 Right, okay, well don't bring it up then. No, no, but I'm only saying what I'm just saying. No, because there was a reaction to something. Don't... Why? Why? There was a reaction to something. Don't... No, it's going to be different news. Go on now, behave yourself. Now you're trying to throw yourself to the scent. No. Yes you are. No. Okay. Behave. Good luck. Well I know nothing but... I know nothing. I can read you like a book. Oh, you cannot. Good luck. So today you were extra trying to... Ooh, you're very close but... What? You did it for real last week. Did I? You're still coming back on me like a dog. Ooh, a bongo woof woof in the shade. She's getting worried, look. Going away now, behave yourself. Alright, good morning to you. Let's get a news update first and say good morning now to Donald Kavanaugh. Thank you, Greg. Good morning. The government is being accused of letting people in the West and Northwest die by failing to honour a commitment to construct a regional cancer centre. The centre was promised under the National Development Plan 21-30, but so far there's been no movement on the project. The West and Northwest have the highest incidence and mortality rates from cancer in the country. Professor Michael Cairn who directs the South University of Galway Cancer Network says Dublin has four cancer treatment centres, while once again the West and Northwest are being ignored. We only have the one cancer centre in the West. It's located in the University Hospital Galway and cancer care is in competition with the emergency programme. So the challenge is to deliver a fit for purpose cancer centre now that allows cancer care to be taken out of competition with the emergency programme and allow people to get appropriate access. A man in his 30s detained on suspicion of the murder of a woman in Slago a week ago remains in custody this morning. Angela Canavan, aged in her 50s, was found dead at her home in St John's Terrace in the town on last Monday. Garthi made the arrest yesterday morning. The man is still being questioned at a garther station in the Northwest. A 36-year-old man has been charged with multiple offences following a burglary at a commercial premises in the New Market Street area of Derry on Saturday afternoon last. The charges include aggravated burglary with intent to commit unlawful damage, possession of an offensive weapon in a public place and criminal damage. He is due to appear before Derry Magistrates Court later. Social Justice Ireland says the significant financial resources available to the government must be used to improve the living standards for everyone in society. The organisation claims Ireland's social contract is broken despite the government having the capacity to deliver a new one. It says Ireland has experienced record growth since the pandemic yet our housing, healthcare and public transport remain far below the standards that could be achieved. Research and policy analyst Michelle Murphy believes that the government should be using Ireland's economic position to improve the welfare of those who are struggling. At the moment, we have a situation in Ireland where the headline economic figures are going really well. You know, we've unprecedented GDP growth since the pandemic. We're almost at full employment, for example. But the lived reality of Irish people, it's very different. The cost of a home is beyond the reach of many people. You have over 670,000 people who are living in poverty. Well, the forecast mostly cloudy and misty this morning with patchy drivel, sunny spells developing. As the day goes on with some scattered showers, they become more widespread and heavy going into the late afternoon and early evening. That will bring a risk of thunder or spot flooding in places. Top temperatures today hitting 15 to 18 degrees Celsius in light to moderate southwest breezes. And that's Ireland Radio News. We're back with news again at 10 o'clock. Good morning. My perfect escape would be a city break somewhere with loads to do. Nothing. Just relax and go out. Dinner and drinks in the hotel before heading to bed. Nice and early for an amazing night's sleep. At Maldren Hotels, we provide you with everything you need to escape your way. Across Ireland and the UK. Save on every room every night when you book direct with click on Maldren at MaldrenHotels.com. The county's number one talk show, The Nine Till Noon Show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, The Nine Till Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, good morning to you. Four minutes past nine, Monday the 8th of May 2023. It's a pleasure to be with you for the start of another week here on The Nine Till Noon Show. Caroline Orr is back taking your calls and comments on the text line 086 6025000 086 6025000. Neve is working alongside her, taking your calls to an 07491 25000. Keep us busy on those lines this week again, will you? And if you want to talk about anything, raise an issue. You need some help with something. Get in touch with us. We're more than happy to help. E-mails too to comments at highlandradio.com. Right, OK. Let's look at the newspapers this morning. Did you feel the tremor in Donagol over the weekend? The Irish National Seismic Network is urging people across Donagol who felt the earthquake this weekend to file a report on the website. This is in the Donagol News. The 2.5 magnitude earthquake occurred near Glenveig National Park in the early hours of Saturday morning. The tremor which was detected five kilometres below ground was recorded by seismic stations across the country. I posted about this at the weekend and many people heard it. Others thought it was just simply thunder. Others actually felt a bit of a rattle. One lady thought it was just her husband snoring. There's lots of different reasons as to what people or different explanations as to what people thought it was, but it was a mini earthquake. Some people who felt the tremor reading here have reported that the earthquake made their home shake. Whilst others said it sounded like a loud crash of thunder that woke them from their sleep. The earthquake was also detected by several Raspberry Shake size mummeters operated by citizens and schools across the country. Did you feel it? 08, 6, 60, 25,000. The Derry News this morning, Key Frontline Services will be cut across education, the economy and health. This was Derry Chamber's depressing assessment of 2023-24. NI Budget delivered recently by British Secretary of State Chris Hatton Harris. Chamber Chief Executive Anna Doherty said the outworking of the budgets were becoming clear. She added it's obvious that the consequences will be felt by all communities, businesses and families across Northern Ireland. Key Frontline Services will be cut across education, the economy, health and more. This is a crisis which will not just affect business but communities, schools, households and workers and couldn't they have pumped some of the money they spent over the weekend in London and elsewhere maybe sell off some of that gold or some of the crowns and actually help people that need the money. Never going to happen and it's a bit obvious to say so but there's one report of how people's lives are going to be affected and tens and tens and tens of millions of euro spent crowning a king. The Irish Independent, the economy will take 1.1 billion euro hit due to a lack of hotel accommodation this summer amid the ongoing pressure of housing refugees. A secret government memo warns the document presented to ministers in recent days states that the level of refugee and asylum seeker occupancy of hotels will have a serious impact on tourism spending. It predicts that the economy will lose out on a substantial amount of money with reduced spending from tourists a key factor. Obviously this is going to affect on a goal potentially more because we've been incredible high hotel occupancy rate I believe around about 51% currently. Well this document also states that attractions and activities here which depend on tourist spending will need financial support. Full details of the costs were spelled out in the discussion paper on displaced tourism accommodation. The breakdown of the money that will ultimately not be spent by tourists this year was listed as 581 million in food and beverages so that's your pubs and your restaurants hit. 94 million in activities and attractions such as caves and kayaking. 207 million in all areas of transport that's your buses and taxis and what have you. 198 million in retail that's a big hit for shops and 20 million labelled other. T-Shock Leof ride cars among those who were presented with the figures at a meeting of the cabinet subcommittee on Ukraine where the implications for profitability and the maintenance of jobs were discussed. Are you in the tourism sector is that something you have a particular concern about across the north west get in touch with us 08 660 25000. Inside the Times this morning the first public consultation on the Irish deer population has seen a large majority of respondents call for larger annual coals than the record 55000 animals shot dead last year. More than 80% of those who participated many listening to this show I'm sure in this consultation process on the impact of the Irish deer population expressed the view that the animals were negatively affecting biodiversity damaging agricultural crops and causing road safety issues. Some 86% of the 1,500 respondents said more culling of deer was needed. A large majority also believed that a domestic venison industry should be expanded which would make a bit of sense to wouldn't it I mean we do have to do it seems as uncomfortable as it might be for some. We do have to control the population it would be more palatable no pun intended if the meat was to be brought into the food chain it wouldn't be something I'd eat but perhaps it would just make it seem not as horrific as it does on the face of it. The Irish Daily Mail this morning up to 50,000 debt deals struck with mortgage holders after the crash are in danger following the seventh interest rate hike since last summer experts have warned Mitchell O'Brien a personal insolvency practitioner said the latest increase would have a horrendous impact for many of the 300,000 mortgages the mortgage holders in fact on variable or tracker rates he also warned the rate rises are more stark for the 100,000 plus people who entered into alternative repayment arrangements after the banking collapse Mr O'Brien said between a third and half of those ARAs are now compromised due to the increase in interest rates. Let's have a look now at the red top tabloids this is the Irish Daily Star and one of the big problems as well facing us is the rising cost of eating 1200 euro on average per year the cost of groceries has increased by but the government has convened a meeting of the retail forum to discuss concerns of a high food prices representatives from the major supermarkets will gather for the meeting on Wednesday which has been called by Neil Richmond the minister of state with responsibility for retail business will try and get the minister or one of his delegates onto the show the minister said the government had the power to introduce price caps on products but did not want to have to do that other European countries have by the way Mr Richmond said inflation had decreased in Ireland in the last year but the prices had not been reduced inflation this time last year was running at about 10% it is down to 5% now we should be seeing prices coming down he told RT the week in politics program not that we ever would but if we organised as a people even in one particular county and said look well going into these shops all that shops until you do something about these prices how quickly would it take before they took action probably quite quickly the sun this morning amongst other papers tells us that a man in his 30s was in custody last night after being arrested on suspicion of the murder of a mother a week ago Angela Canavan aged in her 50s lived alone in St John's Terrace in Sligo town she was discovered with head injuries shortly after 8.30pm on May 1st her home was sealed off for a detailed technical and forensic examination a post-mortem examination has been conducted but the results are not yet being disclosed for operational reasons reasons the suspect is currently being held at a guarder station in the north western region and hopefully there is a progress in that case just as soon as is possible and lastly where are we what should I pick out of this paper oh yeah we story in the Irish Daily Mirror a positive one Ireland's busiest fishing port is pulling in a growing share of the lucrative cruise tourism business that is Killy Beggs it's set to see more than 50,000 visitors off cruise ships this year which is a new record it'll be the third most popular cruise ship port in the republic after Dublin and Cork Cove shipping agents from firm Sinbad Marine Services Limited said it will be handling 28 vessels this summer up from 21 last year I think I remember when the first one came in some years ago it's fairly progressed since then hasn't it the first to visit on May 16th will be the biggest vessel to berth in Killy Beggs the 294 metre long Norwegian star is fractionally bigger than the Cunard Lions Queen Victoria which visited in 2018 that's over a quarter of a kilometre long a Sinbad Marine spokesperson said in total the hard working linesman of Killy Beggs harbour will tie up 6,000 metres of cruise ships this summer which is an interesting way of looking at it okay I think lots of people will go down and have a gander at that won't they okay that was a quick run through what was making the headlines in the papers this morning good morning to Michael, Marie, Mary, Beth and Elaine amongst those joining us to watch the show across our social medias don't forget you can do so on YouTube Highland Radio Ireland you can watch on your phone your tablet your smart TV your fire stick if you wish like and subscribe it's good for you it's good for us and right across our Facebook pages and on our website as well oh really and I heard he's been seeing Siobhan at number 56 and Declan your brother yep SpexAvers opticians and audiologists own their stores so your care is their business which can make them rather popular I've got something to tell you I've got half an hour with them this afternoon SpexAvers your care is our business Highland Radio time checks with Expressway travel route 32 from Letty Kennedy Dublin when you book online and travel for less Expressway bringing you the time us watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com okay the time is 15 minutes past 9 you're very welcome back to the 9 till noon show now businesses have taken to social media at the weekend to talk about parking in the twin towns after years of asking counsellors about getting 30 minutes free parking in our town to help smaller businesses survive and make our town more attractive to shop in and getting absolutely nowhere today was the final straw a customer pulled in outside our butcher shop to pop in for 5 minutes the tyre of his car was about a foot over the yellow line a traffic warden sprinted across the road and was at his window in 20 seconds before our customer could get his seat belt off he was told to move the warden demanded he leave even though he said he'd only be a few minutes and would be 10 foot away from the car he wouldn't even have a time to get a ticket within a minute the warden was issuing him with a ticket one minute they want to say our customer drove off and we did not see him again today instead of using common sense the warden chased a paying customer away from our door as small businesses were constantly paying tens of thousands of euro in taxes, electricity rates and insurance and we cannot even have 5 minutes grace for parking in ballet buffet there is no grace period for parking in our town this is the straw that broke the camel's back I propose that we should be given 30 minutes free parking in the twin towns okay councillor Patrick McGowan joins us on the program now I mean businesses are struggling as is the mcconnells meets owner they're quite rightly pointing out that they're you know they're paying an awful lot of money for various services and they just perhaps want the same businesses as advantages that people in that are Kenny girls what do you think yeah look I understand it and I have spoke to a number of businesses yesterday and an ongoing I tend enough a lot of the meetings to help pay chamber commerce businesses pay towns on a regular basis and that says you can talk there's a lot of confusion out there and regularity of town in other places Elbefe is the same as Abendorn and not Larry Kimmy let me clear up Larry Kimmy this is one of the advantages Larry Kimmy got from the old days have been a town council and the government on away with town council the county council the whole council agreed that the Larry Kenny town councils would keep some of the benefits this is like all the gardeners and all the extra road staff they have and they have three three traffic wardens and in order to operate this free half hour twenty months you take nearly three traffic wardens to do it's very complex and that's what it takes and Balbofay we have one and the money that's collected in Balbofay there's enough money there to pay one traffic warden the rest of the money then the other seventy odd thousand goes to the street sweeping puts the chamber commerce recently took over and as you can see they're doing a fantastic job then there's a confusion out there as well about no grace period for a fact there is ten minutes this is not at the discretion of the traffic warden he has no discretion whatsoever the machine that he carries it's a scanner it's calibrated and if you happen to pull up and he happens to be standing right in front of you and you get out of your car and walk away he can then scan your car the machine that he's carrying so you're very fortunate if you're standing in a park and walking away from the traffic warden so most likely he's not there at least he probably won't appear for another five or ten months which means he's here but at least so you're saying the car would have to be scanned in-situ in-situ without a ticket and then scan ten minutes later yes that is a fact that's the only fact well in this case that I read that there is a scan in this case that I read that there is some suggestion that the car was encroaching on a yellow line so obviously in that situation the ten minutes doesn't count because that would be classed as legal parking as we know parking on double parking on footpaths which is happening everywhere parking on disabled base the most fines the council have given out are yellow lines footpaths and that and you're correct there's a different ticket session there it says on your ticket the events so for the sake the cheapest parking in the country is in belba fe the navney car park you can park all day for one year 20 one year for the entire day actually for 24 hours one year 20 main street in belba fe 50 cents and michael henley's shop in car park is 30 cents now you have that's the change in your ashtray whatever you have these apps now and that now the purpose of all of this as a council is all the things to be doing because the councils are making no money out of us all of them paying the traffic warden and all of the money collected in belba fe and the same has only gone down every penny but stays in the town there's a brand new street sweeping machine there's a full-time man hired to sweep the streets clean up and spend the rest of the day working with the workers and repairing and painting around the town and that's what the other towns that we have and so do you not think though there's not an argument there's no and you know at the end of the day i think we have to listen to people that's what and i think particularly elected representatives with respect is what they're charged with doing that's what we do what i'm saying is that extend it from 10 minutes to 30 minutes or even do an assessment as to what the financial impacts of that might be but you're great that's what we've been doing for years you've had that debate on the galtown now as you well know there just a month ago that in order to operate the same as letter candy it picks up to three traffic wardens that's that's what you've been doing now you're taking the money away to do three traffic work and you know and i know it's the same as the 10 minutes what happens when it's one month 30 seconds over 10 months the same after do you imagine going on to michael hannis you imagine all over ireland from doble and belfast you go to michael hannis you have a half an hour you're not on there 10 minutes and you're starting to look at your watch michael hannis is trying to sell you a dress a handbag shoes and you stand there look the whole thing is but you know but it's not like it's not michael hannis right because say for instance a pharmacist right you go into a pharmacist and you're just nipping in and you get into a queue all your prescriptions a wee bit delayed next thing it's about 10 15 18 minutes the same in a butchers or if you're grabbing a coffee do you know what i mean that little bit longer i just can't figure out and i'd be interested for you to explain how the role of the traffic warden would change switching from 10 minutes to 30 minutes he would scan the car as he would walking up and down the street scan them and then re-scan them 30 odd minutes later the exact same he would scan them the 10 minutes later i don't know how extending the 10 minutes to 30 minutes requires two additional staff pardon migrants patrick yeah it's the total the machines are totally different calibrated for a start the machine at the moment they have at the moment isn't giving you 10 minutes free parking it's not free parking it actually gives you time to go away and get a ticket but at the same time you can get a coffee by a newspaper or bread or whatever the setup on there can be a lot more complex and what we are told that's just the same parking it's one parking office for the entire county that operated and they're telling us two to three traffic wardens that's what is tickling there again i don't know what they're doing maybe they you know we're told there's three in there again there's two on the moment there's one off sick but it's ticking three and they have a lot lot more staff it would mean first of all and the whole purpose of this is to keep the traffic moving as the people are not hoarding the same spots all day long and it's to say to try and move particularly on the main street to try and keep them moving all the time and the whole thing is to bring the customers in and change it over and that's normally going to end up a sort of a park and ride through Balboe a cost money but in this case the money and it's not it's the 30 cents that we're talking about here or in the main street the 50 cents they are trying to open up three more parking spaces in the town and what i have done speaking to the chamber and the businesses who have been consulted the chamber of commerce have this discussion every year and what i have done yesterday was some of the most effective business in Balboe has asked that the parking section of the council will calm down and rather than me and you do they will sit down with the business affected trying to discuss and if there is something what you say if that can be extended to 15 minutes or whatever but they also need to put up signs so that people know because there's confusion if you see yesterday there's a lot of confusion about 10, 15, 20 minutes and that's not good that's where the council falls down and signage and confusion so what would you favor yourself then because as you say you've attended a lot of these meetings you've heard all of the arguments what do you favor are you happy enough with the status quo if there is adequate signage and better understanding of the 10 minute rule yeah look i would have even if they can recalibrate their machines so you get 15 minutes that from the time the taffy garden happens to come around the corner or lands on the care pack that you run you know 10, 15 months if it allows someone to get a cup of coffee or buy a newspaper and she's against the chemist and come out but look in my case what i would always do because you never know when you get into a shop or you go around the corner who you bump into you're better putting that 30 cents this is what it's all about putting that 30 cent into or you know now there's a fantastic app out there now you can actually park your car go on to the hairdresser sit down on the side and then pay for your parking on the app while you're on the hairdresser well you don't even have to wait and delay but look i think the problem with the council as happens is communication there should have been a lot more it's not down to me or you or the general public to explain that's the council are there and by the way there can be grey areas in this because these traffic wardens who are hated in the country nobody likes the traffic warden they have to go in front of a judge and if there's any grey areas they just made a fool of them they're throwing out because there's something they've never given but they do need and the council has promised me they will sit down with the Chamber of Commerce in Balda Faye but particularly the business in Balda Faye who i do know and i know them all very well they do still have issues but they did not realise as you can see in Facebook there's a lot of confusion about 10, 20 months and there is 10 months. Right okay listen we'll see what the listeners think as well thanks Patrick i appreciate your time this morning that's been a full councillor Patrick McGowan there what do you think is that something that conversations it changed your views if you're in that area 08 660 25000 whatsapp and text i got a contact from a listener in Lifford last week he mentioned at the time because we want to chase it up and raise the issue with the Guardi and the problem they're having is antisocial behaviour in the Lifford area almost every night a group of boys and girls picking people's front doors and they're doing it to an older lady too who this person is related to it's in the Bali Duff area of Lifford and their concern is is that they're going to end up giving this lady a heart attack as they kick the door with some force and the woman is scared as a result of it so off air we chased it up with the local reps on the joint policing committee and on Guardi Shia Khanna have told us that they're going to follow this up as well but is that something that you've been affected by antisocial behaviour in the Lifford area doors being kicked particularly from this listeners perspective they're concerned about the Bali Duff area of Lifford and it's something we want to help to bring to an end but it's still ongoing let us know 08 660 25000 08 660 25000 right the footpaths and car park is never treated during the winter months and another thing there's people parking at the McElhenney's car park Heishi walks past the cars no tickets sickening now it's very possible that these people have booked tickets online and their reg is in the system so are using the online system now so it's very possible that if you don't see a ticket on the window that they've paid for their parking online and the machine the warden holds will indicate that to them good morning Greg and team Bunkranna is a 30 minute grace period and only needs one traffic warden to manage that was one part of that conversation I really didn't I couldn't link the dots on that but the model is already employed in beautiful Bunkranna so why not the twin towns even for a period I don't understand why we don't try something give it three months or six months of the summer and go back to the businesses and say look did it have a material impact on the businesses maybe you prefer if we went back to the old system maybe people can't park or you're not getting as much business you know work with them they're the ones paying fortune into the council's coffers a caller says the counselor stating it's complicated to operate the 30 minutes grace period is nonsense when he went on to point out to the wardens use scanners he's effectively calling the business owners a liar which I don't believe he is but I understand where you're coming from a typical public representation these days they don't listen to the needs of the electorate ask Patrick can we get the street cleaner to clean the housing estates around the town might double check on that one that would make sense wouldn't it can you tell Patrick McGowan letter Kenny is three times bigger than Balabafe so one traffic warden should be enough for Balabafe I live in Milford says a listener here and there's a school boss having an issue trying to get around the town he's having an issue because cars are parked on both sides despite the double yellow lines further up the town four vans are parked on the footpath outside a hardware shop what's ironic is the garter station is based a few feet away the garter station is right they'd only have to look out the window look at the door turn their head and they would see you're not allowed to park on both sides of the street in Milford then it's a pretty regular occurrence I wouldn't like to maneuver a large bus or lorry through that if that's the case can you please ask why the main street is 30 cent per hour and Navani Street 50 cent per hour I don't know the answer to that one parking please ask how are the hotels the villa rose keys hotel allowed to take up spaces with orange cones when they haven't expected wedding culture arriving etc I have a lot of sympathy for businesses and I do understand what this listener is talking about and it's right across this region it seems that you can just put cones outside your business if you want it happens all the time to say in numerous towns it is kind of frustrating if you're looking for a parking spot and the traffic warden can't do anything about it it's not within their gift they can only deal with mechanical vehicles they can't deal with people blocking the roads with a skip or a cone or whatever it might be and I do know this reserving parks with parking with a cone is something that frustrates a lot of people out there yeah bunkrana another call says you get 13 minutes free parking if bunkrana why not the twin towns last for an hour caller asks how come it's okay for a hotel proprietor to leave cones outside the premises on the street to stop traffic in order to let a wedding in yet it's not okay for someone to pull outside a butchers to buy some meat again and the traffic wardens can't put a ticket on a cone whether they should be able to or not it seems to be a little bit of a black hole in the rules of the road there in that regard the 90 noon show is brought to you by letter candy credit union with monster loans available up to 60,000 euro for all occasions visit lettercandycu.ie go full-leadl for a summer of savings just like our customers in the fridge by the end of the week like we're never running empty anymore so it's fantastic to be able to budget and now this is what we're going to spend and the kids can always throw in an extra few bits here and there like our youngest girl throws and hides everything in the trolley go on go full-leadl today ready for a change or upgrade thanks siat with our wide range of award-winning siat SUV including the bold crossover arona the family favorite or the spacious seven-seater to raco all vehicle come with great offers on finance and pcp options book a test drive today by calling dmg motors on 0749721396 or visit dmg motors.ie choose your new 231 siat with confidence with a visit to dmg motors Clairode Donegal town now really pleased to welcome on to the program john mooney crime and security corresponded with the sunday times john thanks for your time this morning i appreciate it greatly right lots of people obviously as you can imagine texting a show like this in the north west john wondering what's going on with russian ships off the north west coast and i suppose the irish coast more generally what is the working theory early last week there was a formation of russian vessels entered ireland's economic exclusive economic and that includes russian warships now that itself is not that unusual russian ships passing leaving the mediterranean will often pass along ireland on the way back to the cola peninsula however two of these ships appeared to have broken away from the main formation which stalled and they loitered in close proximity to some of the undersea subcables that carry internet traffic between europe and america and the reason i guess provoked a kind of significant response from the irish navy and the royal lady was because europe at the moment is on a high state of alert for attacks on critical infrastructure and particularly offshore critical infrastructure and as you know there was a sabotage attack on non-ordering one and two pipelines last september and nato is of the view that sabotage units from the russian military have actually planted explosives on some offshore critical infrastructure around europe seaboard so that's the reason why this attack has gained a lot of attention and attraction i mean obviously the russians know that europe is watching them your information is though that they're confident this isn't just sabre rattling just to let them know that they're there or they're maybe trying to spot weaknesses in our defences or what have you there is the belief that they're actually actively operating and doing stuff as you outlined there's been a number of incidents around the irish coast in recent years in 2021 there was what could be best described as a civilian vessel that was found very close to the subsea cable about 117 nautical miles off the south west coast and that actually had submersibles in the water and it had its ais transponder system switched off there's lots of different things going on in our domain in land, sea and air involving russia and some of it is open some of it like what we saw early last week but there are other covert operations being run from here the whole time most of that is indian intelligence espionage there are occasionally other incidents taking place but there is a continual flow of russian intelligence officers both illegals and undeclared intelligence officers in and out of this country and our security services and our military deal with that as appropriate. Other than monitoring is there anything else that the likes of the irish navy can do? Well I think these sort of incidents which are escalating continually shows that ireland's view that it is somehow protected because we're a neutral state in more significant geopolitical confrontation is really a nonsense and it should be confined to the history books so I suppose from a government's point of view you have to see it through various prisms from the government's point of view I mean we are a neutral state but we do cooperate with NATO and our security services and our intelligence services cooperate with other european partners and would be described as allied services amongst them our military is the exact same however politically we like to reaffirm our independence but this is all getting very confused because there's an obligation as members of the european union that if one of our nation states was attacked we have an obligation to go and help defend them and likewise so what ireland has found itself is that we've really came to the end of this period whereby we operate on an outdated and very poorly informed national security and neutrality policy and it's very difficult to see how that is going to be maintained in the years and decades ahead as China comes to the fore as Russia comes to the fore and we enter a kind of multipolar period of great powers as opposed to having one which was traditionally viewed as the united states so we've lots of different types of threats coming Russia poses particular types of threats because of the way it behaves they are experts in non-conventional or hybrid warfare and in this country they're very active on that front and they've attempted to reach out and forge alliances or certainly influence dissident power military groups loyalist groups they're very active in our virtual world and our cyber sphere politically they are in open confrontation with the government we've had Yuri Filatov who's the Russian ambassador in Ireland openly criticising the government on lots of different issues which is in itself is highly unusual I can argue I suppose that through comments of Micheal Martin and Leov Radkar that we kind of fired the first shots in that regard but I take your point John finally what is, I know these communication cables and what have you run under the sea do we know what the consequences of them being destroyed might actually be what would you know what might the impact be on people in this country? Okay so if there was a say one of them it's never going to be a Russian military vessel will attack any of these things if this thing happens it will be made look like it will be some act of sabotage or certainly they'd be more vulnerable actually under landing points around the country so with hybrid warfare it's unattributable and it's deniable and no one kind of the countries where this happens in are usually left in a situation where it's very difficult to prove what's actually happened or it even involved a malign actor and Russia does and has always taught through these sort of issues so you know if so if there was one of these cables severed or something that in of itself won't close down the internet in Ireland or Europe or anything like that or slow down traffic however if there were a number of them targeted and simultaneously that could possibly cause an overload scenario which would affect internet traffic etc but sometimes the consequence of the action and the purpose of it is power projection and it's the Kremlin or whatever power it is be responsible showing Europe showing the western world that it can strike right in its heart without them even knowing and that's what this is really about. Alright John listen thanks for your insights I really appreciate it that's John Mooney there you can read him in the Sunday Times is their crime and security correspondent a caller said that Greg can you find out what our navy are doing to protect us from the Russian ships spotted off the Donagor coast they're not there for our benefit thank you clearly not but they can observe them outside of that hi Greg nice to see the leader of our country at the king's coronation picking his nose rubbing his nose there's an awful lot going on an awful lot I think for us to analyse in terms of politics and how they act but I don't know rubbing your nose but I take your points and I'm not criticising you for texting in manhole cover is sticking out of the ground and Don Fanny across from Alois bar on Main Street would damage a car badly so hopefully maybe someone is listening that might be able to have a look at that right back with all very shortly the 9 till noon show with letter Kenny credit union simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from letter Kenny credit union call us on 0749102126 online via our app or in office today the groom goes free the groom goes free yes you heard it the groom's room evolve clothing letter Kenny retail the groom goes free call in today terms and conditions apply sometimes it's just bad luck but sometimes it's negligence from minor bumps to life changing injury every accident is a story time to call Macklehenny and associates the situation advise on solutions and lead the way if any litigation is to follow from motor accidents and workplace accidents to slips trips and falls call today on 0749175989 or find us online let's get you started on the road to recovery Macklehenny and associates solicitors to an order how can we help in contentious business solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage of proportion of any award or settlement now Sinn Fein has called for the introduction of a temporary and targeted mortgage interest support scheme support homeowners with rising mortgage mortgage costs Donagall TD Pierce Doherty who is of course the party's spokesperson on finance was speaking as the ECB's expected well it has raised interest rates for the 7th time since July this is a slightly older press race right Pierce Doherty good morning to you thanks for joining us good morning to you and I mean one can only imagine for those people on fixed mortgages and I think particularly those who had their mortgages performing mortgages in some cases sold on to to vulture funds as a whole gamut of people affected but every time one of these announcements comes now it just must fill people with pure fear absolutely and you know as finance spokesperson I get a lot of correspondence from people not only from our own county but right across the state and you can hear the anxiety when you're you know when you're reading the words that they've talked about you can hear the concern some of them just talk about being in a spiral being locked and feel as if they're trapped and these are the individuals who you spoke of their Greg people who have had their loans sold off to vulture funds and many people might think well they're people who were in the rears or who fell back in their mortgages and in some cases they are but in other cases there are tens of thousands of people who went into an arrangement with a bank never missed a payment in their life but because the way that the arrangement was structured particularly with permanent tsp permanent tsp then sold all of those loans on to vulture funds so these individuals today because they were sold on to vulture funds many of them are now paying over 8% interest rate if they were with permanent tsp they would be paying in the region of 4% so they're paying like you know 4, 5 and 6,000 euro more on their mortgage than they would have been when they were with their previous bank and this is despite the fact that you know government minister after government minister including the tsh at the time said that there was no problem that the people shouldn't be concerned about having your loans sold to vulture funds I had legislation actually in the doll to actually stop that from happening but being a file and finna gale blocked it and finna gale finance minister went as far to say that there was no problem with his loan sold on to vulture fund but the reality today is that those individuals now in thousands of euro more I would have a particular problem with that I'm not sure if you would share it in that you know I would imagine a lot of the people then that we are talking about at that time if they wanted to fix or maybe switch to a pillar bank or something it possibly would have been doable but if they were listening to that advice and being told that's everything you know maybe there was no forewarning I don't know it's kind of different with the way oyster banks leave in the market maybe it is but if you were getting advice that everything was going to be okay and didn't take moves to sort of fix or move you'd be very upset now and people are very upset people feel that they have been betrayed by government in relation to those assurances that they were got we made it very clear at the time that you know your loan should never be in the hands your loan for your mortgage for your house should never be in the hands of a vulture because they are only interested in the short term fix they're only interested in basically getting as much squeezing as much out of you as quickly as possible so they're not interested in your student loan if you have children your kids loan or you know your loan for your card that there's no interest there whereas permanent to us be in Bank of Ireland whatever we think of them they're competing with each other and they're competing in the long term they want to be here in the next 50 and 100 years and that's why a lot of these main banks haven't passed on fully they have passed on interest rates but they haven't passed them on fully because they're trying to be competitive and that's why that was always the risk with the vultures it's extremely bad if you've got your loan with a vulture because what they've done is they've passed on those interest rates so many of the split mortgages we were talking about those mortgages were being charged around maybe even a higher percent now they're up at eight percent and they will go higher as the ECB continues to increase interest rates like that's it that's a huge amount of interest on a family loan but it's not just the loans that have been sold off to vultures you know people who are paying variable rates who are on tracker rates and there's 250,000 of those in the banking system because of the shock because the fact that the ECB have increased interest rates seven times since July we now have a situation is and our own central bank pointed this out last week that 20% of all mortgage holders have actually experienced a 50% increase in service in their mortgage this year that's 5,000 euro and that's before last week's interest rate hike happened at the ECB level and we expect further increases so that's why we shouldn't be saying look we recognize that the ECB is trying to fight inflation we you know they're independent setting their rates we can't do anything about that but there is a responsibility and indeed an obligation on the state to actually help you know take the sharp edge off this this sudden shock of 5,000 euro increase on people's mortgages and the way that they can do that is through mortgage interest relief I'd imagine those that are making these decisions to increase interest rates would not be too happy with that because the whole idea is it not is to try and drive down inflation so then if a national government intervenes you're spending taxpayers money to offset a EU mechanism to try and reduce inflation I mean so there has to be a consequence to that well first of all there's two parts to that Greg first of all what shouldn't be any seen is seen we're not talking about absorbing all of the interest rate hikes that have happened in the last 10 months since July of last year and we've never said that you know any government whether it was Oz or Finafella from the Gale could actually do that or should do that what we're seeing is 30% of the increased interest that families are seeing should be taken on temporarily onto the state's accounts and the state has the ability to do that we have the resources to do that and that would benefit up to 1,500 euro per household what the ECB is trying to do with in terms of fighting inflation is they're trying to reduce credit right across the European zone so they have a crude instrument in doing that and that's interest rates now those interest rates obviously affect people who are borrowing who've already borrowed but the main thing it plans to do is actually to stop people borrowing in the future to stop businesses to stop households borrowing in the future by pushing the cost of credit away up but in doing that there's people already trapped in that cycle they don't have a decision whether they're going to borrow further they've already borrowed that's their mortgage interest rates so we're not talking about trying to make credit easier for people so they can go on holidays or buy a new car or whatever we're talking about people who are trying to keep up with over their heads and you're in the central bank our own central bank made the point that more people are going to fall into rears now so you know and it's the shock of this like if you were sitting at home last year we were in the middle of a cost of living crisis and you were trying to balance your books and you were thinking right well this is what's going to happen in terms of maybe college or whatever it is and you're trying to budget and then out of the blue your mortgage cost has increased by 5000 euro you have no time to adjust for that so how do you target this though because there are many people of the of those on track and mortgages that are prepared to ride this out you know they could have fixed they can still fix a lot of them could still fix it around about what is it 3.2% or something along those lines but they want to maybe hold on to that tracker to ride it out to see if things come back down again they don't want to over commit so why should we and this sounds like a horrendous question but I hope people understand where it's coming from well why should we insulate them in that risk you know for those that can fix how do you target this so that we actually help people that can't pay their mortgage and not help people that are making a financial decision to best suit themselves well first of all you know people who can fix will make that decision themselves based on your own individual circumstances there's no kind of one size fits all in relation to whether you should fix or not if you're in a tracker mortgage it all really depends about how much you owe how long it would how long is left in your term and also can you as you said can you ride this out can you take the risk but even if you were to fix today you're still fixing it at a very at a higher rate than you were this time last year because banks have increased fixed rates and some banks have increased it a number of times so those individuals who fix Greg would also receive support through this scheme that we're talking about basically anybody who sees their interest rate increased since last year or has a higher rate because of this since last year then they would be able to get some of the support up to a maximum of one hundred euro and yeah you make a point and there's there's always an issue in relation to this year is there people there that are wealthy that have got you know seen their mortgage interest increase and they can actually ride this out there's no doubt that there is but there's other ways of dealing with that like for those that are super wealthy or those who have incomes above 140,000 we have different proposals in relation to additional solidarity tax for I get you so we could call back elsewhere secondly to and again you know to help people particularly those affected by the vulture funds but we're using again and it's similar to the situation with defective concrete again we're using taxpayers money all of our money to effectively line the pockets of the vulture funds they can sit there and still enjoy charging their ridiculous interest rates and they will they're insulated in that in other words we're going to make sure that people can continue to pay these ridiculous mortgages again using taxpayers money to line the pockets of some of the worst banks out there for some people that won't sit well look you know what the vultures have done in terms of passing on all of these interest rates is absolutely immoral in my view and we you know we will have soon and once the last rate increase which happened last week that'll be passed on now in the next number of weeks and once that happens you're going to see people paying eight and a half percent of their interest in terms of their house that's just absolutely is the government proposal to try and make it easier and I haven't been able to get much information on it but they're looking at it I believe in the summer to make it easier for people to switch from vulture funds to pillar banks is that not a better way to do it in other words help people and target the money from getting them out of the grips of these vulture funds rather than as I say insulate them by guaranteeing it's a better way to do it. Yeah well look first of all let me say this year and I've heard this speculated by government and all of that these are the same parties that actually facilitated the sale of these mortgages to the vultures the central bank for the last 20 years had a code of practice on its books to say that you would not you're not allowed to sell your family home to another financial person statutory I had legislation to make that a legal obligation on all banks and finna gale and finafoil blocked it so now they're scrambling around with their heads in the sand recognizing that what we were pointing out at that time that the vultures would increase interest rates and there was no incentive for them not to do that now they're trying to scramble around saying well how can we get the banks who sold these in the first place and a huge discount to these vultures how do we get them to buy them back now and that's seriously problematic there are people out there who are who have got their loans with the vulture fund and if they're listening to this program they should actually now consult either the mortgage holders organization or maps because some of those loans are performing they're not in arrears you know they've been in the hands of the vulture funds for a number of years and yes they can switch they can switch you know to AIB or to permanent ASB they will be switching at still a high rate but it'll be a lot less than what some of the vultures are charging and there are going to be people in Greg we're making this very clear they're even with our proposal which would benefit households up to 1,500 euro there are still going to be people who are still going to not going to be able to pay their mortgage because you have a situation where their interest rates aren't going up the additional interest isn't going up by just 1,500 euro it's going up by five and six thousand euros for some and that's far too much but we're asking government to do and we've seen loads of schemes when we look at the cost of living we see the t-best scheme for businesses 1.2 billion euro it doesn't matter whether your business is a multi-billion euro profit business or a little corner shop both can actually avail of it the house of the energy credits avail to everybody regardless of what type of income you have so there is precedent here in terms of a cost of living crisis where you have to take in a broad measure to actually not insulate everybody but insulate and take the sharp edge of this well what's it what's the cost of this to run this out between now and the end of the year but we can estimate it is 400 million euro and that's based on costings that was provided to us by the independent parliamentary budget office but Greg there to do that you have to make certain assumptions and those assumptions aren't going to pass really like for example all fixed rates would have to increase by 3% and would have to increase immediately like today that's not going to happen but you know and the same with variable rates would have to go up by 2% and they would all have to take effect today again that isn't happening the market we aren't seeing that happen in the market but we've used those type of figures to actually you know to go on the upper end we expect the cost would not be higher than that but that's the type of possible resources that you're going to have if things got a lot worse and look there is a 10 billion euro surplus this year people these individuals are taxpayers as well and you know we talk about the cost of living we're talking about food which is putting a huge huge pressure on families at this point in time it's you know going up and up and up the average additional good bill per year is 1200 euro for families these families some of these families are paying 5000 euro more in terms of interest this is the biggest cost of living increase that many families are facing it's not food it's not energy it's actually your mortgage and on this point the government has to say to do nothing and that's not acceptable all right thank you very much indeed for that that's deputy pierced our hearty shin fame spokesperson on finance agree disagree I mean sure I'm sure the government would argue that they are doing plenty a caller says I'm an old aged pensioner and received my ESB last week which had 700 euro credit when asked could I be refunded as I feel as though this could be better used I was denied this with no further explanation it was a complete disgrace how would one find themselves with 700 euro in credit maybe a low user and that is some of those government initiatives I don't know who is to say a caller says all Pierce does is talk first car insurance if anything it still keeps going up now mortgages talking no good when the prices are still rising okay 08 660 25000 that's the whatsapp and text number we'll be back on the 90 noon show after the news and obituary notices the 90 noon show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit 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Radio app this is Highland Radio news good morning it's 10 o'clock Donald Kavanaugh at the news desk two men have been arrested in relation to a weekend security alert in Oma police investigating a vehicle hijacking and subsequent security incident in the Derry Road area of the town on Saturday carried out two searches last night a 56 year old man was detained during a search in Oma a 29 year old was arrested during a search in Straban two vehicles were also seized both search and arrest operations were carried out under the terrorism act the two have been brought to the Sears crime suite at Musgrave PSMI station in Belfast for questioning the delay in appointing a project design team to construct a purpose model for hospital in Galway for cancer treatment in the west and northwest is costing lives that's the view of sales the cancer network director professor Michael Kearn who says such a center was promised under the national development plan for 2021 to 2030 but that's currently stalled the west and northwest of Ireland have the highest incidence and mortality rates of cancer in the country professor Kearn says once again central government is the region and lives he says are being lost the incidence of cancer and the poorest outcome for the country and we have an aging hospital that's our cancer center and we have the cancer center for our regions on the national development plan and we're calling on the government to put a project team in behind it now and deliver it in a time frame that will make a real difference. A man in his 30s arrested on suspicion of the murder of a woman in Sligo remains in Garda Custody this morning Angela Canavan aged in her 50s was found dead at her home in St John's Terrace in the town last Monday. Garda made the arrest yesterday morning the man continues to be questioned at a station in the northwest region. Donegal County Council's Fisheries Committee has been told not enough young people are entering the sector and if action isn't taken to incentivize them to take to the water then we may find ourselves overseeing the demise of the fishing sector. A new warning delivered by Aaron Moore based in shore fisheries representative Jerry Early he says while supports and investment in piers and harbors are to be welcomed what people really want are realistic quotas and the right to fish. If you ask Fishermen you know they don't want money they want fish the one quota they find it very frustrating that those that are now in power weren't always in power and were very pro are thinking but now that they are in power and have an opportunity to do something about it it's a legacy for the people and the likes of myself and those who represent Fishermen that you know if the days of the days we're looking at the death of fishing in this community and that'll be an awful shame as far as I'm concerned. Social Justice Ireland says the significant financial resources available to the government must be used to improve the living standards of everyone in society the organization claims Ireland's social contract is broken despite the fact that government has the capacity to deliver a new one as Ireland has experienced record growth since the pandemic yet housing healthcare and public transport remain far below the standards that could be achieved research and policy analyst Michelle Murphy believes Ireland's economic position could now be used to improve the welfare of those who are struggling. At the moment we have a situation in Ireland where the headline economic figures are going really well you know we've unprecedented GDP growth since the pandemic we're almost at full employment for example but the lived poverty of Irish people it's very different the cost of a home is beyond the rate of many people you have over 670,000 people who are living in poverty. Iske Aaron says repairs to a burst water main may cause supply disruptions in lesser shoe and surrounding areas near Gotha Hork works are scheduled to take place until two o'clock this afternoon and the doll has been told there is no provision in Irish law for the banning of smoky coal from Northern Ireland the issue was raised recently by Tiberary TD Kahle responding junior minister Josepha Madigan told the doll that revenue is limited in what it can do but a number of operations she said have been undertaken with local councillors under environmental legislation. Solid fuels including all types of coal are not subject to the EU wide control and movement regime under the treaty and the functioning of the European Union and member state may not apply any barriers to the free movement of solid fuel into the state from other member states including Northern Ireland so while you cannot prevent a smoky coal entering the state under tax law local authorities have significant powers under environmental law to enforce the legal provisions aimed at preventing the sale and the use of smoky coal in the state. Well forecast mostly cloudy and misty this morning with patchy drizzle sunny spells will develop as the day goes on with some scattered showers they'll become more widespread and heavy as we hit the afternoon and early evening that'll bring a risk of thunder or spot flooding with highest temperatures today ranging 15 to 18 degrees Celsius in light to moderate south-west deprisas and that's Highland Radio News we're back with news headlines again at 11 o'clock until then from the news team have a very good morning The Abage notices for this Monday morning the 8th of May the death has taken place of Francis Curran, Ney Norris, 97 Moss Park formerly of Benview Estate, funeral from her home tomorrow morning at half past 10 going to St Joseph's Church Gallia for Rockweal Mass at 11 o'clock in term and afterwards in All Saints Cemetery Newton Cunningham. Family time please from 10 o'clock tonight. The death has occurred of Breed Maguire Ney Callahan, Kulislin Castle Finn. Her remains will repose at her late residence from 11 o'clock this morning funeral from there on Wednesday morning at quarter past 11 for Rockweal Mass in St Mary's Church Castle Finn at 12 noon followed by interment in the adjoining church yard. The Rockweal Mass can be viewed on the parish Facebook page. Donations in Louis-Flores if desired directly to the Donegal Hospice or care of any family member. Family time please from 10 p.m. to 11 a.m. and on the morning of the funeral. Rosary from 9 a.m. each night. The death has occurred of May Moss Ney McCrossen, 39 b. listening to Lune Road Castle Durg. Funeral from the family home this morning at quarter past 10 for Rockweal Mass at 11 o'clock in St Patrick's Church Ahiaran followed by interment in the adjoining church yard. The mass can be viewed via the parish webcam on parishofahiaran.com. The death has taken place at South House Fawn of Kevin Quirk, 3 St Mary's Road, Bankrana, formerly of Boston Spa, England. Remains reposing at McLaughlin's funeral home in Bankrana from 4 o'clock until 6 o'clock this afternoon. Removal from there at half past 9 tomorrow morning going to St Mary's Oratory for 10 o'clock Rockweal Mass with burial afterwards in Cock Hill Cemetery. Kevin's Rockweal Mass can be viewed via ChurchServices.tv The death has taken place of Cormac Kerrigan, Keady Muff. The family home is strictly private place. Cormac's remains will repose in St. Patrick's Church Iskaheen Muff from 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock this evening where people are welcome to pay their respects. Cormac's funeral mass will take place tomorrow morning at 11 followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery. No flowers please. Donations in memory of Cormac to Little Angel's school letter Kenny, care of Liam Collins' funeral director, Kuldaaf. The death has taken place of John O'Doherty, Matty, Mallon Head and formerly of Mallon Town. Remains reposing at his late residence at Carn Mallon, Mallon Head. Removal from there this morning at half past 10 going to Star of the Sea Church Mallon Head for 11 o'clock Rockweal Mass with interment afterwards like Cemetery Mallon. Family flowers only please. Donations in Louis of Desire to the Donegal Hospice. And the death has occurred of Kathleen Merritt, London and formerly of Ard McCarran, Balib of Fay. Leaving McCool's funeral home Balib of Fay at half past 10 this morning for Rockweal Mass in the Church of Miriam Akeletz, Trinolar at 11 o'clock. Interment afterwards in Drombo Cemetery. The Rockweal Mass is being streamed live via the parish webcam. For more details including any family health guidelines for wigs and funerals please go to highlandredio.com Hi, my name is Julie. I have a disability and work in a busy cafe. I love meeting the customers, the balls, the chats. It's a really great place to work. So, if like me, you're a young person claiming disability allowance you'll be invited to chat about the employment and training supports available to you. Taking part is your choice, but it could be a great opportunity. For more information visit gov.ie forward slash work supports disability. Brought to you by Intro, a government of Ireland initiative. This is a genuine story voiced by an actor. Alright, you're very welcome back to the 9th till noon show. A very good morning if you've just joined us here on Highland Radio. Interesting first hour, don't forget you can podcast the program daily from around about half 12. It's available for you. It's split into three parts on our website highlandradio.com. You can watch it back whenever you wish as well on YouTube, Highland Radio Ireland. A caller says, I don't doubt them but I didn't hear anything about this, came across an anti-monarchy protest taking place on the Lifford side of the bridge. This baffled me as Lifford of the UK and these people taking part in the protest were wasting and using up guard time. Surely this was a job for the PSNIS to say I wasn't aware it was happening. I did note watched a little bit of that concert last evening mainly just to see some of the acts performing and they were lighting up Britain and Northern Ireland apparently and there was loads of people everywhere but they switched to the Titanic centre in Belfast. I didn't see any crowds at all. I'm not sure if they did an assemble or if they weren't on screen. A caller says, what about taxis? They're allowed to park in the car park without a ticket and there's a car that sits there seven days a week without a ticket. What's the difference? Maybe they can move on when they spot someone coming in their direction. I don't know. A caller wants to know why when a car parked car is causing an obstruction do they clamp it and leave it where it is and then you can go to other parts of the county and cars can park wherever they like. Doesn't matter. They can do whatever they want and there's no level of enforcement there at all. It just depends seemingly where you are. Bunkrana is a former town councillor and it retained all its staff and workings hence the grace time but Bunkrana will tell you the system is not working and they are actually looking to change it. Well listen that's a really great point and I should have asked that question are you a business owner in Bunkrana or just someone who goes in and out of Bunkrana? They have the half hour grace period. It's a two hour ish I think than Balaba Faist and Aller. Are you in favour of the half hour? Would you like to retain it? Would you like it looked at? What would you replace it with instead? Actually a really great point listener. Thanks for helping me with that one. Hopefully if you're listening in Bunkrana or travelling to it let us know. Was in McCool funeral home for the removal of my uncle? I had to put a ticket on because the traffic warden was walking around the car park. Does all the parking money goes to the council asks another. It's ring fence. The money collected in each town as far as I'm aware stays in that town and I think maybe what you're coming with there if I'm reading between the lines correctly is a private company that operates the enforcement and the traffic wardens or council employees aren't they? So I don't think there's any money going out of the coffers in that regard. For over a year the community of Manor have been trying to get an orange light on the zebra crossing fixed. Why does it take so long to get anything in Donegal Don? Surely one orange light is not that expensive. Is this a TII road? Maybe it's something we can chase up with the council officers and if it's not their responsibility we'll get on to the TII. Let's see if we can get that sorted. An orange light out at a zebra crossing in Manor for over a year. Okay we'll work on that. See what we can do. Good morning. Here's a thought Irish people are so proud of themselves for their charity work and donations. They love that pat on the back. But how about voting in a government that will include everyone in their policies and work for all and take this pressure off the man in the street to donate their hard earned and increasingly spare money. The government isn't working for all is a mirror image of the extent of charity work. Okay it's an interesting point. I'm with the housing association five years, rent was 46 to start, dropped to 33, then increased to 55 just because I got a five euro increase in the pension. I'm in a cold damp apartment. I also pay a 10, 200 euro service charge per year. I've heard about that before. Rents increasing in line with that five euro increase in social welfare. I don't think it's the first time it's happened either. Okay keep us busy 08 660 25,000. We've got loads for you over the next hour and 45 minutes, but we're going to take a break because I know many of you there are eagerly waiting for the bingo numbers so without further ado. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio It's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio It's Monday the 8th of May. You're playing on the green sheet. The reference number is S11. It's game number 19. The numbers are 22 30 70 4 74 80 39 25 60 and finally 33 Phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 tonight. Leave in 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 Sheridan security now introducing zero wire smart alarm systems, zero wire, zero mess and a real peace of mind. With a simple press of a button your alarm can be set or on set or download the free app and control it from your phone. Call us today on 074 912 60 25 and get your alarm from 299 60. Stay local, stay safe and protect what you value most with Sheridan security systems. Are you looking for a safe and secure way to store your belongings? Look no further than Space Hub. We offer high quality new insulated containers that you can rent or buy. Keep the container in our secure yard or have it delivered to your own property. Contact us today to learn more about our container rental and storage services. Call Martin at Space Hub now on 0487 8 077 for more details. Join me, Martin, free this and every Friday night from 8 for Rockin' Hits on Highland Radio in association with Arena 7 Letter Kenny. If you're celebrating a birthday or a work night out, Arena 7 Entertainment Complex has it all. Check out arena7.ie The 9 till noon show with Letter Kenny Credit Union. Now offering mortgages from 40,000 to 600,000 euro with no hidden fees or transaction charges. Letter Kenny Credit Union on 991 02 127. OK, now our next topic might fall into the long shot category. Maybe not. We do have quite a bit of success in this regard. So let's see how we get on. Janice, how are you getting on? Good morning. Good morning, Greg. How are you? I am good. I'm good. OK, so how can people help this morning? Well, the story is that a friend of mine, a very dear friend of mine passed away after Lorraine McBride. And Lorraine was a follower of Father Neil Carlin over a month. She loved going to Father Neil's and they loved praying together and saying masses and doing the healing and all. And when Father Neil Carlin passed away, a member of his family close friend of Lorraine asked her did she want his rosary beads and his small crucifix and she was overwhelmed by the light that's by getting them. Now she got the rosary beads and being the person that she was, she was more concerned about bringing the beads out to other people for healing. And we can't find the beads because we think that Lorraine gave them to somebody not telling us who she gave them out to. Now the family are no way angry across that the beads can't be found at the moment because they do believe that they are somebody who needs them. And it's just that her husband Lorraine's wish before she passed away, she said that she would love to have the beads back so her husband is in a bit of a dilemma because he has turned the house upside down and we can't find the beads. So it's really just a disappointment to find out where they are and then from there sort of discuss about getting them back or if they're needed or whatever. It's really just to locate them then at this point, isn't it? It's just to locate the beads and there's no way, like if someone has them they probably need them but the man at the family understand that and there's absolutely no bother or no qualms about anybody that has them. It's just that if the family would be notified it would be great to know that somebody has them. You know what I mean? Do we have any clues as to in what area they might have been given to someone else? We don't have a clue. Maybe we're not too sure because the kind of person that Lorraine was, she would not say that she was bringing them to somebody who needed them. She wouldn't say that kind of way. So it might be somebody that was going through a bad time, somebody that was sick or just needed a bit of comfort so Lorraine probably brought the beads to them and didn't say. Yeah, great woman obviously. Very thoughtful putting others before herself. Yeah, can we describe them or is there anything distinctive about them? Well, they are. Janice, okay, go on. Yeah, yeah. They're a kind of a heavy bead, a really kind of, they're like big beads, you know, and there was a small cross on the beads as well but there was also a small cross, crucifix and a box and I think this father named Carolyn had this cross and people used to come and they would pray with it and hold it like kind of like a relic. They really believed in it and the box also came with the rosary beads. Okay. And they were dark, brown and colour. So distinctive. I mean these aren't like you know, they're distinctive and hopefully the box and the crosses with them as well is that what we hope? That's what we hope, yeah, yeah. Because she did carry the two of them, watered together so whoever got the beads probably would have got the cross as well. Okay. And when is it likely that Lorraine might have given these to someone, do you think, towards the end of last year or last year sometime? Yeah, yeah, that's what we're thinking. We just don't know. We know that she had them and she was allowed to keep them until she felt it was time to, you know, give them back but all that time she just wanted other people to have them as well. So she just went out and round and you know, she just don't know where the last test that she left them off or who she left them off was. Okay. And I can see it being important for Cajar and everyone really associated with Lorraine to at least in the first instance to know where they are and then sure after that to Janice we can take it from there. Yeah. Well, we do believe that Lorraine would want these to be still passed around to people and I think that's why Cajar is a bit anxious that he wants to carry that out because that was her to find the beads, you know. Yeah, Lorraine obviously a big cross to all of you Janice that's coming across loud and clear. Oh, definitely, definitely. She was one of them again and always thought about other people and this is one of her acts that she did before she passed away but unfortunately she hadn't shared it with any of us and that was probably her way of not saying who needed these beads, you know. And it would be lovely if someone had them and just to let us know like we're not going to say give them back or whatever but just you can have them as long as you need them but if we just knew where they were it would be a lot of. That makes a lot of sense. All right, Janice, listen, hopefully someone listening will be able to help join the dots. My sympathies to you and Cajar and everyone affected by Lorraine's loss and hopefully we can come up with a solution to this, Janice. Thanks for your time this morning. Great. Thanks very much, Greg. Thank you. Bye-bye. Okay, so they heard from Janice to hearty there and a really quite distinctive item that Lorraine may have gifted to someone and it may have been passed on to somebody else and I think it's just to track the movements of these items rather than sort of looking for them back immediately if whomever has them just needs them at the moment. So if you can help with that please get in touch with us. 0749125000 Martin Mulhoff is director of the Irish National Seismic Network He joins us now. I hope Martin, good morning to you. Hello, good morning. How are you doing? I am good. I'm good in the talk of the town, the talk of the Canty over the weekend was this 2.5 magnitude earthquake. So what from our equipment and I suppose what has been submitted to the network do we know about this event? Yes, good morning. So we operate seismic network across Ireland at Dias, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and the work supported by the GSI, the Geological Survey. And we have 10 stations now at the moment all around Ireland. There's one station in Donegal and then one in Mayo and Dublin and so on. And early Saturday morning picked up this earthquake which happened in Donegal and in addition we received a lot of failed reports so on our home page there's a link where people can submit what they've failed and heard and experienced and this is really interesting for us. We by now have over 250 failed events so this is a record number for us. That's quite a large number. It's very, very interesting. Yeah and some of the reports that we've been hearing as well, some people reported the house is moving but for the most part it seems to be like a loud crack of thunder or a lorry passing, you know, that type of, is that typical as what you would expect of an earthquake of this size at this depth? Yeah, it's probably quite typical. So yeah, they're the most common observations, like a very distant rumble of a thunder and the lorry one as well but often people say but lasting longer than you would normally expect. So they were like, what's this? This is not normal. You know, a lorry driving by would be, say, one or two seconds but this would have lasted more in the range of 10 seconds and similarly for the thunder. So I think a lot of people realize this is not, this is different. So they went out and had a look. What I find interesting is that it seems there are more people that heard it than felt it. I mean, some people felt and heard it. This is really interesting. Yeah and in terms of the how often we get reports of earthquakes in Ireland, firstly, how common are they? And secondly, are they less common on land than they might be out to sea or vice versa? Is there a pattern? Yeah, there is. So at the moment we record about 20 earthquakes in Ireland and around Ireland per year. It depends a little bit how closer you look because it better your network and we approved our network and the last few years was financing from the Geological Survey. So we nearly doubled the number of stations and now we can see smaller earthquakes, you know. It doesn't mean they're more earthquakes but we see more. We see the smaller ones but the larger ones so for Ireland a 2.5 onshore is a large event relatively speaking and there's no big increase there. So they're not regular earthquakes in general, not really in Ireland, in general they, it's erratic kind of but a felt event in Ireland usually happens about every two years but then sometimes like a few years ago, four years ago in Donegal, there were two in a month, you know, so but that's the kind of rate and you're right. In land, when you look on the map on our home page by the way, it's at INASN.ie and there's a map where you can see all the earthquakes we detected over the last 40 years and there's nothing inland, in the midlands. It's mainly in Donegal and then on the south coast and yes, there are offshore events and especially to the west, they can go up to magnitude 4. I remember I think it was 2012 there was one of Mayo and that was felt by people in Mayo and actually only recently members of the public told me they heard it so they heard the event and the event that earthquake was magnitude 4, that was I think like 80, 90 kilometers offshore. And the way it's counted like 4 is not twice what 2 is is it? It goes up in different increments doesn't it? That's true and that's very important to know so it's an exponential scale. So a magnitude 3 is 10 times larger than a 2, so a 4 is 100 times larger than a 2 and now you can calculate how large was in magnitude 7 in Turkey recently, I mean more than thousands of, I mean it's just completely different scale, it's a different story and that's of course then unfortunately where the damage comes from unfortunately for us here in Ireland, magnitude 2 or 3 is really fortunately not dangerous but it can rattle people and you want to know what's going on of course. So what is actually happening 5 kilometers below ground then that causes this, it must be an immense release of power even at this small scale for it to reverberate as it does, maybe there's so much rock that assists in the waves travelling further, I don't know, you're the expert but what is actually happening when this is this release? Yeah it's still a significant event, you're right, I mean people heard it quite far away all across Donego so there's quite something happening. So basically earthquakes are release of stress that accumulates so it's easier to understand maybe for the big earthquakes which are on plate boundaries so big plates that push against each other and at some stage something has to give but because the plates are moving there's also forces and stress changes inside the plate so we are inside a plate, we're not so close to boundary fortunately so and these stresses also have to be released from time to time and that happens usually with existing fault lines for these smaller forces and that's exactly what happens so there's a big fault line going across several but the Lennon-Folch line going across from, it's coming in from northeast from Scotland and then it goes past Kilibecks and down to Klube and presumably it's not just a simple fault zone, these are fault systems so it's complicated so when then the rock slips and in a part there one by the other that just releases a lot of energy and that then radiates out as vibrations and they are seismic waves that are then recorded but our instruments are basically vibration sensors but they're extremely sensitive so they can pick this up And is there any significance to the depth of this, be it 5 kilometers or 10 or 2 or 1? Yes, yes, well it is very interesting of course the depth is important but I have to say it's actually a very unprecise measurement to know the depth because when you think about it the way we locate earthquakes is by recording the time differences how long does it take from the epicenter to the station in Donegal to the station in Wexford, so there are long distances there are very small time changes but the time change created by earthquake actually at 5 or 10 kilometers is minimal so basically the depth is not very soft in this case you would need a station that's very close by so one would need a much denser station network which of course we can't really justify because it's not really there. Now I did hear someone worried that one of our mountains may stop spewing lava or something, I think we're confident that's not the case this is not the actions of something below an active volcano that we don't know about. No, I don't think that's the case. Okay, simple as that and secondly one does not necessarily, I mean you've talked of the incident I remember it well where we had two events in a short amount of time and of course people would be familiar with the major events when then there are the awful devastating ones where there are significant losses of life and what have you and then you'll get subsequent tremors or earthquakes. This is not that type of event, this is not something we can sort of expect a secondary event is it presumably? Yeah, no, it's quite possible to be honest but usually aftershocks usually they're much smaller so because this is a smaller earthquake if there is an aftershock or several they're presuming there might be so small that we might not detect, definitely not feel them but then I can't exclude that either so and for example for the two events there in Donegal four years ago was the one was the aftershock of the other it's very, very difficult to know what does it actually mean in aftershocks so presumably I guess it would mean the second event wouldn't have happened when the first one wouldn't have happened but we never can test that we live on the earth, we can't reproduce this in the lab where you could do this I mean the first event did happen, we can't undo it so we don't know what the second one would have happened anyway or the way these aftershocks work is the first big event the stress is released but some part of it gets relocated on neighboring structures in the underground so basically if there is a neighboring fault zone that is close to move so if it gets the extra energy from the seismic waves and the stress redistribution of the first event it might bring that fault zone over the limit and then that fails and that's a classic aftershock but whether that's then actually happening like this or not it's nearly impossible to say to be honest but for these very large events back in Turkey you can then look at the statistics I mean the tens of thousands of aftershocks you can see whether it happened it's kind of beautiful in a way I know I mean this was of course exactly what you're saying and my thoughts are of course with all the people that were terribly affected by this when these aftershocks happen one can see all the structures in the underground when you see plots of where all these earthquakes happen you can then see all these fault zones but for this small earthquake that we had here it's the world reorganizing itself I suppose but obviously then there can be devastating impacts above ground and just it's relatively predictable isn't it in terms of where plates end and are butted against each other versus sort of thin lines I mean there's nothing to suggest in this part of Western Europe that we'd ever see something where the ground may open for an example that's where we're not really necessarily prone to that are we well yeah we can forecast where earthquakes happen so where they happen and also statistically how often they happen but not the exact time and also not the exact location or it will be there at that time we can't do that that would be a prediction at the moment this is not possible a lot of scientists think this is never possible because that's how the system works but there can be forecasts so we know where is the danger in Turkey and you know Japan and on the west coast of the US and then building regulations are accordingly hopefully implemented but yeah in Europe I mean in Italy there are quite devastating aspects from time to time and in Greece as well so it's dangerous alright and it's important to study this in detail I think to help with not only the building regulations also how you deal with the disaster that then happens to help people and very finally Martin how exciting is this event for you guys in the national seismic network is there plenty of data there to get your teeth stuck into or is this a case closed onto the rest of Monday's business no it's definitely not I mean first of all it's of course exciting because we get contacted by all the people that ask what is going on and we can showcase what we're actually doing but no I mean we have also a couple of offline stations that we then can visit not many but we do so we will then get a more precise location and more information and also to drill into the felt event reports some are really very interesting giving very interesting details we have over 250 now and you know we have also seen yeah and I should mention maybe there are also a couple of citizen stations so stations that are not operated this started a few years ago with these instruments they're called raspberry shakes and during the pandemic was quite getting popular and we were very bored we were incredibly bored so we thought we'd get so we stayed to keep that up as well so that's interesting as well so we look at that into more detail as well and it is astonishing how sensitive this equipment is I mean this event would have been felt far from our shores wouldn't yeah that is true I mean so the stations in the UK up to France would pick this up yeah they're very sensitive instruments fascinating as always we're talking about this stuff I love it okay listen thank you very much Martin and people can go and check out the Irish National Seismic Network for more information thanks for your time that's Martin Mulhoff who is the director of the Irish National Seismic Network for all your Donegal Earthquaking needs Grania on Facebook says definitely felt in earthquake around five years ago in the Ballon Drate area of Lifford the ground shook in my kitchen and over time our kitchen tiles split looked out the window too as I thought it was a lorry had passed maybe maybe it's impossible Grania that's the event four odd years ago that Martin was talking of there if you have any interesting stories about that earthquake over the weekend let us know 08 660 25000 watch the show live now on YouTube Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com the night till noon show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit union offering low rate holiday loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today it's easy to feel trapped when you're dealing with mortgage arrears the worry sleepless nights the impact on you and your family but there is a way out welcome come on in at Awalya our door is always open we're here to help and ready to listen get free confidential support and practical advice to help you take control of the 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sensation view our new arrivals click on BMC Sports.ie for your free delivery now volunteers from our cantees three R & L I lifeboat stations they are of course Locke Swillian in a show and Bundorn down the south of the cantee and Aaron Moore at the west are going to climb the highest mounting in Donegal that's Errigal it's as part of the Charities May Day fundraising campaign John MacArthur is lifeboat operations manager with Locke Swillian R & L I and he joins us right now good morning to you John how are you keeping I'm very good Greg can't complain it's good it's good to have you with us so a lot of focus on fundraising in May and this all forms part of that I presume yeah I mean May Day is sort of a as the month month of May effectively and it's a month we concentrate a lot of effort on fundraising May Day being the distress call that we respond to but it's kind of goes out as a call for funding as well so it's it has over the years that has grown from a day into a month and there's a lot of activity during this month all right okay and the top attraction is these crews climbing Errigal and do I read it correctly that they're going to do it in all their gear yes they there's actually six volunteers who are going to climb in the in the in the full R & L I gear the full sort of all weatherboat gear and two from each station Aston Cox and Brian Proctor out of R & More Chris Fox and Brian Fowley from Bondone and Stephen Quigley and Barry Nixon from up here in Lux Willy so they're they're going to be the main focus and we I think some of our other volunteers may well do the climb as well but they're the ones that are the centre of the fundraiser if you like and I think it's great idea Greg and that you know Errigal is kind of the main sort of iconic focus of Donegal we're the we as the R & L I along with our Coast Guard colleagues and whatnot look after about 1100 kilometres of coastline in the county of Donegal where there are something like 100 plus beaches and over 150 piers and harbours so there's a big big coastline that the three stations care carefully look after and try and keep people and they're amazing in what they do and I mean if anyone's ever seen the professionalism do you know what I mean how quickly they respond the quality the gear how quickly they get the boat into the water despite some of the challenges that people blocking roads and piers and what have you but still they get in there and get out so quickly just regular people the far from regular people don't get me wrong but it's just the scale and the level of professionalism that they are in the lies at now particularly I can only speak for here in Donegal it really is quite a remark it's remarkable in the testimony to all the commitment to you guys well they certainly are there are a great bunch of people all around the country I mean there's like 46 stations around the coast of Ireland and three of these are in Donegal and they all act and perform the same manner with a very high level of training and commitment that the organization puts puts our way but unfortunately all of that Greg costs a lot of money to keep in position when you know equipment and and and the training that goes with it and it's it never ceases to amaze me that such an organization can survive totally on donated funds from the general public and yet it is a an emergency service it orders the only emergency service that is a charity effectively I mean when we talk of and it's not the only sorry there are other emergency services like our cliff cliff rescue teams and what have you not wishing to leave anybody out but you know it is a you call 999 right it's ambulance it's it's it's Garde it's fire it's get someone out to me in the water do you know what I mean any use of the only sort of arm of that that relies on bucket rattling yeah I mean we're totally voluntary organization in that respect and believe you know this next year will be 200 years old and it has always been that way and it has always survived and it has always prospered and I suppose one of the things that gives us a great level of independence and a great freedom to operate with the consent and support of the general public for which we are eternally grateful because without them we could not do the job we do so how do people support the guys and I use that obviously covering all genders heading up the mountain then when is that actually happening and how do people support it well it's very easy Greg the get the client was taking place next Saturday on the 13th of May and it's been supported by a just giving page with the details are on any R and L I station here it's just giving page one crew Clive Marigal is an amateur to be on your you're on how we'll share it of course we all the stations are sharing it and already I think as I checked this morning there's a couple of thousand euro in there that's already been donated so it's very very easy for anybody to click on and and show their support for us and as I've already said we get some tremendous support from our public here in Donegal and across the country and I say we are a huge grateful for it but this is a very concentrated effort and I think it should be a very it should be a fun day for those that are actually doing it that's easy for you to say why don't you stick on your your whole weather life you stick how much fun it is so much fun it is then John it's all right me and you sit on a zoom call here every day I don't doubt you would I don't doubt you would be John is fundraising getting any more difficult now because obviously are the great public's generosity is on wavering it seems and I think that's a feather in our cap and not something we should be ashamed of but just in terms of the old mechanisms you know with cash and coins and that type of stuff I found myself some of your people were collecting I can't remember where it was it was outside a shop there not so long ago like I don't carry cash you know what I mean and it's like I managed I tell you what I actually did put the money for the trolley and because it's all I had in the car and he started carrying me stuff in my arms but do you yes I've had to adapt a bit then because I presume I'm kind of not on my own here no you're absolutely right Greg and yeah I think what you're referring to we very kindly with with Aldi give us a collecting day that's exactly where it was yeah and we've done very well with those but yeah we do have we can take card payments now as well and and donations that way but there's still a fair lot of cash about certainly I did a couple hours with it didn't involve climbing area but my local Aldi here with a group of guys and girls and we did we we still managed to raise okay well I'm a liar I'm gonna we have to adapt and we do adapt and those things like just giving like we're using give us a stretch all into everybody's domain so that they can support us if and when they want to so we are reacting to all those changes and thankfully our public and our support is reacting to them as well all right John listen it's always a pleasure to have you on the show the best of luck to the crews climbing Mount Arigal this coming Saturday we'll link the donation page if you can any wee bit at all because if a thousand euro give a euro thousand people give a euro that's a thousand euro do you know what I mean now obviously you'd hope people can dig a little bit deeper but that's a lot of us can can raise a lot of money even if we only donate a little justgiving.com and search one and we you can go to the the are analyzed pages in Donegal and our pages and we'll get the links up there right John it's as I say it is always lovely to have you on the show thank you very much and I suppose what we need to just remind people of because the weather now is the temperatures are starting to heat up a little bit if we get good weather next week the water will become very very busy very very quickly some of us are a little bit rusty some of us maybe it's just being worn and that it's in working order or maybe it has a gas cylinder and that gas cylinder might need changing if you're going to use the water you have to make sure that you just run through the basics to make sure your engines not full of oil instead of petrol of its lane idle over the week over the over the winter whatever it might be just double check everything before you head out right we could do with you on our team there's your well versed OK thank you take care of yourself right that is John McArthur he's the lifeboat operations manager in loss Willie R N L I and we wish the lads and ladies climbing a safe trip how's that lady who's looking to find the beads asked Santa Anthony to find them he never lets me down and when the fan put a few bob in his collection box I get the impression that they will have tried all of those but they're not going to be in the line yet no nothing yet OK we're looking for a set of rosary beads quite significant in size probably with a box with a crossing a lady who had them in a possession she was a very generous person although she was sick herself and very sadly has passed since she gifted them to someone else we believe so they're out there somewhere potentially and they just want to find out her husband just wants to find out where they can locate them so we can they can track the path of possession so to speak the Ninetyl 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 hi Paddy here at Shane Conley Cars in Donegal Town are you looking to upgrade your car? 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On-post is authorised by the Minister for Finance to provide foreign currency cash. Now obviously it makes sense for the Irish Blood Transfusion Service to have a buffer of a blood supply they try to keep it at seven days but unfortunately following on from Bank Holiday and other pressures pressures on the services that has fallen off somewhat I think down to four days so it is imperative that if you are inclined to give blood that you do so. Stephen Cousins is head of donor services and marketing with the Blood Transfusion Service thanks for joining us. Good morning Greg. Alright so that is the basics really is it as it relates to stocks at the moment? It is yeah it's very tight after Easter and the Maybank holiday a lot of people change their routines here in those periods so it does affect the attendance of clinics so we are at this moment just over four days across all of the blood groups but within that then there is particular blood groups that we are at just over three days not least O negative which is just 3.2 days and that is the unit of all patients so that is really really important to have a reasonable supply of that and we certainly don't have that at the moment but even the other blood groups like A Paws which is a quarter of the population we are at 3.2 days of that as well and even O Paws which is the majority of the population well it is about 50% of the population we are just at four and a half days so overall it is very very tight it is not a position we like to be in and it is part of the days that we need to get back into routines after the Maybank holiday on Easter but that can take some time but the hospitals don't slow down and we are still seeing issues very high in hospitals. Yeah and the reality is that we never know when we might need a blood transfusion ourselves there are many many cases and many different conditions whereby we might have to draw on these supplies ourselves so it is in everyone's interest to contribute if they can. It is people might not realise but one in four of us will require a blood transfusion at some point in our lives so it is if you think about it if it is not our blood transfusion within our family certainly people we know within our community and there is a very high chance that a lot of people already within your community that have had blood transfusions and you are simply not aware of this I suppose one way to think about it is if you know anybody who has fought cancer it is very very likely they have received blood and platelets transfusions and without those blood and platelets they wouldn't be able to fight cancer at all it is the oil that kind of keeps the health service going maybe something people think about but if there is no blood all these operations can't happen and they can't even be scheduled because they won't go ahead because they need to know to have blood in case something goes wrong so it is a really important part of the health service but it is not something you can plan too far in advance because obviously blood is effectively a perishable product so you can't store it you can't freeze it so this idea that we have our connections every week and we are all over the country in those communities and what we collect this week is very much supplied for later this week and for next week and if we experience kind of low clinic attendance it impacts immediately and that is what we are kind of seeing at the moment. We will give the locations in a moment and I am sure we will use the opportunity to appeal to regular donors to get back into that routine and to help you out but let's talk about people who have never donated before that might be listening that perhaps get a better understanding of how important this is in terms of they may themselves be the one in four that might require it into the future or someone in their family definitely as soon as you start talking about people close to you that one in four gets much closer to two in four or three in four so if someone is listening what are the criteria now or what is the criteria for donating blood in terms of age, health status and that type of thing well I suppose in terms of an age of over 18 so you have to turn 18 to give blood and the maximum age is 65 if you haven't given blood before and if you have given blood there is an element where you can give a little bit beyond that and in terms of health there is a lot of reasons why you can't give blood but generally there are reasons that don't affect most people the key thing is actually to make sure that you are in good health and that you feel them well but probably the best thing in terms of new donors what we always recommend is to take an eligibility quiz test on our website giveblood.ie it only takes you two or three minutes to do it and it covers probably 99% of the reasons why someone might be able to give blood it could be that they have travelled to a malaria area or they have had a tattoo in the last four months to kind of temporary reasons in a lot of cases so what we say is people should visit the website take that test and if there is nothing kind of screaming at them that means they are ineligible then what we say is give us a call on tree 7 and you know we can arrange an appointment to come on the clinic or if you have any further questions we can kind of talk that through a little bit as well Whilst I have you, someone was on we were talking about something to do with blood last week and if you don't have this information to hand or if I am incorrect Stephen that is perfectly fine but that you just haven't been at West in Donegal was it Guidor or Dunlow they mentioned for some time is that the case or do you know off the top of your head? Yes we struggled certainly but during Covid it was really difficult we had to go to kind of bigger venues for space and wise so that we could kind of bring the numbers into social distancing and part of the problem we have had since then is actually getting back to venues so I don't know the specifics of the individual venue in Dunlow but part of it is that we kind of work around the various restrictions we have so there is only certain venues or certain sizes work for us so what we have had to do is actually get the venues for Dunlow donors that we asked them to attend the Balibuffet clinic which is on this week and it is something we are trying to look to is get back to the smaller clinics but there are some challenges around that and not least availability being a big part of this. Right okay so the focus as you mentioned is in Jackson's hotel tomorrow the day after and the day after that and it is central so you are looking to catch people presumably from you know Donegal to Hankely, Beggs, Leatherkenny and make it along over some of these sessions so tell people when and where then please Stephen. Yes so as you say Greg so we are in Jackson's hotel Tuesday, tomorrow between 3 and 5 and 7 and 9.30 and again on Wednesday the same time and then Thursday again it is our third day there slightly different times 12 to 2 and 4 to 7.30 so we have appointments we ask people to ring us or we certainly recommend people to ring us to make an appointment so if they are in 1-800-731-137 that means we can kind of find a slot for you it means you get in quickly and you know most people are out within 45 minutes to an hour we do take walk-ins as part of the clinic but it just means that you could be unlucky, you could arrive in when there is a queue ahead of you such that people with appointments so we do recommend appointments which is walk-ins as well yeah go ahead please it is just interesting to notice there is one thing you have mentioned about the criteria in terms of people being able to get blood one thing that happens is the criteria does change quite a bit we have had a number of changes in the last couple of years sometimes it takes a while for the message to get across but it is interesting a lot of people still say to us they ask if they spent time in the UK including Northern Ireland because we used to have effectively known as the UK ban that people who lived in the UK for a year couldn't get blood that has been listed a number of years now and that does actually impact a lot of people around border regions in particular so it is something we do kind of emphasize it is always worth checking the criteria and there is another criteria as well again for a long time people are hemochromatosis which does impact in the west of Ireland more so than other parts of Ireland a lot of those people were patients who couldn't get blood the effect we can give blood now so that is that is something we do you preempted my last question so thank you in terms of that last category you talk of hopefully you get a good turnout Stephen thank you Stephen Cousins there head of donor services and marketing with the blood transfusion services dog cats rabbits birds and fish some of the popular home pets that need care and attention every day at Gary's Pet World are fully trained staffer here to help you and your pets we offer great advice and value in all foods accessories grooming and care products with incredible offers and all leading brands shop in store at Gary's Pet World letter Kenny retail park open 7 days per week or browse and buy 24 7 at petworld.ie come over with 2E secure your holiday today with savings for families and adults flying from Dublin, Cork and Shannon holiday sorted 2E live happy are the signs of aging creeping up on you are you not happy with the way you look or feel at letter Kenny medics private clinic we're here to help you offering Botox anti-wrinkle injections derma fillers skin bio injections Botox treatment for grinding and clenching teeth hyper hydroses that aids excessive sweating let our doctors help bring back your confidence and look after what is important to you to see what real results really look like book your immediate appointment with no waiting times at letter Kenny medics.ie letter Kenny medics we listen if you want to talk Hi folks, Paul McDevill here I invite you to join myself and Jimmy Stafford this Monday night for another edition of the Monday night sessions on the show this week we welcome the brilliant one for the road will also be joined by our dress singer songwriters and we've also got the very best of new releases from throughout the country so until Monday night sessions this Monday night between 8pm and 10pm right here on Highland Radio with all the stories that matter across the Northwest it's Greg Hughes on the 90 noon show on Highland Radio okay another hour to go in the program stay right where you are let's get a news update now and welcome back into studio Donald Kavanaugh thank you Greg good morning two men have been arrested in relation to a security alert in Oma at the weekend police investigating a vehicle hijacking and subsequent security incident in the Derry Road area on Saturday carried out two searches last night a 56 year old man was arrested during a search in Oma a 29 year old was arrested during a search in Straban both searches saw vehicles also seized the government is being accused of letting people in the West die by failing to honour a commitment to the National Development Centre in Galway the centre was promised under the national development plan 21 to 30 but so far there's been no movement the West and Northwest of Ireland have the highest incidence and mortality rates from cancer in the country the director of seismic networks at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies says Dave already received a record number of reports of the magnitude 2.5 earthquake recorded in Donegal in the early hours of Saturday Dr Martin Mulhoff told Greg on this and that he says is a very interesting development just over half a million euros being made available to support the integration of migrants the government funding is being made available to local community-based projects nationwide since its inception the government's community integration fund has supported over 820 projects and the Irish Deer Commission says it's concerned that decisions around deer culling will be made by the public and not by experts it's after a major consultation process found over 80% of people believe the national deer herd is damaging biodiversity 86% of respondents told the deer management strategy group that the culling of deer is a necessity and we're back with news headlines again at 12 noon. Alright Donal thank you very much indeed and that's how you get in touch with us with your whatsapps and texts 086625 thousand if you're listening outside the republic of course 003538660 25,000 or call us on 07491 25,000 again from outside the republic 003537491 25,000 emails from anywhere in the world straight into us here at comments at HighlandRadio.com and feel free to interact with us across our social media we are fully interactive a caller says I have a real issue with this what do others think I've been a count with air for almost 30 years I called this morning to question a bill which has gone up for no apparent reason but they would not talk to me about it because I refused to give them my date of birth also it's only today that I notice that I'm paying six euro to get a paper bill sent to me imagine paying anyone to send you a bill if they want paid surely the bill should be part of that service if I went into a shop today and bought some goods there is no way they would or I would give my date of birth to simply pay the bill what do you think about that I suppose they have to identify after the bill and I mentioned last week if you go and get a money order out of the post office you have to supply your date of birth as well on Friday the 21st of April I was driving into Lettricanny at 8 21 a.m. and was fined for driving at 71 miles per hour at Maherberg school my issue here is the speed is 100 and there was not any light up signs to say the speed was dropped at school time to 60 I have raised this with the guard and go save van crew but I'm getting no way did anyone else get these fines and are they willing to join me in a joint complaint that the flashing reduced speed signs was not operational I wonder why not I have seen some lag and I'm not sure who's responsible for them I've seen some lag before in the clocks going forward but that gap is too wide there isn't it's probably not that so they were passing the school at Maherberg they claimed that the temporary 60 speed limit lights were on but they were done for doing 71 in ordinarily 100 miles per hour area kilometers per hour you know what they're saying so is that something you've come across I'll wait 60 25,000 or 07491 25,000 this caller is looking for others who may be affected to get involved in a joint complaint a caller says earthquakes are just God's way of telling us he's peed off and we're all you know what it okay I hope not maybe we should listen Brendan Daveney is going to join us now are you there Brendan no he's not there quite yet so we'll go to Brendan Daveney in a second we're going to talk to him about what's coming up on the DL debates podcast that's coming up for you very very shortly right so I've always been taught you go to work every day earn an honest living build your home and provide as best you can and set an example for your children two years ago we had to strip the external leaf on our home as it was cracking from Mike and myself and wife decided to use our savings before moisture would eventually leak inside mean total definition money couldn't pay to see our home tip down it cost 40k now the government has what seems an unlimited pot of money to house Ukrainians and other nationals how can we tell our children to work and earn an honest living when deep down I feel like telling them to turn 18 apply for a social house and have a cozy life as now more than ever a working man as a foolish man thanks Greg I understand where you're coming from I understand your frustration but there's enough money to do what we have to do and to properly fix your house as well right Brendan Daveney are you there Brendan can you hear me we are live on Highland Radio good morning you have to put me on speaker yeah I don't want to go wrong I hardly tour there I'll kick you out well I'll kick you out I'll kick you out and bring you back I'm just looking at his ear oh my word I think he's clean which is one positive right we'll get Brendan back in can you hear me a bit better now Brendan I never ever want to see your ear close up like that ever again that was a that was a one time only thing come here has football gone to pot at the minute what do you mean just in terms of watching the games one sided affairs pointless for the team that's going to get thrashed pointless for the team that's going to win by a wide margin a pointless spectacle to watch that's if they're even live because a lot of the games you expect to see are on GEA go and yet RTE will pay an absolute fortune to show four hours of a a foreign king getting crowned so to speak I don't mean that and some games we can't see and then the games we kind of crap yeah this has been happening for a while obviously the provincial championships are on the way out they'll be gone soon so you just have that on even situation a number of teams are there's been no way four divisions in Ireland and the championship we end up with top teams playing bottom teams and over a number of years that's why the new championship format's on the provincial council still are persisting with us of course the Ulster championship's the only one that's of any merit and any one teams one to one but that's not going to be enough to keep the other three going I mean if you look even the Connick they're slightly competitive but they don't really care but actually one in the Nest or Cup you know it's not that big of a thing it would be to someone like Sligo don't get me wrong but to the other teams in there the bigger picture is all about the Sam McGuire so I think provincials will be gone soon who know you better because they're devalued as it is and it'll stop this situation where top top teams are playing lower teams and you see them and you're seeing it at the weekend there which you're right there's a waste of time yeah something has to be done and I mean we might resist that most up here but we have to look at it on a national level I suppose in terms of the games and the competitiveness just because we've six relatively competitive counties we're not going to be able to hold back the direction of traffic here then yeah that's a good listen it's the only way it has to be and I think it's best for everybody to know because a lot of people is questioning about this championship about what's the new format and I think it'll be a bit of getting used to and like everything it'll take a wee bit of tweaking but certainly the provincials now are basically getting in the way of the real championship and it'd be better I think for the structure if we have the league and if you do well in the league and you go up the divisions you get into Sam McGuire and that's how it needs to be even this thing we have left about the likes of Slago being in the All Ireland series now because they made a provincial final I mean those things are pointless to leave that on there because you're knocking out a team in division two that might be able to compete in that All Ireland group and in fairness to Slago they are all not great don't get me wrong they've backed it back onto 20 titles their colleges are doing down there they are on the build but they're not surviving in the group phase of the championship now they might prove me wrong a couple of hands are down there called McFadden obviously and big Paul Durk and two legends that are doing footballs helping out and coaching in Slago so listen they are on the upgrade but it's a huge jump as we're seeing for top teams the lower teams if you even look at the hammer and Armad made it out to the team that beat us down we'll knock one of them down and go footballs out at the minute but generally that is what's happening the team that's division three almost got onto two getting hammered out to get by a team like Armad which is a genuine All Ireland contender but where is the if there's such an overhaul of the championship coming up and constantly having to twiddle it and to make it watchable and to make it entertaining and yet we have there what seems to be actually a really good setup in the league you know where is in terms of the hierarchy like for the fan where you're seeing your team play teams normally an equal strength and there is that what we're familiar with that threat of dropping down and now all the conversation is can we get back up into division one or are we going to slip into division three or will we find our feet in division two you know it's I know it's interesting we don't that's not where we want to be yet this championship which I actually really can't even understand the draw that was just made right in terms of who plays who and why right and as I say I'm interested in your view because you are GA through and through and you know better than I am just really casual like at what point then does the league become for more people genuinely more entertaining and important than the championship well I suppose Greg the league is the league it's a pre championship type competition I think the reason people have got excited about it this last number of years is just for what you're saying because the teams have been there's been a lot of mismatches in it so people have kind of enjoyed the league it's a bit more I suppose there's less tension in it in terms of you know it's not do or die in each game and sometimes teams play a wee bit open because of that and you also have the novelty of you know top teams in the country coming here and us going to play other big teams that you don't get to play in the championship generally that's changing now as I say you're going to get far more teams playing each other big teams in the championship and basically it's four groups of four you know the top team goes through the two and three play each other off in a pre quarter final game so basically the three teams that they end all of a chance only the team at the very bottom of the group are out yeah but there's something like there's something like what 20-22 games to get rid of four teams yeah but suppose that's what you're talking about Greg if you're on about the best teams playing each other you're going to get a lot of that happening now how much championship remains to be seen because we've seen it even be super eights now Greg you can't have an odd dead rubber game on there you can't have you're not going to get the championship until it's knockout and even at that for me once you get the quarter final semi-final those are games on their own anyway so that thing I mean I'm old enough as you know Greg to have played in knockout championship when it was one game and it was bang and there's obviously something a bit electrifying about that you're never going to get that anymore that was quite unfair I suppose on teams top teams you know you'd one game in the championship and you'd some of the best teams in Ireland gone but then you know people argue they were back to their clubs in them and all of that so really there was a hunger for bigger teams playing bigger teams and we're just at that getting that phase now Greg I don't think it'll you know you might and say it'll be perfectly right but basically the league the top two divisions make up the championship basically Greg that's where it's at I mean they left the card down to the Italian Cup you get into the all-Ireland series that West made as well which I think is fair enough I think that that needs to be left on there but apart from that I think it should be left as the as the top basically the top two divisions are playing off with all Ireland at the bottom to play through the Italian right okay onto the show tonight we'll get to live stories in a minute but obviously you'll be getting reaction to the weekend's action you were at the minor game weren't you at the Tony Gall Miners Cup short against Monaghan unfortunately and I was in Lifford yesterday at the Tony Gall Ladies we're beaten by our mass so listen there's no good news coming at the minute in the Tony Gall G8 only people flying the flag I think at the minute or you'd have to say there's a hurl they're on the up and up generally and I suppose we're turning the life story to that to a hurling legend the scene right Joe Boyle's the man in question yeah 17 years at the Tony Gall there's a fine fuffler as well Bert Ladd you know he's four all Irons and captain Donny Gall doing all Irons as well and unbelievable timing sport in Donny Gall I mean a great story a great lad to off the pitch who had done Nadine Dordy a couple of weeks ago in terms of the Donny Gall Ladies then we went to Colin McFadden so now we're on the hurling I think that's important Greg and the show you know we are a G8 show we need to promote obviously a huge thing in Donny Gall just a fantastic work done at Hurling as well so I thought it was nice to for the first three stories to have three legends across our GA world in terms of ladies Hurling and football yeah and Joe will have a great insight into that whole journey of Donny Gall Hurling not only is Hurling career that's going to be fascinating the show is live just after 7pm news tonight's podcast of course on our website HighlandRadio.com so you can listen to it if you're training for the podcast and listen to the DL debates in association with Sarah's Kitchen at sister Sarah's letter Kenny as always Brent lovely to have you on the show thanks for your insights take care of yourself Brendan Daveney there The Counties Number One Talk Show The Nine Till Noon Show on Highland Radio The Nine Till Noon Show with Letter Kenny Credit Union Simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from Letter Kenny Credit Union Call us on 0749102126 or apply online via our app or in office today Don't miss the incredible Tumbling Patties in the Abbey Hotel Dunnegal Town on Saturday 13th of May Tickets are 20 Euro and can be purchased online at abbeyhoteldunnegal.com or you can pay at the door Don't miss out on this unforgettable night with the Tumbling Patties This May, Century Cinemas are bringing a range of shows to the big screen including the Eurovision Grand Final an exhilarating compilation of Eric Clapton's legendary performances on the 17th and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters live broadcast from Prague on the 25th Book your tickets now at CenturyCinemas.ie If you're having a party Bizprint can create invitations, banners posters and photo frames for any occasion Give your guests a fun way to create great memories with props and photo frames Call Bizprint on 9-1-779-5 on www.bizprint.ie Highland Radio Time Checks with Expressway Travel Route 32 from Letty Kennedy Dublin when you book online and travel for less Expressway, bringing you the time, Art It's 17 minutes past 11 Charlie, good morning to you Thanks for taking the call today Good morning, Greg We heard from a listener earlier on who found themselves with 700 Euro credit on their electricity bill You're in a similar position, Charlie Yeah, mine's over 800 Euro credit I didn't realize it until about a month ago I have a direct debit you see with the literary Ireland and they were taking money out of my account all the same obviously and I was in credit all the time and the government gave us some money apparently but I was to put it on directly into the to the electricity board's account So anyway, I rang them up and they tell me that the electricity bill stopped by direct debit and I don't know if I paid anything and the 700, 800 and a half is gone Okay, so are you happy with You can't get Pardon? Oh sorry, I was literally going to answer the question I was about to ask, are you happy with that knowing that your power costs are covered for a few months or would you prefer to be able to get access to that money, Charlie? Well thanks very good I don't need the money right away but if I needed it, I couldn't get it anyhow So they just we hope that they'll cancel the direct debit and that I'll not be paying any more out of thought for whatever time it takes to get rid of this 800 So it's a little fault in the way because I wasn't checking my bullet obviously like I just direct debit and I've never even thought about it but I'm sure there must be a lot more other people out there in the same bracket as myself Exactly and others too that would probably could do with that 700, 800 euro to go towards food and all because we're not into control That's what I was thinking about, there are people in dire states who would need that Because this sounds like compulsory saving and you don't need that, people would be able to manage their finances themselves Well I mean they were definitely taking the money out and they shouldn't have been taking it out obviously but that's the way it was and you can't get it back apparently but people would probably need it the people who were getting this money originally were in dire states because they couldn't pay for the electricity bills and of course I was trying to save a little bit too on your cutting down electricity obviously so I was quite surprised when I checked back how long my credit was how long I had the credit so it was a while that I mentioned that other people out there may be in the same boat so I don't know whether they can get it back or not Well you see they have your money effectively and Charlie if you check your bills what's your bills been like on average the last wee while Oh God I haven't got those things unfortunately I don't know I'm just wondering how many will you get four months out of the 800 I hope you do Oh certainly well yeah I don't have the data at all because I matter of fact it was well over 800 at one stage it's been reduced a little bit already You'll be alright for sub Charlie if I get short will you Alright buy me a pint that will do How's that Anyway all the people who may be interested of course and it's very interesting you've actually explained it all and it makes a lot of sense so I really appreciate you coming on and making that a little bit clearer for us Charlie Good man have a lovely day Okay thank you Thank you very much indeed Any similar stories there 08 660 25,000 WhatsApps and texts to that number or give us a call on 07491 25,000 Right I'll get to that next bit We're joined in now on the programme by Donald Kavanaugh from the newsroom because to Northern Ireland's elections 2023 we're going to find out all about what's going on here and Donald Kavanaugh of course from the newsroom and an election aficiado as you would all know joins us now to try and make some sense of it all Donald Yeah I've been looking specifically at the Dairy City and Strabandistry Council area because obviously it's the one where we would have in Northern Ireland it's a council area that sort of takes in obviously the whole of Dairy City the whole of Straband and the surrounding areas as well beyond the city of Dairy Airport and then out towards Victoria Bridge then out Castle Durga here and out that direction as well so it's a very big sort of council area so we're going to take a bit of a focus on that one today So before we get to that what elections are taking place and when it's on the 19th of May and this is to determine really your councillors This is the make up of the local councillors in Northern Ireland it's not an anime linked to Stormont so these are the councils that operate and continue to operate and will operate after this month as well so there is a possibility of maybe assembly elections in the not too distant future but we can park that to one side this is local elections that they've had them in England and they've had them in Scotland and Wales already so it's the North's turn later on this month and as you said it's the 19th That's the counting isn't it so it's paying more attention to the councillors Exactly you're right and I misled everyone I'll mislate Just then into the wider context I presume before we get into the nitty gritty we can only presume to the likes of the DUP we'll be watching very closely because I presume what's been happening as you say these are people that continue to work but presumably what's happening in the general political landscape may well be reflected somewhat in the local elections so it's an important marker for the big parties Yes I mean and what's going to be important for instance you mentioned the DUP one of the questions the DUP are going to be asking is can we consolidate our support or will we lose seats for instance to people like Jim McAllister's TUV the unionist voice are we going to lose to the UUP for instance what will the verdict be on for instance Stormont and inevitably some people will try to turn this into a referendum on Stormont now the parties themselves will be at pains to stress that they're campaigning on local issues in local areas and they're putting up the people they believe best in each district electoral area to do the job in that area but inevitably it will be seen as a referendum and where those votes go as well because you know one can't presume that someone who's disenchanted with the DUP might go to the UUP or from Sinn Féin to the STLP or between Sinn Féin and the DUP I mean you have other parties in there and two are in a couple of areas which will be interesting to hear and Alliance is a good option for a lot of people who maybe want to get away from the sort of and Alliance is one of the interesting ones because if you look down I've been looking at all the words in Derry City in Sturban and in the places where Alliance are gaining the last time gained from the STLP and the Alliance gained from the DUP so a lot of people looking for that middle ground will possibly look toward Alliance you do have obviously changes within unionism changes within nationalism but it's never quite as simple and Derry is always an interesting one because Derry is seen as the last real political stronghold of the STLP and there's been an ongoing for the past number of years you know STLP versus Sinn Féin in the form of Mark Durkin that was taken by Alicia McCallion then Colomistwood of the STLP took that back and there was a very very large post-mortem within Sinn Féin when they lost that seat and that led to sort of sweeping changes across Sinn Féin and Derry that happened just under two years ago in 2021 and maybe this council election is going to be a test of that to see can Sinn Féin consolidate their strength in the city because Sinn Féin will tell you that they want to get that Westminster seat back in Derry because they feel they shouldn't to Colomistwood when they did and there's quite a bit of rebuilding to be done by that party in that part of the world so before we get into the runnison riders would there be a sense that people feel more connected to the councils in Northern Ireland than they might in the Republic in that they cancel half seemingly in the Northmore direct control over local issues if you think about what's within the gift of elected representatives in the Republic but you know you're talking bin charges, you know, leisure services all that type of stuff do you think there's a stronger connection between the electorate and councils in NI rather than ROI? It depends Greg but for instance like in the ROI for instance councils have a say in things like planning which they don't in Northern Ireland likewise housing all the the council will be consulted on things like housing north of the border but it's the housing executive who are going to make those decisions so things like housing things like planning as you said they'll actually be there's more council involvement south of the border now as you said correctly in terms of the refuse collection in terms of recycling centres there's a lot more direct council involvement in that and there's also a lot more direct council involvement in things like running the leisure centres where is what tends to happen in the Republic if you take say Aura in letter Kenny it's owned by the council but it's operated by a private company on behalf of the council again on Graydon Theatre is owned by the council but it's operated almost independently with its own board of directors on which the council has representation obviously but where is the council the councils will have more direct involvement where people will have a lot more sort of contact with the council as the council does set a rate and the people pay that rate directly to the council now here we pay our property taxes etc to government but you know you're actually paying a rate in Northern Ireland and that rate is set by the council here there are commercial rates and water charges for businesses in Northern Ireland when the council sets a rate it's a rate across the board but you actually know what you're getting for it unlike the property tax so shall we go through the various districts then do you want to start with Dairy City and Straban District Council as I said I was looking specifically at Dairy City and Straban District Council they have seven district's electoral areas and the first one is Ballyarnas we have six seats, nine candidates it takes in areas around about Coulmore, Shantalo, Carnhill, Gallia and Skag in 2019 at the last election they returned three STLP two Sinn Fein and one Intu and in that instance it was STLP and Intu Gaining and Sinn Fein and Independence Losing you now move on if we stay in the city we'll go to Foilsight which takes in Ballymigrorty, Northland, Rosemount, Springtown 2019 of the five seats we had two STLP, one Sinn Fein one people before profit and one independent eight candidates contesting this time Foilsight, Sinn Fein losing this time losing to people before profit if you go to the Moor which is Craig and Brandy really that's the heart of Dairy you have five seats, nine candidates this time in 2019 you had two Sinn Fein one STLP, one people before profit and one independent again in the Moor that was the people before profit gain from Sinn Fein you go then to Fawn which is in the Waterside five seats, ten candidates this time you had two DLP, one STLP one Sinn Fein, one Alliance and that was an Alliance gain from the STLP now interesting in Fawn both DLP councillors subsequently left the party Graham Wark went independent Ryan McCready joined the UUP so at this point in time DUP had two elected last time in Fawn at this point they have no representation they're going to be really really pushing to get seats back there in Fawn two Sperren which is an district one Sperren takes in Straban Town takes in Plum Bridge, Artigarvan, Dona Mana seven seats, 14 candidates this is going to be a really really tight one in 2019, two Sinn Fein two DUP, two independent one STLP, again in Sperren it was an independent gain from Sinn Fein go to the Waterside in Dairy you have seven seats, ten candidates this is Drummo Ho, Victoria, Caugh Ebrington, listen to Galvan that area directly across from the city side 2019 two DUP, two STLP one Sinn Fein, one UUP, one Alliance again an Alliance gain but this time Alliance gaining from the UUP finally go to Derg, you're talking Newton, Stuart, Colletor Seinmills, Castle Derg, Cladi, that general area in 2019 two Sinn Fein one DUP, one UUP, one STLP and that was an STLP gain from Sinn Fein so you have this interesting situation at present where Sinn Fein and the STLP are tied 11 councillors each in Dairy City in Straban and that's unique in Northern Ireland DUP 5, Independent 5 UUP 3, Alliance 2 people before profit 2, A&1 certainly A&2 believe they can increase A&2 do believe they can increase their state they believe there is a tide of support for them people before profit you had Ayman McCann running the last time obviously one of the absolute national centrepieces of people before profit a very well known man in the city involved in the civil rights movement right back involved in organising the March which was interrupted by and is now characterised by Bloody Sunday so Ayman McCann very well known there he resigned the seat subsequently will people before profit hold that seat possibly gain and you have this interesting tussle between as we said Sinn Fein and the STLP in Dairy now the interesting thing is if you go back to 2014 there were 16 Sinn Fein councillors 10 STLP councillors so STLP gained one Sinn Fein lost six but of those gains most of the Sinn Fein losses were to people from profit to independence and to people like that so it's not necessarily Sinn Fein to the STLP back to Sinn Fein again it's a little bit more new one more of that now than you might have historically ok so it's the single transferable vote system people vote one for their first preference two, three, four and down the line as far as they wish to go and you choose you know your own electoral area and that's the area within which you vote obviously Donald yeah it's the same we have the electoral areas here then they become municipal districts and the DEA is not north of the border it's the same so if you live in Castle Derry you'll vote for one set of candidates if you live in Artigarvan you'll vote for another set of candidates if you live in the centre of Derry you'll vote for another set of candidates now another thing is it was a bit controversial in Britain well sorry actually I believe it were England where the Tories were decimated you need photo ID to vote in general yes now we know from our own experience here in many cases particularly in small local areas the agents who are at the desk will be local community stalwarts who will know enough a lot of the people that are coming so in many cases people will know you by name the advice always would be bring photo ID have it in your pocket I always do I rarely if ever have to actually take it out of my pocket but I always have it in the pocket just to be on the safe side yeah okay and I think there might even be just an extra emphasis on that this time around but I take your point okay right will be continuing our coverage obviously of these elections I think they're important on a number of levels and will throw up interesting stories donal as they always do voting takes place as you corrected me on correctly 18th of May then the voting which we're more interested in of course on the 19th of May the day after the election and things should be settled relatively relatively quickly donal would you say it will go into the weekend I suspect I suspect we will find ourselves inevitably what will happen is it'll be we and we know it here Greg you've done enough of them as I have myself and people will have heard them over the years it'll start off slow and then council will start coming in thinking fast and we'll start anticipating council about midday they'll actually start arriving at about three or four and it'll go into that night and probably the last few seats won't be decided until into Saturday and possibly into Saturday afternoon maybe even Sunday but hope you'd certainly hope to have a very clear picture by mid Saturday afternoon and then obviously we'll see once the dust has settled what impact that has on the politics at a larger scale donal for now again thank you very much indeed back with more shortly to your current account why did I choose Ulster I wanted a university who could give me the biggest possible future but also the best possible time now somewhere I could make friends and have good cracks but also to set me up for the best job possible I'm planning to take up one of the study abroad options and then my big plan is to specialise in media law in LA but for now and I has one of the lowest student living costs in the UK so night markets here I come learn why over 30,000 students choose Ulster at Ulster.ac.uk slash go north apply now for this September a public information day on the preferred option for Nadunov flood relief scheme will take place on Thursday the 11th of May in Meeva family resource centre from 4pm until 8pm this will be an opportunity for the public to view the option before it goes to the statutory planning process attendees will also be able to discuss the option in person with the project team and provide feedback all are welcome and encouraged to come along anytime between 4pm and 8pm no appointment is necessary with everyone looking to shrink their bill these days DUN stores gives you more ways to save with double savers first you'll save in the aisles when you fill your trolley with fantastic low prices across thousands of great products then you'll save again at the till with our 10-0-50 grocery vouchers shrink your bill today and get a trolley worth 54.66 for just 44.66 double savers from DUN stores always better value terms and conditions apply, voucher can be used in a grocery shop of 50 or more ok, more dumping for no reason whatsoever counsellor Terry Crossin joins us on the programme now and we're talking about this one particular area but unfortunately other counsellors have been having to highlight dumping in their area as well Terry thanks for taking the call good morning to you you're welcome, great Kerry Road, is that how you pronounce it in the Icaheen Chapel area the Kerry Road is a small road up in the vicinity of the Icaheen church and this incident happened on Saturday afternoon it happened in broad daylight clearly someone they completely blocked the road with a number of bags there were tyres in it there were other odds and ends of not very nice waste someone came along in a car obviously was unable to get past had to get out of the car and move the bags and tyres into the side of the road to enable them and auto traffic to pass by you'd make you wonder what's going on here Terry is this because people have bagged it there seems to be a mattress there and tyres there and a pillow for crying out loud do you think someone has gathered this up around their house and drove up this road and dumped it or do you think some person out there has paid someone to take the rubbish away from them not an official outfit who wouldn't be at this crack don't get me wrong but someone who's pulled up with a van gone up the road a bit and just chucked it out I mean if someone paid someone to remove this it would be very important information that they could let people know because this is just disgusting here yeah absolutely great and you know I don't know it could be either or in my eyes it's just another episode of shameful disregard for the community and for the environment and we have the GA club another way community groups out every weekend doing their own we clean up in their own areas and then to get activity like what has happened here at the weekend it's an absolute downright disgrace and anybody who comes on any of that and has any information who's involved or what's involved or who's involved should make a report to either the charity or to anybody to me to the Dundalk City Council they should be exposed at every opportunity yeah because they're crapping on the whole community people will excuse me for putting it in such crude manner this is a quiet rural road well it's a back road sorry it's not a quiet rural road because you know a lot of people live up there as you say a car came across this but others live in that area too we're coming out and getting shot of it but you know it's as I say there's a lot of people live up there yeah and when you mentioned the letter warden there I have had occasions of incidents that have happened over weekend when you would imagine the central officers would be off air or on approachable or on approachable but I have to say at every opportunity that on every occasion that I have had to contact them they have been more than quick to respond to clean up incidents of this nature and they are to be commanded on every occasion we need to see more people caught more enforcement big finds name and shame and I'm not that type of person calls for that type of stuff but everything else doesn't seem to be working Terry you know it obviously is going to come down to enforcement and hitting people in the pocket because nothing else seems to be getting through to this small group of individuals yeah we don't have any other choice we have no other line of action we have to try to trade to whoever it is and we have to bring them to book on this and as I say there is no other way that we can get this out thanks for bringing it to our attention fair play to the council who cleared that up quickly but the imagery is not pleasant at all it's just really effectively a two-fingered salute to anyone who lives in our county in our region it's the Kerry Road near in Cahin chapel I think it is or is it Cahin? in Cahin anyway I'll go with in Cahin and it's been cleared up but in the pictures there's a pillow there's a dirty mattress there's a number of tyres there's four or five that I can see perhaps more bags big bags actually of stuff whatever it is and it's just absolutely disgusting that someone would do that to the people in that area but it's not the first reasonably large-sized illegal dump we've seen on our roads of late Maherbeg schools say when the schools starting times and closing times the speed limit is only 60 might teach them to slow down in future passing the school and I get that and I understand that but a little bee I've had in my bonnet in the past is that sometimes when Easter holidays are on the lights are on when no one's home so to speak when the summer holidays are sometimes you see these 60 km speed signs continue to come on sometimes when the clocks go back they're not running at the right times I think motorists deserve a fair crack of the whip as well to make sure the lights are on when they need to be on but our listener is insisting that the lights weren't on and maybe at that school it should be obvious that the schools open I don't know it's a tough one it really is a tough one because I slow down outside the two schools I'll pass I'm not an angel by the way but the two schools I would pass would be Lurgie Brack and Lahey National School and every single time it seems that I slow down to the 60 every car passes I mean you feel like an Egypt sometimes slowing down because all the other cars fly past you but anyway I call it says in relation to sport the GEA schedule needs a full revamp and changed until later in the summer we all like the long summer evenings going to matches on a Sunday only so if you have any more comments on that by the way we talk about everything here maybe we should talk a little bit more about sport that's why it's great to have Brendan Devenay in but maybe lots of you out there were watching the the soccer I'll call it the soccer for to avoid any to avoid any confusion the boxing there was big boxing on over in Mexico anything you want to talk about it doesn't just have to be the usual stuff text that number and give us a call 07491 25,000 right Alan McManum joins us now Alan how are you getting on afternoon Greg how are you it is indeed normally it's me you get to my mornings and afternoons ok you've been having your say on the parking in the twin towns do you think what's your sense on the ground your former election candidate yourself involved in the community do you think what's going on at the moment is the best of a bad lot or would you favour a longer grace period or what's your views generally I don't want to put any words in your mouth either well to be fair Greg this is something that as you said earlier in your film this morning that I see in the Mcconnell the Mcconnell's punches are brought up in terms of what actually happened this is ongoing and fairness and it's been going on for years and it still really hasn't been properly addressed you know the roads and the parking issues has been a disaster for many years not just recently the machines and the warden issue I mean yeah it is part of the problem but it needs to be people to sit down and actually look at us this thing about the chamber of commerce not every business in the town is involved in the chamber of commerce and when businesses bring up their concerns as Ian rightly did it needs to be taken seriously you know and I was kind of taken aback by some of the comments made this morning you know it was kind of dismissing what she had brought up and it was very valid I mean I restarted seeing as well and just as anything I can do to help you know a couple of pragmatic things to look at would be the actual machines in the town they can be reprogrammed so that people can punch on the registration if they needed to and get a free ticket you know a fee free ticket so it would allow them 15-20 minutes this 10-minute thing has been bandied around quite a lot you know but even Patrick said this morning Councillor McGowan said this morning there is no free parking in the Balboffite this grace period is I don't know where it's at I've never seen any of the bylaws he seems satisfied that there is 10 minutes in other words if you're parked outside the Hatter or wherever the warden he or she will scan your number plate and that person can't issue a ticket to you on that same machine for another 10 minutes that's the contention if he's satisfied with that that's fine that doesn't address the substantive issue that it's going on that's happening people are getting ticketed fairly regularly I used to live on Donegal Street and even though I was a resident I got a parking fine even though I parked outside where I live and residents on Donegal Street and different streets are regularly getting ticketed so what needs to be done then the argument from the councillor as well is that it's some of the most affordable parking that you will find can we expect everything for free plane devil's advocate here by the way don't get the ticket myself are we just maybe it's that old adage I'll only be 2 minutes but we have to pay our way if we want the roads kept clean I genuinely don't think anybody has an issue with paying their way but I do have an issue with this some of the gentlemen going into the butchers the last day to pick up a bit of meat are going into the chemist to collect a prescription that they have to spend time going to some of the machines some of the time are not working by the way let's talk through that scenario because you spot on there if there is a butcher shop or a chemist or something on the main street and I have to pull in I don't know if I'll be out of there under 10 minutes but I only have to pick up a few pork chops and a string of sausages 50 yards up the road get a ticket, put it on my windscreen go into the shop come out and go about my business I might go to some place that's a little bit out of town or with free parking because that's just human nature I shouldn't but I probably will because I'm a lazy get-own that is a competitive disadvantage then to the chemist or the butchers that I talk of isn't it my point is though if you're going to the chemist to pick up a prescription you know you can go to a machine very often the machines don't work on the town by the way and I've had this many many days I go on there you know every week I go on and I get a parking thing for me on screen but a lot of the time it doesn't actually work you know and my whole ultimate thing around this is it's not working it hasn't worked so when it's not working and it hasn't worked then whatever about reviewing this it needs to be sat down with the people that are actually affecting, i.e. the business on the streets and the back streets and all the rest but do you know who's rubbing their hands together Alan it's the businesses on the outskirts of towns that have the big resources behind them the big car parks they're rubbing their hands together if you're going to have out of town planning like that you have to advantage the heart of the town don't you you have to say right okay what do we need to do to make sure these people can stay in business parking is a big issue it's a massive issue I've actually put that in part of my comment under sayings you know that we're driving people away from the main street to go to the bigger places that have their own parking facilities you know and it's not good enough anymore you know the main street in Balibufe we know about the construction in the town we know that it's the highest vacancy rate nationally and has been for maybe 10 to 15 years nothing's been done about that we have pedestrian crossings that there was uproar about because again it was just flighted in stuck up no signs, no nothing and a lot of near misses and actually one accident we have disability parking that's very rarely available there's none in Stonorla they're charged an absolute fortune so this is just one of many many issues the warden whatever about the wardens and you know people who says all the warden are doing this they're doing what they're told so it's not a case of they're coming out and making up their own rules they might seem about going over times I get that but at the same time they have their rules and they're going by their rules and it's an income generation thing Patrick had mentioned all the pays for other things yeah so it does but why can't we just not have a better system where we can look at lays and what the likes of Shane the Hatter and all the rest and I know there's an online petition taking place at the minute but again this is something that has been in the council council and the councillor's agreement for 15 years and it hasn't been adequately addressed yeah well like you have to listen to the business people they're the ones paying for the water they're the ones paying the rates and everything else I can't see what harm could come from consultation and we see different policies involved in different towns is it working for the businesses up there they have half an hour grace maybe 15 might be the sweet spot but you just don't leave the status quo when it's clearly having an impact on people who are already struggling in this business environment I mean especially like a butchers right I can't speak to their business model but even just keeping everything filled and cool they're up against it I'm sure like all other businesses facing massive all the businesses on the main street the top of the main street has been decimated decimated for years now with there like properties vacant properties and all that and that's part of the problem is because people can't really get parking up there and the thing too is the people of letter Kenny right they get all their services and there's half an hour free parking there they get road sweepers they get this that and done I don't think and I don't I'm not questioning Councillor McGowan's motivation here but the council if there's a shortfall the council can spend a bit more money in the twin towns it shouldn't have to be well you'll have to tolerate this parking or you won't get this because nowhere else gets that and everyone needs to be treated equally alright Alan thanks for your input I appreciate you coming on take care of yourself Alan with minimum there if you have you 08 660 25000 this is your show on the station highland radio so have your say on those numbers get ready for spring summer with the villa rose v spa our luxurious body scrubs will leave you feeling smooth and sulky and we offer waxing and sugaring hair removal options so you can be beach ready in no time book now and take advantage of our amazing promotions an introductory 20 year old gel nail offer or 50 year old luxury pedicure promotion throughout may look your best on your holiday with fresh skin and nails and you'll be able to do a lot of the same things with the best on your holiday with fresh skin and nails check out our villa offerings at villa rose dot i e the villa rose v spa your destination or spring summer beauty transform your garage with an electric roller garage door from garola it's time to modernize with a fully fitted roller door from just 997 euros with 21 colors to choose from will even take your old garage door away book your free survey today called 1800 827 515 or visit garola dot i e looking for the best place in the northwest to get a bed or mattress rest x beds and mountain top letter Kenny had a great selection and great prices rest x beds has everything you need for a good night's sleep visit them today and sleep better tonight all right the weather forecast today will start out mostly cloudy and misty with patchy drizzle sunny spells will develop as the day goes on with scattered showers becoming more widespread and heavy bringing a risk of thunder rising highs temperatures will range today 15 to 18 degrees in light to moderate southwest breezes it's lovely when the sun comes out there's a genuine heat if that's your thing not if one likes it but it feels nice now you might remember going back some time ago we had a couple of callers on one from Donagolan one who was listening from Britain who had issues with Revolute they were scammed out of thousands of euro and we kept on to Revolute as we do offer and when I say we have been in Caroline to try and get some sort of success for our listener who lost thousands as a saying but we got a statement from Revolute to say this is off the back of weeks of getting on to them and their statement reads as follows we are very sorry that our customers were targeted by ruthless and highly sophisticated criminals fraud is one of the largest categories of crime and can have a devastating impact on individuals and families they say Revolute's deeply concerned that large numbers being enabled by fake phone calls and text messages scammers often pretend to be from a bank or recognisable utilities and services such as postal delivery services or tax authorities it's vital that criminals are stopped at source and prevented from using convincing looking fake texts and phone calls otherwise they will only step up their efforts to trick people into authorising fraudulent payments from their accounts if in any doubt customers can always engage securely with Revolute custom support meaning they know they are talking to us we take our responsibility to protect and support our customers extremely seriously we work continuously on systems processes and people to combat these criminal gangs Revolute also engages with industry partners and relevant authorities to warn customers about how to protect themselves from criminals trying to steal their money when making an investment we urge everyone to take steps to satisfy themselves that the person they're sending money to is legitimate and we encourage customers to check the investment company is genuine and a regulated firm if in doubt customers should always seek trusted independent financial advice first so unfortunately despite all our efforts we weren't able as of yet we're continuing to do so we weren't able to get a resolution there we do have further information from Revolute that they're working on and the person was done by a very clever scam because the scammers purported to be from the bank that they're actually with and a second person claimed to be from Revolute and they were ringing the person and saying we're trying to stop this fraud on this account you need to do this on that account and in the whole process what they were actually doing was accessing not just the Revolute account but their actual main bank account as well and they lost what was it 10 grand something incredibly significant anyway right on our social media we're using the hashtag we are being asked to encourage you the listener to add your Donegal pics tagged hashtag Donegal and hashtag Donegal day to get Donegal trending so we love Donegal a guest who we've had on this show actually not so long ago they're trying to build up a bit of steam socially on Twitter I think they are also check out Instagram and if you've gotten the nice pictures that you've taken over the last day or two or in the past you can post them to Twitter using the hashtag Donegal and hashtag Donegal day and get us trending it all helps you know you never know who might stumble across that picture you posted and say you know what I'm going to go to Donegal and sleeping attend if they can't get accommodation a caller commented just time for this before we take a break rather than bringing someone on and rushing them I'd like to comment on the green ideology that all government parties and opposition have all been so vocal and aggressively pushing in Ireland under the global umbrella of the alleged so we know where they're coming from climate change crisis for over a decade now the EU and Irish parties they say TDs and countercounselors right across the board have been extremely vocal about green ideology renewables and the importance of a green sustainable way of life for future generations sake guilt tripping us about destroying the planet for future generations continually increasing and adding new carbon taxes to people in rural cities home heating oil gas and electricity for cooking cars for transport and commercial vehicles for work making our collective lives even more difficult by costing us all more to get to work and avail of health and basic business services in larger satellite towns such as letter Kenny in a county which already has the lowest disposable income to begin with the lowest wages to by the way new figures show us today why aren't these EU hypocrites and these Irish green fanatical government and opposition ministers screaming day and night and the Ukraine Russian American EU NATO conflict they describe it as the previous 12 months of that conflict have devastated large parts of Ukraine killed hundreds of thousands and caused more carbon emissions from military vehicles missiles and bombs and weapons and what have you being blown sky high causing pollution not seen since World War II not even including the eventual carbon cost of rebuilding that country when the war ends it appears to be because the government's invested interests orchestrated this environmental catastrophe and they're making way too much money and have suddenly forgotten their own green ideology as it's not very convenient right now well they would argue and I take your points and thanks for that they argue that civilization as we know it could well be at stake if Vladimir Putin were able to encroach beyond even Ukraine though I doubt he has those resources any longer all right okay that's that that's where we have to leave it on the show today thank you very much to Neve who worked on the show assisting Caroline Orr who researched and produced we'll be back with the 9 till noon show for a Tuesday tomorrow morning