 Brother in Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said he will call a pre-Christmas election tomorrow, December 15th believed to be the likely date. Meanwhile, Senator George Mitchell will virtually address the Iraqis Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement today. The special envoy who was appointed by the former US President Bill Clinton is expected to comment on the current political impasse at Stormont. John Tong is Professor of Politics at University of Liverpool. You've had chronic political instability, devolved power sharing keeps collapsing and there's question marks over the future of the political institutions in Northern Ireland. They need addressing so the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement shouldn't simply be a cause for celebration, it should also be a cause for reflection and a look at how the institutions that were set up 25 years ago might usefully be reformed. Around 400,000 homeowners are poised to face higher monthly repayments and other interest rate hike is expected when the governing body of the European Central Bank meets today. An increase of 0.75% of 1% is on the cards as the bank tries to control inflation across the eurozone. It'll be the third interest rate hike this year. Between them it amounts to a 2% rise. Economist and financial services director at Sherry Fitzgerald Shane Quinlan says this one will hit homeowners in the pocket. If you look at a typical tracker maybe with about 200,000 remaining over a 15-year term that means an extra 180 euro per month which I suppose equates to about 2,000 per year. There is speculation we'll see another increase for the end of the year and we could be possibly at 3% around the middle of next year. That would mean an extra 300 euro per month for a typical tracker customer, you know, an up to 3,500 per year. So the change is significant. The number of students seeking exemptions from learning Irish is worrying according to Conor McGuelga. The Euroclos Committee on the Irish Language has heard the number of students exempt from the subject in schools has risen from 2% in 1999 to nearly 11% last year. Education Minister Norma Foley has defended a revised process under which students can seek exemptions. And the mayor of Vetter Kelly Milford Municipal District says the process of reinvigorating the market square could have been delayed if agreement hadn't been reached this week on taxi spaces. The draft proposal saw all taxi spaces taken away from market square and market centre and moved further down Main Street. However, following a public consultation and discussions with councillors, that was amended to retain the taxi rank outside the market centre. The revised proposal was then accepted at a special meeting this week. Work is set to start next year. Councillor Kelly says it was the right decision. What's been proposed here is to leave the three taxi ranks where they've always been outside the market square and move the two disabled and parking base on the right down in front of the Ulster Bank. I think that's the right decision. Listen, I think if we didn't propose this, I was going to set this whole project back of the revamping of the market square. And that's something I was eager not to see because I think going forward with this is the right way to go. It's a game changer for Liddy Kinney. Outbreaks of rent this morning will break up this afternoon, leaving some dry weather with some sunshine. Heavy rain hitting the West Coast again by evening though. Mild for this time of year, temperatures hitting 15 to 17 degrees Celsius in moderate southerly winds. They'll increase though as the day goes on. And we're back with news again at 10 o'clock. Are your Christmas orders already flying in? On Pust Commerce has some seasonal supports to help your business scale up with smart savings on Advantage Card. Get four euro off every express parcel that you send and save on stamps to send greetings to your customers. It's one card you'll really need this Christmas. So register free today at your post office or onpust.com slash Advantage Card. On Pust Commerce, a world closer. Teas and seas apply on Forens December 31st. Live Free in 2023 with Dunlop GA Club. Winner takes all. Prize includes 500 euro cash paid every week next year. Live Free in 23.ie. Pride sponsors of today's show. Cutting through the spin. The 90 noon show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest. The 90 noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. A very good morning and happy Thursday to you. Forming its past nine Thursday, 27th of October 2000 and 2022. Don't forget by the way, your clocks go back on Sunday. You'll start seeing the turn back time memes from sure. I'm sure very, very shortly. You haven't already. It's always good to remember, isn't it? Although most of our stuff now almost goes back automatically. Half of you out there for finally on Monday, you'll wake up on your car clock will be at the right time. Isn't that great news? But anyway, we've had today to worry about for the next three hours. So we're going to keep you informed, hopefully entertained. Oh wait, 660 25,000. What's absent texts that number? Give us a call to 07491 25,000 anything you want to raise or raise. And by the way, all your contacts with us are in strict confidence. Don't forget that. You can watch the program as more and more if you do with 1 million live minutes viewed over the last four weeks here at Highland Radio, which is a huge milestone to reach. That doesn't take into consideration, of course, those that you watch at your leisure. But anyway, if you want to join that group of people, you can go on to our website, click Watch Live or straight over to YouTube Highland Radio Ireland, you can watch on your big screen to your tablet wherever you want to watch it, or Facebook, all of our Facebook pages, we're carrying the show so you can't miss it unless you wish to avoid it. Right, let's look what's happening in the Oh, by the way, I want to mention to you, we've our friends at Donalode GEA they have a fantastic competition running at the moment. And it's to invest money into the community to build a new pitch floodlights and all that stuff to cater for all the teams and all the different variations of the sport that are played there. And they're effectively, it's five fantastic prizes, you can win 500 Euro into your bank account every week wouldn't that be nice on top of your wages for a full year, five nights in five night holiday in Dubai, tickets to the All Island, hurling and football finals and more. And we're going to give you the chance to win three tickets for that draw a little later on in the program. So it's a great prize for a great prize. So stay tuned for that as well. Now the Donegal Democrat this morning, a horrendous story of a man who engaged in Lude acts in letter Kenny Leisure Center, using mirrors to help spy on young girls. Louis Nugent, a 67 year old man from Killy Club in letter Kenny was apprehended by a man whose daughters were filmed by Nugent while they changed in a cubicle after a swimming lesson at the aura Leisure Santa Nugent also used a mobile phone to film or record another young girl while she shared and the more you read into that story, the more horrific the details become. On to the cultural tribute now and with an estimated figure of around 71,000 people believed to be seeking sanctuary in Ireland under the Temporary Protection Directive. The country is now buckling under the strain of providing accommodation. Declan Meen of the MDRC office in Milford has put on record the widely held view that money is being poured into the pockets of landlords and developers. This is the stark message emerging as Ukrainians are forced to sleep rough or to seek a roof over their heads in Dublin's Cabogen Day Center. Declan Meen who's been engaged in looking after refugees since March said it's clear from how squeeze schools and GP surgeries are in the local locality that we simply don't have the capacity for any further arrivals. Now, if you're in any doubt of Declan Meen's position on this, and I'm not saying this is his view, but it certainly speaks to his point we've learned and been covering over the course of the last while on this program that hundreds of you out there offered accommodation through rooms or houses or whatever it might be your own private property short term, long term. I don't know. It was up to you. However, however you decided to offer it, none of that was taken up. We've been told and haven't heard anything to the country yet. None of it. So a great outpouring of a great power outpouring of generosity and all that generosity was seemingly chucked back in people's faces because they were chasing up the Red Cross and other organizations back and forward back and forward. Yes. Thanks. Yes. Thanks. And then eventually you know, thanks. Now they're effectively telling people that they're not looking for accommodation at this time yet all the while almost 5000 people are now living in Donegal from Ukraine and elsewhere. And where are they staying? They're staying in hotels. They're staying in group accommodation, which is far more costly than it would be if the offers of the sort of community offered accommodation was taken up. Well, anyway, there are currently, I'm reading on here now, there are currently 600 Ukrainian refugees in the Milford electoral area. And while the local community has been made them very welcome, Declan mean said, I think we need to send a message to the department that we cannot accommodate any further people on this basis. It's a constant challenge for community organizations to meet the increased needs locally. And today's we've not received one penny in additional funding to do this. Nor have we received any additional staff or resources. When the dust settles, the amount of money that has been poured into this, especially when there were much cheaper alternatives, it's going to be a shocker. And don't forget 2.8 billion euro 2.8 billion with a be not million billion has been set aside in next year's budget to service the costs associated with housing people and fulfilling our obligation, which is our obligation to help people fleeing situations such as the war in Ukraine 2.8 billion. Now, where is the majority of that going? The Donagol News this morning, and this is good news, a meeting will take place in Kreisler this evening to update the community on the ongoing efforts by the Irish Red Cross to assist those impacted by the tragedy and to finalize a plan to decide how to distribute the funding. And it's not for me again to get involved. If it were I, I would try and make that meeting available for live streaming for those people who need to hear that information, but perhaps aren't ready to return to Kreisler if they're affected by it and live outside Kreisler. But as I say, it's not up for me to make those decisions or suggestions. But if it were I, I certainly and it's not hard to do. I would try to make that available for people to listen to remotely. But that meeting comes after members of the public reported difficulties getting through to the Irish Red Cross phone number that was circulated locally for those in need of support. A spokesperson for the organization told the Donagol News yesterday they are working on providing additional contact information with a new email and phone number. And since we were chatting about this yesterday, I'm not saying it's because of it. But since there has been quite a considerable amount of progress as to where we were at. The Donagol County Council has appointed now a community support officer for Kreisler. The person has been appointed to assist in the aftermath of the Kreisler tragedy. A community support officer has been put in place in Kreisler to assist with any council associated area of help and advice. Her name is Pamela Smullen and she'll be in attendance at the Wild Atlantic campsite unit 12 Kreisler effective from 2 p.m. on Wednesday the 26th of October and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily Thursday and Friday and Pamela will act as a link for any council related queries and follow ups. Now given the location of where Pamela is going to be set up there are going to be some people that might find it difficult to attend there. 0870607388 is a telephone number 0870607388. That service will be continued into next week and depending on demand for same and the council has been advised if we as we've just mentioned there that the Red Cross is now hosting a town hall meeting 7 p.m. tonight in the Kreisler community centre Massanas to consult on their ongoing work and future plans in the area and the council's also advising that its road service has reviewed and upgraded signage for diversions they're asking that anyone traveling in that area abide by the signage pending the reopening of the main road in Kreisler. So hopefully that is the type of reach out to the community that we're talking about yesterday that really needs to happen. The Irish independent banks will make one billion from rate hikes as families suffer. Irish banks are set to make a one billion killing as the European central bank cranks up interest rate increases for far beyond third your expectations. ECB president Christine Lagarde is set to put through another 0.75 percent rate hike today the third increase since july and the fastest tightening in eurozone history. This will mean higher prices for thousands of mortgage borrowers once banks pass on the rates rise adding to the financial pressure of those struggling with the higher cost of living well worth. If it suits I don't give financial advice but hopping onto your app if you can manage your mortgage see what rates are available even on tracker mortgages maybe you can get a fixed rate in and around where you're at so you have some sort of because there's going to be another rate rise after this at least so the mortgage is going to go up again before the middle of next year but anyway rating agencies S&P has warned that people will with cured mortgages are at heightened risk of falling back into arrears as the cost of repayments climbs higher interest rates mean big money for the banks on deposits too yeah and and you just wonder you know you talk about inflation then the new factor in your increase in your mortgage and that inflation rate goes from what 10 or 12 percent to 20 percent depending on your income versus your borrowings it's really quite worrying. All right the Irish Times has the latest poll on support for political parties. Finafall and Finagel seem to have got a bit of a bounce post budget though they are still far and away behind Sinn Féin. The party support is as follows Sinn Féin said at 35 percent that's down one percent well within the margin of error. Finagel a plus four percent so that's nice for Leo Veradkar as he is appointed again as leader of the country as T-shock. Finafall they've gained as well they're up to 21 plus one the Green Party gained a percentage point 25 percent increase in their popularity they're now up to a staggering four percent. Labour have slipped one to three percent. The three coalition parties have seen a rebound in support since the summer with voters taking a more positive view of the government and of the country's prospects. Support for all three government parties has risen with Finagel seeing a four point increase since the last poll in July while Finafall and the Greens see a marginal increase of one point. Support for the opposition declines with Sinn Féin and Labour losing a point each and independent others failing away falling away by four points. I think it's interesting the way it's covered and I say this only as someone who likes as much as impossible in impartial media. Sinn Féin isn't at 35 percent which is a remarkable figure but no story's ever framed in the context of what they that party has achieved. It's always what the main parties have been the main parties for a hundred years are do you know what I mean? How they how they are operating in and around what Sinn Féin are doing so it's never like you know Sinn Féin top the polls again. It's always right they're doing that but let's focus on what Finafall and Finagela are doing which I think is quite interesting. The Irish Daily Mail a mystery letter delivered to Finafall TDs last night alleges an inappropriate connection has been made between Mark McSharry's readmittance to the parliamentary party and an uninvestigated allegation of bullying against the Sligo TD. The letter will ratchet up tensions in the party and will be seen as an intensification of a move against the party leader Miehl-Martin. This correspondence alleges that Mr McSharry has been denied due process about the unspecified allegation made against him. The letter was dropped into the cubby holes of all members of the Finafall Parliamentary Party while they were meeting last night so can you imagine? The Finafall Parliamentary Party and meeting and then there's someone scoring around the holes of the doll dropping little letters into their cubby holes. It's I don't know. Email them. Irish Farmers Journal sprays to manage crops, rushes and clover could face a complete ban in Ireland by 2024 into the new EU sustainability sustainable pesticides directive. The Irish Farmers Journal can reveal that the fine print in the revised directive indicates that Ireland would face a 100% reduction in pesticide usage because the country is classed as one nitrates vulnerable zone. All right let's take a bit of time here but it is Thursday so there's lots of papers isn't there? The Irish Daily Star what do you think about the increase in fines for motoring offences? Do you think it's a money grabbing exercise? Do you think it's our best tool to reduce the carnage on our roads? I mean let's face it in Donegal we have far in a way had our fair share of fatalities on our roads and I'm not attributing any blame in saying that or saying speeding or seatbelts or anything like that were a factor but surely the strongest tool to try and encourage us to drive safely is the risk of hitting us in our pockets but some people think it's really about taking in the cash but I want to know what you think phone fines for road safety offences are set to double from today with speeding and holding a mobile phone while driving among those due to increase Minister of State at the Department of Transport Hildegard Nocton confirmed the fines associated with 16 road safety offences will double the changes mean speeding will incur 160 euro fine and holding a mobile phone while driving will result in a 120 euro penalty so that's a doubling but unless you routinely want to do that or you routinely do it why would you be angry at those fines doubling that's a question by the way not a statement let me know what you think a man who stabbed a night time intruder to death now this is someone that came into his house he's been jailed for three and a half years in the sun today Justice Paul McDermott said Dean Kerry was entitled to use force to defend himself his family in his home but the judge said that used by the now 21 year old there's some words missing here I don't know which words but the judge said that the force used by the now 20 year old was grossly excessive given the victim was unarmed Kerry was 17 when Jack Power 25 broke into his home in the early hours of July 26 2018 power had been drinking and at about 3 am saw damage to his car which he believed Kerry caused the fisherman went to Kerry's home in Waterford smashed a window and assaulted him in the bedroom before Kerry knifed him in the chest power was described by the judge as an exceptionally hard working young man who loved his work and that loss was incalculable what do you think about that all right so someone comes into your home I mean obviously the judge feels this person was a very good standing of nothing to doubt that but someone comes into your home and attacks you and you in the heat of the moment or even premeditatedly I don't know you defend yourself and the intruder in that process dies you could end up in jail for three and a half years what do you think about that text us 08 660 25000 finally um Rishi Sunak called the tea shock to say he wants a negotiated outcome on the Northern Ireland protocol Downing Street said yesterday a spokeswoman said Britain's new prime minister and me hall Martin agreed on the vital importance of a strong relationship she added the prime minister welcomed Ireland's ongoing support for Ukraine discussing the Northern Ireland protocol Mr Sunak said set out his preference remained a negotiated outcome and hoped all parties would approach the challenges with pragmatism and goodwill both undertook to continue discussions in the coming weeks and months and uh if you're listening in Northern Ireland or outside it you're looking at another election December 15th is that the dates that's being earmarked yeah because a executive can't be formed the idea of having to deal with an election and all that talk you know because everything's going to stay the same but I'm going to listen to that for the next month and a half doesn't interest me uh right okay uh I want to go to Melanie Sweeney now who's project coordinator of the family resource center in Riffle thanks for your time Melanie uh this morning sorry to be speaking to you under these circumstances no I know it's been disappointing so it was definitely we're kind of just getting over kind of the shock and disappointment right so this is the helping hand shed was broken into before we talk about what was taken and how listeners might be able to help in this regard tell us a little bit about helping hands and and why the need for the shed and what's in there so the helping hand project has probably been operating I think maybe nearly 10 years and it's there to support like older people in the community or those who are no longer able like to carry out like Vietnam's past outside the home so like it's a really really busy service that helps it cuts grass cuts the hedges cleans windows you know it does so much not even the maintenance work grade but you know checking in with older people and stuff like that yeah and that I think is a real vital part of it too that sort of contact and this is all done by volunteers so the volunteers use this equipment to go out and as you've been outlining look after the homes of and engage with particularly older people in the in the community obviously been going for 10 years that's an amazing achievement I think Melanie yeah and Greg the project is supported by DLDC test program so like there would be three staff kids all right as well so like it's really really busy and you know just it's just such a loss this week because obviously nothing's happened this week and you know going forward I don't really know what we're going to do well we'll see maybe there's people out there that might want to help when they hear the fantastic work that helping hands does where was the shed located and when was it broken into so the family resource center is based on the castle road just down beside the cathedral there and then just the bottom of the lane and that was at the shed it's like a you know like a metal shipping container that you would see on sites but like it's been placed there for about three and a half years and was really really secure yeah so you see them loaded on the back of a lorry there's there's double doors at one end of it it's a long rectangular shape is that correct okay yeah yeah so they smashed in the door locks did they no they cut they didn't touch the lock because you wouldn't have got the lock off so they cut they cut it cut to like the rod off it where um I earn way like a bolt cutter or something like that that's what the garage um thank but also like you know if somebody does see anything you know they're definitely would have been a van um because of what was taken was quite large you know that kind of way right so let's run through what was taken then because this stuff might pop up on websites or what have you this is equipment that's used in the area okay to um clean people's houses mow the lawns tidy up the properties two lawn mowers two hedge cutters a power washer two trimmers and two blowers that's a lot of equipment two and a half grand odds worth and I think that's kind of a conservative figure if I'm honest I that's probably what the value you know kind of would be now but you know like one of the lawn mowers was like new like very like you know what I mean and you know that is all the power tools like I think all it was left was like um for washing the windows I guess you know what I mean yeah well no one likes washing the windows I suppose uh but you did that for people in the community so as you say it would have taken a while maybe and and also this I think they'd have to have checked this place out beforehand as well to have the right tools and the right vehicle with them there's definitely been a bit of casing on so people if you saw anything even in advance as this but they had to have been there for a little bit of time as well to get the the lock off get the doors open and get this stuff loaded and taken away we're looking perhaps at a reasonably sized uh van or or car and trailer or something I think Melanie yeah definitely definitely and just I think it's also important to note that these um tools would have had markings on them you know um refo and dl dc with a um would be written impairment marker quite large on them and there would have been stickers as well um on them you know so you know if anyone you know was offered something we stuff you know scribbled out on the side of it or anything you know you know ground off or something yeah keep your eyes peeled for that um right so this is all the gear really to do your work so nothing's being done this week despite the the willingness of no nothing no nothing's been being done this weekend you know I don't even know what you know going to happen next week because you know going forward that actually will be for us our space is quite limited family resource center is extremely busy I can't keep those work tools and the family resource center so the issue kind of is going to be like you know going forward where does it be secured in the future you know because like we can't have anything like that happen again yeah yeah all right okay so keep your eyes out people if you've seen any any any um movement suspicious movement in this area in advance or on the night uh and also you know to shift two lawn mowers two hedge cutters power washers two trimmers two leaf blowers that's a lot of gear uh and requires you know a decent bit of space and also if there's anyone in the area by the way it's a safe lock up maybe they'd like to to make available I'm sure for the future Melan you'd like to hear from them but anyone with any information getting contact with the guardie definitely we really really really appreciate animal support on us if we know anything or seen anything it's a real slap in the teeth isn't it when you're sort of doing something that goes under the radar you know let's face it use know what you're doing and the people that you work with knows what you're doing but a lot of people don't realize that this is ongoing and it's been ongoing for 10 years and doing great work and there's to say this is a real personal slap in the teeth isn't it definitely is because you know the farmers or centre is there to support them who's vulnerable and the community Greg you know that kind of way and you know the older people and to keep them connected to the community as well I think Melana you know that's an important part of this there's so much all their work that comes from the health and hands you know that kind of way you know it has a ripple effect in the other programs and you know we process senior alert alarms and you know one of the men might say oh you know could you ring out to them I think they could do with an alarm because they live on their own and they're getting you know it would benefit them so it was just really really disappointing um Greg right okay Melanie thanks for your time this morning I just I'm not sure if I made it clear or if you made it clear when do we believe that this happened well the service closed on Friday afternoon and then we reopened on Monday and then that's when we realized and when all staff and when the staff on the health and hands came for work on Monday morning that's when we realized what a way to start the week all right okay Melanie thanks for your time well done on that uh in terms of helping us to get the message out I appreciate it Melanie Sweeney there project coordinator of the family resource center in Raffaul their program helping hands which does great work and has been doing so for over a decade they volunteer to um help older people in the community maybe mow their lawn tidy up around the house wash the windows turned in on Monday morning to start another week of doing that the shipping container uh had been broken into two lawn mowers two hedge cutters a power washer two trimmers and two blowers uh all taken so someone must have seen something if you have please get in contact with the guardie and the old tech care dash cam footage the usual stuff all right uh we'll be back with more shortly the newspapers are courtesy of Kelly centra mountaintop letter Kenny live free in 23 with the low GA club 500 euro cash paid weekly a luxury holiday hotel stays and more winner takes all live free in 23.ie proud sponsors of today's show total ban on sprays proposed for more in this week's farmers journal is paul mooney crop and rush sprays in the firing line under EU plans future land designations not ruled out by minister farmer fallout from food vision dairy group report which recommends a dairy cow exit scheme Turkish buyers driving the weaning trade and farmers of two months to dezone from land tax plus find out how you can reduce your feed costs this winter only inside this week's Irish farmers journal you can't afford to miss it let Joe McGee butchers feed your family with their five for 20 euro date choose from our fantastic deli range lasagnas cottage pie chicken curry and soups just a sample of refined products all made in store only at Joe McGee butchers letter Kenny and Glenn Carr shopping centers find us on facebook and instagram Hagerty's auto body repairs and letter Kenny have been keeping cars on the road across the northwest for the past 50 years Hagerty's are the only forward approved body shop in the northwest would repair all makes and models paintless dent removal when screen replacement and restoration work Hagerty's even mix their own paint approved by most insurance companies and certified steel standards Ireland that's Hagerty's auto body letter Kenny for all vehicle repairs see Hagerty's dot com Fleetwood Europe's premiere tribute to Fleetwood Mac live at on grain and theater letter Kenny on Saturday the 14th of January hear the classic Fleetwood Mac songs that you know and love tickets available from on grain and theater box office and on grain and dot com the Kilkenny design sale is now on there's up to 50 percent off almost everything is reduced it's the perfect excuse to start your Christmas shopping early with fantastic offers on gifts across all departments visit a Kilkenny design store or go to Kilkenny shop dot com for more info celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first Joe Dolan Bondorn music festival a spectacular Christmas party night at the Alina Marms Hotel on Friday December the 16th with the sensational Joe Dolan show Remembering Joe featuring five vocalists with the Dolan family and the original Joe Dolan band cabaret dinner and accommodation if required now booking at the Alina Marms are online at showtours.ie revive the 90s in Bondorn on December the 16th at the Alinham all right um I do sometimes scratch my head uh a call of says a listener says and I appreciate the text by the way all texts are appreciated Greg you're always doing your best to put down Sinn Fein I thought you were supposed to be impartial which it did that text come in this morning it did yeah what I was saying right what I was saying is is that I was saying that for some reason the national papers never give Sinn Fein credit for their position in the polls I said they always speak about the polls rather than saying you know Sinn Fein is double what Fina Gale are or double what Fina Fall are is that they always speak about Fina Fall and Fina Gale but never actually reference uh the fact that Sinn Fein are so far and away the head of them they're talking about government parties receiving a bounce yet if you add them all up they are only uh there are there about equal to what Sinn Fein is polling on its own I mean how how is that putting Sinn Fein down if you could text me back and explain it or even if we want to come on and talk about it 08 6 60 25000 but maybe the years here uh what the years want to hear I think it's going to be interesting when Sinn Fein are in uh I think it's going to be interesting when Sinn Fein are go are in uh in government as an everyday listener to Highland Radio I'm shocked at the decision taken by a few individual elected candidates of DCC to block Ukraine refugees from staying in our county it would be of benefit to both landlords and local communities we're turning into a county a country of dictatorship there is constellation with low there's consultation with local communities and towns on these matters what's the point of having a business or working when we are no longer in control of what we do a very annoyed listener well you see there is no consultation with local communities in towns and villages there is after the fact whereby they say hey you know we've got some new people here what can you do to assist there's very very little consultation as it relates to as it relates to changes that are made or people being brought in also it seems that a lot of people have been centered in certain areas okay and those resources in those areas can take no more that's what people are saying in reality and then we have hundreds of people very generously offering accommodation and those offers being rejected so I don't know I don't think that I don't think it reflects purely on the council for the county but I take your point I really do right okay so Donegal County Council has approved part eight planning for the reimagined market square project in letter Kenny Town Centre some changes have been made to the initial draft that went to public consultation most notably the retention of the taxi ranks outside the market center Councillor Jerry McMonagall if she and Fane joins us now to discuss this good morning Jerry thanks for your time Good morning Greg Good morning all listeners I think it's good to see common sense prevail you want people dropped off and picked up in your town centre don't you I mean to sort of decouple you know where you want to make a sort of like a hub of a town but also how people get in and out of that town wouldn't have made much sense in terms of design but in terms of to the businesses of the business of taxi Yeah look this has been going on for about three years now and in relation to the the reimagining and the reinvention of the square there's been a lot of talk about it a lot of interaction with the local community we had a widespread public consultation with all the stakeholders businesses taxi drivers operators and the local community and it was one of the the biggest engagements we had in in that outreach work and public consultation we had a competition then in relation to the design of the square and we got people to vote then on the number of designs or concepts that were submitted and then we got an idea for how we should proceed and obviously that required required a part date and we're now at that stage and the lead up to the part date we had further public consultation and outreach and communication again with all the stakeholders there was then a report provided in front of us the councillors there on Monday Tuesday sorry and that was the the manager's report on the back of all that engagement and he was ordering that the scheme go ahead that the taxes would be removed completely from the market square and from the market center and be relocated on the main street outside some businesses below the square and that the disability parking would also be removed to facilitate the future development of the square so when we as councillors looked at that and listened to the consultation and engagement we had we felt it was wrong to penalize businesses by putting taxi ranks outside their business and would harm them we needed the the disability parking as close to the that immunity that we imagined square as close as possible and we also seen the need for taxi operators to be allowed to pick up and drop off customers at that location so what we settled for was that three remaining taxi ranks would stay in front of the market center directly across them the new square the disability parking would move 10 meters to below the square to outside the Ulster bank and that allowed us to not engage in and take enough much of the parking space outside the local businesses okay so the there's quite a lot of taxi spots around the market square so three are going to remain and they're they they're not going to be provided space in front of those businesses that's one of the reasons you said that that you needed to retake so where are where are taxi drivers going to park then they're an incredibly important part I would have thought of any town because they are what fills the the gap where public transport should be so where where other than these three spots where are taxi people going to be doing their business yeah and as I say this this was taken lightly it was it was based on the back of a number of surveys carried out by the planning department in relation to the market square and the the need for taxi ranks in the main street area and the survey showed that at any one time that the maximum amount of taxi ranks that they were probably needed was seven so there's three now in front of the market center and there's three down below about a hundred yards down the street outside the kitchen cafe area that's a total of six there was also discussions about further taxi ranks being made available and there was a commitment given from our road section and we'll engineer that they would conduct a survey now of all the taxi ranks around the town because as you know the one of Mr Chippies now has has probably the busiest of all it's the one where the majority of taxi drivers take up their rank and present themselves there's not as many taxis now using the square can I just say respectfully though can I just say respectfully I'm not from Letrakenny I presume the Mr Chippy location is to target people going to and getting off bosses I presume there's more taxis in the center of Letrakenny say for instance at night time Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights other times I mean it's I presume that the shift in where the taxis are located depends on the client telling what time of the day it is I mean if you turn up there at 11 o'clock if you if you go to Letrakenny market square at 11 o'clock I'm not sure you're going to see many taxis there in the morning but you might see you know eight or nine up where bosses where people get on and get off bosses I mean did you consult much with taxi operators I want to move on to the more positive elements of this but I have a feeling this could be the fly in the ointment in the planning process how much consultation with taxi representatives was there before this decision was taken I wonder In the report that was furnished to us there was a number of meetings with taxi operators last October and again on April of this year look and there's none of us have a wall all the councillors are available 24-7 a number of taxi drivers would have made their comments known to you we have to look at the bigger picture and all of this because we're talking about the market square we're talking about developing a square that's going to be accessible to you all and have multi-purpose uses one that can bring extra footfall and extra business and events and to the heart of Letrakenny and that there is what has to drive us and what we need to do is work together in partnerships and that's why there was so much extensive public consultation this the public bought into us in a big way there was regular meetings as well with businesses and taxi operators were consulted on this here as well so we got the report we got that's all we can work on you know Greg of course but also you've made your comments in terms of that your own observations about how taxis work and where they might be located stay with us because I've just had Hugh McFadden a taxi representative put through and as I say I think this is going to be maybe the fly in the ointment and we'll speak about the positive elements of this too in a moment but I want to bring Hugh in Hugh I'm not sure how much you heard from councillor Monagall there but what is the views of the taxi industry well I'm not long a bit of me dead so you can excuse me for being a wee bit groggy here but the fact of the matter is Jerry's got a little waffle that note at no time did he have any consultation with us whatsoever we met with a woman called Miss Macaulay which is the planner of the project and two engineers now I met with them myself personally for a cup of coffee one day as I started a talk over and then myself and John Daugherty and Sean McKinley met them out in the county council that was the only time we have ever had any talking or any meeting with anybody so wherever Jerry's going on about we have had consultations we have had meetings we have had a little rush we did not and the taxi drivers are not in favor of this as they were told now yesterday morning was the first time that I heard that the new plan C was brought forward because originally the original plan was they were going to shove it away up the street up towards McGease now on the second plan was to shove it away down the street and all of a sudden yesterday the magic bullet came on and it says that they're going to leave the three taxi ranks at the front is that enough for why is more required and I want to bring Councilman Monagall in to comment on your comments but I just want to clarify from your position is it not the case that maybe the majority of taxis do operate up towards Mr Chippewan that three spaces seven might be required three on the market square three a little bit further down and sure we can see what happens with the seven at some point No, as was explained the last day whenever you're sitting at the market square you cover a certain area of the town when you sit at Mr Chippewan you cover the other area of the town there are certain drivers in this town that don't have companies to work off they are freelancers and they work freely on their own bat and they sit in the market square or they sit down Mr Chippewan it all depends on what time of the day so they know what time or what work they're working from it could be a first step in the market square it could be out the Glen Swally direction or the Old Town direction the Glen Care direction and then anybody down Mr Chippewan as it's the opposite direction All right so are you just going to object to this then I presume there's a planning process to be gone through We are going to object to it we I before I left just today I told that we were I told the lady involved that we were railroaded as per usual and as far as I'm concerned the next step is on board Panalla if that doesn't succeed then we'll take legal action at the end of the day back a number of years ago when I'm only at this 17 years but there's guys at this a lot, lot longer than I am and we paid six and a half thousand euro per car per car in order to work in the town to apply for trade in the public place every single car and that was in the got that was to got to nearly one million euro or one million I don't know if it was Okay, listen I want to bring Councillor McMillan go back in here Councillor in fairness right if a plan was agreed that displaced five or six businesses from the market square I mean you and other cancers would be some of the first to say this is completely unacceptable this is people's livelihoods you know that you can't do this yet we do have people and this is their business being displaced from where they can you know make a success of their business it doesn't seem fair Jerry well Greg first of all just the answer to comments there I didn't say that I spoke I said that the council spoke and the planners said and that's the right way to go about it we are available 24-7 of taxi operators once a day they could know their opinions and we welcome that but and we have to look at what you say is businesses and we look at the bigger picture the council in fairness them invested an awful lot in providing facilities for the taxi operators and engagements worth them down through the years and as a result we have a number of taxi rinks around the town we're sitting here now at a project which has the potential to change the whole dynamic of our main street and they bring businesses and people back into the main street and the taxi operators will play a role in that they're still being facilitated they're still being facilitated at the square they're still being facilitated at the square and they're staying being facilitated 100 meters down the road we have told and said the huke that we are also committed to doing a review of all taxi stands throughout the town and to see where we can improve them and add further taxi rinks in the main street area that there is work you're going to do that because you're not going to talk to us that is work that is work that's going to be started very very shortly and I would hope I would hope that people like Huw and all our taxi operators would engage with the council and give us their opinions but I could just say one last thing I could just say one last thing three overpounds before Huw can come in I could just say one last thing before Huw can come in right during Huw's comments he pointed out that if I could at least there is in trying to get a agreed position from taxi operators because there's so many of them there's not the companies that there was before where you could have a very good conversation with them there's a lot of individuals now involved in it so it's very very hard to get a definitive position from them well that's a fair point Huw saying that that's rubbish saying that's rubbish that's rubbish can I just yeah Gerry let Huw back in you're not anywhere next to near committed you're not anywhere near next to committed near committed you're living in a fairyland if you think for one minute that's been the guts of nearly three million euro to redevelop a market square you're living in cloak cuckoo land if you think that's going to bring people into the town yes but not with not let's just rather than arguing whether or not the development to the square is a good or bad idea great in terms of is it possible do you think look at the plans look at the plans yes but the plans shows that they're putting a public toilet and putting a what they call it a tourist office up at the up where the bandstand is how do those people get into the town vast majority of people that come into this town as tourists bring camper vans or other vehicles they don't come walking or cycling so one you're going to start bringing a whole load of people into the town then you're going to have people parking here there and everywhere because if they want to use the towers up at the very top of the market square they're going to have to park somewhere so where they're going to park now the other the other problem is as well these plans have changed more times on and off because the whenever the original plan was drawn they forgot to realize that there was a car park up at the top left hand corner of the market square a private car park and two private entrances now Jerry's on about what he called having consultation with all the rest of taxi drivers and that there's that many of them that that's rubbish I have 54 signatures from every taxi driver or most taxi drivers in the town that have objected to us and it's funny how I can speak to them there's no problem me speaking to them yes but there was a public consultation have they ever come near us yes but there was a public consultation process you where everyone all interested parties were invited to engage with that I mean surely that would have been the time to that would have been yes but that would have been yes but that would have been the time to gather up the 54 signatures and make a submission on behalf of a big and I think an important group of individuals that operate and work in the town right we did and as I said on my letter whenever I have submitted it that I didn't want them to start to use their volleyball tactics and push us around like they always do because the clothes off the main street whenever they feel they close and up without even talking to us all right now we have to go and find somewhere else to park okay now listen jerry mcmonigal it's not the spokesperson for this project so there's no point just back and forwarding too long but you're saying that you are going to as a group oppose this with on board planala and if that it doesn't succeed you're even prepared to go down the legal route such as the anger if necessary yes okay Hugh thanks for your time this is not any way any way agreed at all right okay thanks for your time this morning I appreciate that I just want to focus maybe on a that's very important but a bit of the positive elements to this as well Councillor mcmonigal I mean Hugh has his feelings as to what this difference this might make I mean toilets located up at the top of the top at the top initial plans didn't include parking for people with a disability it's um was this been properly thought through look it's it's about having an all inclusive space and that's what design hopes they do you have the number of features and it's about being welcomed and it's the square is not an isolation great it's part of a you know a number of sections of the town that are being redeveloped through the urban regeneration companies that we receive all of which together collectively will be a game changer for letter Kenny and will change the face of letter Kenny and how we get about it how we get about it the whole connectivity of it the other talk about where we're looking at another market type square where all our activities could happen the redevelopment of the cathedral quarter the the the change of use from the old courthouse into a tourist information hub and then the redevelopment of the pierce road in the lower main street area so there's a number of pieces of this jigsaw and I have no doubt it's going to take a period of years but it's very positive news for letter Kenny and it's about being inclusive and it's about accessibility all it's about moving away from the use of cars and trying and encouraging people to do more walking or cycling and we see there yeah but you see the thing with just in relation to that you talk about accessibility right you talk about discouraging people to use car the way you do that is public transport and in the absence of public transport it is the likes of taxis that do that I just honestly you know I thought the taxis would be really embraced into this because the pivotal role they will play particularly for people maybe with mobility issues it's a letter Kenny's on quite a steep hill you know I wouldn't fancy if I had mobility issues getting dropped off that 100 meters below the market square and trying to make my way up even if I was in you know a lot of people might that might be beyond a lot of people so I would have thought taxis I would have thought taxi drivers would have been an integral part of these plans but it seems they're being they might feel sacrificed no and I don't want that the message to get out there they're not sacrificed there was a public consultation their integral part of letter Kenny and how we're going to get about it now and into the future and that's about us all working together but if we look even at the the new one-way system that's been put in place around the cathedral area I mean that there in itself it manages traffic it slows it down and there's a lot of white footpaths it has good crossing points and that in itself is encouraging people now to get the school of difference because they have cycle lanes no it doesn't have cycle lanes and no no it what what it has is white footpaths and it doesn't have cycle lanes Jerry I mean this stuff I don't know how we can be welcoming in 2023 new road infrastructure to encourage people to travel in a different way to slow traffic down and there is no cycle lanes yeah but in the particular area that we're talking about in that cathedral quarter one-way system we talk about it was about the safety of the pedestrian and about making it a lot safer and accessible for them people that has done that job clearly done that Greg if you go go and have a look at it yeah but back to the the square is just as I say that's all they're all part of the jigsaw to it and everybody is welcome their opinions are welcome and all their opinions are being listened to but it's not just one side I mean we have the local businesses who there was a potential here on the manager's orders that there have been six car parking spaces lost to six seven local businesses just below the square as councillors we couldn't stand by that yeah I got you couldn't stand by that the surveys showed us that there were sufficient the taxi ranks now available in that area going by the number of surveys that were taken at different times and at different stages there's a commitment now to have the review of all the taxi stands and again hopefully the taxi operators will engage with us and work with us on that and there's a commitment that we would include further taxi ranks in the main street area change will always bring a better banks but it's going to be for the better I think it's going to be exciting when it's all done and dusted I mean obviously you know it's important I think people that feel they're being disadvantaged get a voice and they're getting a chance to have their opinion but over the course of time I'm sure the focus on this will be in a much more positive light hopefully if their needs are met and there's agreement elsewhere and stuff but for now listen thank you very much for giving us this overview of it Jerry your time's greatly appreciated thank you thank you great bye bye cancer Jerry Monagle there okay it is the 9 till noon show here on Highland Radio I just want to give you a chance to win some tickets here and you've got over the 10 o'clock news and a wee bit beyond to take part we'll run it for all of the morning by the way but here's how you can win three tickets into this fantastic fantastic draw on today's show with thanks to our sponsors Dunlode GAA we're giving two lucky people a chance to win three tickets each for the live free and 23 draw this amazing draw has five fantastic prizes including 500 euro into your bank account every week in the year 2023 and a luxury five 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and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning it's ten o'clock donal kavna at the news desk the mayor of letter kennie municipal district says the process of reinvigorating letter kennie's markets square could have been delayed had agreement not been reached this week on taxi spaces the original draft proposal saw all taxi spaces taken away from market square and outside market center and moved down main street toward the core chart shopping center however following a public consultation and discussions with members that was amended to retain the taxi rank outside market center the revised proposal was accepted by councillors at a special meeting this week work is set to start next year councillor donal mandy kelly says it was the right decision what's been posted to leave the three tax ranks where they've always have been outside the market square and moved the two disabled then parking base on the right down in front of the austere bank i think that's the right decision listen i think if we didn't propose this i was going to set this whole project back of the revamping of the market square and that's something i was eager not to see because i think going forward with us is the right way to go it's a game changer for letter kennie however taxi drivers are unhappy with the new arrangements they say they will challenge this through on board planola and if that fails they say they will consider legal action the storm at assembly is being recalled today in a last ditched bid to secure a speaker and first and w first ministers if as expected that can't be achieved then the northern secretary chris heaton harris has said he will call a pre christmas election tomorrow december 15th thought the most likely date meanwhile senator george michael will virtually address the rock this committee on the implementation of the good friday agreement today the special envoy appointed by the former u.s president bill clinton is expected to comment on the current political impasse at stormant john tong is professor of politics at university of london he says this is an opportunity to reflect on where the institutions are and how they can be improved you've had chronic political instability devolved power sharing keeps collapsing and there's question marks over the future of the political institutions in northern island they need addressing so the 25th anniversary of the good friday agreement shouldn't simply be a cause for celebration it should also be a cause for reflection and a look at how the institutions that were set up 25 years ago might usefully be reformed the helping hands project at the family resource center in refo is in jeopardy after a break in at its base at the weekend around 2,500 euro worth of equipment used in the maintenance of gardens and homes was taken including two lawnmowers two hedge trimmers two blowers and a power washer the service closed on friday afternoon and when staff and volunteers returned on monday they noticed the break in had happened over the weekend Melanie Sweeney is project coordinator at the center she spoke to Greg on today's 9 till noon show the helping hands project has been operating nearly 10 years it's there to support like older people in the community or those who are no longer able like to carry out like maintenance tasks outside the home so like it's a really really busy service it cuts grass cuts the hedges cleans windows it does so much checking in with older people and stuff like that it's just such a loss this week because obviously nothing's happened going forward I don't really know what we're going to do around 400,000 homeowners are poised to face higher monthly repayments another interest rate hike is expected when the governing council of the european central bank meets today a 0.75% increase is on the cards as the bank attempts to control inflation across europe it'll be the third interest rate hike this year between them the race will be in the region of 2% economist and managing director of financial services Akshari Fitzgerald Shane Quinlan says this will hit homeowners in the pocket if you look at a typical tracker maybe with about 200,000 remaining over a 15 year term that means an extra 180 euro per month which I suppose equates to about 2,000 per year there is speculation we'll see another increase for the end of the year and we could be possibly at 3% around the middle of next year that would mean an extra 300 euro per month for a typical tracker customer you know an up three and a half thousand per year so the the change is significant and the number of students seeking exemptions from learning irish is worrying according to Conor and Aguelga the iraq this committee on the irish language heard this week the number of students exempt from the subject in schools has risen from 2% in 1999 to nearly 11% last year education minister Norma Foley has defended a revised process under which students can seek exemptions julian de spain from Conor and Aguelga says each student's individual needs should be assessed well we would see from the experts they would say that about 2 to 3% would definitely have profound learning needs and would need exemptions and what we see from again what was discussed yesterday in the DAW was that two-thirds of them are doing another for a separate language even though they have their exemptions so what we would say is that the actual system that we have for teaching violence is wrong it's not working so we need to change it what the forecast on Highland Radio and Metair and Tell us we can expect outbreaks of rain this morning that'll ease in the afternoon leaving a drier day with some sunshine for a time however heavy rain will hit the west coast again by evening it'll be mild for the time of year temperatures of 15 to 17 degrees Celsius in the afternoon moderate southerly winds increasing fresh to strong and gusty later widespread rain at first tonight locally heavy with a chance of some embedded thunderstorms that rain will clear all but the most eastern parts of the region by morning clear spells and heavy showers will follow lowest overnight temperatures of 9 to 10 degrees Celsius in moderate southerly winds we'll see some sunny spells and scattered showers tomorrow some of those showers heavy in top temperatures of 14 to 16 degrees Celsius once again winds will be mostly moderate fresher in the western part of the region and that's Highland Radio News we're back with local news again at 11 o'clock until then from the news team good morning The Abitur notices for this Thursday morning the 27th of October the death has taken place of Una Muni Ney Ledin Swilly Road, Bunkranna formerly of Balnamore County Litrum her remains are opposing at her residence funeral from there tomorrow morning at 20 past 10 going to St Mary's Church Cock Hill for 11 o'clock Requiem Mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery the death has taken place of Colm Doherty Stonywood Kuldaaf his remains are opposing at his home funeral from there on Saturday morning at quarter past 10 for 11 o'clock Requiem Mass in St Mary's Church Bokken Kuldaaf followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery family time please from 10 p.m to 11 a.m and on the morning of the funeral Colm's funeral mass can be viewed live on Kuldaaf Parish.com and the death has taken place of Seamus Strain Forker Milford Seamus will repose at his brother Sean's residence Moyle Road, Milford from 11 o'clock this morning until 10 o'clock this evening Requiem Mass in St Peter's Church Milford at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning followed by interment in Milford Cemetery funeral mass can be viewed live on churchservices.tv for more details including Annie Family Health guidelines for wakes and funerals please go to hylandradio.com the county's number one talk show the 9 til noon show on hyland radio good morning again you're very welcome back to the 9 til noon show or good morning if you're just joining us where were you you missed a lively first hour 08 6 60 25 000 whatsapp some texts calls to 07 491 25 000 right let's have a look at some of your comments here it's really time for a proper town bus service in Dr Kenny Slago has a proper bus service with the same population not everyone can afford taxis maybe it's been tried before or I think something like that maybe it's already there but what I would have thought what you'd want is a one or two smaller bosses that follow a defined route they go up the main street down the main street in around the shops in the new part of the town in inverted commas maybe scoot back up rotate around the roundabout at Tesco there and back up the main street and down and just keep going and stopping when someone sticks their hand out hop on and hop off as I say I don't think you could necessarily do it as a a money making exercise in the first instance but if it was there and established I presume there's nothing there like that is there but if it was there and established you know that people might start changing their behaviours leaving the car park in the car elsewhere I think I would I know I would use it for sure I'd love it but I know I the council needs to have a serious look at the Chrysler diversion it could work it could work perfectly if it was properly signed for instance visitors leaving downings direction going to letter Kenny of following the diversion sign for Doe Castle likewise people coming towards downings are going up Don Talley a very simple one way sign should also be on these diversions as traffic is going both ways on both roads you can have up to half an hour wait trying to get off this road as a result of bad signage there's going to be a serious accident with big lorries and buses unless signage makes it's one way and makes it clear you don't need to go towards Doe Castle to get to letter Kenny I'm not sure when that text went in we've been informed by the council they've since put in new signage there if you are that texture and you've spotted this new signage and you think it's improved things let us know Greg can you ask Jerry Monaghan if they're going to put the toilets back in the market square where they were years ago as we need public toilets in letter Kenny that comes in from Union yeah apparently the plans do include public toilets there Greg any councillors able to tell us when the bottle banks will be back in Falkara no but it's one we can check but I'm sure there are but we'll check that into you and check that out for you Hi Greg I'd love them to do a poll with this government in Donegal I don't think they'd even get on the poll thanks it would be interesting and I suppose really we will see one must remember though that there are a lot of people out there with with different ways of thinking that's Finnegal are popular party in much of Donegal they're very popular amongst the farming community apparently so Finnegal might do better than you'd expect Finafall have long term loyal Finafall supporters Finafall party members that would vote for them so I don't think there'd be a wipeout here as much as people might think if you think about it asking them how many taxi licenses are there I don't know how many tax licenses there are but Hugh told us that he has a signatures of 54 taxi drivers so there's at least 54 morning Greg can you ask Jerry will there be public toilets at the square again yeah they're in the plans apparently another three spaces might remain but we have lost nine spaces business for us taxi people is difficult enough and as I say I genuinely think that taxi people are really really very important I want to mention that the I'm not saying the planners don't think that's the case but in terms of how you move around a space you know in the absence of a boss or something the taxis are for a lot of people the only show in town the Trinity and Trenta women's group are hosting a hospice coffee morning and cake sale tomorrow morning between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. it's in the lecture hall below the Trinity Presbyterian Church on letter Kenny Main Street and I also want to mention that a quiz and raffle in aid of Princess T.J. Needham McDade takes place in Harkins Bar Brocker it's tomorrow at 9 p.m. so if you like your pub's quizzes and that you want to contribute to the aid of Princess T.J. Needham McDade then get along to Harkins Bar in Brocker for a fun quiz a pub quiz and I've said it's a fun pub quiz I said I think it would be fun I think it's a standard pub quiz for serious quizzes it takes place tomorrow night at 9 p.m. in Harkins Bar Brocker there'll be a quiz there as well so you can have a bit of fun test your knowledge and also support that cause there good luck if you're playing the bingo today here's the numbers for you it's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio it's Thursday the 27th of October jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 11,600 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s14 it's game number 43 the jackpot number is 24 this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers 86 40 76 38 49 55 77 45 87 and finally 54 phone your claim to 9104833 before eight tonight leaving your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchase your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your NCBI Bingo information at HighlandRadio.com pride sponsors of today's show exports and leisure main street Larry Kenny in football Nike TFO Legend Soft Ground in classic black Adidas Predator Edge soft ground boots in classic black look like Ronaldo in the new Adidas Man United Home or Away Jersey or try Salah in the new Nike Liverpool Jersey get your free name and number printed when you purchase a jersey join our Christmas Club by opening an account today at Brian McCormick Sports Main Street, Larry Kenny On this week's Business Matters I'll be joined by the Regional Director of Enterprise Ireland for the West and Northwest Regions May of Conahan so join me Curio Donald for Business Matters on Sunday evening after the six o'clock news The Business Matters podcast is also available to download at HighlandRadio.com Business Matters in association with the ATU Donegal Faculty of Business if you're looking to reinforce your leadership skills ATU are offering Level 9 Executive Masters in Leadership and Innovation for Private and Public Sector Managers starting in January take the next step in your career and call 911-86-206 or email donald.hanigan at atu.ie The High Kings celebrating 15 years together as Ireland's favourite folk group are back at the Mount Erigal Hotel Letcher Kenny December 28th and Oma St. Enders GAA Club December 30th Tickets available from venue box offices hotel reception and Ticketmaster.ie presented by Joe Gallagher Entertainment With the ongoing war in Ukraine affecting the cost of energy many of us are facing a challenging winter Through Budget 23 Government is introducing a range of supports to lessen the financial impact on families, households and businesses and will continue to monitor the situation in the coming months to protect those in difficulty It's important that everyone stays warm and well but where safe and possible to do so reducing energy use can also reduce bills Changes like turning your thermostat down by one degree and considering how often you use energy intensive appliances like tumble dryers can make a big difference For information on available supports and energy saving advice visit gov.ie forward slash reduce your use brought to you by the Government of Ireland Highland Radio Weather Updates brought to you by Grant From condensing boilers to heat pumps and underfloor heating Trust Grant to heat your home Visit grant.eu Okay, breaks of rain this morning will break up in the afternoon and it'll be drier for a time with some sunshine and I just want to let you know too that if you're listening in the drum and ar excuse me please if you're listening in the drum and ar area of Bunkrana the Donegal fire service are advising you to close your windows and doors keep them closed there's a fire in the area and obviously the fire service want to ensure that the fumes or the smoke does not enter your home so Donegal fire service wish to advise that following a fire in drum and all Bunkrana residents in that area are advised to keep windows and doors closed until smoke plume disseminates okay right we're joined on the program now by Dr Ashfak Memon good morning to you doctor I hope I got the pronunciation if you name correctly please correct me if I'm wrong thank you good it's Ashfak Memon lovely okay I was close and I want to make sure for our future conversations to get that correct doctor now should we start with the important message here because we're talking in the context of World Stroke Day on Saturday the 29th of October we can talk about you know what might lead to a stroke how we can prevent it but let's start first with people who are having a stroke but arrive at the hospital later than they possibly should I think that's the real important thing here isn't it everything's important but let's start with that so what are the signs that someone is having a stroke doctor see generally the signs are can be dialers okay and some people can have one sign some can have more than one some can have multiple signs so like let's say that somebody develops weakness or numbness in the arm or leg if somebody develops weakness in the half of the face or facial group or feeling numbness in the face or somebody develops a certain problem with the speech unable to talk unable to express himself or herself or somebody develops a certain problem with the balance unable to walk all of a sudden and or somebody develops problems with your vision all of a sudden they can't see these are the signs of the stroke if somebody develops any one or more than one sign of these symptoms they should seek medical attention immediately now a lot of people might say I'll see how I feel in half an hour I might go and have a lie down it could be this it could be that but if any of those symptoms or a combination of them present air on the side of caution because the earlier you get treatment the better the outcome because that delay or that putting it off could have long lasting consequences for you that perhaps otherwise could be avoided absolutely absolutely the treatment options which we have for the patients with acute stroke are highly time dependent let's say I will give you an example that we have two major options of the treatment for the acute stroke when the patient comes with acute stroke in one option we use a strong medicine we call it thrombolytic agent this is a clot dissolving medication clot busting medicine which dissolves the clot it's a very efficient medication very effective medicine and very strong medicine but it must be given within four and half hours since the symptoms started let's say if somebody develops the symptoms at around 12 p.m. this medicine must be given before 4 30 p.m. to have its maximum beneficial effect beyond that window period this medicine has a very limited effect other option we have if the somebody we do the scan when they come into the hospital with a stroke and we see that if they have a visible clot in the blood vessels of the brain we send them to Beaumont Hospital to take that clot out we call that procedure thrombactomy this procedure must be done within 24 hours since the symptoms started now there are other criteria also apply when we select the patients for either of these treatment but among all those criteria time is most important one if the patient is outside the time window for either of this treatment then other criteria cannot also apply so therefore it's very very important if somebody develops any sign and symptoms of stroke they must seek medical attention immediately to get their chances that they can avail this treatment and to reduce you can say disabling effects of the stroke and I think it's important too to make it clear doctor that I mean obviously and we're not going to get into this conversation we hear of bed pressure at Lattic Henry University Hospital we will hear of long delays at the ED the same as an awful lot of hospitals and what have you but in this type of an emergency incident this is a fast-track emergency situation isn't it so if people have heard about the hospital and have reservations put those reservations to one side if you are presented with the symptoms of a stroke there is a very clear pathway to give you your best outcome absolutely we have actually recently introduced as you're aware all the people community that we have opened a cute stroke in the time since this opening a lot of changes have happened in the stroke service one of that change that we have introduced a fast call system whenever anybody we are receiving the call from ambulance at some patient with his stroke symptoms are coming we we activate here fast call that means that all the relevant staff which need to deal with that stroke patient will be activated and patient will be an investigation their review their treatment will be a fast track so there won't be any excuse for the fast positive patients about being under the pressure or being under the bad pressure or overloaded they should be coming to hospital without any delay and they will be seen on priority so let's look at the figures then 2021 28% of patients arrived within four hours of symptoms onset so two thirds potentially arrived outside that important four and a half hour window 40% of them were still thrombolyzed by the stroke and medical team but the number of thrombosis thrombosis could go way higher if the number of patients arriving with in the time window increases it's just imperative to get to that hospital as soon as you can if any of those symptoms or a combination of them present absolutely you can see that means amazing that even though very less like one quarter of the patient just about the one quarter of the patient could arrive within four hours but it's still we were able to thrombolyze nearly half of them imagine that if this number goes up to 50% of the patient arriving within four hours of onset of symptoms and number of thrombolyzes and the number that we can reduce the disability will go even more more higher so in to generate the wider community do we have a role in stroke treatment or awareness or what were your words be in that regard doctor I always believe that stroke service can only run efficiently if communities are so on the board means as a person after as a community person I what I will see what is my responsibility that I should be vigilant about and I should be aware that what are the typical signs and symptoms of stroke like I mentioned before that we should be aware that if somebody develops like weakness and arm or leg numbness in the arm or leg suddenly we feel that in our work atmosphere some one of our colleagues unable to talk properly is slurring the words is unable to see properly the problems of the balance we should immediately call for the help we should immediately encourage them that they should seek medical attention immediately we should ourself call 999 yeah because they might be panicked might and they they might not be thinking clearly they might be worried or panicked then we have to step in and say how long you know I was listening to doctor Memmum I met him men mana beg your pardon I know the story here this could very likely be a stroke I'm calling an ambulance for you yeah yeah we have to take the lead on it okay in terms of so in terms of stroke prevention what are is it the obvious things that improve diet as much activity as we can as as possible monitoring our blood pressure what kind of advice do you have for us to try and avoid stroke I mean you know but maybe many people don't know that that nearly 70 to 80 percent of the strokes are potentially preventable means we can prevent them from even start just with a few simple steps like controlling our risk factors like keeping a check on the blood pressure okay keeping a check on our blood sugar listening to your primary care physician to your GP about your advice about your medications being compliant to the medication eating healthy diet cut down the fast food reduce stopping the smoking reducing the alcohol intake and everyday walk and exercise you don't necessarily to be joining the gym and that's a good thing to join but if every day if you do a disc walk for 15 to 20 minutes that also will reduce the chances of your stroke so few simple steps we have to give some personal time to ourselves majority of our people now getting more urban more urbanization that more office jobs more sitting jobs so that's also a negative factor we have to beat that by giving some personal time also in the evening after the work to walk around to the more risk work to our muscles so that we can dissolve the clot so that we can reduce the prevention of the clot formation also it's worth if we're at the GP and of a certain age isn't it to get them to listen to our heart beat as well I think particularly you know over 60s over 65s that's that's I'm not sure if that's necessarily in the area of stroke that are yeah that it is very necessary and I actually been in contact with many GPs and it's pleasantly good thing that to many of them are actually means regularly checking that to look into the patient's heart rhythm and if they see accidentally if the heart rhythm problems there they take necessary action okay um I call once and I'm sorry to throw this on you what causes an artery direction type stroke sorry I didn't understand that no neither did I an artery direction type stroke listen it's okay I won't I'm not familiar with that terminology myself no I will maybe I will just in general will apply on that there are two there are two major types of the stroke one is that if the clot actually blocks the artery one is that if the artery itself gets rupture so the clot if the clot blocks artery we call it ischemic type of stroke or clot stroke which develops in fact and if the artery gets rupture we call it hemorrhagic stroke hemorrhagic stroke is less common than the clot developed stroke which is like 85 percent and 15 percent you can say but hemorrhagic stroke the one which is due to the rupture of the artery is more getting the more chances of disability and even death so the treatment for both of them of course is different in one if it is due to the bleeding they have a different track of the treatment and that one which developed the clot is having different track of the treatment so if we could talk about that I'm just maybe I'm trying to get on to that question but I'm just talking in general that there are if arteries in our brain they supply in two directions one is the front of the brain one is in the back of the brain but treatment for both of them is same if the patients we feel that coming with a stroke regardless of their arterial system we actually if they are in the right time window we thrombolyze them yes in certain arteries where we cannot reach which are in the distant arteries they cannot have they may not have the available option from back to me within which we as I mentioned that we're taking a clot out but those those are the other cases actually but largely for thrombolyzes we don't differentiate between if it is in front circulation or the back circulation if they are in the right time window they have no any other contraindication we go ahead with the medication okay doctor anything you want to add finally do you think it's important for our listeners to hear I think the major thing is that we have to play our part I mean means healthcare staff and hospital staff and hospital management and stroke teams they all are doing their best actually GPs are also doing very well actually with us that we they are improving the awareness but as a community I will see that I'm trying to make my make more be more wise on that in the community area because our donigal population is more like rural population many people don't get that voice don't get that message so I will say that we may be I need all everybody to spread the word wherever in the workplace in the distant area that they are going for the delivery even I can say that telling to that person in the community in the in the rural side that that you can seek a help for the stroke develop the stroke type symptoms so I more on that thing that means we need to spread the word we need to spread the word that it's a highly treatable disease and it's a potentially preventable disease Doctor it's been lovely speaking to you thank you so much for taking your time at any time you feel that message needs to be reiterated it's a very important one feel free to reach out and we'll definitely accommodate it and do our bit as well thanks for your time thank you very much take care of yourself that is Dr Ashfok Memon okay we'll be back with more after the break live free in 2023 with Dunlowe GAA club winner takes all prize includes 500 euro cash paid every week next year live free in 23.ie pride sponsors of today's show if something's free why 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visit to coonies home interiors we have everything in store to help recreate your home choose for extensive range of sweets tables beds mattresses and home furnishings for every room coonies home interiors let it Kenny style and perfection at incredible value it's flu season and children are twice as likely as adults to catch the flu which can sometimes cause serious illness that's why all children age 2 to 17 can get their free nasal spray flu vaccine a safe and effective way to protect them and the rest of your family too so make an appointment with your gp or pharmacist visit hsc.ie forward slash flu for more information from the hsc it's crunch time in the premier division for finn harps this friday they play ucd knowing a win will take them out of the relegation place with one game to play a defeat however will send harps to the first division join dea majority and declin boil for full match commentary from this vital tie at finn park baller buffet kickoff at 8 p.m. finn harps live on highland in association with bns credit union baller buffet who are here to help you through the winter months with loans from 500 euros don't delay get your loan today visit bnscu.ie or free phone 1800 290 390 bns credit union limited is regulated by the central bank of ireland hi my name is julie i have a disability and work in a busy cafe i love meeting the customers the balls the chats it's a really great place to work so if like me you're a young person claiming disability allowance you'll be invited to chat about the employment and training supports available to you taking part is your choice but it could be a great opportunity for more information visit gov.ie forward slash work supports disability brought to you by intro a government of ireland initiative this is a genuine story voiced by an actor okay you're very welcome back to the program john mcginney is a taxi driver in letherkenny and john thanks for taking your time to speak to me this morning do you feel is there being thrown under the boss in this development or what's your view yes great we have been through under the boss by time now we've been down through this matter way back years ago when i was a acne in letherkenny and we had a meeting with the superintendent of the udc council and they told us that time they would go forward to stay in the market square we had to buy plates and each plate cost us five thousand pounds each and the same time i had to go and buy three plates to keep my workers and working and today we're back to square one again the movements of the market square and and just for people who aren't aware you can explain maybe john there's a big difference between hackney and taxi in terms of dependent on your license whether you can park in taxi ranks or not and you're paying for that in inverted commas advantage that's really why you ended up having to fork out this five thousand per car that's right great yeah that's the way we had to pay five thousand out towards each car at the time so that was about they've got some nearly a hundred million plates sold in letherkenny at the time right that's almost a million pound that's a lot of money isn't it a lot of money great to be told the day that they're going to move away from the square again but doesn't make sense as far as place of work at the end of the day can i ask from a business perspective john without i'm not talking about your private business i wouldn't dream of doing that but just for us to get an idea what's the difference between being able to park say for instance on the market square or very close to it versus a hundred meters down the road in real terms does that mean you get half the fares a third of the fairs you could be sitting there for hours no one knows you there people maybe so what what does the location for a taxi driver mean in terms of how busy one could be the market square is the centre of town and always was there were taxes there for the last 50 years my father was there before me you know and that's where people come for their taxes as the market square great i i i mean again i'm not taking sides in this john i thought naively that the taxes were seen as a very vital vital cog in the wheel of getting people into and out of that part of the town let's take it everybody under the centre of town taking everybody out of the out of the town again you know unless where the people comes to out of the square mr chippie is a taxi ranger mr chippie and that's mostly for buses the bus area you know yeah so dependent on you know what i support yes sir i was going to say dependent on time or demand you would need far more than than three spaces on the market square itself and even the further three further down the street that's still one short of what the council's only analysis said is needed so great great that actually gave us nothing through this whole thing the three down the street was always down the street yeah the three of the market square was there and they're doing away with actually nine around the square on us you know at the end of the day that's not a one yeah so i think the market squares looking great the way it is that from the trees down and watch it with the money that's spending on the market squares a total joke there's plenty of houses with lower means to could do with this money to tidy the town up a bit are you that's my i mean are you prepared to also say look we're gonna we're gonna lodge an appeal with on ball planala we'll go whatever road we have to go and i'll be honest if we don't want me bored now we'll take legal action that's how we will feel about it right and that's how strong i do feel about when your bullet wants to leave it you're not going to leave it again and and the feeling is is that you all were asked to fork out five thousand euro per vehicle effectively you had to do it three times to have access to those parking spaces on the market square yes i was five thousand pounds that was pounds i forked out that's how long i'm there there's other ones come and then forked a euro later on and plus that's the center of our town that's the way it is and there's always there for taxes you know and the plan doesn't make sense what they're doing five thousand percent all right john you've made your point really clearly thank you very much for that that's john begin me there a taxi driver in letter kenny and we're going to be talking history very shortly live free in 23 with dunlow g a club 500 euro cash paid weekly a luxury holiday hotel stays and more winner takes all live free in 23.ie proud sponsors of today's show happy news from aldi we've topped the leaderboard at the national parenting product awards with 22 wins making us the most awarded retailer there were goals for our organic mamiya baby food range mamiya ultra dry junior plus snappy size five plus and mamiya premium newborn mini size two nappies voted the nation's best nappies by parents in arland so mom and dad not using mamiya nappies yet poof could be time for a change aldi every day amazing long com has an exclusive beauty gift waiting for you at McGee's chemist in edder kenny simply purchase two long com products want to be skincare and get a free eight piece gift containing a full-size corporate moose absolute day and night travel size creams plus more of your favorite iconic long com products available until saturday the 12th of november or while stocks last season seas apply at McGee's chemist main street letter candy energy management is a significant challenge facing industry to help tourism businesses manage their energy usage and reduce costs fold to arland is hosting a series of free in-person workshops nationwide open to tourism and hospitality businesses the fold to arland energy management workshop is on tuesday november first at 6 30 p.m. in the abbey hotel dunny gall register for free for this event or any of the workshops nationwide at fold to arland dot i e today keep your garden in shape all year round with top quality garden equipment from garden care at gallinas letter candy tool hire a great selection of leaf blowers hedge cutters chainsaws and much more for sale or hire there's a full backup and repair service including chains and bars for all makes of chainsaws gallinas letter candy tool hire at mountaintop letter candy your local garden care dealer garden care your pathway to a beautiful garden the irish coast guard are looking for new watch officers in mallinhead in valencia and in dublin watch officers coordinate lifesaving missions no one ever expects that they might suddenly need their help help the coast guard are looking for more watch officers so that more lives are saved you can apply at publicjobs.ie all right welcome back to the nine till noon show uh caller says if there are 54 taxis in letter candy how come they aren't providing an eight night service at the weekends people don't socialize in town because they can't get a taxi home i don't know what the story is i'm not from letter candy but i know from other parts that i uh are more likely to socialize in you would need a thousand taxis at a certain time and then there's probably you know a hundred too many at other times at the end of the day taxis on one run it's at a commission for quite a bit of time isn't it so i'm not sure if it's the taxis are busy or there's not many of them i don't know we get some random inquiries here and often when we put it out there people help and i want to help this person who wrote a letter and i appreciate them sending it in they're from remelton and it's it's a simple one but it's the one you can help them with we need to replace our gas cooker now the space to accommodate the gas cooker is the 550 size now they're finding it very difficult to find it they ask me could i read this out in your show as some suppliers may have some in stock so are you a supplier or someone in the know a listener has a five uh has a gap for a 550 style cooker gas cooker can you help 550 millimeters i presume so they need the same size to go into that space uh right okay last sunday on the road between lyfford and ross gear a couple of jewelry boxes and other items fell from the boot of the car during a house move if anyone picked them up please call us i will pass on a number so if you found some stuff on the road between lyfford and ross gear people are moving home and they'd love to get it back as you can imagine with jewelry there's a value there but there's probably also an emotional value as well so no drop off at st unit's college in the new road layout everyone has to just stop in the middle of the road for only three cars on the road um for skull mura gone small uh that's not curbside for passengers disaster for schools letter kenny's a complete disaster i try to avoid at all costs i had to come into town as my mother was in hospital the town's so poorly designed to go to dairy for shopping and so do many of my friends and relatives i don't like i'm far out so letter kenny's you know i don't really have any the only time i have a bit of bother is if i accessing something on the main street generally speaking i think the town's handy enough to to get around maybe it depends on what time you're at but you the bigger a town you get you know the more difficult it is going to is going to be to to get around i don't really find it particularly difficult letter kenny but everyone has their own experiences and i think maybe the times i'm going there maybe it's different um it's a disgrace that young man jailed for defending his property there's simply no justice for law abiding people in their own home three weeks ago my brother went into hospital he has this history of two strokes he was given anti-clotting medication in the ambulance and then had to wait for three hours now i'm not sure uh what the right uh approaches but that's that person's testimony there all right let's get dr joan after these call in to their off license where they offer a large range of products at the keenest prices around the glen car in great picture great sound great crack wet suit on and underwater by air aprons on breakfast orders in conversation flowing loving every second every day is different there's always new faces it really suits me it fits my schedule i can see friends do my yoga balance work with life and enjoy both my career in tourism works for me and mine works for me get a career in tourism that works for you visit tourismcareers.ie brought to you by falcha arland to get that job done call gortley sales and hire in letter kenny generators portalouse and lighting towers also diggers dumpers rollers and much much more with short-term long-term and weekend special rates available call gortley sales and hire online one two six two seven six it's the return of derry halloween over four fiendish days and nights the wall city comes alive with ancient spirits welcoming you to join our awakening from the 28th to the 31st of october join us for a non-forgettable adventure if you dare visit derry halloween.com supported by tourism and i and the executive office let joe meggy butchers feed your family with their five for 20 euro date choose from our fantastic deli range lasagnas cottage pie chicken curry and soups just a sample of refined products all made in store only at joe meggy butchers letter kenny and glen car shopping centers find us on facebook and instagram swing into christmas with the rat pack live at the grianon theater letter kenny december 14th direct from london's lester square and for one night only enjoy classics from frank sinatra sammy davis junior and dean martin tickets from angrianon theater box office and angrianon.com presented by joe entertainment. Join john brazlin for around the northwest at homeland letter kenny this friday as they celebrate the launch of their 10 euro off when you collect 30 tokens from dunigal cream rees milk they have exclusive in-store offers and competitions on the day that's around the northwest live from homeland this friday from 12 noon for more see 10 euro off at homeland.com mid-season sale now on men's casual and footwear reduced sale now on evolve clothing let a kenny retail park or evolve clothing.com okay time to talk history now with dr joe kelly caroline's left to say to nine minutes joe it's a it's a disgrace really but anyway we'll try and batter on our focus today is on mad dog coal from guidore and the new york mafia uh right tell us about this character then well vinson call he came from guidore and uh born in 1909 he had a short life uh he died in 1932 he was gone down in 1932 but he while he lived a short life he lived a very maybe infamous life at the same time rising to the ranks within the mafia he was up there with the the greatest mafia figures of the 30s and at that time one might know that the bootlegging was going on prohibition had been there there was no alcohol and so there were speak easy's and he was very much involved in that whole thing but he grew up in guidore born in the merry in guidore sorry but went then back to america with his parents parents left america to come back to ireland and then returned again and things took a bad turn when he went back to america he's only about eight months nine months when he went back to america with his mom and dad the father left them the mother died of tb he lost his baby sister and two of his brothers died from tb as well so he was left very much himself and his closest brother peter who was just a year older than him eight he was seven and peter was eight they were left to basically the world uh and unfortunately because maybe lack of direction and one thing another they ended up on the wrong side of the law hardened young men involved in a lot of petty crimes and they were put into their uncle actually put them into a institution a catholic kind of orphanage and even there they caused terrible terrible trouble and their aunt mary field then took them she was in new york but eventually she had to go back to the courts the bronx court saying look i can't control these lads so what age would they have been at this point then um joe well they would have been young they've been teenage years um again that's it's uh they were with their aunt for a number of months not years and basically he was in and out of jail after that um he'd you know he was grown up in the Bronx he'd known the tough side of of society he knew the underbelly of crime and petty crime and and whatever he could find a way of making a few pounds he was going to do it and he was not do you think he was primed for the mafia to get the claws into him or was he so angry with everything uh that he maybe sought out this lifestyle himself well that's you know we're living in a different age now and it's very easy to judge in our own own age you know the saying is it better to build strong children than fixed broken men and unfortunately this Vincent and his brother and others at that time you know they had a very very hard upbringing and life and maybe that it was easier for them to turn to the wrong rather than the right and maybe the direction wasn't there but he obviously had some kind of temperament and personality that that and seemed to take a satisfaction out of wrongdoing and he was rather brutal in the way he was violent in the way he dealt with people anybody that was threatening to him maybe it was a survival um mechanism for him but when he got he was put into jail anyway a number of times and when he was released in 1929 now remember he's born in 1908 so he was still a young man age 21 two people came into his life the first was Dot Schultz who was a head man for bootleg and he had a lot of different breweries and making the alcohol and then supplying it to different pubs so he employed um Vincent call to work for him to encourage other pubs to take his product to buy his product and they didn't then um Vincent call would brutalize him and attack them and threaten them uh in fact he he killed one one man at that time but he got off because dot Schultz was able to pay the the judges and the law at the time to kind of turn a blind eye to it and at the same time he met this woman called Lottie Denninger who he later married and she was very very influential um a very interesting story even just about her herself and she she wasn't encouraging him to get on in this world of the mafia and to get on in the world of the bootlegging and when he asked for more money from his partner Dot Schultz who was paying him 150 pounds a week at that time or dollars a week which was quite a lot of money he wanted more and he wanted more and he felt that he should have his own set up so he eventually did set up his own gang um and his aim was to get rid of Dot Schultz who had actually been paying him all this time and uh his his later wife Lottie she supposedly gave him 20 000 to roll him to start him out um and she had got that from a husband that died in peculiar circumstances she'd taken out a life insurance on him six months before he died right she's not gonna sue you he died in peculiar circumstances after his wife took out a life insurance policy okay you're afraid maybe she might her ancestors might take you up on something but come here um but was it enough was the was the even a successful bootlegging company um you know with the money they're able to leverage leverage out of other businesses and all was that enough for him or did his ambition did he get hungry for more absolutely and the money he was making was just phenomenal it's it's unbelievable in the in relative terms you're talking tens of thousands of pounds and you ask a good question but the bootlegging enough no he was he was rather acute and and mercenary what he did he realized that there was other ways of making money so he started to kidnap people on the underworld who would pay him a ransom but they couldn't report this to the police because they were on the police list and he like he started doing uh kidnapping people i'd just take for example there was one for a uh business legend ruby valley for a hundred thousand pound he wanted a ransom he someone else been sherman bingsley owner of a club night star club and also a famous restaurant in new york paid him 25 000 there was billy warne of banker he kidnapped him and he was given a ransom of 83 000 but with every move he was taking joe the target was getting bigger on his back he was messing with all the wrong people yes and he had got into a terrible war with his former um prior dutch shaltz who was the bootlegger main man in that part of amer in new york that he was in and he was getting tired of of vincent called's attitude and his behavior and in one of the case um vincent called tried to to kill his top man dutch's top man and it backfired on him and what he ended up doing was there was a shootout and what happened was there was a young there was four boys injured and a young five-year-old was shot dead and this basically turned the whole media and the whole mafia against dog mad dog called because he was seen as as a as a danger um and a man that was you know was bringing the mafia into this this repeal i think some way there was because a lot of the way the the mafia and the cartels work uh and even to this day in mexico and elsewhere is you endure yourself to the population you're seen as sort of robin hood type characters don't you i presume that was the case there uh he he was challenging their set of principles and inverted commas because obviously they were they were ruthless yeah he was and the fact that he'd killed a well he was in the shooter to kill the young five-year-old he was seen then as the mad dog that's with him the mayor of new york called him and media called him a child killer and so he had to go into hiding after that and it realized that he was it was a problem but one so his time was coming to an end and again as i said he was a very very young man he was in a 28 when he was shot in the end but he had crossed over one of the things that he would do is he would he was a hit man he would take money to kill people and there was one man that that wanted um the boss of bosses marazzona i think was his name it's an italian and he wanted this opposition man luciano killed for 50 000 and he gave call 25 000 down payment so call the rives to kill this man but the man that had paid him luciano's people knew that this was going to happen and they killed him in advance so call walked away clean with 25 000 the man that had contracted him to kill the other man well he was now dead but he was seen by the gang that had executed um marziano they seen that and he was a marked man after that they wanted to get him they knew that he was a contract killer that tried to kill their boss and so the the irish head man at the time was madden and he put out a 50 000 reward on on call's head and that 50 000 was was like he was a marked man after that so every gangster that wanted to make money there was a 50 000 bonus if he could try and call and there was a shootout in one occasion they thought he was there in an apartment they shot it and i think there was a number of people killed but they got it wrong it he wasn't actually at that place at all that was in february 1932 and they they had killed a number i think it was three people were killed but call wasn't among that but that was on the first of february 1932 but on the seventh of february few days later almost a week later they knew where he was and he was going to a drug store and he was making a threatening call he was cute to use the phone he moved around from place to place and made calls so he couldn't be traced and he was folding this man madden who was a naïve warlord or mafia warlord well respected within the criminal ends and he had put out the 50 000 on him he was threatening him and he was in on the phone booth in a chemist he was cute to go in the back of the shop to go make a phone call but the the the as assassins had been following him they were sitting out in the car they saw him going in they walked into the chemist they told the people they look keep cool and they went down and just basically ridden him to death and he was making the phone call in the booth and he died there there were 15 bullets in his body when they did the autopsy and there were more that just would have gone through his body as well in his adult life did he ever come back to guido or was he buried at home or buried in america he was well that's a good question so he was only 23 when he when he died sorry i said 20 it was 23 when he died and he he hadn't know but there were meetings in guido and he got people in new york and he was shun there people didn't didn't like him for they knew what he was doing and his brother peter was killed sometime before and a shoot down as well a shoot out and he was he was killed so they had known that he there was a side to him that they didn't like but um you ask the question then in his burial he was um he was a catholic and he um wanted to be obviously a sister florins wanted him to be buried but the pastor the priest of saint raiment's parish in new york we lived said no you're not going to have a burial mass or a priest at your grave side either praying over your grave so he was allowed to be buried in the graveyard the reckon that he'd got to confessions by the way sometime before he was shot and for that they would allow him to be buried so he was buried in the graveyard in his gravestone still there buried where his brother had previously been um buried and has subsequently a sister so he was buried in a very quiet um on on religious catholic burial and that was the the end of of mad dog call there there's a film done about it in 1961 and brent and the lap has written an excellent book on that um mad dog call an aries gangster in 1999 um he would have been the editor of fun just tell us about us played mad dog call didn't they i mean did he sort of master the new york guidore accent yeah well he was involved in the film there was a number of people in the gene hackman was as a policeman i think tell you about uh uh savalas uh go jack he was um he was a just i did not play all right who played mad dog call and i i well i think it was john char charner tell you savalas and i love him because the dirty dozen and my own name kelly's heroes uh great great film but you're looking we're giving our age away when we're talking about listen i love him so much i i've styled my hair uh on him and have your lollipop well that's uh for me to know and you to find out it's okay dr joe listen that's where we have to leave it i wish we had more time uh i wish we had more time uh but thank you so much and me and you have recorded a special podcast too which will be broadcast at later date an extended podcast focusing on uh the beautiful town of uh creasler and that's already in the back and we'll be uh putting that out as i say at a later date uh joe but uh just to say say to you greg and i haven't been on since i was on with father john joe and td marian harkin when we were doing a review of the paper and just to acknowledge highland you know you've got the mood of the people there with the creasler the tragedy and these were absolutely brilliant in highland and you know people maybe are often critical of our local radios with whatever creasler way comes comes out of this tragedy it'll be family and faith that will bring them and highland's part of that family and just to come out congratulate you on capturing that mood the fact that you said broadcast the mass and the music and all of you that were in there in highland thank you very much even yourself the hard interview that you had to do with the only harper's parents to be commended me congratulating and thank you very much for all that you do in there in highland you really are part of our families in the wider sense of donig all thank you lovely remarks joe i appreciate that take care of yourself dr joe kelly there and uh that was our latest uh episode of talking history right okay it's a minute past eleven let's get a news update welcome back on to the show now donal calvin good morning donal thank you greg a very good morning donig all county councils fire service is urging people in the drumenore area of boncran to keep their doors and windows closed for the moment it follows a fire and the fire service says it wants people to keep their doors closed until the plume of smoke dies down it is of they say some concern the mayor of letter kenny milford missable district says the process of reinvigorating the market square in letter kenny could have been delayed if agreement hadn't been reached this week on taxi spaces the original proposal so all taxi spaces moved away from market square and market center and moved down the main street following a public consultation that's been amended to retain the taxi rank outside the market center however taxi drivers say they're not happy with the new arrangements and on the nine to noon show today representative toll greg that they will challenge this through on board planola and if that fails they will consider legal action the storm and assembly is being recalled today in a last-age bid to secure a speaker and first and deputy first ministers if that can't be achieved then the northern iran secretary chris heaton harris is expected to call a pre christmas election tomorrow december 15th believe to be the most likely date meanwhile senator george mitchell will this afternoon address the iraq this committee on the implementation of the good friday agreement he will do so via video link 10.4 million euro has been allocated to donnie gall under the leader program over the next five years it's the second highest allocation in the country after cork the money is used to support rural communities and enterprises agriculture and marine minister charlie mcconnellog is urging interested groups to apply for funding the future of the helping hands project at the family resource center in rafau is a question after a break in at its base at the weekend around two and a half thousand euro worth of equipment used in the maintenance of homes and gardens was taken it includes two lawn mowers two hedge cutters two trimmers two blowers and a power washer the service closed on friday afternoon when staff and volunteers returned on monday morning they noticed the break in had happened and the tonnage to says it's likely the tourism sector will struggle next year the iraq was responding to questions about what the future holds for hotels who are currently housing 39 000 refugees nationally increased airfares and the cost of living crisis were also listed as reasons why the industry is expected to face difficulties the iraq says he expects next spring and summer to be hard and we're back with news again at twelve nine donal thank you very much indeed back after the break total ban on sprays proposed for more in this week's farmers journal is paul mooney crop and rush sprays and the firing line under e-u plans future land designations not ruled out by minister farmer fallout from food vision dairy group report which recommends a dairy cow exit scheme turkish buyers driving the weaning trade and farmers of two months to desone from land tax plus find out how you can reduce your feed costs this winter only inside this week's irish farmers journal you can't afford to miss it easy living furniture's october fest sale ends this sunday absolutely everything reduced with up to 60 off sofas dining bedroom and mattresses that are in 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understand your needs call us today for a bespoke quote on 0818894444 local insurance we'll get you sorted the local insurance network DAC trading is local insurance is regulated by the central bank of ireland local insurance is a tight insurance intermediary of acorn brokerage limited acorn brokerage limited trading is acorn insurance is regulated by the central bank of ireland looking for jobs isn't much fun is it if you want to be free of trawling through advertisements apply now for assistant staff officer with the health service for a career in making a difference to our lives apply once for opportunities country wide and let the hsc look after you it's what we do best visit hsc.ie and search for assistant staff officer today from the hsc highland radio weather updates brought you by grant from condensing boilers to heat pumps and underfloor heating trust grant to heat your home visit grant.eu all right you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show let's have a look at that weather forecast now just opening it up here and i can tell you that outbreaks of rain this morning will break up in the afternoon it'll be drier for a time with some sunshine it's about a heavy rain will arrive on the west coast by evening mild for the time of year temperatures in the mid teens moderate to southerly winds will increase fresh to strong and gusty later we're joined now on the program by deputy michael haley ray good morning to your deputy thanks for the call oh sorry thanks for taking the call i should say and your listeners who are you i'm good thank you right you are not happy with the doubling of fines for motoring offenses um why are you so opposed to this it's one of the tools really to try and influence driver behavior i suppose well it's not really because to be honest with you it's what i would actually go so far as calling a scam now the first thing that i would have to say anytime we have a debate like this or a talk like this we have to recognize when we talk about this on the roads and accidents on our roads that the people that we're talking about they're not statistics they're not numbers they're people their families their dad their moms their sisters their brothers and kids who very sadly die on our roads and we have to recognize that and acknowledge it and be respectful of it and with that in mind deputy might i ask you informing your opinion have you spoken to many of the families uh and friends of victims of road traffic collisions to ask what their views might be on this of course i do because i deal with very families on a very very regular basis but as a result of car accidents and also other types of accidents and injuries that occur to people and i would be assisting them with the various different difficulties and problems and issues that they would have but if i can finish making the point great right when we talk about accidents and what the government have been doing and if we take for instance farmer uh minister shane ross's crusade against young drivers and what he did when he brought in his legislation what has happened since these uh deaths on our roads have very sadly gone up so despite the increase in the penalty point despite the increase in the fines despite the greater amount of offenses that attract penalty points than what was there before it's not working it's not stopping people of dying on our roads and what we all want is to see people to stop dying on our roads okay so it's obvious that they're going about it the wrong way can i put two points to you deputy can i put two points to you and my mind's not made up in here i'm not being a i'm not being argumentative but i have a 19 year old taking the first steps out on to the roads shortly hopefully do you not think he or any other uh uh 19 year old especially with the cost it takes to get a car in the road might be more inclined to put on their seat belt or not use the phone when driving if they were going to be hit with a 160 euro fine compared to an 80 euro fine so let's take me and you out of it now at this stage you know we've had our turn really to some extent but do you not think like if someone getting on to the road that this sends a strong message that this is a this is serious and that if you are caught with the phone up to your ear or in your hand you're gonna you're gonna be hit with a 160 euro fine are you telling me in your heart of hearts you do not believe that that might influence the way an 18 19 20 year old driver might behave on the road you don't think that has any effect at all no what i would say to i would but i would rather see happening to that 19 year old boy or girl and these are the suggestions that i have which the government are paying no heed whatsoever to for instance driving is such an essential part of life right and it's something that every young person please god they will be getting their turn they'll have to go on the road they'll be going to work they'll be going there's never been a better time to go fully sorry go ahead definitely without how to slight interrupts there go on you were saying they'll be leaving right so what i think should happen in all of our schools is that the subject of driver safety driving a car what that means the responsibility of it being caught to us on our roads all of that should actually be under curriculum in a school that is my honest belief because it's such an essential part of life for example we take no notice in schools that some of the items that ran the curriculum say if you were going to a vocational school before you could have good work you could have practical uh mental work you could have home economics you know these basic essentials of life that were seen as a grounding and something that was essential well i would think that learning about the road the rules of the road and all of that that would be a basic now that's for sure i mean listen listen i don't disagree with you i think maybe even the theory test should be part of should actually be part of the school curriculum but i just want to ask you this uh michael i mean if you were then the minister for transport what do you think speeding fines the non-wearing of seatbelts the use of mobile phones all which have been proven to contribute you know yourself and i'm sure you're not disputing the guard of statistics they will tell you how many people who die in the roads were not wearing your seatbelt how many died on the roads whilst using a mobile phone you know the statistics aren't there this isn't a conspiracy theory or figures that are pulled out of the sky so in your view considering these things contribute to fatalities in the road what do you think an acceptable level of fine would be then would you see great the whole issue of the fines and affinity points have been proven to be a failure because the debts are increasing like since chen ras did what he did and when he brought in his legislation it has been proven since to have failed it's not succeeding and like there are very other important issues that they're ignoring and i give you the examples and they're left at what i would call you know the word ministers for the environment don't seem to want to take any notice of this what i do because these are the real things that make a difference to people for example the caution of the hedges on our country roads they're not being caught are maintained by our local authority it should be as part of general road maintenance that would give us greater sight distance on our roads it would mean that people wouldn't be out around the middle of the white line on the road right and what it would mean is that people would be safer for instance before what do we call a section man that was a person who was in charge of a certain amount of roads miles of roads on in their area right now that person's job was to keep the bikes open keep the water off the road that's not happening anymore so we have this thing called ponding on our roads then you could be driving along after a heavy shower or rain or water coming out onto the road the roads are like a drain in many instances the car aqua planes are hit the slash water the car loses control goes out in front of another car causes an accident there's nobody looking at all those such things all they're doing is this simplistic view where we can get the driver's pocket and hopefully then what you said a minute ago i will frighten them into the that well it's not working okay i'm just i'm just in the interests of just because obviously on this program the facts are very important to me other than than than two peaks in over 2013 and 2014 and 2016 there has been a consistent decrease in the amount of lives last on irish roads just as a as a matter of fact if you don't mind deputy me pointing that out well i was well that's fine to say that but but what i would like to well it's not it's the fact you see that's the only thing it's the facts right well okay can i state another fact so please right and that is that a win minister right when on his crusade he brought in his legislation at the end of of 2019 the following year road debts increased that is a fact and then after that subsequently they increased again that is a fact i don't say things without there being facts at all and the facts are that that the road the government in 2019 in 2019 the amount of people that died on our roads was um did you say when he introduced them in 2019 no what i said was at the end of 2019 his legislation came in the following year the road debts increased on our roads yeah but you're talking about a very small period of time right okay and and can i and can i just make one other please do go ahead final point at the final point i'll make them i would be delighted if what the government was doing was working and my goodness if it said one child if it said one mom or one dad wouldn't i be delighted but the point is that i would like to see them expanding what they're doing okay but i can just let me let me ask you one question that you see the guardi right have the statistics as it relates to uh the wearing of seat belts and and the amount of lives that will last because people weren't wearing speed seat belts they also have the information as it relates to how many uh lives were lost and many ruined for injury uh through the non-wearing of of seat belts and mobile phone use you know i get what you're talking about there's a number of factors uh that cause road traffic collisions a the driver b the car and c very importantly and i don't think it's talked about enough which you've mentioned the road condition and i think much more focus should be placed on that but that they find that a discourage what we know costs lives uh deputy healy ray that's the thing that that that that i find myself leaning towards saying well if it's saving lives then it should be then it's worthwhile but of course you're right but the point is that what they're doing and what they're concentrating on isn't working so what i'm asking is the other issues and for instance where i'm from county kerry dear rome out on our roads is causing an awful lot of accidents causing an awful lot of death causing an awful lot of injuries and that fact is being completely ignored by government so could i just act that they would take a more open and broad minded view of this rather than the monetary side of it well we hope that if we charge them enough when they're caught doing something wrong i mean i don't want to see anybody drive a car without wearing a safety belt i don't want to one person young old or middle aged getting into a car without playing on their safety belt and could i just say because of a recent thing i just happened to know about and could i please remind people today that's putting on your safety belt in the front of the car and the passengers in the back not putting on there is absolutely a crazy action because they can really injure the people in the front or they can be thrown from the car like just because you're in the back of the car you have to wear your safety belt in the back of the car as well but but getting the message across that way rather than telling people or we're going to double the fines or we're going to increase the penalty fines but you see the thing is though but the thing the thing is the thing is and i won't delay you much longer if you don't speed if you wear your seat belt uh and if you don't use your phone when driving it doesn't matter if they set the fines at a billion euro it's not going to affect you this is only going to affect the people that you're encouraging to put the seatbelts on to slow down a little bit to not use the phone you were right if you and me never if we always wear our seatbelts if we we don't speed uh and if we don't use our phone me and you will never have to pay those fines but but greg you're a hundred percent right but could we finish on this nose that's if you're a perfect person i know if you were all perfect of course we're not not perfect yes and and i know i'm not perfect so i know that other people aren't perfect either it'd be great if we all were yeah but if i had at the road this evening if i had at the road this evening and i decide that i want to get home for me tea and i go 120 in a 100 euro zone i think i've got the fine coming to me whatever it's it's set up because i know the facts i know and i'm not saying that look you know but anyway i and i and i'm not i'm not agreeing to what we are but we all want is for people not to die in a row you see the thing is with the thing is fine very finally uh deputy is you see i think what you're saying will be popular it'll play to it'll play to an audience right but you know when your heart of hearts that we really need to be doing everything because you've said it yourself to try and keep people alive and uninjured on our roads and i just don't really see why you're not focusing your attention on the fantastic ideas you've got in terms of road maintenance and education rather than scoring political points off senator shane ross over fines that we can avoid and i say that with absolute respect to you by the way yes put your great i'm going to ask you to undermine your own argument there by by using one word you said we should be doing everything so we're not all we're doing is going after people in a monetary way so we're not educating the drivers we're not maintaining our roads properly we're not cutting the hedges we're not keeping the water off the roads we're not increasing site distance so we're not doing everything and that's all i'm saying thanks for your time thank you very much for the opportunity and could i just say one thing please could i just say one thing too great finally if if if having this little discussion and it's having this debate and to be blunt about it why i don't care whether people think i'm right or wrong that's totally material but if you will be having this argument or debate or whatever you want to call it if it creates one little bit of awareness and if it makes some person think one getting in the back of the car you know they're talking about points they're talking about this i better run my safety belt and and if in some way you were me having a debate and the people that say that i'm right that's fine the people that say that i'm wrong that's fine but if by us talking it helps our road be in the slightest bit safer isn't that a great thing yeah of course listen i'm not saying you're wrong it's just it's just a strange hill to die on not that you will but you know what i mean but thanks for your time this morning i appreciate it greatly take care of yourself i want a quick word with shivan to shivan um do you do you agree disagree with the deputy he's gone there now but just what's your view um well to be honest i i do agree with a lot of the points you know that he's made um fines increasing will cause you know people to think about what they're doing a little bit more but they're not the only thing that we need to be doing you know i live on the remelton to melford road and it's a 50 km zone apparently and i've you know the guards actually in the melford station they'll meet quite well and because i range recently to to note the speeding that's on that road and one of the sergeants has actually stood out and they've patrolled it but they can't get people or in one instance somebody was driving that fast but they nearly they nearly ran into the garage they were driving that fast on that road the guards are stretched you know they're doing the best that they can with the limited resources you know that they have um so i don't like you know the guards can't be outside my house every day you know so you're saying you'd have very little sympathy for people who were clocking 70 or 80 past your house you'd have very simple little sympathy for them if they were find 160 euro plus penalty points each time be on their own heads if you want to come in past my house at 50 km or at 100 km an hour and the guards catch you and you get to find a true and false i come out i try to drive out my my house and i drive away and the people that are in the estate with me and every day we risk our lives driving on to that road my sister-in-law lives in the back of the estate and she she has nearly been driving into it i've nearly been driving into it my my husband we've got a little girl you know the amount of time that we have people have swear across the road to avoid smashing into us or beat the odds for it to say that we're the bad ones trying to exit our exit our driveway you know people like like i said it's like you know so i don't like i don't disagree with the fine but you know but there needs to be something else is there adequate signage there do you think shabana i'd be kind of familiar with that road uh and i just wonder could there be more signage to to to point out uh the fact that it's a 50 km on well there's a big there's big massive signs about that like that you know heli said you know whenever the hedges grow they you know they do take over part of it's all year round it's not a don't make a difference those signs what would make a difference is if we like apparently the road safety authority are out here one day and they had said that it was extremely dangerous that children be crossing that load you know to go back and forth from school um that we need a footpath so that we need an island and that we should have maybe more signage i think one of those um i know on the way to red castle you know there's one of them signs that have to tell you your speed that you're doing and that you need to slow down if you're going over like i think one of them may help but like yeah they're very effective because they flash flash flash slow down slow down and then say thank you when you do yeah i think yeah i mean it becomes like again you're like all right i need to slow down about that it's reflecting because some people and it can be just mindlessly you know i don't think a lot of people need to be speeding but we can just get we just run our but i i think like i don't disagree with well if i find like if you know you shouldn't be doing it we get caught then that's just you know it's just bad luck but at the same time you shouldn't have been doing it yeah well you see that's what i was trying to say is some people might make a decision but they are making a decision everyone knows what the crack is if you grow for a hundred sure if that's why we all uh we all flash each other i tend not to so in a company car but you know it's because you know up you could be going over the speed limit there's a couple of flashes because there's a a checkpoint up there a van up the road so we all know uh so i don't know where the surprise is all right listen shivan thanks for your time this morning i hope you get sorted because it's it's a stress every day after deal with it waiting for something to happen and i think that's what your life is like so we appreciate you sharing that with us thank you very much shivan okay back with more shortly live free in 2023 with dunlo g a club winner takes all prize includes 500 euro cash paid every week next year live free in 23.ie pride sponsors of today show are your christmas orders already flying in on pust commerce has some seasonal supports to help your business scale up with smart savings on advantage kind get four euro of every express parcel that you send and save on stamps to send greetings to your customers it's one card you'll really need this christmas so register free today at your post office or on pust.com slash advantage card on pust commerce a world closer tees and sees apply offer ends december 31st mcdades bathroom plumbing and tiles serving the northwest for over 40 years explore our showroom with more than 40 displays choose from an array of shower doors shower 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place on the 34th of october from 12 to 2 pm get in touch an 0749121976 or visit century cinemas dot i e for more information treat your family or friends to a hamper this christmas from kelly centra letter kenny kelly's of great hampers to suit all budgets including luxury hampers available to collect or deliver also vouchers for kelly's award winning diner or circle k fuel at the forecourt great gift ideas at kelly centra mountaintop letter kenny call 91 double two zero two six swing into christmas with the rat pack live at the grianon theater letter kinny december 14th direct from london's lester square and for one night only enjoy classics from frank sinatra sammy davis junior and dean martin tickets from an grianon theater box office and an grianon dot com presented by joe gallagher entertainments it's time to unlock electric during volvo test drive week november 1st to 5th we welcome you to mckinley motors to experience our award winning range of plug-in hybrid and fully electric cars place an order during test drive week and you'll receive a complimentary volvo service agreement which covers your first three services unlock electric and find out more about our exclusive offers at volvo cars dot i e terms and conditions apply all right let's get some news now on a fire in in a shone and some advice for local residents uh acting chief fire officer with the donagwall can to cancel is michael scott michael thanks for your time this morning good morning no problem greg thank you very much for giving us the time just to get the message out there right if you don't mind just as much as we know uh when did this fire start and where uh the fire started last night pretty good approximately half past 12 as located in drumanore outside montrana it would be a recycling plant um that's pot fire um at that time we would have mobilized out uh approximately four appliances and a number of uh special students as well to enhance and command units um as well as a high-reach platform and we currently have a number of excavators on the site at the moment as well to assess grab greg yeah now presumably given what might be in a recycle yard then this is not uh this is a fire that could could give off quite damaging fumes is that why you're advising residents in the local area to keep their doors and windows shut uh well greg it seems there are all kinds of scandal waste if you know what i mean right it doesn't seem to be running too near in some of what at the same time we just want to be safe and we just want to advise anybody in the area any of the residents just if they could keep their doors closed and they're want this closed um just in case there would be any adverse effects but we we don't think there's any too serious in a more general way yeah just people maybe with respiratory uh issues or something this could agitate that from an operational perspective michael how long do you think it will take to sort of uh have the the site cleared from your perspective i would say it's going to be late um later on it's even mid-date later on greg to be honest um we're going quite well here at the moment but i probably just want to take good but go up to another three to four hours um for all city mobility here from the site all right well stay safe you and your teams and thanks very much for the update michael thank you very much great thanks for opportunity no no it's very important to get that information out so it's a fire at the recycling center in the dremenor area of bunkrana local residents asked to keep your windows and doors closed as a precaution and our fire service is tackling that issue and we'll hope to have it all done and dusted uh come evening time live free in 23 with denlo g a club 500 euro cash paid weekly a luxury holiday hotel stays and more winner takes all live free in 23 dot i e proud sponsors of today's show for great nights in choose centra and choose great big savings while you're at it choose one chicago town 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financial peace of mind to arrange a personal consultation with one of our qualified financial advisors visit jfl dot i e or call 9124 002 john f lowery and associates limited trading as john f lowery financial services is regulated by the central bank of ireland you keep your garden in shape all year round with top quality garden equipment from garden care at gallinas letter kennie tool hire a great selection of leaf blowers hedge cutters chainsaws and much more for sale or higher there's a full backup and repair service including chains and bars for all makes of chainsaws gallinas letter kennie tool hire at mountaintop letter kennie your local garden care dealer garden care your pathway to a beautiful garden okay you're very welcome back to the program delighted to welcome into studio lisa hone who's chair of the mica action group good morning to you thanks so much for joining us lisa how are you keeping i'm busy greg yes fair play to you uh for taking up this role uh because i think you would know and i'm sure you were warned in inverted commas that there's a lot to it and it's it's it's ongoing and it's intensive it is it is um bush i i just felt you know i had been involved with mag for the last 18 months pretty much as as soon as i found out that i had an issue with mica myself and got involved on a volunteer basis and then just kind of as we went on and as it became more and more intensive the last 18 months or so just got kind of more and more involved in everything that needed to be going on because it really was all hams to the pumps at a very very intensive year well you know over a year really um and then obviously we had the agm and there was existing members of the committee they absolutely needed to set step down and i respected that because they had given everything to it so a pressure there to keep going because if the people that have become familiar faces and voices back down they're thinking well could this change momentum or something and you've been very very busy in it and you're taking a more high profile role in this i think but you've been flat out here to four my heart take of where we're at at the moment is is that we have a scheme that is stalled at the moment it's not really clear uh who will get on it what will get done but everyone's probably gonna have to pay something but we also have a sense i feel that um the victims of this scandal have been abandoned or are abandoned that you know they're the lowest common denominator that there's attention and focus all over the place but if you're a victim of the uh concrete block crises the scandal that you don't really matter i'm not saying that's how i feel but that you would be forgiven for feeling uh like that i think is that can you add anything to that or is that a decent assessment to the situation i think that's a fair assessment of certainly how homeowners feel i mean i speak to homeowners every day um and what i would try and do as the voice of mag would be to try and relate the reality the truth of what is happening on the ground um it is actually galling when you hear some of the rhetoric and statements of ministers and interviews where they're they're almost dismissing it oh you've got a scheme calling you know what are you making this noise for what's wrong with you no the scheme isn't here last last year you were talking about delivering the scheme by the end of this year like as in now it should be live now and here we sit and we don't even have a date for the scheme to be open um so it's vital that i think that we do keep the pressure on you know organizations like mag are there and obviously the campaign groups right across all the affected counties do keep that voice of the homeowners in high profile as we can hold government ministers to account and really shine a spotlight on the reality and truth of what homeowners are going through as opposed to what government would maybe like the public to think yeah because there's definitely a battle for the minds of the public and that was started with commentaries like mansions with commentaries like you know we have to be careful how we spend the taxpayers money all of that is a strategy those aren't off the course of remarks those that that is a conversation to try and influence people to say as you say look we we gave them a scheme it's a hundred percent and no matter what you say they'll say it's a hundred percent and then the general population then move on to the next thing and yet hundreds thousands of people are left behind in this mess yeah i think that's right and they're definitely has been insidious tactics used against the homeowners which when you think about the situation they're in is just about as low as it gets um you're up against the state machine there's no doubt about that with you know all the resources that they can possibly employ but that doesn't deter us in fact it actually fuels us on because we see the injustice and we see the lies being told and that actually spurs us on to get the truth out there and to keep unchallenging and what is being said to the public and i think yesterday was a good example of that uh where we had a platform where we could actually um specifically highlight what is going on in reality as opposed to maybe what's been said from government what do you think the key message from mag and other speakers uh and we're going to be joined by uh deputy power of McLaughlin shortly on this issue too what do you think the key message that was gotten across that people needed to hear uh through the submissions yesterday i think the key message was that the government is sitting on this situation and is being morally vacant in my opinion about really tackling the root cause and that's why i wanted to draw pull it back to why this levy is needed in the first place it's not the homeowner's fault that the levy is needed the homeowners are victims of what has gone on within the concrete industry and it's really really important for the general public to understand that it is the fault of those who violated regulations and those who are in a position to make sure that really good strong governance is put into place and have a moral duty at this stage to do that but are yet still holding everything at harm's length dragging the heels and real tangible action that should be taking place to make a real difference to assure anybody in future buying these type of products that they're good quality they're fit for purpose and you're not going to be faced with the devastation that obviously thousands of homeowners all across island are today um stay with me there's a set of headphones there if you want to put them on so you can hear uh deputy mcgloughlin or i'll try here is there okay make sure the volume is okay for you sorry i should have done that first lisa i'm an amateur my apologies right uh deputy power mcgloughlin uh you've referred to this uh as as as what it is it's a humanitarian crisis uh you would have heard what what the speaker said yesterday do you know the language that's being used in the door on this issue it's so dramatic it should be really the front page of anyway this is so dramatic as what we're talking about but because it's i don't know why it's almost like the words don't mean anything to those that hear them obviously the likes of you when you speak you know exactly what they mean do you understand where i'm coming from in a democracy in the seat of democracy describing what's going on here in don the gall it's unbelievable that we are still in the same position and that the calls from the likes of yourself and those directly affected are going on heard crazy it's a period i mean you have um and highland radio have have told the stories of our families again and again most recently that the moss family the chevlin family uh i can speak with authority about sharing moss i was in our home it's horrific as i said this is a house not fit for human habitation and you know we have a scenario where over a year ago uh county councillors asked for resources to build uh high quality modular housing that is absolutely going to be required at different locations across uh north dunny gall where you know where where you have these clusters you know any shown letter kenny milford thin valley um you know you're going to require this uh and it will have to be done so what can you explain to me because uh and again it's not no one wants to but what people are being pitched against each other accidentally right that's not what i'm trying to do here but we do know modular homes are being planned to be completed in the first quarter of next year in six seven sites around arland uh to meet our obligation to help people fleeing war-torn countries and for other reasons okay and yet no one even wants to take on the conversation about providing what is emergency housing for these families in dunny gall what is the reason for that because it seems inexplainable to me yeah and and we have to say it out loud i mean we have to say that we have a housing crisis in dunny gall the same as the rest of the country but what makes it even worse than dunny gall is a defective block the homeowners are victims of the scandal and five hundred of them are stuck in stage one they're stuck in the logjam the department of housing will not sign off in their applications they can't get access to funding they can't abandon their house because they have a mortgage to pay even if they even if they could it's extremely hard to find alternative temporary accommodation in dunny gall right now and you know we the government are willfully refusing to help like they have had strong correspondence from the mic action group they cannot deny they weren't i've put parliamentary question after parliamentary question myself and over dunny gall tds have raised this issue it'll be raised again today and at all um telling the stories and this is willful and you know what we need to do is and you've you've been exposing this yourself Greg is there are people offering houses in dunny gall right now i'm aware of them you're aware of them for Ukrainian refugees they're being turned down not embraced we have people who are out there sourcing houses i want to know what accountability is around all of that but i mean we we need to have houses for our families in distress whether it's a high quality modular housing whether it's the government intervening the other thing i want to say greg is this is you made this point very strongly when the pirate remediation scheme which is still operating today and has helped at least a couple of thousand families in Dublin and north lester to get their homes repaired the housing agency were tasked with finding temporary alternative accommodation while our homes were being repaired that's happening and has happened for about 2000 families yet in dunny gall families are expected to fend for themselves and it's just wrong uh so it's very simple you task the housing agency and dunny gall county council the the minister has to do this dunny gall county councillors have appealed for it to happen again and again i understand they're seeking a delegation to meet with the minister so the minister has the power to do this just do it uh and my fear is he's turning one set of people against another and dunny gall it doesn't need to happen that with the right attitude from government we can do what we need but i think the housing minister needs and you can't pin people down he needs to explain right why people are allowed to be in this situation without helping in in a humanitarian way we are being humanitarian in our approach to lots of things why is it because we're so far from Dublin what is your uh they said what what could possibly be the explanation that these desperate calls from from families you know for emergency accommodation emergency help we heard from the leading lung expert in Ireland that said that living moldy houses is damaging people's lungs so people could be living with that with the fallout from this for the rest of their lives or have their lives shortened as a result why do you think the government can ignore this it just seems to fundamentally come down to a lack of care unfortunately um and there seems to be a combination of a lethal combination i would say of apathy and incompetence and i think sometimes they look at what's happening and almost it feels to me sometimes like it's just too big for them it's just too big and it's just too complicated and i think that the way that they've actually handled or not managed the schemes to date is another illustration of that and and i think you know we see time and time again where even though they have full knowledge of these desperate situations it stick the fingers in the ears put your hands over your eyes head in the ground and we'll just ignore it and on we go is it delight and let Sinn Fein worry about it i mean i don't think we can give up i know is that what do you think that's maybe oh in terms of possibly possibly i all all i know is that having worked on the campaign now for 18 months what i do see is a lot of lip service and fine words and very very little action so what can happen next we had a huge protest in Dublin we have the attention of of of you know national journalists there's some great work that's been done on that recently okay we have the opposition and people like podger McLaughlin screaming from the rafters in the door and what have you and all of that's not making a difference or seems not to be making a difference and i'm not in any way trying to dash hope or give in or nothing like that don't get me wrong but if this isn't working this is everything you could have dreamed of maybe three years ago if you know in terms of where would you want a campaign to be to get attention if that's not working now what really could either force or embarrass a government into doing something it's hard to have the answers to be honest greg and i think i i can't promise i have the answers to that but what i will say is that we will absolutely throw everything behind it no i know that yeah and i think i think i think the acid test to be honest is get the scheme in place the government at the moment is telling us it's a great scheme it's going to deliver it's going to get people out of this awful situation right get it in place let's have it here working operationally on the ground and then that's the acid test because at the moment i feel that while it's not in place it's almost they can hide behind the words because it's the promise of the test is going to be putting it in place and actually allowing people to apply and it will very very become obvious whether it works so could or not exactly and i think that's what we have to press for i mean you know i i feel there is a sense something talking to people on the ground i feel there's a sense that people are waiting that they want the scheme to arrive um and they want to try it and see if it will work now obviously we have expressed our reservations about it i would love if it works you know ultimately the end game with this is get people out of this desperate situation so i think the onus on government right now is get the scheme in place and get it working effectively and efficiently and well managed because it cannot be the shambolic um a scheme that is how it manages it then because listen maybe it's individuals involved and i want to be careful with not to dump on people already under pressure but clearly something has to be done in terms of how this is administered who administers it streamline simplified progressive information the basic kind of stuff that unfortunately seems we haven't seen so far maybe i'll put that to deputy McLaughlin first and come back to you no go ahead lisa go ahead what what the campaign groups so it's it's obviously mag and also the campaign groups down the country down the country so we've got four counties uh may o donnie goll limrick and claire who are due to be on the new scheme and all of us are calling for a very very different managed um scheme it has to be more centralized effectively the last scheme was landed on the local council now i have my own thoughts about the operations there and i think a lot more could be done to actually manage it well but effectively a scheme was dumped on to the local council and they don't have the adequate resources to manage it it can't be just farmed out to the local councils and then government go grand away you go that's it and then turn the backs on it this is a responsibility of government right up to the minister to make sure that this scheme is put in place with all the infrastructure so it's managed in a very slick and effective way so we don't under end up with the shambles that we've got now you're not in your head to everything that lisa's saying there i mean your comments on this but also who administered the or who is administering the pie right scheme the housing agency so it's not a local council a local authority it's directly from the housing agency so why was that i wonder why that wasn't also applied then to this scheme which is bigger in scale because the scheme they set up the discredited so-called 9010 scheme was a grand scheme and therefore it was a minister by dunneagle county council mayo county council and they weren't resourced adequately and of course a big help for the government and that is that's the angry homeowners the desperate homeowners are dealing with people in dunneagle not interfacing with them but it's them that's creating the logjam it's them it won't sign off in 500 properties so what we need is now this new scheme we're told that the housing agency are involved in the new scheme along with dunneagle county council so you need the necessary staff you need to help people navigate this process i mean i totally agree with what lisa said thanks to the fantastic efforts of the people dunneagle the campaign that is ongoing we made substantial progress to move from what the the the discredited crap 9010 scheme to this scheme but this scheme still isn't right and we'll bring in amended legislation and try and make it better again later this year and into early next year so we need to get this scheme up and running we need a necessary staff on the ground but right now right now as we speak the urgency is to help there's not a massive number of them but there's families right now in houses that are not fit for human habitation they're dangerous it's 10 of 15 that have been identified as actual emergency cases absolutely that's that's an emergency so absolutely so that's the immediate urgency that's the emergency so that's plan a the next issue then is getting this scheme up and running as soon as possible into into next year making sure that it's fit for purposes based on the right science based on testing for mica pyrite and pyrite that means that you know it's a bit like a when you go to letter county hospital you hope when they're doing the scans and the tests it's the right scans and tests to give you the right solution and the right cure you know so I want to say that finally just I thought Lisa hold me please yeah but very very briefly I thought Lisa home was fantastic yesterday I think we're blessed to have people like Lisa Michael Paddy Dever all these campaigners and Dunny Gaul and if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be where we are now at least we have hope of a bright future for our families yeah it's amazing I agree with you that these regular people use the fact to step up and and you know try and do some well if it wasn't for us we wouldn't be where we're at now even though people are frustrated it's really is remarkable last word Lisa we'll be speaking a lot and there's a couple of big things coming up so I'm sure you'll be speaking yeah and and I think that's very that that that is the last word there's some really really important stuff coming up and that is why you know we do need a strong campaign still in place we have the regulations to come up through we have the rates that need to be looked at we've got the SEI grants we've got the big science conference that is fundamental great work being done there absolutely no this there's really really big landmark things coming through in the next in the next in the next while and we need to keep the heat on government keep their feet to the flames make them accountable for their own behavior and let's let's let's get the scheme in place and then the acid test we'll see right okay there's so much we could talk about and yet we didn't have time but we'll have opportunities as these events come up thanks Lisa all right by the way for taking this role Lisa Hall and chair of the mic action group live free in 2023 with the low GA club 500 euro cash weekly a holiday to Dubai all island final tickets and more winner takes all live free 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