 the results of expert toxicology tests to confirm the precise cause of death involved. Parents with children living at home are the least optimistic about their financial well-being. A survey carried out by Amarak Research for Pennies found half of parents with children under 18 are struggling month to month due to the increase of the cost of living. Jared O'Neill from Amarak who carried out the research says it's been a tough couple of years for parents. They're really struggling. Two thirds almost are telling us that they hardly have any money left at the end of the month after they pay all the utility bills and the groceries etc for simple fun time out with their children. So they're very much in the front line of the cost of living crisis that we've been living with for the best part of two years now. The government is going on an advertising blitz to try attract Irish construction workers who are living abroad to move home. Three quarters of a million euro is being spent on the campaign to help address the housing crisis. An outreach programme is being set up to entice builders in cities like London, Sydney and New York to relocate back to Ireland. Higher Education Minister Simon Harris says Ireland needs its construction workers to come home. We want to send a message to the Irish people who may have left because there weren't jobs in construction in the past. There weren't jobs when the economy crashed. That Ireland is a very different place now. That Ireland needs you to come home. Ireland needs you to help us build homes. And then if you wish to come home, there are jobs here. Well paid, reliable jobs. OS Tarun MLA has written to Irish government to reaffirm their intention of providing 50-50 funding for the A5 project. Upgrades have been delayed by legal changes and public hearings. Leo Veradka recently spoke at a shared island function at which he indicated there would be significant funding announcements, albeit shortly. MLA Daniela Crossen has written to the Taoiseach urging him to confirm the half of the Republic will foot half the bill. He says after numerous delays it's time for progress. We have to remember people have been waiting countless years for this road and the commitment by the Irish government is very welcome right across the board. And people are very keen to see boots on the ground and this road finally happened. We have lost countless lives on that road and each and every year the past has been a little bit more. So it is important for the health and safety of our people to prevent deaths, but also to get economic opportunities across this part of the island that has suffered for many, many years. Sunny spells and isolated showers at first today, blustery showers will become widespread for a time this afternoon and some will be heavy with a chance of hail with sleep possible on higher ground. Top temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees Celsius with light to moderate west to southwest winds, increasing moderate to fresh, locally strong and gusty this afternoon. That's all for now from Highland Radio News back again at 10 o'clock. Watch out! I meant the next ride after this ride. What? For when a right turn becomes a wrong turn. Get car insurance you can be confident in with Onpust Insurance. Go to onpustinsurance.ie or call us today. Acceptance criteria, terms and conditions apply. Wonder Act Ireland Limited trading as onpust insurance is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Wonder Act Ireland Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Onpust. Best price online. The Counties number one talk show. The 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. And a very good morning to you. This is the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio with Donald Kavanaugh standing in for Greg. For today you're very welcome along. A packed show as always is the first show of the week. It's Monday morning. It's the 12th of February and we want to hear what you have to say about the issues of the day. You can call us on 07491-25000. 003537491-25000 if you're outside of the dialing area. We have Caroline Orr producing and Caroline and Shannon taking your calls as well. You can text us of course 086-60-25000. That number good for WhatsApp messages as well. And of course we are on the various socials. We're at Highland Radio on X. We're Highland Hub on Facebook. And we're also available on YouTube where we're streaming live of course on our channel Highland Radio Ireland. You can see the live feed on our Facebook pages as well. So plenty of opportunity to engage with the show. And as we always say, your views, your perspectives on the day's events and the things important to you are the things that are important to us. So please let us know what you'd like to talk about this morning. Starting with the papers as we always do. And the Monday edition of the Donegal News. Miesel's warning Donegal is at particular risk. And you'll recall hearing on the show last week, Greg speaking to Dr. Anthony Breslin, the public health specialist in this region. And he was making it quite clear that the Miesel situation is worrying in Donegal because they look for a vaccination rate of about 95% in order to declare an area reasonably safe. And Donegal is closer to 84, 85%. So a little bit below the targets there in terms of vaccinations. So Miesel's an issue. Spend on community agency staff rose in 2023. There was a 23% rise in the amount of money the HSE spent on agency staff in community health care across Covent and Donegal, Liege Tramona and Sligo, according to figures that were provided to the paper. And a nice picture there of Bishop Alan McGuckey and with Margaret Cohen and Noreen Sharkey, Bishop McGuckey at the eighth birthday of letter Kelly Parkrun. And anyone that does the Parkrun will know that Bishop McGuckey is a very enthusiastic runner and has been doing the Parkrun and has done the 10K and you'll have seen him walking and running on many occasions around the streets. And sadly it will be one of the last Parkruns he does because he's bound for Belfast as we know. Moving on to the dairy news. Man critical after serious road traffic collision. Strand Road in the early hours of yesterday morning. A man was hit by a car and brought to hospital. Detectives investigating say that the collision involved the pedestrian and a black Volkswagen Golf and they're looking for anyone with information to come forward and help them on that particular one. Irish Independent this morning. Housing crisis forces coalition into plea to Irish builders abroad. Irish construction workers living abroad are going to be encouraged back home to help address the housing crisis under a new government plan. Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has been given 750,000 euro to launch the campaign to entice builders back here indeed have heard. Minister Harris on the news there with Donna Marie just a few moments ago. Also looking of course to build more higher education links with Irish people abroad. Something in fairness, Donegal County Council has been doing for quite some time actually in terms of its diaspora focus and we know over the years particularly at the Golden Bridges event in Boston every year Donegal County Council and indeed what was LAIT went over every year and a number of very important linkages forged with that particular one and that's a model now that's being pursued by Minister Harris over in the US and looking at Australia as well. And we know in this county that goes double of course because there's so much work to be done in terms of defective blocks and the remediation and the diminution and the rebuilding of homes affected in that particular crisis. So you know a real need for more construction people to come over and this is going to be a very interesting and potentially a very important initiative. Irish Times this morning, Biden warns Israel over Rafa offensive and very disturbing indications coming that Israel is about to make a very strong move on Rafa in the coming days already bombardments overnight. We're hearing of tens of people killed in those particular bombardments and Rafa is the place of course that had been declared by Israel a safe zone and effectively Palestinians were told go south, go south, go south, go to Rafa you'll be safe, go to Rafa you'll be safe. Now effectively they're being promised safe passage out of Rafa but where are they supposed to go and that's the one thing that no one really seems to know and Israel however insistent that it's going to keep up its offensive and Benjamin Netanyahu the Prime Minister yesterday absolutely bullish about the whole thing Gar thee to interview women about death of child you've heard that tragic story on the news with Donna Marie there as well Gar thee investigating the death of six-year-old Matthew Healy near Dunmore-East in Waterford hoping to interview a suspect today and key departments clash over refugees housing officials says serious risk of people going from direct provision to homelessness and it's the age old problem we get a commitment that we're going to replace direct provision and that's being followed through but the problem is when you replace something like direct provision what contingency plan do you have to actually replace it and it seems the contingency is take your chance there is a huge housing crisis in the area of asylum seekers of those seeking international protection and the refugees as well coming over from Ukraine and there is a serious situation we all know that and it all feeds in as well to the appeal for builders that we referenced earlier that we just do not have enough housing available it doesn't seem that long ago that we were sitting here talking about ghost estates because there were too many houses available but a lot has changed in about 10-12 years Irish Daily Mail this morning 200,000 hospital cancellations in just nine months including 650 treatments for children's chemo the appointments were cancelled over the first nine months of 2023 their figures are revealed in the Irish Mail today they show that 196,729 operations cancelled the cancellations increased by over 50% and there's more in sight also rural TDs unite for general election the independent party have secured TD Michael FitzMorris as a candidate for the next general election they're seeking to capitalize on the rural vote Mr FitzMorris said it's all about common sense thinking in the same way and there's more on the inside of the paper also Michael Collins and Richard O'Donohue are both involved in this new party as well and it's going to be an interesting election coming up whenever it may be be it October or be it earlier it has to be before February of next year but the thought process does appear to be that they are going to go earlier rather than wait until February so October, September October probably the most likely time but we'll see what happens moving on to the red tops Irish Daily Star this morning fight said Fred, infamous mobster Fat Freddy Thompson is set to appear in court over a series of alleged attacks on prison officers the Kinehan Cartel killer has now amassed dozens of disciplinary charges while behind bars were told by the Irish Daily Star Irish Daily Mur this morning New York gives the green light to Garthy officers will be allowed to march on St Patrick's Day there was a bit of a standoff it seems over a couple of days toward the end of last week when Garthy hadn't been invited to march in the St Patrick's Day parade apparently there was some suggestion that there was a problem last year with the way they lined up or something I didn't read into the full thing to be perfectly honest with you it comes after officers were told last week they wouldn't be able to take part in their uniforms as they hadn't been invited but that does seem to be resolved the Irish Sun this morning Tubbs was pilloried he had to leave Ortee Pat Kenny exclusive Pat Kenny says Ortee made it virtually impossible for Ryan Tiberty to work there again Tiberty 50 eventually left for Virgin Radio in the UK after last year's payments scandal at Montrose news talk host Pat 76 who draws in 216,000 listeners on weekdays told the Irish Sun where was he to go they had pleaded him and that's on the front of your Irish Sun now, as we say this is the 9 to the noon show it is Highland Radio you can make contact with us 086625,000 text or pop apps call us 0749125,000 00353749125,000 if you are outside the Dublin area and I have two mice in front of me and you know what if I used the right one I might have a bit more chance of actually getting where I want to go and now I think I am where I want to go so we are going to see you in a few moments an unbelievable clearance sale is now on at Foy's and Evercanny in Bali Buffet with massive reductions to make way for new arrivals there is up to 70% of selected furniture display models up to 50% of designer display curtains and up to 50% of roles in the industry and in the industry and in the industry and in the industry and up to 50% of roles of fabric plus many more great savings this sale won't last long so call in store to Foy's in Evercanny or Bali Buffet today Hi, Paddy here at Shea and Conley Cars in Donegal Town are you looking to upgrade your car? with Shea and Conley Cars you will find mix and models for every budget great finance options and we also accept ratings check out SheaAndConleyCars.com from London Road Donegal Town not all food is the same food that carries a quality mark means that it's being produced to board B's highest quality standards verified at every stage it's reassuring to know that there's always someone out there inspecting how your food is being produced and checking where it comes from it also means you're supporting quality assured producers so always choose food that carries a quality mark it's food you can enjoy even more because you know you can trust it there's bingo every monday night at Halfway House Burnford doors open 7.30 with eyes down at 8.30 2,500 Euro must go the snowball is now 2,400 Euro on 45 numbers are left if you're not in you can't win that's Halfway House Bingo tonight at 8.30 The Ninetal Noon Show is brought to you by Lettercanny Credit Union digital loans now available online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account Welcome back to the Ninetal Noon Show just looking at a couple of messages that have been handing over someone saying I'm receiving a lot of calls and emails from the HSC it's clearly a scam including things like can you please completely attach form and send it back to me a lot of these scams are coming through and I've said this before when I've done the program if at any point you get a text and you're thinking to yourself well what's all that about it is a scam probably we've had numerous ones I tend to get the e-flow one for some strange reason and my wife actually got one recently and it perturbed her because we do actually use the M50 we do actually go through the M50 quite a bit because we'd be travelling down south and she would do some work in Dublin from time to time that involves again going down the M50 and through the toll there so we actually do use it and there was one time I almost fell for it the message an evening that we had gone through the toll now the only thing is we have one of those deals with e-flow whereby the camera reads our reg and it takes the money out of an account automatically so we have that sort of video recognition account with them so it's done and that's what we do I would always say if you see something come through on your on a text or an email and if it looks suspicious if it looks like a rat and smells like a rat then you know do you know what it's a rat Rondock's job losses Cora said just this week 10 new hires were waiting in reception on their first day at work at a company in Dunnegull but at nine a call came through from head office asking for them to be sent home they were no longer needed and there was no job for them anymore some had left jobs in other places one person actually moved home from Dublin and questions raised over the way people were treated there and we'll have more comments in just a moment but now we're going to go to a very important call and a call I've been looking forward to today because over the weekend the Dunnegull person of the year for 2023 was named and I'm delighted to say that we're joined by the Dunnegull 23 and 3 person of the year on the line, Moia Brennan congratulations and you're very welcome thank you so much thank you I'm thrilled I have to be honest my initial thought when I heard you'd be nominated has she not had that award already because I would have assumed you would have had that years ago well it was really funny some people said that to me the other night but no I've never had it so I was very honored excuse me I have a bit of a cold at the moment but I was really I was really honored to be given such an accolade because it's a big thing you know and it's a real being respected from your own county from your own area is huge you've been and it's fair to say you have been a global superstar for decades and there's very few major arenas on this earth that you haven't played I suspect but you've always carried Donegal with you you've always carried home with you there was never any doubt that wherever she was wherever she lived Moya Brennan was a Donegal woman through and through oh I'd like to think that very very much so I'm very proud to be Donegal and you're right anywhere I've gone I'd mention Donegal off the stage or meet Donegal people afterwards or you know wherever I talked to other journalists or anybody else in that country or wherever I was it was always Donegal for me and you know it is the same for anybody that travels you don't kind of realize how important your county is to the kind of traveling you kind of say wow you know I'm proud to be well that's me anyway and so the more I traveled the more Donegal I was I was lucky enough to be in the Millennium Forum just over a year ago when when Clonald played their last gig in the Northwest as part of that farewell tour and it was an absolutely a staggeringly good gig I do have to say and I must say I have said this to Ashley when I met her but I have to say Ashley's take on in a lifetime was absolutely magnificent between the two of you it was absolutely brilliant I have to say it was amazing but I found that gig in the Forum that was as intimate to me as a gig in a bar I didn't feel like I was in a 1000 seater theater I actually felt I was in a bar with friends at a session and I think that's the vibe that you and the rest of the band managed to get across right across your career and I think that's one of the things that made you special well it's nice that you felt that because we actually felt that on the whole tour you know when we decided to do that it was kind of very much in the offing of you know come and just watch this for the last time and enjoy where we come from, what we're about and you know on that tour we wanted to take you on a journey and we wanted to kind of show you where we kind of started off with the earlier earlier songs to to kind of you know the inner lifetimes and the Robino Sherwood and you know it's been it's been an amazing journey because we're a young band from Donegal that started to play in my father's pub and not in our wildest dreams you know what I mean everything that wouldn't such accolades as Grammys and Baftas and Arminovellas and things like that you know it's like a dream really you know what I mean and it was lovely to be able to put it all to bed in a way of this is our last touring together because two have passed away now and it was lovely that Arsene and Paul were able to be with me on stage it meant a lot to me and they were absolutely amazing but you know I've received loads of accolades or whatever but people that have received Grammys and whatever, Arminovellas or whatever haven't received Grammys and we go all best person of the year so Maya I don't want to keep it too long because obviously from the sound of your voice you are suffering and listen I really appreciate the fact that you have spoken to us this morning I also want to I also want to acknowledge actually I'm involved with Relay for Life and every year you're available you've come and you've played for us and many people will have seen you one stage during the premiere and I have the honour of generating it so I've been on stage with you a number of times during Luminaria and it's wonderful to have you there and I just want to acknowledge that you've always had that interest in local charities well you've always been very supportive of things like Relay and other charities right across Donegal and for that I think a lot of people would recognise you for that too so Maya I won't attain you get well soon because I know you're back on the road in March aren't you on a solo tour with Cormac de Barra myself and just my own band I'm looking forward to that and we look forward to seeing one of those shows down the line Maya congratulations on the accolade well deserved and we wish you all the best thank you and may you have a wonderful night in Dublin in the Bonnington in April thank you so much thank you Maya thank you indeed and congratulations again that's Maya Brennan who was named and was announced in Chrysler and as you know of course the people of Chrysler held the accolade of Donegal person of the year jointly over the past year because of the the response to the the tragedy of October 2002 so from that point of view it was very poignant that the announcement was made in Chrysler and Chrysler obviously Maya just from down the road in Inguidor Chrysler area I'm sure she knows very well we're going to change tack we're going to move on to a different issue completely because Sirsha Brady of the Irish Penal Reform Trust joins us on zoom she's the executive director of that body almost nine in ten Irish employers who took part in research commissioned by the Irish Penal Reform Trust agreed they would consider hiring someone with a history of convictions however barriers remain for employers and potential employees with previous convictions according to the the reform trust and we're going to pick through some of the findings of that report now with Sirsha, Sirsha good morning Sirsha good morning okay I think I may have muted myself right somehow I managed to mute myself Sirsha I do apologize good morning well no worries I thought it was in my head and to be honest usually I was there going and then I just noticed I have somehow managed to mute myself which I have a talent for doing things nobody else would do Sirsha you're very welcome the research that was commissioned found that you know almost 90% of employers would consider hiring someone with a previous conviction but there are barriers there are ifs there are buts and one of the things and one of the challenges that you're facing now is to sort of tease through those buts and tease through those ifs whats and maybes and try and get to the number of the issue what are the main problems I suppose this was a small scope and study we got funding from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission to commission this study so we had two researchers from Maneuth University actually carried out this research for us and they carried out interviews with both employers and people with a history of conviction they did some interviews with them and then they brought lots of people together in a symposium and teased out some of the problems but really I suppose what we found was as he said you know nine out of ten employers said they would hire somebody with convictions and the barriers that they found weren't around for example the things that you might expect that they didn't think the person would turn up on time that there'd be absenteeism all of those things it was actually that they felt that well it was the type of offence they did consider risk and then it was the lack of support that was the biggest thing coming from employers that they didn't want to put a foot in the wrong they know that people who may have served time in prison or done community service you know they've served their sentence but at the same time you know they may also have complexities in their life so they didn't want to exacerbate that in any way so what they're crying out for are state support and not in terms of finances but like an information line that they can phone to say look you know am I doing the right thing they want on the types of policies they have to put in place so half the employers that the researchers spoke to only half of them had a policy around when you disclose a conviction during the recruitment process if you have to tell other staff or not and obviously you know I think we all know about data protection these days so that came up as a real concern as well. From your point of view looking into this issue there is always going to be a risk of re-offending and I would presume that one of the ways to prevent re-offending is for the person to actually get a job and to earn money and to find their place in society and the longer it takes to get a job and the longer it takes to re-enter a society in that respect the more there is a risk of re-offending. Have you done any studies or any looks to see is there a correlation between you know getting a job and maybe being less inclined to re-offend? That came out from some of the people who had offended in the past. When they came out of prison they really tried to get a job and when they were hit with these barriers they didn't know when they had to tell people or when they applied for a job they would tell people yes I have a conviction and then they felt they were back to square one but we know the things that help people stop re-offending they're keeping links with family they're making sure you've got a roof over your head if you come out of prison it's maybe not going to prison in the first place if it's a less serious offence but work and employment is a huge part of this. We all know that a job really gives you a sense of yourself and I suppose what this study did as well was not just look at somebody comes out of prison or they have served a sentence in the community and that they should just take any job. What really came out of this was looking at people not just having a job but decent work, access to decent work and looking at a career path as well and we know from some people who've turned their lives around and have been incredibly successful that that is possible but we know that they also need the support to do that and I suppose what came out of this study as well were people talking about those small things that an employer did that were really important to them. Where they built them up, they gave them confidence they said it didn't matter that they were going to give them a chance and let them move on with their lives. Is there sufficient support in prison to prepare those about to be released or being released in the next while for work and for re-entering into society because there must be difficulties there in terms of how do you approach an interview, how do you bring this up, how do you raise this? Do you put it on the CV? I mean there must be, as you said there's a whole minefield now of GDPR and people don't necessarily have the right to pry into your past or to investigate you but do you have an obligation? I mean there's a lot of questions and I'm sure it needs a lot of teasing out. Is there sufficient support given particularly to those about to leave prison in terms of preparing for this? So there are supports in place for some people so when you go to prison you may have access to education and training so we know there are some really good programmes being run to in the Midlands prison around retrofitting because obviously there's a crying out for retrofitting for houses for example so people are upskilling on that but I suppose part of the problem is at the moment we have a huge overcrowding issue in prisons and that puts a huge strain on prison staff and it also means that some of that education isn't happening because you know if there are so many people in prison if there are court appearances that prison officers have to escort them to the first thing that usually falls off are the schools have to close so then you're not having that access and you know people in prison do have access to sentence management they should have a plan in place we know there are organisations like Ayazio who are supporting people to reintegrate once they leave prison and putting those supports in place but because of the huge numbers in the prison system at the moment and we would say that not everybody in there needs to be in there that is putting pressure on all of those things so this is all going to have a ripple effect and a knock on effect so what we really need to do there is government policy to reduce the number of people going to prison on short term sentences and maybe serve a sentence in the community and if they happen to be in work they would be able to retain that job hopefully and that reduction in the number of people going to prison there is a huge number of people in prison on remand so it means that men have never been sentenced yet could there be out on bail you know for example so I think there are other solutions to this but you're right I think we do need to make sure the people in prison are properly prepared for the outside because what we hear time and time again is people leave the prison gate with a plastic bag with all their belongings in it they look left or right they always know where to go and very often they don't have somewhere to go to put their head for the night so they end up in homeless accommodation so the housing crisis has put pressure on here as well so we really need to think about all of this obviously this study is focused on employment but it can't happen in isolation we know that you can get into employment if everything else in your life is stable if you have the supports if you need mental health supports if you need addiction supports if you need housing and accommodation you need all of that as well as the chance to get back into employment what needs to be done from the government side does this require new legislation or does this require funding commitments from presumably Minister McIntyre in her department or is it going to have to be a sort of a cross department bringing in education bringing in the other enterprise employment as well and getting all three departments talking to each other to try and make sure that the strategies are in place because it would seem in the longer term the more you can successfully get people into employment after prison the less chance there is that you're going to be welcoming them back in a couple of months or a couple of years time all of the above so what we would say is there are pieces of legislation that would really make a difference here one of those is the quality legislation to changing the quality status act and the quality employment legislation to include criminal conviction as a ground for discrimination or anti-discrimination and you know there is a review going on of the quality legislation at the moment it is looking and exploring whether or not socio-economic status will be included as a ground of protective ground and you know obviously that is very linked to the number of people that end up in prison but we would say go a step further and have criminal conviction as an additional step as well there's also spend convictions legislation so this is where you don't have to disclose certain convictions after seven years so that would make a big difference Senator Lynn Rowan has a piece of legislation waiting to go through there is cross-party support for it even the minister said she would support it with some amendments so we'd love to see that through in the lifetime of this government and then the funding piece is the other big piece the Department of Justice and Fairness is putting together a new employment strategy for people involved in the criminal system and it will be out in a number of months and we did have a representative from the Department of Justice speak at our launch last week and he did a lot of it aligned so that's really heartening to hear but I suppose the other piece is here the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment need to lead by example they need to have people with previous convictions as a target cohort for their strategies and that support service that I mentioned that employers want we need dedicated funding for that information campaign for both the public people with convictions so they know when they have to disclose or not disclose when they can actually move on and for employers so we have ten recommendations in the report we made sure they were very tangible and practical they do require some funding but I wouldn't say it's huge amounts and we need to see those start to be implemented in budget 2025 the worry of course is the political reality is that we face local and European elections in June potentially we face a general election later this year a lot of the optics and a lot of the work done by government parties inevitably in the coming months is going to be with a night toward elections and the big question is are there going to be any votes in this and the worry would be that if it isn't the vote-getter it's not going to be prioritised and you're right and I think that's something that we really need to think about because like as you said earlier if people get back into employment if they have security and stability we know that they're less likely to re-offend so let's look at this from a community safety point of view if you give people the supports that are there then actually there should be votes in it because we know what results in safer communities and that's what all the international evidence says so that's what we've been banging the drum with that for quite a while but we do keep reiterating that we'd also say as well and we would really encourage the political parties to engage with people in prison particularly in the local and European so are people in prison who would have a right to vote in the locals and in the European elections so we need to think about that as well and then their families as well are on the outside we need to encourage people to vote by ensuring that they know their loved ones will be supported to turn their lives around so I think there are votes in it it might be the most popular voting issue out there but I think there is a responsibility on all of those standing for election to engage with this particular cohort because unless you do things aren't going to change Susha Brady, Executive Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning thank you so much thank you Susha, it has been our pleasure it's the Nigel Nuneshow on Highland Radio let's look at some of your comments a caller says the people coming into our country not only unvetted but unvaccinated as well but let's blame the Irish anyway anyone I know had an MMR now that's a reference I presume to the measles story that we covered on the newspapers earlier on then caller says when Donal is on commons we're always deleted for some reason where are the sanctions on Biden and Britain for bombing and killing innocents that's a question they're still steadfast in their support for Israel at the moment and Joe Biden we're told is sternly speaking to Benjamin Netanyahu but certainly there's a lot of question marks over the implicit or explicit support that both Britain and the US are giving to Israel at the moment good morning to Annie Thaley and good morning to Beth both of whom are viewing us on our Facebook page at the moment thank you very much indeed for joining us today few of your comments, caller says I'm recently divorced I'm trying to find accommodation everywhere to rent is between €1400 and €1450 a month in the letter Kenny area even 20 minutes outside letter Kenny I'm staying with my mother I can't afford anywhere I work in letter Kenny people don't realise how serious the situation is another caller says I'm just wondering if anyone can help me out I have a house that's fully dry lined and heat on every day with people living their full times and clothes in the wardrobes are moulding Annie help would be much appreciated I can give any perspective on that particular issue another caller says no wonder the emergency department in letter Kenny is always full it's almost impossible to get a GP appointment our GP closes their phone lines before 10am fully booked already the medical centre answers the phone but there isn't a doctor available to issue a regularly occurring prescription despite the fact that they're aware I'm prone to pneumonia following lung damage from Covid a few years back so instead now dock after hours when chemists are closed pay them 50 or 60 euro and get enough antibiotics to last until the following week then pay the medical centre 40 or 50 euro to have the regularly occurring prescription issued something that's normally agreed with doctors during a 2 minute phone call based on my medical history welcome to healthcare in the north west and under resourced not funny joke I absolutely appreciate the difficulty you may have getting on to your GP quarter and I have had the experience of on the phone going repeat call repeat call repeat call repeat call repeat call and I have taken at one point it did take me 2 days to get through to a GP surgery and it was to get a prescription refilled I have to say if they're charging 40 or 50 euro just to reissue a prescription that is an awful lot of money it seems to me but absolutely I feel that and you know maybe what we need to be can we get 6 monthly I have a prescription and it's issued every 6 months or every month maybe but maybe if we go for 1 month to 6 months and if there has to be a blood test or whatever in the meantime then fair enough we can get that organised but there maybe I think what's happened is the situation changed during Covid and we haven't yet fully sat back and looked at in the post Covid situation how can we improve communications how can we make things better in terms of things like repeat prescriptions and how can we organise the emergency department better as well and absolutely anyone that has to go to the ED it is a nightmare there's no doubt about that and that cannot be avoided now 1 or 2 more comments before we go for a quick break caller says I hear the government put out a tweet for Irish men to come back to Ireland and build houses for all the immigrants doesn't make much sense to me and that's great for the country well I personally would believe that maybe what we do need to do is have a situation where if people are seeking international protection that there is a facility open for them to go to work particularly if they are builders I think if people are living in the country and they have an ability to work there should be a pathway through which they can work absolutely another person says I was listening to a number of Irish people on the radio last week but not being able to afford vet fees for their dogs they have to hand them to a charity to pay for them I was horrified to read our government has spent 800,000 euro on refugees bringing their pets into Ireland how can this be acceptable thank you now I will be honest I haven't particularly heard that figure mentioned or I haven't seen that story I'm not aware of it a lot of people find emotional solace and find emotional stability in their pets and for many people a pet can be a very very important part of their lives and maybe the pets in question are serving we speak a lot about service dogs and animals who support animals and perhaps there is an element of that there as well it's an issue and thank you Collor for bringing it to our attention it's the 90 noon show it's 18 minutes to 10 o'clock I'm going to take a short break back after these minutes we will the next video we will be back with a new episode of the monster loans available up to 60,000 euro for all occasions visit letterkennycu.ie Croffertiles & Castlefin extends their famous bathroom refits to the entire hospitality sector transforming 10 bathrooms in just 10 days their service includes full gutting, replumbing and retailing We'll see you in the next episode of Home Store 9143942. New this week in Home Store and more, all frying pans are all half price, but better hurry because when all the half price frying pans are gone, they're gone. Also all garden water features and all bathroom towels are still all half price but when all the half price garden water features and all the half price bathroom towels are gone, they're definitely for a Scotty Centre Black Rock. Home Store and more, a happy home. All you need to make your house a home at Patterson's The Hall Lifford. From garden furniture to kitchens, sofas and dining sets all under one roof. Need a new mattress? Why not visit our Sleep Centre on the first floor with a large range of quality beds and mattresses in stock and ready for collection or delivery. Relax in our coffee room until Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 30 p.m. Patterson's kitchens and interiors The Hall Lifford. Mike Denver in concert with guests Declan Ernie and Brendan Shine at Angrenen Theatre Letter Kenny on 30 February 29. Tickets on sale at Angrenen Box Office. That's Mike Denver with Declan Ernie and Brendan Shine at Angrenen Theatre Letter Kenny on 30 February 29. Don't miss a great concert. And now the new Milford Community Centre gifted 200,000 Euro by anonymous donors will be used. The huge donations will be used for the continued redevelopment of the former Reformed Presbyterian Church in Milford. Joined on the line by Declan Meehan who is manager of the Milford and District Resource Centre. Declan, good morning. Good morning, Donald. Declan, to be gifted I beg your pardon to be gifted the former Reformed Presbyterian Church in itself was, I'm sure, a huge boost from Milford. For that to be followed up with an anonymous 200,000 Euro donation for use in the community, you must have thought all your Christmases came at once. Absolutely. I think it shows that positivity breeds positivity and generosity kind of creates further generosity which we're delighted with. As you say, we were very kindly gifted the building by the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation in Milford in November 22. We've opened it partially as a community centre since September 2023, so just a few months ago. And since then it's become a thriving hub in the community and that has been followed up as you say now with 200,000 Euro of a donation which will allow us to hopefully leverage more grant funding, maybe further donations for complete redevelopment of the building so that it becomes a community facility that's modern and set for purpose and meets the needs of the community. This comes at a time when you are trying to develop a community sense in Milford. It's giving you an opportunity that will not come around again presumably. So what you want to do is make sure that you get it right this time and with that in mind you're calling this public meeting tonight to make sure that the views of the community, the views of everybody with an interest in this are taken on board. Absolutely and last year we received a heritage council grant of 16,000 Euro or 16,300 Euro sorry and that allowed us to carry out a conservation study a feasibility study and a public consultation at that stage. So we've already been engaged in the community in every step of this process and now as a feasibility study findings are to be presented this evening along with obviously news of the 200,000 Euro donation we want to involve the community further about the planned development of the building and what that building hopefully will look like once that development is completed and again how it's going to meet the needs of the community. So having people from the community come in to take part in that public meeting this evening is essential for us because the building belongs to the people of Milford and that's you know how it was gifted MDRC, Milford and District Resource Centre are simply caretakers of us on behalf of the community so it's not my decision to make in terms of how the development goes it's the whole community's decision. Now there is also the town first plan for Milford which is being drawn up at the moment as part of a government initiative and indeed the Home Frees the Minister announced more funding for town teams last weekend and Milford one of the I think it's 21 or 22 towns across the country that is benefiting from that so the two coming together again it increases the opportunity for something very special to happen in Milford and those two working in tandem and in cooperation can really make a big difference. Certainly I think that the town centre first plan was a huge opportunity for Milford the finalised plan was published before Christmas and we're seeing that the first component of that plan will be published which is the development of the lands at Mount Marion for the development of a town park so a lot of exciting things happening in Milford community development is slow work but over the past few years a lot has happened in Milford which we're delighted with. As you say it's slow work but no doubt this 200,000 year old donation on top of the donation of the building will accelerate that somewhat and give you the opportunity as we said earlier to do something that's important because not only do you have this money but this now gives you the opportunity to leverage other grant funding and perhaps do something really really special in terms of the ideas do you have any idea in your mind of what lies ahead or do you want to keep your powder dry until you hear from the people at this meeting tonight? Yeah I think that's very much I suppose the opinions of the people of the community are more important than mine alone but I think that from her last public consultation what was clear was that there was a real need for further community infrastructure in general in Milford and that ties in with the town centre first plan as well in terms of the development of a town park but also just simply to have a fit for purpose a modern community centre that's open and accessible for everyone to use for whatever they want and need in the community so whatever plan that comes out of this and whatever feedback we get from the community tonight I think that we kind of be on the same track on the same trajectory to develop exactly that In terms of that 200,000 euro donation were there any conditions attached as to how it is to be used anything that can't be used for any specific requests or guidance included in the request of the money? No and I guess that's the best sort of donations you want to receive as a community organisation the only condition was that it needed to be spent on the development of the building the conservation study that we had conducted and commissioned last year along with the feasibility study will outline and do outline and prioritise a number of I suppose a scheme of works to take place on the building so there's no shortage of work that needs to be done on us there's no shortage of projects associated with the building where money can be spent on so the only condition was that it be spent on the building and that the building obviously be for community use our primary concern and our primary aim Declan Meath and manager of the Milford and District Resource Centre that meeting takes place tonight in the Gallaudlas Community Centre which is the new name for the former Reform Presbytery and Church Building in Milford the meeting is on tonight at 7 some very potentially very exciting times ahead and Declan we wish you all the best and look forward to seeing some really tangible benefits come to Milford and come to that community as a result of this money but Declan for the moment thank you very much I hope that's Declan Meath in there who is manager as we say of the Milford and District Resource Centre and I'm sure anyone involved in community development would be only too delighted to get a donation like Declan and his colleagues in the centre have received that meeting if you want to make your views on what should be done known meetings on tonight at 7 in the centre number of callers, caller says are the poor prisoners treat them like the law why were they in prison to begin with well they were in prison because they committed a crime and were convicted of that crime also in the course of being in prison they paid for that crime they paid their debt to society and now it is a question of what happens next and that's what Sirja and her colleagues in the Irish Peel and Reform Trust were discussing caller says donal I find it impossible to get an appointment in my medical centre since Covid they're seeing little or no patients I'm changing my GP because of this sorry to hear that caller I wish you all the best I believe in some areas it could be very very difficult to even get a GP now if you don't have one so we wish you luck in what you do another caller says can anyone explain to me why we can no longer get an appointment on that day or the next day when you call a GP you're lucky now if you get an appointment within two weeks another caller says just wondering when is the road going into the new guns in letter Kenny going to be fixed very bad I travel on it every morning on my motorbike so says a caller another number of callers and this is an interesting one caller says can anyone explain why pencils are used when marking a ballot paper I can't sign an official paper in a pencil why is the most important document in society signed with pencil if I use a pen is my vote invalid also five years is too long for a term of government is three years not enough can anyone explain the reason for a five year term first point first my understanding is there is absolutely nothing wrong with bringing your own pen and using a pen in the polling booth my take on it is I think you know pens can run out of ink pens can blot if you have a pen and if you blot your voting paper and a blot of ink goes across two sections and suddenly is your vote inadvertently spoiled by something that wasn't your choice so a pencil gives more control also a pencil isn't going to run out and it may be from that point of view it is as practical as that my understanding is if you use a pen your vote is absolutely not invalid there is nothing wrong with bringing and I know a number of people do bring their own pens and I've heard some suggestions that you know votes may be changed because the pencil can be rubbed out and an alternative mark put on all I will say to that is that once the ballot box is sealed in by the presiding officers in the polling stations those ballot boxes are under gar the control and supervision and are guarded by gar the until such a time as they are brought into the count centre opened and their contents are poured onto the table and I don't see where there would be any opportunity for anyone to interfere with or change or alter a vote because those boxes are under supervision and under scrutiny at all times I would also suggest that the personation officers appointed by the political parties and the tally teams that the parties have in the count centres themselves some of those are so used to covering elections and scrutinizing ballot papers my suspicion is that there are tally men and tally women in this county who would spot a paper that had been tampered with at 50 paces there is no doubt in my mind that if a paper was a vote was rubbed out and something was changed it would be noticed I strongly suspect for the three years versus five the problem with three years would be what you then get is a permanent election campaign I think the idea would be that five years gives a government time to actually implement policies bring in legislation implement that legislation that's the theory and if you have if you're every three years you're having elections every three years you're having I don't know I'll put that question out there if anyone has a comment to make another caller says can I ask a question what are our rights as property owners from stopping this we've received nine leaflets in the last three weeks I haven't had any such leaflets put into my door I'm not aware of it are the nine leaflets all the same or are they nine different leaflets purporting to come from nine different groups are they nine different leaflets purporting to come from nine different groups are they nine different leaflets purporting to come from nine different groups what the law is with regards to cannabis you can put a sign on your door that says no post no bills or no posters please or no flyers please as to what the legal standing of a notice on your door like that is I honestly do not know it's a question certainly that we will put out there and if anyone has a perspective on that question you know what rights do people have in terms of stopping the placing of election materials and leaflets and so on into their doors do people have any rights in terms of stopping that not that I'm aware of but we'll certainly put the question and see what we want to do now is go for a break and we will go for that break now in just a moment Donna Maurice coming up of course with the news don't forget if you want to make contact with the show you can do so you can make contact with the show we're on it's 660 25000 if you're texting whatsapp messages 0749125000 if you want to call 00353749125000 if you're outside of the the dialing area and you can use our facebook pages and our social media as well it's coming up to two minutes to ten o'clock I'm going to take a short break news with Donna Marie after these news the world's first road death since then thousands of our loved ones have been added to the list of people who have lost their lives on our roads that list of names does not have to keep growing because together we can bring an end to road deaths starting now make life-saving roads a better place to live and now make life-saving changes today and you will help Ireland achieve vision 0 no road deaths or serious injuries by 2050 learn more at rsa.ie don't know if you know Alice and Pat late 40s couple of kids never married of course but that's not a problem until something happens and suddenly words like unmarried inheritance and substantial tax bill enter the equation until you do that's why the experience team at McElhenney & Associates are here to help find us online our call 0749175989 McElhenney & Associates solicitors Stranholder and just like that another big Lotto jackpot is won for somebody somewhere the dream of it could be you has come true but the big winners are national lottery good causes because while that Lotto jackpot was building Lotto and Lotto raised over 25 million euro for good causes across Ireland 25 million euro so on behalf of thousands of good causes thank you for playing you make this possible the national lottery support responsibly Donneagle County Council Website and Social media weather updates brought to you by Grant building a new home choose Grant's a triple plus rated aerone air to water heat pump and use flex under-floor heating visit grant.ie live on air online and on the Highland radio app This is Highland Radio News Good morning it's Donamary Good morning, it's Donna-Marie Doherty with the news at 10 o'clock. The second special meeting of Donegal County Council has gotten underway to discuss the draft county plan development. Members are to discuss the chief executive's report and submissions from the Office of Planning Regulator, which seeks to see a number of changes to the original draft. Members progress through a third of the OPR's recommendations at a meeting on Tuesday last. The first topic which has been raised was construction along the N56 by councillor Michael McClafforday. Ahead of today's meeting, Geherla councillor Martin Harley says road safety must be at the forefront of the council's thoughts but members believe there are areas where development should be allowed to enable people to stay in their local communities. It's always a conservation issue and it always will be and until we get a bit more clarity where there's parts of that road that may not be as busy as others that there may be some restrictions lifted since the road safety issue as well, we have to be mindful of that and one life lasts us too many so we have to try and get a balance but there must be some opportunities on that route that to me there could be some restrictions lifted and we could possibly get some building on it into the future. Concerns have been raised after a protective bollard that was on place at a bridge in Glacier who was knocked down by a vehicle last week. Local councillor says the bollard was put in place following a collision last year and that the local community has been left angry that safety measures have not been put in place. Councilor Micheal Cullin, the Geherla Aspog says this is a symptom of a wider issue with small bridges in West Dunygol. I don't understand why it's taken so long not just a bridge to be seen to be fixed but we've seen loads of other bridges right across from in Barnett to in the Missouri to other bridges right across our MD been left for long long periods of time so after accidents or damage to them and not getting fixed. It's not good enough I believe that this has been left the way it is and also what we need to do is that this corner here where the bridge is there has to be some measures found to make it a lot safer than the way it has been for many many years. Gary D are today hoping to question the woman they arrested on Friday in connection with the death of a six-year-old boy in County Waterford. Matthew Healy was pronounced dead in hospital after being found in a car close to a beach near Dunmore East in the early hours of Friday morning last. The woman whose age to relate 30s was arrested at the scene but has since been under medical supervision and has not yet been questioned by and Garda Shia Khanna. Ralph Regal Southern correspondent with the Irish Independent says the cause of Matthew's death is still unknown. A post mortem examination was conducted at University Hospital Waterford on Friday that the preliminary post mortem was inconclusive and Garda and the coroner's office and pathologist's office are awaiting the results of expert toxicology tests to confirm the precise cause of death involved. A 22-year-old man in Derry has been charged with offenses including attempted grievous bodily harm with intent, assault on police, resisting police, driving wildest qualified, driving without insurance, dangerous driving and failing to stop for police. The charges follow a single vehicle collision in Craiggan at the junction of Southway and Rathland Drive on Saturday evening last at around six o'clock. The man is expected to appear before Derry Magistrates Court today. People who are medically certified as unfit to drive are to be included in the free travel scheme. Social Protection Minister Heather Humphries has announced the move to mark International Epilepsy Day. From July, the state's free travel scheme will extend to those who have never been able to drive because of a disability and those who are certified as not fit to drive for a period of 12 months or more. Construction workers who emigrated during the recession are being targeted by a new government campaign to entice them back home. 750,000 euros being spent on a blitz to attract builders to move back to Ireland to help with the housing crisis. Workers in cities like New York and Sydney will be asked what the state can do to incentivise them to come home. Higher Education Minister Simon Harris is telling Irish construction workers their country needs them. And we need your help. So the purpose of this campaign is to spread the word to Irish people abroad that if you're working in construction, there's huge opportunities here in Ireland and to please consider coming home and helping out. Looking to the weather this morning, there will be sunny spells and isolated showers. Blustery showers will become widespread for a time this afternoon and some will be heavy with the chance of hail with sleet possible on higher ground. Top temperatures of five to eight degrees Celsius with light to moderate west to southwest winds increasing moderate to fresh, locally strong and gusty this afternoon. That's all for now from Highland Radio and News back again at 11 o'clock. The obituary notices this Monday morning, February 12th. The death has occurred of Brian Anderson, Ballina Breen, Lifford, formerly of Ardengana Crossroads, Kelly Gordon. Remains are opposing at his daughter Tracy's residence in Ballina Breen, Lifford, funeral, leaving from there tomorrow morning at quarter past 10 for Rayquiem Mass at 11 a.m. in St Patrick's Church, Merlog, followed by interment in St Mary Cemetery Castle Finn. The Rayquiem Mass will be streamed live on MCN Media Dot TV. Family time from 10 p.m. tonight and before the funeral tomorrow. The death has taken place of Bertie Wiley, Derry Vane Moff, funeral service in No Head Presbyterian Church this afternoon at two o'clock with interment afterwards in Drum Haggart Cemetery. For family information and more details regarding Wakes and Funerals, please go to HighlandRadio.com. The Ninetal Noon Show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union, offering low rate car loans with fast approval. Apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today. Indulge in a romantic getaway at the Radisson Blue Letter Kenny. Experience an enticing romantic package starting at 239 euro. Relish a Valentine's dinner at just 39.95 per person or share cherished memories with an exclusive voucher. Book online or call 9194444. Valentine's Day dinner is served on the 14th, 16th and 17th at the Radisson Blue Letter Kenny. Valentine's Day is almost here. Still looking for the perfect treat for your special someone. Make this day unforgettable with a gift from Pandora. Don't wait until the last minute. Visit us now in store and online at pandora.net to find the perfect symbol of love. Keep out the cold, cold, cold and ring flaming for their full range of garage doors, agri doors, insulated doors, milking parlor doors, flaming 9148234. For the best breakfast in town, take a seat at Kelly's Diner in Letter Kenny. Try the renowned Erdie Bird Special or the Full Irish or go all the way with the ultimate monster trucker. There's also healthy options like Kelly's Protein Breakfast or Turkey and Scrambled Eggs. For breakfast, lunch, dinner or something in between, pull into Kelly's award-winning diner at Mountaintop Letter Kenny with confirmation and first communion catering also available. For bed and breakfast, plus your ticket to the show. For more information, visit the outlet at HighlandRadio.com or give us a call on 07491-25000. We'll see you at the Highland Radio birthday bash. This Valentine's Day, let the one you love unwrap, Lindor. Irresistibly smooth, melting chocolate from the Lintmaster Chocolatier. The perfect gift this Valentine's Day. You choose the moment. We'll provide the bless. Lindor from Lint. It's the second hour of the Nineteen Noon Show on Highland Radio and you are very welcome back. Now one or two comments say we were speaking about pencils earlier. Pencils are used as pens blot easily. This would be a spoiled vote. That's why pencils are recommended and available in the polling station. That's pretty much as I suggested in my comment there. With regards to the situation that one of our callers had with their wardrobe, the caller says keep the wardrobe doors open for air circulation to prevent mould. This does prevent the votes from getting spoiled. Caller says I appreciate it's canvas time for the elections, but campaigners should never have more than two people come to a door. I witnessed nine people yesterday come to my mother's door. Only I was in she would never have answered. If you want to vote, don't frighten the person you are asking. And that's a point that's made by a caller. Now I want to go to Zoom on Zoom Audio in particular because we are joined on Zoom by a very special person, Oya Riley, from the St Mary's Convoy Club was presented with the Club Coach of the Year Award by Lelys Gaelic Football Association President Mihal Noctum and Martin Clancy, Senior Managing Manager of Denvey Homes at the 2023 LGFA National Volunteer of the Year Awards, certainly at Croke Park in Dublin at the weekend. So let's just say Oya joins us on the line. Oya, a very good morning to you. Good morning, Doran. How are you? I'm very well indeed. Oya, congratulations. There are many people in many clubs up and down the country who do so much important work in terms of their local clubs. You obviously have done something special to deserve this honour. Oh, well, yes, we all do something special. The volunteers and the coaches throughout the country or the country, I may say, you know, do a lot of work in the clubs, and it's just so special to be recognised. You know, I'm humbled to be recognised for this award on Friday night, and we had such a brilliant night in Dublin. And at a special venue, Croke Park, it was just exciting. And the LGFA, the ladies LGFA, put on a great show for us. And it was lovely. And I was just proud to represent my club, St Mary's and Convoy. And to bring the award back, it was great just for my club and for Donegal. I put in two, yeah. You've also been involved in coaching underage Donegal teams, too. So your dedication to GAA goes beyond just Convoy? Yes, probably 19 years with the county as well. And they're under 16s, under 14s, with a great team of coaches there and the Donegal LGFA. You know, I think we may have a bit of a scene. And you know, it's just great luck. Yeah. In terms of the work you do on you, and obviously the GAA is an absolutely central part of every parish. And I think it's something uniquely Irish that I can't think of any other sporting organisation or cultural organisation in the world that would have such a local parish identity right across the country as the GAA does here. Yes, definitely. I suppose I'm from Mio, a place called Caramor-Lacken. And it was just the backbone of our village at home. It was the GAA, so I was brought up in that culture and that, you know, and that's what I grew up with. And that was the end thing for us to do at home, was to go and watch football, Gaelic. And I suppose I brought that through and then I came to Drumkeen and joined the club when my two sons, Connor and Jack, joined the club and convoy. And then I started there, went on to there. So it's a place you can go and just make great friends. You have a great community spirit in the clubs, you know, this just everyone watches out for each other. If you're feeling down or if you're feeling, you know, you can go to the club, you can go and watch a game. So you watch the men's games, you watch, I tried to get to a lot of the ladies games. I would coach under 12s, 13s, 14s, that area is probably my area that I prefer. And it's just you make great friends and you watch the girls grow. And the girls come in and we teach them the skills of the Gaelic, but also they're learning the skills of life, you know, and making friends, fitness, you know, just dealing with everything. They're also learning about community, even not explicitly, you're never sitting down and saying, this is what community is. But in what you're doing, in your example, in the way you act, in the way you treat them, in the way you treat your colleagues on the volunteering teams, you are teaching those girls and the boys indeed as well, what a community is. And that's a lesson that they're going to carry forward without actually even knowing that they've been taught it. That's it. That's it. The sea, you know, the sea, all the people that are helping, they probably don't think too much of it, but maybe in later years the will, you know, the younger girls, you know, but they learn, you know, I mean, it's the friendship that's going on the wee bus trips to the games and it's win, lose or draw, you know, we're happy bunch coming back and we stop at the shop and we have fun and then, you know, if you win games, it's great, you know, but it's not all about winning, you know, it's all about just the inclusion of games, you know, and of participation in the games and you're playing, you're a part of a team, you know, so it's it's great, it's great skills, true life, like, you know, when you go to college, when you go to your job, when you go, you know, abroad anywhere you can take it with you, like it's just, it's just amazing, like really, you know, and we try and maybe we don't get it always right, like, well, we try our best to teach them, you know. Yeah, it must have been extra special as well that Miho Naktan was the president that you received the award from, because Miho obviously living and working in Donegal, and I'm sure in your own work with the LGFA locally, you've come across Miho locally on quite a few occasions. Oh, of course, it was great, great he was there, actually I was very nervous on the night, so it was nice to meet a familiar face up there, and I went up on stage and I must say that we're very, very good, you know, Miho is great ambassador for our Gaelic Games, for our ladies, and yeah, definitely, definitely so, it was great. Anya, congratulations again, it's great to see the award coming locally, and I know you're anxious to reflect the fact that look, you've got this, but you're not the only volunteer in the county, and there are many, many others in St Mary's Convoy, and in every other club in Donegal and further afield, who work hard, and that the whole point, and we all know, I mean, I'm sure like most people involved in in GAA, you've taken the jerseys home and washed them, and you've made the tea, and you've made the sandwiches, and you've done all that, that seems to just happen when a GAA club goes from week to week, and no one asks, it just sort of happens. Yeah, it just happens, and you're happy to do it, like I love it. You know, we give, we give so much to it, alright, yeah, but what we get back is amazing as well from, from our teams, like, you know, the, the joy and the, you know, the just, the satisfaction of, of, of watching them play, and, you know, and it's just the fun we have, you know, and, and, and, you know, you go down there to training, a half an hour before training starts, you set up, and you get ready, and then the girls come in, and they're all chat about their school, and all different things. So, we hope that we're there for them all, I can just want to mention, um, Marie Brown as well from my club, it was Marie that nominated me. I mean, she does just as much as me, and more probably, and, um, I just want to thank her for nominating me, like, you know, so that's what, what the clubs are all about, you know, they're just, you know, they give so much, you know. Well, Anya, um, congratulations again, and, uh, may, may you enjoy the accolade, and enjoy sharing it with your colleagues, and I'm sure there'll be one or two celebrations, if there haven't been, I'm sure there's been already, but there'll be plenty of celebrating done in St. Mary's Convoy, and may, may you all have an absolutely great time. Thank you for speaking to us this morning. All right, thanks very much for that. Okay. Thank you. It's our pleasure. Thank you. That is Anya there, Anya Riley, um, who is a member of the St. Mary's Convoy Club Coaches, uh, underage girls there, and also involved in the underage inter-county team as well. Just a few comments before we move on, uh, people that have a bus pass shouldn't have to renew them. They know who's on the waiting list. It should be renewed, like the medical card. I'm trying since November to get a bus pass for my mother. They keep keeping any codes, and I don't know how to do it. I don't drive, and we have to take the bus. My mother is, uh, a pensioner, and it should be automatic. Another caller says contractors won't come back to work in Ireland as they're not paid decent wages. They can earn better money elsewhere. So says a caller. Another caller asks, Donal, can you explain why the pal- Palestinian people are not allowed to leave the war-torn area? Yet others in the world can flee their countries. Why this, surely all these countries offering support could offer to take some of the Palestinians? What we do know, and I'm by no means an expert on this, but I do know, and you'll recall, just a few weeks ago, the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. There is one crossing between Gaza and Egypt, and you'll recall that was very much being controlled, and very few people were being let out. You'll remember, there was a young Irish girl who was trapped in Gaza, and it took quite a while to get her out, and the question was, would she get out? Would she get out? That they were leaving. They were basically allowing national people with other countries' passports and so on out. There has not been, to my knowledge, a program whereby people from Gaza can choose to cross the border into Egypt and seek international protection elsewhere. My understanding is that's just not available to the vast majority of people. What we do know is that Rafa, which is a town, if it's even the size of Letterkenny, I'm not sure it's even the size of Letterkenny, I think it's slightly smaller than Letterkenny, now has 1.2 million people in it, and that is, just imagine 1.2 million people in Letterkenny. Just let that sink in. That's the situation in Rafa at the moment. I have no doubt that countries would bring in people from Palestine if the people stuck in Rafa and those stuck in Palestine and Gaza in particular wanted to leave. Question mark is number one, do they want to leave? A lot of people I think would be insistent on staying in their home such as they are. It's a very, very complex and complicated international geopolitical situation, but I absolutely take the point for making color, and I have no doubt that if there were Palestinian refugees, that countries would certainly take them in. It's 20 past 10, I'm going to take a short break back after these. The county's number one talk show, The Nine Till Noon Show on Highland Radio. It's time for Vision Ireland Bingo on Highland Radio. It's Monday the 12th of February, you're playing on the green sheet. The reference number is S11, it's game number seven. The numbers are 54, 21, 60, 22, 20, 50, 77, 1, 43, and finally, 39. Phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 tonight, leaving your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchase your book and we'll call you back the next working day. Get all your Vision Ireland Bingo information at HighlandRidio.com. Join the Homeland Agri Ardra team at Ardra Parish Center on Tuesday 13th of February for their SHIB event from 7.30pm. Speakers include Daniel Hessean, Nutriest and Technical Manager DeRivo, Owen Gullacher, Agricultural Consultant and Eleanor Brady Vet with MSD. Refreshments and spot prizes on the night. See Homeland.ie for more. Are you ready to elevate your driving experience? Look no further than iMotors, your only Nissan dealership in the Northwest. The Nissan X-Trail has been crowned large SUV of the year. That's right, it's not just an SUV, it's an award-winning experience on wheels, available in four-wheel drive and a seven-seater. Visit us today at iMotors.ie to find out more. The County Donegal Blackface Sheep Ridders Association in conjunction with the Sleeve League Blackface Sheep Ridders Association and the Broca Perth Blackface Sheep Ridders Association will hold an in-lamp female and dry-hugged sale at Ballet Buffet and Stronauer Mart this Saturday the 17th of February at 12 noon. The sale will be available to view and bid on Mardai.ie The 9 till noon show with Letterkenny Credit Union. Simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from Letterkenny Credit Union. Call us on 0749102126 or apply online via our app or in office today. 22 minutes past 10 on the 9 till noon show. Now there's a lot of talk about the potential of developing rail in Donegal. Now whether it's a link that goes from Derry to Letterkenny and then on down to Sligo or it's a link as Minister Iman Ryan seems to suggest that would go from Donegal and east over through Tyrone over toward Porter Down. It's on the agenda and it's been spoken about. It's not going to happen in the short term but there is a definite push toward rail particularly in the contents text of the major north-south rail review which is to be published which has been published and we'll see the extent to which it will be implemented in the coming months and years. Louise is a Donegal resident who has some concerns and she joins us on the line. Louise good morning. Good morning and yeah I suppose they're just calling in because there doesn't seem to be too much activity from the you know that I suppose the people representing Donegal in Dublin I don't think many people realize there's a 37 billion euro now assigned to this people have talked about the Donegal rail for years but this is the time now when the decision has been made so there's 37 billion there's plans to lay 650 kilometers of new tracks and the draft of the original report is published in July and as I have serious concerns about whether anybody has actually even from Donegal as other than Thomas Pringle even read this you know when it was published you've had uh Martin McLaughlin Pierre Stardee they said you know they were quoted celebrating the plan when the draft is released and you would think they hadn't hadn't even read it but so this is this is a 20-year plan people saying one stop in that or can you would be sufficient and you know a starting point but this is this is a 20-year plan so you know if it's not in it it's it's not getting there and so I want to yeah the the point you're making is that there's a lot of talk about bringing rail to Donegal and we'll have a stop in Letterkenny and that's all that's ever said and your your belief is it needs to be more broad than that that there needs to be more stops there needs to be a more intensive rail network within Donegal connecting to outside and if we just limited to Letterkenny we're going to be doing ourselves an injustice for sure it's it's not even just my opinion like the report that was published it was published in three stages and so these decisions that are being made now they're part of this long-term strategic plan for the whole island so they the government essentially had outsourced you know in and around outsourced in conjunction with Northern Ireland outsourced a consultancy firm to do this report and so it came through in three documents now fair enough there are very very very long documents I read all three documents and essentially this is what has happened for for Donegal and this this is how it kind of went down for Donegal so the first report was basically looking into where are the connectivity gaps in Ireland where do we need to put these new trains where do we need to upgrade trains so that report showed a clear need they lots of charge you can go and look to report one showed a clear need for a North West train route from Donegal down to Sligo Galway Limer corp so this would be really infesting in the whole West coast of Ireland so really good report one showed a clear need other things that they showed in port one was they showed things like the importance of connecting towns here near nearby cities and for example connecting up all the coast one example is Tralee to Dublin that route 40% of people 40% of the travel was to Cork so really big uptake and really important for that relationship with the local the local city it also showed that most of the travel is not done end to end so for example Belfast to Dublin only 6% of people are Belfast to Dublin the stops along the way is where the gain of the route is they went through all the major stops that they got all the statistics of how people are using these trains all over Ireland all the routes and in most cases it's kind of less than 20% of the travel is between the kind of end to end lines like say Galway Dublin 16% of travel is between the city the real gain for the route is having these stops along the way so putting one little stop in Letter County is really just a joke and then saying hey Northern Ireland you can connect this up to the rest of the country like the plan that they put through then report two proposed a really nice route for Donny Gull so it was there it was proposed it was saying we have a need for it they proposed a really nice route going right through right through Letter County down Valley Belfast Donny Gull's town straight down to Sligo Sligo obviously connects they were connecting that up to Galway Galway already connects to Limerick they proposed to connect Limerick to Cork directly without going through the junction really nice route somehow in report three they just de-scoped it no real clear explanation at all conflicting information depending on report three it just got de-scoped so you believe there hasn't been enough impetus in terms of trying to build on those reports and the silence you fear coming from Dublin at the moment is deafening the report is questionable anyways so like the language they use in the report so they name their core plan as the spine and they call this the spine they keep talking about this spine plan when they consider all the routes the spine the spine the spine is Dublin to Belfast and Dublin to Cork now forgive me but a spine is very log-sided if it's just if that's the spine you know they're just completely if everyone wants to continue to be heavy weighted on Dublin and Dublin being the centre of Ireland then you can keep and go with the spine report you know in report two they separated Donny Gull route from the regional connectivity route it was like they were trying to find ways to just separate it they separated off they called it a package four separated Donny Gull out but when it was being considered and scored it was being scored by itself with the connection from Limerick to Cork and it was being referred to as a rural route now rural on the CSO less than 1500 people in an area and Donny Gull is certainly bigger than that so separating it out calling it rural and then scoring it against a regional route Donny Gull down to Slago is certainly considered regional so that was unacceptable just the language the choice they justify it to de-scope it there's no there's no two ways about it and then when you have people from like you know like politicians coming out and saying they're celebrating it Thomas Pringle as I say it's the only one who read that report and then went out to the pricing side this is unacceptable the route is there it's proposed they show the need they show the solution they have 37 billion like they're ready to go it's just been de-scoped and nobody seems to be pushing for it is it your fear that it's not going to happen in terms of what we will eventually see is that the drive toward getting a rail link to Donny Gull won't happen because we'll be told ultimately well it would be a rural route and we can't afford it that's exactly what's been said like if you if you read they have given like maybe four sentences about in report three they've referred to this this is all online if anyone's you know don't have a reader but report three of this you know all island strategic plan they've they keep repackaging things and scoring them against different things so then you know report two the package is up to this rural route package four the next one they package it up is a separate route and they call it the west coast route then at the very end they just say you know this this route is going to be two it's too expensive and you know it's a high environmental impact other parts of the report they literally score it and they say here's all the regional routes and actually they all have a comparable you know environmental impact so it it doesn't really there's no satisfactory reasons that they've given as the light was cut it was just cut is it your belief that a route from Dunnegal down from letter Kenny will say down through Balaba faced an honour down to Dunnegal town Balichanan Bondoran down towards Sligo and then down further down the the western seaboard and even possibly I'm sure our our friends and initially shown was say well why don't you bring a spur down from Pancrana as well I mean do you believe that sort of a route can be made financially viable because the argument is always going to be that you will not get sufficient passenger demand on a route like that to make it economically viable to to develop a railway bearing in mind and what we have to bear in mind you've actually done the stuff yeah they forecasted it under their own numbers this route doesn't doesn't stack up any worse than really any of the other routes on their own forecasting that this they've done for this and their own reports it doesn't stack up with a particularly bad route like and it creates some sort of balance like say for example an example of a county where they have a single single stop like that is Limerick City so Limerick City has 50 percent of the population living in the city centre so you know it's not great that they just have that stop and you know it's an extension stop similar like what what what they're proposing now as you know this short cut route for for Donegal like that this lighter investment it's the same kind of a stop but Lederkenny has 13 percent of the population of the county Donegal is a much different spread than a county like Limerick Lederkenny is just one town if you invest in one single town you're going to change the whole balance of the county of Donegal and you are going to leave the rest of the county behind it's it's it's it's mad that Donegal people are expected to be satisfied with this one little stop and they're putting out you know notes in the paper saying oh rail returns to Donegal you know it's absolutely a joke to say that rail will be returned to Donegal by just oh if you were a long long way we were a long way away from rail returning to Donegal and even from any form of commitment I mean these reports as you said the reports done by consultants they were commissioned it was a cross-border commission and it's a cross-border report but but this report is absolutely no policy bearing it has absolutely no bearing on government policy or government impetus into the future this is the recommendations of consultants how this is actually implemented politically is a completely different story and that is a long way down the line I suspect well this is a 20-year plan the money is for the cycle it's like all of these things have been debated for you know many many years but but this is this is the time to put the push the options are mapped out they're being weighed up against each other like to say that the the political foundations of what policy or whatever what's going to be decided this this is fully the foundations of this conversation these routes and this route that's already been dismissed is the foundation of saying no you're not getting this so this is the time to say I'm not satisfied with this report we can't go forward with you know this kind of a recommendation which all of it leaves Donegal all out of the plan it's a lot of money and a lot of plan if you if you look at if you look at the now I'm absolutely no fan of the Healy Rage but if you look at what they have lobbied for for a place like Kerry in Kerry it's a very comparable place in comparison to Donegal in terms of the distant Trump's major cities like Dublin and Galway in distance of you know spread of rural populations but if you want to get from on Krana for example to Dublin it's about six hours over two buses a similar this destination in Kerry you can do for two and a half hours on a train but cheaper yeah the benefits that you get for that in Kerry Kerry has doubled the tourism income of what Donegal has slightly less population than Donegal double the tourism income what that would look like is another 24 or 5 star hotels being not revenue coming in to to Donegal it's it's a lot of money there's a hundreds of millions of money and it's because of investments like this and if the people who are representing Donegal do not push for Donegal to be included in this plan they're doing a serious disservice to the people that live here but the reality is even if you were and we'll say for the for the sake of argument if you were to develop a rail spur from Bunkrana into Derry you're still talking Bunkrana Derry Derry Belfast Belfast Dublin it's still going to be hitting the six the five six hour mark in terms of the journey even if you could do it by rail because we don't have a direct spur from the northwest down into Dublin and whatever does happen with this I don't think we'll ever see a situation where you will get a direct link from Derry down to Dublin into which Bunkrana and letter Kenny can feed the best you could probably hope for in terms of rail is either what Mamon Ryan talks about which is a spur from the northwest over toward Portodown and then go down to Dublin that way or go Derry Belfast Belfast Dublin and even still that's you know that's going to take a long time yeah it also changes the relationship of of the country you know the place that you can access quickly is the place that you're going to go when you build a better road you improve the relationships or better train you improve the relationships between the neighboring cities it's going to change the balance of of how things are and we know we want to go down to Sligo we want to go down to Galway Galway is the fastest growing urban population in Ireland for the last number of years like always is the thriving city this you know obsession with fair enough what it may be with eight or fifteen of the minutes of there you know Dublin and they're in office and the whole thing is extraordinarily Dublin centre you know it comes back to this calling it the spine of Ireland like we would like to be connected to the West Coast like there are other places of Ireland that are worthy of being linked up together and you know and not everything is literally just a train and a route coming out of Dublin and it shouldn't have to be and if they continue to do the analysis the way they're doing it and make the decisions they're making you know I literally read every single page of all of these reports yeah I absolutely take it on board and you know it's just enough connectors up to the West Coast yeah I totally take that on board and I have to say as someone who has to travel to Galway a fair bit for personal reasons I would absolutely love a train line from letter Kenny to Galway because believe me that would make my life an awful lot easier and it would be absolutely great to be able to get from Dundee Gall down to Galway by train and that would that would change it would it that would change my life actually as it happens but listen Louise it's a really interesting point and thank you very much for speaking to us it would open up the University of Limerick it would open up those places those opportunities but you know when people are coming out of school here they don't have a lot of opportunities because they want to come back and take it the job at the weekend they want to come back and see their families and of course student prices on the train are exceptionally affordable you can get from you can get from Galway to Dublin similar distance from Galway to somewhere like valuable face and similar distance you can take that that that for eight euros of students and get there in two and a half hours very feasible for someone to make that if we if we had that on a train you're all of a sudden opening up so many more opportunities you know and it's not just students like lack of transport affect employment people aren't hiring remote hybrid workers like friends who cannot get jobs and doing gold because employers are perceiving them as disconnected and even if it's a remote job you know or hybrid workers can't get to quarterly quarterly on-site meetings they can't do any travel and you know and employers aren't hiring them so it's this is a 20-year plan and yet there's just there's just not an acceptable level of there's not acceptable level of questioning of this and this is the time to do well hopefully that's this course will improve and extend thank you very much indeed Louise it's been a pleasure speaking to you thank you and we look forward to that debate developing but in the meantime Louise thank you very much indeed that's Louise and some very interesting comments about rail now we are going to change tack and we're going to change tack completely because I'm going to zoom and I'm welcoming onto the program Garon Noon who will be appearing on Saturday night next in the Villa Rose Hotel in Balaba Faye Garon it's an absolute pleasure speaking to you welcome to the show hello how are you getting on thanks for having me lovely there's a lovely delicious field suddenly come to the show now this morning which is great to see thank you very much Garon I had a conversation with my daughter recently and my daughter is not in her 20s anymore and my youngest turns 30 this year that's where I'm coming from age-wise so I mean you know I have mentioned I saw you were coming on the program and I know you for one thing and for one thing only that I saw recently and absolutely loved and that's the your questioning of lines with regards to their teabag shapes which I absolutely agree 100% because we were told that pyramids were the way to go and then suddenly they went back to the flats and expected us to accept that without question and fair play to you you're asking the important questions I mentioned your name to my daughter and her eyes lit up it's like and I said I can't say I know too much about him and she went what how can I would not know about Garon Noon he's amazing Garon you're I I love the phrase tiktoker but that's eventually what you are you have you're one of these people who have forged an identity for themselves and have forged a career for themselves on tiktok to the extent that you can now go and set out a place like the Villa Rose yeah it's it's a strange one but when I started tiktok I didn't even have the app so I had no understanding the people were doing it I just used to post the odd update on my stories when I was doing music gigs and people were like oh you should put them on tiktok so I started to put up I put up a video on me reviewing cereal and people watched it and then I made a video on me reviewing all the ice creams in the shop and even more people watched it so then I was like oh sure I'll keep making these videos now it's amazing to me how many people see them I go out and people have actually watched me eat a bag of crisps and talk about what it tastes like I mean but I mean it's interesting because I'm thinking of the career trajectory of for instance um dare I say Billy Connolly because I mean Billy Connolly started as a folk musician who went to folk clubs he played with Jerry Rafferty in the Humble Bombs then he he went to folk clubs he played his band Joni told stories and what he noticed was happening was the stories got longer and and the banjo got shorter until eventually he suddenly realized he was a comedian without ever actually deliberately setting out to become one and it seems to me you're on a sort of a similar trajectory yeah it's it's kind of a similar thing so so I play songs throughout my gig and then I kind of go off on tangents about things like I do online and between the songs and uh yeah it's it's it's great crack but yeah I I had no aspiration to be a comedian never even cross my mind it's only really since the TikTok thing has come up that it's even been on my radar so it's it's amazing what the internet can do when you put a few videos eating cereal out there okay is this putting you in a difficult position because you're you're doing a gig and in in your head you're a musician and you're going to play your music and you're going to tell some stories it seems to me that a fair whack of your audience is going there to hear you shout at Lion's Tea and hear you talk about ice cream and cereal and does that put you in a bit of a dichotomy because on the one hand you're a musician and you want to put the music out there but on the other hand you now have to cater to this audience of predominantly younger people who are there because of TikTok yeah well surprisingly enough it's all ages so I have people in their 70s coming up to me going I love your TikToks and stuff like that right down to four and five year olds but so the shows I mean the shows are meant to be entertaining so when we go and do the shows I'm kind of trying to give people what they're expecting so there'll be a lot of that kind of talk from my TikTok most of the music I do is kind of more fun engaging kind of stuff getting the crowd involved sort of stuff I'm not really trying to force music at people or anything I'm kind of happy out doing what I'm doing and having the crack with people it's great crack and in terms of the music is it what's the the balance of your own stuff versus covers I mean you're doing your own stuff I need to do one or two of my own songs it's mostly like when I'm doing the shows what I really want is to entertain people get people involved and not be trying to introduce people to new things too much yeah so do do a few covers do a few well-known songs get a bit of audience participation going that's it yeah snake one or two year old in while they aren't looking exactly exactly in terms of and here's a question I actually haven't want to ask you the question straight out how difficult is it to monetize TikTok because it seems to me on social media in particular you can you can go on social media and you can have thousands thousands upon thousands watching what you're doing on social media if thousands if those same thousands and thousands were buying a CD that you had released you'd be getting a fair whack of money out of it yeah because it's free and you know how do you monetize it can you actually make a career of this or do you find yourself famous and broke well so so I'm kind of looking in the respect that I've always been performance or I used to gigs and pubs and all that I did that for like 10 years and I was sort of teaching music so it's easy for me because I can kind of go and do shows and interact with the audience maybe not everybody necessarily is going to have that right out of the gate and then also you can do sponsorships so companies will approach me to do a funny video for them and I've got a funny video coming up with a patchy soon where I go on a nice date so there's there's things like that that you can use to monetize that what it's really about is a consistent audience so if you've got people watching you regularly it's a little bit easier to monetize but there's not many people in the country doing it as a job there's really only a few of us so it's and I suppose the difference is now you're creating a name for yourself online so Garin Noon comes to Balaba Faye Garin Noon now comes to Balaba Faye and plays and sells out the Villa Rose with with tickets at 2130 five years ago Garin Noon may have come to Balaba Faye and played a local pub and pasta hat around is that affected with the difference? Yeah 100% not five years ago I was playing pubs for four months ago yeah so and I was pretty well known then but I wasn't yeah I wasn't monetizing it in any way, ship or form I didn't really even know that you could the pubs got a bit hectic then so I kind of had to stop doing it but yeah I was doing pubs until very recently so the idea of doing ticketed events for people actually wanted to come and see me I didn't really expect that to ever happen so did you have to go out and get an agent and enter into this whole business word of show business you never really told you to be get involved in that yeah yeah it's a strange thing you know I I had no expectation that it was gonna happen so and it's kind of happened over the last year so it's been very surprising I know a lot of people want to do TikTok it's like a new you know thing everybody wants to be an influencer or whatever whatever you want to call it but it really has I think if you've got ideas and stuff to do when you want to do them you should do them because it's totally transformed my life for however long it will and I had no expectation that it would do you have any term any sort of forward view in terms of I must do X amount of TikTok so I must put new content up be it every week or every fortnight and I must sit down and plan how I'm going to do this and how I'm going to keep the consistency going or do you just have an idea chuck it out there see what happens I try to be fairly consistent about it so when I started it off I realised that if I made I used to do sales so I used to do call calling where I'd ring up companies like 100 companies a day and most of them would say no to you but you might get one or two a week say that you got to sell for and I kind of take the same approach for TikToks where I kind of figured if I made one every day most of them would be crap but one or two of them would be all right and people would watch them and that was the attitude that I did no the quality has steadily improved over time but at the start most of them were not good I mean you are honing it and you have a much better idea in terms of editing in terms of timing in terms of pacing and in terms of you know what's going to hit and what isn't and I suppose you're building up that sort of knowledge almost instinctively within yourself that you have an idea no that won't hit that will hit do you have a target demographic when you put stuff out there or do you just put it out there and everyone from three rolls to 70 rolls although with the three rolls sometimes the language can be shall we say not part of it yeah I think so too yeah so I wouldn't no in fact I'd be fairly honest I wouldn't be showing too many of your TikToks now it's with three rolls yeah yeah and I know I know it indeed there is an over 18 warning on the show as well so I suppose that we can take it that the language in the show won't necessarily be parliamentary either yes yes yes unfortunately not I try my best but well I said the lion's one yeah you wouldn't be I certainly I would love to play it on there but I won't um but it's it's really I'm pretty upset about that now for yeah I do do you know what I sort of remember that ad was on circulation when those teabags came out it was etched into my memory that I remember when the teabag rolled in totally yeah and then telling me it was perfect yeah and then to sweep it from under my yep I was shook yeah it's you know I once I once tried I once tried to try to do a bit of comedy writing years back and I try to it seemed to me that there was a time when all washing up liquid suddenly became non-bio but all yogurt became bio and I had this idea that somehow all the bio had been taken out of the washing up liquid and are they not the the washing capsules for the the washing machine and all the washing powder and washing capsules suddenly became non-bio yogurt suddenly became bio and I had this idea that they'd taken all the bio out of the washing capsules and put it into the yogurt and are you really sure you want to eat that you know so it's interesting um and your your stuff is out there as you say you are um you do promote your deliciousness um follow me I'm delicious I believe is one of your lines but and there does seem to be quite a bit about between food and cereal and ice cream and everything else you like your your your grub oh Jesus I do yeah I do don't we all but I think that's why so many people watch it because it's a bit of a unifying factor okay everybody likes food yeah it's a fair point actually because I mean not not everyone drinks a champagne not everyone necessarily drinks gin but we all like a cup of tea yeah exactly it's good um my page is built on food tea and the weather that's what I talk about everybody loves that you know what I'll tell you something whenever we look at the various metrics on our website um and you look at what what sort of stories get the biggest audience I guarantee you the stories that get the biggest audience time after time after time our weather stories so oh yeah yeah 100 percent tea Garin you're on a winner listen I'm really looking for it I think I'm good I'm gonna go to the show and I'm really looking forward to it actually because oh thank you it's good I mean you know I I like a bit of comedy and I like to be entertained and you you always have come across as someone who's got the feet firmly planted on the ground and you're sometimes people try to be your mate down the pub who's great crack and they try to be that and they fail you're not trying and you're succeeding I think listen I think I just go off if I find something interesting there's a there's a part of my brain when I'm looking at a store a new story or something like that or I say something that's way overly invested in it and that's absolutely furious about it and I just let that part of my brain out and I think everybody has that everybody was way too furious about the tea bags everybody loves a Chinese and a rational amount and it's just that that's all it is Garin it's been an absolute pleasure we wish you all the best for the show and may you continue making TikToks may you continue making us all laugh thank you very much indeed thank you so much have a good one that's Garin in there appearing in the Villa Rose on Saturday night next tickets 2130 in total including booking fees and all that stuff that you suddenly have to get involved when you get agents and it is an over 18 show because as we said the language will not be parliamentary taking a short break back after these Connor here from Irwin X for Electrical home to Ireland's largest LG TV display now with a further 10% of all models with the huge selection of top household electronics featuring energy efficient Bosch appliances premium brands such as Sage Electrolux Cooker Taps and more interest-free lay-away service available Irwin X for Electrical letter Kenny in Bunkrata Welcome to Boots how can we help is 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a locksmith to call out in an emergency for peace of mind always choose a PSA licensed locksmith spending a few minutes checking the PSA register of license holders will provide you with a professional licensed locksmith visit PSA hyphen gov.ie issued by the private security authority the security regulator time is running out to avail of the Northern Ireland sustainable energy program this year you could receive a fully funded gas conversion at insulation LED replacement bulbs and more applications closing soon search nisep.co.uk to apply today terms and conditions and eligibility criteria apply the 90 noon show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit union digital loans now available apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account it's 90 noon show on Highland radio we're going to change tack completely we're going to go speak on Zoom to Joe Sweeney who is the chair of the IFA in Donegal a lot of discussion in recent times about the impact on farming of dogs and it recently emerged that Donegal County Council has issued one fine for offenses under the control of dogs act last year and Joe Sweeney as I say of the IFA joins us on the line Joe is this a matter of concern to you that in a county where there is such an important agricultural sector particularly in terms of sheep that there's been one fine for offenses under the control of dogs act so it's it's it's it's it's alarming to be honest we have that with the country with some of the sheep in Ireland now we have a country where we have around 7 million dogs or 7 million cattle we have 3 million breed meals and we have 800,000 dogs roughly and about 200 and 8,000 of them have a license so about 600,000 dogs that no one knows where they are or who owns them they're not microchipped or nothing so then dogs they're just out there and there's no responsibility there's no nothing so there's a whole there's a whole area there that needs to be tightened up because like the farmer he uses cattle he uses sheep they're indentified they're tagged they're there and they know where they are from all the time but dogs it's a different story the councils are saying that they either can't afford to or they don't have the resources to employ dog wardens and I'm sure you would argue there aren't enough dog wardens employed in Dunnegal and in many cases those who act as dog wardens also have other responsibilities in in the context of their day-to-day work and those other responsibilities at times I suspect may actually overtake the dog responsibility is it where yeah well that's true and so probably the nature of the county it's big it's fast there's a lot of seed there's a lot of mountains so there's a lot of places for people to go walk in which we don't mind that but it's just when there's a dog kill then it's just not followed up on a lot of the a lot of the kills are a lot of the killings that happen are actually on the reported that's part of the problem and then they're not followed up on because like there's a kill in the country every week at least every week and some of them are savage the amount of sheep that are that are that are being killed and there there have been kills in Dunnegal as well that we're aware of and some of those savage too and obviously one kill is too many and you do believe that there may well be a correlation between on the one hand the number of dog wardens in the area and the number of fines issued and the extent to which the licensing of dogs and the the microchipping of dogs is monitored and the number of sheep attacks that take place yeah well like the law has they have brought into law there on the beginning of December 23 that there's a 300 euro fine for on the spot for dog handlers that are not controlling dogs but sure how is that going to be implemented is it's the question it's grand bringing in this but if there's no one then to implement it's then it's a waste of time in terms of the Gar thee there's not really much the Gar thee can do on a day-to-day basis in terms of dog control this is the responsibility of the council Gar thee will do what they can but sometimes we maybe have an over reliance on Gar thee or this assumption that Gar thee will resolve everything when the reality is they can't they can't know like the Gar thee are always called and in fairness to do the respond and do their best but they only can work with what where there's evidence or whatever they'll follow up on that but a lot of times there is no evidence there's very little or no evidence of sheep kills and it's really it's back to the to the dog owners to take responsibility for controlling dogs like because that even during the summer months or on the springtime when they go for walks like they should keep the dog on late I see them myself on mountains and stuff they'll go for walks but just keep the dog on a leash because if you let that dog off the leash still have worked in Firemouth the path you're walking on and I seen dogs run on myself through mountains after sheep it's just it's not it's not acceptable Joe Sweeney we will certainly keep an eye on the situation one fine issued by Donegal County Council under the control of Dogs Act last year is to say new legislation is now in place and we'll see how that works but Joe in the meantime thanks indeed for speaking to us this morning it's an interesting story I'm sure and hopefully this will have helped raise awareness of it thank you very much indeed Joe thanks Joe it's a minute to 11 time for a short break news with Donna Marie after these 24 hour monitor assessment which will evaluate your heart health over a 24 hour period by tracking your heart's activity looking after your health is essential give yourself peace of mind by booking an immediate appointment today at LetaKennyMedics.ie or call 07492-02955 Leta Kenny Medics we listen if you want to talk the way you eat a cream egg says everything about you if you eat yours by cracking it open like an egg that means you're a bit punchy you don't whisper in the cinema you've been known to cut your own fringe and you never get jet lag search Creme Egg Test to find out who you really are Cadbury Creme Egg how do you eat yours join me Marty Freel this on every Friday night from 8 for Rockin' Hits on Highland Radio in association with Arena 7 Letter Kenny if you're celebrating a birthday or a work night out Arena 7 Entertainment Complex has it all check out Arena 7.ie this Valentine's Day there's a free box of chocolates with every 12 roses while stocks last and Annie's flowers and gifts call 9-1 7-7-4-0 or order online at anniesflowers.ie and with an air code your flowers will be delivered direct to your loved one make it special this Valentine's Day with Annie's flowers and gifts Lower Main Street Letter Kenny Valentine's Day is fast approaching and what better way to celebrate than with a romantic meal and glass of prosecco at Backstage Bar and Grill our Valentine's menu is running on Wednesday the 14th of February call Century Complex and 07491-21976 to book your table and take a look at the weather forecast for today sunny spells and isolated showers at first blustery showers will become widespread for a time this afternoon some of those heavy with a chance of hail sleet possible on higher ground top temperatures today five to eight degrees Celsius light to moderate west to southwest winds increasing moderate to fresh locally strong and gusty this afternoon the 9 till noon show with Letter Kenny Credit Union now offering mortgages from 40,000 to 600,000 euro with no hidden fees or transaction charges Letter Kenny Credit Union 9102127 are you graduating this year Venture has opportunities for ambitious graduates from the northwest region to join its financial services graduate program 2024 and with offices located in both Letter Kenny and Dairy London Dairy you can build a successful career as a financial analyst right here on 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flat battery doctors FPD stands for support we support van drivers in Ireland up to 75% off new van policies visit your local branch to talk to your FPD insurance team FPD insurance support it's what we do 75% off based on five years no claims discount terms and conditions apply underwritten by FPD insurance plc FPD insurance group limited trading as FPD insurance is regulated by the central bank of Ireland we've one planet and it's ours to protect from repairing to swapping to creating and recreating learn the changes you can make every Tuesday at 12 30 to live a little greener tune in to ours to protect on Highland radio with me Donna Murray ours to protect is brought to you by Highland radio the IBI and funded by Commissioner Mann with the television license fee check out ours to protect dot i e for more information it's five past 11 it's nine to noon to on Highland radio and with apologies for being so late we say good morning to Donna Murray thanks Donal good morning the second special meeting of Donegal County Council has gotten underway to discuss the draft county development plan members are to discuss the chief executives report and the submission from the office of planning regulator which seeks a number of changes to the original draft members progress through a third of the OPR's recommendations at a meeting on Tuesday last so far the N 56 tourism and hedge cutting legislation has been talked about concerns have been raised after a protective baller that was in place on a bridge in Glasschew was knocked down by a vehicle last week a local councillor says the baller was put in place following a collision last year which seen the barrier they're taken away councillor Michael Cullen the Gila Asbug added that the local community have been left angry that no temporary measures were put in place on the busy road since the baller was knocked down there've been a number of water outage notices issued for Donegal this morning all are due to burst water remains repairs with works to take place throughout the day businesses and residents in the school eight ballet Shannon and Kelly Beggs are warned of possible outages more information is on our website HighlandRadio.com A 22-year-old man in Derry has been charged with offences including attempted grievous bodily harm with intent assault on police and driving while disqualified the charges follow a single vehicle collision in Kregen at the junction of Southway and Rathland Drive on Saturday evening last at around 6pm he's expected to appear before Derry Magstreet's court today and finally the investigation continues today into the death of six-year-old Matthew Healy in County Waterford Garady hoped to question a woman in her late 30s today who was arrested in connection with the discovery of Matthew's body in a carrot near Dunmore East on Friday morning she's been under medical supervision since then and hasn't yet been questioned those are the latest headlines back again at 12 o'clock Get physical with Laundice this Valentine's Day with bubbly eye heart for Santa Perceco for only £8.99 200g of Ferrero Rocher are pretty sweet at only £5.50 and get succulent in a shell of premium strip loin steak for just €8.00 At Laundice we know what locals want because we're local like you enjoy alcohol responsibly And this is the 19-minute show on Highland Radio where Brendan Devaney is going to be with us in just a few moments to discuss tonight's DL debate and we'll go to Brendan shortly Let's look at one or two your comments first Colours as I agree the railway in Donegal needs to come back it would be very handy for people to come to Donegal from across the border and also from the south it would be very good indeed that's from Connor Thank you Connor It would fit them better to upgrade all the roads in a mess rather than talking about trains says a caller Colours as I'd like you to highlight this My mum and dad live in Drumkeam At 2211 there were two banks at the house eggs were thrown at the windows by young boys The three boys were aged somewhere the colour believes between 10 and 12 Why were they out this late and it's raining as well I want parents to watch their children Why are the boys out harassing elderly people it's not the first time my family are now staying with my elderly parents because they're scared and if this is how people are behaving when they are children how are they going to behave when they're older If people know who this is please have a talk with these youths so says our caller now a very interesting question indeed Now it is time for the DL Debate and delighted to say that Brendan Daveney is in studio with us Brendan, good morning I'll put your mic up it might even be better Good morning, don't take that That's all right Oh indeed Brendan the DL Debate tonight some interesting discussions where we didn't have any National League for the senior men at the weekend so nothing to talk about in the immediate term in that respect but you're going to be assessing how the start of the season is going so far Yeah and of course Kieran Cunningham coming on yesterday only to do that he's two sports out of the stars from Glencombe Kill they're living in Dublin this long time so very interesting guy you know you'd hear him a lot there on the Nationals covering many many sports and always gives you a great insight so just looking to I suppose pick his brain on where he sees football the minute and I suppose the reaction to to Donnie Goll and Jim from from outside the county what people are thinking and expecting of Donnie Goll this year so it'll be interesting to get his views Defeat to Derry for the Hurlers at the weekend in Division 2B a discussion on that as well Yeah you know what Derry were the team debating 2B they come down from 2A doing a good side and Donnie Goll missing a raft of players big turnover of players maybe seven from the team that started the Nicky record at final last year so you know Mickey I think is unearthly new players there and at halftime sides were level Donnie Goll maybe could have got a goal there he didn't miss a lot in the first half and second half they completely pulled away and then there was this period then where Donnie Goll had a mini fight back so this and all in all I think Mickey's happy enough with the performance in terms of players missing the players to come back so there's a two week break now and I think you'll assess and take it from there so Nell Cleary ex Donnie Goll player Satanta player I was at their dinner down Saturday night at home Richie Power I was there I'm sure you remember Richie from your water for days and a couple of a couple of yes a couple of tough days I'd say that Kilkenny said yeah so Richie was up with special guests so I did a bit of Q&A with him and interesting character with a bread and night up in the Villa Rosa you probably still hear it in the voice and yeah so Richie Richie give me an interview it's not played this week it's going to be played the following week and we all know he was on Lock Regale there you know it is trials with gambling addiction and that very interesting chap him and his partner Maria was up my mum came along with me as well so I say we had a great night in the Villa Roosevelt on the Satanta of course Ulster Champions this year phenomenal season for them the ladies it's been something of an up and down couple of months before the Donnie Goll ladies you'll be having a chat with John McNulty he'll be assessing how the squad's coming together after the opening rounds and I'm sure again he's looking to the future as well as as the hurlers are yeah John this is a very experienced coach you know took up the reins there actually Gordon Salonimus was with ladies and with an era particularly there in the last I suppose six, seven years where Donnie Goll were constantly knocking on the door and there had to be this change over and I suppose John's command now fresh you know he's had down there some new talent Donnie Goll down a division so just as assessment of where he sees the ladies game now it'll be interesting it's probably taken something like you know John to come in with that change and the guard almost from these you know unbelievably talented ladies squad behind so he's gone back to the youth and just be interesting to see after the opening few rounds what he makes of of the job and the situation and of course the job to come for the rest of the season so the program it's just after the seven o'clock news deal debate and association with Sarah's kitchen anything else that is about it sir I am at the man's it isn't it's a lot for him off there listen we'll always throw on you never know as the day goes on and then don't something can pop up at some times just thinking I'm afraid to say such in a person because maybe they haven't confirmed yet or whatever so yeah sometimes we'll have an odd interview and they're separate from from what they discuss on the Monday but by and large there should be plenty and not to get my teeth stuck in the you know well I always say that the deal debate is the GA program for people who don't necessarily know too much about GA because it's almost really engaging and entertaining conversation very often sports analysis can be done to such a a forensic extent that if you don't know the rules of the game and don't know everybody involved forensically then it's all going to go over your head the deal debate is absolutely not that job I don't know what interesting to say that and I just as we're talking there probably Calvary was on the last show and just like that don't sometimes when you have a you know you're doing pundits or zoom and that you know there's a certain amount of engagement whereas I'm suddenly talking to you now so myself and Park did a charity game where we did the the commentary on it out through the tannoy and down in the Donald Park we had a great laugh and I said to him would you command the studio because obviously he knows his football and said or his GA and said out so I said come on and be like a co-host so we great craig there last weekend it was well it was well gotten Park will be coming on the show a lot more as the season goes on so that's that dynamic you're talking about but like you know you want to cover the sport and you know have a bit of have a bit of craig while you're doing it I think that's what what people like and it's certainly always worth to listen Brendan tonight just after the seven o'clock news the deal debate on how to radio with Brendan the very high store the county's number one talk show the 90 noon show on Highland radio the 90 noon show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit union offering low-rate car loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today enhance your skills with safe tech's part funded training programs at safe tech we provide courses including first aid roadworks people moving and handling confined 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Sweeney to have a public meeting to discuss a number of issues so I have to say that Padre Tobin N2 leader TD in Meath joins us on Zoom Padre good morning to you good morning thanks Brian what's your happening you're absolutely welcome you come to Donegal a fair bit Padre and I'm sure you have some hopes for the elections in June yeah we Donegal is a very important county for N2 I would say Donegal would probably be politically the most aligned to where we stand for N2 so obviously we have we're a party that has five years behind us now we have a good organization built up across the country good representatives like Mary T. Sweeney who are very active on the ground representing people on real issues such as the hospital campaign there in Lederkenny and we are going to be selecting other candidates in the Donegal area very shortly for the local elections and I think we have a good chance of taking seats and I think the experience of Donegal is that it rapidly needs proper representation because on all of the main issues in terms of investments in terms of transportation links in terms of health care education all of these issues Donegal is not getting one it deserves and that has to change The specific reason you've joined us this morning is to speak about the ambulance service because you've been looking into a number of figures and true parliamentary questions and so on and you've learned that the number of people who had died by the time an ambulance got to their home has increased by 70% in the last eight years according to figures for 1,108 call-outs last year attended by the National Ambulance Service the person was deceased by the time of arrival and that was 100 more than the figure in 2022 that's a worry Yeah these are incredible figures so what Ainty has been doing over the last while is we've been highlighting significant elements of the health service where they're at and what solutions need to be put in place last week we brought to the attention and the pressure that's under GP services across the country where people can't get access to GP lists or even if they're on a list it takes for ages for them to get an appointment so this week we have brought new information which shows that there has been a significant increase in the number of deaths that are happening now on an annual basis before even an ambulance reaches the individual so in 2016 there were 657 deaths before the ambulance arrived and last year it was 1108 that's an increase in nearly 40% in those years which is incredible and what it means is that ambulances are finding it far harder to get to their patients they're slower in getting to their patients and as a result they're not getting them in time especially in terms of heart attack stroke and issues like respiratory arrest as well the information that we're getting back is because hospitals are so stuffed there's so much under pressure in terms of their A&E's that when an ambulance goes to an A&E there can be a significant delay in the delivery of that patient to the A&E which ties up the ambulance for ages so in one example in one part of the country there a while ago there was 11 ambulances stuck outside of an A&E for five hours because they couldn't get their patients delivered to that A&E and that meant for four counties in that region there was no ambulances available for that whole period of time so anybody who had a stroke anybody who had a heart attack or respiratory arrest their chances of survival radically decreased and we know that the A&E's are under such pressure one because there's not enough beds and staff in the hospital but two going back to those GPs because of the lack of GPs people are going to A&E's now that would normally have gone to GPs in the past and so that's an incredible situation as well the other element is that the national ambulance services is not employing enough people and you know I make this point all the time if you're if you own a sweet shop a letter came and you want to employ a person you have to make sure that your terms conditions and pay are if they are you will get to employ people and we know that about 447 doctors emigrated to Australia last year out of a cohort of about 750 who graduated and they left in large part because paid terms and conditions were better in Australia so this government is not doing at all what needs to be done in terms of strength in its service and as a result people are dying one of the things it is doing and we've seen in Donnie Gull recently the launch of what they're calling the Pathfinder service now the Pathfinder service is a specific ambulance that goes to the homes of people who may be a little older people that have existing conditions that are known about and it's a response whereby the person can be treated in their home the idea being that you don't bring them the hospital that you may know what the issue is and they can be treated at home so the Pathfinder will go to the home treat the person at the home and they can stay there likewise you have the rapid response vehicles that will go the smaller cars that hopefully can get out there quicker than the full ambulance if a full paramedic service is not required and there are a lot has been put into investing in those services with the idea of trying to minimize the number of people that need to be brought to hospital em all very very noble and all very to be welcomed but your belief is there still does need to be core investment in the ambulance service itself that those initiatives are not going to be enough yeah so we welcome every single initiative that's taken to improve services and you know these are positive but the fact of the matter is last year in 76,970 occasions it took more than an hour for an ambulance to be able to drop their patient off at the A&E we even found out that in certain occasions A&Es were running out of trolleys so they had to keep the trolley that the patient was on and then the ambulance had no trolley and then it couldn't go out on the next run so these are like small issues to resolve that would have a significant impact but all of the all of the paramedics in the world in terms of these pathfinders and these emergency ambulances they're not going to be able to really make a dent in these problems increasing the speed of access unless we have the A&E service functioning unless we have the doctor's service unless we have the beds in the hospitals and the staff there and I will say there has been small improvements in figures in certain parts of the country last year but my worry is now that we're going to go into another year now where it's going to be worse because the government put a cap on the employment of people within the health service and if you ask me honestly I think that there are some areas exempt from that cap and hopefully issues around emergency departments and the paramedic and ambulance services will be included in those areas that are exempt from a recruitment cap Yeah, I will be pushing for that to be the case for absolutely and you know if we don't have that situation we are putting lives at risk like and I'll give an example in my own town recently a person had a stroke that person lived about five minutes away from the hospital she had no car but it took an hour for the ambulance to actually get to her home and when the ambulance brought her to the hospital she obviously had deteriorated significantly because you know time is really important in terms of dealing with strokes and then that individual was in hospital was being brought to a shower and because of the pressure on staff one of the people who was showering her had to be called away that woman then slipped in the shower and she banged her head against the floor of the shower creating serious damage losing a lot of blood she was then brought to a woman's hospital in that situation then there was two people with a similar name and that woman was given the wrong blood type because of that situation and she suffered you know nearly she nearly lost her life as a result of that and there was three adverse incidents that had been in effect practically caused by the fact that the hospital system is so overrun and the figures on this are startling like you know A&E A&E too put in a question there recently to the government there were 500,000 adverse incidents in hospitals between 2018 and 2023 3,500 people died as a result of those adverse incidents and the government has been spending about 1.5 billion euros on you know compensation to families for these adverse incidents the whole system is incredibly is incredibly hammered at the moment the only way to solve that is for a government to have the political will to pay staff properly to recruit to the relevant numbers and so we actually get people in and out of hospital in a fast period of time and not doing that actually has a cost because that woman needed far more intensive treatment she then ended up not being able to look after herself she needed 24-hour care and as a result the state paid more money than they would have if that ambulance had just arrived in 15 or 20 minutes and got that person to the hospital in time so there's a series human cost and there's a financial cost to the fact that the government won't resource hospitals and the ambulance services problem and it's also a chain and the reality is from what you're saying every link in that chain needs to be strengthened because if you strengthen the number of ambulances and paramedics that are on the road but don't improve things at A&E instead of having five ambulances queuing outside you'll have seven ambulances queuing outside and if you don't improve the ambulance service but do improve A&E likewise you'll have better facilities in the emergency department but you won't have the people brought there quickly enough to avail of them so every link in that chain has got to be improved that's exactly it every element of the health service is interlinked there used to be two elements of the health service that were still functioning up until recently that was the A&E and also the GP services but those now have started to get completely stuffed up as well and the reason being is because the other elements of this have also been hurt so an example of what you just said is so many older people are waiting for home care packages because they can't get the necessary home care packages they can't leave hospitals so on a given day we would have about five to six hundred people who are clinically discharged from the hospital i.e. the doctor cannot not do any more for them they should be at home or at another step down facility but because there isn't enough care packages and not enough step down facilities these people are stuck in those hospitals which then means other people can't use those beds and there's nearly about four or five hundred people on trolleys waiting for those beds as a result so you know this is not rocket science and this is not an unsolvable problem but i honestly believe that we have a political establishment in Fianna Forth in the Gael and the Greens who are tolerant of this problem reason being is because many of their voters have private health care insurance they're not as dependent upon public spaces as as others and therefore it doesn't seem to be a priority for these parties Padre Thalbein thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning and we look forward to your visit in March and we know that we'll be seeing you then in a moment thank you very much indeed thank you very much but that's Padre Thalbein there the leader of ENTU it's the nine two noon show on Highland Radio it is 28 minutes past 11 going to take a short break back after these watch the show live now on YouTube Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com go full-leadle with a romantic dinner this Valentine's love 20% off for the approved Irish deluxe stakes from 719 treat yourselves to Prosecco Rose was 1349 now 1099 and gift beautiful bouquets from 599 go on shop without compromise go full-leadle today get the facts by DrinkAware visit DrinkAware.ie for all your training needs Northwest Forest Services Training Department Bully Buffet offer a wide range of training courses from training bodies such as NPTC City Engels QQI Lantra and ABA International they also now do quad courses in line with the new guidelines and regulations for all quad users if you have a group they can come to you for a full list of training courses and availability contact Northwest Forest Service Bully Buffet on 074 9132033 if you aren't quite ready to drive a fully V you'll be going in the right direction with the Mazda CX-5 this SUV comes with fuel-saving Mazda M Hybrid Technology and a six-year warranty you'll find across the entire Mazda range test drive the 241 Mazda range at McKinley Motors' Mazda Letter Kenny Mazda crafted in Japan Join us at Angrenen Hotel for our spectacular wedding showcase on Sunday 25th of February from 1-4pm meet our award-winning wedding team mingle with top-class exhibitors and view the three-time top-rated wedding venue in Ulster as voted by WeddingDates.ie Make it special Make it Angrenen We've one planet and it's ours to protect from repairing to swapping to creating and recreating learn the changes you can make every Tuesday at 12.30 to live a little greener tune in to ours to protect on Highland Radio with me.mry Hours to Protect is brought to you by Highland Radio the IBI and funded by Commissioner Mann with the television license fee Check out ours to protect dot i.e. for more information The Ninetown Nuncho with Letter Kenny Credit Union Simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from Letter Kenny Credit Union Call us on 0749102126 or apply online via our app or in office today It's The Ninetown Nuncho on Highland Radio It's nice to say I am joined in studio by Cassie Lam from Rattle Convent in Letter Kenny and Rowan B. Cullen from the Abbey Vocational School in Donegal Town and they've both been elected as the Donegal Regional Officers for the Irish Second Level Students Union Cassie no stranger to this program you've been on with Greg several times speaking about young persons issues great to have you in studio face to face Thank you very much Glad to be here It's an absolute pleasure and Rowan you're very welcome indeed we did get to meet the last time the Donegal Youth Council made a presentation to members of the MD in Letter Kenny and you're very welcome as well Thank you very much for having me Pleasure to have you both Cassie I want to go to you first because you've been involved with the ISSU now for quite some time and you've been a spokesperson for the past couple of years How important is it that Donegal has a voice in that body that can carry the views of local students to a national body and from that national body to governments and the department It's so important for myself anyways I've been involved with the ISSU for the past three years since I was in first year and I've worked with many organizations many different young people from all areas from local to even other counties and even nationally now which has been a great opportunity for myself What is so important for Donegal is to have a voice is because Donegal is from county of course TDs also need to hear young people's voices like myself and Rowan's voice and you know we need young people to be there to actually give the students support saying you can always come to us if you have an opinion or something's happening in your school that no one's going to speak up about and we're here to support them and to bring their issue right to the big boys at the Dalinaran Rowan you've been involved in the Donegal Youth Council so you're no strangers to the meetings you're no stranger to dealing with the politicians but also because you're in the Youth Council you're liaising with students and you're liaising with young people on a day-to-day basis so that's put you in a very good position to have a finger on the pulse of what's important Definitely, I think in most youth organisations they rely quite heavily on students and especially student councils and elected representatives as in the ISU representatives in each school or the Donegal Youth Council or the Student Councils it's a big thing that we have such a variety of schools going from the Gale Talks to the ones in Letter County all the way down to Donegal Town and there's such a variety of students now and our schools are growing even more so it's a really big issue to keep in contact with the schools because that's where the issues lie especially for the ISSU obviously because that's the Student Union Obviously we do have TDs in Dublin and you've met with them I'm sure yourselves both the Youth Council context and yourself Cassie always going to take the opportunities important that it's also a two-way communications because it's one thing for you to go to ISSU and then from ISU then to government what level of contact is there coming back to what extent are you hearing back through ISU from the TDs, from the department from the government responding to you and giving you answers to the questions that you're asking well firstly I would always kind of nearly put my foot down you know rural students is such a topic that I'm very passionate about whether it's from transportation to the mental health of our students between the connection between young people and TDs is a little bit lacking recently you would get in contact with them through the ISSU through the Qichno and to the TDs and nearly takes a while for them to get back to you and to give you a straight answer of how can we resolve some issues like the ideas of vaping or the mental health of students and how can we actually support students in a better way so it takes them a little bit longer nearly recently to get back to us give us a straight answer of what we actually need yeah and the vaping one was interesting because you were actually ahead of the curve round because Donegal Youth Council was doing a lot of work on it and you were about to make a submission to the health minister asking him to take some actions and he actually pretty much announced those actions before you even got a chance to put them to him so I mean it really shows you did have your finger on the pulse on that one well we definitely had our finger on the pulse but I do feel like the health minister he answered in the sense of it is now illegal to purchase a vape under the age of 18 but that is one of the many issues that is involved in young people being addicted to vapes and other issues with the flavours and that as well that haven't necessarily been addressed exactly the young people are crying out for those things the advertisement the flavouring the fact that there's the same amount of nicotine as a packet of cigarettes in one vape and yet the prices are so inconceivably different a young person can afford to buy vapes a young person can't in the sense of cigarettes they are being taxed and going up every year and the health minister hasn't answered those the government hasn't answered that even though young people see vaping as such an issue it has been highlighted multiple times through multiple surveys any time you talk to young people it is the first thing that has brought up vaping we all know it is an issue we all know amongst ourselves we've asked them to fix it in the sense of banning flavourings taking away that excitement but it hasn't happened do you have any confidence that it will happen given that the responses you've had so far or is this and it can so often happen and we've had this discussion before Cassie with yourself I mean those wheels of bureaucracy at national level can move so slowly I mean and the fact that they're moving at all sometimes can be a positive sign and it would seem at least even Donnelly has taken some action is he giving you the impression he will take more well personally as well as through the organisations we haven't actually heard that he would we haven't heard we heard that he supported what we had done and that he was he saw these issues but there hasn't actually been any communication for this action being taken now in the EU and in other countries there seems to be action so hopefully that will then influence it coming into Ireland we are quite an influenced country and we are in the sense that if something happens in the UK or something happens in the EU it filters through to us I don't want us to have to wait for that to happen though I want us to take our own initiative and get there before we have to get it from there obviously we're speaking about sort of wider issues be they mental health be they vaping be they transport whatever but there are also issues coming up that are very much centred on school and the school experience one of them oral exams and overhauls needed there Cassie for the oral exams for leaving certificates students personally myself I'm very unhappy to see it during the Easter holidays the Easter holidays is for the students to take a break to actually prepare yourself you need that time to rest not just for yourself for your parents and just take a minute for yourself but you can't do that now because you have your oral examinations and you will be studying constantly and constantly and many students have said that they were very upset and they weren't very happy that they couldn't take that time and they felt that they didn't go out there and do their best because they weren't prepared they just weren't ready to do it and you know it's hard to come from going through say March and then next thing you get a few days notice remember you have to do your oral when you're always putting your head into the writing of it and you know there's 20 scribe pictures and only one of them will come up you're like that's the thing and for the past two years it's only been the 10 scribe pictures and now for the class of 2025 they'll have to do the whole 20 Rome will have to do the whole 20 I'll have to do the whole 20 and only one of them will come up and me to do that I think that's already daunting like I have a sister she's doing her leave and certain she only has to do the 10 and that's already just a lot in general and if you just learn one not as good as the others if that one comes up you might be really angry and upset over it yeah then compared to the 20 but that's what you're going to be judged on and you're going to be judged on you know the chance that you may know one a lot better than the other and the question is are you being examined on your ability to speak Irish or are you being examined on your ability to remember something you read about a topic that was in a book exactly and that's not really the way how we should be taught we need to be taught saying this is vocab you can't really be like there's students who can sit down and learn essays just reading it over and over I'm not like that I'm a kinesthetical learner I have to be writing I need maps I need something not every students like that there's very rare students who can sit down and just learn it and teachers and the Department of Education really need to take that into focus saying there's different type of learning of students and we actually need start supporting that in our education system round the other issue is paper one in English, Irish and maths and the first three and I know when I was going through all this 43 years ago I remember that I was really I mean and it was really worrying me because I mean you've got English companies English paper one, paper one, paper one you're sort of so caught up in it and there's paper one, paper two and sometimes you can end up with doing maths Irish, English, English, maths, Irish you know all three within four days and it is a huge amount and there maybe you want to see that looked at with regards to how can they be packaged in such a way that's putting less strain on students because the opening it's like it sometimes it starts something and you ease into it with the leaving start the last thing you're doing is easing into it you're diving into it head first I definitely I don't I really don't understand why most of the students who do their leaving start their leaving starts are condensed into two weeks and they are doing two, three hour exams a day how by the end after three days you are exhausted mentally, physically there is no way that you are then going to continue for another week and let's say if you have studied equally for all of those and you're predicted grades or H1s, H2s but you are mentally exhausted there is no way that in a marathon you're meant to pace yourself out the gun you are doing yeah hours and hours back to back sorry in the first week to then continue on it's absolutely mental but in regards to paper one this new system is talking about doing the paper one in fifth year at the end of fifth year which I really as a fifth year student right now I am learning material I have done a couple of essays for things like history for Irish for English but I don't think I've done enough to have it be my leaving start my leaving start is at the moment our only way in Ireland to get to college is your CAO points and that currency the CAO is a currency it's how much can you get and a race to the points and for that to then be sort of relying on me having that skill and those enough papers to be graded for me to feel confident to do it at the end of fifth year I don't think we have that fifth year is a lot about learning the material and sixth year is about how can you process that into the papers how can you answer the questions with the material you've learned there has been a lot of talk about continuous assessment and it's coming it's coming it's coming it's coming and I'm not quite sure if they still have a full focus on exactly how that's going to be implemented but is there a way of saying well look what we will do is we will do an element of paper one at fifth year that will take into account the fact that you're 50% of the way through your leaving start course but then along with some continuous assessment that will go through your fifth year and sixth year experience so that by the time you get to the leaving start you'll have elements of it done through fifth year elements of it done through the continuous assessment and that will take some of the pressure off because at the moment what's happening is that everything depends on what happens in a room over a series of three hour exams between whatever it is June 6th and June 18th and it's all focused on that and if you're not in the right place mentally if you're not in the right place physically if you go in there with a cold and that throws you off or if you as happened me I sat in an Irish exam and I could not remember the word for the for key and all I could think of was Clef and I knew Clef was French I could not remember and I remember sitting in my Irish exam for a good 10 minutes completely mentally blocked on the fact that I couldn't remember the Irish word for key until I just moved on and that can happen and it happens everybody I think at some stage and if it happens during a leaving start in an important exam and hampers your marks so you know there's got to be some way of bringing in this long promised and they were talking about continuous assessments when I was in school in the 70s and 80s and they still haven't quite got that package so maybe that along with the the end of fifth year it could be part of it but not just paper one at the end of fifth year as an exam and then paper two at the end of sixth year that do it in a more nuanced way exactly I definitely agree with that it takes some stress off of the leaving start and like you said it means that then everything isn't relying on that but that whole okay and now you're setting it after TY where you don't do much of the course that it you would have to bring in the leaving start course into TY you would have to be studying in TY and for me personally who's just done TY I did a lot of work experience I got into Donegal Youth Council I got into ISU that was me realizing where I wanted to go and do I want to go into politics do I want to go into history or law I was able to kind of broader look at other aspects that wasn't academic what actually am I passionate about to bring the academics side back into TY I think is then you're not getting the TY you're not getting and the whole point of TY2 is personal development and you're finding yourself as a person exactly exactly because like saying as myself I'm in third year right now and I just in my mocks and you know if you thinking right now I'm dreaming of TY that's what's keeping me motivated right now and it's just nearly that if this assessment came in in fifth year and I had to do paper one in fifth year that means it's not really going to be TY is it when I have to still study English and Irish and still be thinking well you have to keep working because you still have exams where TY is where as Ruan had said to develop as a person to develop your CV to develop of what you want to do because how can you go in to do a paper one exam and not knowing what you actually want to do more courses you want to do in college this is the time where you experiment of different working place and where would you like to go and where would you like to see yourself in by three years time and also in terms of choosing subjects exactly because I mean I would certainly say I made wrong decisions in terms of choosing subjects for leaving cert because I had to choose them in the middle of third year because there was no TY when I was going through so we literally went and it wasn't junior cert was you may have heard this in your history class it was the inter cert like it but it literally we went inter cert then we had this first year, second year, third year inter cert then fifth year, sixth year we didn't do a fourth year this just didn't exist so we went first year, second year, third year fifth year, sixth year and there was nothing like TY so you were making choices for the leaving cert when you were 14, 15 and I was and I actually I turned 15 the week before I did my inter cert and I turned 17 the week before I did my leaving cert and looking back I'm thinking you know I was basically I was practically still 16 when I did my leaving you know and that was too young for the leaving and yeah it was there was pressures there and certainly yeah TY I couldn't really see the benefits because I mean obviously I saw my own kids go through TY and I saw my younger brothers go through TY and looking at them and going I wish I'd had that I really wish I'd had that but it is important in terms of ISSU and you know your ISSU presumably will listen to what you have to say listen to your colleagues in the other counties and then ISSU will come up with an agreed policy so what then happens so you come to ISSU with your issues be it regarding paper one, paper two be it regarding the orals or whatever you bring them to ISSU what sort of conduit does ISSU have does ISSU have meetings with Norma Foley or is it meetings with her department and is Norma Foley and her department taking ISSU seriously? Well for the ISSU we have a proper seat at the Department of Education there can't be any conversation about us without us we have to be there because realistically the Department of Education it's not going to harm them too much it's harming us the students it's our education and it's all right to know what's actually happening up in the Department of Education so the ISSU if there's any big decisions like the leaving cert reform like the junior cert reform the ISSU most likely to be drawn Shari would go up into the Department of Education and or officer for education would also go up to and they're representing the whole Republic of the students they're representing all of us the ROBs like myself and everyone we would give our input and say we do agree with it so you can you have our permission as the Don Galshunt to put it forth and they would sit down with Norma Foley and they would say here we agree we don't agree with this you know ISSU will always rely on the students' opinions because that's who we're representing they're not really representing themselves the also it's all the students of course Cassie Lam round the canon absolute honor and pleasure to speak to you both and it's great to know that when it comes to the interests of our second level students they are being very well articulated indeed Cassie round thank you very much indeed thank you thank you very much and champagne Pierre Darcy's Brute 75 CL only 20 euro shop smart feel good Centra live every day enjoy alcohol sensibly to make an appointment good hearing helps us to connect to our family friends and loved ones connect hearing connecting you to life looking for the best place in the northwest to get a bed or mattress rest x beds a mountain top letter Kenny had a great selection and great prices rest x beds has everything you need for a good night's sleep visit them today and sleep better tonight in this week's ortee guide home of the years Hugh Wallace on life challenges personal growth and positivity Delano Gleason and Andrea Rice were on their new series Alison Jack debuting this week on ortee close our home interior speaker for perfect pink decor and eco chic homers everything and more ortee guide on sale now Highland radio weather updates brought to you by Grant building a new home choose grants a triple plus rated air owner air to water heat pump and new flex under floor heating visit grant.ie we can expect some blustery shards becoming more widespread for a time this afternoon some of those heavy with a chance of hail sleep possible on higher ground a few sunny and bright spells as well top temperatures five to eight degrees celsius with light to moderate west to southwest winds increasing moderate to fresh locally strong and gusty particularly in the afternoon just before we go to our next caller want to very quickly bring to you the response we got from the HSC with regards to a question a question was raised last week on the show with regards to dental treatment for school students and a caller told Greg that they were awaiting an appointment and was advised that the school dental service is only seeing children requiring fillings or extractions or children in sixth class and the parents said expecting a child to wait almost four years to be seen is ridiculous it's only going to worsen the problem in the long term with the money being spent in other areas surely our government can come up with a better plan we have received a response from the HSC dental services due to the impact of COVID-19 initial routine dental services were suspended and access to services nationally were restricted to emergency treatment for a period of time nationally policy is to provide dental screening and dental care to three primary target groups second, fourth and sixth classes due to staff retirements and the shortage of dentists available nationally the dental service has been operating with a significant shortfall of whole-time dentists and the service is currently operating at 50% staffing levels this has resulted in an inevitable delay in progress through target classes resulting in a significant unmet treatment need and therefore an increase in children presenting as emergencies anecdotally we know that post-COVID tooth decay in children has reached significant levels particularly in vulnerable groups and we're providing dental screening and treatments to sixth class the dental service is also providing adult emergency dental care significant support has been provided to the service by senior management for recruitment campaigns and it's hoped that they will be able to recruit more into the future so that's the response there from the HSC now I want to go to line one because we're joined by Angela who is living in Scotland and has a number of things she wants to get off her chest Angela what are the issues that you wish to discuss with us? Hi there I was listening to the radio yesterday to the news to Highland Radio and it was all about the immigration situation in Ireland and I felt quite personal about it for me personally I thought it was really not nice for the people that are coming from other countries probably for me there's three stands to the debate I'm first generation Scottish my parents came here almost 70 years ago they were told to go back to their own country they didn't they stayed in the works and they worked hard they were respected within the community they brought their own traditions their values and they were well respected and I think they added to the community which I think other people do because the diversity is really important my daughter has lived in Australia for 12 and a half years my son's going there on Thursday they're going to make a better life for themselves and I don't see quite anything different for the people coming to Ireland and thirdly I'm the manager of a day service for adults with learning disabilities and real complex health needs and it's really hard to get workers but the people applying for the jobs are coming from other countries they're hard working and they stick if they want to learn they're really adaptable they're really they're really happy to be here and I feel it's a better workforce with a lot of diversity yeah just just to put into context what was actually on if you're referring to the news bulletins yesterday afternoon there was a survey done by one of the Irish Times and Ipsos did an opinion poll and it was published at the weekend and they basically found that the majority of people over over 60 percent of people did believe that immigration had been good for Ireland and over 60 percent of people believed immigration had been positive however a number of people did have concerns particularly in terms of the availability of services and also in terms of housing and there were some other questions as well in terms of the location particularly of refugees in local areas and a number of people didn't believe that that was being handled well so that's just the context of what you've been hearing but I think the bottom line was over 60 percent did believe that immigration had been good for the country you believe that's not sending enough of a signal as is necessary that immigrants are welcomed and valued well the fact they're having marches but anti-immigrant people march in the street basically saying they don't want them there in small towns and communities I think it gives a really really bad impression and for the young people that live in these towns what does it say to them? general and I think it's a government issue the government should be dealing with it better than what they're doing instead of blaming all these people well I mean I mean the question was the government will argue look it's doing what it can the government is trying to deal with the situation where there are refugees who have a right to be here under international law coming in from Ukraine you have people seeking international protection there are issues with housing there are issues with capacity and one of the problems always appears that when you have issues with housing and capacity people look and they ask questions along the lines of well how come he gets it and I don't how come she gets it and I don't and that's always going to be a dialogue but that's one of those issues that's always going to be there yeah that is going to be there but I think I could be handled a lot better than it was where it is and it's easier to put it's very easy for the government to let all this happen and if people fight amongst themselves they take a back seat yeah that's what I think anyway you know I think we could be doing a lot more so you would like to see that's a big right wing isn't it yeah and there could be more social housing couldn't there there could be a lot more social housing yeah and the government and the councils will say that that's what they're trying to do actually is get more social housing built they're on the back foot to a certain extent but they're certainly trying you want to see that sped up a bit more without a doubt there's not any different in Scotland is there the same problems that here yeah Angela and it's very easy to pick on the person that just came in no bother yeah Angela listen thanks thank you so much for the call I mean it's a valid opinion and it's an opinion we value and thank you indeed for sharing with us this morning thank you okay thank you okay thank you that's Angela there speaking to us from Scotland very quick comment before we leave Connor says I was in letter Kenny a few weeks ago I don't think having private health insurance makes a difference there is only one doctors to see people I have private health insurance and we were all treated the same that's a pursuant to our conversation with Padlethal Bean earlier and I suppose the bottom line too is when it comes in particular to GP services the fact is those of us that don't have medical cards are paying for that GP service so we are effectively to our GP we are private patients we are paying for a consultation and paying quite handsomely at times and that's where we have to leave at the end of the news show thank you very much indeed to our listeners thanks for your contributions thanks for your your texts and your messages thanks to all who contributed most importantly thanks to you for listening thanks to Shannon for her help Donna Marie as well thank you a special thanks to Caroline who produced and as always held my hand through the show and without it it wouldn't have happened thank you all we're back again tomorrow coming up next it's around the northwest with John Breslin but for myself Donald Kavana have a very good day the world is getting a little more more but maybe more could mean something else more