 Thousands flee as Russia is blamed for attack on dam, collapse of major hydroelectric dam on Dnieper River causes ecological disaster and, somewhat predictably, the Kremlin says the Ukrainian side committed deliberate sabotage as a distraction. Thousands of Ukrainians faced evacuations from their homes near the Dnieper River after the huge Nova Khakakova a dam was destroyed, Kiev and top European officials described it as a potential war crime committed by Russia's invasion force. Irish Daily Mail this morning, Spending Watchdog warns do not go on a splurge. Report says excess funds will be needed to support our ageing population and urges against a giveaway pre-election budget. Ireland's soaring elderly population has prompted the state's Spending Watchdog to warn against that giveaway budget and instead use excess funds for future pension costs. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council will today issue a report that warns there is currently no credible plan to address the projected spending that will be required to pay for an ageing population. The government's facing pressure to use bump-ricks checker returns to cut taxes. It's also been warned it must either reduce pension benefits, increase pay-reside charges or raise the retirement age to tackle the pension time bomb. That's according to the Irish Daily Mail. Also a picture on the Irish Daily Mail this morning of Prince Harry. Harry in the witness box, oh how he must have longed for the schmaltzy embrace of Oprah. And that's a whole article in there and you can read plenty about the trial if you so choose in the papers, particularly the tabloids. They all appear to be featuring that story on the insights. But the three red tops in this country are all united in what's making the front page indeed. It's making the front page for the second day in a row and it is the arrest of Liam Byrne in Mallorca at the weekend. Irish Daily star, main headline, I'll fight like hell. Mob boss vows, he won't return from Spanish jail. Also on top there, GAA hero Teddy dead at 57. And that's a picture of Teddy McCarthy of Cork, the only person ever to win hurling and football all Irlands in the same year. He did it in 1990. The year this radio station came on air, indeed the year I moved to Donegal, so a one-off feat that's never been repeated and sadly Teddy passed away yesterday. Also on the back of the daily star, one of the big sports stories at the moment, Greenpeace, a shock as Saudis swoop to end golf's civil war. Saudi Arabia engineered a stunning backdoor takeover of professional golf after the announcement of a shock peace deal between live golf and the established tours. And when you look at how people like Rory McRoy fought tooth and nail against that whole live tour, he now finds himself in a very, very strange situation. Irish Daily Mirror this morning, the Byrne ultimatum mobster refuses to go back to UK after arrest in Spain. Liam Byrne is to fight extradition from Spain to the UK on arms trafficking charges. He refuses to go back. He may not be given a choice, depending on the outcome of legal proceedings, which have already started in the Spanish court also there. A shock as GAA dual legend Teddy 57 dies suddenly. And the Irish Sun this morning, again cocky Byrne in gun rap fight, cartel chief to battle extradition. It's the same mugshot, which I presume has been released this week by Spanish police of Liam Byrne, the same picture appearing on all of the red tops this morning and the smaller headline on top. Harry's big day in court, Prince Harry called Mum Deanna's butler Paul Burrell a two faced in court yesterday and said he'd feared that James Hewitt was his dad. And you can read more about that on the Irish Sun. It's the London show on Highland Radio. It's, as I said, Donald Kavanaugh with you until 12 midday on the show today. We're going to take a short break back after the newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra, mountain top letter Kenny, the sea store national large four court of the year for 2022. You have a nice time love. We went for a picnic. Knee pinched my sunglasses. The ones that you got me, Freya and Connor had a massive fight. I dived through the frisbee, grazed my knee. Nice one making me take plasters, Mum. Knee's hay fever flared up, had to bite antihistamines. It started lashing down, but hello waterproof mascara and I'm convinced there's salt and in my hair. Please tell me you got dry shampoo. Best day ever. 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Hickey, Clark and Langdon general insurance is limited, trading as Hickey, Clark and Langdon is regulated by the central bank of Ireland. The groom goes free. The groom goes free. Yes, you heard it. The groom's room. Evolve clothing, Letter Kenny retail park. The groom goes free. Call in today. Terms and conditions apply. Highland Radio time checks with Expressway. Travel Route 32 from Letter Kenny to Dublin when you book online and travel for less. Expressway, bringing you the time at... 17 minutes past nine o'clock and a very good morning to you. Now there has been a lot of discussion over the years about septic tanks and it's a very pertinent issue obviously in a county like Donegal where there is a significant amount of one off housing and therefore a lot of houses in this county will be dependent on septic tanks for their environment. And there are calls for changes in regulations governing tanks and in particular Waterwell grants. Now leading those calls at the moment is Councillor Miho Naktan who joins us on the line. Miho, good morning to you. Good morning Donegal and good morning to your listeners. Miho, at the moment in order to avail of the septic tank grant it must have been registered by February 2013. Now that is pretty much 10 years ago. So anyone who's built a new home over the course of the past 10 years is going to find themselves excluded from this measure it seems. Yes Donald and that but basically Donald the house that would have been built since 2030 would have been built to the new standards. But basically the problem is known that means that a lot of homeowners in Donegal that are basically discovering that their septic tanks are not buyable and basically when they go to look for the grant to realize that they're not registered. Now basically over a month ago we had a workshop with the environment section of Donegal County Council and they informed us that basically Donegal is one of the lowest counties to register for these grants. So basically you have a lot of homeowners now at a financial disadvantage. When they discover when they go looking for the grant, basically when they come out and the department turns down their septic tank that had to be replaced and then they find out they're not entitled to the grant because they now have registered. So I'm calling on the minister especially to change this because it's not fair to families that mean as you rightly said it's over 10 years ago and in addition to this Donegal the well grant the house has to be over five years old and been lived in. Now again you have a lot of young couples that basically are built in their own home for the first time that mean and we all are well aware of Ishka Irn which originally Irish water are charging for connection fees. Some families and some young couples are being charged and I think I'm tortued maybe to 60,000 for a connection fee but yes if you want to drill for your own well you're not going to get the grant because the house has to be over five which again if they choose disadvantage to young couples and people start not building. In terms of the payments that people can avail of provided that they are registered and so on how significant are they because we certainly know in this day and age anyone who's building or anyone who has built I mean they need every grant they can get their hands on and if you have a situation where someone has been depending on a grant like this and then haven't been able to get it that's going to potentially put them in a very difficult situation. Yes Donal I mean the grant that you would get will basically cover 80% of your overheads and that basically what the well grant is in the region nearly of 6,000 and that if you're going to bore I mean the such times you can be up over eight grand and that so basically these are a big you know amount of money for any any couples or after any homeowners in the county and I think basically it's the grant scheme there I think it should be about by every family should be entitled and should be able to claim first so basically you know at the moment it's not fair and I think these regulations and I do welcome basically Donal Gull County Councils basically support this and they realize there is an issue here and I mean and there is a lot of families in the county and you know and this is not just Donal Gull I mean this is for rural Ireland for people living in rural Ireland because these houses were built basically with their single sector tanks and with their own water supplies and now basically if they want to change that basically you know unfortunately there's no grant they are available because happened by February 2000 and talking and we know too that I mean the issue of the cost of water connections has been a huge win in recent years and some of the prices being quoted by Ishgair and Seem on the face of it to be absolutely crazy yes exactly I mean you know I have families and young people basically are looking for connection fees and some of the costs that have been charged is unbelievable basically before this they had a contract or basically a contractor will they do this works but now Irish water or Ishgair doesn't allow that basically it's their contractors perhaps they have to go and do this and this is very unacceptable and also Donal basically the government have launched a new scheme as well the Cree crony scheme which was launched and this basically was to bring in vacant and derelict properties back into use and again these properties would be you know in rural Ireland you know one off house I mean again that would have been singly supplied with tanks and basically then people are buying these and discovering that basically they kind of get grants for them and you know that's that's a very often for them as well so I think you know basically there has to be you know a change here in the regulations because there has to be a level playing for everybody and at the moment that's not the way it is is this one of those situations where one government department is doing one thing and another government department doesn't seem to know what their colleagues are doing and they're imposing regulation which if not completely impedes doesn't support the initiative that the second department is trying to do because it seems that there is one department trying to bring houses into use and encourage people to buy and encourage people to live in areas and and bring houses into use on the other hand there's another department saying no you can't do that because it's not registered yes but also Donal probably when this was brought out first in relation to the grand scheme that mean you know the crony of the crony scheme that came out it's only in your scheme and that mean I'm basically this was was to bring in dirty houses come back basically in February when you have to register for that such a time they weren't even thinking about about these properties but now basically they are thinking of the bringing new scheme so then you have to look at the regulations that are there for other grant schemes and basically when you bring in a scheme that's going to affect regulations that are there well then you have to have to change them and I think this is that's why this motion I put forward is the relation to change the regulations in relation to the safety tanks and the water well bank. Obviously Donal County Council on a local level has got to implement the regulations imposed by government and and cannot change the laws itself are you confident that government will take heed of what's being said and being backed by the council and is coming to them from Donal County Council as instigated by yourself and the government will just sit back and say well yeah maybe we do need to change this. Yes Donal I will be very hopeful I mean at times I mean if something is not working and that mean and the family and homeowners as a disadvantage well that's not unacceptable and I think basically it's an honours on us as councillors and Donal County Council and all the politicians in rural Ireland that basically we lobby the ministers to make sure this because this is not just on the effect on the God this affects the whole of Ireland and counties you know the rural house there because as you rightly said in the introduction that basically Donal is a very rural county and basically you know there's a lot of one-off houses I mean and all these are basically served by a single safety tank and by their own water supply and basically if you want to upgrade and well because if that matter of upgrading some of them are basically being redeemed not acceptable going forward and they have to be upgraded so basically then the families are discovering that there's a enormous on them then to get them changed but I mean when the water supply for the grant as unfortunately it sells to the regulations that have not registered and I think that's a huge huge disadvantage for the homeowners. There was a lot of talk about septic tanks when these new regulations were coming in 10 years ago a lot of concern at the level of inspection a lot of concern that householders could find themselves facing significant costs what then happened was the system seemed to bed in we didn't hear about that for a while are we in a situation now where there are effect of your chickens coming home to roost? Yes that means you know and I think basically the department and the environmental section have stepped up basically their inspections and a lot more inspections going on that means and a lot more basically families contacting me and that's why I moved this motion because basically now people are discovering basically when the department come on to them and they're in relation to septic tanks they discovered they all haven't been registered and now there's an issue because my septic tank has to be upgraded and I kind of get the grant so that's why I moved it because basically it was families and young couples that basically ring me in relation to these that basically I moved this motion that basically there was a loophole here that needs to be changed and and I think for the department of everybody they have to be changed. Councilor Micheal Nockton thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning. Thank you Donna. That's Councilor Micheal Nockton there that issue with septic tanks as Micheal said there he has raised this issue in the Donegal County Council chamber he's received the backing of the council and the issue is now going to Dublin with Donegal County Council's imprimatur. Now I want to go to Bunkrana where there's a new development at Krana View but there is some issues about the site traffic going through a local housing estate. Let's go to line two and say good morning to Don. Don how are you? Not too bad. How are you? I'm good. I'm grand thank you. Right we know that this issue has been raised on your behalf done by Councilor Jack Murray. Work is being done in the area and your concern is site traffic is traveling through your own estate and that's causing you specific worries and problems. Basically what's been happening this past three months I got in contact with Jack, Councilor Jack Murray about three months ago and asked him to you know try to get a meeting with the housing manager just to discuss our fears about excessive traffic on through you know through the site or park. It's going to be a live building site the fingers 16 property being built. We have no problem with the property being built. We're quite happy to see Councilors being built but there is an alternative safer route into the proposed site and the Council haven't even had the manners to get back to you. I can't remember what he said the baller won't meet us. Did you know they just ball nose on the way through here and they just said well that's been done this way and that's it and plan has been awarded and you've no saying no matter whatsoever. So from your point of view then effectively you believe that this is being bulldozed through as to to use your your own phrase. You've got Councilor Murray discussing I'm sure you've raised it with other councillors as well. None of them are getting any positive word back from the Council. Councilor Murray can't get a word back one way or another. I was just I was texting Jack Gisley and he said I'll email him again. I don't know why many emails or many messages sent them but no response. So when we find it all that we're asking them to do is look at our concerns about the site traffic heavy machinery and all the rest of it went through a built right right through the middle of the housing state. You know it's a we know our road coming on to the car called road which is a very busy road. There's two traffic no the traffic islands the Camin Islands and side of it. The road's been narrowed there with the traffic islands there the Camin area is there and there's a road up here in East Pass which has got traffic lights at the bottom which would be much easier managed a far wider road that drives up along alongside a housing estate doesn't go on through the housing estate at all and there's a little bit of maybe 150 200 yards where they can put a temporary road onto the proposed site but they wouldn't even talk this you know it's just we find it very frustrating that the county manager or whoever's in charge of the building just won't speak to residents about their concerns. Are there potential right-of-way issues if they were to use the other area as you say they can go up a road and then there's land that they can build a temporary road through in order to get into the development. Is that land in private ownership or is that land owned by the council because if that's the case that might be an issue in terms of just having the right to actually bring traffic up and down that stretch of land if it's not owned or controlled by the council. Well the road we're talking about as we'll be joining on to the new relief road upon Crammer so I'm assuming the council owned it because they've been talking about building this road for 25 years. Yeah. Or is it another thing the council talk about something for 25 years and don't even have the property to build it on which doesn't surprise me either. Well I mean in fairness these discussions always do start I mean there's talk about building a new road a linked road and bridge in letter Kenya at the moment and the council doesn't own any of the land yet but they will have to bring in compulsory purchase orders and all that once they get a firm plan in place so yeah it wouldn't in fairness it wouldn't be strange to talk about building a road on land which the council doesn't own yet and then once they've got clearance to build it then they've got to go and talk to local landowners you can't really go and buy the land first and then discuss whether or not she'll build a road on it but um yeah that could be the case so um but even still that that doesn't change the fact that you believe that by coming through your estate the council and its agents could potentially be putting you and your families and those of your neighbours in danger. That's the problem yeah and to go back to you about the road I don't think well I'm assuming they've been talking about this road 25 years plus in this area and I'm assuming that after 25 years they must have got their act together and bought the land but then that wouldn't surprise me if the council you know the way the council works but our only problem is the roads narrow there's a large green area up at the top of the you know the the the housing estate and that's that's only green area the kids have to play on and so the council and the wisdom say they are going to take five or six foot up this green the whole way around you know a third green a third green that the people and crown of view and crown of crescent have been maintained in this past 40 odd years we pay for it every we pay for to be to be maintained the grass cut the council have never caught it you know but there's been working up and we're going to we're going to take whatever we need without any consultation with anybody it's the fact that they're just ignoring us that that's what's got people's back up and there is a health and safety you know as you know yourself but when there's a life second on the heavy traffic and heavy machinery it's it's you know there's not a lot of going up and down every morning at eight o'clock there's an awful lot of children in that park and nobody our concerns are just being ignored is there a residence association in the area that that is functioning and would have contact with the council well we don't have a residence association as such but we just were we have we've always had a pretty good relationship with the council you know we look at the park we keep the park well we cut the grass we do that all every house pays for it every year no we don't mind you don't mind keeping your own area clean and nice and tidy and that's organized on a local level that money is collected by one of the residents and and the residents bring in someone to do the cutting or whatever and it's managed locally it isn't managed by the council oh yeah yeah you know there's a couple the ladies in the park that do the collecting every year and they look after it they they the guys come and they do it and there's a couple of residents in the park that do you know that like they're not involved in tidy town just often they collect any rubbish or letter line about they collect it up every day and stuff they got there and for the country just come and see where we're taking we're going to take five or six or seven I don't know we're not 100 sure of many feet off the the green area absolutely green area helps the kids up there when is the work due to start we have been told the end of June but we were told that we were informed all day that the the contract was supposed to come in yesterday and start clearing the the ticket you know reclaiming a bit of the green area but today nobody has appeared but that we've been told that there's a schedule for the end of June so that's only what three weeks time and you know it's just bad form and it's very bad manners of the country we think they ignore a local representative that has been no representative to the look after the people and just to blatantly ignore them and when when we were first briefed when were you first briefed on the council's plans oh this is we've been disputed this has passed to you for years yeah I was the reason I asked that is I think I may have spoken either to you or one of your neighbors about this several years ago yeah you did you talked to a lady called Bernie O'Neill and uh and Jack Murray was on and Councillor Nicholas Cross were on that day yes I'm sure the residents yeah yeah that's that's going on about I think this proposed development I think is about four years ago or five years ago and this has always been our concern and the only concern we've had unfortunately some of the counters put out a smokescreen saying that the residents in crown of view were against houses being built we are not against houses being built I would love to see hundreds of houses being built because they're very badly needed is this the same site then there was a discussion and this is really really just from so so I I know I understand what I'm was there a discussion about the number of houses whether it should be 13 or 16 if I'm correct yeah it was I think it was started off it was going to be 19 or something I think it was 16 and then it went down to 13 yeah I know exactly where you are now yeah yeah you know at the end of the day counters have voted for this don't actually you know as far as I know don't actually love in this area there's no idea that geographic area or what no the car called road is a very busy road it's the main link from here and the rest of the show this is a seriously busy road and for site traffic to be trying to get in out of crown of view it's just a disaster wouldn't happen and I know that's that's our opinion but then again we can have an opinion because the council just are blatantly ignoring us so as far as we can see and as far as workers are the councilor just goes out we're going to go through that estate and there's not a thing the people in that estate can do ever that's not right like it's it's bad for it does seem strange that the council in the course of four or five years and as I said I do remember this discussion some years ago it does seem strange that that no official has spoken to you over the course of that four years or so now maybe the officials will argue that the the councillors are the public representatives therefore when they speak to councillors they're speaking to the representatives of of you but then again if you're saying councillor Murray isn't getting much response from them either at this point in time you know that does raise that into question Don thanks for speaking to us this morning I mean we will obviously keep an eye on this one and do keep in touch with it yourself as well Greg obviously is going to be back in the coming days and you know be sure to get back and let us know in news and let Greg know on the show so that we know exactly what's going on here but it certainly does seem on the face of it strange that you know the council is not communicating with you at all you know if the council now we we check Murray asked me said how many people do you what would you would be there to meet the council I said there would only be two or three people representing you know the park there wouldn't be four or fifty people there you know it would only be two or three people and if they'd answer some more questions and listen just listen to your concerns about the safety but as we were saying there's as you say a strange after four or five years that they still haven't communicated because I know every one of the people personally that started this this up and they've never been approached by any official of the council right and Don thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning as I said we'll keep keeping in touch and we look forward to hearing what happens next in the meantime Don thank you all right thanks a million if I get any more information I'll pass it on okay thank you Don thank you right that that was Don there speaking to us from Krana View and Bunkrana it's the Lancel Nunes show it is 24 minutes to 10 o'clock there is a very interesting new development being launched by Irish banks along with Mabs the Money Advice and Budgeting Service we're going to speak all about that after this short break watch the show live now on YouTube Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com around the northwest we'll be live at Foyone Company's Letter Kenny store this Friday the 9th to celebrate creating colorful homes a free day big paint weekend which is on this Thursday until Saturday in both the Letter Kenny and Ballet Buffet stores book a free in-store color consultation with a Dulux consultant in Letter Kenny this Thursday we're in Ballet 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This is the 9th of noon show on Highland radio with Donald Kavanaugh now we know that the European Central Bank has begun hiking interest rates and all the indications are that it's a process that has not stopped and will continue for some time that's putting people under more pressure in terms of loans it's increasing their repayments and it's having a knock on effect on their finances Irish banks are collaborating with MABS the money advice and budgeting service to launch a new website to help mortgage households that are struggling with those interest rate increases slightly to say we're joined on zoom this morning by Carl Cronin who's the regional manager of MABS at North Connaught and Ulster at Carl good morning to you good morning Dona Carl in terms of this initiative you're doing along with the banks through the BPFI the banking and payments Federation of Ireland it's important that people are supported and a lot of people are finding themselves particularly if they had loans that they could just about manage to service if they were at the pin of their corner when they were servicing those loans from the offset once those interest rates started to hit these people were potentially in trouble that's right Donald and that was one of the catalysts to us launching this campaign with the BPFI that households are becoming under more and more financial pressure with these increasing interest rates so there are three elements to this campaign that we have launched this week the first is an overall awareness campaign to encourage borrowers to talk to their lenders at the earliest opportunity so whether if they're having difficulty with their mortgage with a credit card debt with a personal loan perhaps a higher purchase agreement the key message is to contact the lender or the credit servicing firm early if they're in difficulty or if they feel they are going to get into difficulty with the repayments as a result of rising interest rates and other financial pressures on the household so that's the overall key message of this campaign is to communicate and engage at the earliest opportunity so in tandem with that then the BPFI have launched a new website dealing with debt.ie and that website is very clearly outlines how to deal with mortgage debt and then also all other types of debt like the credit cards and the personal loans and the higher purchases etc that I just mentioned and that website explains how lenders can work with borrowers to reach a solution with these problem debts and there are options and solutions available and they're all outlined on that website but the key thing about this website is that on the website it has it has all the key contact details for lenders and credit servicing firms and that's really important that no matter who your lender is or who your credit servicing firm is on dealing with debt.ie you'll find the email address or the phone number to get through to the correct department straight away to talk about the difficulties you may have with the repayments on these types of loans. I know there's always talk about look the first thing you do is you go to your bank and I suppose the bottom line is if someone is under financial pressure from the point of view of the financial institution maybe it's better to get 80% of what you're owed than to get nothing at all and when a discussion can be had maybe an arrangement can be reached maybe a loan term can be extended maybe something can be brokered in conjunction with yourselves if it comes to that or in conjunction with somebody else but I'm sure from the financial institution's point of view it's in their interest if they can't get 100% at least get 80% get 75% get something because it suits nobody if a loan is defaulted on and ultimately you have to go down the road of repossession and all that because that's what nobody wants and ultimately that's not going to serve anybody's interests. You're absolutely correct and by not engaging with the borrowers or the banks or whoever the lender may be what will happen ultimately is that legal proceedings will commence whether it is for repossession of a property whether it is just to get a judgment order for a credit card debt or a higher purchase agreement to repossess a car or whatever the case may be and nobody wants to do that the banks don't want to do that they don't want to incur extra charges or apply extra costs to a loan that's already in difficulty so the key message is always to engage and as you as you rightly point out many people may find it difficult to make that first step to make that first phone call and that's where mabs come into the equation that if you feel you just can't make that call to the lender or you don't feel strong enough to engage with them and talk about possible solutions or other options available well then contact us in mabs because we are the third party the honest broker between the borrower and the lender who will sit down and work out what is realistically affordable to address the debts we have here and then put those proposals to the lenders and work out a repayment arrangement that works for both the lender and the borrower and avoids all the legal costs and the repossessions and whatnot down the line and you generally do find the lenders are amenable to deals like that because as you say it avoids a lot of unpleasantness and it makes sure that they're getting something that's right and i mean they are very agreeable and open to proposals we put to them there may be some negotiation back and forth before we reach an ultimate long-term arrangement for the borrower but it's all about the person's circumstances what they can realistically afford there is no point in putting in an arrangement that is not going to work from day one and the lenders recognize that and they're happy to work within those boundaries so it all comes down to working out a sustainable budget a sustainable financial picture of the household of what's coming in and what's going out and what realistically is left over to pay back the debts be it the mortgage the personal loans the credit cards and that leads on to the third element of this campaign that we have launched this week which is the expansion of a framework agreement that mabs have with the BPFI for late stage mortgage arrears so we've had this framework in place since 2017 for those in late stage mortgage arrears and how they are dealt with through the banks but now this framework has been extended and open to all arrears categories be it early arrears pre arrears there may be no arrears whatsoever or those who are just starting the court process so this framework outlines what mabs will do for the borrower it outlines what the bank will do for the borrower and sets out the timeframes that we will work through in order to try and get that resolution for them so that's a really good move for any mortgage borrowers who are in difficulty or may be about to get in difficulty that this framework agreement has been extended to open up pre arrears cases early arrears cases as well as the late stage arrears cases that we've always dealt with in recent years do you find that when people come to you sometimes they come to you in a panic where they believe there's no future where they're completely snowed under by the level of death they're in by this failure to see a way out and sometimes by sitting down with someone like you and actually going through everything on paper in an honest and open way perhaps in many cases people maybe aren't quite as bad off as they thought they were and that there is almost always a way out yeah we pride ourselves in being an independent and non-judgmental service and very often we hear people coming into us and they say all am i the worst case you've ever seen and it's far from it and our advisors have seen all types of deaths and all types of scenarios cross their desk over the last 30 years so no matter what the situation is there is always a way to work through the death situation and if very much starts with working out what's coming into the household are you getting all the benefits that you should be getting are you getting all your entitlements are you maximising your tax credit allowance for example is every penny that's available to the household coming in and then we look at what's going out prioritising the food the rent the mortgage the electricity the heat the school costs the transport and then working our way through the budget to see what this family actually need on a month-to-month basis and then what's left over and even if it's if it's only a hundred euro left over at the end of the month well then we have money to go back to the lenders and start offering a repayment plan to them and once it's all worked out openly and honestly and transparently the lenders are very open to accepting those proposals now they will look for a view on occasion be it every six months or 12 months to see if the repayments can be increased and we will always work with the borrowers through that journey until they reach financial independence once again so I mean for anyone listening this morning who are struggling with debts or possibly think they're going to not be able to manage their debts in the near future because of something that's going to happen or has recently happened the key message is to reach out and get that help this morning either from ourselves in mabs or from the lenders who your debts are with because they will work with you and we will support you in that work to get a realistic resolution in place to make you be able to take that pressure off you because it is pressure and debt can be a very lonely place to be in donals so to alleviate that pressure and avoid that stress on a household work with the organizations that are there to help you be it ourselves or the lenders or the insolvency service or the competition and consumer protection commission there are lots of organizations out there to help people in this position there is no need to suffer in silence or to carry the stress and anxiety on your own dealing with debt.ie is the website that's been established to deal with this mortgage issue in particular there are several mabs offices in donnie gall dotted right around the country people can contact them by phone you can make contact online you can make contact by email do so anonymously initially if you so wish but the main main message as you say is to people is look reach out make contact and we'll take it from there that's right and all our contact details for all our offices throughout the country are available on mabs.ie car crone and regional manager of mabs in connet north connet and ulster thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning streaming exclusively on disney plus strip it hey still doing it what do you think after 25 years the full monday crew are back this is gonna be the greatest comeback give me strength in a new original series i call anybody love me they're older chock of the century and none the wiser no me may the full monday streaming june 14th exclusively on disney plus 18 plus subscription required tisnessy supply would you like to treat the kids to a free day out on saturday 10th of june there's lots of free events taking place near you for crinino nog from babies to teens there's a huge variety of creative activities across the county don't be disappointed and book your free place now at winfest.ie now is the time to experience all electric driving for yourself with the vokes wagon experience electric sales event from the ninth to the 17th of june at your local vokes wagon retailer discover our all electric cars charging solutions government incentives and our latest market leading 232 offers plus test drive the vokes wagon id range ireland's best-selling all electric cars available for immediate delivery at your local vokes wagon retailer search vokes wagon id vokes wagon best-selling claim based on latest published figures visit connelly's vulse wagon a canal road letter kenny today book a test drive at connelly's dot ie don't miss the 31st annual finn valley show on russle brothers farm killy gordon on saturday 17th of june with the usual dog home industries poultry sheep cattle horse and pony classes and fast and furious donkey derby plus show and shine tractor competition judged by kirstie ward from grassmen with trade stands live music and children's entertainment the finn valley show is sure to be a family fun day on june 17 this ad is sponsored by kill patrick brothers contracting for all your agri needs mowing raking bailing gps sewing slurry and manure spreading call jv or a on 087 21 21 7 6 0 this is the lentil nuncio on highland radio as we all know local elections took place in northern ireland last month the dairy city instra band district council was constituted it held its agm at the beginning of this week and we have a new mayor and everything is hunky dory and everything moves forward or does it because there is potentially some drama in the offing the alliance party lost both its seats on on dairy city council a dairy city instra band district council excuse me in the election that took place last month but the party has now begun a legal challenge against the result were joined by pat mccart on zoom pat an expert on all things political north of the border former editor of course of the dairy journal currently a columnist with the daily mirror pat good morning pat in terms of this challenge taken by alliance number one it seems to be a challenge over the transfer process now i i can't think that this could ever happen in a vote south of the border because there is so much scrutiny ring done by all the parties and there is such a close eye kept on the counters and on the count process that it's inconceivable that you know we've seen fights over two votes on an envelope uh you couldn't see a situation develop it's out to the border where 150 votes weren't transferred before an elimination was announced don't know that's a brilliant observation because you've just taken the words out of my mouth actually and i have spent years when i was a young reporter at elections and there were people by the way don't know i am not an expert in elections but i used to stand beside people who were and they could tell you exactly where every vote was going the the problem in the north donnell is by and large it's a force past the post system in the north and they're not used to this sort of transferring of votes and they're still not used it they're you know there were guys i remember from fannard uh during the needle blinny area and they were unbelievable they could nearly predict the election outcome from the very first no round off when the votes came out they could tell you uh no hearts number two blinny's number one somebody else is such and such well that's in the north it's by and large it's all up in the air it's until the votes are all counted before anybody can tell you but what's interesting donnell is alliance got two people elected in 2019 a woman called rachel ferguson and a guy called philip mckinney now rachel ferguson and my understanding went along to a meeting one night of the alliance party and i came out of the meeting as their candidate you know she was only going along to a meeting as a sort of supporter so alliance they were doing extremely well in the east of north and around around the belfast area and what they were hoping to do was uh do well in this in the west of the province and suddenly they had to unexpectedly in 2019 they got two people elected uh as far as i'm aware they've opened up an office in dairy and now they've lost both seats but the point is there was 150 votes the two as far as i recall the two d up people got elected and that left a surplus of somewhere 150 votes there's a guy called the alliance guy called philip mckinney if i remember correctly he was 49 votes behind but they didn't count the votes so that doesn't mean you say he would have got any that would have changed anything because the votes could have gone to the stlp martin reddy was actually elected the stlp guy he's a long serving council minister now it doesn't say that automatically that philip mckinney would have got elected but the point is we don't know he made it and that's where it's now gone to the high court in belfast donnell that's where i'm getting to i mean i know there is a phrase you hear very often returning officers use here and i'm not going to quote it correctly so excuse me i'll make a mess of it but they use a phrase along the lines of uh they will make a declaration on the basis that the remaining surplus of such and such is not enough as to make a potential material difference to the outcome of the count material different and it seems in this case i mean if you are 49 votes behind and there's 150 votes left to be now these are surplus votes from two d up people who have been elected um and and very often surpluses are left to one side if you have a surplus that's smaller than somebody else's uh vote after they're eliminated they would very often put the surplus to one side and then go back to them now i can't claim to wonders fully understand the process myself i understand about 75 of it and i wing it the rest of the time but i mean as i say and i sometimes wonder you know and it seems though that on the face of it if there were 150 surplus votes to be to be transferred why that wasn't done um just does seem to be yeah i don't know my understanding of it was a guy in england uh an elections expert who was just sort of going through the votes uh now whether he was working on an official capacity or just uh whether he's guys sort of uh fanatics about elections i don't know a hundred percent certain but he noticed it and he got in touch with the party and so on by the way i shout out for yunan kelly and donnie gall who ran most of the election three years i don't think it would happen on there's somebody like yunan from letter kenny it certainly wouldn't um and and and even and let's be honest even even if it did and you you referenced fanat and the blaney machine from fanat and there was also a huge medici machine between the fall in letter kenny as well and several other machines right around donnie gall i mean if there were 10 people counting behind a railing you were nearly guaranteed there were 15 to 20 party activists leaning over that railing watching every flick of every finger and you know not one vote would go missing but at least six people would notice it immediately yeah but you see that's the big point but the other points the alliance did very well this time again uh shin fain came first they they got what uh 39 access seats the dp status were but i think the alliance went up 14 seats in the local council they're on a roll they've become the third party in northern and they've uh it's now shin fain the d up in the alliance party which is a massive change on the demographics and the voting patterns and all the rest of them and uh they're doing very well up around belfast but they thought they were going to make a break through west of the band this time and that's what's pushing this they want to be seen now yes and all province or all northern arden wide party so they're that's why they're going to coordinate and they i think they want representation on starband district council so they can say we represent we have got bodies right across northern arden they'll be looking no doubt to the next general election as well now whether i mean and traditionally let's be honest foil in particular foils being a shin fain versus sdlp battle uh it was sdlp then it went shin fain then it went back to sdlp shin fain had some internal and administrative issues in derry city instraband over the past number of years the fact that this time they've got 18 out of 18 elected would suggest that whatever um issues may have arisen from those difficulties within shin fain those issues are it seems well and truly answered at least in the eyes of the electorate yeah when you're only 18 candidates and all 18 get elected and they're now the biggest party on on the council as well um they're on a roll there's no doubt about that but you see the the thing about alliance can also claim that they're on a roll now maybe not quite on guard with shin fain but they're they're doing very very well um like now shin fain are the biggest party in the assembly their biggest party in derry city council demographics are all running so the implications of all this don't know for the for the future of northern ireland has now been hotly contested and everybody's trying to claim their share of the client that's that's alliance are trying to make certain that they're not being squeezed out on any shape or form even down to a council seat and then derry instraband council finally in really part speaking about being squeezed out we've seen effectively the implosion of the austral unions at the hands of the d up there's an argument that says the stlp have suffered a similar implosion at the hands of shin fain but derry city instraband and derry city in particular has always been the alklire it was john hume country it was always the one area you were guaranteed was going to be loyal to the stlp the retaking of that seat uh for foil at wedspinster by column eastwood was going to be seen as maybe a sign that the stlp were going back into the ascendancy in foil the fact that they've lost they've lost the seat now in derry city instraband and they've seen shin fain take 18 out of 18 is column eastwood going to be very very worried at the moment yes and no because he won the last seat by the last time everybody thought it was going to be close he wanted my 15 000 votes and i by the way there's no obvious standard candidate for shin fain in the derry area and as you said don't know this derry still john hume territory and unless shin fain come up with a red hot candidate it's going to be very hard to overturn 15 000 votes column eastwood yeah the shin fain are on a roll as i said earlier and maybe they could put up anybody and they'll get the shin fain vote out but column eastwood performed brilliantly the last time it's hard to see them losing 15 000 votes on one swing food with the pot mccarth thank you very much indeed for that analysis and we'll be keeping it closer and what's happening that's pot mcarth there it's the nine till noon show and with apologies to mcala news is going to be a little bit late we're going to take a short break news because mcala is next national heritage week returns from august 12th to 20th and this year celebrates living heritage organize an event by exploring and sharing the traditions crafts and skills passed down through generations in your family or community visit heritage week dot ie for more national heritage week is a program of the heritage council supported by the local authorities heritage officer network and the department of housing local government and heritage welcome to the spa at orchids one of europe's largest spas at the holly root hotel bundorn discovered tranquility in our japanese themed garden boasting seven treatment rooms seaweed baths and a secret garden with an outside hot tub and sauna now let me take you to the heart of bundorn where you'll find the holly root hotel center don't miss out on our exclusive midweek hotel specials more information at holly root hotel dot com looking for a fun family day out century complex has something for everyone this summer with delicious food at backstage hours of fun at century play an exciting new releases coming to century cinemas including little mermaid the flash and indiana jones dial of destiny visit centuries cinemas dot e for more information connect hearing is open for free hearing tests our audiologist is available monday to friday for wax removal services at our letter kine clinic in the courtyard shopping center we also offer a home visit for those who aren't able to visit us our hearing is our social sense are you finding hearing more of a challenge call urshula today on 07491 13296 to make an appointment good hearing helps us to connect to our family friends and loved ones connect hearing connecting you to life live on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning i'm akilah clark with the news at 10 o'clock the first update in 27 years to the country's national island policy will be published later our living islands aims to enhance life for islanders and contains commitments around employment health care and housing minister for rural development heather humphries is launching the strategy on our more island today she says the national policy will improve a range of sectors for islanders this is looking at education it's looking at housing it's looking at how we can get more people working on the islands it's looking at remote work and it's looking at e-health it's how we take new technology how we embrace it and maximize it for the benefit of the people living on islands the state exams are now underway for 135 000 students across the country 4807 students have registered to sit the exams in dunningall 2066 pupils will sit the leaving cert 170 leaving cert applied and 2571 students will face their junior cert in the county english paper one began at half past nine this morning for both leaving and junior certs education minister norma foley is wishing them well and says students should reach out for support if they're struggling or worried about their exams i would say to students that at this point they have done the work and i know they have done the work and again i would say to them that if there comes a point where you are under particular stress or there's a particular difficulty for you reach out everybody in the school community is invested in every student doing the best that they can do so seek the support from from family from friends you know support one another i would say to the students as you go through the system the public expenditure minister says he's keen to put money back in people's pockets in this autumn's budget it comes as the fiscal advisory council warned against any giveaways on budget day saying instead funds should be used for arland's aging population and environmental concerns minister pascal donahue says there's plenty of work ahead for him and for the finance minister but they want to reward people by protecting the wider economy to come up with a budget that does the right thing by our public finances by our country and by our society and can make progress on the different priorities that are there so very specifically what i do favor is the approach that i've been able to do in all the different budgets that i've been involved in which is to help with the pressure that people do feel in their persons and wallets but not to do it in such a way that creates further risks or problems first down there's calls for a change in regulations governing septic tanks and water well grants as it stands to avail of the septic tank grant it must have been registered by february 2013 country me hall nocton says this leaves many at a disadvantage he's calling on the relevant ministers to overhaul the regulations to protect homeowners from being financially impacted we're talking over 10 years ago when your post had registration for your septic tanks gone i mean as i said it's a rural county there's a lot of these singular septic tanks and basically they will not pass the standard going forward and when families go to look for financials they're saying you have to have registered and i think this is very unfair and i think this definitely has to be changed because the people are going to be financially out of pocket and if there's a grant there i think everybody should be entitled to it the uans warning of grief and far-reaching consequences with thousands of people at risk from flooding following an explosion on a dam in ukraine several residents in the russian controlled area of kerson have already been forced to leave their homes taking only the essentials with them at least seven people are feared missing mosco and kiv are blaming each other for the blast sky special correspondent alex crofford is in the region and says the reality is harrowing we were able to walk down this road yesterday we walked down those streets and it was more flooded that was walking level now it's say overnight we reckon it's probably come up about four foot the move away from cash has led to an explosion in financial fraud since the cova 19 pandemic according to the irish independent there's been a five hundred and sixty percent increase in the number of bike accounts taken over by fraudsters while online scams where somebody pretends to be a reputable company known as fishing is up four hundred and seventeen percent the figures were released by the department of justice to dunagal deputy pierre story who says a national strategy must be developed due to the growing threat weather and i dry and mostly sunny today although there may be some patchy clad at times highest temperatures off 20 to 23 degrees that's all from highland radio news for now we'll be back with an update again at 11 o'clock until then good morning the obituary notice says for this Wednesday morning june the seventh the death has taken place of fanny russell negamble church time garden church hill fannies remains will repose utterly at residents from five o'clock this evening funeral arrangements to be confirmed later family time please from 10 o'clock until 11 o'clock the death has taken place of muriel mcgraw nay magnum e rowan heist maher anon letter kenny and formally from glendys removal from the eternal light chapel rest might and top letter kenny this afternoon at four o'clock going to the family home at rowan heist maher anon murals remains will be reposing utterly at home today from six o'clock until 10 o'clock and tomorrow from 12 noon until 10 o'clock with rosary both nights at nine o'clock funeral from there on friday morning at half past 10 going to the church of the irish martyrs balirian for 11 o'clock recreation mass which can be viewed on the parish youtube channel interment afterwards in comal cemetery letter kenny family time on the morning of the funeral please family flowers only please donations and they are flowers if desired to hill crest heist nursing home comfort fund care of any family member the death has occurred of john mcglashan six the rock glendys and formally from veal of levin alexandria john remains will repose at chauvin's funeral home sandfield our draw from three o'clock this afternoon with removal at half past four going to his late residents heist private this evening wake tomorrow from 11 o'clock until nine o'clock funeral service on friday morning at 11 o'clock in st. connell's church glendys with burial afterwards in the local cemetery heist private on the morning of the funeral funeral service can be viewed live on church services dot tv the death has taken place of in a pattern negal her 196 bali coolman estate striban reposing at her home today from 12 noon funeral leaving her home on friday morning at quarter past nine for recreation mass in st. mary's church melmite at 10 o'clock interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery donations in leo flower's place to the foil hospice care quickly funeral directors family time please from 11 o'clock until 11 o'clock the recreation mass can be viewed live by the parish webcam the death has taken place of myra e will halon nanny kahan 78 ash lawn and formerly of bohar nadolin and caru ria galliv myra's remains will repose at her late residents today from 2 o'clock until 10 o'clock funeral from there to more morning going to the church of the irish martyrs bali rian letter kenny for recreation mass at 11 o'clock full by interment in new lex cemetery the funeral mass can be viewed on youtube the death has taken place of jerry column five alt eving mean and illard dairy bag originally arts bag gore to hork heist private today please funeral mass in st. mary's church dairy bag to more morning at 11 o'clock with burial afterwards in knock full cemetery the funeral mass can be viewed live on cairn rute funeral directors facebook page the death has occurred of william willie mcdermid five knock on one at terrace letter kenny formally mean a horner bali bouffet reposing at his late residents removal this morning at half past 10 for recreation mass at 11 o'clock in st. jennan's cathedral with burial afterwards in kilty vogue cemetery glenn finn the recreation mass can be viewed on church services dot tv family flage only donations if desired to the irish kidney association care of any family member or marley funeral directors for more details including any family health guidelines for wigs and funerals please go to hindant radio dot com is your home or motor insurance up for renewal now is the time to check if your policy still offers you the right cover and the right fit at the right price to be sure you're getting the best deal take this opportunity to shop around it's easier than you think simply contact your insurer or broker today remember don't just renew review for more information visit understanding insurance dot ie brought to you by insurance island it's the second of the nine to noon show this morning it's a donal cabinet with you on the program on till 12 midday a good luck to savannah sweeney starting her junior cert exams today that's from dad mom and josh was sienna uh thank you uh yeah well i mean i'm presuming savannah is well into her first english paper at the moment and will not be listening at this point in time but certainly our thoughts as we said earlier are with all of those who are doing their exams at the moment as i said uh i did my leaving cert 42 years ago and um it's a it's still a memory that burns that's burned into my synapses of my brain um callers is regarding the gulf hole in one merger it sounds like rory macaroy was one of the only ones not to take the hundreds of millions did someone say rory was live id uh i'd say rory's raging uh thank you kevin in done low for that glorious pun uh callers says can you please tell people to look after their animals in this hot weather the cars and pavements are roasting hot our animals need plenty of shelter and water they cannot adapt to this heat so we need to protect them and absolutely uh would concur with that boncrona traffic caller says is an absolute nightmare westbrook bridge is a disgrace you simply cannot get out onto the main road we need traffic lights but maybe that's too simple a solution and the caller says at the moment on the road from lyford letter kenny there is a line of paint it looks like it leaked from a vehicle now the caller says there are road markings being painted on the old port road at the moment in letter kenny could it be that um the this line of paint on the road between lyford and letter kenny is uh potentially linked with those works so we don't want to be making any such presumptions but um it's a question that's been asked and uh we'll we'll put it out there as the man said now you'll have heard in the news that minister heather humphreys is in donnie gall today she's minister for rural development and is the coordinator of the our rural future program uh she performed a number of duties yesterday and i spoke to the minister while she was opening the new dldc offices in letter kenny not all that far away from us here on the mountaintop in letter kenny and uh minister humphreys was speaking about the uh launch of the new island plan that's taking place today she's going to be on arin moore um she's enroute there now as i understand it but yesterday she was uh right across she was in brookless she was in malin beg she was in crossroads kelly gordon and she was also in letter kenny and as i say heading for arin moore to launch a plan for the islands and uh when i spoke to the minister in letter kenny last evening this is what she had to say about this island plan that is being launched the island strategy i think it's about uh 26 years since the last one was launched uh i have been to arin moore this is my third time to visit it it's a particularly beautiful island and of course all of donnie gall is particularly beautiful in the sunshine that we've had today but uh i'm back there in arin moore to launch this island strategy and what this is about is about it's a plan so that we can support island communities because island communities have uh challenges we have our own challenges in rural island that were overcoming but island communities have an additional set of challenges when you think of connectivity and and uh and and how they get there and their big thing is is how they can increase their population so this is looking at education it's looking at housing it's looking at uh how we can get more people working on the islands it's looking at remote work and it's looking at e-health it's how we take new technology how we embrace it and maximize it for the benefit of the people living on islands and that was minister heather humphries speaking to us yesterday as we said and she's en route to arin moore and that launch taking place on arin moore very shortly now it's uh 15 quarter past 10 it's uh time for a short break uh if you play highland radio ncbi bingo grab your books grab your pens because very very shortly indeed we'll be handing you over to callus the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio it's time for ncbi bingo on highland radio it's wednesday the 7th of june you're playing on the blue sheet the reference number is s13 it's game number 23 the numbers are 89 40 3 70 45 19 67 85 8 and finally 41 phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 tonight leave your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your ncbi bingo information at highland radio.com shop lk at brine mccormick sports and leisure main street let it canny all the kids are back playing football with longer days and shorter nights kids football boots from only 25 euro available in velcro or lace check our new range of kids boots shorts socks and accessories visits our new club room with quarter zips t-shirts and matching bottoms for your favorite local click on team wear at vmcsports.ie for more details summer is sizzling and so is the easy living furniture summer sale which has just been extended with absolutely everything reduced now is the time to spruce up your space with stylish furniture and unbeatable savings from cozy sofas to elegant dining sets we have the perfect pieces to transform your home but hurry this sizzling summer sale is only extended for a limited time only don't miss out on the hottest sale of the season visit easy living furniture presently retail park at cherry more kitchens and bedrooms we are now operating out of one new state of the art showroom in donnie galtown and we invite you to visit our new 5000 square foot donnie galtown showroom to discover the latest eye catching designs remember at cherry more you're dealing directly with a manufacturer which means high quality kitchens at factory prices start planning your dream kitchen or bedroom by calling cherry more on zero seven four nine seven two five eight double two cherry more 25 years delivering value quality and service all over arland it's the nine till noon show you can make your views known to us you can text us or whatsapp us on 086 60 25 000 call us on 07491 25 000 0035 374 9125 000 if you're outside of the dining area it's at highland radio on twitter highland hub on facebook it's uh comments at highlandradio.com if you choose to use email now yesterday on the program we spoke to kevin mckinney of sip2 he's one of the retained fire fighters who have embarked on industrial action which could escalate into strike in the coming weeks if there isn't an agreement reached they have been speaking about their grievances and the demands they have in order to ensure more recruitment and retention for the service there is a call and you'll have heard on the newspaper review this morning the headline on the finn valley voice to employ more firefighters that's the call from councillor martin harley and councillor harley joins us live on the line this morning martin good morning to you morning donnell councillor harley you have acknowledged that yes there is a need for more recruitment but if that recruitment is going to happen there need to be changes to the terms and conditions under which retained firefighters are hired and you believe the the council and and ultimately government need to go into serious discussions with kevin mckinney and his colleagues to see what agreements can be reached yeah it's at the moment talking to local firefighters here that went down the way does the modern they're on call 24 7365 days a year i think in the current times we talk about a work a work better working conditions i think we need to employ more firefighters that that firefighters can have their time off and they can be rostered on a certain level that you know that you're going to have your time off i mean everyone has to have um their holidays and have their breaks and their different family gatherings so i think it's not fair to expect them to be on call all the time so i think that needs to be looked at that's one of things need to be looked at second thing needs to be looked at to try and get more people to to join the fire service we need to to look at the distance um at the moment i think it's 2.5 kilometers from the fire station you have to live to to um to be accepted on the fire service i think we need to extend that really outslider because if he takes tenor or fire service down on the leopard side of tenor you probably would be quicker getting from from killy gordon to the station and you won't be from the top of agonical road especially during busy times so so we have to look at those things as well at the same time we have to try and keep i know the call out time as as quick as we can to to save to save lives and to but that's where there's fires that paper on call quick to to stop that as well so there is issues there that needs to be addressed but i think the main one for a lot of fire service people is um the 24 7 365 days i think that's the big problem because the reality is i mean the reality is i will finish work here this evening and if i choose to go out for a pint with a friend tonight i can do so if i choose to go to the cinema switch my phone off sit back and relax for two hours i can do so if i choose to leave my phone charging in one room go into a different room and chat with my family and ignore the phone for the rest of the day which i do frequently that's not a problem if i am a retained firefighter it's a big problem because i am not in control of my time i am not in control of what i can do once i leave my place of work that's correct yeah and you take a maybe an instant of where you have the firefighters have families well where where after their partner goes out that the firefighter has to look after kids you just can't walk out the door the door and leave the kids there so there's a lot of it's very simple as you said that need to be addressed like it's it's um a great big conversation is working from home and work life balance that doesn't come into it when you talk of a firefighter they don't have any of that so we have to look at the bigger picture and there is going to be a cost to this i mean that's to be realistic this is going to be a cost to this it's not going to come without a cost uh but i don't think i think the cost shouldn't be uh even commented the stage i guess overall probably for dunny doll if you looked at it you may be looking at another for the whole country maybe another 1.5 million and when you see government um billions that are that are being saved over the last number of years i think two but an extra one point i've eaten 1.5 billion put that into the 26 counties on the bigger scale of things that's not a lot of money and it gives people a better standard of life as well and plus it'll be more attractive for people to join as well they're also talking about the two issues with money which are number one the retainer you're paid as a retained firefighter will not be counted toward a mortgage for instance it will not be accepted by a bank as collateral toward a mortgage and that's going to put you at a disadvantage also the issue that pension entitlements after you retire are under question and under scrutiny as well so i mean there there will be certainly financial costs associated with that but again i suppose that does have to be balanced against the question what do we need to do in order to ensure that we have the first service that we need and the first service that guarantees the best possible response yeah that's that's that's all i mean there's a lot of issues there that could probably um that would have to be discussed um at a union and on a personal level among the existing firefighters that that wouldn't be kind of i wouldn't like to discuss it on the airway but you know there are issues there that and i think that there can be a solution come to at such an important um such an important job as well and i wouldn't i wouldn't envy um i wouldn't envy their their job um at some of the institutions they have to go to and it's not it's not everybody that can that will be able to do that job and and we have to admire them we take them for granted but they have to be the fantastic work to do so i think we have to go sit down around the table and talk to them and come to a solution i think the overall price of this and the bigger scheme of things is not a massive price i think overall nicely even for me locally on a day-to-day basis donnie go candy council does manage the retained fire service the the service and and the stations etc the equipment and all that are under council control realistically speaking how much discretion does the council have to have discussions locally with firefighters in terms of their terms and conditions or is the council bound by national agreements and by national rules which are set in dublin no no i think there can be discussion locally as well i mean um sir our director services donnie go candy council gary martin um has been has i talked to him last week regarding this when i know this industry like scumill fund uh we um felt that they can be they can be talks there and they can be they can be things worked out lately going forward so i i think um there's national issues but then there's local issues that can be addressed as well i mean uh college times and distances distances from the fire station may vary within different areas different counties so that thing that we can address that locally we can look at each each fire station individually as to where as to as to college times and distances as well so i think that that can be addressed locally um so there are there are local issues that we can look at and i'm sure i know gary has um has a good relationship with the fire service and donnie got and i know gary be willing to to talk to them on that from your own discussions with the the fire service person now that you've been talking to in recent days do you get the sense from them that they will be and i certainly got the got the sense from kevin mckinney yesterday i'd have to say that that they do want to talk that they do want to reach agreement and that they do want to get this behind them and just go back to what they are doing which is to be the best possible firefighting service they can be yeah that that doesn't that definitely that was the conversation that i had with them that they don't want to do the job they they do want to do the job and that's they put their name forward to do this job and they want to do it they don't want to be having this discussion this discussion but they would rather not see this discussion happen they'd rather see it sorted as you say and get back to doing what they want to do but just um i think the the main issue i feel um other than financial issues i think the main issue is a roster system that that they have proper time off and that they can have their family get together they can have their night out they can they can do have a work-life balance same as other people in other jobs councillor martin harley thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning that's uh martin there and that and that that retain for uh firefighters dispute is one that's going to go on and uh we we will watch with interest to see if there is a resolution to this and hopefully there will be now scott anode in callers says i can't believe the children's allowance was paid 100 euro for each child today what about the pensioners now i i may be wrong here and if i am wrong i will apologize in advance my understanding is that there may be an extra payment given under children's allowance today in terms of uh back to school so we know that parents are going to be hateful with extra charges over the summer at the moment it's exam season you're going to be moving into over the summer where people will have to be uh looking after children then trying to buy school uniforms and books etc and all that so it may well be that there is an extra payment uh to do with back to school that could be the situation if i am wrong i will um i will i will i apologize in advance but i think that may very much be the case now we're going to take a short break and after the break we're going to talk about new rules of etiquette and uh how we need to change the rules of etiquette and how the changing sort of pace of life means changes in the way we are expected to act that's coming up after watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com it's easy to feel trapped when you're dealing with mortgage arrears the worry sleepless nights the impact on you and your family but there is a way out welcome come on in at a while our door is always open we're here to help and ready to listen get free confidential support and practical advice to help you take control of the situation by visiting mabs.ie slash a while that's mabs.ie slash a while an initiative of the government of island if you're organizing an event you might be surprised by everything that bizprint offer from photo props backdrops and banners to tablecloths pens key rings and mugs everything to make sure your event is a success call bizprint on 91 double seven nine double five or see 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models call in the i motors today we're sure to have a nissan model for you let's talk about etiquette and rules of behavior you may remember the old days of edith worton we're on a rider in the age of innocence a portrayal of of that era we've all seen on our screens jane austin's writings of course absolutely dripping with doing the right thing and sometimes we may think in this busy fast paced 21st century that etiquette is an aged boring concept that doesn't really apply to us anymore but perhaps there are just new rules of etiquette out there that we aren't exactly quite sure what they are and i certainly have found myself once or twice wondering is this the right thing to do or not and even more so i have found myself being told by my children what i should be doing because i've been doing it wrong joined on the line by emily hurican who recently wrote a very interesting magazine article about this whole question emily good morning good morning how are you very well indeed um i suppose there are certain things that are self-evident one does not take out one's phone and start texting somebody in the middle of a conversation but i'm sure and we'll start there because the mobile phone is probably maybe one of the the centerpieces if we do have a new etiquette surely use of mobile phones is going to have to be up there as one of the top three issues that will arise well definitely and i think it's really funny that you pick the example of we obviously do not take out our phones and start texting somebody in the middle of the conversation the reality is that we do people do that all the time though that would have been considered rude it would probably have been called out as rude even up to i think about three years ago but recently i think that we don't even notice how rude that is anymore it happens all the time and there is a line that i write in this piece that i wrote for the sunday independent life magazine which is basically to say that your full attention is now the most flattering thing that you can give anybody so in a world in which pretty much every one of us is constantly dividing our attention between what's happening in front of us and what's happening in the online world that we equally inhabit and it is very rare that you get full attention from anyone anymore people will have less and they'll say i just need to send this text i just need to check that what's that work i'm just doing whatever it is that they're doing whether they're on social media and they no longer feel mostly i believe that not doing these things is necessary so in the piece i write just put your phone away unless you're a brain surgeon on call put your phone away there is literally nothing so important that it can't wait for 10 or 15 minutes in terms of our interactions say dining for instance the the concept of a family sitting around a table and not having phones on the table and just having a meal and having a conversation it seems almost to be a redundant concept and in embracing this new freedom of the information age that we find ourselves in this century have we thrown the baby out with the bath water with the bath water in terms of our behavior in terms of our yeah we've thrown out all the boring stuffy stuff that we don't need anymore but in doing so we've perhaps thrown out a lot of what benefited us as well and we don't even realize it yeah and i think that maybe we have also neglected to keep the things that make life a little bit more pleasant so one of the starting points for this piece was you know we think of etiquette and we kind of laugh we you know we go it very much is that it is important you know what china have you used for the dinner party and what does it mean that you have used this particular set of china you know we think it's old-fashioned and laughable but in fact if you consider etiquette to be the thing the set of things that makes daily interactions more pleasant and more palatable then i think it kind of comes back into its own when you look at the world that we live in now it's frantic it's really rushed as i say like most of us are doing at least two if not three things at any one time we are you know our attention is divided our phones are clamoring for attention the people in front of us are clamoring for attention the speed of everything is speeded up the automation of things very hard to talk to an actual person that the daily irritations of life are far more considerable than they were 20 years ago and i think that that is where etiquette comes back in and if we stop seeing it as something outdated and silly and go no these are the things that we can actually do to restore a little sense of harmony to the world that we live in to take some of the friction and irritation out of it and it is small things it is exactly that thing of when having dinner whether with your family or your friends sit and have dinner with them talk to them you know don't have talk and half look at your phone while they do exactly the same thing and we do you know this gets mentioned a lot in parenting advice for example you know this is a valuable opportunity for you as a parent to check in with your kids and see what's going on with them so make the most of it make rules around no phones at the dinner table i think you can also just rephrase that and go this is just basic common courtesy this is just a small way in which we make the way that we live in the world that we live in a little bit more pleasant so it's that kind of thing it's the kind of interface between the online life and real life that really i found myself very much talking about in this in terms of the reaction that you've got to the piece i'm sure there'll be many people will have reacted and said thank god someone is saying this because it needs to be said i'm sure there'll also be people going what century is she living in well if there are and there may well be i haven't come across them yet in fact mainly what i've had is people telling me you should have put this in you should have put in so there was a whole thing about cycling um that i got from a couple of different people obviously what's happening on the road now is also really irritating us there was an awful lot of people saying um you know what i think maybe doesn't really fall into etiquette you know this thing about never being able to speak to a real person but essentially what i got was i mean in a way probably you could just have kept writing that piece you know you could have added more and more and more to it because every time i looked at a different aspect of life i discovered that obviously there are more and more things that we feel strongly about um you know there was something for example the i am greener than thou attitude was something that also came up a lot people kind of going well you know we're all trying and i don't want to be made to feel bad because you are vegan on mondays and i'm not or you know because you recycle more than i do uh you know do it don't boast about it and some of it just falls back into you know these are old rules of etiquette boasting is never very charming boasting never really makes other people feel good and i think ultimately when you talk about etiquette you're talking about manners and the fundamental point of manners is that you try to make other people feel comfortable you in some small way put yourself out in order to make somebody else feel better or more at ease you know whether it's giving up a chair or not telling them you know how amazing your kids are and how they did really brilliantly in the leaving start that their child is just about to sit i may be feeling a bit iffy about you you know you think that those are obvious and i think they used to be obvious but i don't think they're obvious anymore because the entire world of social media it sometimes seems to me is predicated on boasting you know all you know this amazing thing happens to me and i'm putting up a picture of it i'm putting a post about it you know there's so much of that online now that i think there's a genuine confusion about the fact that that isn't always very polite it doesn't make other people feel good about themselves why are you doing it you're doing it because you're happy you're not doing it to add to the sum of general happiness and it just tends to more and more leak from online into real life are we mistaking online interaction for real friendship and treating our interactions in real life as we would treat them online that is a good question i don't know i think that at this stage we probably need to accept that our online interactions are real friendship i don't think that we can make the distinction anymore and i would make the distinction i don't think that our online interactions by and large certainly mine are as satisfying as my real life interactions where you have you know obviously a kind of a 360 degree approach to communication in which you know there is a kind of non-verbal or non-written element to it which is also really important i certainly think that i get more from my real life interactions and from what i've read about this i'm not alone generally we do get more from our real life interactions but that said i mean we really do lead an awful lot of our lives online i don't think we can dismiss that and go those aren't real friendships they are but i do think that having those online friendships and those online interactions has definitely changed the way we behave in real life some things that will have changed over the years and i'm certainly old enough to remember a time when if a smoker were in somebody's house they would pretty much reach for a packet and ask for an astray with the expectation that they would be permitted to smoke within that house or within that area these days if a smoker looked at a box within somebody else's home i suspect the reaction they get would be you know one of absolute disgust if not out and out horror that certainly has changed over the years are there other examples where maybe we have changed behaviors that now we would see as being horrendously bad manners where is maybe 30 years ago it wouldn't have been yeah i think that that is certainly true and i think that smoking is a great example of what you can achieve you know i mean if we made the collective effort around mobile phone use that we made around smoking if we acknowledged this is not necessarily good for us and certainly it should be limited and if we put the kind of social regulation around mobile phone use that we have around cigarettes and smoking i think definitely in you know i don't know five or ten or years you would be back to a stage where to pick up your phone casually while you're in the middle of a conversation with somebody and send a text or check an email or whatever would be really frowned on and i think that that would be a good thing and i'm sure loads of people completely disagree with me on it which is fine but you know it can happen social mores and norms can absolutely change i mean one example that i given the piece is i think that you know even maybe five or six years ago if i had not responded to an email that somebody had sent me or if somebody did not respond to an email that i sent them asking them for something i would consider that was rude and you know i would wonder why they hadn't responded you know and you would even maybe would you spiral into god you know did they not want to do the thing that i asked them to do or you know why are they not responding and answering now i think we all accepted the sheer volume of communication is just so so high that of course people don't respond you know how many thousand emails you get in the course of a week yeah things are going to fall through the cracks so no it is no longer rude that somebody hasn't responded sorry and it is also equally i don't think it's rude to remind them that they haven't responded so i mean that is you know kind of a very small and kind of obvious example of how things have changed i would have had the habit of if someone had texted me and said uh are you okay for that meeting or will we meet at seven o'clock wherever i would tend to respond with the thumbs up emoji yes until i was told by my daughter apparently that's rude yeah i have also been told by my kids the very same thing i still don't quite get it i have to say i i still do it to be honest yeah like i still occasionally send a thumbs up emoji i mean you know maybe you don't need to respond you know maybe this is self-evident i'll see you at ten whatever do you need a thumbs up emoji no you probably don't but i mean if you're sending something it's quicker and easier to do that than it is to yes i will see you at ten um so yeah i don't quite i'm sure there are many shades of emoji use this i don't 100 percent understand and i have to say that they i often look at my phone and discover a series of new emojis have been added and i have absolutely no idea what they mean well i can tell you i use four emojis yeah i will use i will use i use the thumbs up i use the to laughing out loud i use the wink and i use the and i've been told i'm potentially wrong with this i use the red heart as well sometimes oh really because i use that a lot why are we yeah apparently because i would use the red i mean if for instance if someone posts up it's my dad's anniversary today happy heavenly birthday dad or whatever something like that i will put a heart i won't i won't make a comment uh i don't like the care thing i just don't like the care thing for some reason so i will just put a red heart that just says lots of love i'm thinking and yeah you know and if they see the notification great if they don't see the notification no no harm done um same goes for birthdays i mean you know you try to respond to birthday greetings and you you you respond to the first 10 or 11 and then if more start coming in you get to the point where you just now i can't and then the next day you put up a big thanks to everybody and then you put a big thanks to everybody for your wonderful wishes on my birthday and then all your friends that didn't send you a text go all out i'm so guilty though because i never sent a message you can't win on that one you just kind of win on that one no you can't win i mean i i just reminded me something wasn't there some english politician who responded to somebody putting very much this message of you know a bereavement message or something or an in-memoriam message with lol because he thought lol meant lots of love yeah and then everyone went oh my god laughing out loud really at this person posting about their dead relative and he was genuinely lost and confused in the world so i mean the other thing that i preach in the piece and that i think we can't ever preach enough is just be kind and patient and tolerant nobody's going to get it right all the time a lot of it is new some of it is confusing you know and rules change i mean i think lol did once upon a time mean lots of love so you know just be decent and kind to each other is the fundamental underpinning of everything that falls into the category of etiquette it just is try to make people you know try to make them feel at ease and you know just don't overreact and go nuts because somebody uses the wrong emoji yeah we'll survive this is slightly off topic but i did once in fact a friend had lost his partner and i i did send a message and as i was sending it i went to hit the heart and i hit the wrong one and i sent the message with the laughing out loud emoji at the end of it i immediately realized what i'd done i couldn't recall it i i messaged him straight back within a tenth of a second i i messaged him straight back to i am so so sorry that he messaged me back saying it's cool myself and the the lads got a great laugh out of it actually you know and thankfully he realized it was a mistake but i was oh i i didn't send an emoji for it afterwards it happens my sister did exactly the same thing under very similar circumstances with a unicorn emoji like a unicorn sticker and then she sent them and this was on a group and we were all sending condolences yeah she was like oh my god i'm so sorry i mean it happens you know it just don't happen and again this person said they got a laugh out of it and i mean if you have provided a laugh to somebody yeah he's in a difficult place in their life that's great yeah that is amazing they know you didn't mean the laughing crying emoji you know yeah they knew that my sister didn't mean the unicorn emoji it was just funny yeah comment in from a listener most young people do not respect older members of the community for example getting on public transport or getting up to give a seat even to mothers with babies and young children now i'm of of an age where that would have been absolutely ingrained in me and it would just be an automatic reaction uh it it seems for for many people these days it isn't and is that one of those rules that really and truly you know it hasn't changed in two three four hundred years that it still is good manners to offer your seat to somebody who is a older than yourself or a woman with a baby or whatever god yes i mean that rule will never ever ever change but as a sedentist don't look of course you should do that i feel sad when i hear that this doesn't happen my personal feeling and take on it is that it is probably more that the young person in question hasn't even noticed they're so busy doing what they do online they are so involved in what's on the screen in front of them that they haven't actually noticed that there is somebody who they should be offering to see to i mean i dearly hope that that is true it's a pity because obviously they should notice and they should stand up and also i think it's pity for them i think those small interactions those small unpleasant interactions are you know they're part and parcel of formulating a belief in the world as a decent place which i think is really important because i think a lot of social media particularly twitter which can be very antagonistic builds it it feeds into this idea of the world is a very antagonistic place as a very negative place as a place where people are kind of angry and critical whereas i actually don't think that that is what the world is like and i think that if you are going about your daily business and your own buses and pavements and in and out of shops and not permanently on your phone you get a chance to see that the world is full of really decent people you know you sound up and offer your seat to somebody and that person thanks you and they sit down and they take your seat or sometimes they say no i'm fine i don't need your seat but thank you anyway you know and you go on your way having had this really tiny but really positive interaction and i think that it is a shame that you know that happens less because the phone sucks up more i mean i sound like a dinosaur i know i do but i'm i'm going to take it i'm willing to sound like a dinosaur i do believe in those things i think that the opportunities missed to interact with people whether it's on a bus or in a shop and as i say they're small you may never ever see this person again in your whole life but it is part and parcel of feeding into this idea that yeah the world is full of decent people finally and before we go and we're coming to the end i want to raise what's become a very thorny issue in recent times and indeed became a very legal issue in one celebrated case in this country over the past couple of months late last year that's the issue of pronouns um again i i'm of an age where it was all very simple it was either he or she and and i still i can't get my quite get my head around referring to someone as they because it sounds awfully impersonal um and we're at a point where we want to do the writing and there are going to be cases and it's going to be one of those where we're going to mess it up because we're just not used to adapting to pronouns depending on people's preferences and so on and depending on how people identify and maybe sometimes we just don't know how somebody identifies and that that's creating a whole new minefield that that's presenting a challenge in terms of etiquette too isn't it it is um i think that probably i mean i think that um i think that younger people are much find this much easier maybe than we do it's very new to us and you know it takes some getting our heads around the younger people my kids seem to just you know find is really quite easy to adapt to um i think that again i think that you just if it can be covered by just really quite basic courtesy will all be fine you know if somebody wishes to be referred to as they then you know good manners suggest that this is what we do and the same good manners suggest that if we get it wrong if somebody gets it wrong that the person in question would just you know take a minute to say that this is what they would prefer they don't even need to go into the reasons why just reiterate you know i would rather if you refer to me as they um you know or any of the other i mean there are now many pronouns and i'm not going to get into it because i'll get some of them wrong but you know again it just comes down to this is what they have asked for why would we not do it you know i don't understand why anybody would you know kind of get up in arms about that it seems to me reasonably simple um you know and then again if we get it wrong you know don't let's not attack anybody for that let's just explain if they have genuinely got it wrong rather than are making a point of saying it wrong just you know explain to them and let them give them a chance to get it right i remember over 40 years ago in school our civics teacher uh said to us we were talking about issues like this and i'm going back to uh 50er in 1980 and our civics teacher sort of said to us look lads here here's the bottom line he said treat everyone else the way you'd like them to treat you and you won't go too far wrong he's right i mean he's absolutely right i think that probably just about covers everything doesn't it take a minute how would you like this person to treat you and then just go do the same yeah Emily Hurican it's been a pleasure thank you very much indeed thank you so much Dunnegal County Council are delighted to announce that the Loch Foyle Ferry Service linking Green Castle and McGilligan and the Swilly Ferry Service linking Bongkranagh and Rathmullen will operate a full service from June 1st 2023 both ferries operate seven days a week further information including timetables and ferries can be found at LochFoyleFerry.com or swallyferry.com with more all electric cars on Irish roads than ever before now is the time to make your move now is the time to follow the leader and choose a 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live music every weekend it's tonight's a new show on Highland radio a very good morning to you don't know with you until 12 noon oh it's 6 6 25 000 text or whatsapp us with your views and your perceptions caller says I was in letter Kenny at the weekend a complete disaster with traffic the town's destroyed with traffic lights everywhere they can design nothing right in this country only in Ireland and all I'm going to say to you is in two weeks time we have rally weekend and that's the weekend you're going out traffic good letter Kenny it's going to bring a lot of investment it's going to bring a lot of money it's going to bring a lot of visitors and it's going to bring a lot of economic benefit as well don't get me wrong but rally weekend is the one weekend if you're traveling anywhere in the vicinity allow extra time for your journeys expect there's going to be lots of traffic out there and rally weekend is always wonderfully busy now I want to go to James who's online one because James has an interesting point raised with us James a very important point indeed good morning yes donal very well indeed now we're talking about traffic in letter Kenny and one one of the areas that comes up time and time again when we discuss traffic in letter Kenny is the four lane where those works are we believe coming to an end now on the pull star side of that it's one thing on the dry arch side you have there's the tannery hotel as you're driving out there's the tannery on the right there's the dry arch complex on the left there's the entrance down toward bonnigie and then beside the dry arch complex there's what would have been martin's fitting station it's now boarded but there is a postbox there and there is a difficulty for people accessing that postbox particularly people with disabilities and mobility issues yes donal and just to give a wee very brief background I would be a member of the ppm which is a public participation network I'm doing all kind of council we cover the whole county and we're trying to you know complement the work of the councillors and so much is that we can bring issues some people are not happy about raising issues themselves but they can bring them to members of the ppm and I would be a community activist and they would have a particular interest in disability issues now exactly what you were saying there yesterday again I live about four and a half mile out letter kenny on the manor conningham side but not sorry more more on the balbufe side than manor conningham so the nearest postbox for me is the postbox that's there exactly as you described it at what used to be martin's roundabout I believe the council bought that property with the house behind it now and beside the postbox has now become a park and ride now I absolutely uh I agree if you have one car in the road that's five cars less that's parked there usually that's on the road causing emissions so it's all good although some people had argued that if you were traveling with five people in the car rather than one you are more emissions because your engine's working hard or you probably would use more fuel but I think overall the park and ride systems great but and it happened to me even yesterday again they're parking on the park and ride you have no access to the postbox the only way you might be able to get at the postbox is there's a raised grass area which what difficulty I managed to get up to post a letter but as a wheelchair user not a hope in hell would you have a get none past that the solution I think would be fairly simple is that if they kept one parking area clearly no park and sign on and enforce any parking fines that would would be on that that would allow somebody to either drive and and post out of their window or at least they could get pulled on because you know don't matter to myself that for someone who's transferring from the car to a wheelchair it takes quite a bit of space and the only place you can pull in really there is on the route down to the MCT area which is very busy yeah I mean I will be honest I wasn't actually aware that postbox was still operational I kind of assumed it wasn't to be honest because of its location and I sort of thought and you know I thought maybe they must have is there any question of potentially maybe relocating it either say into the dry arch complex or there's another large garage area there just beside the plan re maybe relocated there but I was supposed thinking off the top of my head you're issued there is if you go down there you're you've now committed yourself to going right down the four lane crossing back around at the pole star and coming back out again whereas if it's where it is at Martin's you can just go around the roundabout and then back up at the Balboa Fair Road again without having to go down the four lane well the other thing is too if it was in the apple green side canary hotel um you can when you come out turning left and on about a hundred meters you can turn left again and it'll take you out onto the Balboa Fair Road excuse me uh you'll go well you turn left just past Robert Keyes there and that brings you on to as you say the Colian Road turn left again but it's uh Jesus I'm getting out across the Balboa Fair Road and but yeah to get off the Colian Road and then go on your way at the Balboa Fair Road that that could be a nightmare too James it's certainly filled with hope well I think it's something that does say well it has to be loaded the use of park and ride uh it has to be uh done properly and not not just people taking it on themselves because I say even yesterday now the two crutches I had difficulty getting on to post glare and if I hadn't couldn't have posted there the nearest one to me then would either be drive to Monarch Cunningham or uh just out past the my derrigal hotel yeah if you if you were going uh if you turn left after the my derrigal hotel there is a post box on your right but there's no word to pull the car in so you're going to have to pull and walk down there or wheel down there or whatever so I don't look I don't think it'll be rocket science and one clear uh park park no parking space would cure that yeah I mean and as you say as you say as I understand it and my my understanding too is that that site actually is owned by the council now it's not one of the issues it's not it's not a formal designated park and ride site it's become that and people park around there there's the the steel fencing and so on I mean maybe if the councilors look at lifting that steel fence and actually develop parking spaces inside maybe they could do that with that site I don't know um what the council plans are but certainly I'm sure you'll be raising it under the auspices of the ppn but for the moment James isn't it's food for thought and thanks very much for uh contacting us today not at all and I could I just finally say in there that I'm not advocating that that should be common disabled park in space for people at disabilities because uh somebody left the car and then that's the feet and the purpose uh I mean basically a yeah specifically a stopping point yeah and no parking specifically as a drop-off for the postbox it makes perfect sense James thank you very much indeed thank you you've a good day okay well the music uh suggests to us it's just gonna 11 o'clock it is time for the headlines here on Highland and we say good morning to you thanks donal good morning the government's failure to address the routine fire service recruitment and retention crisis is putting the lives of firefighters and the public at risk that's according to dunny gold deputy podge mclaughlin who is calling on the government to immediately intervene members of the routine fire service commenced industrial action yesterday meanwhile cancer martin harley says more firefighters need to be employed however he believes there needs to be a change to the employment terms and conditions the first update in 27 years to the country's national island policy has been published or living islands aims to enhance life for islanders and contains commitments around employment healthcare and housing minister for rural development heather humphrey's launched the strategy on armour island today she also announced almost 472,000 euro in funding for armour and tori island the public expenditure minister says he's keen to put money back in people's pockets in this autumn's budget it comes as the fiscal advisory council warned against any giveaways on budget day saying instead funds should be used for arlands aging population and environmental concerns the state exams are now underway for 135,000 students across the country 4,807 students have registered to sit the exams in dunny gall english paper one began at half past nine for both leaving and junior search students and there's calls for a change in regulations governing septic tanks and water well grants as it stands to avail of the septic tank grant it must have been registered by february 2013 counter me hall locked and says that this leaves many at a disadvantage those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon thank you thank you very much mikaela and that's your headlines here on highland radio it is time for a short break and we'll be back after these clon money agricultural show monster draw 100,000 euro in prizes first prize a falter tractor a 105 hi-tech or a skoda kodiak car second prize a skoda fabia car or 10,000 euro plus eight other cash prizes tickets now available online at the money show dot com or from any committee member this would make an ideal father's day gift two gig four fiber broadband from virgin media has landed in dunny gall hear that ifa time to lose yourself in the latest scandy crime series i have no idea what's going on here you should really put on the subtitles fair point whatever your genre whatever way you play virgin media is here switch today at virgin media dot i virgin media it's playtime subject to location and availability holiday sunshine fly from dairy to me orca this july or august with atlantic travel in letter kenny save up to 20 with rates not available elsewhere also exclusive discounts for parking call atlantic travel letter kenny on nine one two six one nine three or visit atlantic travel dot ie in an association with the letter kenny community child care facility rebuilding fund presents a pre dunning all international rally event on sunday the 11th of june at the sent unit g a club in letter kenny rally cars will be on display from five p.m with free ice cream and face painting for the kids the rally discussion and crack with an expert panel gets underway at seven tickets for the dunning all international rally preview live event are available now on event bright it's all about dad this father's day at dun stores with summer ready trends for his warm weather wardrobe treat your dad to a stylish new shirt for his next night out or some summer knitwear in his best shade pick out a casual look he'll love for something sophisticated from our exclusive designer paul castello find all you need this father's day at your local dun stores or shop online at dun stores dot com dun stores always better value terms and conditions apply after a long hard day treat yourself to something luxurious your drive home the sleek new nissan x trail has a dreamy luxurious interior and is now available with e power nissan's unique hybrid driving system that lets you experience the pleasure of electric driving without the need to plug in and it's available in five or seven seats so even the school run feels like a spa break the all new nissan x trail with e power drive it to believe it book your test drive today at your local nissan dealer nissan innovation that excites your local nissan dealer is i motors in letter kenny and mallin visit i motors dot ie it's the third and final hour of the nine till noon show this morning a few comments we spoke to emily hurican before the break about etiquette color says it's how parents wear their children that they know how to behave i still do as my parents taught me and my motto is my house my rules a young man offered my little girl a seat on the bus and i just thought how lovely he was didn't accept his offer but it was very much appreciated now on the other side of the fence as it were color says i'm 60 i was highly insulted when a mother made her child give up get up and give his seat to me i'm healthy fit and still work i run 10k a day i don't need this etiquette carry on we're all equal now um we're pretty much the same age because i am 59 and i hit 60 next year i don't run 10k a day i walk six or seven at least um but i think etiquette it's not it's not that if someone offered me a seat i would say thanks but i'm fine thank you and it has happened um and i i think you know there there is no onus on someone who's offered a seat i mean i do remember the first time i sorry you know we all have these indicators that we're getting old i often think one of the worst i had was uh shortly after i turned 55 i got a letter from on post and it was essentially telling me that as an older person i now qualify for a special funeral policy and then realized doing several stories over the years about initiatives for older people and initiatives for elderly citizens and realizing i qualify for inclusion in every one of them uh that's a little bit of a kick um but i mean look if if someone offers offered me a seat i would say no i'm fine thanks and it has happened on the loose in Dublin during trips down there um i wouldn't be insulted certainly wouldn't um Connor says if i was visiting your home and your landline rang i would expect you to answer it why not answer your mobile if my mobile rang i would take a very quick and hopefully subtle look now i try to do subtle i can't do subtle but i would try to take a subtle look if it was important i would say excuse me and answer the issue isn't so much answering your phone the issue is picking up your phone and just starting to check texts and send texts and send messages and so on and so forth the other man says is as a male if i keep one more door open for one more woman who says i can open it myself i swear a banger in their face take a decent take a decent gesture as a kind to think everything doesn't have to be an issue and yeah do you know what as it goes back to the same thing look i mean if someone holds a door open i will hold a door open for anyone i don't care if it's a man or if it's a woman or it's young or old or whatever if i am at a door and there is someone walking toward the door and be they carrying shopping or whatever i mean it takes me approximately three seconds to stand there and hold a door for someone i mean you know it's not hard and it's not like you know you only do it for older people or whatever you know and if someone holds a door you say thanks and you go about your day and they do the same thing right let's change the subject because sometimes we talk about things and their ideas and we have a vision of life and we plan out our life and we advise other people on what to do about their lives and that was the case with george crawford a life coach a podcaster um telling people all about um you know how to make their life better and then in 2017 she got some use which suddenly made her reevaluate everything and the upshot of all that is the publication of a book that's now come out the book is called glow five steps to create the life you dream about george crawford good morning good morning how are you very well indeed thank you um george you as we said you you've been podcasting and you've been a life coach um for 10 years and you've been working away in the job and you've been doing it uh and doing it very well no doubt and then in 2017 fair to say for you everything changed yeah so uh before i got cancer in 2017 i worked in radio and i worked in a newsroom and life was just busy um i was working around the clock trying really hard to get a promotion you know really wanted to excel in my life um i got married i had my first baby and unfortunately then when my first child was seven months old i found a lump in my breast and five days later i was diagnosed with cancer so i went on an incredible journey i had five months of chemotherapy four weeks of radiotherapy i'm really just transformed my life coming through my treatment journey and so here i am five years later cancer free uh with my first book under my belt and you do sort of say that there is a huge difference between um thinking about how to make your life look good and then thinking about how to make your life be good and and that's one of the sort of slightly subtle but important uh messages you've brought into this book it's not about looking good it's about actually being good yeah i think for so many years uh i was diagnosed with cancer when i was 32 so i suppose for all of my 20s and early into my 30s i existed entirely for my outer world so what people thought of me you know what promotion i had what car i drove you know all the things that probably consume a lot of young people and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that but i suppose throughout my um journey and work and trying to get that promotion and just being fixated on one outcome i kind of lost touch with myself and over that time i didn't know who i was anymore what made me happy i always told myself i'll be happy when i get the promotion i'll be happy when and that was really the kind of story that went around and around and around in my head so when i went through treatment and i realized that actually i have everything i need you know if it starts with loving myself and i work from the inside out instead of the outside in everything actually started to transform i got the promotion things started to go my way people started to tell me i was glowing i started running like everything in my life transformed when i infused my days with time you know discovered who am i actually and who do i want to be and where do i actually really want to go in life and it was only when i gave myself that time i suppose that everything changed for the better the word you're using for the title of the book is glow and it's an interesting word because it's a word that's going to give a sort of a different image to everybody i suspect and i'm going to tell you what the when i saw the title the first image i get when i see the word glow is you may remember the ads for ready break that used to be on tv years ago where the idea being there was a kid standing at a rainy bus stop and the kid had had their hot ready break for breakfast and there was this orange glow coming out of there coming out of their belly and what i see the word glow that's but what that word says to me is it says sustenance it says warmth it says ready for the day and from that and even though the image i get is an image from a ready break out on television it's the perfect title for the book absolutely and that's the perfect analogy i suppose because that child standing at the bus stop had looked after himself before he went out into the world you know when he was ready to face the day having looked after himself first and in my recovery from cancer people started to tell me i was glowing i discovered you know really healthy food i was hydrating myself i was going for little jogs around the block and really i was glowing but the glow was coming from the inside out and that's really what the book is about it's about how to connect with yourself it's no it's not about like setting goals and making a 21 day plan it's about really just stripping it all away sitting with yourself connecting with yourself and when you do that first then everything in your outer world starts to evolve everything starts to work for you so there's five steps in the book and it's really easy to follow you can do it in the within the four walls of your own home and the feedback that i'm getting from women really is the word relatable people feel seen and it's very normal you know it's it's just a normal account of a girl who just started loving herself and then everything started to change to what extent and and forgive the bluntness of this question to what extent are these changes driven by a feeling perhaps in the back of your head that i was expecting something to happen in two years or five years or seven years or eight years but maybe now there aren't five years maybe now there aren't seven years maybe there aren't even three years and and that almost unconsciously gives you a drive that it effectively takes away that oh i can do it in seven years time maybe i can't do it in seven years time so i better do it now that's a really good question and one of the i have four four or five short stories in the book and one of them is called the burnt potato so my husband jane he was diagnosed with ms when we were dating and our whole life revolved around his health and keeping him well and anyone who's listening maybe is able to relate if they look after a sick parent or a child or partner and and you just want that person to be well and you tell yourself i'll be fine i'll survive so i always ace the burnt bit of the dinner and it's really a metaphor for i always you know did the arning i always did the housework i always sacrificed myself for the sake of everyone else so when i was sitting in my garden you know during my chemotherapy journey i was like how did i expect to survive that how did i expect to thrive when i was so far down my own to-do list and actually when you become important to yourself other people start to think you're important so that's when my life started to work for me um and lots of people are relating to the burnt potato story because we do kind of live in this world where we tell ourselves that we'll survive and we're burning the candle at both ends and i just wanted women out there to know that they don't have to live that way and when i was sitting in my garden thinking about my little girl pia and you know she was one years old and i was like god what's gonna happen to me why didn't i look after myself in a more loving way and you know i don't eat the burnt potato now because i don't want pia to eat the burnt potato when she gets older so i suppose it's about breaking the cycle too you also make the point and it one of the five steps you do reference and i find this one interesting you say don't do for others what they can do for themselves and it is an interesting one because maybe sometimes we almost unconsciously take tasks upon ourselves on the assumption that we're the only person who's able to do it and then suddenly we realize that if i'm not there to do it well it'll still get done it'll not be an issue and in a week's time no one's going to know who did or who didn't do it so you know on every level perhaps that's something that we have to do not not so much because we need to force other people to do it but we need to force ourselves to stop yeah and i think that's i have the disease to please so i have like five steps and how you can stop people pleasing and that is one of the steps you know don't do for others what they can do for themselves and really i suppose uh like i want to do everything for my family and i want to protect them and i want to keep them safe and i i want to make their life as easy as possible but actually i'm doing no favorites for my child um you know not teaching her how to look after herself how to get herself ready for school how to dress herself and i suppose with the cancer i was forced to surrender i was forced um for people around me to you know figure it out for themselves for jamie my husband to step up to the place and and really you know take the parenting 50 50 and uh i was definitely forced into that but i wanted to show people that you don't have to get sick to make changes you know the worst doesn't have to happen in order for you to start really caring about yourself um so i hope that you know the book the book helps people along their journey through life and i bet jamie sort of exceeded your expectations as well that he was able to step up to the plate and then that nearly begs the question because you were doing everything for him before that were you potentially hampering his growth oh absolutely and i mean like one of the things that i always said about getting cancer because there's so much horrible things that come with the cancer diagnosis but one thing i learned from my cancer diagnosis was i saw my child's relationships with other people grow and you know jamie and p are best friends now he's the most incredible father but you know i had to step back a little bit i was forced to but seeing those relationships like seeing my child laugh the same way she does with me with my mom and my step dad or jamie just made me a little bit less scared about what i was facing so really just kind of i suppose just letting her fly and um you know it took me a long long time to say that cancer gave me more than it took for me and i know everyone's cancer journey is different but for me it just it's almost like it took me by the shoulders and turned me in a different direction and i hear from women now who are being diagnosed with breast cancer around the country and my message to them is just see where it can take you and i know it is so scary but if you're open to the journey i swear to god it's not all that absolutely i couldn't agree one word that the good glow podcast is the podcast you have that's available i take it on all reputable and other platforms and the book and if you're watching this on youtube or on our facebook page you can see i'm holding the book it's a glow five steps to create the life you dream about by georgie crawford georgie it's been a pleasure speaking to you thanks very much indeed thank you have a great day you too uh that's georgie there uh glow the glow podcast is the podcast and as we said as well as that you can pick up that book it's on hatchet press it's the uh five steps to uh create the life that you dream about the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio due to a showroom expansion all warehouse stock is clearing at massively discount prices with up to 70 off until this friday at mcginnelly's furniture in eddo kenney it's first come first served and stock is limited so don't miss this opportunity to grab a bargain only at mcginnelly's furniture port link business park port roll letter kenney sale ends friday 9th of june at 7 p.m at manor motors opal we're half full type of people which is how we come up with the opal 5050 finance offer choose from the opal crossland corsa or mocha selector flexible payment option pair it with three years free servicing and meet your new other half discover more about opals 5050 offer the 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clark and langan is regulated by the central bank of ireland highland radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letter kenny to doblin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time it is 23 minutes past 11 o'clock a very good morning to you and you're welcome to the ninth of noon show on highland radio it's time for our wellness wednesday spot and today we're discussing hemochromatosis awareness week which is running this week it runs on till june the eighth which is tomorrow joined on zoom by moira jackman who has hemochromatosis and is going to tell us something of it moira a very good morning to you now moira yeah i'm i i don't think that's sorry sorry moira i'm i'm moira if you don't mind i'm going to interrupt you there that is a horrendous connection that we have on june i think we'll do is we'll just step away from that for just a moment carlin will try and get you back perhaps on the line um or we'll try and connect again but uh we we can't hear that at all so we're going to be speaking about hemochromatosis just uh basically what hemochromatosis is just to give you a very brief background it's a hereditary condition in which excessive amounts of iron are absorbed from the diet that iron is then deposited in various organs mainly in the parenchymal cells of the liver and also in the pancreas the heart the anterior pituitary and in the joints early diagnosis is vital because without treatment hemochromatosis can cause premature death it results from a fault in a gene known as the h f e gene and now we'll just switch from zoom to the phone and hopefully we have moira moira good morning good morning greg how are you very well indeed thank you very much indeed for joining us on the thank you for having this morning it's it's our pleasure moira we were just discussing briefly there what hemochromatosis actually is give us an insight from your point of view as someone who lives with hemochromatosis what it means on a day-to-day basis okay okay so the the explanation really is too much iron in your body and it's a genetic disorder and it's where large amounts of iron are absorbed from the diet into vital organs such as the liver heart lungs and body tissue and so what they refer we refer to it as iron overload now it can be fatal and that's the message i suppose i'd like to bring across to your listeners today it can be fatal if not detected barely and it's a it's the most common genetic disorder one in five people are carriers but one in about 20 of the population actually have this disorder so i was diagnosed with this about five years ago after my brother and was diagnosed with it and the reason i was diagnosed was obviously he was diagnosed with but i wouldn't have known i had it only he he had been going with problems with his limbs and his joints and stuff like that so and if he hadn't been diagnosed i might be around today my my father died at 58 from this and and you discovered your grandfather died at 57 as well yeah that's right and in both cases they would have been undiagnosed undiagnosed it wasn't known well in in terms of i mean how much impact does this have on you on on a day-to-day basis because presumably it means you have to watch your diet presumably it means you have to take tablets and medication i mean are you allowed through management to live a normal life what impact is this going to have on you on a day-to-day basis okay so the really good news once it's diagnosed the there's a simple solution that's just take getting blood taken and to bring down your ferritin levels so it's so you can live a very normal life and the diet you have to be eating a lorry load of broccoli or a drink and a load of Guinness for it to build back up again it the iron builds up over years from your diet but one getting one vinnus section just the mechanism to get rid of and blood would get rid of an awful lot of you know the you know an awful lot yeah quite a lot of the iron you know are you limited in the amount of red meat you can eat for instance because that's the food that would be yeah sorry they say not feeding a huge amount of red meat but you can have some red meat it's all in moderation yeah but the diet isn't a huge thing it's actually detection and you know getting your vinnus sections regularly is the key and the messages i suppose the hemochromatosis association would like to get out there today is that if you have us tell your family and secondly that we'd like to see the national strategy for hemochromatosis which is in the process of being it's been developed and it's been presented to the government and we're hoping that there'll be more awareness made of it now the the the figures are it that one in five carry that faulty hfe gene that can lead to full hemochromatosis and it's reckoned one in 83 people in the country have that condition what percentage of those would be undiagnosed and i i wouldn't know exactly what percentage but and haven't been diagnosed there's been research up in the north of ireland which would indicate that there's an awful lot more than one in 83 people have hemochromatosis but and you know which we don't know at this moment in time so screening program would be very useful to have to be able to detect how many people are going around hemochromatosis now we're told that ireland has a higher concentration of this in the population than any other country in the world do we know why that is um no actually not no i don't know why that is sorry about that now it is an interesting one um because it's very very interesting yeah because you would have thought our diet isn't that different yeah yeah yeah no it's um it's just um it's just one of those things and it's one that it's a piece of research that i'm sure the hemochromatosis association are looking into at the moment in terms of the the drawing out of the blood i mean obviously you you have to go to to hospital on a regular basis to get this check checked with your gps and blood tests and so on and so forth how often do you have to go through that actual process to effectively cleanse out your body okay so um when i was diagnosed with hemochromatosis my levels um of ferritin were at 1400 the normal level is about 15 to 200 in women so mine were way up so that meant that my iron levels were so high they were going to affect my organs so i started going to get finis sections and i was getting them weekly now my levels are right to about 350 and there are there are fairly management levels but you'll need to get them down because you'll feel very tired with that level of iron in your in your body do you have to take tablets or um treatments on a day-to-day basis or is it just however often the finis sections are necessary however often the finis sections are necessary and it's a very easy very very easy process going to your hospital or your doctor they it's just like giving blood if you're giving blood for the transfusion service that's exactly what it is and they'll take your your unit of blood and that will bring down your iron levels and you'll be um your bloods will be tested again to see how high they are and it's just a process like that so the only really disadvantage really to having it um as long as you're managing it is is having to go and get a finis section which isn't the big deal yeah is there any home test you can do uh yourself to sort of determine when a finis section is needed or do you just have to go to your gp or go to the hospital on a regular basis and get tested there yeah get tested no i go to the hospital there's no home kits at the moment um it's something worth thinking about i think and maybe it is something the hemochromatosis association will look into but at the moment we just do a blood test the blood test will always show your if your levels of iron are high now normally if you go to the doctor to get your blood tests done iron isn't really one of those things that's normally done so you need to ask the doctor to say let's say you do the iron test and that will show if your certain levels are are very high and if they are um it does a good it's a good indicator that you have hemochromatosis mario thanks indeed for speaking to us this morning um we wish you all the best and uh as you said you're with the hemochromatosis association we can presume that if one in 83 people in the country have this then a lot of people are out there with it and they don't realize they have it uh you know more than anyone uh the pain of premature death as a result of this you've having lost both your your father and your grandfather at ages uh now younger than yourself um and if we can prevent that from happening to other families um it'll be a job well done and i mean what if people as you say if people are feeling tired in terms of symptoms how how should people know to go and get tested to go and get get a consultation on on this what what sort of symptoms okay so you know even they're cheap what the symptoms really i suppose tiredness chronic fatigue was my one abdominal pain diminished sex drive or impotence arthritis and you know all those things skin pigmentation that can lead to diabetes arthritis and liver disorder so look if you have if you have any idea that you have any of these um symptoms or even if you're just going to your doctor get in your blood no harm to say do an iron test see what my iron levels are like and it will show but i will say i could be dead today if my brother wasn't detected diagnosed because i didn't have any great symptoms myself you know so whilst i was sitting in blissful ignorance and i had a very high ferret level of 1400 while the norm is 15 to 200 in women so it was damaging my but my my my organs and thankfully i got it in time and was it after your brother was diagnosed then that you realized that that's what had killed your father and your grandfather there's no reason today great that um we can't have some form of screening back in those days you can't blame anyone because it wasn't even known about but today we know about it and this is what today is about this is why we're on the radio and doing these interviews and we really appreciate the stations like your own giving us air time it's our pleasure as we say this is what we call our wellness wednesday spot and uh what better way to use it than to to raise awareness of of a condition that many of her listeners may unknowingly actually have uh mario thank you very much indeed thank you craig thank you thank you that's that's moira jackson uh jack man their apologies moira that's moira jackman uh speaking to us there um and it's a as she said there if you're feeling any of those symptoms just briefly run down through them again unexplained weakness or fatigue abdominal pain diminished sex drive or impotence arthritis particularly in the knuckles and the ankles diabetes liver disorders discoloration of the skin mood swings irritability abnormal heart rhythm uh and you know there can be uh indications that you may have hemochromatosis and um go see your gp uh take advice from your doctor and see what the situation can be um you may find it is as happened in the case of moira and her brother a life-saving consultation could you please play a request from your mom's 87th birthday today madge callahan of grove hall in remelton that's from levinia who's in birmingham in the uk she'll see you in august with great grandson reese have a wonderful day and that's from levinia so um madge callahan grove hall remelton have an absolutely wonderful day watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com streaming exclusively on disney plus strippers they're still doing it what do you think after 25 years the full monday crew are back this is going to be the greatest comeback give me strength in a new original series i call anybody love me they're older chock of the century and none the wiser none you may the full monday streaming june 14th exclusively on disney plus 18 plus subscription required tisn't he's apply for great value in suits visit once and menswear in edirkenny top labels like remezumo white label specter and daniel grail for the finishing touch there's also a great choice of shirts ties and fruit wear extra reductions for all wedding parties at once and menswear open seven days a week on main street edirkenny see once and menswear dot com foilside at the center of more for your euro with great value gifts so it's worth making the journey wherever you live with convenient parking late night and all your favorite brands you're better off shopping at foilside see foilside dot co dot uk connelly's mg now open in colliney county slago the latest addition to the connelly motor group family find your perfect mg driving experience with the award winning range of fully electric and hybrid vehicles at our new showroom at northwest business park colliney county slago inquire about our full range today with our team on 0719106950 or visit our website connelly's.ie and you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show on highland radio it's a wednesday it's just gone half 11 to be precise it is 20 uh two minutes to 12 noon and that can only mean one thing business matters in association with the atu dunningall faculty of business if you have an undergrad in any discipline and would like to reinforce it with the masters in business atu are offering their masters in business management conversion program call 9186206 or email donal dot hanigan at atu.ie kieran oh donal good morning to you it's a lovely day out there you enjoyed the sunshine absolutely i mean why wouldn't you now i know there are probably certain numbers of the agricultural community are starting to think at this stage we could do just a little moisture now for the crops yeah but uh as long as i've erased at night time donal's not so bad do you know what you know i absolutely agree with you if we could we get a system going when we get this during the day and it can pelt down between three and six between three and six yeah between three and six a.m pelt down between three and six and then yeah absolutely that that that's it sorted okay climate do your thing uh kieran a busy business matters as always this morning we're starting off with a potentially very important one and that's free higher education courses available yes donal thousands of free and subsidized higher education places will be available to people in donnie gall and that was part of the 2023 springboard plus and pillar one of the human capital initiative better known as hci a total of 393 places across 17 courses have been allocated to atu donnie gall on their both initiatives 32 of all the courses nationwide will run entirely online and 67 through blended learning that all means people in donnie gall will have access to hundreds of courses across the country which is good news and this is one of those sort of throwbacks from covid where now there is so much more emphasis being put on zoom and things like that that it is opening up these new areas of opportunity that weren't there before let's move on to mobile and a major award for a company there yeah congratulations to patrick mcglacken his wife marina and all the team at silver strand ropeworks limited in mobile who were crowned regional winners at this year's national enterprise awards held in dublin on thursday patrick was a guest on business matters donal last month he set up his business at the age of 17 around the same time he was sitting his leaving certificate back in 1990 back in december silver strand ropes which is the only producer of rope and errand was announced as the overall winner at the donnie gall enterprise awards so a massive award for himself and his team and i really enjoyed my visit down there a few weeks ago very modest on assuming man in progress with 10 people but a great success story and well deserved and speaking of local boys made good a busy time for letter kennyman cahill gagan as well yeah letter kennyman cahill gagan has been appointed as a director and board member at irish food service suppliers alliance based at newton abbey cahill is managing director at henerson food service and was recently elected president of the northerland chamber of commerce and industry now a lot of people looking to buy premises and buildings around the county and if anyone ever fancied owning an old coast guard station yeah now they can that was your chance the former coast guard station in bonk rana has been placed on the market with a reserve price of 200 000 euro the station was built around 1870 and the sale is being handled by sean fury auctioneers based in bonk rana major investment at cany and doherty's in carne yeah they've launched a revamp store following an investment of 1 million euro donal the store employs 75 people and following the revamp and additional 10 rows will be created within the store cany and doherty's supervalue is independently owned by jerry doherty and has been in business for over 40 years now let's move on to this week's podcast and your guest this week a man that you and i would have knocked about with a fair bit back in the early days and when i say early days i mean early days i think i'm still still here of manual typewriters donal absolutely and i'm sure the way you you got your news together here was was much uh it was a lot different yes yeah that was much more labor intensive we know we in fairness we were we were right up with modern technology we had a fax machine yeah we i remember the fax machine coming to the dunagall team this past summer i was doing a work on sunday day in 1990 and i still think it's one of the best inventions even though obviously technology has come on a lot but they are the fax machine yeah my guest this week donal is the owner of column kill press and dairy and spokesperson for the dairy university group garwin downey a former journalist with the aries news the sunday times the belfast telegraph and the dairy journal he was also the editor of the dairy news in 2005 garwin moved into the publishing sector through guild hall press and three years ago he set up a column kill press and this latest publication the handiway guide to dairy has just gone on sale garwin is currently working on 25 books and is planning to have four of those published before the end of the year here garwin talks about the difference between the world of journalism and the role of a book publisher after i left tourism per se i took me a wee while to settle down and realized that not everything is a deadline and not everything has to be done particularly with a radio radio you're doing bulletins every hour or it can be even more regular it can be every half hour and it's like you're getting an adrenaline hit all that time and i don't think it could be good for you to be doing that for all your life and you don't really get a chance to get an overview of a helicopter view of what you're doing what your what your big product is going to become or what what you're doing with your life even and what your i suppose macro projects are and uh you're just running from short term project the short term project so i like them to be able to step back first and when i went back in the newspaper i like the fact that was i was out in the newspaper twice a week which was good it wasn't too happy get allowed you to think to develop ideas and developed and constantly improve whereas well you don't get that with radio at all it's so instant and then when you do books books are they're generally count the projects that last a year or possibly two years so there's an awful lot of thought goes on them and an awful lot of care goes on them and a lot of thought goes on them and i have to say i can't prefer that longer process food for thought care and particularly for ourselves and i have to say for me i am looking forward to hearing this one really really you know and i'll be i'll be on it first thing this afternoon yeah look we covered a lot of ground we were passed over across the different stages as well during the years um i suppose one of the things i asked him stories that came to mind that i suppose 1983 i suppose it was a year of a very contrast and fortunes for dairy he talked about the gravestone murders and the funerals and i also talked about dairy willing the sam mcguire in that same year donal i suppose i asked him to you about you know the the process of somebody commenting and having a conversation about a book until the time scale from then to the book going on the shelf average two years between research writing editing and proofing and a man who pays a big attention to detail and they also talked about the importance of other people reading your work and making sure that it was 100 percent and and you more than most will know the importance of good editing yeah and look it was it was funny you know i suppose similarities in some ways but he's really enjoying what he's doing now i was just thinking 25 books as a fair workload at the minute donal and four of those he's hoping to have out by the end of the year pat mcguire's memoirs is one of those four books and i'm definitely looking forward to seeing it just it's also a spokesperson for the dairy university group as well donal and a few a few pointers he said belfast at 83 percent of the third level of student at the minute compared to say double having 40 percent and london 20 and he described belfast as overheating in that regard and he was also of the view that dairy hasn't progressed as much as really should have had since the good friday agreement so a lot of food for thought we covered a lot of ground and i really enjoyed the conversation with gerwin and that's now available as a podcast on highlandradio.com and if you would rather listening to it on the radio yeah goes out on sunday even donal after the six o'clock news and kieran if anyone wants to make contact with yourself to discuss the potential story or a potential feature how can they do so yeah just send me an email please donalbusinessmattersathighlandradio.com kieran as always it's a pleasure that's kiernan donal there that was our business matters feature for this morning don't forget a garvin donnie that podcast available now on our website highlandradio.com it'll be broadcast on air as we said on sunday evening after the six o'clock news good morning business matters in association with the atu donningall faculty of business if you have an undergrad in any discipline and would like to reinforce it with the masters in business atu are offering their masters in business management conversion program call 91 86 206 or email donal.hanigan at atu.ie the lotto jackpot is an estimated 11 million euro play responsibly in store in app or at lottery.ie the national lottery it could be you charge into summer with 2e secure your holiday today with savings for families and adults flying from dublin cork and shallow holiday sorted 2e live happy choosing the perfect stove is a big decision here at charles boner and sons ballet buffet we are one of ireland's leading dealers and stoves and ranges in a variety of styles and sizes at exceptional prices and with our professional advice we're sure we'll find the perfect one just for you so call 0749131700 or visit the stove store.ie if you know the beauty and skincare product that suits you best you'll find them at mcgee's chemist leta kenny from moisturizers cleansers and toners to day creams and night creams mcgee's have the top brands you know and love like long com clarence and larash posse also elizabeth artin fishy nukes and many more all at mcgee's chemist main street leta kenny and online at mcgee's.ie we're the best cost less the reverend jim lamont presents an evening of music and song in angrily in theater letter kenny on friday 9th of june at 8 p.m. with up and maria dawdy de an and iona holt de an leckie andrea long amy mehan and the region quartet tickets 15 euro on sale now from the theater box office proceeds in aid of the donnie gull hospice and the evening of music stories and a donnie gull farewell at angrily in theater letter kenny on friday 9th of june the 9th of noon show on highland radio we are into the final 10 or 11 minutes of the program a few very quick comments college just wanted to point out the service they received in the emergency department on monday was unbelievable service from start to finish a total of an hour and a half then back in the car sorted that a lovely male nurse who really drafted them just we were to thanks the a lot of criticism with which i have to disagree this time thanks again in fairness i don't think it's the staff that gets the criticism it's the system that gets the criticism sometimes if you go in there at the right time you can be dealt with relatively speedily and we all hear the nightmare stories all the time if you were able to be in and out of there in an hour and a half that is wonderful to know we discussed hemochromatosis earlier on our wellness wednesday spot corridors i was diagnosed with hemochromatosis nine years ago following my brother's diagnosis it turns out that five out of six of us have it plus many of you i had experienced unexplained constant fatigue all my life but just kept going i now have regular venus section and i'm so grateful that my heart liver and pancreas are protected i enjoy a healthy lifestyle i walk every day eat very little red meat but eat vegetables high in iron in moderation thanks to that caller for highlighting the condition that moira jackson that joined us there from the hemochromatosis association now the caller says i'm with revolute they're asking me for a pps number is this now a requirement i'm extremely concerned that if i give this i will be scammed i'm just concerned with what they can do with this number i understand you only had to enter it if you were seeking a loan from them but i am not i can't answer the question caller but what i will say is handle with care i do have a revolute account i'm a relative newcomer to revolute my children uh finally dragged me kicking and screaming into revolute i actually find it excellent i find personally that if revolute are communicating with me they don't communicate via text they sort of communicate through the actual app on the phone itself um i've not been asked for a pps number now i'm in the same as i have never sought a loan from them um i would approach with with caution and if necessary go into the revolute website look it up there and see what the story is now our final feature on the program this morning is cross border research that's setting out a pathway for integration of gaelic games uh dr kate listen is joining us on the line now dr kate is a researcher with australia university and more importantly is a multiple all irland winner and all star in gaelic football so she knows what she's talking about dr kate good morning good morning donal how are you very well indeed thank you the research you're undergoing is the potential of integration of gaelic games to make it more inclusive and potentially forming a new association to do this how is this research going to be carried out and where do you think it's going so the the research is already underway i'm working as part of a research team with ifa lane who has a background in the women's gpa which some of your listeners will know merged with the gpa very recently and also connor miler known in the men's gaelic football world for his work with toron but in our world he's also a phd researcher down at the technological university of shannon so together ifa connor and i felt that there was a need to try and understand and learn from mergers and integration processes in other sports donal but also in other parts of the world so over the last couple of months we have been reviewing that research we have been speaking to stakeholders who were involved in the establishment of golf irland which is a new entity also based on equality and what we've done is tried to draw those insights together in this policy search down the line we're hoping to talk much more to members of the gaelic games family over over the coming months and that'll be part of connor's work as part of his phd research but for today we're highlighting what we think are five main recommendations one of which you've just mentioned donal is the potential to build a new organization for gaelic games that would be underpinned by the principle of equality i suppose that the main reason why we're saying this is that we feel that a new organization could be much more than just the simple sum of the best bits of the three organizations for the gaa the komogi association and ladies gaelic football and it would also then give an opportunity for very real structural reform as part of that process a lot of people will be surprised to hear this because i would have assumed that the lgfa was uh sort of a group within the gaa and it was already integrated i mean what is the relationship then between lgfa and gaa because i mean i would have in my naivety i would have assumed they were the same thing well you see on the ground where you where you've got clubs working really well together donal indoni gall and elsewhere the differences between them are almost imperceptible but but in the organizational setup the ladies gaelic football association is a standalone entity it has sole responsibility for the governance of ladies gaelic football and it's separate autonomous from the gaa the komogi association is affiliated to the gaa and part of the reason for that is to do with the different histories the heritage and also probably the different sizes of the organizations but it might also surprise the listeners today to know that the idea of integrating the three has been visited for as long as the ladies gaelic football association has been in existence so i think it's next year yeah next year is the 60th anniversary year of ladies gaelic football and the first recommendation where the gaa would enhance cooperation if you will with the komogi association was in 1971 in the the late 90s the gaa established a committee to examine ways of working with both the women's associations that was ladies gaelic football and and komogi and then three years later in 1995 the komogi association affiliated with the gaa now in the 2000s all three associations worked together a little bit more closely and established an integration task force and at that stage there was a one county pilot scheme in eight counties down gallway leash wexford limrick ross common tip and turone and they produced an integration report in 2007 number of recommendations some of which maybe have happened organically precisely for the reason that you've mentioned that most people on the ground are getting on with building their communities developing the sports and more than that offering support to the young players coming through but as you will know last year at the three congresses there was an almost unanimous vote that they would formally integrate so because this is very unique donal nowhere in the world have we when we've looked at the research have we identified a comparable case where there is a multi sport integration and also multi entities so three associations three sports but also of course with implications for the other gaelic sports rounders and handball once the integration process has happened so that's that was one of the reasons why we wanted to add an evidence base to it and also to give i suppose to give to the gaelic games family something that will help them grapple with the potential issues at stake as we move forward in the integration process one of the challenges here and i'm sure this is something that the research has looked at is you've got to do it in such a way that you don't just form a situation where ladies gaelic football becomes absorbed into the gAA and it'll be covered under aob at the next meeting and the gAA will continue on as it was with just some ladies in a room over in the corner that they have to do something about every now and again you're going to have to make sure that integration means exactly that that when the lgfa is absorbed into gAA that voice that's looking after women in gaelic football is not silenced that women do very much have a place within that new organization you're spot on donal you can join the research team if you want because um it's actually one of the things that was very clear in some of the international case studies we looked at there was a women's cricket in australia golf in new zealand uk sport where there was governmental reform that in a sense forced ngbs to come together rather than building a base of of equality and where there is that kind of hollow rhetoric around gender equality that's the very real risk that the women's organization which is typically weaker and smaller by virtue of size and a shorter history but of course has just as much of a heritage and an identity that's been built up over time that they might be sidelined and indeed the women would be underrepresented in the influential decision making position so that's one of the recommendations and one of the reasons why we say we think there's an opportunity for a new organization a couple of the other things we've recommended is that we prioritize female representation particularly over the next five years and that we monitor that to see how well we could meet equality targets that we would also develop a funding model that in in the short term would prioritize investment into women's gaelic football and camogie and that we would then plan for what we call a full integration process now that's not going to happen overnight and we think based on what we've learned so far and also from from what's happened in golf ireland but to do it well and to underpin it with equality you could take anything up to five years or more and that i fear is going to be a conversation for a different day because time has got up with this doctor okay listen i'm very sorry to cut you off but time has beaten us this is a fascinating subject we will i have no doubt return to it that's it from the 9th until noon show for today thank you to neve thank you to carline for producing thank you to everyone who participated in the program this morning thanks to all our guests to all our listeners and most importantly thanks to you without whom the show wouldn't exist john is up next around the northwest greg's back tomorrow from me don't know have a very good day around the northwest will be live at foyer and company's lettercanny store this friday the ninth to celebrate creating colorful homes a three-day big pink weekend which is on this thursday until saturday and both the lettercanny and