 the winner of the competition, of course. We were asking you, Rumble in the Hills is taking place on the 18th of November. We're asking you to take in place in the Aura Leisure Centre or the three arena. Greg, what do you think it is? I think it's the three arena. Wrong. It's taking place in the Aura Leisure Centre. But a man who got it right was Martin Anderson in Bali Buffet. Congratulations to you. Kreen was texting me to make sure I done it so I have done it there in our Kreen. She's probably listening, driving on the way to work. Martin, it's not bang in the desk. I know a wild habit of that. I have a wild habit of that when you're over here. I do sometimes. All right, stop doing this. Martin Anderson in Bali Buffet, you are the winner of the competition. So enjoy on the 18th of November. Friday, isn't it? All right. Thanks very much for that, Kevin Fury. He's back tomorrow morning. Is that what you said? Half six, yeah. It's time for the news at nine o'clock. It's over now to Michaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. It's hoped progress will be made for all Irish citizens in Gaza over the coming days. The Tonneshire and Foreign Affairs Minister Michaela Martin arrived in Cairo overnight. It's thought that between 20 to 30 of the Irish citizens there will be able to make the crossing into Egypt today. Agriculture Minister Charlie McCann-Noak says this is a complex diplomatic process. We're hopeful of progress. The Tonneshire obviously is in the region over the next few days and it's going to be working hard in that regard. So listen, we're taking the approach that we have been taking up until this now of being sensitive in relation to the fact that these are difficult and complex engagements. A letter Kenny Kanzer says there has been somewhat of a frenzy around the introduction of traffic lights on the Polestar roundabout in letter Kenny. Commissioning works have been carried out on the newly installed lights and improvements have been noted, particularly on the Remelton Road, which was proving problematic. Donegal County Council says works are also ongoing to reintroduce a live traffic feed at the roundabout. Kanzer Jimmy Kavana says people need to be realistic around time frames as the Bonneckee link is not expected to be completed before 2030. With 35,000 motorists travelling on the four-lane road daily, Kanzer Kavana believes alternative travel facilities need to be introduced in the interim. We need now to be realistic and realise that it is going to be at least eight years before it's finally completed. So we need to look at things that Park and Ride, we need to look at the active travel plans and get as many as those in places possible and we need to look at having a really good time bus service as well. Three Donegal members of the Defence Forces have received values awards for exemplifying the values and standards of Oglena Herron. The president of the European Court of Human Rights, Kismet Eradrom Baldaal, yesterday presented integrity awards to Brothers Private Sean Martin and Private Neane Martin in recognition of the integrity shown by them following the death of their mother Martina in the Creeslaw explosion. Meanwhile, Corporal Barry Foley has been honoured for his 30th year service in the 28th Infantry Battalion for consistently displaying the values of Oglena Herron. Finally, for where they're mostly dry this morning with sunny spells and just a few showers, highest temperatures today of nine or 10 degrees. That's all from Highland Radio News for now. We'll be back with news again at 10 o'clock. Until then, you can keep up to date with the latest local news on our website HighlandRadio.com. Good morning. This Christmas at Supervalu, we have great offers to help you share the magic, like selected cabri roses and heroes, celebrations, and Nestle quality street tubs, and a two for eight euro, exclusive to real rewards members only. Plus, get money off vouchers every week on the Real Rewards App too. Share the magic this Christmas with Supervalu. Tee's and see's apply. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9 till noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, four minutes past nine. A very good morning to you. It's Wednesday, the 15th of November, 2023, and you are genuinely very welcome along to another edition of the 9 till noon show. How you all keeping it seems to be a nice bright fresh day out there across the Northwest. Hopefully it's like that wherever you are anyway. We are open for business. The lines are open for you to comment on some of the items we've got lined up for you raise your own issues, have your own conversation with us as well by WhatsApp or texting 08 660 25,000 08 660 25,000 you can voice note to WhatsApp on that number as well or Caroline or is back 07 491 25,000. She is taking your calls alongside Shannon Wilkie. So you can also email us comments at highlandradio.com. All right, let's look at the front of some of the newspapers today and inside the papers as well to see what's making the headlines there. The Finn Valley voice Balabuffet mother is Netwatch Donegal family carer of the year. This year's Netwatch Donegal family carer of the year is Kira Lynch from Balabuffet. Congratulations Kira. She accepted the award at a function in the central hotel Donegal town on Wednesday on behalf of all the carers who work tirelessly behind closed doors with little support, not vastly reduced and vastly reduced services. The Donegal post this morning reports a call for immediate and immediate stop on new road traffic management in Donegal town. The new one way traffic system in Donegal town is continuing to cause controversy. One local resident Shane Macaulay, who's also a civil engineer says it's time to call a halt on the project until it's reevaluated and to engage with residents and business owners and possibly revise the design based on that and then maybe more forward with a plan. He said that the new system as well intentioned as it is was is currently creating chaos for drivers getting around the time and he has received the backing of mayor of Donegal town, Mayor Porig Kennedy and over 100 signatories at the time of writing who've supported an online petition calling for it to be reused. He said that the new system as well intentioned as it is was is currently creating chaos for drivers getting around the time and he has received the backing of mayor of Donegal town and he has received the backing of mayor of Donegal town and over 100 signatories at the time of writing who've supported an online petition calling for it to stop. Now we spoke to Porig Kennedy at the time that work was underway and it was let's wait and see how things go. But obviously his view has changed. We also spoke to a representative of business there and they seem to be of the view it will free up parking on the diamond, make traffic move more freely. I had my doubts but I thought well you know if they're saying that it's not going to stop. I'm not sure what the legality of that is and also bosses it's effectively a bus stop and people double parking to go around their daily business. But anyway we'll talk about that a little later on in the show. The Innish Times this morning. I'll just double check it is the Innish Times it is in fact, yep. The quick reaction of locals prevented the potential flooding to homes on the outskirts of Bunkranna following heavy rain brought by storm Debbie, a local councillor has said calls have been made for action to be taken to deal with the flood threat after heavy rain caused a road and a field to flood water from a stream which runs under maherenture road spilled onto the road at around 7 a.m. on Monday morning local councillor Nicholas Cross and said properties on the road and on the road and on the outskirts of Bunkranna was saved from serious problems due to locals who helped divert water from the road by digging a track. You can't beat local knowledge. So fair play to them. They saw the problem. They come up with a solution and save those properties. Onto the nationals now much talk about RTE and the changes they're making there. A salary cap of 250,000 euro will be introduced at RTE to the local councillor and the council will be introduced at RTE. A cap of 250,000 euro. Caroline, could you cancel my application? Not my application but my offer from RTE. They offered me 200, I'm not going there. No, 250,000 euro cap. That's no fun. A salary cap of 250,000 euro will be introduced at RTE in tandem with plans to shrink the broadcasters workforce by 400 people between now and 2028. It would give the broadcaster an additional 56 million in funding to overcome a short-term cash crisis. Mr. Backhurst said RTE would remain a substantial organisation despite the loss of one in five jobs by 2028 and the requirement to close a 10 million euro gap in 2024 between its total funding and the money is needed to operate the service. Some 40 redundancies will initially be sought and cuts to content will be confirmed in the coming weeks. They're also looking to... Well, I'll go through some of the wages here. Joe Duffy, Claire Byrne and Miriam O'Callaghan will face salary reductions under the new cap as they negotiate new contracts with the latest figures showing Duffy on 351,000 euro, Byrne on 280,000 and O'Callaghan on 263,500. So they're going to have to take pay cuts we're told to 250 but are they really? Because I imagine the likes of Joe Duffy for example gets one payment for his radio show he does all the work to though doesn't he? He has a couple of TV shows and what have you. So I'm sure they're not going to be stuck on 250,000 euro where there is a will, there is a way. But I also noticed too that they're opening regional hubs and you just can't help but wonder the connection between the state broadcaster and government and I don't mean in any bad way as such but if you look at how in terms of the services you'll be very familiar with Betty Holmes and DACC's map which shows issues or lack of services above the Dublin Galway line so that's well established we know that you can look at what the situation is with rail above the Dublin Galway line you can talk about investment in education above this Dublin Galway line and staying with education you can talk about issues as it relates to no professors in north of a line very similar to this. Regional imbalance particularly a problem above the Dublin Galway line and RTEs to establish regional hubs outside of Dublin and none of them are above the Dublin Galway line so there is a pattern there that I don't think you have to be a conspiracy theorist to note that there definitely is both in the national media as it relates to the state media and certainly in government it does feel there is an issue in doing anything or doing an off sorry or doing equal above this Dublin Galway line is that how you might see it 086625,000 as I say it's just an observation I'm not drawing a conclusion just saying that that is the way it appears to be. The Irish independent this morning more than half of the businesses in the states that use gas are now in arrears and a quarter of households are behind on their gas bill. Shock figures from the energy regulators show that 56% of non-domestic gas customers were behind on their payments to the supplier in the July to September period and 23% of households were in arrears on their gas bills almost 15,000 commercial firms that use gas are in arrears the figures for the third quarter of the year is more than double that it was for the April to June period which is an indication of the struggles businesses are facing in just keeping the roof above the head. Onto the Irish Daily Mail now and two thirds of local authorities are failing to meet environmental targets the latest report from the Environmental Protection Agency reveals the annual study measures each authorities performance against the delivery of 20 national enforcement priorities such as waste water management, water quality and air and noise pollution. The EPA requires local authorities to achieve a score of excellent or strong in at least 70% of their targets and in just a bit of good news and a bit of credit to Donagall County Council it is doing very well at 80%. Only one county council has achieved 100% and that is Kildare. Meath is at 90% Fingall at 85% as his leech room and Monagall at 80%. So it's pretty impressive then you have other counties like Roscommon Kilkenny 30, 35% respectively so as I say credit where it's due Donagall County Council meeting those targets. Now staying with environmental issues this is the star. The country's environmental watchdog warned that households and businesses are still putting most of their waste in the wrong bins. Claims were made yesterday in the latest report from the Environmental Protection Agency. It revealed that two thirds of waste found in general waste bins should have been put into either recycling or organic bins. The EPA's calculated this amounts to two million tonnes of municipal waste being produced every year and two thirds of that doesn't need to be there. Now the one thing confuses me a little bit about this and maybe it's an incorrect observation but it does seem to be at least on some occasions where both the black and blue bin or whatever the colour combinations are go into the same bin lorry. Is that what you've said and I think it was deputy power of McLaughlin stated something along these lines as well and then it sorted back at base if you know what I mean. So if that is the case why are you blaming the consumer here we're probably doing our best but sometimes it does seem to be the case and I'm not saying across the board and maybe some of the industry will let me know that all the bins kind of seem to go into the one lorry. The sun this morning a new European report has slammed Ireland over how it deals with violence against women. The Council of Europe's experts flagged several issues where improvements is urgently needed including lenient sentencing of sex attackers. The Irish Sun has been leading the drive it says to raise awareness of violence against women through its call this ad campaign. The campaign had allowed victims to talk openly about how it impacted their lives in a bid to spark a change in behaviour and culture. A European Council delegation recently visited Ireland to assess the country and how it was preventing and combating domestic violence. The group of experts on action against violence against women and domestic violence known as Grevio. Yesterday published its first report evaluating Ireland's implementation of the Istanbul Convention and in 2019 Ireland ratified the international treaty to tackle violence against women but we're not getting necessarily a glowing review. Sex attackers in this country are getting two lenient sentences. Lastly and certainly not least, more than 200 dead patients including babies and children were buried in a mass grave inside the grounds of Garves Hospital yesterday. More than 100 members of the medical team at the Al-Shifa Hospital took six hours to dig it. Dr Adrian Albert said we started off at 8.30 in the morning and finished around 3pm he said they had little choice because the bodies had been left for days and decomposed and there is a really action around some of those hospitals at the moment. Tanks inside hospitals and people are in there sick as well. It's horrendous what's going on, very hard to watch. OK, we'll be back with more on the program. Our first guest indeed after this break. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra, Mountaintop Letterkenny, the 2022 Seastor National Off-Licence of the Year. The Ninth All-Noon Show is brought to you by Letterkenny Credit Union, offering low-rate car loans with fast approval. Apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today. 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Explore our range in various colours and sizes, including the dreamy Barbie, Dreamhouse Pink. Orders close on December 2nd. Find us on social media, deal site garden furniture or call 087 double 1, 2, 4, 7, double 6. Highland Radio time checks with Expressway. Travel Route 32 from Leta Kennedy Dublin when you book online and travel for less. Expressway, bringing you the time, us? It's 18 minutes past nine. You're very welcome back to the programme. Right, we were speaking last week about the teaching crisis in primary schools. 800 vacancies currently, up to 2,000 expected in the not-too-distant future, but it's not just that sector. There is a teacher recruitment and retention crisis in Irish second level schools as well and it is worsening. That's the findings of a new survey carried out in over 100 schools by the principals and deputy principals association of the teachers union of Ireland. Joanne Irwin is assistant general secretary with the TUI and joins us now. Good morning, Joanne. Good morning, Greg. Thanks for being with us. Okay, so can you describe in greater detail what impact this is having on secondary schools? Yeah, well, I was supposed to say schools are displaying remarkable innovation and trying to deal with these challenges, but the reality is that there's no more flexibility to give and we are seeing schools nationally losing subjects, losing practical subjects in particular, like woodwork, engineering, construction studies, areas where the department are actually pushing students to go into the apprenticeship area, but they're now not getting that experience in our second level schools. Just in the context of Donegal I spoke into and I represent all the schools in Donegal. Subjects aren't being lost as such in Donegal, but school principals are very much cautious about expanding the curriculum, so new subjects that have been introduced in the last few years like computer science or PE as an examinable subjects are not being delivered in all the schools in Donegal because the principals are afraid to offer the subjects to the students only to find out then that they can't get a teacher in the class to teach those subjects. The minister, as well, has announced two new subjects from September 25, which we welcomed. One of those are drama, film and theatre studies and climate action and sustainability development, but we're very concerned we're not actually going to have the teachers to teach those subjects or it is only going to be the preserve of large schools in urban areas where they can actually get the teachers to deliver those subjects. So just to be clear, 77% of schools advertised positions in the previous six months for which no teacher applied. 64% of unfilled vacancies due to recruitment and retention difficulty. Now, just so I'm clear because we get texts after these conversations which confused me a little bit. If I'm a newly qualified teacher, fully qualified in secondary school, got my papers and everything, can I apply for one of these jobs and be given a full-time contract and all the bells and whistles that I might expect perhaps in another country? You can apply for the job, but the problem is you will not get a full-time job. In post primary, so all of our second level schools, 70% of those students who have just qualified will not get a job for full hours. So they get a fraction of their hours. They make it six to seven hours a week, which is not sustainable. How does that work though? Because we've got all these vacancies, we've got newly qualified teachers and they can't, can you explain to me why they can't get those jobs? Yeah, I think the problem is the Department of Education have a very strict teacher allocation model, so it goes by the number of students in the school, which means if you're in a smaller school, you don't have as many hours to give to a teacher. So if you want to offer physics, for example, in a school in Dublin, you can put maybe physics and chemistry and biology together. You can get a full-time job, but you might only want to teach physics in Bundourn or Balajanan and they can only give six hours a week. So they're going to where they can get full-time jobs. And unfortunately, we've seen for the last 10 years, that has been abroad. It isn't even been in Ireland. But how do you fix this then? Well, I think one of the things that could be done overnight is in order to encourage more teachers to come home from other jurisdictions, is to give them credit for the service that they do abroad. So if you come from a European country and say you work 10 years in a European country and you come back to Ireland, you get those 10 years credit. So you move 10 points up the salary scale. And the teacher's salary scale, for example, takes 25 years to get to the top of it, it's the largest, it's the longest scale in the public sector, was if you come from Dubai or you come from Australia or outside of the EU, you don't get any credit for that. Okay. So they're not coming back for that reason. But say, for instance, that wasn't an issue for a teacher, and of course it is going to be, if they move back to Dubai and apply for one of these positions that there's been a no application for, can they get a full time job in the school? No, not under the current teacher allocation model. That's what the problem is, what are you people are looking to save, rent by a house, they're not going to move back for six or seven or eight hours and they're going to go somewhere else where they're valued. I mean, the system is broken from outside of looking in, Joanne with respect, because I've got parents and they're going to be listening saying my daughter's fully qualified. We're going to have to say she's going to have to leave to Australia or to buy her England. And yet we're seeing here that people aren't even applying for jobs here. It's crazy. It seems crazy to me anyway. It is crazy, and it doesn't make any sense to us either, and we've been calling for years, you know, let them have a full time job when they come out. They'll not go away then. Most people, they might go away for a year for the experience, but most people want to work in Ireland or return to Ireland. You know, their family here, they want to be close to their home, but they can't do it exactly for the reason that you have said. You can't live on six or seven hours a week, and you might only be in for one hour a day, which means you get no entitlement to anything else on top of those six hours a week. Right. So where do we go from here? I'm sorry to return to, but I mean, this is fun, but this is, I mean, we could, you could have every TD in the dull debate in this for six weeks, but unless these things are changed, we're just, if things are just going to get worse and worse. Absolutely. And I mean, the first thing that has to be done is looking at the whole allocation model and how teachers are allocated to schools. I mean, if I will just look in the Donegal instance, for example, it's quite difficult to get teachers to go to our island schools because years ago, if you worked in an island school, you got an island allowance to cover the cost of the ferry because you were going offshore. That was pulled 10 years ago. If you teach in a school that teaches through Irish, you used to get an additional allowance because it's more difficult maybe to get textbooks and stuff like that to teach through Irish. That was pulled 10 years ago. I mean, we have schools in Donegal who are transitioning into in the Guildhawk area to be Irish medium schools. They're having difficulty getting teachers because if you can teach in Irish and you can teach in English, it's easier to teach in English. And if you don't get the additional payment to teach in Irish, you're not going to do it. But the main thing is permanent contracts. I mean, we're not opposed to having a one year probationary period. That's in law. Everybody should have a probationary period. But having to apply for a job at the end and teaching as well at the end of the first year, your job is automatically terminated and you have to reinterview to get that job again. That's just ridiculous. So you're interviewing twice for the same job. So when we talk about, I'm sorry for my silly questions, but it's just to get to the bottom of it. So when we talk about a vacancy in the schools, 77% of schools didn't even have an applicant. So what jobs actually being likely to be advertised there? A job for six, seven, eight hours a week. Is that the vacancy that no one's applied for? Yeah. And the problem is schools advertise for subjects. So they say we need a math teacher. We need a chemistry teacher. We need a home economics teacher. And it's only when you drill down into it and you see, well, how many hours is this? Is this a full-time job? Now, schools in Dublin are having a real problem with the accommodation crisis and the shortage of accommodation. That's going to expand. So schools in Dublin are now seeing this and they're saying, okay, we will offer permanent jobs day one. We will offer full-time contracts day one. That has helped alleviate things in Dublin. But that's, I mean, there's an accommodation crisis everywhere in the country now. But what that's doing is what we're seeing is rather than it being a national drain, i. E., you know, the talent from Ireland being lost to other countries, it could be a drain from the rest of Ireland with teachers being drawn to Dublin. It can. And then what we've actually seen this year is a lot of teachers in Dublin who just left their job completely in order to move back to the West. So we have teachers who I know who have resigned in Dublin because they can't get anywhere to rent to move back to schools in Donegal. So in a way, it's a slight gain for Donegal, the accommodation crisis in Dublin. But would you come to Donegal for six hours or would you go for a permanent full-time job in Dublin? Of course, you simply just wouldn't and that problem will not be fixed until that's addressed. And it's not only that. Why would you even start your education four hard years of slog to come out of it and be treated like that? To have your contract instantly terminated after a year or to be offered six or seven hours here or there? Like, it's simply, it's completely and utterly unattractive. And you've actually hit on another problem there as well. It now takes six years to rent to be a teacher. Six, my mistake. When you do a four-year degree, you then now have to do a two-year master's in education at a cost of up to 15,000 just for the tuition for the two years PME, which is the postgraduate master in education, just to qualify as a teacher. That's ridiculous. It never was a two-year master program to qualify. It means that a huge cohort of people who would make excellent teachers can't afford the tuition. Now, that's not quite an accommodation cost for those students. They now have to do an extra year than what, like I did or others did years ago, which is just mad. And how does that work then if teachers from outside of Ireland and that aren't Irish wish to move here to teach? Before they could even consider getting a job, they'd have to do those additional two years, or are we just catching up to qualifications in other countries? To a large extent, we have a higher bar than other countries. But if you qualified, for example, in the UK or you qualified anywhere in Europe, then you can get registered with the teaching council here in Ireland. So a lot of people are going abroad to do their teaching council qualification, which might only be a year somewhere else. They're coming back to Ireland, but they do have a shortfall in that they must do a history of education exam. But I mean to do a history education exam and one year less of study, it is more attractive for people to do that. It's incredibly convoluted. I've worked for 10 years, only got full hours this year. This delayed my ability to have children and to buy a house and the price of a house since has gone through the roof. They're blaming the current government for it, but I mean, I'd say that's pretty typical. Right, okay, Joanne, it's been really quite insightful. As I say, sorry for the basic questions, but it gets me an understanding of it, and it's worse than I thought. But we appreciate your time, Joanne. Take care of yourself. Thanks very much. Bye-bye. That is Joanne Erwin from Donegal, who's assistant general secretary with the TUI. Right. Let's go to, you know what, we'll take a quick break because we're going to talk about traffic in Donegal town very shortly. 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Call in for your free curtain design and quotation at Fabric World Dairy. Grit your rates for all our Euro customers. Hi, Kate Appleby here. Just wanted to let you all know, my exciting new Autumn shoe collection is available nationwide in all good shoe stores. KateAppleby.com. Hope you enjoy my shoes. Are you building a new home? Building requirements date that you must install a Radon barrier. At FF Radon Systems, we supply and professionally install the fully certified barrier. For more information, call him at FF Radon Systems on 086-833-2749. Okay, you're very welcome back to the 9th till noon show here on Highland Radio, and we are going to Donegal Town. Shane McCauley joins us on the program. Shane, thanks for your time today. No problems, sir. Good to have you on. Right. Okay, so when this work began, we spoke to a couple of people down there, one business owner, the Mayor Port Kennedy. They seem to think that this was, you know, it's going to be a bit of a heartache as the work was ongoing, but it would be a means to an end and could be good for Donegal Town. Did you ever have that view, Shane, or have you questioned this development from the get-go? No, definitely without it. I would be a very optimistic person by nature, and I'd be all in favour of anything that would be seen as a positive development in any community. So, yes, I was very happy to see some development occurring Donegal Town, and I certainly held my breath in such time until I seen how it started to plan out. But unfortunately, my experiences in the last five or six weeks have led me to develop some grave concerns about where it's going. So the point where some are calling for it to stop altogether with further consultation. So is it how the works are ongoing and the disruption it's causing? That's a problem for you, or is it how the road system will work once completed? It'll be the matter. It'll be how we're going to end up with unnecessary traffic in areas that we never had before, and I think it's an uncoordinated approach, maybe, and less of a test regime and more about hitting the ground, running and getting concrete in. Look, I'm a project manager myself of a background. I'm a qualified civil engineer. I know all about contracts and I know all about how to run similar schemes and have to say last night I had a very detailed conversation with the council engineer, Mr Mark Schweeney, and it was very good to return a call to me. He was busy all day yesterday, as a lot of us are, and he returned, and we had a great conversation about it, you know, and he certainly opened up my eyes to other opportunities. He highlighted the fact that I may not be aware of a bigger picture, and I'm very willing to consider all that kind of thing. So it's right now, I had to agree to disagree with him, Greg. Well, has the campaign to have the work stops been suspended from your perspective? No, absolutely not. No, there's a lot of people that have joined in behind the thing there, and I'll have to stand by my initial reaction. As part of that, I was sent a couple of updates. I told them that I was speaking to another radio station the day before. I told them I was speaking to you. And Mark has arranged for one of the council engineers to come back to me and I'll look at the detail design from there. And I'll try to simulate a report and possibly a public meeting just to give people a chance to follow up and understand what I have learned to date, you know, so I'll follow up with it. The my initial question was, what problem is this work looking to fix? And to be honest with you, but it was explained to me, I don't I still don't get it. I mean, I would like to see random blocking off of parking, double parking, the diamond effectively being a bus stop. If those issues were eliminated and see how traffic moved then or or what? I think you've hit the nail on the head. And I think that's primarily what other people in the community are pointing towards. Look, there's bigger issues there. These buses have been a detriment to us living and livability factor and that they got all for years. And people like in fairness, it was mentioned again last night that it was an ongoing since 2015. And there's a plan in place and they're on the verge of having all this relocated. But we don't know what the impact we don't know what the impact of those buses being relocated would would have waited, they should they put the car before the horse in this case, if they wanted to go with a one way system was going to help improve down the stream, they should have waited until they got the buses first and then went down the one way system. You know, it's it's I keep on saying this, I believe from what I'm looking at right now, and the clear indications are that it's not working. And it's never going to work in this regard. If they don't open up Water Street to a two way system, I think the town is going to continue to suffer. Porick Kennedy's with us as well. Mayor of Donegal town Park, as I said, you know, I when I had the initial conversation with you a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't see what problem this was trying to fix or how would fix the problem. You didn't have any issue with it a few weeks ago. Has your mind been changed as if you changed? Absolutely. Good morning, Greg. Yeah, I hope I actually we talked about it at five or six, five weeks ago, and I suppose, you know, thinking maybe maybe it would be a good job. But and and there is that in Donegal town that would benefit by one way, like Castle Street would definitely benefit because the web is not there. But the way isn't there because the width isn't there because people park on the street opposite the castle. Is that is that are we on about the same street? No, that's your car street street, right? Which is Castle Street then? I'm terrible. You know, just along the water's edge there just between the two bridges. I get you. I'm terrible with that road names. Go ahead, Porick. But Water Street is kind of one of the main arteries of the town, which benefit, you know, people from Oak Leary Avenue and that side of town would come up Water Street, turn left ahead for the school, the chapel, Lytle or whatever head for Letter County that way. And making it just the one way system just forces people then over into the middle of the town where they don't need that for their journey. And I know people could say, oh, you could go out and go round the bypass. But that's also your journey. And, you know, it's just the one that one part of the development. If that was changed, I think it would alleviate a whole lot of problem towards the centre of the town. And I understand, you know, that we need to upgrade the footpaths and make it safer for for elderly and people with disabilities to access and cross and stuff like that. But, you know, forcing more traffic into the centre of the town is not is not solving any of that problem there. Like, you know, I just think it's strangling the town. And I think, as Shane says, we need to stop and take a look at it and say, right, okay, I don't think that we don't think this is going to work. Like, I mean, you probably remember back at the Tullier Junction, which was a day and a day we're involved there. And that was the main added to the bypass. And there was no way there was going to be a roundabout there because it slows traffic down. But after several accidents on there, thankfully, not too serious, but they never had to take a look at it again. And we think that was one of the most that was one of the most bizarre pieces of road infrastructure I've ever come across in my life. But as you say, yeah, thankfully, it's like it was short lived. So people, you know, like, I actually said, maybe the runway system is a good job. I think I'm I am wrong. And this making that statement. There's certain parts of it. Yeah, it will be a good job. The upgrade of the footpaths and the upgrade of the road surface. A great job. We're all for development. And personally, we're not against development in Donegal town. And it's a great town and a great county. And like with this, the law that we got there for the world, like, it's only going to add to traffic and people come into Donegal and want to see and enjoy Donegal. But if they can't get through, if they're stuck in traffic in Donegal town for 20, 30 minutes, 40 minutes in November, what is not going to be like in the summertime? Well, I mean, sometimes sometimes flourish after a bypass, other times disappear. It would be a shame if the success of Donegal town post bypass was lost because it became just a place you simply wouldn't want to go near. All right, Pory, Kennedy, thank you very much indeed and only because of traffic, obviously. Helen, are you there? A few of you on this? Well, I actually agree with Pory. The traffic congestion in the town centre is ridiculous. And the business people of the town is going to lose out, especially now coming up to Christmas. And if the Donegal festival was on, I would dread to think what the traffic would be like at that stage. You know, it's just not on. Where I live on the main street, there's been traffic way out past the hospital trying to get into Donegal town. This is not acceptable. Yes, I agree with some of the past needs updating and making it safe for people to walk on. But it's just not on. And you can go down Water Street is ridiculous. The council has to stop now and rethink everything and include the people of the community in it. Have an open meeting in some of the hotels. Yeah. All right. And Paul, what people think? Thanks for that, Helen. I do appreciate your time this morning. So Shane, so what is going to change here? Many people will be very familiar with Donegal town. So I'm coming in from Ballot Buffet past the hospital, past the church. Do I progress in when the road is completed? Do I continue in there to the diamond or what's the story? The impact coming from that side of the town is very minimal. Right. So I'm coming in then from from Killy Beggs. Right now. So if you come in from Killy Beggs, you'll still have the main routes in, right? But where you get into the changes now is when you come from the north east in the northwest of the town, all the people from from Roosk, Killy Mired, La Esk, that kind of region that come in to join the diamond, they no longer now have access to the hospital, heroes, boys, school, main street and any side of the businesses in the town up along there. They are forced into the diamond on the current arrangement. Because from where the existing entrants, the old credit union or where Quinn, we can have their business there at the moment, you now have to take a right up to Connell Street. You're not allowed to continue down past Erwin's business that is facing difficulty there, spoken to them down into McGee's. All McGee's people are forced to go right. They won't be able to take easy access if they're living in St Joseph's Avenue or again, going up out to Legney. So if you wanted to go, so if you wanted to go to an apologies to those of you outside of the Golden Town, so if you're if you're safe for instance, you passed John Bosco, right? And you want to go to Irwin's, you would have to turn right before Irwin's go all the way around the diamond, turn left at the fishing tackle shop Charlie shop and come down that way. That would be the loop just to go to Irwin's from that side of town. Yeah, absolutely. OK, that's really the market traffic. They now will have to break the law to go in and take a left to go up the old Mark Lane. I was advised last night that they're not meant to be doing that, that they should be using the railway road entrance, but they're not. So they're having, you know, not break the law. You know what I'm coming from? I don't understand yet. It's not the rules of the world necessarily. So, you know, we heard from Park there that if Walter Street, I think he mentioned, was left two way that that would fix a lot of the problems. Do you share that view? I share that view. Yeah, absolutely. And with your entry back, there's concerns with that, Greg, right? There is under the current specifications, roadworks, whatever, as Mark emphasized last night, Mark Sweeney, there are issues with it, but there was always issues with it. And that being born and bred, like so many others, it was never an issue that was insurmountable. There wasn't traffic jams backed up Water Street or backed up over past Irwin's waiting to get up and down. That never has never seen an issue as far as I'd be concerned. So return that to two way. That's where I suggested that people should suspend works. I don't want. I'm not suggesting I'm a contract person. As I said earlier, you can't put around when you're in the contract, there's 900,000 of works to be done by St Patrick's Day, which is a great achieve a great plan. So don't stop them there. Get them working on the other areas. Stop and look at what you're talking about going up and down Water Street, maybe get it revised. Unfortunately, they already have built a car far too far out in the road now to get back to two ways. So there's going to have to be a bit of demo and repair works. If it is to be reversed, but better late than never. And now's the time to look at it. Okay, we'll see. Is that whatever's been built opposite super value? Is that part of this? That's that's it. Yeah, there's a national strategy about traffic calming. Other people will break it down, but there's a traffic calming pedestrianization improvement scheme that's happening. That's a disaster wouldn't happen. As I said the morning before I was coming down early morning on my way to work and I met a tipper truck and he was taking his first year of the road. I was on my side and it was too close for comfort and I wouldn't let when other children and families but unfortunately the way the plan is to slow traffic. We've seen it on the four lanes. We've seen it a capri and other areas if narrow the road and eventually everyone slows down. But anyway, we shall see it's probably as you say another problem waiting to happen. Thanks for your time, Shane this morning. I do appreciate it. Have a good day and we'll see what the council have to say and all of that. And thanks to Porick and also to Helen if you've any of you on those traffic developments in Donegal town, feel free to share them. 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. What of you could send a free chocolate bar in secret to someone special just to, you know, give them a little lift. With the Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service, you can send free chocolate secretly from a poster. They're popping up all over the country from great big cities to quaint little towns. Look out for a poster near you or search Cadbury Secret Santa to find out more 18 plus free service on selected products while stocks last until December the 24th. For full terms of conditions, visit Cadbury dot IE. You can't afford to miss the omissible sales event at Volkswagen retailers between November 10th and 20th with percent finance available on every Volkswagen model. That's percent on Polo and Gulf percent on our T Rock and Tiguan SUVs and percent on our all electric ID range. See what's behind that at Volkswagen dot IE. Finance provided by way of higher purchase agreement from Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland Limited terms and conditions apply. Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Volkswagen Order your 24 one with Connelly's Volkswagen letter Kenny. See Connelly's dot IE. Oh, you don't leave him usual is a seesaw visa. We're proud to support small businesses in every community like Murphy's of Dingle makers of quality ice cream supplied by Kerry Dairy Farms. When you shop with an independent business, it multiplies to support your community. Where you shop matters visa. Any shown development partnership and collaboration with the HSC are holding a health and social care recruitment and education fair on Tuesday the 21st of November in the any shown Gateway Hotel Bonkranagh. Discover exciting career opportunities in the healthcare sector connect with industry professionals and explore educational pathways. Don't miss this chance to shape your future in health and social care. That's Tuesday the 21st of November in the any shown Gateway Hotel Bonkranagh from 10 a.m. told 2 p.m. Highland radio weather updates brought you by Grant from condensing oil and hate for your biofuel boilers to heat pumps and underfloor heating. You can trust grant to heat your home. Visit grant dot IE. Okay, you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show and I can tell you the weather forecast actually wasn't at the jingle. Today Wednesday mostly dry this morning with sunny spells and just a few showers cloud will thicken from the southwest later in the evening highest temperatures of nine or 10 degrees moderate to fresh and gusty westerly winds in the morning will ease through this afternoon and back southerly right. Kiran Mulally is an author and former correspondent at RTE and a community development worker and he joins us to discuss the some of the changes that RTE that have been initially leaked the day before yesterday and released somewhat more in full. Yesterday, staffing at the organization is to be reduced by 400 people according to the plan. RTE intends to reduce significantly produce significantly more content outside of Dublin and the Irish government has approved funding of 56 million for RTE. Kiran, good morning to you. I suppose your initial reaction to this plan is it enough to save the organization? Do you think? Greg, good morning. I was going to say 16 million euro question that you're asking me to answer at the very beginning. I mean, RTE got their 60 million euro effectively yesterday from the government. After all the talk and the debates and the Eurosis Committee inquiries, government signed off on initial 16 million euro to keep the place afloat up to Christmas and there's pretty much a commitment to another 40 next year. But I have to say I would still have concerns of what we've seen yesterday is very much stopgap measures and major changes have to take place. And I'll tell you why I'd say that. Of course, I'd have concerned about personal formality and a personal thought that are concerned for the loss of jobs. 400 people losing their jobs. Now, we've been told this morning 150 of these people are going to come into retirement age anyway. But even with that and losing 250 people albeit on the voluntary redundancy scheme, you would have to have concerns about the quality of the programming coming out of RTE. I mean, nobody wants to see people lose their jobs. But certainly, if RTE thinks they can continue to charge a license fee, they can't expect the service to be run down. If the service is going to be affected by the disappearance of people like that, then they're back to square one. They're in big trouble. Sort of concern about that. But you know, what happened yesterday really had to happen in terms of the new strategy because of that issue, the license fee has collapsed. There's a black hole in the RTE accounts. So why is there? Because the license payer has lost confidence in the organization because of the fiasco last summer. And I think too, they're not sort of you know, maybe to some extent, there's quite a large proportion of the public that we're looking for a reason not to pay the license. And then then they hear others are like, I'm not sure it is a direct protest against RTE. I mean, look at the latest radio leadership figures that were produced. RTE made gains pretty much right across the board. Maybe it's just because of everything that's going on a bill that the wider public feel they don't have to pay. And he's not necessarily a referendum on RTE. No, I agree. I agree with you, Greg. And I think at all times in our history of the state broadcast, there's always been people who did not want to pay the license fee in the first instance. But I think to refer the vast majority of people appreciate the service that RTE gives in a normal year. I mean, you see something like the RTE investigates program would take the topic, a complex topic and expose us some of the most serious issues that are going on in our society. Issues like the abuse of elderly folks in elderly homes, et cetera, and simplifies it, explains it, investigates it over a period of months, and presents a program. I think the vast majority of people in this country will say, I will pay my license fee for that. When they see the sport coming on, the international soccer or rugby, they'll say, I will pay my license fee for that. But what happened last July and last summer, when RTE were found out basically, found out not to be telling the truth about how much they were paying Ryan Turbury. That's what is eroded the license fee. It has to, but from the public perspective, OK, the issue was with the overpaid presenters. Like, you know, maybe this is just what has to be done to make it profitable. But I don't think the public refused to pay their TV license. So 400 people who aren't the big earners would end up losing their jobs. So is that is that how RTE has to do it to save the money or is that RTE with being out of touch with what the people really had an issue with in the first place? Because you're still going to have people for right or wrong getting 250,000 euro or as it appears for an hour's work, an hour and a quarter's work. And I think that's really what most people are upset about. You know, I think what Kevin Backarth did yesterday was actually quite clever. In the strategy, he's making it clear that they will reduce the wages of people. But Joe Duffy's salary, for instance, on fair value, can't be paid that amount of money at the end. In the next contract then the ordinary person will say it was crazy money to be paying to anybody in the first instance. You know, those cyber salaries are not paid in the in the in the UK, for instance, if you're in London, you won't get paid 370,000 euro for an afternoon radio show. And this is despite the fact that the BBC could collect up to 60 million license fees in that country. So they were always crazy, Greg. But when I say Backarth has been clever, I think he's seen these issues as populist issues. The public will want to see changes. But he's also included a lot of stuff in the strategy about reducing the salary of management people as well. Taking out a layer of management in RTE, which is something the staff have always said that it was an issue. That the staff that there was there was a a lot of managers involved in the argument. He says they're going to reduce the amount of people who have paid 100,000 euro in the organization. That's in the in the structure yesterday. And he talks about changes in terms of the governance. And this is the big one, the governance issue. People want to see your average listener and Johnny Gall is more want to be clear that the money is not being spent on some of the rubbish that was going on in the past. And we heard about it from the slush fund last year in terms of concert tickets, venues, flip-flops, all of this malarkey. They want to and restoring that confidence is a big issue for RTE now. They have to be seen upfront to be transparent. And what happened last time was not transparent was the opposite. It actually dragged out of them that the director general had in fact met a personal a private personal arrangement with regard to the diameter of a presenter. I mean, you talked to about the the output of RTE, Kieran. And I mean, just respectful to the staff that's working there. I think, though, there's an awful lot of people outside of the pale that don't feel the content really is necessarily reflective of the entire country that it can be a bit of a mouthpiece for government, even when it comes down to the conflict in the Middle East. Some people feel that RTE's been a bit of a mouthpiece for Israel and not really telling the full extent of the story on the ground. So I don't think we can take it as a given that people really think the output is great and are prepared to pay for it, Kieran. No, I mean, this is this. You're explaining the story, Greg, of state broadcasters all over the world. Right, OK. You only have to look you only have to look across the water at the BBC where the government Tory government has changed the director general and the chairperson of the board a number of times because they didn't like the policy, the policy the organization was going in. Yeah. And this is not this is not common just to RTE. And this is a problem going forward. I mean, if the government of the day is not happy with the with the output from the organization, does that mean that we're going to have a delay for a period of over 10 years in dealing with the licensing issue? I mean, everyone is admissible. If you want to ask RTE to run an orchestra to run Lyric FM to run the Irish language TV and radio station, you have to pay for us. And if you're not prepared to pay for it, let's face it, government after government have avoided the issue because it wasn't politically acceptable to be raising the license fee. It wasn't paid. And there's an irony in that it's taken one of the biggest controversies and catastrophes really for the organization to bring forward a new structure now, whereby it appears we are going to see after the next election itself quickly, we are going to see some of the payment for a new media license which will cover not just television radio, but independent radio and all other areas as well. It should have been done over 10 years ago, Greg, it wasn't done. And that's part of the reason we're in the mess we're in today. Kieran, it's an always a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time. Kieran Mulally, their author and former correspondent at RTE and Community Development Worker. A call that says government joke again. Can't fix the health system on housing crisis, but throw money straight to RTE so we can watch Catherine Thomas, whoever it is, go on holiday showing Ireland's hidden corners or fair city, doing another love triangle storyline. But a lot of people watch them and those programs do bring in big advertising revenue as well to try and be fair. 56 million euro bailout says another of taxpayers money for RTE who are boasting about people paying people 250,000 grand a year. A lot of people don't want to pay the license fee because of years of political bias by RTE news and current affairs programs. OK, that's just a couple of views as we head towards the news and obituary notices. The 9 till noon show with Letterkenny Credit Union now offering mortgages from 40,000 to 600,000 euro with no hidden fees or transaction charges. Letterkenny Credit Union 9102127 Please listen to Nezma, a UNICEF aid worker in Gaza. I have two daughters, Talia and Zane. They are 4 and 7 years old. Zane keeps asking for regular water that we drink on regular days. My mission in life has become to keep them alive. Nezma only has salty water to give to her daughters, which she knows will make them sick. UNICEF is on the ground providing water. But we urgently need your help. Please visit UNICEF.ie today and help save a child's life. Thank you. It's our biggest ever Black Friday at Boots with better than half-price deals on electrical beauty brands from Phillips to Oral B. Like the Remington Shine Therapy Straightener was 109 euro 99 now 34 euro 99. Don't miss out. Boots, give joy. Selected stores and Boots.ie subject to availability offers end 30th November. More and more people are moving to rural Ireland but we're not here in Donegal for a slower pace of life. We're here because rural Ireland is alive. Brimming with ideas and energy. The only thing holding us back is slow broadband. It's cut. Pure glacial. So why wait? Imagine broadband speed gives us the freedom to connect without compromises. Imagine broadband is connecting homes and businesses in your community right now. For better service and faster broadband faster switch to imagine.ie. Imagine. Faster broadband faster. Subject to location and availability. With the TFI Go app from Transport for Ireland paying your bus fare couldn't be easier. Simply buy your ticket on the app tap to activate show it to your driver and go. Bears are up to 30% cheaper than cash and you can save your payment details and favourite journeys for easy future purchases. Download the TFI Go app today and use on participating TFI services including bus air and TFI local link and go ahead Ireland commuter as well as participating commercial bus services. Visit transportforarland.ie for terms, conditions and more. On Friday December the 1st join us at the Silver Tassie Hotel Lettercanny for the famous Northwest Breast Cancer Ball. It's a dazzling dinner dance not to be missed and an opportunity for the community to come together and celebrate breast cancer Northwest and support the tremendous work being done. Our special guest is Virgin Media's Keira Daherty. Tickets priced 50 euro are available at the Silver Tassie Lettercanny. Drink reception and fine dining and dancing. Dress to impress and let the festivities begin. Live on air online and on the Highland Radio app this is Highland Radio News. Good morning I'm Akilah Clark with the news at 10 o'clock. Some Irish citizens have this morning been evacuated from Gaza and are making their way through the Rafa crossing into Egypt. The Tarnisha and Foreign Affairs Minister Mihal Martin arrived in Cairo overnight. It's thought between 20 to 30 of the Irish citizens trapped in Gaza will be able to make the crossing into Egypt today. Agriculture Minister Charlie McConnook says this is a complex diplomatic process. We're hopeful of progress. The Tarnisha obviously is in the region over the next few days and it's going to be working hard in that regard. So listen, we're taking and the approach that we have been taking up until this now of being sensitive in relation to the fact that these are difficult and complex engagements. A lettercanny councillor says there has been somewhat of a frenzy around the introduction of traffic lights on the Polestar roundabout in Lettercanny. Commissioning works have been carried out and improvements have been noted, particularly on the Remelton Road which was proving problematic. Donegal County Council says works are also ongoing to reintroduce a live traffic feed at the roundabout. Councilor Jimmy Kavanagh says people need to be realistic around timeframes as the Bonnegie Link is not expected to be completed before 2030. With 35,000 motorists travelling on the Forlian rid-dealy, Councilor Kavanagh believes alternative travel facilities need to be introduced in the interim. We need now to be realistic and realise that it's going to be at least eight years before it's finally completed. So we need to look at things like park and ride. We need to look at active travel plans and get as many of those in place as possible. And we need to look at having a really good town bus service as well. Donegal Deputy Thomas Pringle has told the Dall he believes the county will inevitably be unified in terms of Dall representation with a return to two constituencies the most likely way that will be achieved. Speaking during a Dall debate on the second stage of the electoral bill last evening, Deputy Pringle said there was a widespread expectation that changes would be made this year and he believes the reason it didn't happen was in order to boost the figures in Sligo-Lietrum. He believes the constitutional provisions that govern the figures need to be looked at and the means found to ensure county-binderies are respected. Balichanan, Rosnola, Bantara, nowhere else still end with Sligo-Lietrum. I think that's something that in the nearest context has to be addressed. I think that a method could be found that actually mean that the county-boundaries could be respected. In order to do that, I think we would have to revisit the constitutional imperative that one TD for 20,000 to 30,000 people. I think that's what we should be looking at overall to ensure that that will be done. Donegal's schools are cautious about expanding the curriculum for fear no teacher will be available. A survey from the teachers' Union of Ireland carried out in September and October found 64% of schools have teacher vacancies while 77% have not had a single applicant for roles they've advertised within the last six months. Nationally, schools have had to limit enrolments as a result. Joanne Irwin, TUI Assistant General Secretary told this morning's Lionton News Show that schools are being prohibited from introducing additional subjects because there are not enough teachers. Subjects aren't being lost as such in Donegal but school principals are very much cautious about expanding the curriculum. So new subjects that have been introduced in the last few years like computer science or PE as an examinable subject are not being delivered in all the schools in Donegal because the principals are afraid to offer the subjects to the students only to find out then that they can't get a teacher in the class to teach those subjects. Three Donegal members of the Defence Forces have received values awards for exemplifying the values and standards of Oglena Heron. Private Sean Martin and Private Neil Martin received integrity awards and Corporal Barry Foley was honoured as a valued champion at a ceremony yesterday. Tara Duggan has more. The president of the European Court of Human Rights at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel yesterday presented integrity awards to Private Sean Martin and Private Neil Martin in recognition of the integrity shown by their actions in their family, community and unit in the aftermath of the death of their mother Martina in the Kriesla explosion. The brothers were nominated by Sergeant Liam Russell who says the integrity shown by the brothers since returning to work has not gone unnoticed as they continue to show outstanding courage and dedication to service. Corporal Barry Foley, meanwhile, has been honoured for his 38 years in the 28th Infantry Battalion for consistently displaying the values of Oglena Heron. Company Sergeant Kieran Crawford says Barry is a soldier of the old school who puts the job first, is loyal to his colleagues, his unit and the Defence Forces. Whether or not I'm mostly dry this morning with sunny spells and just a few shires, highest temperatures today of 9 or 10 degrees. That's all from Highland Radio News for now. We'll be back with an update again at 11 o'clock. Until then, you can keep up to date with the latest local news on our website, HighlandRadio.com. Good morning. The obituary notice is for this Wednesday morning, November the 15th. The death has taken place of Martha, Marty Tierney, Ney Lynch, Limavadi and formerly of Gleebe, Siomills. Funer from her home, 12 bells Hill Limavadi, two more morning at half past nine, for a recurring mass at 10 o'clock in Christ the King Church Limavadi, followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery. Family flowers only please, donations enlude to chest, heart and stroke. The death has occurred of Joe Doherty, Owens, Tolly Dish, Bunkrana County, Donegal. Joe's remains are reposing at his daughter Breach Michael Hiney's residence at Ahilly, Bunkrana. Funer from there, two more morning at 11 o'clock, going to St Mary's Church Cock Hill, with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Family time from 11 p.m. to 11 a.m. Funeral can be viewed on churchservices.tv. The death has taken place of Hugh McGee, Fana boy, Gorta Hork. His remains are reposing at his home with rosary tonight at 8 o'clock. His private until 12 noon and before the funeral tomorrow. Funeral mass in Christ the King Church, Gorta Hork, two more morning at 11 o'clock, interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. The funeral mass can be viewed live on the parish webcam and on Kearnoarty Funeral Director's Facebook page. Family flowers only please, donations enlude to the Alzheimer's Society, care of any family member or Kearnoarty Funeral Director. The death has taken place of Harry McMahan, Gort McCall, Milford. Remains are reposed at the Eternal Light Chapel of Rest, Karnamugga Letter, Kenny, this evening from six o'clock until eight o'clock when those who wish may pay their respects. Private burial tomorrow morning. There will be a service of thanksgiving tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock in Milford Presbyterian Church. The death has occurred of Anne-Marie Doherty, Naye Henderson, late of Belfast and formerly of Castle Park, Bunkrana, reposing at her home. Funeral mass at 11 o'clock this morning in St. Bridget's Church, Derry Volge Avenue, Belfast, followed by an internment in the graveyard adjoining St. Mary's Church called Hill Bunkrana. Donations enlude of flowers if desired to the Northern Ireland Hospice, careful Kearnoarty Funeral Home, Belfast. The death has taken place of Jonathan Murray, 253, Lower Mount Marion, Milford, remains reposing at the family home, which is private place. Funeral mass tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock in St. Peter's Church, Milford, burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Funeral mass can be viewed on churchservices.tv. And the death has occurred of James Browne, Oakley, Cleen Road, Selbridge County, Caldera and late of Strone, Drum King County, Donegal. Removal from his daughter Clare's residence this morning at approximately half past 11 to arrive at St. Patrick's Church, Selbridge for 12-noon funeral mass followed by burial in Donacomber Cemetery, Selbridge. The funeral mass can be viewed live on the parish webcam. Family flowers only please donations if desired to the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland online. For family information and more details regarding wakes and funerals, please go to highlandridio.com. Jack, everyone asks me if you're teething when you cry, but can you be teething all the time? Maybe you're hungry or you're sad and need a little cuddle or maybe it's something else. At the HSEs MyChild.ie and in the free MyChild books, you'll find the answers you need from doctors, midwives, public health nurses, dietitians and lots of other experts. MyChild.ie, expert advice for every step of pregnancy, baby and toddler health. From the HSE. You're very welcome back to the programme. How are you all keeping this Wednesday morning? As it relates to traffic in Donegaltown, a caller says Busarine stop needs to stop... Sorry, the Busarine stop needs to be moved down to the tourist office would help massively. I don't think it would help if down to the tourist office and that would create another bottleneck in Donegaltown. It's not just Busarine either, by the way, local link and private operators and what have you used that area to. A caller from Letterkenny says, To find the parking easy in Donegaltown, too many people don't want to walk a few yards. They want to park at shop doors and that attitude needs to change. I think fair play to you. I think we can all be a little bit guilty of that from time to time. I take your point. In to Letterkenny, Paul Star wrote at times... Sorry, Paul Star wrote out at Tinnies, traffic is mad this morning. Paul Star wrote out at Tinnies, traffic is mad this morning. Indeed. I haven't seen any great improvement with all the tinkering just about yet. Let me see. Good morning. I have a question for the RSA or the NSDL. Why is the waiting list to get on to apply for a test so long? Our daughter applied for her test mid-October to receive an estimate week of invitations dated the 27th of the 5th, 2024. This is only an invitation to apply for a test in Donegaltown, thanks in advance. And I wouldn't guarantee that date either because if testers go on holidays or there's a bad spell of weather, she could be waiting July or August. I don't know, they're talking about hiring new testers and we were told at the start of the year that they would be in place by the end of the year. Do you know the usual stuff? And yet here we are, people still waiting to get on the road. We were talking about the situation at Letterkenny University Hospital, not to dwell on it too long, but a person, for right or wrong, and probably wrong because I'm sure the Guardian are investigating it. The matter has been referred to, Guardian. He claimed he walked into St. Connell's hospital and inside he found thousands of boxes of people's medical records. And the HSC has released a statement which states that, well, it doesn't really accept any responsibility at all. It just says that the activity has been referred to the, has been referred to the Guardian. A caller says clearly the fellow shouldn't have gained access to St. Connell's, but the whistleblower should never be fired at. Doesn't the whistleblower legislation protect people who highlight wrongdoing? The primary concern of everyone working in the hospital is rightly the patients, not the reputation of the hospital or the HSC. Now, of course, he's not a whistleblower, he's not a HSC member of staff. He's a tiktoker from Northern Ireland or wherever he's from. I don't know where he's from. But I do think there are a number of questions which remain and I think it's just important for the people to get answers to those questions. And this is not a slight on staff or the hospital itself, but I think we need to know what dates the medical records cover. What guidelines were followed that allowed the records to be stored in that fashion? Is it normal practice for private patient files to be stored in this way in a building with insufficient locks, clearly? No alarms, no one patrolling from a security perspective. Who made the decision to store those files there? And what security, if any, is in place to protect patient confidentiality? I'm sure lots of people out there would be interested to know what's going to happen to those files now and is storing files in this way, common practice in other parts of the country. And in the event of a patient being alive, how are these records stored so they can be accessed if need be? Now, in response to that, I've been contacted by a couple of patients who wanted access to the files, but they were told they were destroyed in the flood, but they're obviously dumped in this room in boxes. Another question, what's the hospital's policy for patient data storage times? I.e., there are other areas of health whereby files are stored in a secure location and they have to be stored there for 30 years. Some of that's off the back of controversies such as cervical check and what have you. And also, have policy guidelines been breached? Another question there that I think is worthy of response. So Caller says, I think that man was trespassing. I think you're right. Another unbelievable, the files just lying there for anyone to see. Luckily, someone decent found them. Why was the door open and not even cameras? Well done to him for exposing it, believes a caller. I'm really angry that people's business was left behind to be found like that. That needs, there needs to be accountability. Hi, Greg. I just got my car insurance renewal this morning. It was 500 last year. It's now 610 up 110 Euro. Unbelievable. That's me ringing around again. Was wondering if anyone else's insurance has gone up. Ring around though, because it's the right thing to do. It's the best thing to do. Right, okay. The HSE aren't going to be commenting any further on those files. So those questions that I just posed there. Unfortunately, the situation now is just simply going to go away because the HSE says the matter has now been referred to the Guardi and there will be no further comment. So any questions you may have had in relation to how long the files have been there? What period did the cover? What's going to happen to them into the future? Who's responsible for putting them in there? All of that now is gone. Those questions will not be answered because according to the HSE, they will not comment any further because the matter has been referred to on Godashiyakana. So my apologies. I clearly won't be able to get any of those questions that people had answered for you. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. It's time for MCBI Bingo on Highland Radio. It's Wednesday, the 15th of November. You're playing on the blue sheet. The reference number is S88, game number 46. The numbers are 67, 81, 29, 2, 61, 64, 31, 20, 37, and finally, 66. Phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 tonight. Leave your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day. Get all your NCBI Bingo information at highlandradio.com. From the luxurious to the sustainable. Supporting Irish makers also means choosing quality that's designed to stand the test of time. In a world of fast fashion and disposable items, it's the lasting connection we make with these beautiful products that find a special place in our hearts. Find something you'll love forever at madelocal.ie. Made local, made to last. Supported by Design and Crafts Councilorland and me, Lyra. Spoilsome with a beautiful fragrance. This Christmas from McGee's Camus Letter Kenny. Choose by designer, budget or celebrity. Top names like Chanel, Longcom, Christian Dior and Jimmy Choo. Also great prices on Yves Saint Laurent, Prada and so many more. The best fragrance gift sets available this year can also be found in McGee's Camus Main Street Letter Kenny and online at McGee's.ie. McGee's were the best cost less. Join John Breslin and the Highland Radio Outside Broadcast Team this Friday at Voice at Centre of Alcara. From 12 until 2.30 p.m. for celebrations and a chance to win spot prizes at the newly revamped Voice at Centre of Alcara store. That's this Friday from 12 midday until 2.30. MGC Derama will showcase at Tierney's Healthwise Boncrona this Friday, 17th of November, from 12 to 3 p.m. MGC are a specialist skincare brand suitable for all skin types, using advanced science and nature to heal and nourish even highly sensitive and troublesome skin. The Ninetal Noon Show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union. Seasonal loans now available for Christmas. Apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account. Right, going back to August, the Electoral Commission recommended no change to the Donegal door constituencies in its new boundary report. It's going to remain as is with a sizable chunk of South Donegal grouped in with Sligo and Lytrim. Donegal, Deputy Thomas Pringle from Killy Beggs, of course, joins us on the programme. Now you've been speaking about this in the Dole Thomas. Good morning to you, by the way. Morning, Greg. How'd it go on? Not too bad at all. So why do you believe this decision was short-sighted? Well, the decision was made, as you said earlier in summer, and the legislation has gone through the Dole to give effect to that decision, especially what was being talked about in the Dole yesterday. And really and truly, I think it's been short-sighted because this change will have to happen. We're going by the criteria that the Boundary Commission used, and they've basically kicked it down the road till after the next referendum or the next census, and so it will have to happen at that stage anyway, because that's the way the population is going. I think they should, based on their figures and everything, it was justified at the minute, and they should have built the ball, then made the changes right across the board now, rather than having to read it again in a couple of years' time. You know, and they would argue that it's about numbers, and that is the criteria in which you make those decisions, but you'd think there'd be a little bit of wiggle room in there to foreshadow effectively what you say is inevitable. Yeah, well, I think possibly the reason they didn't make the decision is that they're not in the country to speak for them, but I think it has more to do with slag-only term rather than to do with Donegal. The numbers of the county of Donegal justify that having two constituencies or a single six-seater or two individual three-seater constituencies, but the numbers for slag-only term, they would have had to take equivalent numbers from either Roscommon or Mayo to keep slag-only term as a four-seater, or if slag-only term dropped down to a three-seater, move some of the later more slag-only term into other constituencies. So I think that's the reason why they didn't actually make the decision. I mean, you know, like, at the end of the day, if one county is in inverted commas overrepresented, it's not like physically you're going to be stretched because all of a sudden you have to answer calls from Bandorn and Balai Shannon. If you know what I mean, like just on the basic level, it's not like one TD all of a sudden is gonna feel overburdened and another is gonna be sitting there twiddling their thumbs. Do you know what I mean? It doesn't really make any sense. Just looking at numbers, it's not the way to do it, is it? Well, this is the debate really, Greg, and the problem is that the constitution sets out the number of citizens that a TD can represent and there has to be under the constitution as it stands now at the moment. There has to be one TD for every 20 to 30,000 citizens and that's ultimately the problem what they have at the moment is that you would require a constitutional referendum if that was to be changed in any way, whether it has to be increased or decreased. I mean, that's something that we could debate if that ever comes to pass. But, you know, so therefore the boundary commission is hampered by that constitutional requirement as it is. There are some submissions to the boundary commission recommend that the county boundaries should be the priority in deciding it and there's actually some submissions show that you could still maintain TDs and have it on county boundaries rather than have it on population and population wouldn't make that significant a difference but the constitutional requirement would have to be amended and before that could be taken into consideration and I think that's the barrier is that the government doesn't want to have a referendum in relation to it. I never looked at it and perhaps I should. I wonder, did you or any of your team, what was the turn out like? I wonder, in polling stations in Donegal at the last election, do you know what to mean in terms of was there apathy to it? Because you say, you know, this is about boosting numbers for Sligo and Lichron but if the figures show that people aren't really engaging with the process because they're like, no harm to the TDs in South Sligo, what have you, but you know yourself, it's a million miles away if the truth be told. It'd be interesting to see what the turn out was in, Bali, Shalambandore and voting in that regard. I haven't actually looked at that in detail, Greg, but there is definitely an error. I mean, there's an affinity to our country, county and county boundaries. You know, it's in the GAA, it's in the local government and that as well. So that affinity is there already and that's something that should be probably taken into account in terms of when the boundaries are being looked at again and that submit more emphasis given in relation to that because I think that would be important. And you know, the problem is that there's not enough of a population of South Donegal and Sligo-Lichron that you could have a South Donegal representative and that's ultimately the problem. That's anti-democratic, you see, because it means those people, the numbers just don't stack up to have their own representative. This is a bit of a cheeky question, but did you make a submission to the, did you make a submission to the boundaries commission? I didn't actually agree with Thomas. Why not? I just didn't get around to it at all. There was no longer other work and so far to do. And, you know, and I basically, when I looked at it and looked at the population, I didn't think that there was going to be a position there for a change to the place. That's what I thought. But you did, they find all this to make submissions. Well, I think, yeah, other people could submit submissions and I suppose I should have made a submission as well, Greg. There's no doubt about that, but just with the volume of work that I had, I just couldn't get it done in time and get around to it. That's a complicated question. Do you get these kind of questions in Ocean FM? No, you'll always ask me the hard questions on the screen. I'm only joking, I'm only joking. Right, OK, so when do you, honestly though, when do you think we will see the Donegal as a single constituency or a two-seat constituency with all of Donegal contained within Thomas? Well, realistically, it won't happen until after the next census again, because that's the next time that the boundaries will have to be, will be looked at again. Yeah. And, you know, and we may, I think, at that stage, the numbers will justify that it has to happen anyway. But, you know, there may be a look to see that the boundary commission or the constituency commission themselves might look at having a question for a referendum or some sort of end of method of deciding on the constituencies. But realistically, it won't happen until after the next, the next referendum. All right, interesting conversation. As always, Thomas, thanks for your time. Have a lovely day. Deputy Thomas Pringle, they're independent. Right, we were talking to Gabriel just before the 10 o'clock news yesterday. He has a bad knee and a bad hip and his GP is worried about his hip. But he was told that it would be four years before he'd see a consultant about his hip. And you can imagine the impact that has on someone and their well-being. I call it the same thing for my husband, Ray, his knee. He saw a consultant for him to have the knee done. He was told 3.5 years. When we told them we had private medical, he was in, in two weeks, had it done. Same with his hip. We went to Bali, Kelly, and three weeks later, he had a new hip. Unfortunately, in this country, you have to have private medical if you are in bad health. Yeah, that's just... And I'm delighted for your husband that he was able to get that work done so quick. But yeah, just because you don't have those resources, really, you shouldn't be disadvantaged, should you? But unfortunately, it is just the way it is. Right, there's a couple of things that I wanted to mention. If I can get them opened on my phone here, because I promised people that I'd mentioned a couple of things. Through the Ages, a public talk at Mallonhead Community Centre takes place this evening at 7 p.m. From Big Freezes, Big Winds to Mirages, join Caroline from Donegal County Museum for a fascinating exploration of Donegal weather through the Ages. That will be a fascinating conversation, you can be sure. So there you go. If you want something to do this evening. There is a charity dance in aid of Temple Street Children's Hospital. This coming Friday, it's in the Villa Rose Hotel in Balabafe. There is music by Celtic Chaos and DJ Marty Temple. The spot prizes and a raffle on the night. Tickets are just 20 euro. And as I say, that charity dance tonight, not tonight, I beg your pardon. Friday night in the Villa Rose Hotel is in aid of the Temple Street Foundation. And you can get your tickets on the door that night as well too. So if you want something to do Friday in support of Great Cause, there you are. Right, we are joined on the programme now by John Glenn Denon, who is President of the Fitness Association, sorry, the Fitness Federation of Ireland. John, thanks for your time this morning. Greg, good morning to you and your listeners. Right, we've heard from the Alcohol Health Alliance who are welcoming a proposed government levy on alcoholic drinks. The new bill could see the average price of a pint climb towards 10 euro, with the government stating the funds will contribute towards the cost of alcohol-related harms to the state. Now, I was under the impression that the government policy was not to ring fence stuff. But there you go, maybe they've changed their policy, must check into that, but be that as it may. This is another nail in the coffin for many of your members out of mansion. Yeah, Greg, look, I think it's important, first of all, just maybe to outline some of the meetings and what has occurred over the last period of time. And there's currently an exercise underway with the government in relation to the sale of alcohol bill. And as part of that, all of the stakeholders and interested parties would have had an opportunity to contribute as to how they would see the future formulation of alcohol and all the different aspects evolving over time. And as you can imagine, those that might be against alcohol in general would be making recommendations of such that they would be a levy as such in adverse commas held to levy. But really, I think it has to be highlighted that it is put down as a potential recommendation rather than something that is definitely going to happen. Certainly from our perspective, if it was the suppliers that this levy was to be introduced and compelled upon, we have no doubt in the world that it will be passed on not just to the publicans, but passed on to consumers in form of a consumer tax realistically. And I think from our perspective, when you look at current average prices around the country between 5 and 6 euro, if it was to increase to 10 euro, it will be a significant rise and considering some of the challenges that are currently faced by businesses and particularly publicans right across the country, I just think we'll put an element of out of reach in terms of the field of business. I mean, I'm clearly not for or against because I don't know enough about it, but my initial reaction would be that this will just stop your casual moderate drinkers from going out and, you know, if someone has a problem with alcohol, they'll always, generally speaking, find a way. And we saw a similar levy come in on, well, it wasn't a similar levy, it's a health levy on sugary drinks, but you can still go and buy, you can still go and buy 20 cans of Coke for 12 euro. Yeah, absolutely. And pubs in particular, you know, it is a controlled environment, it's an environment that's licensed, you know, publicans are compelled to ensure that, you know, they're providing a safe environment in order to maintain their license. And there is actually a health aspect here in relation to mental health and ensuring that, you know, pubs do remain viable and feasible and as part of community hubs where people can go and engage and have a social aspect. There is no doubt, and we're very much cognizant to this, that there are changing trends and there may not, you know, there has been a decline in the consumption of alcohol in recent times. And we're working closely with suppliers, you know, with the introduction of likes of zero, zero, alcohol products, and also I think publicans have diversified into other areas. So we're 20 years ago, you know, pubs may have been seen as being sole sellers of alcohol and nothing else. There's been huge innovation in this area. And I think it is something that we're responding to in relation to what the demands and the change in behavioural trends are. But I think that there will be a four or five-year-old increase on the price of points in the form of a health levy. I just think it's unrealistic. Yeah, and as I say, it's a wee bit like the sugar levy in that where does that money go, or where did it go, or what difference did it make? But also to, of course, you know, as a tourism destination, you know, tourists will consider everything. They can come here. Yeah, it's fantastic. Great Cade Meal of Folcher, brilliant views and what have you. But there's a tipping point in everything whereby just enough is enough. So you put in that the price of the food, the price of a hotel, which is particularly bad, of course. And then you see on the face of it, very expensive drink. You know, I mean, it could potentially have an impact, not just for the internal market, but for the tourism market. 100% Greg, and we're very mindful of that, that it's not just the regular customer going to locals. It goes far beyond that. And you know, in terms of some of the costs that we're having to endure at the moment in relation to, you know, we've got one of the highest rates of excise in Europe. We've got one of the highest wage rates in Europe. You know, we're looking at, you know, increases in the cost of doing business. You know, that has increased from 9% to 13.5% in recent times for any business serving food. So, you know, there are a lot of challenges that are out there at the moment in relation to making ends meet for business. And certainly, you know, if this was introduced, not only would it have an impact on the cost, but definitely on the appeal of the pub. And as you say, it will potentially drive more people to drinking at home. Yeah, and we know where all the pub licenses have gone for all the pubs that've closed down. They've gone into shops for off licenses and what have you. All right, John, thanks very much for that. We're not all of them, but I think you take my point. John, Glen Denon, there's president of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, but over to you then. And we want all views, by the way, for and against lots of people of different views on alcohol and our level of alcohol consumption. Would you be in favor of a health levy? And I'll clarify it, right? Let's just say the money is actually spent for addiction services to pay for people's treatment and things like that there. Would you be in favor of a levy, a health levy on alcohol that would push the price of a pint closer to 10 euro? Oh, wait, six, 60, 25,000. Let us know what you think. Hi, Greg, there's a water leak at Pluck on Old Letter Kenny Road. Water running down the road. Don't know how many times they thought it was fixed. Irish water in the council need to get someone who can fix it because it looks like they can't. Oshin emailed in, at least Kevin Bakhurst can do this. Imagine if you could do this with other public bodies that would still have concerns as to certain independence getting the large chunks. I see you're all full jealous that you're only on 249,000 degree though. Oh, I'd have to work a number, a number of years. It's quite sickening actually. I'd have to work a number of years Oshin to get to 294. Yeah, a number of years. I've never heard anyone mention that there are people who do not pay the TV license because they watch the British stations as well like Coronation Street isn't on RTE. Virgin Media, one, two, three things that are on the British stations and then on the Irish channels. I'm not into sport, if you're not into football or GEA, RTE don't accommodate you. That's why I don't pay my TV license. There will be cuts, but what cuts are there to make? There's nothing on RTE and that's a decision you've made but it's not legitimate in the eyes of the law because whether you just stream Netflix on your TV you are obliged to have a TV license. The government's just doing the same as they did with debanks bail them out and it's the public that has to pay for this. It's amazing they can't find any more money for the health service but they can for RTE to disgrace and you know it is kind of interesting about messaging because if you remember when we were talking about the defective concrete redress scheme it was at pains, people were at pains to point out that they had to be cautious because this is taxpayers money. Do you know what I mean? It was made very clear that if this scheme was to go ahead it's you the taxpayer that's gonna have to pay this and yet on a matter like RTE, 60 odd million now God knows how much next year it's not referenced that way it's not referenced that it's the taxpayer that has to pay this is just a government bailout isn't it? It doesn't add up in this day and age that RTE presenters have paid 10 times over the top for just presenting a show for less than 10 hours a week indeed and you know there are the rest of us the majority of people who listen to radio in Ireland listen to independent radio that's a fact. I think it's 60 odd percent in Donegal for an example I think it's 20 percent don't listen to local radio or you know what I mean that listen to RTE so there are other outlets like us people doing the same type of work in their community and it's just on regular wages there was a time people thought everyone in media earned big money but it's not the case folks right back with more shortly watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at highlandradio.com The 9 till noon show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union with monster loans available up to 60,000 euro for all occasions visit letterkennycu.ie Hi Tommy Bow here get in store to check out my new 15 Kings clothing collection available in premium gents outfitters nationwide and at 15kings.com Santa Claus speaking it's me Santa your trusty elf I've got an urgent message from Cooney's Christmas shop ooh my golly goodness what's happening at Cooney's well Santa they've gone all like this year their Christmas décor is bigger and better than ever visit Cooney's Christmas shop Letter Kenny retail park and feel the magic of Christmas Santa proved Hahahaha at on post we believe in giving you more power over how you bank that's why A.I.B and Bank of Ireland customers can now lodge and withdraw money at any of our 900 post offices across Ireland six days a week that's right your bank is in your post office for personal and business banking alike meaning you can bank wherever you live or work visit your local post office or onpost.com slash everyday banking. Onpost. Your money for your world. Alloy Irish Banks, PLC and Bank of Ireland are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Uno dos tres, ahena doa three, one two three. The Arona, Vietecca and the Taraco. Three great SUVs from Seat. And when you order during the Seat 241 open event, each one of those is available with a free three year service plan, three years tire insurance and three years roadside assistance. Visit seat.ie to find out more about our 241 open event from October 23rd to November 5th. Great things come in threes at DMG Motors, Donegal Town. Terms and conditions apply. Treat your family or friends to a luxury hamper this Christmas, from Kelly's Centre in Etter County. Kelly's have great hampers to suit all budgets, available to collect or for delivery. They've been making Christmas special for over 10 years, so they know a thing or two about creating luxury hampers. Also, vouchers are available for Kelly's diner or Circle K fuel at the forecourt. Great gift ideas at Kelly's Centre, and in top, Etter County. You're very welcome back to the nine till noon show, and that's the money sent to the young fellow who messaged me on the show looking for money for his lunch. Anyway, that's done. Okay, we're joined on the programme now by Maureen Gahan, who's food service specialist at Board B. Good morning to you, Maureen. Thanks so much for your time today. No problem at all. Good morning. Right, okay. So we get a good idea of the state of the eating out economy. We're at a very high level, but it could be waning, habits could be changing. What's the overall assessment? Yeah, so what we're saying with the research that we're publishing today is that 2023 has been a strong year for the food service or hospitality industry. From a value point of view, we're now up to $9.3 billion at menu prices, which is over and above what we were pre-COVID. But of course, that is value, and it takes into account inflation figures. We estimate that of that 13%, as much as 9 to 10%, is actual menu price inflation. However, we have seen further growth from consumers this year. So all of that's a positive. What we're calling out is that in addition to talking to the industry this year, we went out and spoke to 1,000 consumers in October. And not surprisingly, what we heard from them was that finances are challenged. The ongoing cost of living crisis is affecting everybody. And I suppose the amount of money they have in their pockets to spend on things like food and drink at home is shrinking. So they're still going out, but they're just being a lot more measured. It's a pre-planned activity rather than just spontaneous. And then when they are going out to eat, again, they're very aware of the prices. They're very aware of how much money they spend. They have to spend. So maybe they're doing things like instead of going for three courses, only two, maybe they're drinking a bit less alcohol when at the restaurant, combination of all these factors. But overall, it's still holding up as a market. And we do know that during COVID, one of the things that consumers missed most was that ability to go and eat out of home with friends and family. And they very much still appreciate that opportunity now that we're back. Yeah. And I think what we saw in the last recession, this is only my opinion, right, is that a lot of people are making decisions because of the cost of living. But I do think then what happens is, especially if places get more quieter, those with resources tend to be more cautious or think of places and as busy as it once was or what have you. Maybe this isn't much of an issue in a significant urban area, but I don't think it is maybe out in the regions whereby if we start seeing people who are struggling to pay, stop going out, even those with a few quid tend to sort of change their habits as well. Yeah, I think it depends, I guess. I mean, the reality is that out of home opportunity is oftentimes it's occasion. So it could be, you know, an anniversary or a birthday or a communion or a christening, whatever the case might be. Those are still very much happening. And also, when we talk about out of home, you think it's not maybe just that weekend treated a restaurant, it's everywhere we spend money on food and drink out of home. And as we're back for the most part, backing offices, even if it's not on a full time basis, we're out and about a lot more. So we're stopping in to, you know, a petrol station to pick up a coffee or and as we know, you know, we're growing as a population. So all of that is actually fueling growth. It's just that growth is definitely slowed down. A lot of the increase in the cost of food is costs that the business simply can't absorb, you know, the raw materials, the wages, heating and premises, the electricity and what have you. So I mean, is there much space there are wonderful restaurants to be aware that people are likely to be changing their habits as well? Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah, sorry to interrupt. I was just going to say it's exactly as you point out, unlike say previously, where there was a little bit more by way of margins for restaurants to react to consumers with less money in the pocket this time around. It's very tight. Exactly as you mentioned, restaurants themselves are seeing increase in prices and food, although some of those have gone down increase in price and energy again, some of that has gone down. Labor continues to be a big cost for them and that's going up. So the challenge is how do you a lot of times they're already absorbing they're not passing to the full cost on to the consumers. So in a business where there's already extremely tight margins, how do you actually make it work for both? And we were just chatting about this as part of the seminar that's happening here in Killishie House and NACE today. It's not easy and consumers are demanding, but I suppose from a consumer point of view, they're just saying, any kind of an effort loyalty programs are becoming more popular. If there are early birds, can you extend it for an extra half an hour separate to the whole value piece? I think it's important to note that one of the primary drivers for consumers to continue going it was the quality of the food and they're also looking for that kind of experience piece over and above the cost. So there is an opportunity there to say, okay, what can we provide them with that they can't get at home? How do we entice them out of their homes and to the Irish food and drink companies that we work with? Again, we're saying, you know, put yourself in the shoes, not just of the consumers, but also the restaurant you're supplying to. How can your product or solution meet their demands? How can they off, you know, good quality consistency, maybe something that just helps them in turn off a little bit of excitement or something different. And finally, just an interesting one on technology, because there's a lot of moves in that direction. It's not necessarily what the consumer wants. Well, I think it's a mixed reaction. And again, not surprisingly, the word technology can really help is in, you know, situations in the whole restaurant or out of home sector where people are under time pressure, and they're just looking for convenience over and above service. So again, that could be, you know, an app where you free buy your coffee and just go in and you avoid the queue and pick it up. Or it could be the likes of the McDonald's with their self service kiosks, particularly for younger consumers. They're very familiar with technology. That's all fine. But where it doesn't fit in is that, you know, human touch and service. That's what hospitality is all about. So when consumers are going out for a more sit down meal, they don't want literally a robot serving them or they don't want, you know, technology to get in the way of that human personality because for them, you know, that service and one to one attention is really why they've left their homes in the first place. So it's about, you know, gauging the situation and understanding where and when it doesn't work. Thanks so much for your time today. And it's a busy day for you. I do appreciate your time. No problem at all. Good job. That's Maureen Gahan, their food service specialist at Bord BM. The 9 till 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. It's Black Friday. A little birdie told me very have some fab deals. Oh yeah, like what? Like mega offers on big brands like Dyson and Calvin Klein and massive deals on gifts for the kids and home. Wow. The online store for fashion home and more plus ways to pay that work your way very let's make it sparkle. Event ends 30th November 2023. Dear Eva, thanks for being my bestie. You're always there when I need to rant, which let's be honest is quite often when I'm down, you pick me up. When I'm speechless, you know what to say. When I drop a bombshell, you drop everything. You're the best therapist I could ever wish for. And best of all, you're free. So here's a number seven gift set to say thank you for being my rock. Merry Christmas, Claire with amazing deals and unmissable offers. It's easy to give joy to those who deserve it most. Boots, give joy. Thinking of changing your floors? Why not see what Florid Letterkenny has to offer. 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Visit grant.ie. Okay, let's take away the forecast then for the rest of today. And I can tell you that it's going to be mostly dry for this morning with sunny spells. Just a few showers. Cloud will thicken from the south west later in the evening. Highs temperatures of 9 to 10 degrees. Moderate to fresh and gusty. Westerly winds in. The morning will ease through this afternoon and back southerly. Education on sexual consent has always been very lacking in this country. That's according to the Consent Project Manager with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre who says conversations on the subject need to be supportive. Between 2017 and 2022, teenage girls accounted for one in five attendees at a sexual assault treatment unit. Sarah Monahan is the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre Consent Project Manager and she joins us now. Thank you so much for your time, Sarah. How are you keeping? I'm good. Thank you. Good morning, Greg. How are you? I'm good. And when I saw these figures for the first time yesterday, you know, one's too many, of course, and we know that. But just to think that one in five who attended the sexual assault treatment unit were teenage girls. Does that mean they were under the age of 18, Sarah, or just between the ages of 12 and 19? Yeah, so the statistics from the study released yesterday, they were under 18. The vast majority of them were over 16. So you're talking kind of that bracket in between 16 and 18. Very concerning statistics. I think really our heart goes out to all of those young women at such a young age to experience something so difficult and traumatic is really, really concerning. I suppose it shows you how little maybe we have an accurate picture around the statistics and how vital research like this is to give us that full picture of what is happening to real people, you know, every day so that we can have an accurate picture and therefore respond better across, you know, all areas, whether that's service provision or whether it's across the legal system and so on. So really, really important research to see come out yesterday. And there was concern expressed either earlier this year or late last year of the amount of young people in the age brackets that we talked of that were the victims of a sexual assault by their peers, by people of a similar age. Yes, and I suppose, you know, that would be in ways consistent across the general population of very often sexual assaults, sexual offenses are perpetrated by somebody known to the victim. So that would, I suppose, track with that younger cohort as well, within that research, we see the vast majority of perpetrators where either family members, partners, boyfriends, ex-partners, ex-girlfriends, that kind of thing, somebody known to the victim. And that is generally the case across all demographics. And I suppose, for those young girls in this study, you know, I think that is particularly difficult and really, you know, a hard start to your life in exploring relationships and sex and, you know, everything that comes with that. And yourself as well. Somebody close to you, be your person. And yourself as well, and your person. We speak to you during shift week up here, letter Kenny ATU, the Students' Union are organising it, a lot of conversation about consent. And we talked to Barry about this yesterday, that's really important. But that's, you know, maybe mostly 18, 19, 20 year olds, maybe the odd 17 year old don't get me wrong. So where are the gaps here in us discussing sexual consent? Is it primary school? Is it post primary school? Is there an organised way in which it's done to ensure that every child has the same access to really quite important information? What is your experience telling you there, Sarah? Yeah, so I suppose there's a couple of things there. I mean, it is great to see discussions around consent and more sex education at that college and university level. Only a number of years ago, that wasn't the case. So things are definitely changing in the right direction. However, yes, for those who are either under that age of 18, 17, or don't go to college and university, which is a huge cohort of people, it is still quite sporadic based on what school you might be in and also based on what surroundings you're in in terms of your family and your peers and who is talking to you about this. And I suppose that's the problem is that there isn't really a standardised approach just yet. Obviously, we see curriculum changes coming in now across senior and senior level. But just in relation to that, Sarah, if you don't mind, what probably are on the face of it, well-meaning adults, whilst we argue about what we're saying and how we're saying it. And some of it's a bit controversial. Other claims are not happening at all. But there's such a mix of information out there that, as I say, whilst mostly well-meaning adults are debating all of this, theoretically, the children who we're trying to protect are not actually getting the protection that we as adults really owe them. And I think we need to bang our heads together and make sure that however we word it or however we do it, or whatever it is, that we get the right information to the right ears and protect these one in five of all of those attending a sexual assault treatment unit that we owe them the information to protect them. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And I think it's important to remember that we all actually have the same objective at heart. And it is to keep our children and our young people safe. And it is our responsibility as the adults in their lives to do that. And I suppose what we know is that the vast majority of people, we see it in our research that the vast majority of people over 85% do want the age-appropriate sex education in schools. They do want these conversations to be happening. This is the reality of life, sex is the reality of life. And unfortunately, as is sexual violence. So it is our responsibility as the adults in young people's lives to be talking about this. Suppose if we struggle to have these conversations with their young people, they will struggle to come to us should they need to. And that's the hard reality of it. We have to open that door for them first, so that if anything good, bad or indifferent is happening in their lives, they feel safe to discuss it with us. And I think it's also really important for us to think about how we model ourselves, you know, as the adults in their lives, that might be, you know, how, you know, young people are forever looking around them at the world around them. And that's how they shape their own thoughts and behavior and beliefs. So if within the home they're watching certain behaviors, and I'm talking maybe just things like the way that women are talked about, or the jokes are made, or if they're looking at the local, you know, people that they admire their older siblings, the people in the sports club, they are soaking up all of these things all the time. And that's how they form their opinions. I understand some listeners won't like me saying this, but at the moment, the way it is, no matter how innocent you think your teen is, it is likely, if not probable, that the boys are getting their education from pornography, where they believe that that is how you are intimate with a woman for the most part. And obviously, there are other interactions between different genders, you know what I'm saying. But also to girls are also learning what's expected from them, which is crazy, you know, and we can't pretend that's not happening. And as I say, some people won't like me saying it, but we need to counteract that whatever age, at whatever age is appropriate, others can decide that and in whatever way is appropriate. But that's what's happening. It is definitely. And I suppose that is what is filling the gap in terms of when we're not having these conversations with them, they are looking us where they want to know this information, they want to, they're embarking on sex and relationships for the first time. And so they are looking to find some answers. And if we are not providing anything in terms of either formal or cultural education, then they will turn to things like porn and the internet. And, you know, that might be certain influencers, they talk about male entitlement and misogyny and what have you. And, you know, that is being targeted heavily at them every moment of every day. So we need to be providing an alternative and a stronger and kinder and more, I suppose, cohesive rounded alternative for them. And really, that is about discussion. And I think it's really important that all of our sex education, whether it's, you know, within schools or whether it's the many small chats that you have at home with your teen, that they are non-judgmental, that they're supportive, that we're moving away from that fear-based, you know, way of talking to young people, that we are opening up the discussion and letting them explore things in a safe environment rather than, I suppose, wagging our finger at them and telling them what they shouldn't be doing. Because that hasn't really worked very well for us across the decades in Ireland. It's time to take, you know, a more, more inclusive kinder approach with people. It's been lovely speaking to you, Sarah. Thank you very much for the time. I really do appreciate it. Have a lovely day. Thank you very much. Take care of yourself. That is Sarah Monahan, who's Dublin Rape Crisis Center Consent Project Manager. If you have views on that, please share them with us 0866025000. Now High Digital is an online skills training programme for older people over the age of 65, developed by the Vodafone Ireland Foundation in partnership with alone. The training is available online or via in-person classes. You can go to highdigital.ie or call 1-800-20-30-30 for more information. And here is some more information on that initiative. Welcome to the Highland Radio High Digital Online Skills Tips, brought to you by the Vodafone Ireland Foundation and alone. High Digital is an online skills course designed with older people in mind. Today, we're giving you tips on how to use the voice note feature on WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging apps in Ireland. It lets you contact others in many ways, such as texting, phone calls and video calls. The voice note is great for people who find it tricky to text. Look for the microphone icon to the right of where you normally type a text. Tap and hold down the microphone button to send a voice note. Just speak into your phone like a dictaphone. Lift your finger off the button to send the voice note. For a more in-depth tutorial on this and many other lessons, log on to highdigital.ie or call 1-800-20-30-30 for more information. Brought to you by Vodafone Ireland Foundation and alone. See the augury sparkle and the new winter illuminations trail. Wrap up for the return of Row Allen's beautiful mule tide market. Hop aboard the road train and visit Santa at Castle Cool with Cancer Connect Ni. Follow the festive trail and settle in for storytime in the bookshop at Mount Stewart. Come and enjoy the cozy Christmas village at Castle Ward and you'll find gigantic Christmas spirit at the Giants Causeway. For an unforgettable Christmas, search National Trust Ni. The Lotto Jackpot is an estimated 5.2 million euro. Play responsibly in-store in-app or at Loverie.ie. The National Lottery. It could be you. The Plumpty Dumpties worked overtime to deliver an Aldi Christmas that was simply divine. Fresh whole Irish turkeys from $8.99 on sale from 20th December. Horseshoe Hams from $13.99 on sale from 24th November. And in-store now, Christmas puddings from only $1.79. And deep-filled mince pie, six-pack only $0.99. Scrumptious selection of tasty bites. Perfect for Christmas days and nights. Aldi, share the love this Christmas. You can choose from their quality product range in a relaxed atmosphere. And their sales staff will be happy to help you make the right choice whatever the occasion. Or McCullochullers. Making moments magical for generations. Tickets on sale from Hotel Reception or at DairyGrayonMusic.com Cutting Through the Spin. The Ninetown Noon Show on Highland Radio. Okay, it's just turned a minute past 11, so it's time for a news update. Good morning again, Michaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. Some Irish citizens have been evacuated from Gaza and are making their way through the Rafa crossing into Egypt. It's not between 20 to 30 of the Irish citizens trapped in Gaza will be able to make the crossing into Egypt today. Agriculture Minister Charlie McCulloch says this is a complex diplomatic process. A letter Kenny Canter says there has been a somewhat of a frenzy around the introduction of traffic lights in the Polestar roundabout in letter Kenny. Commissioning works have been carried out on the newly installed lights and improvements have been noted, particularly on the Remelton Road, which was proving problematic. Donegal County Council says works are also ongoing to reintroduce a live traffic feed at the roundabout. Meanwhile, a group has been formed in Donegal Town on the back of calls for a new traffic management plan to be stopped. A one-way system has been introduced in the town, which has resulted in a high volume of traffic being forced into the diamond area. There's calls now for the plan to be revised. The media minister says RTE's new salary cap is welcome. As part of the national broadcaster's new strategic plan released yesterday, no member of staff will earn more than the director general. Kevin Backhurst earns a quarter of a million euro a year, so Joe Duffey, Claire Byrne and Miriam O'Kallhin are all facing pay cuts. Donegal's skills are cautious about expanding the curriculum for fear no teacher will be available. A survey from the teachers' union of Arlen Karadide in September and October found 64% of schools have teacher vacancies, while 77% have not had a single applicant for roles they've advertised in the last six months. And three Donegal members of the Defence Forces have received Values Awards for exemplifying the values and standards of Oglen Heron. The president of the European Court of Human Rights presented integrity awards to Brothers Private Sean Martin and Neil Martin in recognition of the integrity shown following the death of their mother, Martina, in the Creslaw explosion. Corporal Barry Foley, meanwhile, has been honoured for his 38-year services in the 28th Infantry Battalion for consistently displaying the values of Oglen Heron. Those are the latest headlines. We'll be back with an update again at 12 noon. Thank you very much, Michaela. Apply online for learner permit and driving license services, including renewals, updates, exchanges and replacements. It's easy and hassle-free. Visit NDLS online today at ndls.rsa.ie. Verified MyGov ID required. A message from the Road Safety Authority. Now, you're very welcome back to the last hour of the 9 till noon show. I hope you're all keeping very well in deed. It's good to have you on board with us. Keep us busy on the phone lines, though. Wait 60, 25,000 WhatsApps and texts to that number. Or give us a call in 07491, 25,000. So, let's get to some of your comments. Hi, Greg. I just heard you saying that the point could go up to 10 euros. It'll finish the pubs, Greg, in this country. They're almost finished anyway. Things have just got too expensive in Ireland. That's why no one is coming here on holidays. Thanks. Well, I think we did have a… This is not to contradict you, because it could be the case going forward. But I thought we had a really good year. Did we not in terms of tourism this year across the country? But anyway, I agree with you. 10 euro a pint and minimum wage is what? 12.50 a year, that makes sense. Is every decision maker in this country an idiot? Or do they think we're the idiots? It's just like what… For some people, just a couple of pints, right? Not everyone is a big drinker. But a couple of pints is how you shatter your head, or you just meet with other people, or you get out of the house. And for many people, they just end up stuck in the house, because it's hard to justify almost at this point. But 10 euro a pint up here, which would make it 12 or 13 down south. 8,000 in South Donegal would elect a Donegal-based TD, but it would take an independent voice like a Greg Hughes to office the majority of those votes. Thanks very much. I don't think so. I've probably done a better chance up here than down there. Oh, Greg, isn't that the typical Irish reaction, handed over to the Guardi? Then they don't have to answer questions that the public need to hear. It is what it is. Look, and I don't want it to come across like it's a hobby horse of mine. People raise issues with us here, and we try and platform them. But if they… I just wish the… Anyway, if a health levy was applied to alcohol, the same levy would have to be imposed on betting, including the lottery. I like a Guinness with my meal. If a levy was put on my drink, I wouldn't bother eating out. This would have a knock-on effect on food suppliers as well. Indeed, and often the margins on the drink as well, by the way, which is a critical point. Morning, Greg. Regarding the hospital patient files, I voted for counsellors to look into problems arising in the community. So why are none of them coming onto Highland Radio to express concerns at these patients' files lying around with no security? Thank you. Well, we did have one on yesterday. And it was kind of said that we'd probably maybe let it slide, let the hospital sort it out themselves, that staff maybe shouldn't be contacting the media, was the impression that was given. And maybe that's what staff want. Let me know. Maybe staff are saying, leave us alone, if you know what I mean. If that's what staff want, too. It's not about staff, of course. It's about the hospital itself. But if you're a letter from a university hospital member of staff and you want to say, right, enough is enough, stop talking about the hospital and the services, let it be known, 08, 6, 60, 25,000. The best pub, the best pub going, sorry, the best going pub in Ireland is in the Dall, three-year-old pint and busy from morning tonight. How many of them need medical help? Three-year-old pint. What was that? 8,000 in South Donegal? Would get me elected for three-year-old pint. Joke, of course. My daughter was under orthopedic care in letter Kelly. She was sent to Bali, Kelly, to get knee surgery done. Three weeks later, she was admitted to hospital for another issue. They suspected an infection to do with the surgery. They wouldn't look at her then, because she had surgery done elsewhere. Be careful. It's all well and good to get referred to Bali, Kelly, but then they won't look at you, maybe, in a public hospital. Caroline, am I to take this person in now? Yes, this is okay. Right. Has anyone else seen a difference in their electricity bill with these new smart meters? It's over 600 since we got the meter. It used to be high anyway, around 300. I got in contact with the company for someone to check it out. There would a 200 euro fee for someone to come out and check. That's how much it would cost. I would be liable to pay if there was nothing wrong. Has anyone else's bill gone up with these smart meters? What do you see? I don't think it's necessarily to do with smart meters, and that's not to say that's not the case in your case, but we were contacted. We did a bit about electricity bills five or six weeks ago. Like my bill is 290, okay? That's what the last bill was, or maybe it was 310. And it's been pretty consistent like that. But other people were getting bills for four, five, six hundred euro. You know, a couple living on their own and stuff. I don't know how that pans out, to be honest with you, but it's not something you should ignore. Right, okay. We're joined on the program now by Alana Keirnan, COPD Outreach Nurse Specialist. Good morning, Alana. Hi, Greg. Good morning. It's good to have you on the program. We're talking about World COPD Day. Talk to us again about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I know a lot of regular listeners to this show would know what we're talking about because it's talked about commonly. But I think sometimes, Alana, we don't really pay much attention until maybe we start getting a little symptom here or there or it enters our life by another means. So even though we talk about it consistently, I think it's a different set of ears that hear these conversations each time. Yeah, absolutely. And with today being World COPD Day, the focus of this year is actually on early detection around COPD and awareness of the condition, signs and symptoms off that. So I think it's a great opportunity to get the topic off COPD out there to people who might not necessarily have thought it ever was going to impact on them or a family member, perhaps. Like, it's a very underdiagnosed condition, unfortunately, it's like 380,000 people estimated now to be living with it, with approximately 5,500 of those in Donegal here alone. And then, like I said, like a quarter underdiagnosed is a lot. So we just want to get the awareness of COPD out there, focus really on early detection. And I suppose the first step in getting awareness of the condition out there is acknowledging what the signs and symptoms are and just get people talking about it again. And we'll talk about that. Is it possible, do you think when we talk about under detection, and it affects people at different ages, don't get me wrong, but that someone running up the stairs might get to the top and feel short of breath and say, oh, I'm getting old now, or have an interruption to their breathing or a cough or something and just put it down. I can't shake this cold. Would there be some of the common sort of examples of us missing potentially early diagnoses? Yeah, I suppose like one of the main symptoms that people would get and that do have COPD is shortness of breath, particularly on exertion. You know, with a cough as well too, and that can be with flame or without flame. So I suppose like if you are having these symptoms, you shouldn't necessarily brush it off that, oh, I'm just getting older and this is part of aging really. Like yes, it does normally affect people over the age of 35 years, but that's again why we want people to come chat to us about it. We can get booked in for spirometry, get that diagnosis early, get you on the right treatment plan and turn a chronic condition into a condition that's treatable and isn't going to impact on your daily activities. It is a progressive disease, isn't it? So early diagnosis and getting to the right treatment can help to at least stave off the worsening of the condition. Is that accurate? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, the earlier that you can detect it, the earlier the treatment can come into place and yeah, try and keep it at a nice steady level without any massive deterioration or progression in it. And you talk about normally it affects people over 35, but what is the most common age that symptoms begin? And talk us through those symptoms again just in case anyone's noticing it because the best thing we can do and we're reluctant to do it is actually just go and get it checked out. Do you know what I mean? It could well be that you need to do a little bit more exercise or you do have a persistent tickling cough but if you have those kind of physical changes like a cough that won't go away or all of a sudden you find yourself at a breath after exertion, you know, in any scenario, whether it's so COPD or something else, you should never ignore those things. I don't think, Alana. No, absolutely. Get yourself checked out 100%. As I say, it typically is people definitely over the age of 35 and we're so over 40. Experience and like I said, a shortness of breath in particular on exertion. A negligent cough that just isn't really going away. You can have sputum or flame with that cough but it isn't always a productive cough. So it could be a dry cough kind of a thing, could it? Yeah, and either a dry cough or a productive cough. Again, COPD, obviously it's more common in smokers but 30% off cases of COPD actually occur in non-smokers. So again, the message to get out there is if you have any symptoms, talk to somebody, get yourself checked out, get that diagnosis so we can get you on the right treatment. But let's go back to the smokers because 70% of cases are in smokers and I'm talking maybe particularly to those in their 20s, 25, 30, 35 that feel okay, it doesn't do them any harm and so on and so forth. It really is a big contributory factor and you can do yourself a big favour in many, many ways, even financially of course, by giving up smoking. We've got great support through your colleagues that quit up here in the Northwest as well. Now is the time on COPD to say, right, I'm going to remove one of the biggest risk factors from my life. Yeah, absolutely. And again, like the younger that you begin smoking and the length of years that you smoke all contribute towards COPD and that. So we have a forum coming up tomorrow in the Mount Erigal as well that I would just also like to mention, I keep saying a bit common in chatting to us and getting yourself checked out. Tomorrow's the perfect opportunity to do that. We're in the Mount Erigal tomorrow from 10 o'clock. The respiratory multidisciplinary team, myself, the respiratory nurses, consultants, physios, with some voluntary groups coming as well there as well too. So I think it'd be a great day. It's free admission for anyone that has COPD or thinks they might have COPD and or anyone that genuinely just wants more information on the condition just to get the word out there and spread awareness. Yeah, I'm thinking maybe bringing, you know, maybe it's an opportunity to bring a reluctant relational partner or something that maybe is putting it off like we've been talking, Alana. I mean, these are all very lovely and welcoming and friendly. Maybe this is the day that, you know, you can get a diagnosis if you have it and start the treatment plans as soon as possible. Yeah, well, as I say, tomorrow, it's going to be a very relaxed day. You'll have an opportunity to chat one-on-one with the professionals. I suppose it'll be nice for people that are kind of reluctant. They don't either want to go. You know, it's not a clinical setting as such. As I say, it's in the Mount Aragile. We'll have a better lunch. We'll have a chat. There'll be some information there for people. I'm really hopeful that it's going to be a good day and people are going to find it informative and it'll be really worthwhile in attending. Okay, and just remind us one more time. It is a free admission to a free event. It's open to CODP patients, their families, friends, or anyone wanting more information, registration at 10 a.m. with tea, coffee on arrival. Lunch will be provided with the day coming to a close at around 3 p.m. Is that correct? Do you have to just register on the morning as an office? Absolutely, it is indeed. And saying that if anyone wants to give me a recall about it, if they've any queries or questions before that, that's absolutely fine. But yeah, no need for pre-booking free admission. And you've summed it up pretty much right there, Greg. Free lunch is what it's doing. Thanks so much for your time, Alana. I'm lovely to speak to you. Alana Kiernan, COPD, Outreach Nurse Specialist. It affects an awful lot of people. Five and a half thousand Donegal people are living with this condition. Three hundred and eighty thousand people with COPD in Ireland. And just the really important thing, and I said it before in this program, if we reach one person or two people or three people that have those symptoms and they go along and get early intervention, they can go on to live a more healthy life. So hopefully that's reached you if you needed to hear it. It's tomorrow at 10 o'clock. And they're lovely people, as I say, it's a non-clinical setting and not as threatening as we might see in a hospital or a GP. Some people just don't like that. OK, back with more shortly. And get your loan transferred directly to your current account. Why wait until Black Friday? At RightPrice Tiles and Wood Flooring, we're offering our Black Friday deals right now. Get up to 70% off all tiles, all wood flooring and all bathware. Everything's reduced and everything's in stock. The 70% off Black Friday sale at RightPrice Tiles and Wood Flooring stores nationwide. Sale now on. Enhance your skills with SIFTECH's part-funded training programs. At SIFTECH, we provide courses including First Aid, Roadworks, People Moving and Handling, Confined Spaces, Electrofusion and Machinery Training for Ireland and UK sites. Also online programs such as Water Hygiene, Construction Supervisors, SIFTE Reps and much more. If you have a group for training, SIFTECH will go to you. Contact SIFTECH today at SIFTECH.ie and take the first step towards upskilling and safety compliance. Hi, Kate Appleby here. Just wanted to let you all know my exciting new autumn shoe collection is available nationwide in all good shoe stores. KateAppleby.com. Hope you enjoy my shoes. It's the appearance of your staff important to your business. It's the first point of contact for customers when entering your premises. At CNM and Broydery and Letter Kenny, they have a huge range of clothing covering all areas of the workplace. It's widely known that customers warm to and trust employees that present themselves well. Have your company name and Broyders are printed on all your work uniforms. Contact CNM and Broydery on 07491 28097 and get your staff looking their best. Highland Radio time checks with Expressway. Travel Route 32 from Letter Kenny to Dublin when you book online and travel for less. Expressway, bringing you the time ask. The time's just approaching 19 minutes past 11. Now, we had two lovely ladies in studio last week talking about an event. So the LIFS, L-Y-F-S Stroke Aragull College Parents Association fundraiser. And I wanted to give it another mention. It's in aid of a brain cancer research. And it's on tomorrow. Just another wee reminder for you. It's a coffee morning. There's going to be a craft sale. So you can get those personalized knitted gifts for someone for Christmas if you so wanted. And there's going to be pampering and makeup as well thanks to some amazing students from the Aragull College. So it is at the LIFS Centre, which is number one new line road in Letter Kenny. And it starts tomorrow morning at 10.30am. Ladies, you better have Highland on in the background or maybe should we give you the hour and a half off while the show's on. But anyway, hopefully you have a great turnout. As I say, I really enjoyed the conversation with two of the beautiful women, beautiful people they were behind that. Hi, I'm 41. I've got a chest x-ray all clear, but I need to take a steroid inhaler a few times a week. I don't smoke or vape. I had a humdinger of a flu in November 2019 and haven't been the same since with my chest indeed. Sometimes people do have after effects after a bad flu. I think she and Fein wanted to close the door bar some time ago. This never happened. I'm sure they were objected to from the usual sources a record during a late door sitting a male TD who pulled a female colleague TD onto his lap. Indeed, I remember that was not a terrible look at. I'm sure a few of the Sinn Fein TDs go into the bar as well. I have a problem with an electricity bill. It would normally be around 300 euro. The last bill was wait for it, 511 euro. We're cutting back, but the bill's getting higher. We've got a smart meter in the early summer that comes in from Joe and Kelly Gordon. Now the problem is, and I'm not here to defend smart meters, but a lot of people have smart meters and they didn't even know they were installed. I know of at least two people very close to me that I was curious and opened their boxes, as you do. And lo and behold, inside was a couple of smart meters. Now, so lots and lots of people of smart meters. So I don't know if it is the smart meter that's causing the higher bills or just the cost of electricity. But from 300 euro to 511 euro in a cost of living crisis, which we are in, is a massive, massive increase. Hi, just listening to your show. I've had a number of experiences with my girl at primary school in which the boys in class have made sexual comments and gestures to her using drink bottles and girls in the playground in both third and fourth class. These were things then I can only imagine they saw online. When I mentioned it to parents, if you said, sure, that's boys for you. I never thought I'd have a conversation with my daughter in third class like that. Kids just shouldn't have phones if parents can't police what they see. My kids just don't be on anything electronic. That's not child-proofed as much as can be. I just find it shocking. Kids that young are being exposed to such things in a school playground around younger kids. The school did take it seriously, but sure it's too late when it's already been said. So and they've been careful with the language, but you can fill in the banks. This is third class, third and fourth class in primary school boys making sexual comments and gestures using drink bottles. So you can imagine. That's really worrying, isn't it? Hi, can you let people know the Black Mountain Road in Mallonhead is in a terribly dangerous condition and has been like this for a few months now. There's water running down both sides in torrents. So cars now go up and down the middle of the road due to shocks not cleared on both sides. Please read this out as it's very dangerous. Thank you. Of course, I'm more than happy to read that out. And hopefully something can be done about that. We shall see. All right, you are tuned to the 9 till noon show here on Highland Radio. Business matters in association with the Faculty of Business at ATU Donegal. For a career in financial governance, consider the level 9 MA in governance and IT in financial services starting in January. Contact the exec Ed coordinator on 9 1 8 6 2 0 6 or email donald.hanigan at atu.ie today. All right, we're joined in studio now by Chris Ashmore, presenter of Business Matters podcast. Hi, Chris. Good morning to you. Good morning, Greg. We were talking there about smart meters. Yes, I was looking up my own bill was out of contract and I looked up and I contacted the company and it was very interesting to find out and in fairness to the provider, the person on the other end of the phone did tell me and explain to me. Some people may think that you're going to save a lot of money switching over to a smart meter and you get this much lower rate. But when you go into the detail, there was a very low rate between two and five in the morning geared towards people, you know, charging their electric car and this sort of thing. And then there was a standard. There was actually four different rates and between five and seven in the evening, which is when most of us are in our houses and doing your evening meal, the rate was, I think the standard rate I was looking at was maybe 34, 35 cent, but it was nearly 60 cent between five and seven. So she did say, you know, if you are on a smart meter and you look at a plan, look carefully about when you're using your consumption because at first glance, I thought, well, maybe I can save and I can do my washing at the weekend. But I wouldn't do, I wouldn't have the dishwasher, the washing machine or the dryer. Now, we don't use the dryer much in fairness. It's mostly a clothes hose, but I would never use any of those overnight because I've spoken to people from the fire service and one of them actually, their dishwasher went on fire themselves. I would not be content with children in the house going to bed with that stuff on. And you're quite right from what I could see. And these are smart meter plans. Yes, you have to sign up for it, but I agree with you. Much more considerably more expensive during the day. Really hitting you when you want to use the electricity. And cheaper at night where you either don't have electric car or you're less inclined to use these goods because of the dangers of it. You'd have to be very disciplined about your use. And I looked at it and I thought, no, this is not going to save me any money. So I didn't, but just on that, if you're out of contract, you do save. And I think a lot of people don't realise when they go out of contract, your unit rate can go up quite a lot. In my case, it went up 33%. And you're 100% right too because the same applies to broadband, Chris, because if someone's signed up and they get their 30, 35, 40 euro per month broadband bill, once that contract is concluded, they are out of contract. And it goes up to 55, 60, 65. And you do get noticed, but you know yourself, Chris, we're busy. So what I suggest you do, whenever you sign up for something, and I'm switching left, right and centre, I open my phone because we have it on us. And I fast forward 11 months into the calendar and set a notification and say, price around broadband, price around electricity, price around car insurance. Do you know what I mean? And you do it at the time you book it. And because as I say, I'm at about 210 euro because I wasn't aware that I come out of contract with my broadband and I really got stuck. So now if you ring them, then they go, well, no, we can give you the new contract and it's this, that and the other. But you know, okay, good advice, Chris, good advice as always. Okay, let's talk about a bit of news here. And it was a great night last Friday night for the Leonard Kenney Chamber of Business Awards. Yes. And of course, a business person of the year, Marchine Kelly of Kelly's Central and Mountaintop and Leonard Kenney, James Russell of Glenard Plant was a hall of fame winner. And lots, lots of... I'm throwing on in there as well. And lots of different awards. Really the highlight of the calendar. And it's not just a Leonard Kenney thing, it's a county wide and people from all parts of the county and as long may it continue. And it's great to see that recognition and it means a lot to the people as well when your own people are recognized. You interviewed James Russell? No, that wasn't Kieran. Yeah, because his interview and it was great to see him embracing his success to some extent because he had that convo with Kieran. That was the first time we'd ever spoke publicly. And he came up here for a chat with us and it was the first time ever doing a live radio interview because he's just been him and Anna and the team have just been battering away. And it was lovely for him to get the recognition because I think for him it was a bit of a turning point in that, okay, right, maybe what I'm doing here is particularly successful. And Marchine, of course, was with us as well. And great ambition for the future of Kelly's Centre at Mountaintop. But it was a whole host of other winners and all really worthy. Right, you have a couple of notes for our diaries, Chris. Yes, the local enterprise office is hosting a business supports clinic at the Public Services Centre in Donegal Town. That's on Friday, November the 24th, from 10 to 11 a.m. And it'll outline the supports and services of the local enterprise office and give you an explanation of the various grant aid that is available, the whole criteria involved. So if you have a business or if you think you're starting of something and you're in that Donegal Town area, this is a great way just to get an overview of the supports that are there. And there are a lot of supports there. And you could be guided down. It might be even down the mentoring line. It may not actually be a support. And also a reminder that the Lericanny Chamber in Donegal Women and Business, they have a big event on Wednesday, November the 22nd. And it's all in relation to artificial intelligence, which is AI very much a bit of a buzzword at the moment. It's the events called Marketing AI New, Supercharge Your Small Business. And that's in the Silver Tassie Hotel from 7 to 9 o'clock on next Wednesday. So I'm sure there'll be big interest in that. Now, I don't want to pull the rug from under you, Chris, but I think we're going to talk about carpets now, aren't we? If you think I'm not going to interrupt with dad jokes and ponds, Chris, you've another thing coming. Oh, I know that. I know that. Well, Greg, I'm just wondering, have you any old carpets in your house that could potentially be valuable? Because the rose, that's what it's called, which is a pile carpet that was woven in killi bags, has been sold as an auction at the world's famous Sotheby's in London and the price, 25,400 euros sterling, or 25,400 euro sterling, I should say. It's about 29,000 euro. Now, I've been delving into this and I've found a thick pile of information. Brief history, this is actually quite interesting. This carpet was designed by a man called Charles Francis Ainsley Voisey, back around 1897. He was a very influential designer at the time and it was woven in the Morton and Company a weaving workshop in killi bags. It measured 22 feet by 11 feet, was purchased back in 1899, has remained in one family since and it featured at Sotheby's recent classic design, furniture, clocks, silver and ceramic sale in London. So you never know. There could be an old carpet in your house and why not check it out? I think though this factory, most of their carpets are in places such as Buckingham Palace and others. I can't really quite remember. Those are great carpet tradition. These are just the creme de la creme. Yeah, so you never know and maybe have a look in Granny's house. Now that whole carpet might be worth more than you think. Well, Granny's got a hole that will fit a 22 by 11 foot carpet. Which I don't think she's. All right, but still you never know and I'm sure they did make more affordable smaller carpets but they've got an international reputation. On that, I know the figures from the BBC, the antiques roadshow always gets very good figures and people, I think there's a great sense of surprise and delight on the financial side. When you bring down something that you don't know what it's worth and suddenly you get a nice surprise. All right, okay. And that rose carpet is the earliest datable carpet woven in Donegal to a voice a design, which is again fascinating. Great, great find there, Chris. Right, what's coming up on this week's pod? Yes, business matters this week. My guest is Jackie Fegan, founder and proprietor of four Paul's kennels and dog hotel in Kilmachrennan. And last weekend she won the best kennels in Ireland award at the local pet award ceremony in Dublin. And it was a fitting award for Jackie and her husband Maliki who have put so much time and work into the business. She established it over 15 years ago. And at the time it was a very big move for her. She had a steady job working in a pharmacy. And it's a nice story because here's somebody who had a steady job but they had a passion, a real love of animals. And she took the plunge, decided to go out and the business has really flourished from that early days. And I asked her basically what her message would be to somebody who maybe is thinking in a similar fashion. I would follow your dreams. You only live once and try not to have any regrets. I certainly, I certainly don't. It was a big, big thing. You know, I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing or not. You were used to your wage coming in at the end of the day. And it was massive because the responsibility too of, you know, having your own business as well. But it all just kind of fell into place. It all happened just, I suppose, unexpectedly and gradually. So that, you know, but if any, I'd go for it as what I would say. Doon, baby steps, start small and see how you get on. All right, Chris. Great interview and great chorus in the background as well. Very happy dogs there looking for their rundown, you know. Also a few cats down there as well. Yeah, yeah. So the full interview with Jackie available to download now at highlandradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts and business matters goes out on the air on Sunday evening. After the six o'clock news, and if you'd like to get in touch with the program, you can drop an email to businessmatters at highlandradio.com. Chris, thank you very much for that. Lovely to have you in and we'll look forward to chatting you. We do look forward to chatting to you next week. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook, and at highlandradio.com. Scruffix Black Friday deals are here. Save over 65 euro on the Milwaukee 18-volt angle grinder bare unit now $94.95 and get the four steel 22-piece toolkit for $36.95 saving 26 euro. For more Black Friday deals shop now. Must end 27th November. Delivery charges apply. Gum shields that can be remolded to improve fit. Match up your boots with Adidas or O'Neill set of socks and shorts. Brian McCormick Sports, your football specialist. Click on BMC Sports.ie or call in Main Street Larry Kenny. Jason Quigley here. Professional boxing is back in Donegal. Rumble in the Hills pro show takes place November 18th in the Aralizer Center, Larry Kenny. Irish Olympian Joe Ward headlines the bell which also sees lightweight Celtic title fight between James McGevern and Joy Stanford. With many other top class fighters on the card. Tickets available now at alevesportspromotions.co. It's the Christmas Cracker we've all been waiting for. Join Highland Radio for a star-studded Christmas concert on Monday the 11th of December in the Mount Arigal Hotel letter Kenny. Star in Michael English and his band, Claudia Buckley, John McNichol, rising star Jack Q and myself David James. This is a Christmas night out not to be missed. Tickets 25 euros available from the Mount Arigal Hotel reception or online from the outlet at highlandradio.com. Dinner, bed and breakfast packages also available. That's the Highland Radio Christmas concert on Monday the 11th of December. All right, you're welcome back to the program via email. A listener says, talk about missing the point. First question asked by Councillor Keir Brogan yesterday. What's his name? The point is there is a serious failure. The brand he refers to is a hospital, not a sports syndicate. Do something with the information gathered. Staff have to go public because the executive boards suffocate complaints and make life hell for staff that do speak out. Well, the story has been well and truly buried now because the HSE will not be issuing any further comment because the matter has now been referred to on Goddess Shia Khanna. Hi, Greg, I wanted to contact you about the R245 road, the Creasler-Takhargaard Downings Road, particularly from the N56R25 junction down to Pass Lacquer Bridge. The road, if anyone knows who has driven on it, is very narrow and at parts the tarmac is coming away at both sides and the roads causing you to drive in the middle of the road. It's extremely, it's an extremely busy road and is used by very large commercial vehicles, buses, agricultural vehicles, as it's one of the main routes between Karagat and Downings to Creasler and vice versa. If you meet one of these vehicles on the road while you're driving in the opposite direction, you will likely have to slow down, stop, as the road is not designed for this type of traffic going both ways. And they say the road needs to be sorted as soon as is possible. Okay, we are joined now by our next group of guests and there's two pairs of headphones there, ladies, if you don't mind putting them on, there should be two pairs. Anyway, we'll see. Is there another pair for you? It's fine, I'll get to that in a moment. Right, okay, I'll tell you what I might do. I might take a quick break just whilst we do set up a set of headphones. Stay right where you are. We'll be back in two minutes. The Ninetill Noon Show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union. Seasonal loans now available for Christmas. Apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account. Are you ready for unmissable magic? Are you ready for winter in Dublin? November's longer evenings when the city lights shine even brighter. Chocoblock with festive fun in December. And unmissable live music and must-see events in January. That's three whole months of winter wonder just waiting for you. Get ready for the buzz of our bustling city streets. It's enchanting, unforgettable fun. Make your plans today at VisitDublin.com. Winter in Dublin, it's magic. Brought to you by Folger Ireland. Hi, Paddy here at Shea and Connolly Cars in Dunnegull Town. Are you looking to upgrade your car? With Shea and Connolly Cars, you'll find mix and models from the latest for every budget. Great finance options and they also accept radiance. Check out Shea and Connolly Cars dot com or call into us at Shea and Connolly Cars from down on her road, Dunnegull Town. M&S Christmas food to order is here with all range of succulent Irish turkeys and a whole lot more. This is not just food. This is M&S Christmas food. Order online now. See marxandspenser.ie for details. OK, let's have a look at the weather forecast for what's left of today, which is most of it actually. Cloud will thicken from the south southwest later in the afternoon and evening. High temperatures of nine or 10 degrees, moderate to fresh and gusty westerly winds in the morning will ease through the afternoon and back southerly. Right, we've had a number of guests now to discuss our next issue. And that is calls on the education minister to take action to end what's been described as the unfair treatment of school transport bus escorts. And we're joined in studio by Anne McLaughlin and Brie Gallagher. Good morning to both of you. Thank you very much for joining us. Good morning, Greg. Deputy Patrick McLaughlin is with us as well. Good morning, Parry. Thanks for joining us. Good morning, Greg, and to all your listeners. Yeah, it's good to have you. And we have people joining us too on the telephone line. But I'll start with you, Anne McLaughlin. The role of a bus escort, for those who may not be aware. Yeah, what do you call it? Well, it came into law in the year 2000. So it's 23 years, the bus escorts would have to be on. For people who don't know what our role as a bus escort is, we travel on the bus, the school bus around the country, collecting children, young adults with special needs, and take them to special needs schools, nationals and secondary groups. These pupils have a wide range of disabilities. To mention a few, from learning, hearing, sight, non-verbal, autism, down syndrome, children in wheelchairs, medical conditions like asthmatics, epilepsy, which require us to administer medication. If they cry, we dry their eyes. If they're sick, we clean them up. If they wet themselves while having seizures, we let them know it's okay and we get them sorted. If they have a bad morning, we calm them down before they go to school. This is the start of the school day for the child. If they're scared, confused, we reassure them that it's all okay and that they are safe. We take care of these children as if they are our own. All this is in a confined space of a bus, with 10 to 15 plus children. And in some cases, only one to two escorts on board while traveling, anything up to four to five hours, round trips a day. We all love our job and it's wonderful children that we are so lucky to be working with and we are the link between the parents and the school. And I think really it's clear that this is not an issue, this is not an issue you have with schools here or with parents, that those relationships are sand and we'll get to the knots and bolts of this. And I want to bring you into, in terms of, I beg your pardon, breed, in terms of wages then, comparable type of work that you do. Where do boss escorts sit? Well, we haven't had a wage rise in almost five years. The last time we had a wage rise was seven cents an hour and nothing has happened since. And I suppose we've arrived to today because we tried many years ago, six, seven years ago with Charlie McConnel, who came as a group of us in his office down the street and he tried his best. He liaised with Regina Daherty who was the then Minister for Social Protection and he got a generic reply back, nothing happened. We tried then with Thomas Pringle and he tried to sort things out, nothing happened. So we're hoping third time lucky with Podric McLaughlin. We had actually a meeting arranged with Podric and then COVID kicked in. So we're kind of, maybe two and a half, three years after the event. So we've come to today, you know, there's been a journey to come to today. Yeah. Just to try and bring us in line, there's been no wage rise in five years. May I ask her, any boss escorts directly employed by the Department of Education or are all of you? Because we've had, it seems quite similar to maybe the secretary situation that we had, all the caretakers situation where we had. In those instances, there was a mixture of those directly employed by the Department of Education and then by schools and then there was discrepancies and I think that problem is on the way to being resolved. So who is the employer of boss escorts? Well, it's kind of kicking the can, Greg, because we are employed, the Department of Education Transport Department pay our wages. They pay it into the school by means of grant aid. So the Board of Management then employs the individual escorts deemed on what's the... So that means you don't have holiday pay. I don't know what the situation is with pensions and what have you. You don't get the entitlements, the people working in similar roles but in different environments yet. I'm going to come back to you. It's clear, Deputy Power of McLaughlin, that they feel, to this point, here to forward, they've been knocking their head against a brick wall. What's your take on the boss escorts situation? Yeah, Greg, and you rightly referred to the school secretaries and the school caretakers who, you know, everybody knew who were certainly in the case of the secretaries with the beating heart of the schools but they were treated as second-class citizens for a long time. They didn't have any pay at all during school holidays. They had to sign on. They didn't have any pension or entitlements or, you know, any of that. Yet they were playing such a crucial role and that went on for years and that issue, thanks to their campaign, has been resolved pretty much. So now, a number of weeks ago, I met with a large delegation, Bridge and many others, and indeed others have been in contact with me today following the report on your news show and, you know, I just was completely taken aback and obviously, these are mostly women and some men clearly are not doing it for their money. They're civic-minded people. They do such an important job looking after children, young people with special needs or disabilities and has outlined what that job involves. It's so important to these young people. And I was just taken aback how badly they're being treated. 69 days a year, they're not paid. They have to go and sign on. Well, it's a nightmare too because the money takes ages to come through and you've got your bills and what have you and you're sitting there having to go and you have to go through the same process every single time. I'm going to come back to you in a second, obviously, Porg, I appreciate your time, but Anna, I just want to run past you. Do you know, you talk with such passion, such care, such love of the children. And genuine care. Do you feel sometimes that that is being exploited? Definitely. It's not what you call it. It does not be reflected in how we're treated as having to go to as social wealth an interim office. I had to sit for an hour and a half to get a form which they handed me out was the wrong form. Fill that in. Be told that was the right form. Fill that in. Wait for it to get your money. Then to be to phone up the department to be told no, you filled in the wrong form I've got to say, you have to send me out the other form. They never sent it out. Back up to the interim office. Wait another hour to get another form. It took all summer for me to get paid what a small amount of money like from job seekers which we have to apply. And your joy in getting that job seekers money was lost with the hoops that you had to jump through. You don't know, is it? Well, I just did out a little thing here just to let you see what it entails. As Podrick said, we're 69 days where we get no pay like, you know, if the schools decide they're taking an extra bank quality, we don't get paid for that. We'll get the bank quality but we'll don't get one or two extra days. So we're down that with 69 days in total. We received 140 euro in total for the 69 days which works out at 104 euro 34 pence per week which is 20 euro 87 a day. That is what we get for almost 70 days of the year like who can live in this day and age now? Some of our escorts had to take loans out over the... Of course, yeah. Has it been costed how much it would cost the state to employ people properly breed? I don't think so. No, okay. Well, we'll come back to that. Maybe Podrick has some figures. I want to go back to Podrick in a second but I also want to bring in parents as well. Gillian, your daughter attends St Bernadette School. How important is the role of the bus escort to your daughter? And Gillian, a very good morning to you of course in the first instance. Thank you. Well, basically Mari wouldn't go to school if her bus escort wasn't there. Mari has severe separation anxiety. She doesn't like being away from home. She doesn't like new people. So see in that face and that safe we call her bus escort. She's one of her safe people. So she knows that when she's with Eileen on the bus, she's safe. She knows that she can be her. Eileen gets her in the morning when she's at her worst, when she's anxious, when she's nervous, when she's overwhelmed. I can just go out and shake a head and Eileen will go, come on, Mari, let's go. And then she gets her in the evenings at half past two, three o'clock. When she's exhausted, she's overwhelmed. She's tired and she has her for almost an hour and a half a day where she's constantly working with Mari to keep her confident, to keep her happy, very assured. And it's wonderful for Mari Gillian, but it's also for your peace of mind as well. And I think Mari calls her her safe person. Yeah. Which is lovely. She's on her list as we teach Mari who's safe and who's tricky people and things like that. And Eileen's on her safe people. Eileen's meant four or five times in the morning before we even leave for school. You know, it's, oh, come on, we'll get your hair done now so Eileen can see your hair. And oh, there's Eileen now in the bus. It's time to go. So without that, she wouldn't go to school. She wouldn't leave me happy in the morning, which is one of the reasons why she's no longer in stream as she couldn't cope with that separation. And we have never had one day where we've had to worry nice since she started and that's two years now in January. So we couldn't do it without our bus escort. And Gillian, you'd back the bus escorts in their campaign for equal treatment, not looking for anything above and beyond. They're just looking for equal treatment. You, they have your support, I take it. Oh, completely. I honestly didn't know. It was only whenever I was told about it and heard about it and I was shocked. I was horrified. And I think that's actually born out. Sorry to cut across you, Gillian, but I think the majority of parents, 98% a survey, 98% of parents were in disbelief that bus escorts were treated this way. That's, that's everyone really. Statistically, it's everyone. I didn't know at all. Okay. It was, I just couldn't believe it. Gillian, thank you for your time. Best wishes to Maddie and all of the family. Catherine is with us too. A parent of a child who uses the school bosses. Catherine, your child attends Little Angels. So how important is the bus escort for him? It is so crucial. And my son, David, he is non-verbal autism. And he has been using the bus service for maybe three years now and without the bus service, without the bus escorts, he would not be able to go to school. You know, I, it goes out every morning and Eileen's on the bus. Eileen, she's a favorite. Eileen and Kate are on the bus. You know, like, without them, he would not be able to go to school. They're my voice. They're his second mommy. They take care from us. When I leave, when he leaves my hands in the morning. What an amazing way to be able to discuss one. Yeah. I put my trust in them 100% and they come back and forth to me with any problems. You know, and you can, but it's like having the therapy session at the bus door in the morning, you know, so they're free. And you just, you know, if you can't discredit, I have such admiration for people that do this job. And you back them 100% in this campaign. It would not be possible. Sorry, you back them. They need equal pay. Yep. Oh yes, 100%. They need equal pay, equal respect because their job is hard. Okay. I have one chance. Can you imagine being on a bus with 12, $13 children with additional needs? All different needs? Yeah, amazing. Okay, Catherine, listen, thank you. Thank you so much for the time. Deputy McLaughlin, when I get something on the record here and not speak to you as an opposition TD, I'm going to speak to you presumably potentially as a government TD. So to seek a commitment from you now, if elected in, into government, are you confident that Sinn Féin would listen to Bossas Scots and through your Department of Education, Minister for Education, would write this wrong? Is that a commitment? Yes, yes it is. And I spoke to Sorka Clark a number of times now who's our education spokesperson, our TD. And she is aware of this issue. I want her to raise it through the Education Committee. I want her to challenge more forcefully. Yes, we need a situation where special needs assistance, school secretaries, school takers, and our school transport escorts are treated the same, are valued the same. And I think what's happening, I didn't know, that's why I'm just so taking it back. I didn't know until those few weeks ago when I met with such an... No, I'm a little embarrassed that I wasn't aware of this previously, to be honest with you, given the job that I do. Because they're such good people, like they're not in this for the money, but they've been taken for granted for too long and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and paid accordingly and not have to go on and sign on for those 69 days and get paid to raise the amount of money. So, yes, I'm absolutely committed to them getting justice and hopefully they won't have to wait for a Sinn Féin government, hopefully being do it quicker, hopefully. But be that as it may, breed on the record, you have a commitment from potentially the next government that they will write this wrong. I think Podrick has been... You might take a note at the time and do it. Yeah, I think Podrick has been a beacon, to be honest with you. He came to see us a few weeks ago and he was just wonderful. The passion he showed, it was just amazing to us. And your last speaker talked about the Mammy effect. I have a son with special needs with autism. He's 25 and I have been handing him over to Boss Escorts for many, many years and I can only say they've all been so wonderful. They've made such a difference in our lives and in Luke's life and it is like another... It's like a friend to Luke and he speaks so highly of them. So, you know, we're not angels and we're not doing an amazing work. But we're doing our work and we're doing our best and it would be nice to be appreciated. Exactly by the department. Yes. And I just would like to say one thing. Holly Kearns, who's a Social Democrat lady at TD, she brought this up in July 2023 with the Minister and she got a kind of a generic reply about all the transport system is costing the government. And Norma Foley said that there was 18,000 special needs children travelling every day in primary and post-primary settings. She didn't exactly say about the special needs as well. So, there's 18,000 plus children. She never kind of stopped to think of who's taking those children safely, watching them every day. And so, when Patrick asked her the same question two weeks ago, he got the same reply. It was actually copy and paste. Well, we have, and quite rightly so, revolutionised school transport over the last two, two and a half years to accommodate thousands of extra students. There's bosses with two students going on from one part of the county to another. Not saying that's the wrong thing, okay? But when there is a will, we find the way. So, finally, Anne, you know, it's clear the passion that you have for this job. The last thing you never want to do is withdraw a service. That's not on our plan. That's not on our plan. I know, but we can't allow that to be used as an export. Well, we can say here now that we are all of the same opinion. We are not going to put the whole parents... That can't be used against you. That's... Well, it is what it is, because none of us would like to see that done to any parents and children. And we want to also say that our schools are not the issue here. It's the Department of Education that needs to get their finger out. It's nothing to do with our schools. We have great respect for our schools and they work wonderfully with us. Anne McLaughlin, thank you so very much indeed. Greg, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Thank you, Brie Gallher. Lovely to have you in as well. Thank you very much, Greg. I hope you're so successful in what you're trying to do. Thanks to our callers. And finally, thanks to you, Deputy Podrig McLaughlin. It's been good to have you on the show again, and we look forward to seeing movement in that regard as you say. Hopefully, within the lifetime of this government. But if not, and if elected, you've committed to do so early on in Sinn Féin's tenure. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, take care. Bye-bye. And that's where we leave it. Back with you tomorrow morning at 9.