 on our kitchen window again. While Mark from Carandana loves the bird song and dulcet woohoo of the neighborhood pigeons that he's rediscovered on his morning walk. Whatever sounds you've lost, Spexhavers' hearing experts could help find them again. Book a free hearing test at your local Spexhavers. Just in time for the coffee. Caroline, you're too late for the coffee. Thanks for having me. I'll try it. Hey, show us that cup. That's not for you. It's on my table. It's not. It's called around the north west written on it. It must be out of the 9th of noon. Think we set it now so you know it. You slurp your tea. Well, I didn't know if it's going to be warming up. Is it alright? Yep. Do you want a wee drop of milk in it? No, it's perfect. Probably a little bit too much milk if I had to give it a critique. Well, look after you. Yeah. I was going to say it was... What? I'm joking, Caroline. She doesn't come make me on. Oh, no. I'll make you a nice cup of 10 then, obviously. Because that's what we do here. What do you say? What was I going to say to you? Oh, yeah, the Spexhavers ad running there. It's a good ad. Have you seen the TV version of it? No, what? Because it's just like the secret sound. It's people going around listening to different things. Right? Yeah, I left a Google and it sounds like they're all trying to work out what the secret sound is. I look at this page and say, he's doing a page. It makes me laugh all the time. It's funny. But look at the TV version of it. It's all trying to figure out what the secret sound is. Oh, very good. I must do that. All right. Have a good show. Have a good day. Lee Gooch back with you tomorrow morning at 6 30. It's news time. Let's cross over now to Donna Marie Daugherty. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. The minister for further and higher education, Simon Harris has today announced 153,000 Euro in funding for Donegal ETB. It has been awarded for a project at the Schnurler Further Education and Training Centre. Granted, under the Strategic Infrastructure Upgrade Fund Programme, the Capital Will Enhance Facility used by those in the PLC programme at the Finn Valley College, Minister Harris has called the announcement an investment in the learner. A 32 year old man is due to go to trial, later accused of the murder of Ashley Murphy. She died while she was out for a run along the Grand Canal in Tullamore on January 12, 2022. Joseph Puska of Lanale Grove in Tullamore County, Offley is accused of her murder. Andrew Loud is at the Central Criminal Court. Ashley Murphy was 23 years old and had been working as a primary school teacher and was a traditional Irish musician in the Tullamore area at the time of her death. Joseph Puska, savakia native is accused of her murder and is due before the Central Criminal Court this morning on what is the start of the new court's term. The trial is listed for half 10 this morning and it could last for up to six weeks. A letter Kenny Business has applied for planning permission that could see the creation of 95 jobs. This industrial product is hoping to develop a significant extension to its factory at the IDA Business Park in Listnenin. 300 people currently work there. Dunneagol students will have the opportunity to learn more about road safety at a two day event in Letter Kenny this week. The annual road safety show will take place at the Aura Leisure Centre in Letter Kenny at 11am tomorrow and also on Wednesday. The dangers that exist on roads on a daily basis will be highlighted to students. Keherlok of Dunneagol County Council, Martin Harley says it's important for young people to realise the impact of fatal collisions on family members. For dear students on Dunneagol and Tarone in the area as well. So it's done on Wednesday and through to Wednesday this week and this is a survey that people young people realise they're on the verge of learning to drive and going on the roads and that they realise the dangers of the roads, the devastation that it leaves families that have suffered with road tragedies. So it's a very hard hitting. Meanwhile, Gardie are again urging road users to slow down. It's after a driver in Burnfoot was clocked travelling over double the speed limit at the weekend. Gardie from Buncrana roads policing unit detected the vehicle being driven at 166 kilometres per hour in an 80 speed zone. The motorist was arrested and is charged to appear in court. Looking now to weather dry mostly for today with isolated showers and some spells of hazy sunshine. A band of sherry rain will gradually move into western parts later this afternoon and evening. That's with highest temperatures of 13 to 16 degrees Celsius. That's all for now. The next news update is at 10 o'clock until then. Good morning. Trobbing head, sore back, the aches and pains of cold and flu. No one pain is the same. But for all those everyday pains, there's a moment when you start to feel release. That moment when you start to get back to being you and you feels amazing. Panadol extra film coated tablets, powerful pain relief. Release starts here. Contains paracetamol always with the label leaflet. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9 till noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, good morning to you. Four minutes past nine, Monday the second of October. Welcome to October 2023. How are you all keeping? How was your weekend? I hope it was a good one for you and the week continues in the same vein. The lines are open for you to get involved in the program. Comment on what we're talking about. Raise your own issues. You know what we do here. 08 660 25,000. What's apps and texts to that number? 08 660 25,000. Or give us a call in 0749 125,000. If you want to email it's comments at highlandradio.com. And don't forget, of course, you can watch the show live on your big TV. If it's a smart TV, the app's on there for you, I'm sure. And also YouTube on your Firestick if you want to watch us there as well. And we're also across all your mobile devices on YouTube and Facebook. Right, let's get to look at what's making the front pages of the papers today. We'll start with the Dairy People, Donegal News. An advocacy group, assisting those negatively impacted by care during the COVID-19 pandemic, has said it's providing legal and grief support to families in Donegal Care Champions. We had them on the show quite some time ago. And they were at the time progressing cases for people down the country. But as we were concluding that conversation with them, we did have a lot of calls from people who wanted to engage with that group. So not surprising to see that they are progressing some cases now, it seems, or at least representing and supporting some people here in Donegal. Care Champions told the Donegal News it's supporting families in the county who were negatively impacted by care during COVID. Supports included for family experienced grief, for those taking legal challenges and some who have cases with the ombudsman. It comes as up to 30 care homes could face criminal investigation, depending on results of a guard inquiry into the death of a woman in a residential home during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The Dairy News has some good advice on the front of its paper today. Get yourself checked. As Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins, popular local community worker Jeanette Warke is urging women to check their breasts regularly and note any changes. Jeanette, who is the project manager with the Cathedral Youth Club in the Fountain area of the city, made the call during the group's annual Macmillan Cancer Support Coffee Morning. And, you know, having spoken to hundreds of people at this stage over the years who have been diagnosed with cancer or another condition, is they know themselves, you know yourself if there's something not right now. Obviously, that doesn't mean don't check, don't go to the doctor. But if you know there's something going on, it's really, really advisable to get it checked. And to not miss those appointments either, the breast check appointments, they are really, really crucial. And they pick up so many cases of cancer early, which makes the outcomes and the treatments potentially easier on the person. So it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So as I say, check yourself, go to those appointments and trust your God. On to the Irish Independent now and families in the squeezed middle stand to gain most in Budget 24 next week with measures set to benefit commuters and parents. Party leaders are poised to halt the scheduled rise in excise duty on fuel due at the end of this month. The move will save hundreds of euros for long-distance drivers and even those with shorter runs such as parents dropping children to school as we know the price of fuel back through the roof again. But it looks like the government might defer their latest excise. I was going to say increase, but I mean is the RE restoring it. Meanwhile, there'll be increased funding for the school's meal program attending the provision, extending the provision of hot food to hundreds of new facilities. The Irish Independent also understands there will also be a special new scheme to give full Susie third level grants to single parents who want to study. It will focus on helping lone parents who want to go on to college with Teach Oakley of Radcar and higher education Minister Simon Harris determined to end the requirements for a person to be in full-time education to avail of the grant and Simon Harris will be on the program with us a little later on in this hour I believe and we can perhaps get a comment from him in relation to that speculation. On to the Irish Times this morning and up to 30,000 people on their third up subsequent learner permits have never sat a driving test and in some cases may have been driving for almost 30 years without ever holding a full licence. This is a story that pops its head up every couple of years and we've covered it on numerous occasions. You see, if you have a provisional licence, you can renew it but you have to do a test. Oh, but no, you don't. You simply have to have applied for a test to renew the licence so there are a cohort of people out there, maybe you know some of them, that just apply for a test and then renew the provisional licence. I don't think all of them are driving, I think some people want it as a form of ID and perhaps don't have a car or don't get behind the wheel but there's no doubt there are some that are perpetually extending their driving licence and are out on the road on the provisional. Well the figures emerged after the Road Safety Authority examined records of learner permit holders back to 1994 following inquiries from the Irish Times. The data shows tens of thousands of learner motorists on their third or subsequent permits since 2018 have been driving for many years without ever sitting a test. Learner permit holders on their first or second learner permit were excluded from the analysis as these are considered a period when learner drivers are undergoing lessons and maybe you're one of those that does renew your learner permit. Contact us in confidence of course and let us know why. What's the story? 08 660 25000. The it's getting kind of personal and nasty some would say the row between rank and file guard and Drew Harris the relationship untenable though they are going to maintain it because Drew Harris is the full backing of Minister for Justice Helen McIntee but rank and file guard not so much 99% of them simply don't. Well the minister has said she will not direct Guardi on where and when they should work as rank and file Guardi prepared to engage in escalated industrial action in a roster dispute. Members of the Guard of Representative Association have threatened to withdraw their label if the standoff with Commissioner Drew Harris over the re-implementation of pre-COVID roster system is not resolved and I heard someone say this sort of commentary on that suggesting that the guards are taking this action or voting because of some sort of sectarian motivation or because Drew Harris is from the North which is nonsense. The GRA actually were quite welcoming of him in his arrival in that it was a I remember the interview at the time it was like well you know he's a fresh set of eyes and maybe he can fix some of the problems that are there and identifiable. I don't think there's any motivation other than the fact that these Guardi believe that he's just the head of an organization that's not doing its job correctly that would be their view. I don't think it's rooted in anything to do with where he's from or his religion for that matter but anyway I did I do hear and see that narrative around over the weekend which I think is a little unfair. But back to budget speculation and if you are a smoker you won't want to hear this a single cigarette could cost a euro by 2025 if the government adopts pre-budget recommendations from a health care charity. The Irish Heart Foundation said it was proposing the price increase because smoking rates in the young are on the rise so you would effectively be looking at 20 euro a box of cigarettes by 2025. Chris Macy director of patient support with the charity said studies show hikes in tobacco tax are the most effective way to reduce smoking levels after a 50 cent increase last year the current cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes in the most popular price category is 15 euro 80 cent. Mr Macy said the Irish Heart Foundation is calling for a commitment from government to increase the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes to 20 euro by 2025. This would require a budget increase of 2 euro and 10 for the next two years. I believe there is some significant money going on cigarettes this year. That being said you know there might be less cigarettes sold but truthfully there are a lot of people out there not smoking counterfeit cigarettes they're kind of easy to get a hold of. I mean there are those that would be discouraged from start and smoking and maybe even some that might stop but I think a lot of people obviously who are very addicted to a very addictive substance might find themselves on the black market which itself is dangerous because you don't know what you're smoking anyway but anyway my point being is is that a lot of people will continue to smoke the state will lose the revenue and it'll be illegal cigarettes that they're smoking. The Irish Daily Mirror has a special investigation as well as the star they have the same special investigation. The health service has a portfolio of vacant properties worth hundreds of millions of euro the Irish Mirror can reveal. A special investigation has found it is sitting on more than 250 buildings lying idle across the country. The HSC has been labeled as the country's biggest land hoarder at a time when there is a crisis in housing. The properties it hold include the mans in Manahamantan leach room which sits on extensive grounds and also listed as a vacant property although I'm not sure is it 100% accurate let me know is St Cunnell's hospital in letter Kenny it's a huge sprawling building obviously on on the quite a large site but it's listed as a vacant property this there is some activity there but for the most part is it vacant that could be a good resource but then again here locally people are calling for services to be there for as long as as long as it's been lying somewhat vacant and finally Met Aaron says they are willing to drop Kieran from a list of storm names after colleagues in another country queried how to pronounce it what a load of nonsense there's loads of different names of with different pronunciations Kieran is hardly greatly challenging is he the Met said they were happy with the choice of Fergus as an Irish name for the list and Kieran was chosen as a bonus name an email to foreign colleagues said it's pronounced Kier but if you think it's too complicated to pronounce it wouldn't be a problem for us to let it go so hopefully they don't the foreign weather forecasters don't veto you if you're a Kieran because we'd love to have a storm named after you it's so important all right so that is a look at the papers we'll be back with our first guest on the show and don't forget you can watch our next guest if you log on to our youtube or facebook channels that's coming up after a break the newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra mountaintop letter Kenny the 2022 seastore national off license of the year the 90 new show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit union offering low rate car loans with fast approval apply online at letter Kenny cu.ie or in office today Sheridan security now introducing zero wire smart alarm systems zero wire zero mess and a real peace of mind with a simple press the button your alarm can be set or on set or download the free app and control it from your phone call us today on zero seven four nine one two six zero two five and get your alarm from two hundred and ninety nine euro stay local stay safe and protect what you value most with Sheridan security systems gosh yes you and it's brish the run dog good show are you building a new home building requirements state that you must install a radon barrier at ff radon systems we supply and professionally install the fully certified barrier for more information call him at ff radon systems on zero eight six eight double three two seven four nine highland radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letter Kenny to Dublin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time ask the time is just turning 17 minutes past nine and we bid good morning now to jar during them but someone good morning to you jar thanks so much for joining us on the show again good morning Greg it's good to be here it's great to have you back on right now your office busy hundreds of patients who were refused reimbursement of their treatment overseas I presume this includes Northern Ireland doesn't as well by the HSC are having their cases reexamined following criticism from from your office so just outline the work that's been done here if you don't mind jar thanks Greg yes I will do this is a good news story really because in April we spoke to you about the report in sickness and in death where we had pointed out that there was maybe an over bureaucratic approach to the implementation of three particular schemes including as you mentioned a scheme involving Northern Ireland we made 21 recommendations to the HSC and I'm very pleased to say that the HSC is implementing those very much in the spirit with which we required so what that has meant is that a number of people who were refused reimbursements for a variety of reasons have since got reimbursements now the HSC is working through the various different categories of people it's important Greg that I point out that people have to have an entitlement in the first place so it would only be people who were refused on certain grounds for example some people had a difficulty with the referral letter so in a number of cases we came across situations where maybe the GP himself or herself had not actually signed the referral letter but the referral letter was genuine and everything else about it was was correct so the HSC has re-looked at those and a number of people who were refused on that basis have since actually received their refunds another difficulty that people were experiencing was proof of payment and in some respects the HSC were looking for way too onerous proof of payment I mean as far as we were concerned once the person had proved that they had the procedure and that it actually paid for the procedure other things like travel for example and that would be particularly relevant to Northern Ireland because most people probably just got a lift from somebody or somebody kindly drove them to the hospital or the clinic so they wouldn't necessarily have proof of travel as well as proof of payment but it wasn't required so I'm pleased to say that those areas have been re-looked at by the HSC and a number of people have received refunds yeah and one of the silly things that people had to do was go and buy something in a shop or something to prove they were there on a certain day to the point where I saw someone on Facebook about a month ago saying was anyone in dairy on the 12th of March that was in a shop and kept the receipts because that just so happened to be the time that they were there these are probably kind of extreme examples but it seems to happen relatively regularly so does it mean things like that were less likely to see that going forward Jer? Yes that's absolutely my understanding not alone are these things being rectified for people who didn't get a refund because of them but much more importantly we see the scheme now as being administered in a much more reasonable manner and I'm very pleased with that Bernard Gloucester took a particular interest in this this the new CEO at the time of the HSE and he put in place in fact there's a really a new office and also very importantly there's a new appeal process in place we weren't happy with the appeal process that was there so that has all improved another thing that is very helpful for people is there were some people who had what was called a first charge put on so they had received treatment say for example somebody had had their hip done genuinely had the procedure done applied in good faith to have a refund and then found that there was an issue because maybe they had an income from another jurisdiction like a pension and that would often happen as you can imagine close to the border and in those cases people applied in good faith yes there was an issuer on the pension but it wasn't pointed out in time so after a long battle with our office the HSE agreed to refund those this is over the last number of years but they then put in place what they described as a first charge so that meant apparently that if you went to have another procedure done the money would be clawed back through that I'm glad to say that's all none of that is happening anymore so this scheme is now being administered in a really good manner in my view and I think people should have confidence to use it and I think it's important to remind people that the schemes are there because there are long waiting lists and you know nobody goes abroad or into another jurisdiction to have treatment just for the sake of it everybody would rather have the treatment here at home and Jared you know the reason why this work is so important is because you would imagine with us being at you know a border station we'd speak to an awful lot of people like this and they have had problems but sometimes people have to go to the credit union for a loan or something and then they hear the horror stories of only half the money being returned or the HSE the HSE disputing something or other and they're left with a short term loan that they took out that they can't really afford to pay and the interest mounting on that and so it was a barrier there's lots of people listening for reasons such as that because of the reputation of this scheme that didn't because they couldn't front load the cost themselves and they were afraid then of getting landed with the three or four year loan so you're actually having to choose whether to be able to walk around you know or what so I agree with you if people have more faith in this I think there will be a bigger uptake because as I've just outlined people were nervous I think that's a very important point absolutely people should have more confidence that said Greg like any scheme there are criteria and it's important for example for people to know that you do need a referral letter so I'd advise people to check out the scheme to go onto the HSE website and check out the scheme before they engage another point to note is that you are entitled to a refund of the what you paid or the cost what it would have cost to have it the procedure done in the republic so again there are genuine criteria there that the HSE must enforce and we support that so it's best that people would check out in advance but as you rightly say the vast majority of people who avail of these schemes either borrow from the credit union or maybe a family member by virtue of the fact that they have to avail of these schemes it is very likely that they don't actually have private health insurance if they had private health insurance they would probably have had the procedure done privately in the republic so it is a scheme that allows people to have them or they are rather territory schemes that allow people to have essential procedures done but it is best to check out in advance what the criteria are and just in terms of I mean obviously you've made representations on behalf of a number of patients but there are those maybe listening now that go well this applies to me and I didn't get my refund or I ended up getting saddled with this is there is there any recourse for for any anyone listening in that situation is there a limit time limit if there is as to to when they might be able to close something back from the HSE well I would suggest that anybody who believes that they were wrongly denied a payment under this scheme should contact the HSE in the first instance it is open to them to come to us after that if they're unhappy with the decision but again I would just differentiate between maybe somebody who didn't get a referral letter and simply didn't qualify for the scheme as opposed to somebody who had a referral letter that was a wrong date or an issue with so if there in doubt I would suggest that they should contact the scheme and there is a new office there now dealing with all of these queries and dealing with the scheme so I think it would be important for people to check out with the HSE whether there is any change in in their eligibility or whether there's something that can be looked at so in terms of the proof of travel and getting a purchase on the day of the operation or what have you has that been waived like in other words what is the proof that's required now going forward that the HSE will need before they consider well before they reimburse the person it's best to check in advance but my understanding is what the HSE now requires is proof that you've paid proof that the procedure actually took place and proof that you've actually paid it's very important to point out Greg that from two out of three of these schemes your travel wasn't refunded anyway yeah I got you well you weren't getting that money back in any event so my understanding is now that where travel is not refunded the HSE are not looking for proof of travel they will accept that if you went to a particular hospital and had the treatment done and you have proof that you've paid that hospital well you obviously then travelled there to have to have it done and just to reiterate in fairness because you know chief executives of big organizations often get a rough deal but you are pleased with how Bernard Glaster has taken on board your concerns and seemingly acted upon them so credit where credit is due there absolutely in fact this report was ready before Bernard came into office and I held it back to give him an opportunity I felt it was only fair to a new CEO to have that opportunity and I met him within the first two weeks and he accepted that there were shortcomings in how the the schemes had been implemented and he fully accepted or agreed to implement the 21 recommendations and what I want to pay tribute to is not just the the fact that he agreed to do them much more importantly in a short number of months very significant progress has actually been made on implementing those recommendations so we try to work in cooperation and collaboration with public bodies we're not out to persecute anybody we simply want to see schemes and and services operate the way they should so it's it's even when things go wrong it's very good to see that somebody's willing to rectify that but things right that's our philosophy here as well we're not interested in criticizing people and organizations for the sake of it it's all with a view to to improving things for for service users and the public jar thank you for your time as always have a lovely day thanks very much great bye bye paddy joins us on the program now paddy what was your experience and good morning to you good morning Greg my experience was all very good Greg referral letter proof of purchase don't really understand that one but proof of purchase but then I also had to produce bank statements showing the transaction made on my bank statement to the HSE as well on top of everything else so I had to print bank statements I took a screenshot that wasn't suffice I had to actually print the bank statements and send them off them wow so they really wanted everything by your inside leg measurement there they wouldn't but hopefully that he hasn't mentioned that all the same Greg he didn't mention it there listen to your show he didn't mention that part he mentioned the proof of purchase proof of travel yes but he hasn't mentioned there that guy was on there has mentioned the fact you have to print your bank statement yeah well good we'll double check with his office because I mean you would imagine paddy that a receipt from the private hospital would cover all of that wouldn't you know what I mean like that's how it works what's your card details I want your card details on it that include the last three figures or four figures off your card yeah always goes xxx and then the last four figures off your card which which and any other place as proof of purchase and proof that you were there and you believe that this is just uh this is busy buddying by the HSE a breach of the red tip that's the red tip scenario Greg slow it down and then people might just get fed up but if it's a hundred euro or two hundred euro or whatever you know they might turn around go it's you know what is it worth it yeah okay hopefully paddy these 21 recommendations I'm going to go through them hopefully that's covered in it because that is an overreach and unnecessary and as you say there was a sense with this scheme that it was designed to discourage you with red tape but uh Jared he's the ombudsman he feels that hopefully some of that red tape's been gotten away with now all right well as I say you can check the recommendation very great but that was one of them you had to print bank statements yeah and show them your bank statement and highlight the transaction every other transaction you've been in your bank statement was was further reading as well right including your how long ago was it since you used the scheme paddy if you don't mind me asking I was asked about maybe 56 weeks ago for for the bank statements they hadn't they were they were they were dealing with it but they contacted me about that the screenshot wasn't good enough that I needed banks to send bank statements just further just yet again busy bodying okay right paddy hopefully it went well for you though in any case despite that and you're feeling a bit better yeah all right good that's okay great thank you take care thanks paddy Martin good morning to you how's your how's it going Greg I'm all right Martin use of your family dealt with this scheme but it didn't work out as you expected tell us what happened I'll tell you Greg my mother got her hooked on and Derry and she she was supposed to get 11,000 back you know I think the operation was costing 14 but she went to the credit union you know to get it done and when she got it done she asked could she get home or she didn't ask she said that they said if she could do the exercises that she could get home that night yeah and she and she and she got home but she only got half a half a month money back because she didn't stay the night wow yeah that's definitely you see the ombudsman's office is very useful you know that would definitely be one for you to check up on Martin or your family because that's a bit well she's she's paying a loan back now you know and and she asked about towards herself asked you know she said that if she could get the exercises if she could do the exercises they said if she could do the exercises she could get home and so they said that because she was I did because she wasn't an overnight patient like half the money they only give her half half a bag and I'll tell you she was on to champagne and pear story in the mall but I think I think I'm the I think you have to stay yeah but but that being said if she wasn't made fully aware of that it might be possible it might be possible to appeal that I certainly would advise you or her to get in contact with the ombudsman's office yeah Martin because it's a chunk of money and she's going to be paying that back for quite some time now obviously oh she has uh I'll tell you she can't sleep at night either all right thinking about it to tell you first okay well listen um pensioner yeah I get you we'll give jurors office a call initially okay well carol I'll get back on to jurors office and see if there's any scope for you to appeal that right save you wasting the time and at least then maybe it might give her a bit of peace of mind to know one way or other so would you leave that with us and we have your number and we'll get back to you I'm not sure there is your mark and I'm not promising anything but you know what I mean just on the off chance that that's something yeah because she didn't know that by leaving that day because she was mad to get home of course but she would okay right leave us leave it with us that's all right great thanks very much best wishes to your mother Martin thank you very much thank you very much indeed okay 08 660 25 000 is the whatsapp and text number or give us a call in 07 491 25 000 we have a minister for further and higher education research and innovation and science minister Simon Harris on the program now good morning Simon thank you very much for joining us good morning Greg thank you for having me on it's good to have you now you are announcing funding for a project in east on the goal today can you tell us a little bit about that but can indeed I'm I'm into the goal today for three things really firstly I'm visiting you are giving the go-ahead for a significant extension and expansion facilities there is an order for the college of further education and training really conscious that they do great work there but also very conscious that it is a school campus and they've been looking for quite a period of time to have dedicated space for supposed leaving search courses and so that you don't have it but the secondary school and a further education college having to double up on the facilities so today we we are announcing the green light for that and the project will now move to design and planning I'm also announcing today that we're topping up the capital funding available to Johnny Godd ETP by 153 pounds of euro this would enable them to carry out other small projects across the county as they wish and I'm particularly excited today to be something we discussed on the program the last time I was on to be meeting some of our new nursing students in letter Kenny these are students who have entered the nursing degree program without any reference to their CAO so it's a new way of doing your nursing degree no matter what points you get in the leaving first you're able to now start your nursing degree in a college of further education in letter Kenny and then be guaranteed you can complete it in the Atlantic Technological University whereas up until now a lot of nursing students in the post leaving third course were finding themselves having to go to the UK to complete their degree which was just enough quite frankly yeah I'm just just a more general stuff while I speak to you because it's great to have that positive news I mean obviously you would be aware and it's something we've called in this program before that the capital spend per student in the northwest is 25% less than the Irish Irish average that's over the last decade why is that minister and and what can be done to address that imbalance I think there's been a couple of reasons behind that I mean I think one has been a statement of fact that we haven't had up until now a university in the northwest and that has obviously changed now thanks to the incredible work of many people but I think particularly of Paul Hanigan in what was letter Kenny it and now at you the Atlantic Technological University I think secondly and I think your listeners know this very very well but I've gotten to know it very well I think the lack of education provision of scale in dairy and has caused real challenges as well and that's why we as an Irish government have very recently announced a multi-million euro investment to extend the Ulster University campus in McGee I mean John Hume and others have been marching highlighting these issues back in the 60s and 70s about the lack of educational provision in dairy so now the direct answer to your question what can we do I think now that we have a university in Donegal and now that we have a university in dairy that is expanding the opportunities for partnerships and collaboration in the northwest really are quite incredible and I think we're at a very very big moment here so when do you anticipate when do you anticipate we might see that imbalance addressed I mean I don't have I don't have a year in mind specifically but I think there's absolutely no reason why we won't now see both ATU Donegal and the McGee campus coming forward with big and bold projects and what I can say is we have separate and distinct to my own department budget we have what we call the shared island fund and the Department of the Seashock a billion euro in it over 10 years and we're ready to start funding projects from there so we're open I saw my message to education providers in the northwest and they know this is that we're we're open for business applications to do even more. Are other encouraging I know from my time in the Department of Health the synergies between both sides of the border we now are going to see medicine students in Denver we're now doing nursing education on an all-island basis we're about to develop all island apprenticeships this will benefit the whole island but it will disproportionately benefit for good. Well with that in mind what supports will Donegal students have studying in Northern Ireland because unless I'm mistaken currently they don't have access to a Susie grant as I say I could be wrong in relation to that or you are wrong I'm not one yet. Okay good so what is the status now in terms of if you're studying in Northern Ireland and access to a Susie grant minister please just so some people know so I know. No I appreciate that you're right I am so you're you can still access the student support if you study in Northern Ireland and as though if you study here because of our common travel arrangements but actually the bigger issue and the bigger issue being very honest Greg is the level of mobility in general has slowed down a lot and one of the things I've written to all universities recently as last week is to see what more we could do to encourage mobility between the two jurisdictions in terms of education and we have funded you know in Northern Ireland less the European Union and we decided now to step in and we're providing funding from this September to make sure students in the north can continue to access Erasmus as an example so I mean we're we're parking kind of politics and emblems and constitutional questions here and just saying what can we do to collaborate and cooperate in areas where it simply makes sense. In relation to that you would know there are deficits in certain areas it's all across the country but particularly here in Donegal with O2, OTs speech and language therapists and what have you there are a number of Donegal people and we've spoken to them over the last couple of months that have studied in these areas in Northern Ireland but they find the Kauru process so long and so written with red tape that they don't engage with it they want to work in Donegal but they're having to work in Derry or elsewhere in Northern Ireland or Britain's nine months wait they can't afford not to be earning at that point do you recognize that as a problem and what can be done to try and streamline that process? It's a very real problem and I'm acutely aware of it and it's quite frustrating because we're we're working to expand the number of places in speech and language therapy in OT so for example there'd be 50 students from the south studying OT speech and language therapy and other therapies in the north from this September but a lot of them will say to me well hang on a second we could do the degree here and then we come out and we can meet registration challenges with Kauru. There is now a group set up between my own department and the Department of Health on workforce planning and I accept the Kauru as independent I accept it's the regulator but I also think it's entirely appropriate that they at least engage and talk to education providers in relation to this and that's what I expect now because even in some disciplines in some disciplines Kauru expect a a qualification above the qualification that's that is awarded in Northern Ireland to work in certain areas down here you know speciality in in language in particular with the speech and language therapist that it doesn't make sense and we're we're losing fantastic talent that want to work here in their own county but simply can't but it's good to see that that's being addressed can you give us any indication as to when that might be streamlined somewhat or as you say I know Kauru are independent but this is a crisis at the moment that we need to we need addressing yeah look they are entirely independent but put it to you like this we're now spending taxpayers money ring fencing places in the north for students from our jurisdiction and it simply would be illogical that we're investing taxpayers money and that those students come out of that system and not be able to work in our own health service so there's students starting right now this month and I think it's a legitimate expectation that they should have that they're able to work about service there's a number of different ways you can address this I mean from an education point of view closer alignment in terms of the criteria but also I think you are right and I don't want to cut across regulation I mean the idea that somebody would study in the north for maybe the language requirement is different for obvious reasons and and yes it would be a very fine speech and language therapist or OT but then wouldn't be able to practice here I mean so there needs to be a little bit of give and take and common sense I think on both sides now of course the more the more we do things on an all island basis I think the more it's important the programs align as close as possible and that would help when is the atu because we have a 20 dropout right here in the northwest which is is incredibly high that's attributed to some extent in terms of with accommodation and what have you and travel and access but anyway in terms of accommodation when will the atu appear be able to borrow money to build accommodation so the direct answer is I've given a million euro to the technological universities to come up with their plans for student accommodation and they're doing that now I expect the output of those plans in 2024 and I expect us to be able to press go on projects in 2024 now as your listeners will know and that's not mislead anyone planning permission design and etc and are obviously things need to go through but I expect to be able to move forward student accommodation projects for our technological universities and next year and I would also say to people though and I accept that this is not ideal for everybody but when you are in a in a housing crisis I mean there there are as recently as Friday 121 rooms to rent gigs that they're probably commonly known advertised on the atu dunigol website yep okay and one other concern we hear from educators in this part of the world is the lack of professors sort of north of this Galway Dublin line an awful lot doesn't travel north of that line unfortunately but just as it relates to professors because that's sort of part of your your ministry what what what what is the story then what could be done to address that because obviously that has its implications as well massively so I mean the factual reality is only a few short weeks ago the future two years ago excuse me dunigol didn't have a university dunigol is now a university county there is a university campus in letter ten e that provides a huge opportunity step one was to establish the technological university we've done that step two now is to negotiate what new contracts might look like and not forcing anyone by the way to switch their contracts what new contracts might look like so those universities can really operate in the way everyone wants to around research professorship the likes and these are talks I expect to be kicking off in 2024 so the answer is we want to see professors in our universities that has to take place as part of a landscape as to what is the contract for somebody working in in a technological university versus one of the old institute technology it's the next big piece of work and it'll dominate a lot of 2024 from our perspective now I budget just around the corner speculation today that you are going to implement measures that would remove the requirement for a person to be in full-time education to avail of grants loan parents single parents and what have you is that on the cards is that going to happen yes it says so let's let's dispense with all the usual cliches around that's a matter for the budget and just take that as red I mean what I what I feel very strongly on Greg is at the moment there are a number of barriers and poverty traps and anomalies in the student grant scheme if for example if you could be a single mum or single dad you could be trying to raise your kids hold down a job pay your mortgage or pay your rent you want to go back to education to get to where you want to get to in life but the only way you can do it is at the moment and get through the is full time that doesn't work for you and therefore you maybe don't go part-time education can be a really really good way for someone to get the exact same destination but we need the student grant system to catch up with the 21st century so it is something I'm working on and the details obviously are a matter for budget day but I genuinely believe if we're serious about tackling child poverty child well-being tackling intergenerational disadvantage and deprivation and this is one key way to go about it and very finally a lot of just one typical example of people's engagement with Susie hi Greg my daughter studies at Queens and we were declined or was declined to Susie grant as they were 51 euro over the threshold even though I've not worked in over a year due to a triple heart bypass surgery how is that encouraging students from Donagol to study in the north so I can't ask you to obviously come and minister directly to that point but it's kind of typical of an awful lot of what we hear do you have sympathy for that listener is there anything that can be done for someone in that situation or or do we need to there always is going to be a cut-off I suppose and people are always going to miss out but when it's by such a narrow margin for someone who isn't working it seems unfair yeah look and two things I'd say I mean firstly if you feel or if you feel the outcome of your student grant application has been on fair or you feel there are particular circumstances that should be taken into consideration around help and its impact on your on your livelihood you can appeal and you can also appeal to an independent student appeals board so it certainly encourage any listener who has concerns in relation to that to consider that course of action and look the second thing and you've been good enough to acknowledge any time there is an income threshold obviously that that does always mean there's people each side of the threshold one of I do I would like to see progress on the income threshold because I'm conscious with both inflation and people's incomes rising there's people who may qualify for suing one year and find that there are a few euro over the threshold this year you don't want a scenario where someone gets a pay rise or you know works an extra shift or something and all of a sudden loses their grants so again these are matters for the budget but both the fee levels remember last year we were able to reduce college fees by a thousand euro that really helped people both the fee levels and the grants levels and things we are looking at actively now in advance the budget minister thank you very much indeed as I say people get a lot of criticism I suppose you do when you're in big jobs but in fairness I think you've done a really good work in terms of alternative pathways apprenticeships and what have you because that progress it needed doing for quite some time and I think you've made good inroads in that regard thanks for your time today thank you so much very good morning thank you very much that's minister Simon Harris there minister for further and higher education research innovation and science interesting to get responses on the record to a number of those key issues particularly as it relates to the atu here in the northwest and where it's going and addressing some of those imbalances that have been here up until now they're on the record then and we can check progress that's what it's all about isn't it all right back with more after these credit union with monster loans available up to 60 000 euro for all occasions visit letterkennycu.ie tb it's time to transform your smile with the help of blue puppy dental letterkenny and dunagall town their expert team offer orthodontics teeth whitening implants and composite bonding all in house start your journey by calling 07497 40404 or easily book your appointment online at a time that suits you through their user friendly patient portal available anytime anywhere at blue puppy dental dot com blue puppy dental and orthodontics letterkenny and dunagall town medical care patients welcome an emotion stirred an idea accelerated that's progress you can feel and the very definition of the oudie 241 range from the sporty iconic oudie a4 and the all-electric oudie q4 e-tron to the pioneering oudie q8 e-tron offering greater range than you can even imagine test drive the oudie 241 range at an oudie dealer near you today summer maybe over but the need for storage is just beginning deal side garden furniture brings you the perfect solution with full range of sizes and garden sheds outdoor canopies and much more safely store your barbecue patio furniture and outdoor toys deal side garden furniture livered made to measure and one-off designs are our specialty find us on social media okay damien quinn founder of spear newer joins us on the program now damien good morning to you hi great how are you i am good dan it's great to have you on the program okay talk to me about your organization and you've created this off the back of your life experience damien yeah so basically my organization is called spear and newer irish for new horizon and that is a journey through the criminal justice system onto a better life so when i went to prison many years ago i used the time constructively to reflect to plan for a better future to become job ready and then when i got out then it meant absolutely nothing because i couldn't get work anywhere i couldn't get a house couldn't get i couldn't volunteer couldn't get into college so all of that work and effort to change seemed pretty pretty pointless and to be honest i ended up kind of going backwards along like many other people i believe today now the repeat offending rates are 61 percent after prison and i firmly believe that that is linked to the inability to tap into opportunity so what i say is that most of the opportunity after one is released from prison but can i ask damien um you know some people think that people go into prison and come out worse people as a result but but prison is about punishment of course but rehabilitation you know i'd imagine that that is what the motivation is so that people you know change their ways and become uh become you know contributing to society in a positive way from your experience inside is is prison set up like that or do people perhaps who were petty criminals go into prison and come out perhaps uh even worse than when they went in i think a lot of like a lot of people go to prison for very short sentences and they're not there uh any lengths long enough to have any meaningful intervention to know they're taken out of whatever structure they might have had in place they've lost all that then they to get out and reapply for all of that again and it's so difficult when you got a background so but in them in the mainstream prisons like you know it's the education and training is every bit as good as the education and training that's outside and there is opportunities in there to use your time in a constructive way um i myself would have relied upon a lot of people in their educational support and when you read about them people today being dead or right back to where they started you know justice didn't prevail for them people or their families so yeah and it's interesting and i never really thought about it damien that when you came out presumably everything would be flagged on guard of etting and the guard of etting is there for a reason but it would limit greatly what you could do if you wanted to start contributing again to society in terms of employment um is it the the employers were just a bit nervous employing employing someone with a criminal record or like talk to us a little bit more about those barriers that you referenced yeah well like i would have gone for a many jobs and i got out i went for houses and all that type of thing but guard of etting would come up and that would be the end of the road in fact it is pretty much used as a mechanism to filter out don't get me wrong i'm not up here trying to like criminality is wrong like and it has to be punished that's never up for debate with me i did what i did and i serve my time and i took it firmly on the end too like you know but like when somebody recognises that they need to change when somebody is doing everything that they possibly can to change that needs to be captured and supported because everybody wins when somebody turns their life around you know how do you through sparenua help others then because i mean you can't eliminate some of the blockades that we've been talking about so what is the pathway well what we do is we work in a peer mentor like i mentor other people we have like a pin peer mentoring network across the country what we do is we kind of explore and build portfolios of commitment to change so we capture all of the evidence since the time somebody committed a crime and we get it assessed and validated and we bring it right up to date so at this very moment in time we can confirm with certainty that this person has done an awful lot of work on themselves and it has a value what that is for most it's a state that's a certificate of commitment to change using the model of recognition of prior learning so we capture all of the steps out of a life by people take we look at their educational attainment you know the the the addiction issues that they've been resolving you know the positive change what they've learned what they the reflection process as well you know how they're going to apply that going forward and we bring people right up to date we don't guarantee future behavior because nobody can guarantee that what we can say with confidence is that this person is working really hard on themselves and they deserve they deserve a break would this be useful as part of sentence the sentencing processor if it was recognized by the courts do you think it might give it even more credit but not credibility but you know what I mean more more weight well it is like so there's an integrated sentence management program which is fairly new okay we the ISM officer so what you can do when you go to prison is you get inducted and you're told what you can do with your time and then you can set a few goals with the ISM officer then and if you see that through that should leave the gate with you that's what we're saying you know the we are actually currently working with the department of justice we've we've had meetings back and over and they're currently writing their new criminal justice employment strategy but the point is like you know when you get a conviction like your good standing in the community is removed but there is no mechanism in place that restores your good standing after you've been appropriately punished yeah but some of us that societal maybe we aren't forgiving enough maybe we aren't prepared to give people a second chance and now with obviously the internet if someone does commit a crime it's there for eternity I mean people can you know try and get it taken down and I've worked with people in the past who've tried to turn their lives around and you know I understand that you know I understand that but again I just think sometimes someone's convicted and we you know scumbag this and all that kind of stuff and sometimes it's deserved don't get me wrong but I just wonder if we as a society maybe need to be a little bit more open to giving people a second chance to turn their lives around well look the reality is like there's about two percent of the entire prison population who are a danger to society and a danger to themselves you know but for the vast majority of people in prison there are people that might have made some stupid mistakes foolish mistakes whatever nice people nice people at the back of it all but did what they had to do out of necessity to survive you know and then people are our family people then people do want to play meaningful parts in their family's lives they do want to contribute they do want to be somebody they just need the chance to get going and I suppose society in general we can lock people up and throw away the key by our means or we can lock people up in prison and treat them like animals by our means but we will ultimately be letting animals back out onto the street if we did that so really if people want like I used to hear it all the time you think he cop on and get a job for himself I've been trying like I would have been trying at the time as well like so a society want people to contribute and and and be productive members of societies and we really really need to re-explore how we do the criminal conviction disclosure piece so okay people can get more information I presume Damian by searching at Spira Nua it's sp e father i r e n u a and get more information on the work that you're doing yeah and it's coming out now as well the article on the whole background the origins of the the programme is being published in the Irish Probation Journal which is out this month too okay brilliant stuff thank you very much for your time I really do appreciate it and hope things continue to go well for you Damian thank you all right no no it's our pleasure take care of yourself 08 660 25 000 whatsapp syntax to that number or give us a call on 07 491 25 000 we'll be back after the news and the bituary notices please stay right where you are the nine till noon show with letter kenny credit union simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from letter kenny credit union call us on 07 4910 2126 or apply online via our app or in office today the minute I need Damian and he faced lights up I mean that's true lights up and the point of order just is you can say what you like Tom no he doesn't always agree with you you can make this sound so kind no it feels amazing to make someone feel amazing volunteer with a loan find out more at alone.ie forward slash volunteer join Connelly's Audi Sligo for the 2024 Donnie Gall Motor Show Canal Road Letter Kenny from the third to the seventh of October test drive the 241 Audi range including the iconic Audi A4 the all-electric Audi Q4 e-tron and the pioneering Audi Q8 e-tron drive into 2024 with your brand new Audi from Connelly Motor Group for more information visit connelly's.ie in the final clearance sale at Watson men's wear a selection of casual jackets shirts polo shirts and suits are half price also men's and women's super dry and a selection of kids clothing clearing at half price and there's two pairs of jeans from 70 euro these offers are for a limited time only for a while stocks last in the big final clearance sale now on and Watson men's wear mean street that are Kenny open seven days late thursdays and fridays. Highland radio weather updates with Ireland west airport where you can now fly daily to London Heathrow with Air Lingus and connect via Heathrow to over 80 destinations worldwide including Boston New York and more. Air online and on the Highland radio app this is Highland radio news. Good morning it's Donna Marie Doherty with the news at 10 o'clock. Minister for further and higher education Simon Harris has today announced 153,750 euro in funding for Donegal ETB. It has been awarded for a project in the Stranorla Further Education and Training Centre. It was granted under the strategic infrastructure upgrade fund program and is to enhance facility used by those in the PLC program at the Finn Valley College. Minister Harris called the announcement an investment in the learner. Meanwhile the minister joined Greg Hughes on this morning's dental noon show while speaking on the challenges faced by students who studied for occupations such as occupational therapists and speech and language therapists in Northern Ireland and are struggling to find work in Donegal. Mr Harris said the problem is a very real one. He said his office is working to enable those and to work in the Republic of Ireland especially in the face of vacancies within the child disability network teams in the county leaving many children without support. There is never a group set up between my own department and the Department of Health on workforce planning and I accept the court as independent. I accept it's the regulator but I also think it's entirely appropriate that they at least engage and talk to education providers in relation to this and that's what I accept. The trial of a 32 year old man accused of murdering Ashley Murphy is due to get underway later this morning. Joseph Posca of Lanale Grove and Tullamore County Offly is due to stand trial before the Central Criminal Court. Andrew Loud reports. 23 year old Ashley Murphy died after an alleged assault while she was out for a run along the Grand Canal in Tullamore County Offly on January 12th 2022. She had been working as a primary school teacher and was a traditional Irish musician in the Tullamore area at the time of her death. Slovakian native Joseph Posca is charged with her murder which carries a mandatory life sentence if convicted. The trial is due to get underway before the Central Criminal Court later today on what is the start of the new court's term. It's listed for half 10 this morning and it could last for up to six weeks. Andrew Loud at the Central Criminal Court. Police in Sturban detected three drivers with alcohol in their system in the space of 24 hours over the weekend and a statement sparing neighborhood policing teams say they're urging drivers to never ever drink and drive. They also reminded road users that just one drink can cause a collision which could be fatal and that everybody has a responsibility when it comes to road safety. Meanwhile, Garady again urged all road users to slow down because speed kills. This comes after a driver in Burnfoot was clocked traveling over double the speed limit at the weekend. Garady from Bunkrana roads policing unit detected the vehicle being driven at 166km per hour in an 80 speed zone. The motorist was arrested and is charged to appear in court. Voluntary and community groups are filling a void left behind by government in providing crucial mental health services. That's according to Mental Health Perform, a group of 60 charity organisations which is seeking an additional 25 million in funding for the sector in the upcoming budget. The state currently relies on charities to provide 25% of the country's health and social care services. CEO Fiona Coyle says without increased funding the model is unsustainable. Unless they are resourced and resourced at the right level, I don't think it is long term. It's really going to work in terms of pay, in terms of cost of living rising. The government is being called to ensure 20% of the housing stock is designated for social housing by 2030. Social justice Ireland wants 1.4 billion euro of the upcoming budget dedicated to the provision of over 230,000 social accommodation units in the next 8 years. 12,691 people are currently living in emergency accommodation which includes 3,895 children. Research and policy analyst Suzanne Rogers says this profoundly affects families' well-being. For those families that do find themselves in emergency accommodation, that there be a time limit on the length of time that they can be in emergency accommodation and we will be calling for an expansion of the housing forest model to support homeless families as well. So that's really where you put all those wraparound support in place. Looking to the weather dry for most of today with isolated showers and some spells of hazy sunshine. A band of sherry rain will gradually move into western parts later this afternoon and this evening. A few heavy bursts are possible, highest temperatures of 13-16 degrees celsius and mostly moderate southwest winds. That's all for now, the next news update is at 11 o'clock. Until then, good morning. The obituary notices this Monday morning, October 2nd. The death has taken place of Don Porter, St Columbus Grove, Ballet Duff Park, Lifford and formerly of 316 Coneyborough Road, Lifford, reposing at his home this evening from half past four. Funeral leaving his home on Wednesday, a quarter past ten for Rayquim Mass and St Patrick's Church Murlock at 11am, and termined afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Donations in lieu of flowers pleased to comfort care at Letter Kenney University Hospital or care of Quigley funeral directors Straban. Family time pleased from 10pm to 11am. The Rayquim Mass can be viewed live via the parish webcam. The death has taken place of very reverend Father Michael Conaghan, Drone Cannon, Crossroads, Kelly Gordon, retired parish priest of Kilmachrennan. Rayquim Mass is today at 12 noon in St Columbus Church, Kilmachrennan, followed by removal to St Patrick's Church Crossroad, Kelly Gordon for prayers, burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. For more details regarding wicks and funerals, please go to hideandradio.com. Grand Road opens seven days a week. Free bus every Tuesday and Thursday from Klon Manny, stopping at Carndona, Bonkranagh and Fawn. Call Neil on 086 73 07 017 to book your place. Play Tuesdays from just £5 for six chances to win £300, or Thursdays stairway to seven. Six chances to win £700. Check out boilbingoclubs.com or download our app for more info. McElhinney's home value event has begun online and in store, with amazing offers that you do not want to miss. A massive 30% off La Cruz A tableware, 50% off selected bedding and towels, and 20% off the entire Orla-Kylie collection. Visit us in store or shop online at McElhinney's.com for the biggest home value event of the year. For exclusive offers only available at McElhinney's department store, Bali Buffet. Sarah moved back first and then Steven moved in beside her. With this new fibre broadband, they can work from home so they don't need to live in the city. They love being back, of course. And I suppose there's no harm that they've a free babysitter on hand whenever they want it. National Broadband Ireland is delivering our high-speed fibre broadband network to homes, schools and businesses across Ireland, no matter how remote or rural. Granny! Oh, yes, dear. Find out more at nbi.ie, nbi building a limitless Ireland supported by the government of Ireland. Ah, yeah, we're good mates, yeah. Look, I'm always there for him. 100% too thick and thin. And sure, he likes having me around. Anytime he's going out, I'll get the shout, you know? And someday, I'll probably kill him. Smoking isn't the friend you think it is. Quit for 28 days and start taking back control. Find out how at quit.ie or free phone 1-800-201-203 from the HSE. Okay, you're very welcome back to the night until noon show. How are you all getting on? Hope you're fine this Monday morning. And nice and busy on the phone lines as well, which is always good because it means you're listening. Hi, Greg. Could you ask about the NTPF regarding being referred by your doctor for procedure to be done and being sent to Knightsbridge in Balli Kelly with the NTPF? It says on the letter will be of no cost to you, but I'm afraid after I receive the treatment, I'll be sent to build for the procedure. We'll just double check everything. I think sometimes people get caught out with what you're entitled for the refund. Also, too, there's a code I think you're given for the operation and make sure that code matches what's on the NTPF forms, if that makes sense. Maybe it's something that we should now that we're assured that the system will be that the system is being refined somewhat. Maybe it would be worthwhile for you out there for us to get an expert on to talk about the NTPF system sort of from start to finish. So how long do you have to be on a wait list if at all? Can you be referred straight away? How much will it actually cost? How much do you expect to be refunded and what are the pitfalls? I think that might be helpful to a lot of people out there, so maybe that's something we might work on. I got 25 euro back from a claim for 180 euro from the HSC, and my claim was genuine. Morning, Gregory, hedge cutting. There is so much of this going on through the county. I don't mind the hedge cutting, but what annoys me is the way they leave the main roads. Don't even clean them up. Plus the fact they even have to cut hedges on a Sunday, which I think is ridiculous, would like someone in this business to answer the question why they don't clean up after themselves. I'm not really quite sure of the answer to that. Morning, sent away from a driving license last January, sent to Medical One. Can't get any word from them. What do I do to get my license? That comes in from James. Okay, I don't understand the question, but James, someone out there will sent away for the driving license in January, sent to Medical One. Reg, can't get any word from them. What do I do to get my license? So someone out there understands what that is. Help me, please, and we can pass that information on to James. Good morning, Greg. People who smoke will pay anything for a cigarette, and these advocates know that. They want people to quit, so why don't they just ban them? They won't because they make too much tax. Podding the price up is only to keep the tax amount steady. This isn't for health. If it was, they would be banned, not priced up. The government and advocacy groups working together to rip people off, do this group, get government funding. I know there are some groups that advocate on behalf of smokers, they're funded by the tobacco industry. But a caller says should be 20 euro for a vape cartridge as well. Ban the vaping, says that listener. It's great that there's a greater cooperation between Ulster universities and the Republic, says the listener. My own son went to Colrain, but students going to Ulster have to pay full fees. Currently 4,700 sterling as opposed to Irish students registration fee of 3,000 and cannot avail of government subsidies like the 500 rent rebates. That is an issue I wanted to work with the minister, but I proposed it incorrectly by focusing on the Suzy grants. My apologies, I had an opportunity there and unfortunately I got the information caught up in my head, but we will try and get some clarity on that down the line. Okay, we got that one there a little earlier on. Question for the minister, what about cross-border workers? They can't access social support to this side of the border, hammered all the time. I'm not sure that's for his department, but certainly one we can chase up with the responsible minister next time we have access to them. You can get part of the Suzy, but they won't pay the fees part so it will cost you 4,000 for fees. Again, really, Mr Trick there, my apologies on that. Can you read this out please? My daughter was granted Suzy and her grant was cut in half, which works out at €41 per week due to her workplace meant being only a few miles from her home. How unfair can this be? It's hard enough to manage. Our daughter is studying in Mnuth University. She applied for the Suzy grant after endless back and forth of the team asking for more information on the application. She was refused because we were €6 over the recommended budget, and she won't get the grant because of this, over €6. This is an absolute disgrace. She travels from Dublin, Donegal to Mnuth weekly, rents need to buy her weekly shop. It's an absolute disgrace just being six over at €6 over the limit. I take it you appealed, did you? If you did, just confirm that for us. That is just devastating. As well as people leaving college, many are being pushed out because they do placement and the inspector knocks them down. My daughter has passed all her written exams and passed them very well. She has a difficulty in pronouncing all her written exams. Sorry, she has a difficulty in pronouncing words and hence has failed because she has been so used to speaking Irish all her life and takes her time to think of the word in English. She hasn't appealed it because she was told there is no appealing. Now she has to pay €1,800 and repeat the year and despite going to the student's union, this is the only option she's been given. She was in a five-year program with three years done. Now she's left depressed and heading abroad. My daughter would have worked abroad. She's one of the few nurses who would have stayed in this country. I there's something I don't know. Obviously her first language is Irish. She's difficulty in pronouncing words. I presume she's sort of translating them on the foot. I don't really get the full situation there. On the reading of it, it sounds incredibly wrong. Good morning, Greg. Just a quick message to say. Huge thank you and well done to the Highland Radio Sports Team. In particular, it was a bumper weekend of Gaelic football and your sports team covered all the games really well. Thanks again. Lovely. Thanks for the feedback. I'll pass that on to the guys. They did well. I was listening to much of it. Brendan Devaney is going to be up after 11, by the way, to review the weekend's action. Preview the podcast, the DL Debate podcast. If you have a question or comment for Brendan, get in touch with us now on the usual numbers. I'll wait 6, 6 to 25,000. How disrespectful of Metarran to change the storm name Kieran just because the Nutherland forecasters are too lazy to learn the pronunciation of it? It is our country's native language. We should be proud of this. The Irish language is fading away in such a shame. Other countries wouldn't do this. I'm shocked and disappointed by Metarran to allow this. I'd be intrigued to hear their response. I don't get it. Like Kieran is not like, you know, there are Kiva, for an example, is a lovely name. But, you know, to look at it, you might struggle or clean it. And Irish is a difficult name to pronounce. If you look at it, the spelling of it, Kieran not so. Kiaran. Kiaran? I mean, how could you mess it up? And also we have some lots of different names nowadays in Ireland, in Netherlands, in different countries. You just have to learn people's names. It's a thing of respect. Lots and lots of people are very different names now. I know that from we are a country now where people have different names from all over the world. So that is a load of nonsense. And I think they should learn the very simple pronunciation of Kieran. A few people looking for the contact details for the ombudsman. The telephone number, if you've got a pen handy, 01-639-5600. You can call us. You have our number in your head, don't you? The Twitter at office ombudsman or the website ombudsman.ie. Good luck if you're playing bingo. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. It's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio. It's Monday the 2nd of October. You're playing on the green sheet. The reference number is S16. It's game number 40. The numbers are 36, 74, 42, 76, 67, 63, 79, 41, 51, and finally 71. Phone your claim to 9104833 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 NCBI Bingo information at HighlandRadio.com. Did you know Kool Kids Sligo have the biggest range of baby equipment in the Northwest with 25 years of baby expertise? Kool Kids Sligo take deposits on your baby bundle. Visit us in store at Kool Kids Sligo or shop online at babyaccessories.ie for free nationwide delivery. Make Kool Kids Sligo your number one destination for all things baby. Are you looking to diversify your sources of funding but just don't have the time to do the research? Please join us at the Will Ireland's National Association of Charities Community Groups and Social Enterprises on Wednesday 4th of October in the Central Library Letter Kenny for a funding roadshow where we will answer all your funding questions. Learn about different types of funding opportunities available to your organization at a local, national and EU level. Find out where future funding will come from, as well as tips for addressing challenges that will arise. This is a free event, but registration is essential. For all the details visit will.ie. Okay, Mark joins us on the show now. Good morning to you, Mark. Morning Greg, how are you? I'm all right, Mark. You were recently looking to travel using bus air and what was your experience, please? Unfortunately, I had booked to travel with bus air from Dublin Airport back down to Letter Kenny bus station. When the bus arrived on bus air on last Monday there, I was told that I was booked on from bus hours and that the bus wasn't wheelchair accessible. Okay. I then, obviously I had the confirmation text to show that I was already booked on. So I showed the bus driver the message and he goes out, that's our mistake, we'll send out your replacement bus. That caused initially a 20 minute delay for all the passengers. Wow. After that, then the replacement bus eventually arrived so tried to get on and the lift wasn't working. That meant that I was stuck in Dublin Airport until five past three on Monday afternoon. I arrived in Dublin Airport at 10.30, so it was a long wait. And the bus obviously departed with the rest of the passengers without you and you were left sat in the airport yourself. Did they apologize? Did they offer to compensate you? What did they say to you, Mark, about your delay? They apologized and just said that the bus wasn't accessible, but I don't understand how every bus at this day and age can't be wheelchair accessible. Yeah. I mean, it's 2023, like getting enough of one space in every bus that is accessible. Especially the newer buses. I mean, obviously, are they going to retrofit buses? Possibly not, but every new bus should have a fully functioning working lift with at least one space. I mean, as you say, it's 2023. Exactly. That was the point that I was making. You can understand the older buses, but for the likes of travel to Dublin, like, well, what happens if I have a emergency appointment or something that I need to travel with? Yeah. And also, you had this, that you had this, I mean, obviously this is an emergency or short notice situations. You had this book quite some time in advance, didn't you? Unfortunately, to travel with the wheelchair, you need to book 40 at a heard in advance. But I had to book too much in advance. As soon as I booked my flights, I also booked the bus just to guarantee it. Yeah. And I mean, it's really, really unfair and humiliating too that the bus sails away. You're stuck there on your own. Two buses arrived. I mean, it must have been an embarrassing situation for you, Mark. You know, worried that you're delaying other people and stuff, you know, as well as just wanting to get home. Obviously, the passengers are already loaded on to the bus because the bus came from Bus Arras and they all had to get off the bus because they thought they were getting a replacement bus. And I felt like that they were all looking at me and blaming me because I know myself subconsciously you would do it to somebody else that they were delaying you. Have you had problems like this in the past? Like normally, normally what's your experience with bus air and like in terms of getting a wheelchair accessible bus at Marge? Usually it's okay. I would do it quite regularly, the Dublin service book. The last time I was traveling as well, the emergency door broke on the bus, which also stranded me for four hours in Bus Arras. Well, Boss Aaron, we were on to them and they've explained it's kind of a long-winded response, but they also say in it that the customer care team is going to be in contact with you to offer you a discount or concessions for future travel. I'm not sure if that will, I think you're more or less trying to help. This is avoided into the future, free to yourself or other people. But anyway, it says, Boss Aaron sincerely apologizes for the undue inconvenience caused to this customer. Unfortunately, despite the customer booking advance as required, an incorrect vehicle type assigned to the route, meaning they could not be accommodated at 120 is planned. The customer was accommodated on the next suitable service at three or five. This was due to an error in our own internal communication and the matter is being investigated to ensure it does not reoccur. We're pleased that the customer's initial journey to Dublin Airport on our service was accommodated and hope the customer continues to travel with Boss Aaron into the future. And then they say, we spoke to Mark on the day to apologize and ensure he was accommodated on the next available service. As part of our follow-up procedures, we'll be contacting again to offer a discount and concession. And it goes on to say that they're committed to the provision of a fully accessible public transport system by 2030. Right, so that's their response. They're going to contact you. They say they've a 91% customer satisfaction level, but they've got an almost 10% dissatisfaction level, so hopefully they can reduce that, Mark. And hopefully you don't experience something like this again, but they say they will be in contact with you again on the matter. The other problem I just had, just briefly, Greg. No, it's no problem. Take your time, Mark. If I was to travel, just say, like, I have an emergency appointment in Dublin tomorrow. Yes. I can't travel on Boss Aaron tomorrow with the wheelchair. Yeah, you have to give 48 hours notice. So what do you do if you've no one in your, you know, I mean, what, what do you do in a situation? That's the problem that I'm trying to raise here. Yeah. I'd be stranded because others, I don't drive. My mother and father are working. How do I get to Dublin? What do you think would be, what do you think would be reasonable? Like 12 hours notice or, or I mean, because even if every bus had one wheelchair space available, Mark, it could be possible that you could arrive at the bus and someone else has already taken that space. So I presume there has to be some sort of a booking system. But what do you think would be fair and inclusive and realistic? I'm not, I'm not actually sure. I haven't fully thought about that, but it's just something that came into my head while I was waiting on the bus as to the fact what happens if this was an emergency. The other point was that they've offered concessions and I have on for luckily have free travel. Okay. As well. Yeah, well, it's not much used to you. The concessions, I wouldn't out of pocket. This corner wants to know, Mark, currently, can you book your tickets for the bus online? I usually just ring up to the office, but I think it is possible to book online at a charge of two euro. There's your free travel for you. Yeah. Right. Okay. Mark, well, listen, they've responded, they say they're going to try and ensure it doesn't happen again. And maybe they'll come up with something else when they contact you after. But I think it's, I think it's something we really need to look at. It's something we've covered on this program and will continue to do so, Mark. We need 48 hours notice that doesn't help with emergency appointments and what have you. But thank you very much for your time today. Thank you very much. All right, Mark, take care of yourself. That's listening Mark there and his experience. Okay. A caller says, his wife is at 13,000 euro paying for ongoing procedures in the north with the cross-border scheme going back months and months. She's been asked to provide bank statements amongst other paperwork, which she has, but has not received a penny back. Again, the Ombudsman's office, I would involve them. It's something that Joe and his team seem really focused on, and they have a good relationship with the head of the HSE there. Another caller had his procedure in June 2020 costing 5,000 euro and was initially declined any money back as he went to Outlaw Galvin Hospital. It was never outlined to him that he had to go to a private hospital in order to avail of the scheme. The case is ongoing. Now, I would have probably presumed that it would have to have been a private hospital, but if it's not made clear and it's not something I've been through. It's interesting that HSE requires a printed bank statement as proof of payment for a procedure, particularly when the Department of Social Protection is accepting photocopies of passports as proof of identity to issue PPS numbers to asylum seekers. The passport details aren't verified with the relevant national authorities in almost all cases due to time differences or claims by the asylum seeker that they're being persecuted by their own authorities. No check is done with Interpol either. The system is open to abuse. That is a listener that's obviously heard that information somewhere or done their research on that. Can I mention a couple of scams going about? Because they're quite tricky. They're quite good and I don't mean that in any way to credit them, but I can check my spam folder. Let's see here. A customs charged is owed for your on post delivery. You need to pay $2.70 for your package. Please follow the link and it's on post dot on pay dot tax dot info. That is a scam. Never click a link in the text. Please never, ever, ever click a link. That's the golden rule with all of these scams. But if you are waiting on an on post delivery, you could get caught out. But just don't click a link in a text message or an email because it'll be a problem. If you have any concerns, you ring on post and say, I got this text, but just don't click the link. And there's three or four of them that I've received over the last while, a few saying I've had to temporarily switch network dad or mom. Can you text me on this WhatsApp number? And there begins the scam again as well. So as I say, we mentioned it from time to time and it's a bit boring and repetitive, but people are getting caught up by these scams every single day of the week. So please, please be careful. There's also an elaborate scam going about via email, which claims that you're being investigated for in propriety, often of a sexual nature. The idea is the shock and all that you're so shocked and you want to completely disprove your guilt instantly, please also be careful of them. They're quite well worded, but there are a few obvious signs that they are scams. So just a couple of things to keep in mind and keep our money at the hands of the criminals. It's the great autumn of savings at Super Value with over 1000 price cuts on all the big brands you love like very non biopods 33 wash was 1790 now nine euro. Domestos Bleach 750 mil was 220 now 175 and money off vouchers every week on the app too. So pop in for great savings in store online this autumn at Super Value. If you know the beauty and skincare product that suits you best, you'll find them at McGee's chemist letter Kenny from moisturizers cleansers and toners to day creams and night creams. McGee's have the top brands you know and love like Longcom, Clarence and La Roche-Posay. Also Elizabeth Arton, Vichy, Nukes and many more all at McGee's chemist main street letter Kenny and online at McGee's.ie for the best cost less. Toast your Christmas party this year at Century Complex with delicious food, a superb atmosphere, an excellent service. We have something to suit everyone. Make your night extra special by adding a premium cinema experience. To book call 0749121976 or visit CenturyCinema.rae for more information on Century Complex this Christmas. Okay sorry I'm taking it back there I heard Santi seems a bit early but anyway it's all good. A lot of people plan early, a lot of people plan early I know some of them get their Christmas shopping done in the first couple of months of the year. Emma Marta, Program Manager at the wheel. Hi Emma good morning to you, good to see you. Hi there how are you? I'm doing good Emma. What is at the wheel? Oh so well I can give a quick explanation. Yeah and then we'll talk about the road shows coming up. Yeah brilliant so our role we are the National Association for Community, Charity and Social Enterprise Sector Organisations. So we provide all kinds of supports and advocacy on behalf of the sector and one of the things that we're doing at the moment is we have a funding road show so we've been running it for the last year. We've already been to Cork and Mayo and Sligo and Cavern and Monaghan. We're trying to get to every county in Ireland so that we can kind of come and meet local community charitable social enterprise groups where they are in their own communities and talk to them about funding which is obviously the big kind of pressing issues that a lot of organisations are facing. Yeah and there's an awful lot of funding sources out there you know be it through the council or administered by the council on a national level EU as well, peace funding all this type of but I've seen some of the paperwork involved and dependent on the side of the organisation or you know how good you are at formfilling and what have you. It can be somewhat overwhelming and perhaps it doesn't need to be. I presume that's where an organisation like yours comes in. Absolutely yeah so look you know what we're looking at is kind of the local the national EU so there should be something in there for everybody regardless of your of your capacity and of your experience when it comes to funding. We'll also touch on things like community fundraising and contracts and trading like social enterprises businesses that that are non-profit in nature that generate their own income and reinvest it into the organisation so we we hopefully kind of touch on everything but absolutely like a big part of the wheel a big part of what we do is kind of supporting organisations with that that gap that's often there you know when it comes to how do I get started with funding how do I build my skills. Well which is the best funding stream for me to apply to because you don't want to waste your your time and resources either so again you can get some guidance in relation to that. Who's at the roadshow who do you bring with you other than the wheel team? Yeah so there's there's a few of us and then we are also I suppose very important to to mention for this one is that we are for the Wood and Donnie Gull specifically is we are partnering with Donnie Gull County Council and the Western Development Commission who've been really really supportive helping us kind of spread the word on the ground there and so they'll be there on the day obviously to talk a little bit about their supports and funding for the sector but we also have kind of like a mini kind of expo of various funders so we have things like Donnie Gull Partnership, Donnie Gull County Council, Community Finance Ireland and Clan Credo who kind of provide social financing for the sector and then a few of the different EU funding national contact points which includes the likes of Lergus, the Life Programme, the Environment and Climate Programme, their national contact point and the Inter-Ed contact points in the Northern Western Region Assembly. Is it possible there are groups or organizations out there that possibly could qualify for funding but they're not aware of it and is it easy sort of to outline what they might be just so someone listening involved in a group what have you might go oh right I didn't realize that perhaps we could you know they might have ambitious plans or modest plans it doesn't matter so how do you identify really I suppose if you are an organization or a setup that actually can apply for funding? Yeah well any community voluntary charity social enterprise organization? What's a social enterprise just so we're clear sorry because I hear that often. Yeah yeah so social enterprise is it's essentially a business it uses business models it creates its own income it trades that kind of thing but it kind of reinvests its profits into the organization and it has social impact at its core so an example of this would be the likes of charity shops or community cafes that provide inclusive employment things like that but they can be huge you know there's lots of social enterprises that are of you know massive scale and you know everything from very small kind of community businesses right up to it's a kind of large organizations and so yeah if you fall within that category you are eligible to apply for funding and and you can build a funding plan for your organization not not every funding stream will be for you you know some some organizations you know like the wheel we're charity but we never fundraise from the public that's just not something we do whereas for other organizations that's vital to what they do and some organizations will be you know they can apply to certain programs others you know it just doesn't suit them so I suppose if you're in that position where you're trying to figure out you have ideas you have things you want to fund you're doing work in your community or at national level or whatever and uh you are interested in learning about the types of funding that are out there what's for you what might not be for you you know all of that it's definitely worth looking at you have you found in your previous events down the country that you know there's a useful networking element to this too because you're getting a lot of different organizations under the roof and even in a you know a relatively small community often you don't necessarily know you know what everybody else is doing or how they're doing it for that matter absolutely I mean half of this I think is that kind of solidarity that realization that like okay we're not in it on our own there's other people also facing kind of similar challenges or like vitally you know there's a community a couple of towns over that is kind of trying to do a similar thing here why don't we group up and you know there's more kind of strength in numbers um so yeah we will really be emphasizing the kind of networking piece whether that's networking with the funders you will also have kind of opportunities to network and and to meet directly with funders and ask questions but also very importantly with the other community voluntary representatives in the room that are kind of operating in your area and facing similar situations okay well the event is on wednesday it's in letter kenny I haven't been told whereabouts in letter kenny but you can do that for me the central library in letter kenny it starts at half nine for registration and tea and coffee and we kick off at 10 a.m. and if you can't make the Dunnegal one in letter kenny there is we are doing one in Lytrum uh in Carrick and Shannon as well on the tuesday so the day before on the 3rd of october it's not too far for for people in Dunnegal yeah maybe if you're down in balichon bundler and killi bags it might suit you to nip to Carrick on Shannon tomorrow uh rather than letter kenny on wednesday now it is free uh but there are obviously limits to places and therefore pre-registration uh is required yeah it would be great if people could register it does help us out a lot even things like catering and all that but look you know we're we're we're we want to try and have it as inclusive as as possible for everybody so please please do engage uh please do show up even if you can't stay for the whole thing you know we we'd love to see you there and hopefully you get something uh useful from it all right what's the website please Emma so it's wheel.ie forward slash events or you just go to wheel.ie you should be able to find it from there and if you scroll through you'll see the funding road shows there one in Carrick and Shannon and one in letter kenny good stuff thanks for your time have a lovely day take care Emma and Marta there program manager at the wheel hopefully if you're an organization a group out there you heard outlined there's a lot of funding uh be it local national EU funding uh cross-border funding and all that kind of stuff it might help your organization grow or help in the work that you're doing so hopefully at least one person goes oh might go to that and it works out well for them hi Greg just in relation to the text you read earlier about the ntpf and you were advising them to check everything with operation codes etc the ntpf is different to the cross-border scheme it's completely free and you don't need to apply for it or submit any paperwork or receipts the ntpf is to deal with people who have been on waiting lists here for a long time and they're sent to the north to get the treatment out or to private hospitals in the republic again thank you very much we bit rusty after the weekend today i don't normally cross uh mix things up but i have today i um i've used the ntpf uh myself i haven't my son did um and it was uh to Galway private hospital um what was it again grommets i think it was uh so you're perfectly correct the national treatment purchase fund and the cross-border fund um or international fund yes different thanks so much for that i really appreciate it Greg if you get surgery in northern Ireland you must produce a receipt for something you purchased in a shop near the hospital where you had the surgery to prove you were there and that's that that is one of the things they're looking to eliminate as well because that's crazy and that's why people go on facebook and say were you in dairy on the 2nd of april and did you buy something in such a shop and eat your receipt uh even as i was outlining that scenario to uh jer he was shaking his head in disbelief but apparently that's been worked on now Greg i went to night's bridge twice for scans didn't have to pay a penny good that's good that means it's working uh let me see where are we here right um i shall i take that break now i'll continue with these uh comments Greg could you please mention the closure of Maui in Fannad as i did not hear a whisper from any of the politicians as a matter of fact there's been no jobs created from Gordhawk, Falkara, Chrysler, Carragart, Milford, Kerry, Kilfana, Glenviroth, Mullen, Remelton with this size of a population it would be no harm to say these people have been discriminated against for years while the government was squandering money and still doing it we have nothing but yes men says a listener we covered that at the time where they were pretty much confirmed and then we covered it again on friday uh at the time when they were confirmed i think we spoke to uh we certainly spoke i don't want to list names in case you get it wrong but definitely a couple of local representatives in that area and journalists based in that area as well when they were first announced and then subsequently came to effect uh the government policy of mass immigration is designed to depress the wages of the irish population the policy of mass immigration is not something the irish people have never openly discussed or asked for yet we have it in place nonetheless a referendum is essential i mean you might argue a reference on you and many people do to mass immigration we have a hundred percent employment here and a lot of people on very good wages and if you look at um some of the statistics a lot of people getting pay rises and expecting uh pay rises as well um right i want to read some of these that were carried over from friday because there are of a nature that people might think that i avoided reading them at all uh no he's not caroline there's nobody waiting um i was at a meeting uh last week i was talking to ukrainians they told me once the benefits run out they're away home and they're living like kings here and also said the war not that bad uh it's the worst bit you see in the news so wake up i mean i'm not saying you're not telling the truth but um that's not my experience of speaking to people um but anyway listen keep loading people into ireland's lifeboat it'll sink money for that but not for my case i was another listener uh ain't two at six percent in austral connect five percent behind fina fault despite the media blackout that's bound to have an effect on bigger parties elections aspirations and do you know funny um i was doing the papers one of the days last week and i noted that the paper was great grouping ain't two in with independents and others and i was surprised by that because um the greens and labour are always talked of as different but i think if i read correctly pat at all being the leader of aint two took this up with rte and he said in a tweet that um ain't two is not recognised by rte's a political party which i was really quite surprised at because as i'd noted last week i couldn't understand why they were grouped in with uh with with others now they're still a small party but uh gaining traction i just didn't understand why they were categorised as they were not i'm not that i have any of course i think people know i've no affiliations with any party whatsoever but anyway i just thought it a little bit um strange um uh i i now hate finna fall finna gal greens with a passion but i'm living in dread of shin fane okay we never uh we were never given the option of a vote or referendum about mass immigration it has been imposed upon us the irish is set to become a minority in our own country in the decades to come but who are the irish uh you had a you vote in elections and you vote people in and their mandates and you can see what parties stand for now ahead of council and national elections um no um so it's not a referendum as such but you elect people based on their policies um and you give them a mandate to do and you might say well i didn't give them a mandate for that but you know if you are concerned in that regard if someone's knocking at your door looking vote say well what's your opinion on this that or the other and you vote accordingly that's that's how democracy works um but if you look at the percentages the percentages of of of people who are um not irish national or coming in yes the number is a big yes the putting pressure on but as for of the overall percentage of the population it's still you know in low single digits uh but there are a lot of people that have lived here for a long time um that make up around about 20 percent of the irish population being non- irish many of those are english that have moved over here as well i'll move back here so just look at the stats yourself um and and you'll and see what the story is the nine-tailed news show is brought to you by letter kenny credit union offering low-rate car loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today set yourself up for slimming world success at done stores we've got a great range of 33 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 join the team at homeland letter kenny this thursday fifth of october at 7 p.m for a beef welfare evening with special guest speakers including mora langan from norbrook and tommy daugherty from chagosch chat with her experience homeland and utria's teams with refreshments goodie bags and exclusive offers on the evening see homeland.ie for more looking forward to seeing you there if you fancy going out for a bit of lunch today or any day up into kelly steiner and never kenny there's great choice and great value on the packed menu choose from fresh gourmet sandwiches a hot chicken wrap or bacon and cheese baked potato try the kelly's signature special with hot turkey slices and smoked bacon or maybe a chicken and bacon Caesar salad treat yourself to some lunch at kelly's award-winning diner mountaintop never kenny highland radio weather updates with ireland west airport where you can now fly daily to london heathrow with air lingus and connect via heathrow to over 80 destinations worldwide including boston new york and more dry for most of today with an isolated showers and some spells of hazy sunshine a band of charry rain will gradually move into western parts later this afternoon and evening a few heavy bursts are possible temperatures 13 to 16 degrees now as we heard at the top of the show up to 30 000 people on their third or subsequent learner permits have never sat a driving test and in fairness um this is a story that is uh recycled more than we do plastic and glass uh in this country but be that as it may it's back in the headline shane oh donahoe editor of complete car dot ie uh shane i'd be interested in to find out how many of these are actually driving uh you know because um to have people who've never been tested out on the road although there are some of those of a certain generation but anyway it's it's not good is it's not good for safety no it really isn't and there's no doubt because of the length of time we're talking about we're talking about people in their 30s 40s 50s 60s um and you just know they're not carrying out plates i think you just know they're not um making sure that they're accompanied all the time it's just not happening no way not to that level so absolutely it means we have tens of thousands of people that have never sat a driving test that are sharing the roads with us and that's not a good situation but it's one that's easily resolved because rather than proof of booking a test proof of sitting a test should be required to renew your permit i do not understand why that is not in place already apparently the orsa had a commitment to changing that by 2014 and they missed it and then they recommitted to changing that by 2016 and they missed it and now apparently there isn't a target to change that and i really don't understand why i think it'd be really interesting to get somebody from the orsa the department to transport on and ask why i mean is there a political reason or a logistical reason why that loophole can't be closed and it seems like a no-brainer doesn't yeah i think the road traffic legislation is just a basket case uh as is it needs to be chucked out and redrawn up i think because this is why it seems to be a struggle to change anything especially common sense stuff like this yeah you're right there's plenty of other items we've discussed on here already that just seem why is it that way at all and as you say it seems to take forever to make any little change and i can't see why why this can this change couldn't be made as you say make sure that you need to have proof of having sat your test before you're allowed to renew your um learner permit but of course there will be a situation where there's an overlap in timings in terms of a learner permit um expiring and your test coming up and obviously there are still some delays and getting tests around the country which people will cry foul about but i don't think that's what we're talking about here we're talking about the numbers aren't such that people go well i can't get a lot of them are historic as well so yes definitely there are people uh on learner permits that chance it and shouldn't because they're younger drivers maybe have to get to work or whatever it might be but we're not talking about that that is a problem and they need to sort of you know hire more testers and get that sorted what we're talking about here though was people of a certain vintage who are deliberately uh working the system and it's not for id purposes probably it is because they're they're battering away at it now and they know if they're of a certain age and they're stopped at a checkpoint they're probably not going to be asked to produce their license yeah i think you're absolutely right this is a different situation to the backlog and driving tests um i mean i don't know what to do you just you effectively have to force it through um you know because these people will have to also do the edt the essential driver training which they probably have never done certainly the people who've had to learn a permits for 20 30 years they won't have done that and they should be made do that or or something similar at least it doesn't it doesn't feel like it's outside the bounds of reality they could change the system to fix it it it just feels ludicrous that it hasn't been fixed already um i see uh the the british government are uh pushing out um a pushing out to 2035 um the phasing out of the side of petrol and diesel cars here seems to be a european pushback in relation to that we have crazy targets to reach in all in which we simply won't uh do you see any change in in our targets uh coming down the line here shane in the republic um i think we'll be fully aligned with europe eventually um so 2035 i believe will realistically be the target but all the car makers you know the model cycle or planning development all that is is in the order of 10 years it's not like you know you can suddenly say oh great we've another five years that that's not how the car industry works at all they're planning 10 years ahead so the car industry are already planning for those timelines but of course the matter the fact of matter is they also the car manufacturers aren't just pandering to the european market so there are global markets that have no intention or no targets yet for going fully electric um so there will be petrol and diesel cars manufactured around the world for quite a long time um beyond 2030 2035 so i don't see ireland changing beyond 2035 because that will align with europe and um the car manufacturers that are selling cars in europe are very much focused on that target i don't believe any of them other than the very very small manufacturers perhaps i don't believe any of the mass manufacturers are pushing to reduce those target targets or to change those targets they seem to be uh on board with those targets now yeah well they can for the most what maintain their business practice their their market share it doesn't really matter whether it's an ice engine or an electric engine to them i suppose okay great stuff shane as always thank you very much for your time have a lovely day that is uh shane old donahoe editor of complete car dot ie check out their website if you wish show eight six sixty twenty five thousand your whatsapps and texts are coming into that number um right okay i have a couple of long emails here which i'm going to get to in a moment but i just want to catch up on some of the comments from friday um greg i'm sitting here in tears today my problem is a i b is due to take out their quarterly fees and when i look at my statement online it says 64 euro if they take that i have no money for my rent which comes out on monday and nobody can tell me where my quarterly fees are it's okay i'm sorry to hear that um re bosses here we were talking about there being no bus service um there is a bus service but bus air and don't have a service as such to get you to go away early for a hospital appointment whatever it might be and and back at a reasonable time um michael mcclafferty councillor says uh the system of pre-booking tickets is leading to senior citizens being left at bus stops while younger people who have pre-bought the tickets online take the places the system's not working as a lot of people in donagall either don't have internet or can't book tickets in advance online there needs to be a discussion around the bus service as a whole and the amount of buses that are servicing each area of donagall if buses are filling up like this and people are being left behind we need to ask questions as to why there are not more drivers being employed suggestions that we should bring on county councillors from different areas of the county so that people know they're being heard and to put pressure on bus companies to sort out the issue yeah indeed um we had an inquiry from a listener that we promised we'd get in touch with the hsc on so i want to read that out this was sitting with me for a couple of days my apologies and the message was my father has a home care package but has no workers because of his dementia he needs the bed to be changed while doing that he had to go uh to respite care then when it was time for him to return a week later there was no workers to provide home care package he needs hoisted up it's just impossible to do without support this has been going on since august and we just keep getting told there is no staff how is this acceptable so this is a family whose father needs home care uh hoists and what have you they're being told uh non-available so we contacted the hsc with the permissioner permission of the listener and it reads as follows the home support department in the area is aware of this case however the hsc does not comment on individual cases demand for home support continues to increase due to population growth and the increasing dependency of the growing numbers of people aged over 80 within uh within the over at 65s cohort waiting lists for home support have become a feature of the service now primarily associated with an increasing capacity issue relating to the availability of care staff in terms of those waiting priorities given to people in the community with acute needs and to those assessed and waiting in acute hospital who are in a position to return home with supports funding approval for home support for those assessed as required same is expedited across the system to ensure minimum waiting times the overall home support resource and the range of providers including hsc directly employed staff is carefully managed by the local home support management team with community health care cavern donagall leachman and sligo to ensure that the key service is available at the required time in a flexible way and at the appropriate standard to support clients assessed needs significant work is also underway to address the challenges associated with capacity issues and care availability they say they're advertising so it's long winded i understand but out of respect to the person who responded to us i had to read that there's no well listen hopefully now the hsc are aware of your case and they're aware that you're contacting the likes of us hopefully that will help to resolve the situation but they say they're struggling to recruit staff they're dealing with trying to get people out of hospital into home support those with most acute needs it's identifying and recognizing the problems that they're obviously looking for solutions but it's clear that it's the same in health as it is in ot's you know speech therapist teaching and other areas they simply can't get the staff the 90 noon show is brought to you by letterkenny credit union with monster loans available up to 60 000 euro for all occasions visit letterkennycu.ie go full needle for full family meals rustle up a roast a curry or fajitas with our fresh board be approved irish large chicken was 599 now 499 and have a chili con carnival with our board be approved irish lean steak mince was 419 now 329 go on shop without compromise go full needle today check out sister seras the ultimate gastropub experience in letterkenny with a fresh exciting new menu when i'll celebrate your special occasion in one of our three private function rooms you can catch all the live sport on our 12 screens daily with some of the best live music and entertainment in the northwest every weekend in sister seras serving food you love from wednesday to sunday more and more people are moving to rural ireland but we're not here in dunny gall for a slower pace of life we're here because rural ireland is alive brimming with ideas and energy the only thing holding us back is slow broadband it's cut pure glacial so why wait imagine broadband speed gives us the freedom to connect without compromises imagine broadband is connecting homes and businesses in your community right now for better service and faster broadband faster switch to imagine.ie imagine faster broadband faster subject to location and availability okay you're welcome back uh hi greg uh my daughter is still waiting on boss sarin giving her change back from about four years ago she gave the boss driver 50 euro he said he'd get change at his next stop he never did she was going to the airport still waiting from lily okay lily i'm afraid i think you might be uh that ship uh might have sailed uh public transport is a joke believes the listener my mother had an appointment in the dentist on thursday she phoned local link and checked time and pick a point of the boss she was there on time but the boss didn't stop she has a bill to pay now for missing appointments absolutely no apologies they say off the local link service with all the stories that matter across the northwest it's greg hughes on the nine to noon show on highland radio yes indeed brendan devaney is going to be joining us after 11 we've got monday matters and so much more besides between now and noon but at 11 o'clock let's get a news update and we say good morning once again to dalmarie daherty thanks greg good morning the cost of an average home has increased by 11.4 percent in donnie gall for the third quarter of this year that's according to my home dot ie this is the third largest increase in ireland with ross common c in a rise of 15.4 percent and longford increasing by 14.6 percent the rate at which house prices are rising across the country has reached 4.1 percent that's a slight increase of 0.6 percent nationally minister for further and higher education simon harris has today announced over 153 000 euro in funding for the donnie gall etb it has been awarded for a project at the strun roller further education and training center it was granted under the strategic infrastructure upgrade fund program and is to enhance facility by those used by those in the plc program at the fin valley college meanwhile the minister joined greg hughes on the nine tenon show this morning while speaking on the challenges faced by those who have qualified in disability service professions in northern ireland in terms of transferring their degree to the republic minister harris has said the problem is frustrating in light of the vacancies crisis with the child disability network teams in donnie gall the higher education minister said his office was working to engage with coru and make the process easier rank and file guardians say they feel they are not being listened to in the ongoing garter rosta row ministers of the garter representative association will refuse to work overtime for every tuesday in october starting tomorrow the action will include budget day and halloween police instra band detected three drivers with alcohol in their system in the space of 24 hours over the weekend in a statement sparing neighborhood policing teams say they urge drivers to never ever drink and drive they also reminded road users that just one drink can cause a collision which could be fatal and finally garady are again urging road users to slow down it's after a driver was clocked traveling over double the speed limit at the weekend garady from boncran a roads unit detected a vehicle being driven at 166 kilometers per hour in an 80 zone the motorist was arrested and has been charged to appear in court those are the latest headlines the next news updates at 12 o'clock until then good morning all right thank you very much back with more after the break so you're saying mental health difficulties can be smaller things yeah like troubled sleeping yeah or if i'm always stressed like yeah or often anxious they're all part of your mental health hmm thought those were separate nope they're all connected i how do you know all this anyway i'm sure i've been there myself anxiety ongoing stress low mood or troubled sleeping they're all part of your mental health make the connection and find support that can help at your mental health dot ie from the hsc all right you're welcome back to the nine till noon show the deal debates broadcast this evening after the seven o'clock news and it's going to be another business one a business one another busy one as you can imagine it's presenter is brendon divini and he joins us hello brennan got a jerry adams look going on did you think i i'll start denying i'll start denying everything you asked me no uh yeah i've greg i'm finally you know um i've just given up on on the stubbornness of not needing some specs that's the commentary for you isn't it that's it that's it sometimes the subs can be printed in very fine print and i'm struggling then and there's nothing worse than you're doing with a commentary uh if you can't see any more too great the pressures come on like that's right it's already it's already evening over in convoy uh and i appealed that a real people please get yourselves new jerseys how you couldn't see the numbers in the jerseys which was uh made it a bit of a difficult proposition but listen let's start with that game uh a rua st unions uh coming through in the end to beat a rua in a tight game will be hard to make up one player from the next yeah this is great it was a phenomenal weekend of sport and dirty going g so much to wrap up i mean it was it was brilliant uh what an end this season we're having right across all our championships junior intermediate the ladies final yesterday and then as you say the seniors uh it was very wet over in convoy the pitch was a macklet uh very after all the rain that fell just was a very wet night and i have to say john mignolte had a rua very well set up you know unions were were very lackluster in the first half and and indeed rua could have went in much further ahead than he did at half time and second half the introduction and now the don was pivotal you know um unbelievable impact he had he was absolutely stand clear between him and his brother she and in particular they kind of lifted the whole unions team it was very strange performance in the first half and i'd have to say that a lot of it came down to a rua as well and then he played they'll be disappointed they had five wades and a couple short as well now they could have been further ahead but as i say now coming on the second half put put the put a bit of championship bite back in them and as i say between him and his brother they really took the game to to a rua and ran out fairly comfortable winners and the great thing about sport you know unions were cruising to victory they were um six points up and it was it was more or less just time running out and we just go to go on the point inside a minute they bring it back to two and you're thinking then at that point you know let's say they smashed another goal they could have robbed you know and and left so it's funny no matter what we say in in sport and particularly i think in ga a game can flip so quickly as it was uh union stabilised and are through to the last to the last fourth yeah uh you're also at Guidor Ardra how did that experiment of not having goalkeepers go yes by the way that was that wasn't a dig at the quality of goalkeepers by the way but i mean you know eight goals um it's you don't say it too often right that's it we had five scores at halftime at that game on saturday night the union's a rua game we had 22 scores uh in and fulcara yesterday a beautiful day two uh down at partly fun and and uh you know just i couldn't believe what it was saying like it was just raining goals i mean five 143 11 a score like you don't say too often in dunagal club football and i was talking to the boys you know you know we're actually a couple very low scoring games against a low no game no goals in a couple of games and then an absolute floddy games and you know i talked to john rasmalloy after the match just about halftime about good or did seem to get a bit of defensive shape in the second half and ardra just stuck to their guns and went for it they were applauded off the pitch by their supporters greg a lot of people didn't think ardra would make it this far uh so i think there's i suppose uh you know there's there's a there's a thought in our draft fans that they're putting their best in this they're trying to play football the right way they stuck to their guns and they still had three eleven which was which was uh admirable on the day but good or the firepower uh was too strong in the end and and they're through the semis yeah and they've kind of uh would it be fair to say breeze past kill car uh four seven to nine points they sit up now uh a mouth water against your team yeah it's a it's a massive one uh i'm gonna give this one have a drink you coffee there you it's nothing worse than it's halfway up to your mouth and you have to stop i know i know i know i know i know listen it's monday morning's gonna give him a bit of a slow starter in the week tuesday wednesday before i'm informed so i have to pep up for you but listen do you know what uh we were wondering when this match was going to come Greg it was inevitable was it going to be a final i mean the last two finals he played it's one each uh in in recent terms and up into that stage there was kind of four teams and then he got everybody talked about but certainly the carlin unions did look a step ahead the rest so it was a matter of when they would meet would it be a quarter a semi or a final and it turns out it is the semi final um they're playing against the stuff breeze yesterday went in three points down so the most question marks there about uh could kylkar pull off uh you can't say it was a shock grid but certainly me connor were were favorites couldn't it but they showed their the championship pedigree they are the the the current uh dr mcguire holders and goals gregas was saying all over i mean four goals they are uh to new goals for kylkar that's the difference how you hit the back of the net you know if you go out goal that position you're more likely going to win the match and that's what made connor did uh mcgill's versus glenn swilley uh great result for mcgill's obviously yeah again we talk continually about size that i'm going to step up and and you know progress and be competitive and you have to say sean mcgill's are doing that a lot of people that was a very difficult game to call um uh greg you know it's and it was settled by the brilliance of ash and gal and i mean every game now that's played with mcgill's and i'm not taking it away from the rest of the team and i'm sure he wouldn't as well but you look across the wee box uh and the dunny goal and using them we'll leave for man on the match and it tends to be ash and it's in there and um i think what's a lot of people's excited about greg is is like from a dunny goal perspective as well you look at that and you think gal and it's just playing you know the type of football that you would say has him in the top bracket of forwards in the country because he can't continue going and greg he's hitting scores from all over the place he is such a danger and uh he's going to be a massive car but for now it's mcgill's that that he's the star man and glenn swally i suppose again another club that's coming through a bit of a change they have a new wave of young players to join some of their seasoned top boys x county boys and of course led by michael but it was it was ash's day and and now the way the draw is very good the fact that you're going to have gredore or mcgill's and it's been a long time to see though them have been on a county final and that type of thing is good i think in terms of the progress of teams you know if you take a team all the way to a county final no matter what happens in that final then it's a massive step and it comes down to one game and you just never know i mean the the gaps aren't perhaps as wide as they they once were i was in mcgill park believe it or not at the weekend uh dunlow versus uh dannings dunlow are a tight outfit spirited performance from dannings but uh dunlow were excellent and uh turman i mean they're top class as well aren't they um so that kind of tidied up those two uh those two um divisions for the women big ding dong yeah listen the two titans glenn fun and terms you say that every every it's that's four in a row there um they're batting out and i was looking back it's it's probably um ten years plus since either them was won them has been in the final and lately it's been the two of them every year the way the the draws set up they're they're only meeting the final it doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon at that time you say goals again as we said Greg as the difference turman got the two goals you know glenn fun weren't able to register enough when they were on the on on top of term and then that was a difference my sister maria was over covering that game so she gave us a few words on that the season he's saying that in the junior raid on low coming out on top against dannings they both go into australia they play their own champions all right and in the intermediate uh malin and uh dannings two good days for those teams right so uh you have a good team as always uh brent on the show this evening yeah yes indeed it's the same maria has joined this uh she was at the ladies game yesterday so get get her updates on on on what happened there and then ryan ferde the dunning all news is coming on and gary mcdade the pep guardiole of the glenn the tactical mastermind he likes to be called um he's coming on as well to give us the lowdown and everything so allow him with that Greg we we'll do a preview as well coming on to all the championships we're quoting the in the junior uh norasa we'll be playing novel novel as well and what is going to be a cracking match too so just hope we see how the fixtures haven't come out yet probably something maybe mccool parks our evening game and maybe one in the dawn park on sunday it's probably how it's looking for the senior so we wait to see uh just if that's the course of action but listen should be should be a brilliant weekend very because the football certainly i'm feeling from other years it is hot and a bit better there is uh you know there is it's more entertaining fair that's happening which is great to see yeah and it brings the best players through and one thing i would suggest if they could just loosen the purse strings slightly change the scoreboard at mccool park i mean it's the county ground uh and it's brutal yes if i had known you there greg i would have got some updates from you no problem i could have done that for you know i used to cover g a games back in the day there you go there you go fin harks i did fin harks maybe you could give me me some advice no i can't give you any advice but let's not let's not get carried away with ourselves jerry uh no i couldn't give you but could i bluff it yeah could i give you could i could i give you any advice no don't be giving it away about the bluff so that's all we're doing that's all that's that's all i'll do that for three hours a day hey career looking forward to the show tonight people can watch listen to it live from 7 p.m or after 7 p.m news and also it's available then for a podcast of cracking uh marie uh maria sorry we'll be covering the two ladies games in mccool park yesterday and then ryan and gary joining brendan to look back on a great weekend of football and looking forward to a really exciting and i think sometimes yonder estimate how how it gets the buzz going in in in the local area be it the men's or the women's or whichever grade it is there's so much passion out there for the game brendan and it's so organic uh it's it's it's a beautiful thing even if you don't have a dog in the race uh to sort of sit in on and that's why some people were disappointed that maybe the scheduling for the weekend didn't allow for people to attend different games and uh and what have you yeah i see i've seen a couple of people were giving out just about where all the fixtures were they were so far apart but it's a big county again i can understand as well wanting to take games to different places i mean convoy last day the cars are way out the road for carri yesterday cars way out the road and listen if you're not in the ga i understand but you know so many people are and i think from jim mcginnis coming back in from the turmoil of last year and everything that happened there's this lift i think in the county that's come first from that now your club championship as i say there's been much more entertaining this year and right across the board you know our ladies and our intermediate junior everything now there's a lot of fascinating games in there and i think there's a real energy coming back into the county and looking at around it these new players uh and particularly alexa of gal there of course and some of his stuff a lot of people's looking now at these guys and how they'll fit in the uh gym system as well but yeah that's huge interest in the club championship and just a couple of weeks to go now i agree that we see who takes the titles again it's great to see it's okay uh deal debate on just after seven pm live tonight in association with sister sarah's kitchen at sister sarah's in letter kenny and of course you can then uh podcast it at your leisure thanks very much brendan have a lovely day take care of yourself brendan divany there the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio the nine till noon show with letter kenny credit union simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from letter kenny credit union call us on zero seven four nine one zero two one two six reply online via our app or in office today at hiky clark and langan insurance brokers they compare quotes from all the leading insurers so you get a great price home motor and van farm holiday home travel and liability insurance they quote them all so if the worst happens you're covered for a competitive insurance quote today called hiky clark and langan on 91 two double six double eight or pop into their office at bali makul letter kenny hiky clark and langan general insurance is limited trading as hiky clark and langan is regulated by the central bank of ireland prime record exports and leisure supporting you at the right footwear hoka trainers have you tried the hoka sensation yet hoka provides comfort support and shock absorption which makes them a good choice for frequent runners and 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highland radial time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letter kennedy doblin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time it is 11 18 just turning here on the nine till noon show now it's time for a monday focus where we set about or set aside a piece of time to talk about something that affects people be it health or whatever it might be in today we're talking about gambling and gambling supports gambling therapy and support services and every anytime we bring up the topic of gambling on the show people texting go thanks very much for talking about this because it's often very hidden very secretive it's affecting an awful lot of people be the person gambling or the person around them and i think sometimes then just simply talking about it makes those people perhaps not feel so isolated as they might Gertrude hutan is gambling support counsellor with the finn valley frc and is in studio with us good morning to you Gertrude good morning Greg and we're also joined by tony or riley gambling addiction counsellor and co-author of tony 10 tony thank you very much for joining us morning Greg thanks for having us on now it's good to to to let people know Gertrude that there are supports there available what kind of services do you provide yeah um we're one of 22 family resource centers in ireland um who have applied to the national forum of family resource centers to run the service for um families of gamblers or gamblers themselves so we are a counsellor service and a family support service for um those people affected yeah it's in the while we do it in the finn valley family resource center in sternor um i've been looking enough to be able to do outreach in that arcana as well and um so gambling addiction is a it's a it's a widespread problem that's not necessarily easily quantified is it in other words how bad uh how many you know what i mean how widespread in communities you know gambling addiction is yeah because we associate it with horse racing but it could be online bingo or it could be scratch cards or it could you know what i mean there's so many now like um you know tony be able to tell you a wee bit more even about his journey but you know like she said the bingo the online bingo like people just start off maybe with a simple game on their phone and before long it turns into an addiction and we're not necessarily we're not talking about your local community bingo here run about bingo specific online apps where it's just eight cent to play or something like that there and next thing you know and the thing about it is you get a lot of free you know um where you can keep playing you don't even have to get out of your bed you know your phone's beside you and you go on and that leads to the bigger stuff then as well and like that um going into bookie shops and all i mean people can enjoy those and do a little bit of at the ground that's different things but there's some people who's really affected and also too as well and i'm pre-empting some texts coming in here but there are casinos as well and i've heard stories of um yeah i've heard stories of people on the show the partner doesn't come back um because they go straight with the wages to the arcade and they come back and there's nothing that's right and it's friday and there's nothing there and greg for most like you take the bars like a lot of people would say well they can go to the pub and things but there's an opening and closing time there's very little at the minute around closing of the arcades you know and often very light often no clocks you take people going to this to go down the town if they're thrown out of there where do they go they go down to the local arcade they can get on there in the middle of the night yeah and tony we're going to talk about you know obviously the services and how people can get help but it's what we're up against in that the way things are constructed now um gambling is just perfectly normalised you listen to local national doesn't matter what it is sport you can't enjoy it unless you're betting on it that could be a throw in or it could be two flies running up the wall are younger people from a very early age through the likes of uh fifa or it's not called fifa anymore but ea it's about you buy uh you buy a pack and you open the pack and you get the release of what it is if it's fortnight you're running around you're opening chests you don't know what's going to come out with it it's all be accident or design conditioning people from a very very young age to feel that buzz of the bet definitely yeah there's definitely a blurred line between gambling and gaming you mentioned fifa with the loot box and the player packs you know it it's the randomised outcome so it could be that uh when you buy a pack um for real money so you can actually get players within the game so it gives you the country first then the position and then the player so it's like that if you get Portugal then forward am i going to get Ronaldo from my team so i can enhance my gaming experience um but also in grand theft auto there's actually a virtual casino within the game where people can use real world money to um play casino type games very similar to what you see on online which can normalize gambling um and give a false sense that it's also easier and then you have social media influencers who will have videos on how to win more money into specific uh high roller tables within this game as well and we're seeing a lot of um when i do a lot of the school talks which students will talk about eight ball pool there's a lot of gambling elements in that so it kind of normalised the whole behaviour so what i'm trying to get at and what you're articulating far better than i could by the time we get to the point where someone with their own card can sort of start getting caught up in gambling there's a conditioning that's been ongoing a normalisation of it yep very much so and even with the lights and the jingles they're all conditioned to keep us playing for longer keep us online for longer you know like snapchat i don't have myself my daughter has it and she talks about being on a streak with her friend now so what's the streak all i text her every day it's like a streak that it shows i've been texting her each day for the last 300 days so all these sites are designed to keep us on there for longer and also if you don't mind me uh on facebook for an example and the same with tiktok facebook design you pull down on your feed and it reloads again and it's the same psychology used as pulling the one-arm bandit in the casino yep it's it's this that that is the logic because you keep pulling down and you get another surprise you get another surprise it's the exact same as putting 10 senses in and pulling the arm of the one-arm bandit so again it's another area that casually we're being sort of conditioned very much so and conditioned is the is the word you use it's it's a normalizing gambling in our in our society but also with school kids it's the ability to place the bet is there because of the lack of legislation regulation i've done plenty of school talks where the students age 15 all of online accounts and i'd ask them how do you have that well i can manipulate the data on my phone so i can open up an online account bet freely yeah you mentioned facebook if you go to any if you're feeding facebook generally if you follow sports teams they might have enhanced odds for Liverpool Spurs weekend for Liverpool to win 50 to 1 so it's it's kind of dragging people in and normalizing it within young people and then even if you look at sky sports it'll be like you know the stats that were being bombarded with like or what do they expect the goals and match like who needs to know what to expect the goals are going to be unless you're gambling on the handicap of the game yeah and even like Dazzone entered the boxing market for an example and then they've opened up Dazzone betting and then now between rounds they cut to a someone saying the odds and this and the odds and that so really actually it's unavoidable and i i feel i have sympathy for someone who's had a gambling addiction because it's like a drink addiction not being able to go into a pub gambling addiction could you even watch any sport without it being rammed down your throat every every every which way go ahead Gertrude no no no definitely yes you're so right about that and you know you mentioned there Greg about putting in the few cents into the machines you can't even put in coins anymore it's it's notes that's how and you just tell how much money you can lose on the very short period of time as well so that could be like a family's income in a couple hours just Tony you're an author obviously and a gambling addiction counselor and you've talked about the talks that you give them what have you what is your your background Tony if you don't mind me asking before i became an addiction counselor my background would have been finance so i was a post office manager but on post and when my gambling addiction got worse and worse and i got deeper and deeper into it i don't be unthinkable for me i started stealing from my employer and i was on the radio station before after the book came out i think was i was in a few before and so it it spoiled very very quickly to stealing more and more what's the emotion when what do you think is it chasing losses is that really the driver so if you say right i'll borrow sorry i'll i'll borrow this money from my employer whatever it might be and when you know is it is there a justification do you realize that you're committing a crime um to save a fraud to happen tree elements have to be present pressure opportunity and rationalization so the pressure i was on was absolutely huge i was i was like my loan payments were going we're going out each week i was just about keeping my head above water and because i had the opportunity to to get access to the safe so i started rationalizing what i started doing because it was i just borrowed and you're so convinced you're going to win and pay it back but in essence you're stealing you're committing a crime but you don't see is that you're rationalize each moment in the same way as Gertrude was saying that if someone's putting that last um couple of hundred euro into the machines they don't they don't rationalize in that moment they don't think about the consequence that we're not going to food on the table because you're in that your brain has been hijacked at that stage you're gone past that point in no return and the thing is is and the reason why it's such a successful addiction so to speak is because what is there's no outcome there's no wins so say for instance you put a thousand euro on a thousand to one shot you don't close your accounts ago well that's that my gambling career is over because that's it's not really the accumulation of wealth that's driving the addiction is it uh Tony i suppose it varies from person to person maybe my example was he ended up with a million but you know downgrade that i mean it's that's not enough you'll always hear it's about being in action like and it's chasing wins or chasing that winning feeling and he always say if you're using gambling to help you whether it's financially or emotionally you're on that slippery slope for example i had a student who contacted me his dad actually contacted me um last year saying that he's soon to just come to him um expressing suicidal ideation he just gambled 10,000 euro of his master's fees for college now this person was doing normal football bets the weekend but then went online um on casino um sites which will be seen as like the crack cocaine of gambling is what's been called so he got an early big win started chasing that win but then subsequently lost the big win and then started chasing that loss and within six weeks now my addiction developed over 12 years within six weeks he had lost all that money i was in a place where he was thinking of taking his own life because of that gambling problem and that's it uh go through it manifest itself in different ways obviously you know that the example uh tony gave there the person just felt they were there were they had no options left but others will start stealing and continue it or find different ways or start deceiving people uh and it's amazing and we're kind of learning to some extent it's amazing that what people the level of deception they'll employ to feed these habits yeah it's very sad because like again good human beings but just get caught up and as tony says chasing that one then um and losing so much and then it gets to a desperate stage so they're going to do anything they can then to try to win it back and um sometimes you know it can be selling off items into the home you know precious pieces of jewelry stealing you know and that and i'll pawn it but i'll buy it back or whatever it might be yeah okay and i mean that we're this is happening everywhere this is not just you know things that happens now in certain parts of irelander that there it's it's everywhere and um we really really have to support you know offer support is there another cohort too though because it's a little bit like you know for loved ones partners moms and dads often it's moms and dads with gambling i've i've i've come across on this program but that you you know you obviously have the those that hit the wall really quickly like tony was outlining but there's others that continue to gamble and probably don't think they have a problem you know they'll talk about oh i won 300 quid but they never tell you that i lost two two and a half grand to win it how do do you get families that that would come to you say well how do i reach this person or how do i get them to recognize they have a have a problem you know at that stage probably not as much the ones that are coming to our service to me like if you say mom's dads partners or gamblers themselves they really are now at the stage they've lost so much they're they're on their knees how do you intervene though do you know what i mean like can you well if they that's it because like as tony said to some extent they will have made plans maybe to take their own life could anyone have stopped you in your tracks if they had spotted what was going on depends on timing like you're asking how to intervene it depends on it depends on the timing so like i didn't set out to become a compulsive gambler or it's there's a continuum so i started off as a non-gambler and then i worked my way right through to have an agamal disorder so it's really is about timing of of when either a person realized themselves or a family members or even sometimes it can be a colleague or a friend so it's there was a point passed if when i started stealing money and i wouldn't have wanted to stop because it was always trying to get back to zero so um there are even nowadays with the lack of legislation regulation like the bookmakers or the online sites have a duty of care to the customer but because of the lack of legislation it does end up that they don't intervene in the way that they should and there is that fine line i am or that you know that that tipping point where if the person goes beyond that they're gone into a place where it's very hard to pull them back and the person has to want to get the help and support and a lot of times you can be the family members looking for advice or information but the person themselves is still convinced they can gamble their way out of problem whereas i think it's calmly accepted i can't drink my way over drink problem but the gambler is so convinced one big one big win i'll fix it all so i just have to keep on doing so and they can genuinely believe that if they get to zero they'll walk away yeah but even if i got to zero i but you can believe it yeah that's why it's sort of it's it's it's almost perfect addiction because it you can because it's unachievable almost it's uh what about the the notifications i get now i have a few apps on my phone i haven't used them for for youngs uh but the one app that pushes me all the times the lotto app uh it's 170 million this 80 million that i probably could switch notifications of but we gamble billions on the lotto and it's very easy to to find out how because they publish every year uh how much they donate to charities divide about three multiply by ten you get how much we're gambling right is that is that something that comes across your desk much uh Gertrude or is it mainly the other types of gambling we've talked about today it's um with me Greg for the last year and a half it it's not the lotto would be like some scratch scratch cards would be big problems and things like that because they maybe go off one thing and they go on another get yeah so what are the what what what what way people mostly addicted in the last couple years it would be the bookish shops yeah it would be the arcades and um it would also be online on their phones then and that can be around say the simple game starts off as bingo on that or it can be um then where there's matches coming up and getting the results and and things like that there um males I suppose would be um as well as more acceptable for them to be seen in the bookish shops and things like that so women tend to maybe um go to the arcades or um on their phones yeah not but males do that right we're gonna talk more about the services the events coming up uh more maybe some advice from Tony about how um if you're listening to this and it's resonating with you and you want to make a change as to how you might but we have to take a very quick break and then we'll be right back with more from Gertrude and Tony watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com the 9 till noon show with letterkenny credit union now offering mortgages from 40 000 to 600 000 euro 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home the shimmy's grand festival a weekend of the best in traditional music singing and dancing clon money from the 13th to the 15th of october concerts featuring thomas drain holla and melanie hewton and the amazing frankie gaven tickets on event bride or pay at the door check out full program on facebook or log on to shimmy's grand weekend dot com clon money 13th to the 15th of october is the place to be transform your home with a visit to McGinley's furniture letter candy located at the port link business park just off the port road you'll find a huge selection of top quality suites beds and mattresses also slide robes and custom made dining and occasional furniture with prices to suit every budget see the great choice for yourself at our showroom McGinley's furniture port link business park port road letter candy click McGinley's furniture dot com okay some of your comments coming in as part of this monday focus our guest Geraldine Gertrude about your pardon and tony is still with us hi greg i gambled everything online none of my family knew i'm clean the last two years not easy but i wish everyone hope and the power to beat this awful addiction well congratulations to you and well done on um recognizing the problem and being two years gambling free now or clean as you describe it yourself plenty of people gambling on the national lottery every day and it gets plenty of airtime on the radio for that um seaside town resorts of big mega gaming gambling casinos no support networks for the people and my son had a gambling problem but it was all online on his phone hence why no one knew about it until it was too late getting him off it all was a very difficult journey he spent most of launch breaks glued to his phone but should no one pay any attention to that these days yeah this is a new problem which is of both uh identified and recognized it's in your pocket so i can take this phone out and have i had the money i can gamble anything anything that i want there's an event taking place tomorrow night from 7 p.m until 9 p.m it's in jackson's hotel on gambling and gaming addiction tony you'll be speaking at that um what what what is the message you want to get across to uh people so suppose the event tomorrow night is mainly for the community we have and also we have an event in the frc tonight many for professionals but tomorrow night is for parents of um some of the students who will be speaking over the next couple of days and it's me sharing my lived experience of gambling showing how it started off at a £1 bet on the world cup of 98 and how it developed into an addiction where it saw me stealing £1.75 million from my employer and it it's also a little bit around gaming so it shows the blurred line between the two so generally with parents um they're really interested in the gaming side because as we mentioned it's there's gambling elements within games and our kids could be playing games with that and we don't know that there's actually gambling elements like my own daughter for a long time um a couple years ago was playing roblox and there's lots of spinny things in it and open up war chess and all this kind of stuff and there has been examples where um kids have cleared out their parents credit cards to buy these in-game purses i've worked with numerous people with gaming where five thousand euro was gone off one parents credit card another person gambled ten thousand of his own money or the gamble they say but spent on player packs which is it is a sense of gambling i mean that is it is gambling so if someone says uh i've cleaned my room can i have 12 euro for a player pack for ea sports that is they're gambling because it's a game of chance randomized outcome exactly that's exactly and for some of those young people they get their parents card once you know when the temptation comes next and the parent mightn't be at home they use the card again then and before it's too late so yeah so suppose the event is to really highlight gambling and gaming addiction and especially with young people because adolescents are now twice the prevalence of the adult population um for gambling problems because of these of access as you're saying with mobile phone but the normalization of gambling within sport as well so we just we it's really to have a conversation around gaming and gambling and mainly gambling and a lot of times when the parents do come to get so much from the talk so that they can have the conversations at home which is does there need to be a bigger crackdown on the industry because you hear people who want to be forgotten by them but they still get the emails and stuff and and i don't think unless someone's really uh got that addiction understand how that can can be such a trigger yeah i think we need tight we need legislation regulation we're working from 1931 and 1956 game in lot reacts now the regular has been put in place so hopefully by this time next year we'll have up-to-date regulation it's a complex piece of work but if it stops people from falling over the cliff as i did and many others have we need to have those things in place yeah and people when the fun stops stop um some of that it's box ticking stuff it's like drink aware dot ie really does not it's not like don't drink away you know what i mean it's it's a bit of box i mean it's something but it's not really effective in what we're talking about here puts all the honest on the individual stuff like when the fun stop stops take time to take it's going on right okay i'm gonna stop the person's addicted to Danny and you mentioned like being people stuck on their smartphones we can't in that moment because the brain is hijacked it's only when we come out at gambling frenzy as i call it we get a certain amount of um clarity or i need to stop this but then gambling will create its own problems as well so a lot the the messian needs to stop in that sense we we need to have proper advertisement to show the other side of it how do you control uh i mean do you know how someone who's an alcoholic will it's day at a time you know what i mean and they won't say i'm i'm no longer an alcoholic as such how do you uh someone who i mean obviously experienced some rushes um given the amounts that you were gambling and what have you is it is it a day to day thing with gambling or is it something that you can sort of say well i don't gamble anymore and that's that and i'm cured it's very much so i'm in recovery last 12 and a half years um i still give control of money to my partner i very limited access to money now the triggers tony other are the triggers when you're watching um sport as you said like the odds the odds coming on ray winston coming on before the game saying x player is going to be why odds to score but is the internal triggers are mine it's um when i'm overwhelmed when i'm um you know when if i look back at the underlying issues for me it's insecurities around myself and around jobs even it's also um that feeling of not being good enough or good at anything and at times that those internal triggers are very much there and i end up getting triggered into wanting to escape into something and if i may totally honest shopping was there before the gambling and it has slipped back in so i have to be very mindful of of that type of behavior um go through some general advice about your services and who can avail of them and how they should i just want i want you to make sure that you feel that you've got everything out that you want to before you depart the yeah i want to give you the contact details and i suppose just you know what tony was saying there as well you know that family support is very important for people too when they're at that low ebb and reaching out communicating with somebody is great and like somebody taking over the finances for them if they really are struggling with it's so important so um if people you know the service is available it's a very low cost service we'll just ask for a donation and um they can phone through to the fen valley family resource center um 0749131245 and there's a mobile number that can be handed out as well um people can email gambling support at dpsfs.ie but um anybody who wants to come along tomorrow evening you know it's open as tony says to the community parents um people themselves maybe who are gamblers nobody's going to know why anybody's there so there will be leaflets there as well that people can pick up and take away and make contact themselves maybe another time there as well and the cases can be really complex too because you talk about maybe a partner have been lucky enough to have a partner to take over the finances you can lose everything through gambling not just your finances but you can burn bridges with your family and i'm sure there's many marriages and relationships that have broken up off the back of it and people can be in really desperate dire straits and the good thing is now the younger people are coming forward for support you know um i was even listening there i thought it was a very good um one of my clients would have said to me one time that the best advice he ever got was from a get an old man in the bookie shop who um was on every day and had a few pounds just but never went above that but he says son the day that you'll want and here he says is the day you give it up yeah yeah indeed that was good advice yeah for sure okay um we have those support details but the the main encouragement is to get people to go along to and no one knows why you're going by the way it's an event tomorrow evening from seven to nine p.m in beautiful jackson's hotel it's on gambling and gaming addiction and maybe there's someone in your life you can bring with them and it will resonate with them and the whole business is totally that people's lives are are turned around there is support there's helps there that it's not hopeless situation i mean you know you've come back from as bad as probably it can get in terms of you know fraud and and theft and million you know what i mean so if you can sit here now and be a an addiction counselor and an author that pretty much means most people hopefully should be able to turn their lives around yeah the story is a story of hope of how to come true it doesn't necessarily become an addiction counselor it's and it's um it's that hope that i that's why i told the story probably trying to instill that hope that no matter how bad the person or the family members think it the situation is it and it's very important to say it doesn't necessarily have to be the millions or have to be um it how it impacts your mental health and your that could be someone gambling 100 your week or 10 or a week and even for tomorrow night for people to come just to hear the story but to also get an insight into gambling it doesn't have to be that they've been impacted by it but just generally to get a sense of it because it is something it's the fastest growing addiction of the 21st century and something that you may be impacted down the line and i think that's so so important yeah and i think because it's something isn't consumed or something it kind of doesn't get that that sometimes we do here but sometimes it doesn't get necessarily the folks it might that was Monday focus Gertrude Hooten gambling support cancer at Finn Valley FRC we have the details if you want to contact us and we can pass them on to you um and also Tony O'Reilly gambling addiction cancer co-author of Tony 10 and you can hear Tony and Gertrude will be there tomorrow night between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in Jackson's hotel it's on gambling and gaming addictionary addiction and just to remind you the gambling therapy and support service is there it's a low-cost confidential service available to those with a gambling problem all their loved ones and it's based at the Finn Valley Family Resource Centre in Stranola and you said going out to schools as well as that began i know you do that Tony but that's that's that's what i'm doing as part of this project with the FRCs corner and speaking to schools yeah really important so there's three schools in the locality are getting a free and to our workshop with Tony Tony thanks very much great to have you back on the show Gertrude lovely to see you in as well thank you Greg 2024 Hyundai range including the all-new Kona Ireland's best-selling car the Tucson and winners of World Car of the Year the Ionic 5 and the Ionic 6 avail of the big selection of offers when you book your 241 model the Hyundai big weekend of offers October 7th and 8th your local Hyundai dealer is diverse Hyundai canal road letter Kenny open this Saturday 7th from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. and Sunday 12 till 4 buying or moving home can be a strange mixture of excitement and stress so the last thing you need is worrying about conveyancing time to call McElhenny and associates they'll move that property transaction along swiftly make sure everything's in order and prevent any nasty surprises residential commercial leasing or voluntary transfer call today on 0749175989 or find us online we'll do the paperwork you do the wallpaper McElhenny and associate solicitors to an owner how can we help don't miss the most heartwarming film of the year the miracle club congratulations you're coming to Lawrence you can't go what do I do on my own go back to bed starring Laura Lenny and then a place I swore I would never come back to academy award winner Kathy Bates I never hated you more than I loved you and Academy award winner Maggie Smith you don't believe there's always hope the miracle club in cinemas october 13th rated 12 a creative landscaping works are the only all distributors of millboard cladding and decking thanks to its unique polymer resin construction this decking and cladding doesn't deteriorate like natural wood and won't be beaten for durability it also has superb slip resistance even when wet and every board is produced using recycled materials live life outside with millboard at creative landscaping works listen in and letter kenny see creative landscaping works dot com highland radio weather updates with ireland west airport where you can now fly daily to london he throw with their lingus and connect via he throw to over 80 destinations worldwide including boston new york and more all right dry for most of today with isolated showers some spells the hazy sunshine a band of sherry rain will gradually move into western parts later this afternoon and evening a few heavy bursts possible temperatures 13 to 16 degrees what is in the mulcahi report you might know that it is a report into alleged planning corruption in donna gole um a senior council rory mulcahi who gave his name to the report reported in uh was appointed in 2015 to review allegations by a whistleblower that there were severe irregularities in donna gole candid council's planning department in the early uh noughties it was completed in 2017 and we've had an opportunity to ask a number of housing ministers uh through the newsroom or this program when's it going to be uh published we're always told soon soon soon uh we were told that again in august of this year that it remains under consideration it'll be brought to to government but still we don't know what's in the report deputy patrick costlow of the green party has raised this issue with the housing minister darrah o brian uh he joins us now good morning patrick thanks very much for your time no worries my pleasure uh so why did uh you uh raise this issue this time uh with with with the minister well i've been raising this issue consistently um seen for for quite some time since the reports really was landed on the minister's desk um the fact is that there has been an investigation that has identified serious irregularities and we need to see that reports we need to see the report for transparency we need to see the reports for confidence in the planning system and we also need to see the reports for the fact that if there has been any wrong doing there should be consequences what worries me is when a housing minister is appointed you ask them about this naco yes i'm aware of it we're going to get on that straight away and then the same story comes out again or it's on the consideration uh it's complicated what is in this report then that is so difficult for it to be published is it the fact that maybe there are people named within the report that uh are are still active or or maybe even active at higher levels or i don't know what's going on like it it's very frustrating because i can't actually answer that question exactly because i don't know because they've been so secretive around the reports one would assume that there is named allegations in there indeed i tried to get the report released under an our house request so this is access to information on the environment and this i appealed all the way up to the office of commissioner for environmental information and one of the things the department said at that point was that there were issues in terms of privacy and named individuals so that's clearly the case here but it has been seven years that this has been in cons in with the attorney general and there has been legal advice and that took a new several years to come back which is too long but now it is back within the department so the department in my most recent parliamentary question offered an array of hope because they've said that they will be they are formulating the plan that they will bring to cabin us before the end of the year now this plan may not include release of the reports but certainly this is a new part of the answer and it seems to be a new development so things are still moving slowly but it gets the sense that things are starting to move a little more it's the problem here definitely it's the problem and let me come back to that sorry but it's the problem here that this is a scoping exercise by mr mulcahi that in other words there are no conclusions drawn in the report it's an overview of allegations and therefore that's why it can't be published because it could be libelous or or damage people's reputation or whatever it might be if that is the case then what's its purpose should we not then commission a report that actually does dig into these allegations and find if they are proven or otherwise because i i just wonder are we campaigning to have something released that can never be released for the reasons i've just outlined well then we're still in a position where this report has been sitting around for seven years with no action from us bear in mind that the planning tribunals that we had that lasted a very long time we're only really looking at issues of planning in and around doubly and there's clearly other issues that need investigation indeed when john gourmet was minister he started six planning investigations in six print counties all of which when uh phil hogan came in and became minister all of which were ended and the only reason that the dunny goal issue came up and continued was because the whistleblower stepped forward and that whistleblower has been vindicated several times in court and in res with the department of the environment so there are issues here that need to be investigated and if this report as you say is merely a scoping exercise and we need to look at whether it's a commission or uh of inquire investigation or an inquiry or even just in a garden inquiry there's no reason why that hasn't happened in a reasonable in a reasonable time frame this report has taken seven years yeah multiple housing ministers now or couple of housing ministers i've had this report on their desk which at the very least is a scoping exercise a scoping review it highlights allegations from a whistleblower now whether they're proven or unproven the fact that it hasn't been progressed beyond that uh it's certainly not because there's nothing to see here or that would have been outlined and this would have been published so there are obviously allegations worthy of an investigation by any use of bodies that you've mentioned what is the government covering up here or what are they trying to prevent from being investigated are questions that people at this point could rightfully have i again this is the this is a question that i want an answer to but i don't have an answer to because the report hasn't been published um we know from from the whistleblower and what he has said around the planning irregularities and the issues there and they're what need to be investigated because they it was planning irregularities across six counties that john gormley set out to investigate so you know at the very least we have planning irregularities there is a fear that there are deeper issues there that need to be investigated and i go back to my earlier point the inquiry the tribunal's inquiry into planning issues and certain planning payments really only looked at a very limited geographic ways of the country and there's huge amounts more that need clearly need to be investigated and there are questions asked right so the thing is at the end of the day at the end of the day what we need is transparency yes and you've effectively said to the middle you've said to the minister effectively pit look it off the pot if this can't be published it can't be ignored then pass it on refer it to the guardie i think you mentioned let them have a look through it and see if there's any criminal responsibility or anything that needs but don't sit on it because that's that is is interfering in potentially due process and certainly the the you know referring the report to the advice of the attorney general when a report first landed wasn't an unreasonable thing to do i think that was a reasonable thing to do but you're looking at again it took five or six years to come back from the office of the attorney general based based on some of the p2's i've been asking and it is back from the office the attorney general and we need to know when we're going to see some action on this so again the most recent answer i got says that a plan will go to cabinet before the end of the year there's no details in the answer as to what that plan is as that plan will give us the necessary transparency and the necessary investigation so we seem to be a half step forward and and this is something that i think we'll all have to keep raising our voices on to ensure there is a transparency here okay lovely stuff debbie patrick costlow of the green party thanks for your time today i do appreciate it greatly no worries thanks very much take care goodbye right okay we'll keep on that obviously i think um something has to be done whether it's published or referred or whatever it might be a lot of reaction to our last item bingo also has to make a hold on people says a listener i live near a casino and i've noticed an increase in older women entering gambling premises i just think it's all very sad they are from first thing in the morning to last thing at night i see an ad for gambling where sports stars are saying gamble responsibly they have their big logo displayed on the screen of that ad to me that doesn't make sense again it's a bit of box ticking and on it goes thanks for all the texts coming in those that i didn't get to today i'll carry on till tomorrow but that's where we have to leave it for now thanks to carl and all who researched and produced the show neve shield's working on the program as well very hard of course