I do intend to hold this as soon as I can again in the actual situation as I don't think there's any point in holding it and only having half answers for people right well we leave it there for the moment councillor Liam Blaney and we will watch with interest to see what happens but as we say just clarification on the extent of the damage and its implication you hope to have that very shortly indeed and we look forward to hearing what that may be in the meantime councillor Liam Blaney thank you very much indeed okay Liam thank you take care and that's for more texts I have been told I have a condition called lumbar spinal stenosis I have had a steroid injection but it hasn't worked as I'm writing this I'm in agony I've been given painkillers but they are no good I'm just wondering if any of your listeners have the same condition what pain relief worked for them or what treatment did they get I can't sleep for any more than a few hours at night I'm beginning to think it's age related and I'm not getting much help from doctors and specialists it's come to the stage where I can't do very much, shopping, dancing or going for a walk or even household work, it's totally ruining my life. Thank you for reading this letter. Now, as we say, its lumbar spinal stenosis is the name of the condition and Susie, our correspondent has had a steroid injection, but it hasn't worked and she's in agony and really you don't want to hear that anyone is in agony, particularly someone of advanced years as she is. So if you have had any experience with lumbar spinal stenosis, have you any advice, any perspective you can give in terms of maybe what painkillers worked, did any exercises work, can you point Susie in any particular direction? A caller asks, can I ask what's the law on returning items to a store? I bought a clothing item and returned it after two days, only to be told you can't get money back anymore, only a credit note. Thank you very much indeed, so says the court. Now, I listened to, it may have been Dermatul, I certainly listened to someone from the consumers association speaking just before Christmas and one of the points they did make was that if there is not a defect in the product, a store is not under any legal obligation to take it back. Some stores will take it back and give money for it. Some stores will take it back and give a credit note, but that's the store's own policy. They are under no legal obligation to take back a product provided the product isn't faulty. There's no indication in the message here that the product is faulty. So some stores will have a policy on things like gift receipts before Christmas, others won't and my recollection from hearing from the consumers association is very much it's a matter from store to store what their response may be and that's the best I can offer at the moment. If I'm incorrect and anyone has any better perspective on it, please do text us or call us as we said oh it's 660-25000 or 07491-25000 if you're calling by phone, but that's my recollection of the situation. Now, we are going to speak to Susan Gray from Park and you may recall that Susan has been quoted on a story that's been running today on the papers. It's a slightly separate story to this one, but we will certainly be asking Susan about the whole issue of regard to policing numbers. It's an issue we have of course discussed before, but we're going to talk about the driving test and the fact that 5,585 tests were lost last year because of no shows up until November and that seems to me a strange situation. Let's discuss this with Susan Gray, who is the founder and chair of Park. Susan, good morning. Good morning, Dom. Susan, I know that to get a test takes potentially six, seven months. I mean, and the waiting list in some test areas is literally stretching into 30, 40 plus weeks. The fact that there were 5,585 no shows for tests, given that there's been a waiting list of half a year and given that a hefty application fee has been paid, that seems to me to be at the very least highly surprising. It's going to just start happening year on year and we've been reporting it to the media, to the various ministers of transport and to the road safety authority, because the road safety authority noticed this look-alike for wanting a better word. Back in 2013, where thousands of learners were just rolling over the permit, all they had to do was apply for the learning permit to sit down. All they had to do was apply to sit the test, pay the RSA 85 euro and if they didn't turn up for the test, the RSA still renewed the permit. So in 2013, the RSA and the Road Safety Strategy then promised to close this look-alike at mandatory by the first quarter of 2014. Here we are 10 years later now and they're still rolling off with our apparements. The Irish Times did a great report in October showing that up to 30,000 learners that were on the third or subsequent permit had never ever sat a driving test. It's appalling, it's just beggars' belief that this is still allowed to happen. So we welcome the Mr Chambers announcement there after we get to the figures from through a PQ from the Road Safety Authority. He announced last week that when he gets the backlog of driving test written things down to approximately 10 weeks, which he believes will be by the middle of next year or this year, sorry 2024, so by June or July, he will then make the legislative changes to make it mandatory for a learner to sit. Is it your belief that some people are effectively choosing to continue to drive on a provisional license rather than take a test and that this is a strategy on their part? Yes, well the figures speak for themselves. Almost 6,000 tests lost. Like in October alone, 697 learners just didn't bother to show up for their test. We're not talking about people who cancel the test and give a reason and get another test. These people are simply not showing up and what that is creating is a bigger backlog for the poor learners that's waiting and waiting for a test because these no shows, the testers are sitting in their in the driving test centres waiting on these drivers. They don't know the one to show up so that test slot is gone. So we estimate like January to November 5,500, December and average of another 400. So we claim that when we get the figures for December, there's going to be over 6,000 tests lost because of no shows. So this new law cannot come on quick enough. If a learner does not bother to turn up for his or her test, why in God's name is RSA continuing to renew their permits? And the next follow-on question, the next follow-on question from that is if there are learner drivers choosing to continue to drive on a provisional license rather than take a test, does that now mean effectively that there are many thousands of provisional license holders effectively driving without an accompanied driver because the law is quite specific with regards to people with provisional licenses. You cannot drive unaccompanied, that is the law. So if there are people choosing to retain a provisional license rather than take a test, does that suggest certainly in the case of some of them that they are out there on a provisional license driving unaccompanied? Well, if you follow the GARDA updates on Twitter and Facebook, they are continually on a week basis, highlighting that they're stopping learner drivers on a component as well. And they're seating a car under the Clancy Amendment. It doesn't seem to be working that law, sadly, because some GARDA report in three weeks later they're catching the same learner driving unaccompanied. They only have to pay just $125 million to get the car back from the compound. So that law is not working. So the poor GARDA are out there catching, detecting these drivers right left and center, whether if they are not helping them one out and close it, if they close the flip-off and made a mandatory for a learner to test. The GARDAs wouldn't be catching half as many unaccompanied learners because a lot of them would have taken the time and effort to actually practice and stop for the test. And the law of which is a lot of them won't pass. They will not be on our roads. So I'm experienced. And the GARDAs won't have half as much work to do on getting these, detecting these unaccompanied learners because a lot of them won't be fully qualified drivers. It's not rocket science. And yet the RFA, the figures we have, they retain 55 euro every time whoever doesn't turn up for their test. In 2023, they have made over half, they have retained over half a million on no-shows, half a million euro on no-shows. Yeah. And that October alone, sorry. I want to move on. I'm going to move on in a moment to the whole question about the loss of members from the Roads Policing Unit in Donegal. And it's an issue we've discussed before. I want to go back to that in a moment. Before I do, questions just come in. Do Susan and Park have an opinion on the amount of young people driving large tractors on provision licenses? And do you have any plans to campaign on changing the regulations on this? Today is the day for these two issues. You know, that's all the issues for another day. Yeah. We have so many issues coming to our door and we're a small group. But I have this concentrate on these two for today, please. Okay. That's fair enough. So let's move on to the issue of numbers within Roads units. And we know that nationally, the amount of road debts has increased. We know in Donegal in 2023, the number of road debts was 10. The previous year, 2022, it was eight. We had an increase of two over the course of the previous year. You believe there is a link between what appears to have been the diminuization of numbers in policing units and the corresponding increase in road debts across the country? Yes, that's our belief. And we've only 641 valuable members in our road streets and units right across the country. It's been reduced time and time again. It's always going in the wrong direction. This year alone, we've lost up until November and that's the latest official figures that we got these figures from. And we lost 47 members from our roads to policing units. Now, when we did a breakdown by context, sadly, we realized Donegal suffered the most in 2023. Highest reduction in members in our roads to policing units. In March, September, October, and November, we haven't got the figures for December yet. Now, the next country suffering the worst is Kerry, and then what's Donegal there? Now, surprisingly enough, in May-O when we looked at the figures, the May-O were the road safety authorities best. There was no reductions last year in roads to policing units. Now, the Guardian Commissioner a few years ago said that by 2020 or 2021, he was determined that we would have over a thousand members in our roads to policing units. Now, that would lead you to believe that he firmly believed that there was a huge need for this. And yet, there were just 9641. And the government keeps saying that as more Guardia are being trained and time for more, there will be ones allocated to release other Guardia to allocated or deployed to roads to policing units. We've had 277 new Guardia trains since October. We want to know, has any of them gone to roads to policing units? So, we want to break down Pair County. Are any that's going or are they going just to Dublin? It's not fair. There should be. Somebody would need to tackle us. Next year, we've had 184 this year, the highest and almost a decade of road death. Do we want to say next year? And the worry now is that there's going to be extra Guardi sent to Dublin because of the riots of last month. And the fear is that whatever commitments there may have been there to send more Guardi to the region, speed for roads, policing or general policing. The worry now is that Dublin is going to get an extra amount of new Guardi and even transfers of current Guardi in order to tackle the problems being caused by those riots and ongoing issues with regards to what's happening with refugees, asylum seekers, etc. So the fear is that Dublin may begin actually sucking up those resources, so whatever chance we may have had of seeing increases may actually be lessons to an extent. Exactly. But if that's happening, tell the truth. Don't have our hopes up saying as more Guardia are being trained, they won't be going on to units. We won't be keeping such a close eye on that she has no idea. We will be asking for figures every single month. And thank God we have the likes of Highland and the national radio station and the TV. Thank God we have media following and reporting on this because this is wrong. What's happening? It is wrong. 184 pressures last year. Highest in almost 10 years. And yet they're taking people, the valuable numbers on our roads, policing units. We can't get a reason, a breakdown of the reasons are some retiring, are some being promoted, are some being removed to others. We would love a breakdown but we just can't get it. And a valuable thing people need to know as well. Is that figure 641? We don't know if that's the actual figure because we're asking now how many of those 641 members in our roads, policing units across the country, how many of them are actually active members? Are they, you know, we need to know how many out of that are actually active on a daily basis. Okay. Susan, thanks very much indeed for speaking to us this morning and we will be keeping up with yourself and keeping an eye on the situation. For now, Susan, thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Bye. Okay, bye, Susan. That's Susan Gray there, the founder and ongoing chair of PARC, the Road Safety Organization. I'm going to take a short break back after these. Shut up about your friend and what she got. Why would I waste my hard-earned money on a woman like you? You'll get exactly what you deserve for Christmas. Exactly. That's what abusers tell us, to silence us. It's all lies. You deserve to be safe. And when you ask for help, you will be heard. If you're living with domestic or sexual violence, support is always here. Visit alwayshere.ie or call in Gorda Sheikhane. Brought to you by the Government of Ireland. Guess what? It's now simpler than ever to look after your health with the new gut shot from M&S Food and the scientists at Zoe. Combining delicious taste with scientific research, it's a great way to give your gut a good dose of fiber and a source of calcium, which supports the normal functioning of your tum. And it contains over five billion live cultures from 14 different strains of bacteria. This is not just a gut shot. This is our ultimate gut shot from M&S Food and Zoe. Highland radio weather updates brought you by Grant from condensing oil and HVO biofuel boilers to heat pumps and underfloor heating. You can trust Grant to heat your home. Visit grant.ie. Well the forecast I met here in tell us to expect a very cloudy morning with a few showers, more frequent showers or longer spells of rain will develop during the late morning and afternoon, some heavy and thundery bursts possible that could cause some localized flooding. Top temperatures today, 7 to 10 degrees celsius in a light to moderate south to south east wind. And that's the latest weather forecast we've got from Met. Aaron. Now Coral says I live in the Finn Valley area. The amount of learner drivers on roads every single day with no full drivers accompanying them is crazy. I see them when I am going to work. Now the Coral says there is a loophole left in every law to keep the solicitors and barristers happy. They must get their pound of flesh as well. They become judges all political appointments. So suggests a caller. We spoke earlier about the peer at Port Salon and a caller says, does Councillor Blaney not communicate with Minister McConnelogue, the minister responsible? Now in fairness, Councillor Blaney did say he has been in touch with Charlie McConnelogue and he's got a guarantee from Minister McConnelogue that any extra money required to complete the job in Port Salon because of the damage that's been done to the peer, that extra money will be forthcoming. So from that point of view, yes, Councillor Blaney did say he has been in contact with the minister and he's got that guarantee. Minister McConnelogue will say he has got no function in terms of the timing of a job and the rules are when money becomes available through Europe. You have to spend the money in a particular given period and that in a number of cases is what's actually leading to work starting at times that some people may believe is the wrong time. So maybe there needs to be a fresh look right across the board at the tendering systems, the funding systems, the way the money is allocated and ask the question, is this the most efficient way of spending our money? Is this the most efficient way of making sure that you're getting optimum amount of work done for the most value, for the most efficient time, etc., etc. And if we have a situation where the work is following the pattern of the funding rather than the funding following the pattern of the work, if that makes sense, as long as I think as long as the work is being determined by the funding rules, there are going to be issues I think like this will be very often cropping up. Quarters has told me I'm not familiar with the peer job, but that lady says we all know the Donegal weather but this year it's been wetter than most so that could delay the process allowances to have to be made. That's just my view and indeed that's what Councillor Blaney did say that the weather over the past couple of weeks has been not conducive to getting work finished and some of the heavy high winds have been causing damage onto occasions. Damage was done to pilings and to supports on the peer and indeed if you see the pictures of the peer it does not look like a job that's going to be finished any time soon. Now that said, we still know that Donegal in the winter is going to be windy, Donegal in the winter is going to be wet, Donegal in the winter is going to be cold, so whereas the weather may have been worse than usual, can you say that we expect to get mild climate weather in Donegal that would allow building work to be done on a peer in December? I'm not sure you can totally go along that line of logic. Another caller says nothing you want council-run projects complete disaster time-wise and money-wise. Now I think that's probably a touch unfair but as I said earlier maybe it's time to start looking back at the whole way these projects are funded, the whole way this work gets done and look at how these models work because there are certainly issues that do need to be looked at. There is no doubt about that. Now this is Highland Radio, we're coming up very shortly to news and imagery notices with Michaela but before we do anything else we want to take a very short break, news coming up after these. Call 9143942. Did you know that from January 2024 the contributory state pension will become more flexible? But what does that mean for me? And me? It means you can still claim your pension when you're 66 years of age or you can wait and claim it at any point between the age of 67 and 70. You could receive a higher rate of pension as a result. To find out what option is best for you visit gov.ie forward slash flexible pension. A government of Ireland initiative brought to you by the Department of Social Protection. Good morning I'm Michaela Clark with the news at 10 o'clock. Detectives investigating the murder of a Donegal woman in Scotland have reissued an appeal for information. 61-year-old Ann Call who was originally from the Ghidor area was found dead on December 22nd. Alex Riley reports. Detectives from the major investigation team are continuing to appeal for information over a week on from the murder of Ann Call in Rutherglen, Scotland. The Donegal woman was found with serious injuries at a flat on Newfield Place at around 12.45am on Friday the 22nd of December and pronounced dead at the scene. At a press conference in recent days Detective Chief Inspector Lindsay Waters said the force is fully committed to tracing the person or people responsible for Ann's death. Anyone who knew the 61-year-old or who witnessed anything suspicious or unusual on the evening of Thursday December 21st and into the early hours of the following day near to where she was found dead is asked to contact police. Police say they've been carrying out extensive inquiries to piece together Ann's movements and the circumstances leading up to her death including reviewing a wide range of CCTV and they've been speaking to residents and friends of Ann. Police are continuing to appeal for information on a Donegal woman missing from Derry. 26-year-old Anita Robinson was last seen in the city in the early hours of yesterday morning. Police have described her as being approximately five foot four in height of a very slim build with long black hair tied in a ponytail and she's understood to have been wearing black jeans a black coat and a black jumper. Police say two dates of birth are tattooed on Anita's wrist and she's a scar on the inside of her right arm. They're appealing for anyone who may have seen Anita or anyone matching her description to contact them on the non-emergency number 101. There are plans to build new reception centres for asylum seekers this year. A revised version of a white paper on direct provision is expected to be brought to cabinet this month. More than six centres are to be brought on stream that could accommodate between 500 and 750 asylum seekers according to the Irish Times. Minister of State Osteen Smith says it makes sense. So we have 100,000 people being accommodated. The government has been really scrambling to find these places as fast as possible and it actually makes sense for the government to actually be involved in building themselves. Guarantees have been given that work started on Port Salom Pier will be completed. A public meeting was told last year that works at the pier had to be completed by October 31st to ensure funding from the Brexit Adjustment Fund could be drawn down. While works commenced in July, they are still ongoing. However, the project has been left in Limbo after storms and recent weeks caused damage to the pier with fears the works could be further delayed. Councillor Liam Blaney, however, is confident that additional funding needed to complete the works that will be forthcoming. I have got a guarantee from our minister that whatever is required to complete the job would be. Guardian Donegal are urging people to make road safety a New Year's resolution. They're urging people to make responsible decisions where road safety is concerned in 2024. Motorists are reminded to slow down as speed kills, ensure seat belts are worn, never drive under the influence of alcohol and our drugs, do not use or hold a mobile phone while driving, ensure your vehicle is in a road-worthy condition and ensure that you're visible to motorists while out walking or cycling. Weather now this morning will be mostly cloudy with a few showers. More frequent showers or longer spells of rain will develop during the late morning and afternoon with some heavy and thundery bursts possible which may cause localised flooding, highest temperatures of 7 to 10 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 highlandradio.com. Good morning. The obituary notice is for this Tuesday morning, January the 2nd. The death has taken place of Lily McDermott, Margaret Naismith, Port Law Newton Cunningham. Lily's remains will repose in the obituary in Old Saints Church Newton Cunningham from 7 o'clock to 9 o'clock today. Pionomass is there tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock, followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery. Pionomass can be viewed on ChurchServices.tv. The death has taken place in Glasgow of Kathleen Doherty, named MacDevitt, formerly Octor Kerry Keele. Remains will repose at her home in Octor Kerry Keele tomorrow evening from half past six. Pionomass on Thursday morning at 11 o'clock in our Lady of Lourdes Church Kerry Keele burial afterwards in Milford Cemetery. Pionomass can be viewed on Patrick Sweeney Funal Director's Facebook page. The death has taken place of Margaret Diver, 114 Church Street Remelton. Remains reposing at her home from 4 o'clock this afternoon. Pionomass on Thursday morning at 11 o'clock in St Mary's Church Remelton, burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Pionomass can be viewed on ChurchServices.tv. Family time from 10 o'clock until 10 o'clock and on the morning of the funeral. The death has occurred of William Forbister Church Road, Killie Beggs, County Donegal. Reposing at his son's residence, Granny Killie Beggs, today from 12 o'clock until 9 o'clock. Removal tomorrow morning at half past 10 to St Mary of the Visitation Church Killie Beggs, for 11 o'clock funeral mass with burial afterwards in the local cemetery. Mass will be streamed live on MCM Media.tv. The death has taken place of John Sean Harper, 14 Gota Cromroad, Glen Mornan and formerly of 26 Dyrgolt Road, Straban and Sion Mills. Reposing at his home, funeral leaving from there to more morning at quarter past 10 for recreation mass in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Straban at 11 o'clock. Interment afterwards in Straban Cemetery. Family time please from 11 o'clock until 11 o'clock. The recreation mass can be viewed live by the parish webcam. The death has taken place of Mary McDade, name McCarran, two Lis Owen Avenue, Bunkranna and formerly of Middle Illies. Remains reposing at her residence. Removal from there at 10 past 7 this evening, going to St Mary's Church Cock Hill to repose overnight. Recreation mass at 11 o'clock to more morning with burial afterwards in the adjoining graveyard. The death has taken place of Margaret McGill, name McCollie, Ballybow Convoy. Her remains are reposing at her home. Funeral leaving from there this morning at half past 11 for 12 noon recreation mass in St Mary's Church Convoy, followed by burial in the family plot in the Old Cemetery. Family time please before the funeral this morning. Family flowers only donations if desired to the Alzheimer's Society, care of any family member or Terence McClintock Funeral Director. And the death has taken place of Paddy Kavana, Trillick Bunkranna. Remains reposing at his residence. Funeral from there this morning at 10 past 10, going to St Mary's Church Cock Hill for 11 o'clock recreation mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining graveyard. Family flowers only donations if desired to the friends of Letter Kenney University Hospital, care of any family member. For family information and more details regarding wigs and funerals, please go to highlandvideo.com. Only people from the 90s will know what that sound means. I can picture it now. Back when McDonald's started cracking free range eggs across the entire menu and internet dial-up was the only way to get online. Those few minutes wait felt super fast and it was known as the World Wide Web. Ah, the good old days. It's just one of the little changes McDonald's have been constantly making to the way we source and produce our food over the years. Find out more at McDonald's .ie McDonald's change a little change a lot. The county's number one talk show, the 9 to noon show on Highland radio. And a very good morning to you. Welcome back to the second hour of the 9 to noon show on this Tuesday morning. It is the second of January. This is the first 9 to noon show of 2024 and a Happy New Year to every single one of you. I think we can keep on saying Happy New Year until about the end of today. And after that, maybe it starts to taper off a bit. A few comments before we go any further. And don't forget, by the way, it's a Tuesday which means we will have our community garden information slot a little bit later on. Gardenia Daugherty is going to be joining us in studio very shortly. But before we do anything else, let's take a few of your comments. Collar says, I passed my test a few months ago. I was stopped at a checkpoint in the illustrant area a few days ago. One of my end plates had fallen at the back of the car. I got two points. You could still clearly see the fallen down plate through the back window. So says a corner. Collar says, if this government brings in any more driving laws to this country, we may park the vehicles up. Now in fairness, I don't think Susan Gray of Park is calling for a new law. What she is calling for is a law which was promised 10 years ago to be enacted. And the law that a person who does not show up for their test can automatically get their provisional license renewed over and over again. I mean, there's an argument that says that's not a law that's going to compromise the ordinary driver on the road. That's a law that's very targeted to a very, very specific situation. We heard a letter earlier on from a caller in South Donegal who said, who had painful spine and lumbar pain. A caller says, I suffer the same pain 24 seven. The doctor put me on a tablet called Targon. It's oxycodine. It's just about takes the edge off the pain. There's also a sacroiliac belt, and I hope I've pronounced that correctly. A sacroiliac belt that can help by taking the pressure off the spine that can be got in most chemists and something like that perhaps it may help. It certainly is not going to be a solution. And don't forget anything like that is never a replacement for the medicines you're given by your doctor. It's also it's a compliment or an accompaniment. It certainly isn't a replacement. But this sacroiliac belt can take some of the pressure off the spine. If that helps by all means try that. You can contact us. You can text us or WhatsApp us on 086-60-25000. You can call us on 07491-25000. You can contact us via social media. We're at Highland Video on X. We're Highland Hub on Facebook. Comments at HighlandVideo.com for our email. Now you can look at it. There's an interesting story actually on the Donegal Democrat. Anyone who was at Masses over the Christmas period will have heard the message from Bishop Alan McGookian in the Diocese of Rufo. Our world needs hope. And it's indeed covered on the Donegal Democrat this morning. Bishop McGookian says towns and villages in Donegal are awash with drugs. And the Micacrisis remains a huge issue in the county in his Christmas message to parishioners across the Rufo Diocese. Bishop McGookian said those in trouble could take heart from the Christmas story. We need hope, the Bishop said. The line to New Chihuahua in Highland, the time is 12 minutes past 10. If you play Highland Radio Vision Ireland Bingo, it is time to grab your books, grab your pens, and without further ado, I will hand you over to Kanas. It's time for Vision Ireland Bingo on Highland Radio. It's Tuesday the 2nd of January. You're playing on the brown sheet. The reference number is S2. It's game number one. The numbers are 23, 44, 72, 66, 18, 64, 43, 40, 27, and finally 12. Phone your claim tonight, 104833 before 8 tonight. Leave your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book. And we'll call you back the next working day. Get all your Vision Ireland Bingo information at HighlandRadio.com. Your flu and COVID-19 vaccines will give your immune system the top-up it needs to help protect you from serious illness. A flu vaccine is recommended for you if you're 65 or over. A COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for you if you're 50 or over. Both vaccines are recommended for healthcare workers, and anyone who is pregnant or has a long-term health condition. Talk to a participating GP or pharmacist or visit hsc.ie for more from the HSC. As we close for the Christmas break, don't forget that our digital showroom never stops. Visit imotors.ie, take a carry-alike, place a deposit online through our website, and when we return on the 2nd of January, we'll have you out motoring in your new car. It's really that easy. Visit imotors.ie to choose your next car. It's time for this. The Community Guarda information slot is brought to you by Sheridan Security Systems, protecting what you value most. Call today and get your zero-wire alarm system from 299 Euro. Sheridan Security, 911-26025. It's the instrumental on Highland Radio Delighted to welcome Ayn to Studio Garda Gronje de Hurdy. Gronje, good morning. Good morning, Donald. And a happy new year to you and to all associated with Unguarded Sheer Conup. And same to yourselves here at Highland Radio. And actually, that's my starting point here. So I'll get straight into it. We just want to wish yourself, Caroline, Greg, all your colleagues here at Highland Radio. And of course, your listeners, a very happy new year from us all at Unguarded Sheer Conup, Dunygol. We're hoping 2024 will be a good year for everybody. We're hoping in particular that it will be a safe year on our roads. And that people will make a big effort this year to take the road safety message on board. You know, too many lives are being lost. Too many life-altering injuries are being sustained on the roads every year. And some of these, a certain percentage of these certainly could be prevented. So we were last on air on December 19th because of the Christmas break. So between December 20th and today, the 2nd of January, there have been 12 drink driving related arrests within the Dunygol division. Seven arrests for drug driving offenses. And six of these arrests occurred between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. One drug driving and five drink driving arrests. So that was overnight New Year's Eve and to New Year's Day across the division. And of course, a number of other road traffic offenses were also detected and have been dealt with over the past number of weeks. And the main offense seems to be that of speeding, number of tickets given out for speeding. So it is the time of year to make resolutions. We're all making resolutions and I find myself at it every year. You know, I'm going to exercise more and cut down the sweets. And I've never had a last till about the 3rd of January every year. But at least that's the good intention that counts, I think. But we're asking people, and it's probably not one that would come to mind usually, you know, road safety. It's usually slimming, giving up smoking, giving up drinking, whatever the case is. We are asking people this year, we all have bad habits when it comes to road safety. You know, it's time to be honest with ourselves, realize the mistakes that we do make in the road sometimes. You know, people may find that they are in the habit of picking up the phone, if the phone bleeps looking at the phone, maybe they're going too hard in the accelerator. We're asking everybody this year, please, when it comes to road safety, make a big effort this year to be more responsible. So we're asking everybody to slow down because speed is a killer. Belt up, wear your seat belt, ensure your passengers are also wearing theirs. Never ever drive wide onto the influence of alcohol and our drugs. Don't hold use a mobile phone while driving. Ensure that your vehicle is in a roadworthy condition before travelling. You know, check the tyres, check the lights before you set out in any journey. Ensure that you're highly visible to motorists without walking or cycling. And I think we do have a certain number off the Haivas vest still in the storeroom in Ned or Kenny. So if anybody wishes to call in, we'll happily give them one of those. So we're just hoping this year is a happy and healthy year for you all. We're hoping we want to thank the public for their support in 2023. And we have had the public support in 2023 as we have every year. We're very grateful for that. And we're looking forward to serving our communities once again in 2024. Thank you very much indeed. Now, to a number of incidents for which Garthi would appreciate the help of the public out there and we're starting in Killie Beggs. Yeah, so Garthi and Bally Shannon, they're appealing for witnesses to an assault. This occurred at Main Street Killie Beggs in the early hours of Saturday the 23rd of December between in and around 3.15 a.m. and 3.40 a.m. So a man is believed to have been assaulted by another man at that location. The injured man had to go to hospital. He was hospitalized to receive medical treatment for the injuries he sustained. We're appealing to anybody who may have witnessed this incident make contact with us. We're also appealing as always to anybody who may have traveled in or around that area on that date and had a dash cam to make that footage available to us. Garthi and Bally Shannon can be contacted on 0719858530 in relation to this incident. Going to Ardra now and a number of burglaries over the Christmas period in Gengesh Court there. Yeah, these two burglaries occurred in an apartment block at Gengesh Court in Ardra. So these burglaries happened between Saturday the 23rd of December and Wednesday the 27th of December. So these apartments were vacant at the time and were reported after the fact. A window was smashed and one of these apartments entry was then gained. Then when the entry was gained the building a number of doors were forced within the building and a door was forced into a second apartment. Nothing of real value was stolen during the course of these incidents thankfully. But we're appealing to anybody who may have observed any suspicious activity in that area between those dates to make contact with Garthi and Bally Shannon on 0719858530 and the Garthi confidential line as with all of our incidents can be contacted on 1800 666111. This is one of those incidents presumably where people that lived in those apartments had gone elsewhere for the Christmas break and maybe it's a pointer to the need for things like timers on lights and just taking those precautions to try and negate the fact that people passing by can see that a place is empty. Of course yeah and as always you know don't post and I'm not pointing the finger at anybody who thought in any of these incidents injured parties but as always you know and I think we all have a tendency at times to we want to let people know if we're going away and we post to social media you know we let people know we make them aware of the fact that we're not going to be there and as well as that if there was anybody else within that apartment block that perhaps is away at the moment you know or anybody in that area that's away for a number of days over the Christmas period we would ask them just to check on their properties as well. To Letter Kenny now and a collision that took place on Saturday of last week. Yes this happened on the Remelton Road in Letter Kenny on Saturday 30th of December shortly after 9 40 p.m. so a collision occurred between two cars one of these cars then immediately left the scene. The current question has been described as being a dark saloon style car possibly an Audi. We're seeking dashcam footage from anybody who traveled in that area the Remelton Road and as far as the Polestar roundabout or within that general area if you had a dashcam you were in the area that footage could be invaluable to us so nobody was injured as a result of that collision thankfully. We're just asking anybody who witnessed the collision or who has the dashcam footage that we were requesting to contact Gardie and Letter Kenny on 9 167 100. To an incident now that will certainly have required at the very least a van and that's something that happened on the 17th of December in Castle Finn. Of course yes so this this happened on Arnie Road, Clough and Castle Finn quite close to the Clady bridge there you know the border. So two industrial sized wheelie bins were stolen on Sunday the 17th of December between approximate they have to 2 30 p.m. and 5 p.m. We're asking anybody who traveled in that area between those times if they seen any sort of activity suspicious activity to contact us in Letter Kenny on 9 167 100. We're particularly interested in any sightings or dashcam footage of a grey or silver coloured transit van that's believed to have been in the area on that date. To in a show now and an incident in Muff on Wednesday of last week. Yeah so this theft occurred in Muff Village in the morning of Wednesday the 27th of December a vehicle had been parked overnight in a car park at Main Street Muff and in around 11 a.m. on that date the 27th of December the front and the rear number plates were removed and stolen from this car. We're appealing to anybody in this instance who traveled between Muff Village in the direction of Quigley's Point between 10 30 a.m. and 11 30 a.m. who had a dashcam to make that footage available to us and any relevant information in relation to this incident may be forwarded to Gary in Boncran on 9 3 2 0 5 4 0. Yeah and concerning that I mean you know someone could be planning to use number plates for nefarious purposes at some point in the future so obviously that that's one that's important that they get detected and recovered. Of course yeah that's that's a matter that must be taken into consideration also in relation to incidents such as this. Yeah to Remelton now and an incident last Friday. No so this happened at the back Lane Upper and Remelton this happened on Friday the 29th of December between the times of 5 30 p.m. and 6 p.m. and I think that's something we've all done ourselves you know a resident in that area that just arrived home may have been away for a few days they were in the process of unpacking their car just taking their Christmas shopping and other items into the house from their car and a bag was stolen from the car during that time period so this bag contained Christmas gifts and sportswear among the stolen items was a pearl necklace pearl earrings two pairs of ladies trainers asex and brooks and a pair of custom orthotics so we're appealing to anybody who may have observed any activity in that area that stood out or cause concern between that short time frame so that's between half 5 and 6 p.m. on the 29th of December we're asking those people to contact Gary and Milford on 9 1 5 3 0 6 0 and again as always if anybody was in that area with a dash cam between those times that would be invaluable to us and should anybody come across these sorts of items for sale also please alert Gary immediately and those orthotics I mean you know their their custom which means the moon they've been expensive but number two they're very important for someone who's in the middle of treatment that they have access to them and you know the fact that their costume made you want that to get returned as quickly as possible so the person can get the full benefit from them distraction burglaries it's an issue we've discussed on the program before and there's been something of an increase right right across the country that you're concerned about well yeah do you know what I was chatting to sergeant Paul Wallace our crime prevention officer yesterday in relation to this just and we did notice that there was a number of distraction burglaries have occurred now not only go all thankfully but further down the country but I mean criminals are highly mobile you know these sorts of incidents can occur anywhere in the country so we just want to remind people in relation to these types of burglaries and maybe just to remind them to chat to the elderly members and more vulnerable members of their family neighbors friends just in relation to them to to remind them that these incidents are occurring and what steps to take to prevent them so distraction burgers they come to your door they pretend to be someone they're not just to gain access to your home and to steal your money it's just that's as simple as it is they often work in pairs one of these people may distract you at the front door while the other enters your home fair rear window rear door while you're kept talking on the doorstep and unfortunately older people are frequently there frequently the main targets off this sort of crime so and some of these recent incidents bogus callers have impersonated garrady they've called they said they're calling in relation to a spit maybe a recent burglaries and that they want to speak to the person and advise them in relation to home security and other recent incidents they have said that they're officials who are there to inspect pension cards so look they can come up with any sort of reason really for being their false reasons so in all cases we're advising people especially people who live alone the elderly the vulnerable please be wary of strangers calling to your home don't open your door to anybody unless you've checked who they are and what they want be 100 satisfied as to their identity before you open your door use your chain limiter those chains are grit on the door you know you can open the door a certain amount see who's there close the door again it adds a wee bit of extra security to your home check id we're appropriate you know if these people are saying i'm from whatever agency i'm a guard i'm from uh i'm an official of any sort ask the rads to pass it in through the letterbox you know so you can have a look at it um ensure your back door is locked if you do answer a call at the front door because regardless of whether or not you've fully opened your door or you've opened your door you could be talking to this person at the front door through the door through a closed window and while they're distracting you their accomplice could have you know gone round the rear of the house please make sure your back door is locked if you're attending the front door don't keep large amounts of cash at your home that applies to everybody you know don't keep large amounts of cash in your home contact guardie immediately if you're suspicious about a caller take note of their clothing appearance vehicle registration number and the direction of travel if possible we understand and the heat of the moment it's very hard to remember to do these things but it is it's great you know if we can get a description of the person even what type of accent they had even a small part of the registration number of their car and they turned right when they left my drive you know these pieces of information to us are invaluable so we're asking everybody again please check in on your neighbours check in on elderly neighbours friends family members talk to them about all types of scams this scam but all types of scams also just and advice and in relation to them there there was a time when you would have said to people you know if someone is claiming to be from the esp ring the esp if they're claiming to be from irish water ring irish water one of the problems you have now is that more and more there isn't a local telephone number to contact and in fact i've noticed that all the utilities and companies don't even publish telephone numbers at all anymore they want you to do everything online so from that point of view it's getting more difficult to sort of just contact a local office and verify over the phone as we might have advised people to do in the past so the advice is if you're unsure keep that door closed and if you're very concerned give the local car the station of us yeah and as you say look no more than myself yourself if you're ringing now to get any sort of sentence really it's a machine you get pressed yeah it is it's getting more and more difficult to say and we used to be able to say ring the esp in double check but you can't really do that anymore so but the the main message is you know be careful be cautious and err on the side of caution yeah well if these people are on your doorstep you're unsure as to their identity you're just not satisfied that they are who they say they are or you're unsure contact a neighbour or a family member keep them outside keep your door locked don't get them in ring the guard station say I have a caller at my home I'm unsure as to their identity the guards will happily go out they'll speak to that person they'll check their ID you know so there are all sorts of ways but the number one thing is do not you know don't permit entry to your home if you're not sure if you're not 100% sure as to who this person is and I suppose bottom line if it does transpire that they're genuine better to be a bit embarrassed than to be the victim of a crime exactly and I mean look at even if it's a genuine guard member I can only speak from our point of view our perspective if we call to somebody's door they are elderly vulnerable if they don't allow entry to the house they look I'm sorry I'm not sure I'm a wandering the guard station or a wandering my sister or brother there's no offense taken if you're genuine I I or any of my colleagues certainly would not mind waiting we don't mind waiting until you verify who we are you know so don't be embarrassed it's your safety that's you know first and foremost that's your priority don't let embarrassment get in the way keep the door shut if you're not sure who they are finally the guard the recruitment competition is opening again as of the 15th and the age limits have changed it has yeah so this competition the recruitment competition opens to applications for those up to 50 years of age from the 15th of January 2024 so should anybody have any queries in relation to this campaign or in relation to a career within in Garda Shaykhana they can visit www.garda.ie where there's a range of information to be found there and frequently asked questions also applications to join maybe made at www.publicjobs.ie and we've also maybe in recent times we've had people call to the station there's absolutely no problem with that either and sometimes it's the best way you know um you get it straight from the horse so to say but you know people call the station sometimes and say I'm interested in a career within and Garda Shaykhana and we maybe then put them in touch with one of our trainee Garda that we have in the station who have been in Templemore in recent times and they arranged to meet with them and they talked to them about the application process about how they found Templemore how they're finding the training and sometimes that can be of great benefit also you know and there's no problem so if anybody wishes to do that they're more than welcome to call to any of the 24-hour stations really would be the best stations to call to and ask can you speak to a student Garda trainee Garda and www.garda.ie or www.publicjobs.ie are the two websites that you will need uh thank you very much indeed um it's uh been great speaking to you and uh we look forward to doing it again and there'll be another community information slot of course on the 9 2 noon show on tuesday of next week but for now Gronya thank you very much indeed thank you don't okay that was uh Garda Gronya Daherty there on our community Garda slot the community Garda information slot is brought to you by Sheridan security systems protecting what you value most call today and get your zero wire alarm system from 299 euro Sheridan security 91 26025 watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland 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release of state papers uh they're published after 30 years in ireland they're published after 20 years in england and they offer interesting facts and insights and the great thing now is you know when you get to certainly when when you're my age you will remember the incidents that the archives are about when they're released 20 or 30 years later i will remember what was happening 30 years ago because 30 years ago i was here in highland radio reporting about them and my guest on zoom remembers them well and maybe not as well as me but he certainly remembers most of them i suspect historian dr joe kelly as always it's an absolute pleasure joe good morning why do you know why you're good donal and i was the luck they checked a happy new year to yourself and all in highland radio got them out of joe and happy new year back to yourself as well um i'm sure joe from the point of view of a historian this must be a time of year you really look forward to to be able to to get your teeth into documents and and read up on stories that um you by and large either remember or are very familiar with i look at i mean i'm from a generation where this process was very much happening and it was the embryonic stage and don't we're of an age where where you know i teach children they don't understand the troubles and if you remember but um bertie herron said you know the up the rock song yeah we saw her and he said look there was nothing heroic about up the rock and he was right as her former tisha we remember the troubles we remember the death the carnage irrespective of the politics often which said one was on it was a horrible horrific table stain and honor on our history and um you know that you were grown through that and and to think that now we have relative peace in the sense that people aren't being killed um i mean i grew up listening to the radio every morning as a young child hearing about death that's that's what i heard every morning and you understand that oh totally that's alien to most young people say under the age of 40 they don't understand that and these documents particularly with with the british doc released after 30 years reveal a terrible lot about northern ireland and the embryonic stage of the peace process and how they were trying to bed it down um the relationship between and bertie herron and tony blair and then previously albert reynolds so the irese papers are 30 years the british papers are 20 years um and what's really interesting about them this time donal is there's more and more documents released because back say before that it wasn't emails now it there's emails there's media newspapers cuttings it was originally newspaper cuttings and an odd memo here and there but there's a vast i think it's over over half thousand pieces of information alone that had been kept under state archives up until uh the 20 the end of 2023 so very insightful into what was happening for example in 1993 and 2003 and then there's papers for we don't understand why uh anomalies really they turn up uh out of sync with the but they released and they should have been released maybe earlier and they're very fascinating they're fascinating equally as much so um i i don't know where you want to start the fact that there is that 10 year difference that it's 20 years in the uk it's 30 years here is it a matter of you see a paper released in the uk with regards to their perspective on something that happened in northern ireland then you have to wait 10 years to see what the corresponding attitude and the corresponding response on this side was what they're trying to do is to bring the northern ireland once turned to 20 years the government are trying to come to equal terms with yeah the six counties which is understandable um but i personally i think 30 years is a healthy thing because we have to realize that in particular we talked about the north it's still very raw yeah and there's a long way to go yet and the last thing you want is papers being released that could it be inflammatory or could lead to more hurt if that makes sense um but at the same time uh the truth is the truth and and we have to deal with it and and maybe that's where we're at development and the the progress of of ireland and particularly in relation to the six counties yeah so some of the interesting stuff that that that's been coming up include indications that whereas we hailed the visit of queen elizabeth to ireland in 2011 and and those moments with uh president macalisa and all that went with it at that time i mean had the queen had her way that might have happened a lot earlier yeah i mean i had a great admiration i have to say this for queen elizabeth i can't say that of the president incumbent but i can certainly say queen elizabeth seemed to be a very honorable genuine sincere woman um and one couldn't say anything other than that about her um she she seemed to have a genuine interest in the relationship between ireland and england and that we were neighbors and that there were hearts done and she recognized that and it appears from the state papers that she came here in 2011 as you point out correctly to visit me eliz but that she'd asked previously as far back as 1998 july 1998 could she come to ireland and she she obviously was concerned and wanting to build better relationships um but at the time berty herron was teaching he said look at not this side of a general election number one and two the ire's diplomat in london dahi o cali had expressed to the british counterpart look at we're in the early stages of the peace process and we wouldn't want anything to unhence that and so it was put so to speak on the other on the long finger and it didn't happen to 2011 um but that ties in a wee bit with with the oma bombing the 29 people including a pregnant woman was was sadly killed you know the the biggest tragedy of of of our troubles in northern ireland um and in 1998 there was a month's mind anniversary service to be held in oma and the ireish president mary macalice and her tisha were were going to be present there and this caused a little bit of a uh conflict in the in the diplomat there was the british uh diplomat got in touch with the ire's diplomat saying look you're going to embarrass our queen and our prime minister because they're not going to be there and is there any way you know that they could step down from this and go to a more formal one at a later point but mary macalice and berdy heron said no we're going and that's that um so it caused the embarrassments of the president both the queen and the the uh the prime minister at the time so it just showed that that again the peace process in the early stages of it and how and this had just happened after this process had been declared a good friday agreement um so it was very very tenuous and precarious position for for for ire's diplomats at that stage yeah and the peace process obviously we're paying a lot of attention and the press right they have a lot of attention to what we're learning about the peace process and what was happening at storm and what was happening in london what was happening in dublin uh both as you say in 2003 and in 1993 one interesting thing i found was um the perspectives were getting on the attitudes of some officials to northern secretaries and uh in one case fears that the northern secretary might complicate and perhaps compromise the whole thing yeah that was Peter malice and the duke of york prince prince andrew and patrick fealty we know from rt his father had been murdered and uh the idea was that he peter malison had suggested that his father was a member of the ira and later you know it's been suggested that they try to recruit uh the the two patrick and his brother to join the ira and get revenge attack whatever else peter uh peter malison had put his two feet in it with with patrick because anything can be said about him he's a very impeccable character and would have nothing to do with that kind of uh uh sorrid uh interaction with with with with the ira or anything like that he was above that and even his tragic loss of his own father it must have hit him very hard when peter malison the the northern iran secretary on not understanding the family situation and prince said look at uh there's not a family in the north that hasn't been affected by the troubles so one in despite or difficulty sometimes with the royalty came to the rescue there for patrick fealty uh patrick affirmed look at this that wasn't true and it had nothing to do yeah in the perspective but unfortunately again things like that can be wrong things said uh at the wrong time you know could could create a lot of controversy and that's maybe goes back to how soon should we release these papers and further confirmation as if we needed it of the importance of mo mollum to the whole peace process and and the work that mo mollum was doing both uh at the table and perhaps at the coffee table and behind the scenes to make sure that a deal was achieved and it would work yes and and interesting one of the snippets i noticed in the in the state archive papers was that one of the irish diplomats got a got a lift in her private plane which was hired and belonged to christie borough the singer and mo mollum's company whatever hired it for her use and the irish diplomat had to go to something with her and he was given a lift and so the problem was don't pay the ferry man you know but anyway so that there christie borough's airplane private plane was being used for the peace process um and mo mollum yeah great a great great woman um and maybe oftentimes we don't realize again we're off a generation most young people wouldn't know who she was but the sacrifice she made to bring the post peace process there and her having cancer at the time and she still was loyal to the six counties to errant and to england and what she achieved was was amazing absolutely amazing woman politically at the moment we're at a point of impasse in terms of the institutions at stormant the d up are having ongoing discussions with the british government there was some i think vague lingering hope that there might have been some progress uh before christmas and a rather large financial incentive being offered by the the northern secretary chris heaton harris to try and make that happen it didn't happen the talks will continue now into january is there anything can be learned by the papers that have been released on both sides over the past week that can be brought into those conversations about the current situation that could perhaps help move it forward and that's a that's an amazing question and maybe aren't my my abilities to to respond to but yes i think so um for example with uh charles day chastel and you might have remembered hadn't been appointed as to the independent commission on decommissioning and he was getting very frustrated after three or four years and he said he'd been talking to the irish for example for six times and nothing had happened and you know the thing we've learned from the peace process patience is vital and we saw that rust put an end to the gun so to speak and decommissioning did happen but it didn't happen necessarily at the pace of politics it happened at the pace at which institutions and the ira and the uvf were willing to progress at and i think that's very very important and i think the other thing um uh um you see the psychologically the iris are very very different from english in the sense that english for example play cricket and they wear white trousers and white jumpers and the cricket game is strawberry nice creams in my last three days and then up a draw yeah yeah yeah and and that's their culture and it's a wonderful sport in that sense i didn't know much about it but if you think of the irish the equivalent in irland is ga sport and we go on and we try to hammer the hell out of each other for and now we're as fast as we can and after now we're after having the hell out of each other we shake hands and we walk off the field our Celtic nature is one where we wanted fast and quick um and where we want the resolution right away that's where maybe the english mind is of a longer game yeah and and i think that comes through the papers that we've we've had to learn as a nation that there's a longer game here and and i don't want to be getting into the politics of it but i think that's what shin fain realized and the ira realized that you know the the struggle violently wasn't going to achieve what they wanted to achieve so then they took the had to have the long view the politics of entering into politics and working towards united irland and and i think that's what's happening the unfortunate thing donal and i do genuinely believe that this is something that hasn't happened and should be said is there has to be a declaration of intent to withdraw and and i think that the english need to be saying like in hong kong we're going to leave in 50 years 60 years 70 years and so between now and then you go and work it out and i think that focuses minds and and that brings us maybe to the realization i know and if you're well in 1970s because things were getting out of hand and the british army had arrived into northern irland the six counties the irish diplomats in 1974 and these papers were released just there a few days ago and to look into various scenarios of the irish government going into northern irland and what you know what were they going to do if the anglish were going to british were going to withdraw from northern irland this is a very real concern in 1974 july 1974 and they came up with three or four different scenarios and one of them was that two-thirds of northern irland or the six counties bell fast together with almost half a million inhabitants that they would come back into the south it was called a negotiated repatriation of northern irland and they reckoned it would cost about the equivalent in today's terms somewhere between eight and nine billion pound who can make this happen but they felt that the the british government might be for it and then the other one which was very interesting was they'd considered military intervention to prevent if the anglish withdrew would the unionists and the the former storming government try to take control of northern irland the protestant population and several servants investigated that and would our army be able to go in and would they be able to uh calm matters down militarily and the report from the government officials said no we wouldn't have the capacity militarily to control that situation um and that there was another idea of maybe bringing parts of firmana to her own dairy newry south sir our mass south down a bit of population of about 300 000 and which was 40 percent of the the population of northern into the south so there was different scenarios um there but um it would appear that the reception from the british government would have been relatively poor but they were planning for it just in case and people maybe don't realize if we go back to the 1920s as part of the anglo-eyes agreement there was to be a border commission which there was an own mcneill um great scholar the scholarly revolution was on that board and they published it in 1927 but the Irish government got cold feet parts of dairy were to go massive parts of dairy was going to the south uh we were to lose parts over a foe and in around the population populated areas of donnie gall were to go back into the north so it was to recut the border not as it is today and it created too much protest by the the republicans on the air he said no we're not having that and devil era so then that that fell apart and then the other points have been made about that particular suggestion that a lot of dairy would have made to donnie go into the republic was that the apprentice boys would never ever give up the idea of losing the walls from there that's that's very very interesting and again that's back down how do we progress this and this is your question you know what have we learned we've we've learned that we can't do this without working together and achieving it um by by understanding and by just being patient and um there has we've still a long long way to go but what i what i've been saying earlier and the old maxim of our statement of nail t blaney the great nail t says you know there has to be a declaration of intent to withdraw and i think we'll only have a peace process working properly when we work towards a deadline and that deadline must be inclusive of all traditions um you know we're talking about multiculturalism today where's our multiculturalism when it comes to the protestants and the orange order and you know the union jack all that we have to face that and there's no ignoring it and there is a tradition on our on our island that would not certainly be off the tradition i have grown up on and so how do i respect that i'm willing to respect every other religion and every other immigrant that comes into the country and not be willing to accept the people that have been here for 400 years you were you were speaking about patience though i mean the reality is that that is a discussion you're not talking years you're talking decades realistically yeah i absolutely absolutely decades but it has to be done in a very coherent and thought out way um and again look we've had brilliant conversations about this on on highland radio because we settled at the border but you know it has to be an inclusive conversation that that engages everybody and that everybody feels part of it um and you know we we've so much more in common that we have indifference and i said it before for example when it comes to uh um the battle of the boy you know it wasn't necessary catholic and protestant catholic soldiers fought with king william believe it or not oh yeah and the pope actually said mass for when king william won he was related because it meant that it would keep the french down yeah it was politics it was international geopolitics yeah and it was a lot more to it um we know for instance recently uh just in the middle of last year uh we i still haven't got used to saying last year yet but in the middle of 2023 um was saw the coronation of charles the third whom you don't hold in the same esteem that you held his mother um i think you've made that quite clear but at that coronation there was several several guests from uh the republic went there was there was several attendees said the t-shirt was there the justice minister was there that there were others there from the republic when the royal wedding between uh prince charles and uh the den lady and a spencer took place president patrick hillary was invited but declined yeah you're you're landing me in it um yeah that's true there was papers that showed that there was reference to the wedding of prince charles and and princess diana in 1981 and they had a deadline it was july 29th he was getting married and they had a deadline to reply or ep by the 20s and he didn't want to go um because the time was was very definitely got bobby sands was just after dying of the previous month on hunger strike and the hunger strikes were over very much to the the four and and the relationships the anglois relationships were very very poor um and and so prince uh and so president hillary didn't want to go he said look this isn't this isn't a good uh symbol for me to go as head of of um well the the free state as opposed to ele here in all ireland to go to um to uh this wedding it would just wouldn't i don't think it's politically correct and they felt that this would create a a little bit of international crisis in one way and so he didn't know what to do and it was decided that he would eventually say they would send a letter saying look would that he had other prior engagements and that they sent an irish diplomat now that's come a long way from michelle o'neill for example sitting in the coronation hearing me i just wonder had bobby sands been alive and hunger strikers what they would have thought you know yeah we're sitting in the coronation but it's on top of an irish stone that was stolen by the way from don ego the leo file that's what you ground on by the way the scorn stone is a stone but anyway that goes back to the where the dana but you would wonder what the hunger strikers and and those men and women of the troubles in the in the 80s would have thought of that it's come a long long way it does show where we have come and i mean i had a conversation i i i have two children in their shall we say very very very very late 20s and you know i often speak to them about what the situation used to be like and they kind of they have a vague knowledge of it because they did it in history in school a bit but but but not not quite as much as i thought they might have done and you know it's amazing you know and i was trying i tried to explain once what section 31 was and they were going what but what do you mean how how could you do that they just couldn't get their heads around section 31 the reality is for the first i'd say the first five six years of hide and radio's existence we were under section 31 friends i often said friends of the liquid eddie eddie fullerton um i never got to interview i mean i've attended several council meetings at which he was a and i spoke to the man several times and attend the council meetings when he spoke and it was one of my regrets that i was never able to record and put eddie fullerton on air um and even even those days i mean you know you go back we're now talking about the the very real prospect of within 18 months having a shin fane t-shirt when and when i first sat in this room and read news bulletins i couldn't even interview a member of shin fane on the radio yeah i remember that i remember you there'd be a voice over for gerry Adams but like i don't i don't necessarily to bring it into the present i think we're back in the same place now with council culture culture and the hate speech law 75 percent of the people of ireland do not want this reports that have been done on this you don't find out what people feel about this and yet irish government is going ahead with it and shin fane are backing it and this was a very same kind of law that was used against shin fane but they needed to speak and they did need to be speak and they did need to speak at that time and they did need to be heard at that time and by ignoring them and not listen to them during the troubles i think prolonged the troubles we have to be willing to listen to our adversaries and because if we shut them down and silence them and cancel them it only creates a subculture and that does it that's not healthy and and the beautiful thing about independent radio is people are able to speak whether you agree or disagree speak and express your mind and you know what if you've said something wrong then you can be corrected and you can learn and you can apologize and you can move on that's how we grow that's how we mature and i'm a teacher and my teacher do not come into my class pre-programmed with all the right answers and they need to have the freedom to say the math things in my class that sometimes are a way off the rector scale and historical tests and stuff like that but i give them that space and then it provides me with the opportunity then to show facts and to redirect them and it's only by that kind of method that you can learn and you can grow and here we back now in the present day you're talking about 31 we've moved on into to present day where we have the hate speech laws which are closing people down and what would be interesting to see in 20 30 years time when the when the government papers are released what tech talks government have done what things that you know that they're that's alive now and the government will rereveal them they've gone oh wow um weren't we so naive not to know as opposed to big difference between those section 31 and and the hate speech laws is the hate speech laws is concentrating on what is being said section 31 was concentrated effectively on who was doing the saying and that's the big difference between the two yeah but i don't think you could exchange that or there's a thin line what for example jerry and they were saying and what you know the shin fame were doing and i mean he needed to be heard what he was saying was terribly very important and it's you know it's a wee bit like again bring it into modern times Putin has been saying but nobody's listening and and if you don't listen then you won't find compromise and i hear what you're saying yeah and again look there's no way i would tolerate hate speech by any means and i think we have legal instruments to deal with that whether you're one position or another whether you're black you're white whether you're gay or sweet it's irrelevant every human being deserves the same dignity and if you treat a human being with this respect then you deserve the full rigors of the law at full stop and so i think we can agree on that one question's coming from a listener and i'm going to end it on this one because as always whenever you and i get chatting um i go off on tangents you go off on tangents and before we know where we are we're in a completely different place than where we expected to be but it's been a really really interesting journey getting there and it's always fascinating you mentioned earlier about a declaration of intent and another caller rang in to say the late Neil T. Blaney said the same thing and indeed you made it clear you were quoting him um caller says ask Joe Kelly what are the opportunities for becoming a nation once again is there enough being done between um all parties to discuss things like health education security stuff like that because i mean there's a i mean and we've seen how difficult Brexit was i mean Brexit will be nothing compared to the discussion that would actually involve United Ireland in terms of just bringing health systems and education systems together i mean i'm sure there's an awful lot of people north of the border are looking at the NHS and then looking at our health system and thinking to themselves do i really want that yeah yeah i'll look at i mean there has been conversations and have an unfairness to a government you know people get very critical at times over a government including myself maybe but they have done great things both phenogale both phenophile and other parties for that matter and um there've been various invitations for example and dial deputations where they've had conversations for example they've taken in German diplomats that had worked on the reunification of Germany if you go back to 1989 and so many insights and where they they're an idea was don't be worried about the money it's about the processes and about the procedures you put in place um and look that that that conversation is happening and does have to be had just a simple thing our guard the shihana um are unarmed the ps and i are how do you merit that our education system you mentioned the health system there's a lot of stuff we can we can get right but you know you have to have faith in in in ourselves and in our own ability um and there there will have to be sacrifices and efforts made and that's happening but as we talked about earlier this isn't going to happen overnight and like i'm a republican i would love united ireland but i don't want a new united ireland it's a half united ireland in the sense not taught out properly not progress properly not uh integrated properly and that's going to take time uh and we're going to have to be bigger than understanding there's a lot of people that are maybe geographical republicans they just want 32 county ireland and that's it but as you know and i know it's more than just a geographical republic it has to be something that's very inclusive thought out um and engages all elements of of society health policing education everything to do with society and you know what's very very interesting what i think will be very interesting that at the moment in the sixth county seven percent are non-nationals seven percent of the population of northern ireland are non-nationals so if it came to a referendum that seven percent becomes 14 percent one way or the other so it might very might very well be the case there is non-nationals that will decide the future of the six counties with regard to the 26 counties i don't know but that's i just find that an interesting figure and that figure is increasing every year it's an interesting point to finish on uh dr joe kelly it's always fascinating to have these conversations and thanks as always for your perspective and uh for your input joe happy new year to you and yours and thank you very much indeed that's dr joe kelly there we're going to take a short break headlines with mikaela in just a few moments the plan made a list of electric arland.i it's called return refund recycled arlands deposit return scheme is coming from the first of february 2024 when you buy a drink in a bottle or can with the return logo you'll pay a small deposit once you're refreshed return your empty undamaged bottle or can to any shop or supermarket and get your deposit back the results less litter less waste and better recycling for ireland for more visit return dot ie highland radio is seeking applications for a producer presenter to join our busy sports team the ideal candidate will take direction from the head of sport and will be required to produce and present our main sport programs and bulletins must have an interest in sport across the northwest and be able to retrieve and assemble stories by constructing scripts for on-air broadcasts and our website a strong knowledge of multimedia and social networks will also be required the position is on a four-day basis that includes weekends those wishing to apply should forward a cv to highland radio sport pine hill mountaintop letter kinny f92 vw08 our email hr at highland radio dot com the closing date for applications is the 4th of january highland radio weather updates brought to you by grant building a new home choose grants a triple plus rated air owner air to water heat pump and you flex under floor heating visit grant dot ie and metair and tell us that over the course of the morning we can expect more frequent showers or longer spells of rain to develop into the afternoon some heavy and thundery bursts possible they could cause some localized flooding top temperatures today 7 to 10 degrees celsius in a light to moderate south to south west wind this is the national news show on highland radio it's two minutes past 11 and with apologies to mikaela for my lateness we go over for the latest headlines thanks donal good morning 19 motorists have been arrested in dunagol for driving under the influence over the christmas and new year period 12 drivers were arrested for drink driving and 7 for drug driving over the past two weeks 6 of the arrests occurred between new year's eve and new year's day guardian dunagol are urging people to make road safety a new year's resolution detectives investigating the murder of a dunagol woman in scotland have reissued an appeal for information 61 year old ang call who was originally from the ghidor area was found dead on december the 22nd more than six reception centres that could accommodate up to 750 asylum seekers are expected to be built by the state this year the plans are to go before cabinet in the coming weeks as thousands more people seeking international protection are expected to arrive into ireland this year guardian ballie shannon are appealing for witnesses to an assault in the early hours of saturday december the 23rd a man is believed to have been attacked by another man at main street kelly begs between 3 15 and 3 40 a.m the man was hospitalised meanwhile a man has sustained serious facial injuries during an assault in stroban in the early hours of new year's eve the man in his 40s was assaulted in the early hours of sunday morning outside stroban library on real way street just before 2 15 a.m japan's coast guard says five crew members are missing after one of its planes collided with a passenger jet that caught fire the japan airline's aircraft burst into flames on the runway of tokyo's hannard air airport all 379 passengers and crew have been evacuated investigations are continuing into a weekend hit and run in letter kenny a dark coloured saloon style car is said to have fled the scene of the two-car collision on the remelton road on saturday shortly after 9 40 p.m there are no reports of any injuries and homeowners are warned of an upsurge in destruction burglaries while they have been centred in parts further down the country guardian dunigol are warning that there is a possibility those responsible can target any area garter gran you don't already says elderly people are particularly vulnerable those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon thank you very much indeed mikaela proampiker hiring become a member of the proampak dunigol team the following roles are available in her ever-growing food to go packaging company in gedore human resource manager environmental manager warehouse and logistics manager maintenance technician send your application by email to hr dunigol at proampak dot com or call proampak gedore on 0 7 4 9 5 3 2 7 9 0 all positions are also advertised on indeed apply now new this week in home store and more all home gym equipment all floor lamps and all prestige kitchenware are all half price but better hurry because when all our half price home gym equipment floor lamps and prestige kitchenware are gone they're gone also all 100 percent cotton printed duvet sets and all feathering down duvets and pillows are still half price but when they're gone they're definitely gone dropped by your local home store and more visit us online at home store and more dot ie now open in frascati center black rock home store and more a happy home hi there can i help you you're looking for something for the garden well i want to plant for me she walks is a nice lay landing hedge am i right no i'm a lovely big hot tub your vote is your voice so don't let someone else decide for you and a pair of those crouching stone lions they look great either side of your front door uh do i know you that's our new trainee he's very keen make sure you're registered to vote go to check the register dot ie and be a voter so that it's your voice that's heard from on commission tauchan island's independent electoral commission and would you like that for delivery yeah apartment three sixth floor well you're going to need a crane for those lions then it's our three of the nintel noon show here on highland radio don't look having a with you for the next hour before we hand over to john breslin who's going to be around the northwest now a scheme offering free contraception has been expanded since its launch in 2022 the program has offered free contraception to women girls and people who identify as transgender or non-binary joined on the line by gp dr sarah brennan dr brennan good morning good morning um happy new year to you and a happy new year to you and yours as well the main change here is an expansion of the age for which people will qualify for this scheme yes yes it's great to see it expanding um so it was up to age 30 and now it's increased up to age 31 which is great so from 17 up to age 31 now it initially was 25 it expanded last year to 30 up to 31 now as you say an important one for people particularly those who perhaps say are struggling to make ends meet and important that they do have access to contraception and important that they have access to family planning yeah of course um and with the inclusion inflation um this is kind of something that might be squeezed out for people because it does cost a lot of money it requires that you visit your gp at least once a year um for checkups and then of course there's the extra cost of having to purchase the the medications which are also covered on the scheme which is great so the consultations and the medications and then any devices that need to be um inserted that all of that is covered in the scheme so women girls and people identifying as transgender or non-binary aged between 17 and now 31 if they wish to avail of this scheme the first call has got to be to their gp yes of course and and most gps have signed up for it there are very few who haven't but in the instance that um gps haven't signed up to it they could potentially contact other practices or then for for um women who are under the age or 25 and under could also access a service in the women's centre in letter kenny where there is a free walk-in service for um young women um every monday and an evening time so so that's another option and and and that will qualify as well um dr sarah brendan thanks indeed just for letting us know about this it's an important one is to say we just want to make people uh aware of this so thank you very much indeed thank you nice to catch you too that's dr sarah brendan there and as she said either go to your gp or there is a free walk-in um facility at the women's centre in letter kenny if you choose to do that instead just want to remind you by the way as we said all the uh around the northwest programme is coming up after this uh at half past 12 we'll have our first hours to protect for 2024 and this week donald marie doherty will be looking at post christmas recycling donald marie will chat to uh therese gallin manager of tt child care about junk art and councillor neve kennedy about what recycling centres that donagull county council has to offer so uh recycling and especially recycling in the post christmas period very much on the agenda for hours to protect the first of the new year and that's with donald marie doherty at half past 12 this afternoon during the around the northwest programme with um john now we're going to move on and we're going to go to zoom and we're going to speak to uh councillor mehal columnic last book because there was a terrible story developed over the new year and we're going to talk to mehal about that in just a few moments but mehal is representative from the glenities electoral area and as we know uh the glenities electoral area and the glenities municipal district indeed lost one of its members last week mehal column imagine what you're right the two of them who start here sherry mehal the loss of councillor noine macarvie um everyone i think regardless of their politics in the glenities md is grieving this yeah it's it's it's it's it was a very difficult uh couple of weeks for the glenities md but more so than anything for the macarvie family and um i have to say it's it was it was it was something that we didn't see common and we've lost one of the greatest nicest kindest uh person within local government uh we we were talking yesterday about how we've lost three councillors since the beginning of 2019 and and how difficult that is between upon us alone to outside lift the canal to our own md and um there was very much of a strong pulling together of dollar five councillors despite our differences because that's what no one would have wanted knowing that a very special gift of not being confrontational and pulling people together and have been great ability to listen and to work hard and to also deliver i i worked with no one on many projects and it was a great honor to have had that opportunity and uh she will be greatly lost and i have to say i do not look forward to our next md meeting at all uh what hurt her being there and her commitment to the md into her constituents was such that we know she was ill and we we knew she was ill but i i certainly had no idea she was as ill as she was but still the budget meeting and the last plenary meeting of council norie macarvie attended online uh with the picture switched off but she was at those meetings um you know and i certainly and i don't think anyone really knew what would be on the cards just weeks afterwards her commitment to her community was uh unquestionable uh it didn't matter to knowing if you voted for her or not it didn't matter for knowing if that community had a strong vote for her or not one matter to knowing was to go out there and do what she was elected to do and that's what she did and she done it extremely well and um yeah knowing was a very private person uh she chose not to share her difficulties with what uh many of us and and that you have to respect and admire to be honest with you um i suppose all we can do now is kind of be supportive there for the family the best we can and there are it's a big wide family from the macarvie to the rogers quite a lot of cousins and close friends and there was different aspects to knowing there was a very quiet personal hardworking aspect to knowing but there was another fantastic aspect to knowing which was just joy and fun and laughter to be around because by Jesus there was one thing knowing could do is make people laugh and i'm absolutely heartbroken and i don't want to over talk because i'm not sure if this is my place to do even when they talk and unknowing but all i can say is that she she should be terribly missed and unplaceable because her ability and commitment was unreal and it went sorry quietly and she got worked on got a mahogany for that mihal um we want to speak to this morning about what happened at maharagalon the vandalism of a seat that's been erected in the area in memory of a local person um the mindboggles well look i suppose this is this this is a sad story you had a of course a world sad story but yet there's there's positives that come out of it um that started many years ago with potty hag uh a fantastic character who's no longer with us from down in door uh would the father uh uh or mcfadden family in door which would be very well known and like that a fantastic character and he says to me one day when i was down at the pier which i have a great interest in their peers and harbours says now mihal you think now for an old man like me you'd go and get me a chair so i could sit here and look out at elin golland and the shunny and elan baw and the nish men and so anyway a long story short we went off and we secured thankfully to uh to bridge our to god i forget the name of the company now and killed air god feakery will kill me my apologies feakery and norkin newbridge memorials who have been who have relation here and who've been uh common here since it's been 11 years of age and he gave it to us at an extremely cheap price and i'm grateful that uh karen glasby we couldn't pay for it and that can aspire later there that we decided that we would try to look across the do we to run chairs which would allow people that would have walked them do we it's a fantastic or just part of uh west and you go that they would have the rest and point every 50 to 100 yards because that big long walk it's too long to do it in one stretch for some people so we started off and more people came forward and we got more chairs and but unfortunately the specific chair that was dedicated to thomas willie joe and and and it's only after being recently erected sabba uh we have the sabba more sabba runs the ferry into gola every year and uh he paid for it because poor thomas had just you know sadly passed away but we also had another chair there that was paid for by charlie max taxis for uh anishini joe mulligan mutte de geisha the kudu mutte itu and and that was vandalized and and again where fiacra uh from kildare stepped in and replaced it and a couple of weeks ago we had dolty boil the very very kenny came down from boils memorials came down and helped me tidy up some of the stone because the the writing had be washed away you know with the sea salt and that and we you know we were talking about getting more chairs in that as well and and we didn't expect that this one here would be broken but carol sailor now who i do a lot of work with in relation to this here myself a carol and sabba and he rang me yesterday to say that he was on to fiacra about the chair because he was up for the new year and he the same as the last chair his kenny says that he will replace it without a cost and and that's that's not cheap either and that's very kind of a person who doesn't have to do this he's kind enough to give it to us at a cheap enough price uh but to go now and to replace the chair is fantastic explain him uh tannis at the on given that recognition to his to his company and and especially someone who runs that company now fiacra grimoire good but the plan is to get more chairs there's a number of other chairs that we have ordered more people have come forward now saying they'd like to donate more chairs and we would like it to be seen but we have to talk to landowners which is very important we have to talk to landowners to allow us to put chairs along it and it's for no other reason but to give people of all abilities the ability or the opportunity to walk across that do we and and and to be able to take that rest and look out on maybe their home place where they were forced off through government policy through gola or mishmen or different different islands because west and we all were absolutely blessed in terms of the the beauty and the scenery and the heritage and the culture and the islands play a very central part to that and why would we not allow people to go for them walks and have that rest and points and as you said this this is an initiative that's come from the community it's come through the community it's being funded by the community it's being supported by the community and and these acts of vandalism are absolutely the antithesis they're they're absolutely against that community spirit that is that is driving this initiative yeah if you look for instance like and then you may think much people may think off but the very fact that we have to go down we have to dig out a we found a foot the last piece quarry will come along and they'll give us the concrete for free then we have the committee then that'll chip in and will raise the funds for it then you'll have the likes of neal sassy who will maybe write a poem first to commemorate the individual or or or the scenery around it because all this all the chairs are the poems that are on them are are in Gaelic and that's not an easy task and then we have to go and set the chairs in and then looking after them now we can't look after them forever but we've tried to like I says where don't you boil was very good and it is very much a community led project it's hands in the pockets and hands in the shovels by the community nobody else it's not a grant that we get from government or from core the funding and not saying that we would refuse any either but but it is a community initiative and and there would be a lot of chairs needed to go right across the do if that was the wishes of the landowners and I would think and I would hope that the landlord landowners would see this as a very positive step and I can't thank everybody that has participated in this from the very beginning carl sailor and sabba who very much from the very beginning qe harken as well to put in a big slab of concrete a number of occasions first right down at the seawall has done a lot of work around that area where we got access yeah I think we've just lost the audio there somebody is trying to ring me the joys of technology um what do you call it probably somebody ringing me to tell me I'm ready yeah but anyway um yeah so we've done a lot of work around our pierce and harbours from our and more right and uh uh and uh marik alman and to other parts that have been neglected for many years and seats make and sound like something that important but it actually really is it really is it allows people to go down and find that quiet moment on their own maybe in the heart of one third on the on the height of the summer or to maybe sit there and actually engage with somebody sitting beside them and make new friendship and and I think it's really really uh it's really important uh that we continue to try to put more chairs and to allow people that walk and that rest in space so that we can continue to enjoy our very beautiful people island our community and I'm sorry for keep using the word beautiful but I'm totally not that passionate about where I'm from and how sternly gorgeous it is as much as I love I have walked with myself and I agree wholeheartedly I know we have and as much as I love the idea of people coming to our community I don't want too many people coming either and and and and telling everybody about it so anybody that's listened don't don't tell too many people about how beautiful western eagerness but it is and it's a place that you can come in go for your walks you can go up to cutie bugs or shanogs or mckays jackson glasha cash on or like you look at uh anagra now like we have a blue flag beach in the parish we have a distillery we have breweries we have top-end foods and you have something that myself and I'm sorry but come back that me knowing had been working on in terms of developing the parish of anagra and that becoming a branded tourist destination more so than what the what the industry is doing themselves working with this and with core the funding and all we have the blue black flag beach um flights coming in on a daily basis thanks to the staff down there the distillery the brewery the fantastic fruit from the name and age to cash on or to to cast and took on to leos and tessies and you know we have a number of beautiful glamping sites now new one just opening up there and a farce the glamping site many aca uh sleepaholos things are really really changing for us here and fantastic work but what we cannot have as people if this is the case come along and and trying to finalize things that we work really hard to achieve well well hopefully ultimately what comes out of this is the story of a community working together to improve facilities and not what's happened in this instance and may this be an isolated incident and i have to say though i mean you were saying you don't want too many people to come you're doing a very bad job of limiting numbers the way you've just sold west of equal because you want me you've got me wanting to go back there next weekend and and also recognizing you know that there's fantastic community groups out there doing unbelievable work as well uh question for our brand right across west and they go from the mojara to elan harry to clay and nila and they're fantastic and and the commitment that they give the hours they put on that that goes sometimes on saying the hours uh that has to be recognized as well and uh going forward for 2014 i just want to wish everybody a better year because in west and equal it hasn't been that good year especially the end and part of it and i just want to wish everybody well for that and the same to yourself mihal slana as much you are your flu and covid-19 vaccines will give your immune system the top up it needs to help protect you from serious illness a flu vaccine is recommended for you if you're 65 or over a covid-19 vaccine is recommended for you if you're 50 or over both vaccines are recommended for health care workers and anyone who is pregnant or has a long-term health condition talk to a participating gp of pharmacist or visit hsc.ie for more from the hsc the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio join me marty fray this and every friday night from eight for rocking hits on highland radio in association with arena seven letter kenny if you're celebrating a birthday or a work night out arena seven entertainment complex has it all check out arena seven dot i e the enhancement to the legislation for the management of business waste means all waste collectors must now provide three bins to their business customers for the separation of recycling organic and general waste and place all customers on an incentivized price plan your waste collector will provide further guidance on these important changes a message from my waste brought to you by the government of ireland highland radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letter kennedy doblin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time mass it is 26 minutes past 11 o'clock on this the second of january it's a tuesday morning it's the first nine till noon show of the new year i'm joined on the line by paul doherty he's one of the founders and a volunteer at the men's shed in manner where sadly a quantity of oil was taken from a tank over the christmas period um paul good morning to you good morning paul in terms of this 600 liters of oil taken from from the tank uh that's no small amount of oil and that's no small financial loss for the men shed in its volunteers no no small amount unfortunately they're a tank right beside it and what's the house which houses a lady and child and they also lost their tank avoid i'm not sure the figure of it but so she's at a loss too um at this time of year and hardship and whatnot that's so we're not the only ones on this situation now first and foremost uh you're urging people in the area to be vigilant and also obviously say if anyone saw anything happen around those two tanks both your own and the tank serving your neighbour to make contact with gar thee and let them know what they've seen i it's just a case of high leg net unfortunately it's gone and probably you'll be no return but if people just you know keep a wee eye out and be aware of it then i was chatting to a lot of people came out in the area since and it's we're not the only ones this has happened to you recently it's going on and uh we just need to be more vigilant i suppose to your own downfall we uh a lot of good wool towards the men shed and a lot of generosity and we didn't really even take any preventative steps like putting a fence running around our tank we're still nearly stages we hadn't even a lock on it like you know uh we probably with all the good wool towards us we can overlook that but uh after consulting the garrs they get something we're going to have to do now maybe cctv or something like that and uh putting a fence or something around our tanks and it's coming at a time when the importance of the men shed movement and the importance of men's sheds to the mental health of many was being highlighted toward the end of last year and i think it's fair to say that the last couple of months has seen a really strong focus on the benefits of men's sheds and communities and the fact that the one in manor is a fairly new initiative as well that's been brilliant you know there's people coming here and you see what it means to them um it's a new thing to life to a lot of people you can see that uh the balls there are good balls about the place and people who specifically have to come out of covert all the restrictions and we're opening up our doors again to people um this was like there was a real feeling good factor and it's just a patty now that this serves it a bit but but we'll move on again and it won't deter us from what we're doing like and we'll uh we'll be back and obviously like like many voluntary organizations and voluntary initiatives the men shed is not want to wash with money you're getting by on on a very small amount and and this is going to hit you i'm sure there's been a few cold days recently in the men shed but as you've said the most important thing is that you are going to keep going and you are going to keep turning up i there's been a lot of generosity and support local people and businesses the guests that were basically going on and there's grants available surely and counselors have donated generously and you know they see the good that's been done on it and people like they're paying us and came and it's just a patty and unfortunately maybe i'm sure the people who took the oil knew what the effort has been done to getting us up and going that's an unfortunate thing and they're probably maybe in our own area and seeing that but it didn't deter them from taking it and as i say too the the next door tank as well unfortunately is your victim as well no paul it's um it's a sad thing to have to report and it's good to report that you're getting the support of the community and that you're keeping going and that this isn't going to deter you but if anyone can throw any light on what may have happened both to your own tank and to your neighbour's tank as well then we would ask them as we say to make contact with um the uh the guard the and and to let them know what's happened but in the meantime paul doherty we wish you well and thanks very much indeed for speaking to us thanks thanks very much i'd just like to thank anybody that give us any support to the year and getting up and running and it's very much appreciated and much everybody happy new year paul thank you and a lot of happy new year to you and to all involved with the men's shed in manner as well thank you very much indeed that was paul there from the men's shed in manner now returning to the issue of road safety as we say it's been a new story with mikaela on the news throughout the morning we spoke to susan gray from park earlier as well join now on zoom by david martin and david is the um communications officer with the road safety authority and david now joins us on zoom uh david good morning uh good morning david good morning how are you very well indeed uh david uh the figures for 2023 not good 184 nationally lives lost on the road 10 lost in donnie gall the donnie gall figure was up on 2022 the national figure was up indeed one of the highest figures in in 10 years a disappointment for an organization whose current day must have road debts down to zero by 2050 that's absolutely heartbreaking devastating year you know and the numbers are awful but you know each number is an individual family you know you were completely devastated by what's what's occurred and your rights the numbers are up 19 percent um on 2022 which is very disconcerting the numbers were kind of skewed during covid because obviously traffic volumes were down for a year for a year or two but what we've seen in the last year or two is a sort of a very worrying spike in the wrong direction and i mean you know if you look at the longer term trend is is good and i don't want to sound complacent but if you look back as for 2006 say which isn't that long ago we had 365 deaths so we're about half of where we were then but the trend is wrong it's going in the wrong direction at the moment so it's something that we're very very concerned with at the road safety authority and also the government and and goddess here corner are very very concerned about it and it's something that we clearly will begin everything to address over the coming months we spoke earlier to susan gray from park i'm sure you know susan well yourself in terms of uh the commons park have been making one of them is that there's been a reduction in a number of road policing units and these there's been a reduction nationally in the number of gar thee assigned to road policing units um is there a connection between that and the fact that we are seeing road deaths rise well that that you know that's a subject for and goddess here corner they're ultimately responsible for enforcement um i you know clearly there is a correlation between driver behavior and enforcement because no doubt about it and we were working on these figures over the last few days and i was speaking to and goddess here corner and they were giving me some of the some of the figures that that that they that they've seen over the year there was 7707 arrest for intoxication driving that's let's drink and drug driving so what we're seeing is there's there's been a a worrying trend in the wrong direction there and speeding which is a really killer offence there was two to the 200 000 uh speeding offenses last year and 5300 people were fine for not wearing seatbelts we know in the fatalities last year a significant minority of those poor people who died were not wearing seatbelts and also this again distracted driving is an absolute killer behavior and that particularly using mobile phones 18 800 fines so what we're saying is you know there are bad behaviors on the road there's no doubt about this and will enforcement help of course it will and we were very reassured when the government feed up some more money for for in terms of camera-based enforcement in the in last year and we're going to see more of that the next year but yeah look it's we will be talking to a goddess here corner we will be talking to the minister chambers there's a lot of work to be done to address this a lot of discussion about potential ways of addressing it one of the issues that was mentioned in discussions before christmas and the new world safety bill was the potential of perhaps having different penalty point levels for different times there was a suggestion that there'd be different levels say on bank holidays now that isn't in the latest legislation because there's potential legal problems one of our callers for instance saying there's an increase in road fatalities between 8 p.m and 8 a.m almost half occurring during those hours with a particular increase between midnight and 4 a.m and maybe questions should there be higher penalty points between midnight and 4 than there are say between 12 noon and 4 in the afternoon are those items all still under discussion are they still potentially on the table well again you know it's it's it's something for the government we there's no doubt about it though what we're seeing is a disproportion of amount of fatalities taking place at night when traffic volumes are down you know that doesn't make sense at all you know also at weekends you know about half of all fatalities took place last year at weekends so it's something that clearly needs to be addressed and the last talk as you mentioned of introducing higher penalty points over bank holiday weekends and that's something that's that's been introduced in other jurisdictions and proved to be very very effective and there are it's pretty it's a legal it's very complex legal situation and it's something that the attorney general clearly have to look at in principle it's if it's going to bring down fatalities it's something that we would endorse and clearly as you mentioned as well those dangerous times you know at that night late at night we went volumes are down and at weekends should we look at that I think we should be looking at everything everything should be on the table as you said the government makes decisions but presumably yes those decisions aren't made in the vacuum those decisions are made with conversations consultations and advice from yourselves yes we have a very we have one of our major functions is we have a research department that does this analysis and does the deep dive into what you know what can be done and what's going on what are the international trends so we will be feeding into the government on that there is going to be a meeting early in the new year uh evolve with with the government with the minister and the various agencies and to review the year and to look ahead as to what we will be doing and what changes might be necessary over the coming months. The Tishuk did say recently that he was going to take a very personal interest in this as well and he called all his ministers in for discussions and made it quite clear that he was going to be front and centre when it comes to these discussions in in 2024 do you expect that to change anything? Well I know our chief exec Sanway met with on Tishuk a couple months ago it is very much a priority and we welcome that you know the figures are just not acceptable they're not sustainable and we welcome the fact that the government is a priority for the government and clearly we'll be doing we're working very very closely with them over the coming months. What's the RSA's strategy into 2024? Obviously I'm sure there'll be targeted advertising campaigns there'll be consultations with Garde in government with regards to enforcement and discussions about the longer term potential for further laws or tightening of laws what what will be to the cornerstone of what you'll be doing in the the months to come? One of the key things for us is that you know how do we communicate with people you know we saw we see that last year disproportionate number of the fatalities were male you know which we we can see there's nearly 80 percent of fatalities last year were male and again an awful lot of younger cohort dying as well the highest risk age group is aged sort of between 16 and 25 they were that accounted for 26 percent of fatalities last year so how do we talk to those people how do we get the message across young males have the sense of you know invulnerability there are more than nothing has happened to them and what we've looked at we see this you know typically they don't look at TV the way I would have when I was that age you know so the old means of communicating with them perhaps are not going to work so we're analyzing we're reviewing our communications campaign tip and really you know recognizing the fact that it's very much a fragmented media landscape at the moment and so doing a lot more on social media and other you know ways of communicating with this this particular this particular cohort yeah because I mean a lot of the thoughts in the past would have been the best way to get to people would be to put an ad on before the news or put an ad on before they let you on a Friday night and the question is really how many males aged between 18 and 25 are watching the news at nine o'clock in the evening and the reality these days is probably not very many so maybe where you need to be looking is places like tiktok is even places like huge online advertising in games platforms and things like that yes yeah you know and look we're not you know clearly we continue to do TV advertising we do radio advertising and it's not just one size fits all but there is absolute increased emphasis now on the on social media and tiktok and and talking to them using the media that they that they engage with David Martin one more question and it's an issue that was raised with us by Susan Gray and I'm sure she's had discussions with yourselves on this as well and that was the issue with the number of no shows for tests in excess of five thousand no shows for tests last year that must be a very very concerning figure for you it is very very frustrating and particularly you know there is a backlog at the moment there is it's it's it's and it's something that we are working on to try and address and we are it's improving slowly but the fact that people are not turning up for them is very very frustrating to our point of view and the the corollary question then that goes on from that is is there a phenomenon out there which would be worrying of people who rather than take a test are effectively allowing their provisional licenses to roll over year on year on year and doing that instead of a test and if that's the case that must be very concerning to you and what it is and look it's something that I know that the minister is is is very much aware of and is high on our list of priorities as well you know it's it's a it's a bad behavior it goes back many you know I remember and I was a kid there's a lot of people driving around provisional licenses for very very long time and it's something that we just can't put up with yeah suggestions that there will be legislation in place to have this tackled not too long into 2024 that's something you'd welcome I'm sure absolutely 100% welcome actually yes David Martin will be certainly hoping that the figures in 2024 are substantially down on 2023 and again we remind ourselves that the stated aim of RSA is that it would be zero road deaths by 2050 that is our ultimate goal that's what we're going to get to David Martin thank you very much indeed that's David Martin he's the communications officer with the Road Safety Authority now let's look at some of your comments and we spoke earlier to uh Gardner Gronja Doherty about the theft of number plates and uh concern that I mean number plates stolen from a car could be used for other purposes Cawler says there's nothing to stop you or I walking into a shop and getting number plates made maybe that needs to be stopped by Gardie and the law when you go into a shop they should ask what's the name for the plates it would help with this issue uh another caller says hopefully in 2024 our government officials will start to fight for the rights of sna's I've been an sna for four years I've good experience now the department have called an sna role Ukrainian ours it's reviewed every three or four months just so they don't have to give us yearly contracts I'm giving this country one more year and then it's time to exit if things don't improve everyone gets everything when they come into the country Leo and Martin please stop not answering the question and start looking after the real Irish people to put you into power hardworking Irish people are sick of this situation so says a caller there another caller says I'm emailing to ask why a main national route between Castle Finn and this Cooley has been left completely flooded across two lanes over the holiday period issues have only arisen since water mains work had been carried out and obviously uh there there hasn't been staff there to deal with the situation the council did seem to be making an effort to sort the situation out but to no avail how there were no serious accidents on this route is a miracle to say the least so says a caller uh caller says happy new year to Greg carline myself and all those working on the 9 till noon show Mary thank you very much indeed for that uh regarding the treatment of cancer patients in letter Kenny caller says the MRI machine is broken since last week or the week before I've had to drive four hours to Galway to get an MRI I asked if I could get a private scan I was told I couldn't as all departments have to work together I was on the road to Sligo on the way to Galway when they rang me to say my scan was next week they said that Galway needed it before the 8th it's scheduled for the 9th they have no care or consideration there's no humanity and caller all I can say is I fully appreciate and understand the frustration of having to go to Galway for MRIs and for tests and for chats with consultants and for chats with doctors and uh it's a road that very many people yours truly included know very very well indeed um and we say no more uh regarding the revenue commissioner and tax office in letter Kenny the staff are working from home since covid they come in for one half day one day a week they won't meet you in the office they won't answer the phones the national phone lines aren't answered either they won't have a zoom they work via email you send a few emails back and forth and then you don't hear from them I'm trying to get arrangements in order since my deadline in November I've had no luck a security guard will accept some of the documents when you go into the office but not all I know lots of people are experiencing this at the end of the day we all pay taxes and this is a public service so says a caller now we're going to take a quick break after the break we will be speaking about health and wellness and new year's resolutions watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com set yourself up for slimming world success at done stores we've got a great range of slimming world products from sweet and sour chicken noodles for lunch to a hearty beef lasagna for dinner all now exclusively available at done stores order online for delivery or find them in the frozen aisle and save with a till with a five of 25 grocery voucher try the slimming world range today exclusively at done stores always better value terms and conditions apply voucher can be used on extents or grocery shop of 25 euro or more range available in selected stores only say hello to blue skies ahead with the air lingus january sale with over four million seats on sale take off for less with up to 25 percent off all our 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scotter char's top temperature seven to ten degrees in a light to moderate south to southwest wind and that is what met air and are telling us is in store over the course of the coming hours now it is that time of year let's talk about new year's resolutions that you start your new year's resolutions on the first of january do you start your new year's resolutions on the seventh of january after epiphany when the 12 days of christmas are officially over i tend to sort of think as soon as you know once we're still with the tree up in the room and before epiphany i sort of say yeah well the resolution is going to kick in after christmas uh plus there's about eight hundred and seventy five thousand calories left in the house that have to be dealt with um but that's that's for another day we're going to say uh a very good morning to claire mckenna who is a health and wellness coach and claire's going to discuss that thorny issue of new year's resolutions at claire good morning good morning and a happy new year to you and a happy new year to you and yours as well claire as well we all are full of good intentions and we all know the cliches they're wheeled out by comedians every year the gym memberships that are bought and are enacted twice over the course of january and then are completely ignored for the other 11 months and and we all say we're going to change we all say we're going to do the right thing and then by about the middle of january we're failing and by the first of february we forgotten we ever made the resolution yeah i mean it's the language around it i mean you even said we're failing but it's all really about mindset i think when it comes down to it i don't think there is necessarily a right way or a wrong way to live when it comes to health and well-being it's really important that we try to turn away all of that language around good food and bad food i mean the food that we've eaten over the last couple of weeks gathering together with family whether it was the work christmas do or whether it was a bowl of christmas pudding i brought to the tv last night i mean that's all part of coming together and part of enjoying the season for us to start beating ourselves up about it now it's just not a great start to the new year and there is a lot of debate around new year's resolutions and whether or not they're a good thing and it is nice to harness the energy of a new year and new stars even if you open up a new copy book because the new energy of possibility too so yes it's good to harness that and think about what worked and didn't work for you in 2023 and how would you like to feel in 2024 so i'm not denying that there are some positives to it but i think for people to fall into the trap now of feeling lethargic you know feeling the effects of the indulgence over the few weeks and turning that on themselves and saying right that's it i'm not eating any more sugar and i'm going to pound the pavement from five a.m that that's very hard to sustain it's more questions of what's working for me right now in life what isn't what are some small changes i'd like to make and i always like to think why not look at what are you going to add in rather than what are you going to take out and that could be things like spending more time with friends and family making sure i make more phone calls with my close friends it doesn't have to be that you'll never eat a packet of crisps again i saw a meme this morning actually on social media that a friend of mine posted and i was very taken by it it said this year why not stop trying to change yourself and instead try to be yourself and i thought that's an interesting way of putting it i like that yeah it's lovely because we get a lot of new year new you but i mean what's wrong with the you right now realistically all of us are just doing our best there's a lot going on in the world right now it's the really simple things that are really really important like our health and spending time with the people that we love i mean there are some pillars to help sleep movement nutrition and taking time to to rest and reflect they're all things of humans that we need so there's certainly areas that people might look at am i sleeping well am i focused on that how am i eating could i throw in more veg could i cook a little bit more at home everybody's going to be different people have different things going on but also trying to take time away for yourself whether that's booking a weekend away or a retreat or or just a night away sometimes it's important for us to try and and retreat a little bit and that's when we can really figure out if there are changes we want to make in our lives do we try to do too much too soon yeah i think so um and that's sort of what we're we're told that we have to really get on board with this massive fitness plan and no pain no gain we hear all the time and that's not true we can really build small amounts of change into our days and weeks and they will build to make a massive difference so you know people kind of roll their eyes and think no that can't be true but if you take the stairs instead of the lift if you walk to the shop for your bottle of milk and come back that over time adds up far better than if you hammer it out at a gym membership for the three weeks of january and then don't go again because you don't like it if you don't like the gym don't go to the gym it could be swimming for somebody it could be a dance class it could be a walk with the dog catching up with a friend try and look at it as a positive thing rather than we have to really suffer you know to be behaving correctly and being good as we say and you you reckon and it makes sense that a small change is going to be way more easy to sustain than a radical one yeah and i i think rather than us constantly wanting to change our bodies and how we look coming from a sense of not being happy with how we are that's not very motivating because realistically three weeks in you're like well maybe i don't care that much about having abs of steel um maybe i you know i i've running around after kids and doing pickups is only so much i could do but if you're looking more from a point of view of i want to have more energy i want to feel strong i you know i don't want to have an afternoon slump so maybe a little bit more fresh air a bit more movement might make a difference it's just a little shift in in mindset and it goes way more easier on ourselves um and we're told that you know goals have to be huge and massive and don't get me wrong i mean i love to set a goal um and get that sense of achievement but i think we need to go easy on ourselves particularly now that we're packing away all the christmas decorations as you say the 8 000 calories will be gone all those little niceties we've been wrapping ourselves up with you know let let's go gentle into this new year i say do we need to have a rebrand in terms of not call them new year's resolutions anymore because even the word resolution this there's almost a harshness to it um whereas if it was new year reset or new year rethink or new year regeneration or something that might be more you know and i know there's a lot enough that i said these days about branding and stuff like that but maybe we're falling into a trap because of the way this this is phrased and described that maybe what we need is to have a a new look at what it is and look at it as a time to just step back rethink reconfigure and just perhaps re reset some goals that it's not just like yeah you hear big huge change tada everything is different now and the reality is for most people this won't be yeah i totally agree um i think resets and quite nice resolution sounds like it's some sort of contract we're setting with ourselves um whereas there should be flexibility even in any health and wellness um routine that you have there's going to be a week where work is going to really kick off and you might have to drop that ball or you might have a sick kid so you don't get to that gym class that week i mean we have to have a certain amount of flexibility in our life and not be beating ourselves up over it so yeah i i completely agree with you and i think looking at more positive things like maybe bringing in a gratitude practice there are so many studies to show the impact that that can have to just at the end of the day think of three things that you're grateful for and it could be finding a good parking spot at the supermarket or somebody that smiled at you in the queue as you got your coffee it can be as small as that and then the next day your brain starts to look out for those things to save you time for that list later on and that's a real lift to everyone's mood and well-being um and that's something really small and really simple and it doesn't have that same harshness as a new year's resolution mice and also if you recognize the importance of getting a smile from somebody in a queue maybe tomorrow you'll be the one that smiles at somebody else to give them that lift now i think so you know and you never really know what's going on in in people's lives sometimes that that simple chat i mean i think here on the island of Ireland we're great at that we're great at making you know small talk out and about with people and i think it's really important to keep that connection going human connection is huge for our health and well-being so whether it's making sure we're connecting more with the people that we love because it can be hard sometimes you can let friendships slip by or you know just sending the odd text or voice notes we've got great at rather than the the phone call or the face to face so connecting with the people in our closed circle is so important but then yeah like connecting within our community and stopping and chatting and checking in on neighbors i mean they're all other things we could add that we'd like to bring in to the new year that would you know not only lift others but lift us too and you know what if i had tried to prime you into my next point i couldn't have done it any better because we've received a a a text in from a caller and i'm going to leave it on this my new resolution is to actually visit an elderly person in my community once a month i set the ball rolling yesterday by calling them and telling them i was going to call around at seven o'clock on thursday night that way they're expecting me and they're safe to answer the door loneliness is one of the biggest killers in our country and i think that lovely lovely point and i think that's a lovely point to end it on clear mechanic health and wellness course thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning hopefully you've given all of us food for thought and all of us some encouragement as well that as you say we can approach this in a very different frame of mind than we may have done before and that's a frame of mind that's going to give us all the more chance of really really changing ourselves changing our surroundings changing our communities and being better people as a result um thank you very much indeed Claire thank you so much and i wish you and your listeners a fantastic 2024 and you and yours as well Claire thank you that's there there um a health and wellness coach a few comments before we go we were speaking earlier about Terry wogan's son um saying he believed tubardy would go the whole way well caller says terry had his tugs that was terry's old geysers and gals but tubs will have his dubs and the tub rub as someone had to make way for his show i did dip in and out two extra hours of music interesting choice of first songs pride and green grass um i did catch russell crow in mid-party sounded like he didn't want to talk but he did mention the north west and mass putchin muff waski were the last words he said if you were smart he'd had more in bradley on with those balaba fe blues fresh from the hoot nanny and i will absolutely endorse that last comment obviously i didn't get to hear any of ryan tubardy's program this morning because i was somewhat doing the same thing myself but uh murrin bradley and did you see the hoot nanny the other night how amazing was that absolutely brilliant um just can't say anything else but it was just stunning um so you know and so glad to be able to say that yeah for many people the uh the monday night sessions on highland were the first time they heard of them and uh paul just put up a very interesting post this morning where paul just uh played a little bit where murrin said uh well i i do have um i i do have something coming up on tv soon but i can't really talk about it at the moment how stunning was that brilliant what a point went on it's coming to the end of the show so thank you very much indeed for all your calls for your texts thanks to caroline and to shannon for all their help uh thanks to all our contributors most of all thank you to you for listening john's up next around northwest but for myself tonal kavner have a very very good day i have the right to my decisions that matter to me decisions about my money my property where i live decisions about care and medical treatment