 This is a notice for all tractor and agri-plant owners. Minimize your downtime when you need tires and call Donegal Tires Donegal Tire. We can go to you and fit your tires on site or repair your existing tires if you have a puncture. Don't waste time and leave the hassle to us. So call Donegal Tires NOW on 074 9721 482 to organize your call-out. Years ago, I used to dread my motor insurance renewal. Then a friend told me about O'Malley Scanlan Insurance in Balibufe and Dunlow. They do all the hard work. They contact all the major insurance underwriters and they get the very best possible quote for me. They have saved me a small fortune over the years and they could do the same for you. Your insurance comes up for renewal. Contact O'Malley Scanlan Insurance at their Balibufe office on 911 310 20. Or they're done low office on 95 Treble 206. O'Malley Scanlan is regulated by the Central Bank. The young bakers are trying to make our Brennan's family pan and be good. Go viral on something called Tiktok, just tell Mr. Brennan. Viral Tiktok, says I. I knew a fellow who suffered from that. No way, Sisi. Ah, yeah. But he didn't make a song and dance about it. Although, Sisi, one thing worth making noise about is that anything baked is better with Brennan's. Today's bread today. Hi, Brennan Blaisen here. Join me in celebrating 30 years of Bule's Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice on Thursday the 22nd of September by hosting a coffee morning for your local hospice. To register, please call 0818-995-996 or visit hospicecoffeemorning.ie. Thank you for supporting 30 years of coffee morning. Welcome back to the program. Delighted to welcome on to it. Patsy McGonagall. Patsy, good morning to you. Hopefully you can hear me okay. Can you hear me okay, Patsy? Right, okay. We are just not getting Patsy there at the moment. We'll see. We'll get to him in a moment. 0866025000, by the way, that's the WhatsApp and text number 0866025000. Give us a call on 07491-25000. I just want to make sure to see if Patsy can hear me one more time. Patsy, can you hear me okay? I wonder. Right, okay. No, we're not getting Patsy there. Oh, I got you there. Okay, lovely stuff. You can get me now, yeah? Okay, you're a bit low here, but I'll work on that as we go. Right, I suppose Patsy, just to start by asking, talk to us about this achievement of Mark English yesterday. I suppose then we can sort of reflect on the events overall. But a very impressive performance from him, but very pragmatic in his response. It's exactly what he was expecting. His response, you know, because, you know, he kind of had it figured out, I suppose, really. And as he had given it his all, he couldn't have done any better. And, you know, he was delighted, of course, delighted to get a medal. And, you know, just relieved, I suppose, in some ways, because serious pressure on us and understand, you know. Yeah, indeed. Unfortunately, Patsy, the quality of that line just is not up to scratch at the moment, Patsy. So if you can bear with me, I will come back to you. As I say, I don't know exactly what's going on there, but it just doesn't sound right. And we'll get back to that in a second. Right, I say, if you want to comment on Mark English, show 860-25000, or indeed the performance of our athletes as a whole. Right, just to let you know, we are broadcasting live here from Mallonhead. Just a slight technical issue there, which we will overcome. We have loads more people to introduce to you. Very shortly we're going to be joined by Professor Ken Mulpeter. He's going to be talking about overcrowded emergency departments, and he very well placed a comment on that, of course. Later on in the program, Dr. Joe Kelly will be joining us. It is the 100th anniversary of the death of Michael Collins, so we'll be getting his views on that, his reflections on that. John Joe McGinney is going to be joining us as well, talking about webinars, replacing actual care for special needs children in Donegal due to a lack of resources. Brendan Deveney is on with the DL debate, and then we have a special Monday focus on tourism at Mallonhead. Right, okay, I hope, I wonder, can we go to... Can we go back to Patsy McMonagall, sorry, on a phone line? Patsy, sorry about that, it's an important issue, and I wanted to be able to make sure I could hear you correctly. Okay, so I think I put it to you, and I'm not sure our listeners heard, that, you know, Mark, he was quite emotional in terms of, you know, the support he's received and what he's achieved, but also in terms of where he thought he would be at, I think he hit the mark winning that bronze, which is an amazing achievement. Absolutely, you've summed it up there right, Greg. I mean, he knew, he was very realistic in his reaction and very grounded and calm about it all, you know. I suppose, really, he's not a young athlete anymore in the sense that he's just new on the block and he's able to, you know, take responsibility and know exactly where he's at and be able to assess the opposition, you know. So that was a reaction to the reality and, you know, in conversations with him last night, he was just saying that, you know, that was it. The third was the best he could do. The other two guys were just on the night, they were too strong for him, you know. And just overall, I mean, it was a good championships for Irish athletes. Wasn't it? A very good championships for Irish athletes. Probably the best ever. Of course, they've won medals in the past and there have been national records in the past, but there was quite a number of people in finals on this occasion. So that's a very, very positive outcome, really. Big positive outcome. I've heard some of the line of questioning from the media, and I'm not being critical of the media, but it was like, you know, it was almost like this came out of the blue, you know. Oh, great. Everything's going well. What can we do to capitalise on this? And I just thought the question might have been a little bit ignorant to all the work that is ongoing, building to these types of championships. Some of these athletes have raced, you know, 45, 50 times. They knew exactly where they were at, what they could achieve. It didn't just happen all of a sudden. This success didn't happen all of a sudden because the cameras were on and people were watching it. Well, that's exactly it you see. And of course, you know, in some ways, in inverted commas athletes would be a minority sports and the amount of media knowledge coming in may not have been normal. So basically, you know, all of a sudden bang, you've got every athlete performing on a European stage. And as I said to Ashina a couple of weeks ago, you know, this is our stage. European athletics is somewhere, is a stage that we can compete on. The world can be a different story, but on European stage, we're capable of mixing it at European level. So they should have been ready for that. These young athletes and those like Mark and Kieran McGean that have been around a while, they all performed extremely well. What does the future hold for a lot of these athletes? Some are new on the scene for the casual fans, a lot of youth on their side. You know, can they, where it might need to be, can they, you know, pair off a few seconds here or there to be contesting for the medals more consistently? Well, you know, Greg, that's the reason every athlete gets up every day to train, you know, to just be better and to perform and then get to championships or get into the season and do personal records and seasons bests and all that kind of thing. That's why we concentrate so much on that aspect of the sport, you know, seasons best, personal bests, all that. And we gauge athletes on that basis. Yes, they can improve, but you know this, the hub bubble day down in a couple of days and these athletes will go back to being very normal, ordinary people back in Irish society and you know, they really, it's an opportunity I suppose for a static siren to jump on the bandwagon here. They have a challenge now. They need to be able to support these athletes' ongoing. We're just two years out from Paris now from the Olympic Games and we've got a World Championships in Budapest next year. And you know, at the World Championships in Oregon a few weeks back there, you know, really only two or three athletes really performed, Mark, of course, and Adolecchi and Sir Alavin. So we just need, we need to be able to build that base of athletes who can compete and get into major finals or semi-finals, you know. Because the talent is there and it is, you know, I think membership of clubs and interest in athletics has grown. It's one of those sports like a couple of others though that's everywhere in every corner of the country and we have shown when sort of the right facilities, the right coaches, the right mentors are there. We can produce, you know, people that can operate at a world level. So everything is there if we invest in it, dedicate time to it. I'm not talking about people like you, I'm maybe talking about like sports ministers and stuff, Patsy, of course. You know, like the talent is there, the interest is there. It's up to us what happens next. Yes, indeed, and you know, like, I mean, just take the Dunning all scene, I mean, there's serious, serious good work being done in all the various areas throughout the county. It must be an ongoing and, you know, at underage level and there's a group developing coming through. So these are the people that need support and then to get to the next stage, the next stage, the next stage. Yes, there needs to be more, you know, for example, coaches. Coaches of elite athletes, it's a serious commitment both financially and timeline-wise. Most of these coaches are just ordinary guys going to work every day and doing stuff. Now, you get Mark, you get Mark lining up on a race the last night and, you know, he's basically lining up against professional athletes. This is a guy who's a junior doctor who was in Galway working as a junior doctor and we all know how tough that regime is at the beginning of your career and he was travelling across to Dublin to do sessions. You know, that's a serious, serious commitment and then get back on deck again the following day. I mean, that's where some of our athletes are coming from. So we're not in the same loop as some of these other countries in that regard. So we do need more support. Of course we do. Can we go back to Mark's achievement here? What does it take to bridge an eight-year gap between medals at this level, particularly in the discipline that he is expert in? I mean, can you describe what it would take to achieve something like that? Well, in very simple terms, Greg, you know, it's just, first of all, you need to want to do it. You need to want to do it. We in athletics, not unlike many other sports, we have highlights each year, a championship and, you know, he needs to be able to go into each winter and he has done for the last eight years since Zurich. And in many ways, since he was a young boy, since he started, there's athletics coming out of Woodlands National School, you know, like, I mean, that's just getting up and being still interested, motivated, enough support and wanting to do it. It's all about wanting to do it and it's not an easy. In the society that we live in now, you know, everybody's gone out and about in that, you know, but an athlete's life is rather different and, you know, there's a discipline and there's a regimental approach every day to it. So it just needs to be able to do it. But he has grown as an athlete in that eight years. You know, he was a different athlete. He was a different athlete completely in terms of his control, in terms of his attitude, in terms of the approach, you know, over the last few days that he would have brought to some of the other championships. Because I always said, when I used to be on Highland, I used to say, this young fella is capable of making every major championship final that ever was. But that didn't happen, you know, but that didn't deter him and, you know, he got his reward last night. And what does this mean for... Can he...this was a European Championships course and we had world-level athletes in that. Is Mark still at that level? Can he meddle on the world stage in the next year or two, in the next two years, I suppose? Yes, and that means getting to a final. And, you know, it means getting to a final and just go back on it. In Oregon at the World Championships, he just missed the final. He was 10th ranked, eight go to the final. You know, that was a serious performance. The ordinary person out there may not have understood that, but that was a serious performance and it was a serious statement by him. So he just missed and he was disappointed and, you know, he will be driven now to make a final and come beat a pest. And he's capable of making a final. And then the other thing one has to say, once you get into a final in an 800 meters, there is that strong possibility that there is a possibility anyhow that you could get a medal. So it just all needs to work out for you on the day. But, you know, as long as you bring your mentality and your strength and your control and that you're in the shape, you know, it's possible. And it is possible for him, most definitely possible for him. All right, OK, exciting times ahead. But just what, what, finally from you, Patsy, because no one knows more about this than you do. Where are we at in this country with athletics? It's easy to wake up this Monday morning right and feel full of the joys of spring. And of course, you know, Mark's achievement is amazing and we in Donegal feel particularly proud. But as you say, in two days' time when that does settle, where are we at as a nation in terms of, you know, where we are or where we could be, Patsy? Well, we probably are where we were 10 days ago before it all began. That's kind of the sad part of it, you know. So, you know, really, to be honest, it's going to take athletics Ireland, the national governing body to get themselves together and figure out how we're going to drive this on. And against a background that in two or three days we won't be talking about these athletes anymore. And that's the reality, sadly, that's the reality. You know, the championship ghillie football season will kick in and, you know, football and stuff. So basically, these athletes will have to go back to their base to get a break and so on, you know. And one of the things that I meant to throw out there, you know, in terms of encouraging local athletes here is there were four athletes, five athletes from Donegal at those European championships. And that's about those fourth and valley and one from Letter County. Now that in itself is a big statement by Donegal aesthetics to get five athletes on the European stage and so on. So it's inspiring. It's encouraging. And, you know, really, the young athletes, the young junior athletes should just be sitting there thinking, right, I want to be part of that. I want to do, I want to get in there and do that. So that's a bit of a responsibility in Donegal aesthetics board to know to keep that link strong with those young athletes as well. Brilliant stuff. Patsy. Great insight as always. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. We appreciate it here at Highland Radio as well. All your contributions. Thanks very much indeed. Thank you, Greg. Thank you. Okay. Take care of yourself. 086 60 25,000 is the WhatsApp and text line 086 60 25,000 or call us an 07491 25,000. These Irish times about overcrowding and emergency departments. For the benefit of our listeners, can you tell us the points you were making, please, Professor? Yeah, sure. This is prompted by the announcement that the Minister for Health was going to appoint 40 more emergency department consultants in an effort to solve the problem. And I suppose the letter was came out of frustration at this response. The problem isn't in the emergency department. The problem is within the hospital and without the hospital. Within hospitals, we have delays in getting access to diagnostics for inpatients and working out of an outpatient setting. We also have issues there. And secondly, when we're trying to get patients home, we have difficulties with arranging home care packages for mainly outpatient at home. And this is at the moment not a funding issue, but an issue of finding people to do this job. So on an average day, say, unless any, we might have 14 or 15 patients waiting to go to the home care or alternative to community hospitals. There are difficulties in discharging patients to community hospitals. In some cases, because they're undergoing renovations on sort of hickory recommendations. In some places, they may have an outbreak of COVID. And in other places, they may have problems with nursing, having enough nursing staff. But within the hospital, and when I see patients and other patients, the greatest frustration is that you know what you need to do from the point of view of investigations, but you can't get them done in a timely manner. And this is no fault of the staff who are working very hard to provide these services. But it's a block there. So I feel that the resources or change needs to occur within the hospital. Similarly with regard to general practitioners, I know of at least six GPs who have retired recently. And the difficulties for people arriving, saying, you and that's going to need to actually get a GP. And then if those GPs want to get investigations done, they have limited access to investigations as well. So primary care is beginning to fail. The other issue, I suppose, is that with Sloan to Care, we're moving into the community to try and move the focus from the hospital into the community. And staff are being appointed to post within the community. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, these staff are actually from the hospital. So we're in some cases robbing Peter to pay Paul. And if we're going to improve the services in Donegal, we need an influx into the county of extra staff, not moving from A to B. So, you know, nurses, physios, OT, speech therapist and so on and social workers. So it's from the point of view that I think I can speak for my consultant colleagues and the junior doctors and mainly everybody in the hospital that frustration is a major emotion. You know, most of us joined whatever group we're in, I suppose wanting to be kind to people, to patients and to provide the best care we could. But the focus now really is, you know, it's very frustrating for everybody, really, and upsetting. I mean, now that sounds like an obvious question. Yeah, where would you say Morales at Leicester University Hospital is at the moment? I mean, you can't speak for everyone, but just generally feeling amongst staff, where would you say Morales? Well, I think, you know, there's a good camaraderie within the hospital. But I think throughout the Irish Health Service, Morales at a low point, and I think this is evidence by junior doctors heading off to Australia and nurses similarly going to either the UK or the Antipodes. And I suppose if talking to junior doctors, they in particular, I think, are upset really and it's kind of not what they signed up to do really in a sense, you know. I mean, we all expect to be, if you sign up to be a doctor, you know, I speak to that particularly, you know, expect to be busy, but you don't expect to be kind of frustrated at every turn when you're trying to help patients. And that's within the Irish Health System. I think that's the kind of general feel at the moment. And the problem then, of course, and sorry, I was going to say the problem also too, that leaves an issue with recruitment and retention and also as even as we look overseas to try and bring people in to plug the gaps, you know, we have to be able to talk about it, but they will hear conversations like this or read letters like what you felt you had to write at the weekend. You know, if this is not taken seriously, who's to say where we might be in five to ten years time if the government and decision makers don't start listening to people like yourself who has the confidence to speak out but many can't, Professor, you know, where will we be out in five to ten years time? Yeah, I think that there was a tendency within the Irish Health Service, which I think maybe I don't know whether it's still there or not, but to mirror what happens in the UK and not maybe to look to mainland Europe or elsewhere in the world in regard to how to configure services. The UK is probably even in a worse state than we are and heading out of control fairly rapidly. So they're not a model. We tend to think in the past to kind of follow the UK and then when the UK realized five or six years down the road, that wasn't the road to go, then we were still on that road. So I wouldn't take the UK. I mean, I agree with the National Health Service, but I wouldn't agree with following the example of the NHS slavery. The junior doctors are very disgruntled in the UK as our consultants who are retiring early. So I would worry it's getting wet Ireland. I would worry seriously about the NHS and I know our colleagues across the border, you know, have problems as well. So I know we have this healthcare model, but I think we need within the hospital services to have some plan generally where we're going. I mean, I know there's a Navan hospital, well, their emergency department is closing, but part of the issue there is that we'll draw it out, which is the main recipient of those patients, have the capacity to deal with them. We have the example of Limerick where they closed Nina, well, I was downgraded Nina and Ennis and didn't build in a factory to increase capacity in Limerick leading to serious problems in Limerick on an ongoing basis. So, you know, if you're going to change things and you're going to centralise them more, then you need to build in capacity before you do the change, not after the event. Yeah, and I mean even in the HSE, even in the HSE press releases when the talk of overcrowding, they say in them from sale to, they do say that, you know, we are trying to discharge patients to free those beds for those that are sick. You know, an acute hospital the beds should be occupied only by people who are sick. That's how it works, but unfortunately and you've outlined it perfectly well from your position of experience, just that basic thing what seems basic is one of the things we're getting wrong. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the hospital at the moment, if you go into Limerick today, not other patients are elderly and when you're old and you get sick, it takes a while to bounce back. It's not like a child better the next day after being seriously sick the day before. So we're dealing mainly, I mean I tell my colleagues that for the rest of their lives no matter what specialty they're in, apart from P's and Ops, that they're going to be dealing with mainly an elderly cohort of patients and they better develop some expertise in doing that. But like it's terrible if you go into any ED in Ireland to see somebody who's in their mid-80s who's got pneumonia or is delirious or kidney infection or broken their leg, waiting for hours to be seen. Like about really upsets everybody, you know and, you know, there's it, you know there is, I mean there's increasing tendency I suppose that the patient is just seeing as almost a problem or a number, like not my mother or your father like that, but that needs to be treated in a humane fashion. And the problem is is to Professor we know it from contacts here, people are feeling like that more and more and more and, you know, particularly our older generation who are so incredibly potent without them we wouldn't be here but they're contacting us and others their families are and they feel like a number, they feel like they're being sent home because they don't matter and it doesn't matter that they are being given months before they are given what they see is you know, critical treatment you know, the cat's out of the bag on that one because the public are feeling it and I think it's really interesting to hear you recognise that, Ken. Yeah, yeah. I mean a perfect example is patients who have a total different patient or a total neuroplastic that's, you know from, you know it's a very effective treatment and it has and it's easy to do excuse my stupid colleagues maybe differing but anyway you know, and yet we are waiting to get hips and people are becoming immobile or cataracts is another example, okay which is basically simple straightforward surgery that you could do today, have patients home a week and have a much better quality of life and yet my surgical colleagues can't get access to theatre to operate on these bases or other patients and surgeons basically by their very nature that's what they want to do is to be in theatre to operate on patients and to make them better and if they can't access theatre because of space constraints or because there is not enough theatre nurses then they equally are frustrated or if medical base they're in their surgical bed so there's some, I mean to be honest there's so much wrong to start really but it's not by employing more people in the emergency department and I have the high respect for people who work in emergency departments day in, day out because it's a very you know, soul destroying in a way and frustrating place to work because it's just constant stress and then you know we're constantly getting messages from management, the consultants can just discharge a few more patients today because we're jammed and we have this and we have that and we have the other but part of the problem is that we have patients in the hospital who are waiting for things to be done, not usually surgery but investigations and if they were done in a timely manner they'd be home and then there's other patients you see in clinic say if I see somebody tomorrow who has weight loss and somebody's worried that they might have cancer for argument's sake then I need to do a series of investigations but at the moment there's a significant waiting list for those and then kind of I'm placed in a quandary and calmly there after the patients they present to ED in a week or two because they're still waiting for the investigations that Dr. Morpeter couldn't get done in time you know. I mean how many good people are we going to lose over the head of this that they might even feel they can do have more impact outside the hospital you know doing different types of work and very finally and thanks for so much of your time Ken and we'll be joined by our nurse and mum but I just want to ask you you know I've heard what you've got to say I've heard it of other people as well Nine Till Noon Show in association with the Northwest Truck Fest this Saturday and Sunday at Milford Mart with live music family fun a truck convoy and much more Awalia is a free mortgage arrears support service providing financial, legal and insolvency advice to help you keep your home. If you are in long term mortgage arrears reach out to Awalia today call 0818 07 2000 or visit maps.ie forward slash Awalia an initiative of the government of Ireland News. I'm registered in the Intellectual Disability Division with the nursing board and I have only ever worked in care of the elderly in care homes nursing homes I am working in nursing homes 18 years working as a nurse 12 years and I cannot get employed in a community hospital they will only employ nurses within the general division regardless of your experience regardless of you know specialized courses that we have done to my knowledge now the most of nurses working in nursing homes in Donegal are either Intellectual Disability registered or psychiatric registered there is very few general nurses actually working in nursing homes what's the significance of that and for those of us outside of the system because I know personally in the unit that I work in we have four Intellectual Disability nurses we have three psychiatric nurses each and every one of them would tick the right hand off the HSE to work in a community hospital and to have the benefits of working with the HSE but we can't and what's the what is the blocker there is it's you know is it just just their regulations the requirement that they are requiring you to be general trained rather than looking that everybody has the same nursing degree and then looking at people's experience like I think people's experience outweigh that just that you're general trained yeah the piece of paper the experience that just requires a little bit of lateral thinking I'm not sure that the system is set up to allow that though I mean that makes sense you know that Dr. Malpeter is saying that you know that they can't get nurses to work in community hospitals they're short staff there to try and tick the extra patients out of the hospital when they're needing home packages or needing extra care after coming out of hospital well there's loads of nurses there I personally I know seven of us in one unit that would you know that but we can't you know when we have made contact with the community hospitals you know through their HR department there's not they don't entertain it at all you have to be registered in the general division right okay no sense at all there's a lot of nurses that would check that yeah thank you Greg and it gives us an insight no it gives us an insight because you know people like me waffle but you're helping us to understand where the problems are as did Professor Ken Malpeter you know it seems it seems if the people in the right positions were able to make or did make certain decisions things where it matters could improve really quite quickly rather than employing you know an extra 40 or 50 consultants into positions that the likes of Professor Malpeter doesn't feel will actually you know improve the situation and similarly what you're telling us about recruitment that doesn't make sense so and thanks for the insight really is what I'm saying I appreciate it yeah and also we've only like I work in a nursing home and we've only just realised that are being informed that there's actually community paramedics that will come out to the nursing home and carry out some procedures and things that we would be sending people to A&E for and you know that kind of information I don't think is readily available to people in nursing home you know they can thank you very much for your time thank you Greg good luck yeah okay thanks so much indeed I appreciate it and I wasn't being ignorant there there's just a slight little delay on the line hopefully you understand okay thanks for your time right if you want if you want that 08 660 25000 this listener says I was in letter Kenny at the weekend this is on a separate issue and I saw around 20 cars with L plates up but no accompanied drivers is this law not being enforced the law is sitting there and they're not enforcing it well the law is there it's very possible though that you know the person who is the learner is not in the car I would say lots of mums and dads out there probably have L plates up on the family car for allowing their younger ones to drive I think the absence of someone sitting on with them does not necessarily mean that the person driving the car is a learner that's possible it is also possible that the law is not being enforced though the penalty for being found driving unaccompanied is really really harsh so it's one I think most people might try and avoid but if you have an insight into that again let me remind you if the number is 08 660 25000 we've so much to come on the program we're going to be speaking to Dr Joe Kelly about Michael Collins on the 100th anniversary of his death we're going to be talking about these signs someone's going around spraying out the English on road signs what's going on there do you agree or disagree get in touch so that and so much more besides and we're also going to be spending some time later on focusing on focusing on this beautiful part of the world we're in Marlon Head we're right up here the most northly part of Ireland I could literally throw a stone off the most northly part of Ireland into the sea that's how close we are right and there's people coming up to visit I've just seen I think it's a German reged vehicle pulling in here but are we capitalizing are we making the most of this fantastic community okay we'll be back with more after we take a break for the news and the bituary notices rejoin us the 9 till noon show brought to you by the Northwest Truck Fest taking place this Saturday and Sunday in the grounds of Milford Mart with proceeds to Ellie's wish to walk and MS Ireland Donegal Branch for all your health and beauty needs you can always rely on McGee's chemist in Erickenny if you need a prescription just call or order online at McGee's dot ie and it will be ready for you in advance before you arrive for beauty and skin care there's all the big names of great prices in store and online and for your photo printing needs simply download the McGee's photo prints app or click on the website link McGee's chemist main 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to skill essentials under one roof get everything you need to kit them out for the new school term from shoes and stationery to backpacks and lunchboxes back to school shopping made easy at letter Kenny shopping center it's a northwest truck fest at Milford March this Saturday and Sunday with trucks from all over Ireland also brick a brick and home baking stalls seats to Ellie's wish to walk and MS Ireland Donnie Gall Branch this ad is sponsored by Donnie Gall on live on air online and on the Highland Radio app this is Highland Radio News this is the Highland Radio News at 10 o'clock I'm Daniel Brennan Shin Face, Shin Finn say that the government should begin preparations for United Ireland now following the results of a new opinion poll the poll which was carried out by Lucid Talks for the Sunday Times found that more than half of voters in the north would support a United Ireland within the next 15 to 20 years more than half of 18 to 24 year old surveyed a total of 57% said they'd vote for United Ireland right now Donnie Gall Deputy Potter McLaughlin says the Irish Government must take a number of steps to prepare for an Irish unity referendum it's clear that there is a desire for United Ireland in the near future in the north we need to have the conversation need to talk about what the New Ireland is going to look like what the new economy will look like what the health system the education system will look like and how do we protect unionists within that New Ireland all of these discussions need to happen now to responsibly prepare for the time that's coming the government should establish a citizens assembly the government should draft a white paper and the government should establish an arctic committee and all party committee to prepare the ground to have the debate have the discussion ahead of the referendum on Irish unity it's coming the army's bands have cost the state 25 million euro since 2018 alone the Defence Forces School of Music has three military bands and 100 full-time instrumentalists those who are in army bands have no military training or role outside of a six week introductory course today's Daily Mirror reports that state functions accounted for just 8% of the over 800 events attended by the bands in the two years prior to the pandemic range of options need to be introduced to meet the housing needs of Ukrainian refugees in Ireland that's according to the migrants rights charity Doris as pressure on accommodation intensifies over the coming weeks around 2500 Ukrainians are set to leave student accommodation by the end of this month the CEO of Doris John Lannan insists the government should have made more progress on dealing with accommodation challenges this is a consequence of a lack of planning over the last six months the Department of Children have been under extraordinary pressure to find beds for people we've had time to put longer term solutions in place a range of options need to be considered we're looking at things that bring more vacant properties into use incentivising people to make the hotel rooms available modular homes and pledged accommodations into community as well and Borplanala is no longer fit for purpose and needs to be scrapped according to a government minister junior minister Naila Collins says the national planning authority is now contributing to the housing crisis the Finafall TD claims the state agency misses every one of its deadlines and is a barrier to progress and development in the state on Borplanala as it's currently constituted regularly and continuously