 Ooh, I'm about early the day, I'm in it before nine o'clock. Puts you in between the time me and you talk, Greg. It'll be nine o'clock. It's pushing nine o'clock already, Leigh. Let's face it. I see that, which condensed my words. How was your morning? My morning was good this morning. I stood out there twenty past six, right, and it just closed my eyes, right? Don't think I'm mad. To listen for the birds, the birds kind of slept in them, but today, you know, they weren't chirping. I woke up this morning, big sleepy head on me, right? I said, is the day Saturday? No, it's four when that happens. That's what I get. Why does that happen? Don't know, Leigh. Don't know, Miss Eamon. You know, your man knows everything. I don't know what goes on in your head. I don't know, Miss Eamon. All right, it's the night of noon, so time for a news update at nine o'clock. Good morning, Donald Cavnaw. Thank you, Greg. Good morning. Over 38,000 people have been waiting more than 18 months for a health scan in Irish hospitals. There are among 251,000 waiting CT, MRI or ultrasounds as outpatients. The HSE says funding has been provided to address the problem under the 2023 waiting list action plan. Sinn Féin's health spokesperson, David Colman, says the figures are shocking. So we have tens of thousands of people waiting over 18 months for a scan on the public system. That will obviously have an impact on the ability of health care professionals to provide safe levels of care to people because scans are really important. And while some might be routine scans, obviously scans are what show up difficulties and challenges which can then lead to a diagnosis. The state collected 381 million euro in VAT from electricity last year. That was 40% up on the previous year. In total, nearly 1.4 billion euro was generated in tax from electricity and fuel in 2022. A rise of over 300 million. A reduced rate of 9% currently applies to electricity and gas. But that's due to return to 13.5% in March. Among chronic councillors says the housing crisis in Anishoan has never been so acute. Councillor Jack Murray says there are already long lists for social housing with the added pressure of homes impacted by defective blocks in the area. He's welcoming 56 new homes being constructed as part of the Rocky Town Development Phase 2 that's set to go to tender in June and commence early next year. But Councillor Murray says there's a lot more to be done on the peninsula and in Bunkrana itself. It's a drop in the ocean really in the greater scheme of things but nonetheless it'll be 56 houses that we can utilise during defective blocks works or for those that have been waiting some as long as 10 years to get council housing and get their forever home for their family. So I guess it's a very welcome step and I look forward to more council housing being constructed in Bunkrana. Sinn Féin has uncovered five separate expenses that should have declared for the 2016 general election campaign. The party will now have to resubmit its returns to the standards in public office commission. The expenses worth over 2,000 euro in Dublin venues in 2016. The party says it regrets the emissions. And Donegal County Council's parking section is to increase enforcement in the Sprakburn Drive area of Lettercanny. A recent meeting of Lettercanny Milford Inmissible District was told cars parking on the footpath and double yellow lines at the junction with High Road often block the vision lines of drivers and make getting out of the cul-de-sac unsafe. The issue was raised by Councillor Jimmy Kavanaugh. He says there's plenty of parking in the area. He's been talking to me now several times about the problem of exiting from Sprakburn which is already difficult because the vision isn't great there especially if you're turning right there. People are saying that there's parking on double lines here all the time and so on and they find it hard to get into Sprakburn, find it hard to get out of it again and they're very unhappy about it. I'm just asking that people use Tag Coburn on the road. Dry with good spells of winter sunshine today, top temperature 7 to 9 degrees Celsius, light north to north west breezes tonight becoming colder in temperatures of minus 2 to plus 2 degrees Celsius with again some light winds. That's how the radio news were back with news again at 10 o'clock. Joined VHI Health Care today for just 61 euro 99 per adult per month on our first care 500 day-to-day time and unlock a wide range of services. Search VHI First Care to join today. Terms and conditions apply, VHI Health Care DAC Trading as VHI Health Care is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The county's number one talk show The Ninetal Noon Show on Highland Radio and now it's time for the talk of the north west The Ninetal Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, a very good morning to you and welcome to the Ninetal Noon Show and we've lots coming up for you over the next three hours. We want you to get involved in the conversation, you can text the program, give us a call Caroline taking your calls or indeed you can email the show and also if you want to watch the program and most of our guests hop on to our YouTube channel Highland Radio Ireland and watch us there on your smart TV, your tablet, your fire stick, whichever the same applies across our Facebook pages and on our website HighlandRadio.com It is Thursday so loads of papers out this morning, let's have a look at what's making the headlines. Let's start with the Donegal News and a consultancy firm hired to facilitate workshops between sale to management and staff at letter candy university hospital was paid more than 400,000 euro for its services. Ernst & Young spent five months last year on a bid to improve communication channels between the two bodies. For every week it spent working on the issue the London headquartered firm received almost 20,000 euro. Ernst & Young was brought in following the publication of a damning report by Hickwa which found weaknesses in oversight arrangements and government structures at the hospital a big bill there isn't it? On to the Chirconal Tribune this morning water staff feared jobs with the council with Iskairan taking control of water services from the start of January. Ground staff with Donegal Canada council have expressed fears that their future roles are uncertain if they do not sign up to the new deal the government stated ambition is that local authorities will no longer have staff working in water services beyond the end of 26 up to 3,000 staff who work in water services are set to transfer to Iskairan before the end of 2026 if they decide working for the local authority many believe they will not be a placement for them. On to the Donegal Democrat now their headline growing demand for Naudoc services. Naudoc face-to-face appointments in south Donegal over Christmas and the new year rose by more than four times compared to the same period the previous year the out-of-hours doctor service which was under severe pressure due to flu and the re-emergence of COVID-19 and RSV a lot of us were there with RSV so the number of calls it received at its centres in south Donegal increased from 723 in the Christmas and new year of 2021-2022 to 846 over the last Christmas that's a rise of 17% the number of face-to-face appointments with patients at the Naudoc centre at Mount Charles and the satellite centre that serves Balai Shannon and Bandoran increased from 104 to 450 and there's a lot of uncertainty and confusion and concern over the future of Naudoc services. We will be speaking to someone in the know from Naudoc about that shortly just trying to get an idea of where they are currently and where they want to go so stay tuned for that if you've been interested in those services The Dairy News this morning local politicians accepting crumbs from the table local politicians have been accused of seeming quite happy to accept some crumbs from the table of the north Belfast centric economic policy. The stinging criticism came from cracking community worker Colonel McFeely it followed last week's revelation no dairy projects received second round British Government levelling up funding even though a number submitted applications speaking to the Dairy News Mr McFeely said the Belfast centric status quo needed to be challenged Let's have a look at the Irish Farmers Journal this morning Bord beer to ratchet up farm audits Farmers are facing significantly more onerous farm audits from 2024 onwards as Bord beer overhauls its quality assurance schemes the new animal welfare checks are to be carried out during audits where cattle will be inspected on farm for fightiness cold conditions and behaviour a new digital sustainability platform developed with Chagosk and the ICBF will see farmers have to draw up a substantial sustainability action plan every 18 months listing measures they can take to reduce emissions and even just the terminology and words around farming nowadays are tough to pronounce and to understand. Let's have a look at the national newspapers now the Irish Times this morning tells us that Sinn Fein admits failing to declare expenses for 2016 election I suppose to make a big deal of an issue you have to make sure you're not standing within a glass house chucking your stones outwards well Sinn Fein has said it failed to disclose expenses worth more than 2,000 euro for six events it held during the 2016 general election campaign the party said it conducted an examination yesterday of its election expenses statement to the standards in public office commission and found that it failed to include payments it made to five separate venues during the course of the campaign there was a 360 payment to the western hotel 397 odd to Wins Hotel a total of 600 paid to the Royal Irish Academy for two events a payment of 250 to the Gresham Hotel and a payment of 553 euro to the National Gallery the total amounted to 2160 euro and 70 cent all but two of the invoices were paid at the time but the details were not furnished by Sinn Fein to Sipo as required under the 1997 Electoral Act a spokesman for the party said Sinn Fein had held 23 press events during the 2016 general election campaign and that only six of those were held at indoor venues and now that party must decide today if it is to put forward a motion of no confidence in Pascal Donohue we'll see I'm not sure what will be achieved by that anyway the Irish Independent Agriculture Minister Charlie McCone-Logos confirmed that the deal is done between Kiltshire and Gresham House on the formation of a controversial 200 million euro forestry fund that will allow international private investors to enter the Irish forestry market as you would know there's been a lot of upset over that deal it is a done deal even though Kiltshire is semi-state there's nothing seemingly the government can do about it if they wished to put forward a motion of no confidence in the future of the agricultural committee that is he also confirmed that since January 1st no scheme is available for a farmer to submit a new application for our forestation or ash dieback tree disease support unless a previous license was granted by December 31st 2022 let us go now to the Irish Daily Mail in rural and coastal areas TDs and Senators Fear yesterday members of the Arctis Tourism Committee met with government representatives and officials from Fulcher Arland to discuss the general scheme of the registration of short term tourist letting bill 2022 now originally I thought the whole idea was that they would crack down on Airbnb in rent pressure zones so in other words where there is issues in terms of very serious issues in terms of acquiring housing they would crack down on it there but I think up until December it wasn't right across the board now I think maybe you could argue that there are rent pressure zones absolutely everywhere now but anyway be that as it may I think Airbnb has been quite important in certain areas in terms of meeting the needs of tourists particularly as quite a few hotels are otherwise occupied well this bill aims to establish a register of short term letting properties to be managed by Fulcher Arland which will require owners to get planning permission for change of use under the proposed laws companies such as Airbnb would only be allowed to advertise properties that are registered with Fulcher Arland Fulcher Arland estimates there are 30,000 short term letting properties being advertised online and it says the move could force up to an estimated 12,000 short term lets out of the market and into the long term rental market which presumably is what the government is trying to achieve but they believe there will be a bit of a pushback by in rural areas against TDs on to the Irish Daily Mirror what do you think about this those who intimidate families of politicians by picketing outside their homes could be jailed for six months or more it means that those that organise protests that a politician's gate can be sent to prison if a repeat offender the new bill which will be introduced into the Shannon by Fina Falls Senator Malcolm Byrne today will not be opposed by any of the government parties a decision that was taken by ministers at cabinet on Tuesday the bill will seek to crack down on the frightening protests that are becoming increasingly common outside places where private people such as politicians or asylum seekers live Mr Byrne's bill comes as politicians face increasing harassment with women in particular subjected to some vile abuse just for doing their jobs but also comes as innocent Ukrainians and other asylum seekers are seeing disturbing protests outside the reception centres they have been sent to after already escaping horrific all deals in the home countries now I think there is two separate things going on here I think there is probably a strong argument that could be made for limiting protests outside private residents there are people who are not politicians in those premises but they are not politicians and what have you the same you could say of course of places that house asylum seekers but they are public spaces really and you know there is a lot of people that are genuinely upset for different reasons and you start banning people protesting for those reasons as I say I can see the argument outside of a private house but as I discuss it to a great extent I suppose reception centres are private houses so I don't know what the solution to that situation is lastly in the sun today more families are turning to charities financial help for financial help than in any year since the 2008 crash due to the cost of living crisis it comes as Tshakliov Radkak confessed some of the current supports will end after February as Arlen can't afford to keep them all going Shin Fein leader Mary Lou McDonnell told that all yesterday that charities are receiving record numbers of calls from struggling families and on this programme this week we heard that you know we're seeing an increased number of students and their families seeking help from the likes of St Vincent de Paul also just across the page just 4% of children in parts of Donegal had a COVID jab compared to more than 50% in an affluent suburb of Dublin new figures compare the COVID-19 vaccine uptake across Arlen by local electoral area and the CSO stats show the completion rate for a primary course of the jab among 5 to 11 year olds ranged from 4% in Bunkrana in Donegal to 55% in Stilorgan in Dublin the rate for boosters was also lowest in Bunkrana at 37% compared to a 76% uptake in Dublin's Rathornam Templogue the lowest booster two rates were all in Dublin the vast majority of workers 85% got at least the primary course of vaccination what's making the newspapers this morning and reminder of the numbers if you want to text or whatsapp the show 086 60 25000 086 60 25000 or give us a call on 07491 25000 when you need help with natural gas or LPG appliances or pipes don't take any chances stay safe and always use a registered gas installer for installation, servicing, repair or removal otherwise you're putting yourself and others at risk and breaking the law find a registered gas installer at orgii.ie cleaning clearance stock has been transferred to the store and final price cuts made with drastic reductions on furniture for every room the massive stock disposal sale at House Proud Abercorn Square Strabane sale ends 6pm Sunday also at the Ulma store fully on company are the North West's leading interiors, paint, curtain and blind and interior design specialists make a statement in style and give your home or commercial premises a fresh new look this year experience the in-house team of interior designers and paint color consultants will make it happen this month get a free 1-hour color and interior design consultation at Foyan Company in Erichemmie book now to transform any room or commercial space on 911 219 25 if something's free why would you turn it down I mean a free haircut from a 5 year old oh no or a free sample of onion paste oh well then how about a free tour of your neighbor's new shed sounds well okay look they were bad examples but how about a free eye test and free glasses from the 69 year old range of spec savers with your PRSI well that sounds like something to smile about book an appointment or find out more at specsavers.ie in this week's RTE Guide ahead of per new TV show current fairs ace Katie Hannon gets up front and personal Dairy Girls Siobhan McSweeney uncovers the myth, meaning and legend that is Saint Bridget plus 10 pages of health and wellness to start a year as you mean to go on everything and more RTE guide on sale now okay very welcome back to the 9 till noon show we're joined on the program now by Dr Martin coin clinical lead with now doc and a GP as well of course good morning to you Martin can you hear me okay I can hear you fine great thank you lovely stuff good to have you with us so I suppose before we talk about what may be to come how is now doc currently set up in other words who's you know what's care doc's current role and in terms of you know what services are currently available for people out there so care doc's role is to employ the doctors supply the doctors the doctors in care a now doc who work in now doc their rotors are set through care doc their their remuneration is set through care doc organization of their locums organization of of all slots and the decisions on the demand for the number of doctors on role made through care doc now doc as such runs the the management down if you like starting from the telephone triage to nurse triage to the drivers to the back room staff on through now doc as such so although the doctors used to be with now doc we had great difficulties managing a rota you can imagine lots and lots of different personalities lots of different parts of the county with different different commitments to the rota it was very difficult to run that and it took a lot of time for a small number of doctors who frankly got tired of it so we brought care doc in to manage that aspect doc for about 10 years ago with great improvements and from our point of view we were very happy with the way care doc were running that for us now in terms of what's available across the county in terms of you know physical premises where people can call in and cover what's the current make up of that around right across Donegal okay so you have centers in the south of the county in Mount Charles and that covers Donegal town and southwest Donegal and down as far as Bondorn you've the center of Derry bag which covers the west of the county you've the initial and central in Cairndona and lastly you have the central letter Kenny okay and in terms of the center in letter Kenny staff were informed and of course they were concerned so they shared the information they were informed that there are plans to move the hub from letter Kenny and of course then people might say well this is all very coincidental with you know a review by care doc on the way so just in the interest of absolute transparency what is the situation as it relates to the moving of that hub and its timing so I think there's two separate things going on here first of all the proposal was made by the HSE to move the treatment center from old town up to the hub across the road from the hospital this would be a purpose built renovation of the hub for us we feel it would be first of all a better location for patients parking will be easier closer to the hospital for the small number of patients that we pass on to the hospital and a purpose built for us as doctors so we think it would be an improvement and different improvement for our patients so I think that's a completely different aspect to what's going on the ongoing review and what the review is about is trying to improve the service the deficiencies have been the deficiencies have been highlighted over the past while clinical governance you can imagine it's not ideal clinical governance really starts with the first phone call to a call handler and passes through the call handler to the nurse and then decisions are made in what treatment is most appropriate for the patient and then on to the doctor where there is a gap in that clinical governance is that there are two management structures drug managing doctors and now drug managing the nurse triage and the call handlers and we found difficulties bridging that gap especially when it came to adverse incidents so we're addressing this from a patient safety point of view can you have an example of that that gap there what the potential complications are or the consequences of that are we have an adverse event and we would like to as care doctors as the doctors in the service we'd like to access all the information and that will include recordings of the initial contact with the service the nurse triage and under GDPR rules we're not entitled to listen to those recordings so that to us is a glaring gap and something that we feel is unsafe going on right ok so if care doc were in control of the initial calls then that would be one problem eliminated we would see these are proposals of negotiations that would be our view and obviously people would disagree with that view Greg and that's what negotiations are about yeah alright so what is being looked at as part of this review then obviously it's about from one perspective bridging some of these gaps improving the service and we'll get to maybe what other people feel it means but like what is on the table in terms of how the service might change for instance if you know those within care doc were listened to and others they believe is best for the county so what might change what would we see differently in terms of how the service is provided I think from a patient perspective there shouldn't be any change in effect there's the only change that should be there Greg is an improvement you know a service that can respond to sudden increases for example in the 14 days over Christmas the service increased 50% increase on the same time last year due to like a quadruple if you like increase in Covid flu a very active flu season RSV virus in kids who haven't been exposed to it in the past and in Strat Bay people were very concerned about the media or sorry not the media but the information that was coming out on the media no it was part of it when fairness it was someone amplified by the media I will accept that no one people were genuine very very frightened of Strat Bay now from a GP point of view we didn't find that so we were absolutely stunned that in a situation where if care doc were in charge we could respond easier to that we could increase numbers from the care doc point of view in now doc we increased our doctors we were putting on extra doctors on shifts very very easily now it took some arm wrestling and some twisting to get people to respond to that but the problem and delays in now doc from our perception was not actually at the doctor level it was difficulties of calls getting through as far as the doctors desk because there was great delays in triage now doc staff aren't going to be happy with that comment it's it's on the record Greg I'm not saying anything controversial here they had huge volumes and they had difficulty dealing with those volumes of calls but we feel that in a more streamlined service we could deal with that in a much more reactionary way do you envisage that the hubs will remain as they are now post-review if the service is changed I would stress that what we're looking at is improving the service so closing the hubs down would not be my view of improving a service it would be operated then in the same way whereby there's a mixture of people calling to a hub or in some cases a GP having to call out someone's house or wherever they might be the GPs are very very keen that the practice remains the same we can't have a situation where we're closing premises at six o'clock in an evening and finding that the service that is being offered is not as it is at the moment but that will just backfire on us so if anything we want to see an improved service we want to see a more efficient service we want to see less delays for patients and you can't have doctors sitting in surgery where patients have been waiting for six or seven hours to have a call back and then coming in and taking it out on the doctor that just makes for a bad day for everybody concerned so we don't want to see anything being downgraded we want to see a better service and it would operate at the same hours as currently at least if not expanded there's no plans at all I can't see how you changed that quick in terms of then call handling you're talking about some examples of people waiting a long time for a call back if CareDoc were to take over that element of this service what are the targets, what are the average waiting times, what are the average call back times comparing this canty to others how would the service change in that regard the actual call back times far all co-ops are national urgent calls should be answered within literally minutes other than 99 calls should be directed to the appropriate service non-urgent calls should really be dealt with in a period of 60 minutes I can't give you the exact figures so I don't want to be shot down but we want to get to those targets which CareDoc have been able to achieve for large majorities of the time between peak times we've been falling far short I'm just throwing out what some of the criticisms there have been, some would say now that it might be too money motivated that people might find it more difficult to actually see a doctor maybe if they're a medical card holder I don't know that this could in turn put more pressure on GPs on a Monday Tuesday morning or Wednesday morning dependent on what the cover being provided by now doc was and that more people might be sent to the ED rather than being seen as I say it's not an argument I'm advancing I'm just saying this is some of the criticism that's out there so CareDoc is enough for profit organization first of all so any profits that are made are put back into the service for supporting GPs for example I'm guaranteed that I don't do more than 120 hours out of hours in a year and that's fine with me because I'm working 50 hours a week anyway and there are very few GPs who aren't doing that so the money end of things we're not for profit, we're not for taking large amounts of money in fact out of hours cost me money Greg I put in 700 euros every month into now doc so that I don't have to work where that shifts and that's for every principal GP in the county so if we come out of now doc on a budget neutral basis as individual GPs are doing well so no GP is looking to make vast profits out of hours care because it's just not there medical card holders are guaranteed their service, private patients pay a private fee when they come in and I would point out that the vast majority of GPs now we can't fix prices in now doc because GPs are individual operators but the vast number of GPs who see private patients in out of hours charge the same fee that they charge at 9 o'clock in the morning if they see somebody at 3 o'clock in the morning there's no gouging going on there's nobody's looking to get rich out of out of hours someone's saying that if calls are answered in Carlo for example triage down there there will be a loss of sort of local knowledge and in terms of how the service currently responds that it would be detrimental to that I say two things to that first of all we the decision on where calls are going to be handled hasn't actually been made that's part of the negotiation now whether a hybrid model might be suggested I don't know perhaps a nurse triage being done in Donegal on behalf of Cardo that's a possibility but I would point out that there are large swathes in the country where triage is actually done from Carlo pretty much all of the east coast Sligoletrum nobody is jumping up and down in Sligoletrum talking about their pure Cardo model it seems to be working very very well for them so if you're in Sligoletrum North Letrum your calls being triaged in Carlo as well so I get that I understand how people might feel that about the calls coming from the more rural areas of Donegal the lack of knowledge perhaps people being told inappropriately at which centre they should attend but with their codes now everybody knows exactly where everybody is what about the staff that currently work for NowDoc my understanding Greg and I would point out I am not management is that all staff have been spoken to about any proposals nobody is going to lose their job there may be some redeployment but there is no talk as far as I'm aware of redundancies in fact I'm very aware that there was no talk of redundancies but staff have been offered redeployment in whatever model it is chosen in the end so currently people working in NowDoc would be offered roles within CareDoc if there was an overlap of that role and then obviously the HSE then it's already been committed the rest of the staff would be offered alternative roles within the Executive again not my area of expertise but that is my understanding of what is going on in negotiations negotiations that are not actually part of it I understand but you have an insight that we haven't had access to before so that's very much appreciated do you understand the public's concern do you think maybe an interview like this would have been more helpful I'm not saying this is anything on you whomever would be responsible in CareDoc do you think an interview like this in advance of negotiations would have been helpful so that people would perhaps have a better understanding of the process because it was never going to be kept private it was always going to come out into the public but there's been a lot of anxieties like we got an email from an 86 year old yesterday who's up to high-dose to what this might mean for them I just wonder sometimes if these conversations were had in advance it might be helpful to the process I don't know if you have a view on that it would have been impossible to have this conversation five, six weeks ago great because CareDoc were not talking to the HSE we were CareDoc were trying to have these discussions but no meetings have taken place but those meetings have now taken place as you said the ball is now rolling staff have been spoken to so you are getting calls about concerns but I would stress the purpose of all of this is to make it a better service so your 86 year old email caller I would reassure that we are not the doctors are not going to stand over a reduction in service and you can bring me on and give out to me in a year's time if you perceive that's what happened great but that is not what we have in mind we want to improve the service making more streamlined less waiting time for patients patients pointed in the most appropriate directions okay thanks for your time this morning I do appreciate it take care of yourself alright bye bye that's Dr Martin Coyne clinical lead with now doc and GP a lot has been discussed about the potential changes over the last number of weeks so I wanted to give Dr Coyne an opportunity to put the perspective across that he believes that it would be beneficial and in fact that GPs wouldn't accept anything other than that but that's the information it's up to you now to do with it what you will await 60, 25,000 whatsapps and texts to that number watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at highlandradio.com the 9 till noon show brought to you by Kelly's Toyota with over 45 years of experience trust us to help you on your electric journey on this week's business matters I'll be joined by the co-owner of Donegal B's and Glenn Cullen Kill so join me for business matters on Sunday evening after the 6 o'clock news the business matters podcast is also available to download at highlandradio.com business matters in association with ATU Donegal's faculty of business if you're an owner or manager in food production business consider the new one year level 8 higher diploma in food business and product innovation it's just one 3 hour lecture weekly on 86600 or email gary.miguel at atu.ie transform your home with a visit to McGinley's furniture in Etter Kenny located at the Portland business park just off the porch road you'll find a huge selection of top quality suites, beds and mattresses also slide robes and custom made dining and occasional furniture with prices to suit every budget visit the showroom and see for yourself the great choice available at McGinley's furniture port link business park port road letter Kenny and at McGinley's Furniture.com Hello, how are you? What's up? Well, good. Your name is Bruce Lee Yorah I'm from Huxham and I'm a local I'm a little bit of a developer so I'm sure you'll see that Bruce Lee has been here for a long time Bruce Lee has been here for a long time and he's been doing well with the family All realtists in the head and connect hearing is open for free hearing tests Our audiologist is available Monday to Friday for wax removal services at our letter clinic clinic in the courtyard shopping center We also offer a home visit for those who aren't able to visit us our hearing is our social sense Are you finding hearing more of a challenge call Ursula today on 07491 13296 to make an appointment? Good hearing helps us to connect to our family friends and loved ones connect hearing connecting you to life Okay, you welcome back to the program on to it now. We welcome finan Sheehan Irish Ireland editor of the Irish independent Good morning. Thank you very much for joining us Good morning, Greg right finan. The paper has been looking into I suppose everyone's talking about election expenses and declarations And what have you at the moment? And you've been looking into Sinn Fein's Record in this regard in recent elections. What's been uncovered or found? Yeah, so what emerged last week was that two years ago Sinn Fein was told that there was an issue with their election 2020 Statements that they hadn't included the cost of an opinion ball that the party had commissioned on on that occasion So I just was on foot of a press query and Sinn Fein Submitters an amendment to their statutory early oblige election statement at that time now Subsequently, we've been looking at the previous general election and under the same heading of costs related to the media Press events and publicity We found that a curious that there was nothing at all declared by Sinn Fein in terms of any press conferences Any launches that they held in 2016 despite these being events that that took place that our own colleagues Attendees they were predominantly in hotels and cultural venues in Dublin City Center. So We asked Sinn Fein Why was why were none of these events declared we sent them on their own photos From their own social media accounts that they had taken at these events said these events happened In Locations where you normally have to pay to host an event. Why was there no costs associated with that? We got no reply We then went back to Sinn Fein the following day saying one of the cultural institutions It's an academic Institution in Dublin City Center to Royal Irish Academy where they held their two biggest events They said that they didn't provide the venue for free. In fact, they had invoiced Sinn Fein But that the bill was never paid. So we asked Sinn Fein, well The reason you don't seem to have declared it as an expense is because you didn't pay the bill Why did you not pay the bill again? We got no reply They issued or a a statement to RT yesterday saying that this was an oversize and that they found what are one other invoice we didn't send Sinn Fein a list of other venues that they had held events Ash During the 2016 general election, which we had attended which they had publicized which they themselves Had again taken photos of the Gresham Hotel the Western Hotel the National Gallery Wins Hotel all high-profile Dublin City Center Locations and the party eventually came back last night and said Not only had they failed to pay a bill in 2016 to the Royal Irish Academy and declared expense there But they haven't actually declared an expense for any of these locations either in their official legally obliged Declaration to the state ethics watchdog. So Sinn Fein are now amending that statement It follows the amendment of the 2021 But it does kind of raise questions about like how exactly do you forget? to declare expenses for Events that were central to your campaign and what where does this rank in the scale if one exists because obviously Shin Fein see blood in the water with Pascal Dono who I believe they're still mulling over today whether or not to put down a Motion of no confidence in him like is there a hierarchy of forgetfulness here or Mistakes that could be made like where does this rank in terms of the challenges they're putting towards? Pascal Dono who for example I suppose the issue that arises is that they're they're saying that your election expenses have to be Correctly filed that it's vitally important that this is the law there are ethics regulation Guidelines and legislation in place and that you have to adequately respond to those and the accusation against Pascal Dono Was it is quite clear bought for the 2016? General election and the 2020 general election he did not the clear expenses The the cost of which were covered by a businessman There's also an additional part of the Pascal Dono has in that a corporate donation was was not declared and Was accepted over the limit? By Finnegate, so Shin Fein are basically saying your house must be in order But when you look at their own accounts you find that it's not really that hard to find that they themselves Have anomalies. You also read the question They were told two years ago. There was a problem with 2020 Why did I not go back and look at those accounts and the previous election account to see is there anything else that that isn't in order here? It these are not It wasn't difficult to establish that Shin Fein held six events Attended by the party leadership, which they themselves Publicized and then didn't declare any expenses for at all. That's not really rocket science if you compare it to Again the 2020 general election. They went from the Royal Irish Academy which is a an old austere building on On Dawson Street in the middle of Dublin. They went to the building next door The mansion house in 2020 and has a similar launch there and that cost seven grand There's an entire cost for the venue. There are costs included for sound engineering And so on and yet you're you're looking at their expenses for the election just previous to that and nothing pops up So it doesn't seem that there's been an awful lot of oversight going on here Yeah, and of course, I mean people might say well in Pascal don't know whose case it has to be looked at further Of course that you know people who made donations then went on to to be appointed to certain bodies and what have you but Yeah, he's a very serious difficulty here dash The complaint has been made to the state ethics watchdog. He is effectively admitting guilt on the non declaration of election expenses and also on That issue around the corporate donation and a detailed investigation Will one expects have to be carried out into his election expenses in 2016 and 2020 and these laws are in place for a good reason. They were put in place 25 years ago on foot of a series of political scandals and the damage that that did to the reputation of the political system And the governance of the country to society as a whole that's why these these laws were put in place And yet here we are in the mouth of more controversy. So in terms of You know this Sipo and and how it's operated all being looked at streamlined. How long has it gone to be? Do you think before we see? changes in that regard finally phenon Difficult to say. I mean we were told that last year There was an ethics law review being being carried out We never saw the results of that that that was passed on then to Asklduna who took over as public expenditure and reform minister. He's now has to recuse himself from that process Because he has a direct conflict now because he himself is being investigated that's gone to Michael McGrath a finance minister Who was originally carrying out the review? One would hope it would be in place By the end of this year because next year we've got a busy agenda We definitely have the local and European elections taking place in May of 2024 We quite possibly have a referendum this year or our next year We also are expecting an election for a directly elected mayor of Limerick and then the biggie the T Shockley of Radker is saying that He wants to have the next general election in autumn of 2024. So that that's only 18 months away or they're about Beyond Martin saying he'd prefer a few months later in the new year in 2025 So they want to really have 18 months to Pat to review the legislation Put forward proposals pass that to the eruptus because it will need legislation to underpinish and then ensure that the adequate body is in is Independent body is in place to enforce these regulations all in time for those those elections next year my busy calendar I had a right Phenon. Thanks for your time this morning. I appreciate it Phenon Sheehan Ireland editor of the Irish independent there The nine-ton news show brought to you by Kelly's Toyota Port Road letter Kenny Stuckest of a wide range of used passenger and commercial vehicles Your next move matters. So why not move better? Start your move to permanent TSP today apply in-app for our award-winning current account So don't just move bank move better apply in-app today Applications for explore current account in-app for over 18 personal customers Qualifying criteria fees and charges terms and conditions apply awarded bonkers dot ie best current account 2022 permanent TSP PLC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland Don meets set to buy Kildare chilling for more in your farmers journal Here's Paul Mooney. We look at what the deal means for sheep and beef farmers Bore be it to ratchet up farm audits for all farmers. 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All right dry with good spells of winter sunshine Highest temperatures of seven to nine degrees in light north to northwest breezes Tomas Sean Divine is a defective concrete block campaigner defective concrete products campaigner He joins us on the program now. Good morning to you. Thanks for joining us Good morning Greg. Right. Okay. So what is being organized and what's being asked of? Donagalls counter-cancelors Very good decided that they ask thousands of people to go back to Dublin again We decided that that's not really fair But they we have 37 local representatives elected to Donagalls counter-cancel by the people and it's time those 37 Encounters attended Dublin on our behalf and our councillor mayor Ben Benny the man the meeting was That I've been to tell him that the people of Donagalls taking the more crumbs from the table and it's just got out of hand Sorry, thank you part and go ahead Thomas The announcement last week's rightly so for people left turned up on that to get their homes 100% bikes from the space within a year From the been announced and they're fighting for maybe a campaign appears last 10 12 years I'm a site site site after site site and it's just not it's not it's not fair. It's not happen I've been homes there recently. We've grown men and women crying razor and their homes readily following it They've nowhere to go. They've nowhere to put a car back. They have Nothing and if they qualify for the 15 or 20,000 you get the rent as last while and that's currently a Sharkin and 1240 euro a month the $1,740 a month for a three bed in the house They're 15 and 20,000 won't laugh in six or seven weeks. They're God punished. What do they do then? They can't pay a marriage and they can't pay that for last one round So we need modular homes and places here in Donagalls for these people to move on they Urgently have been in pensioners homes have been in people's homes that have thus abolished and they have nothing Where does it end great and the modular homes makes a great deal of sense? I think to most people because it's not like everybody in a An affected home would need one of these, you know the scheme will fix some houses at a time So theoretically some families could move in and move out and others move in and move out I can't it's that feels like a no-brainer to me, especially considering we are erecting these modular homes elsewhere In terms of the replies looking down the list independence shin fane Martin Farron the sole labor party rep he's there as well a couple of finna gale representatives So there will be government councillors if they don't mind me calling them that on this boss Yes, we have two finna gales so far And thank you very much to them for putting the info over there at their tent. We have no contact whatsoever from anybody and seen a fall which maybe's not surprising but Uh, I honestly thought that they work because some of these lazy finna fall concerts have making their homes and I thought Need to try every effort great I think that's respectful to anybody I listened to Charlie Mcconnell open your show last week and for a government minister great, you know It's it's heartening that that man Was supposed to be representing people from Donegal and then I've been traveling and I've been talking to people on finna falls last way They're that disappointed on the party And Charlie Mcconnell look that the next step actually we're going after us as we're calling for him to resign We're mass potential to get him. He's no longer represent But he is of the opinion that principally The scheme for primarily Dublin people are Is is the same as the the defective concrete scheme. That's the point he was keen to make that in principle that the same and he secured Some retrospective payments for those affected by Defective concrete here in Donegal. You don't feel that goes far enough then No, it doesn't because I live on a development just down the road below your radio station And there's a few apartments on it and listen to Charlie's waffle last last Friday saying that the apartments in my developments will be 100% fixed What's brilliant about the bad eyes tree, which I doubt very much. I don't think it was true And the house next door those apartments won't be 100% fixed. They'd have to find more money They they'd be fixed their own home than the ones loving next door, which is totally unfair They can't agree whether the home cost a thousand effects or cost one million defects 100% redress is 100% redress It's not 90 10 60 10 40 10 anything at all that's home owner, but That's home about that home on the the maintenance good faith The government failed them The manufacturer the blocks failed them And why should that person have to be out thousands of euros to fix that home well over half? I will 14 cancers already have I've said they're going down on the 8th of February. What are they going to do? like Is it up to them to try and go ahead? They had them to stand outside doll in the protest on our behalf and demand a meeting Well, I'll bring To tell them that they're taking no more the 37 reps and don't look all county council It's a man under the treated equally There are counties and there was nuts uh There If we can't just seem to just get the scripts left over on the table and double Send up here. They don't need all I know our peniphal reps and funnigale reps and don't look all county council need to tell their paymasters Their bosses that this is not happening kind of any more All right, uh thomas. Thanks very much for your time this morning. That's thomas shawnt divine there. Um, Let's just say 13 14 cancers have already confirmed They're attending. I mean fina full cancers are in a potentially difficult position, of course because um Their boss in the county is minister charlie mccunlough and um, I don't know maybe they're waiting To make a decision. I don't know but I can understand that is a A difficult position they find themselves in but it's a very very difficult position Homeowners find themselves in too. Greg, please ask your guest if someone is leaking confidential information from sipo like Well, I can't read that last bit Because I just have to make sure it's not illegal for me to say that I don't think so. Um A lot of this stuff is uh, just journalists digging. Um, the There's a couple of guys working for the ditch Who've exposed quite a lot of this before and I suppose then it's put it set up to the Legacy media then to sort of start looking as well. Uh, so I don't think it's necessarily leaks coming from sipo, though I can't rule that out Uh, dr coin on radio if this goes private, they have to say they have no say in the service Also care talk down the country of hours of delays callbacks My relatives live there. What about the service users who were in the hub prior to this? I'm not I don't really understand. Um All right, okay, they'd be displaced from there. He says it's going to be purposely built and designed So, uh, maybe uh, this extra accommodation there, right? We'll be back with more on the nine till noon show after the news and obituary notices stay right where you are The nine to noon show brought to you by kelly's tyoza test drive ireland's best-selling hybrid electric range at our showroom port road letter kenny winter sale at brine mccormick sports now on in store and online Discounts of up to 30% off asex new balance brooks and hoca footwear gt 2000 gel cumulus new balance 880 Hoca clifton 8 to name just a few treat your feet in our winter sale grab a discount and stretch those legs Look the part play the part in store and online click and collect on bmcsports.ie I've lost my car keys lost my car once in a multi-story lost my patience my hair Lost that a while back But this week I found things I thought had gone forever the crackle of needle on vinyl Leaves crunching. I found them all at specksavers. I got free hearing aids with prsi And now those sounds are back. So's my jar de vivre Still can't find those keys though Book a free hearing test today terms and conditions apply see our website for details Keep out the cold cold cold this winter and ring flaming for their full range of garage doors Agri doors insulated doors milking parlor doors Flaming 91 48 234 Don't just do okay in your career. Do great at all state. Don't settle sore Don't procrastinate innovate. Don't do mediocre. Do magnificent at all state great work great life Great people or great opportunities await search all state ni careers today Sabrina rob here from donnie gall hearing clinic If you're struggling to hear everyday conversations or find it difficult to understand people in a crowded room You may have hearing loss Problems like these are common and we're used to helping people resolve them We offer hearing assessments and we'll discuss your options You can call us on 07 4 9 1 8 8 4 7 0 or visit donniegallhearingclinic.ie Life sounds brilliant with donnie gall hearing clinic letter kenny and bunkrana Live on air online and on the highland radio app. This is highland radio news Good morning approaching 10 o'clock donal kavana at the highland radio news desk The clinical lead with the now doc service in donnie gall says the plan to vacate the current letter kenny base at Old town and move to the hub on kum crannin road will improve services and facilities for both doctors and patients And is not linked to the ongoing review of the now doc service On the prospect of care docs taking over the out of ours gp service in donnie gall Dr. Martin coin said they already provide and manage the gps who run the service and the separation between the gps And the now doc administration can be problematic particularly in terms of gp or on today's 9 to noon show Dr. Coin stressed that gps want an improved service He said any reduction in hours or facilities would not be acceptable The gps are very very keen that the that the practice remains the same We can't have a situation where we're closing our premises at 6 o'clock in an evening And finding that the service that is being offered is not as it is at the moment that that will just backfire on us So if anything we want to see an improved service. We want to see a more efficient service We want to see less delays for patients and you can't have doctors being Sitting in surgery where patients have been waiting for six or seven hours to have a callback We don't want to see anything being downgraded. We want to see a better service Over 38,000 people have been waiting over 18 months for a health scan in acute hospitals in ireland They're among 251,000 people waiting for ct mri or ultrasounds as outpatients The hsc says funding has been provided to address the problem under the 2023 waiting list action plan Sinn Féin's health spokesperson david cullman says these figures are shocking So we have tens of thousands of people waiting over 18 months for a scan on the public system That will obviously have an impact on the ability of health care professions to provide safe Levels of care to people because scans are really important and while some might be routine Scans obviously scans are what show up difficulties and challenges which can then lead to a diagnosis A bunk plan counsellor says the housing crisis in in the show and has never been so acute Councillor jack murray says there are already long waiting lists for social housing with the added pressure of homes impacted by defective blocks in the area He's welcoming a new 56 home Project being constructed as part of the rocky town development phase two that will go to tender in june with work set to commence next year However counsellor murray says much more needs to be done It's a drop in the ocean really in the in the greater scheme of things but nonetheless It'll be 56 houses that we can utilize um be it for families that are being rehoused uh during defective blocks Uh works for those that have been waiting Some as long as 10 years to get uh console housing and get their their forever home for their family So I guess it's a very welcome step and I look forward to more um console housing being constructed in bunk ground Concerns have been raised over what's been described as the excessive presence of Japanese knotweed in Burton port Councillor Mary Thresgala her fears the presence of the species may impact on the delivery of building projects in the area She believes a project similar to a pilot when rolled out in Dunlowe would be very beneficial She says it's really important that that Dunlowe project be assessed as quickly as possible What I look for was that we would get the results of the pilot project and see how it worked But also to give landowners the information of how you actually treat knotweed And what can work and what can't work But also that we would look for another project to be done in and Burton port because as I say It's it's really getting out of hand And Dunlowe county council's parking section is to increase enforcement in the sprakburn drive area of letter kenny A recent meeting of letter kenny milford missable district was told that cars parking on the footpath and double yellow lines at the junction with high road Often block the vision of drivers and make getting in and out of the cul-de-sac potentially unsafe The issue was raised by councillor jimmy cavena. He says there is plenty of car parking in that area And residents have been asking me now several times about the problem of exiting From sprakburn, which is already difficult because the vision isn't great there Especially if you're if you're turning right there people are saying that that there's parking on double lanes are all the time And so on and they find it hard to get into sprakburn find it hard to get out of it again and they're very unhappy about it and I'm just asking that that people use tag cobra car park across the road find car park there weather forecast for Today dry with good spells of winter sunshine top temperatures seven to nine degrees celsius Light north to northwest breezes tonight cold and dry with widespread frost patches of mist and fog also expected In near calm conditions lowest overnight temperatures minus two to plus one degree celsius Frost and fog clearing tomorrow morning. Some early bright spells will develop becoming cloudier in the afternoon and evening Dry though for most of friday some outbreaks of rain possible later in the day Top temperatures tomorrow six to nine degrees celsius in some very light breezes and that's island radio news We're back with news again at level the clock until then from the news team have a very good morning Obituary notices this thursday morning january 26th The death has occurred of kevin fallon manor conningham and formerly of giver county slago Reposing in shivnan's funeral home valley found in county ross common tomorrow evening from six o'clock until eight o'clock Removal to st. joseph's church give a on saturday morning Arriving for celebration of mass of christian burial at 11 o'clock Interment afterwards in courage cemetery The death has occurred of brandon o'Donnell looking glenegary dublin and formerly of manor conningham In accordance with brandon's wishes his body has been donated to medical science and therefore there will not be a funeral An occasion to celebrate brandon's life will be held in the Fitzpatrick castle hotel. Killenay county dublin at 2 p.m on saturday If desired donations can be made to the irish motor neuron disease association The death has taken place of anna frill needon levy mountain view letterkenny androhada Her remains are posed at her home at mountain view letterkenny from 2 p.m this afternoon Removal from there on saturday morning for 11 a.m rakeway mass at st. mary's church fanavolte faned followed by burial in the adjoining graveyard Rosary nightly at 8 p.m with family time pleas from 10 p.m to 11 a.m Family flowers only please donations and live desire to the alzheimer society of virland care of any family member or aamon scott funeral director The death has taken place of charlie mcglenn the reeling barre garvin clohn His remains will repose at his late residence today rakeway mass on saturday morning 11 a.m In our liddy of perpetual succour glenfin with interment afterwards and culware cemetery glenfin Rosary nightly at 9 p.m with family time from 10 p.m to 11 a.m and on the morning of the funeral Family flowers only donations if desired to the dunnigol hospice care of any family member or marley funeral directors rakeway mass can be viewed on mcnmedia.tv The death has taken place of susan elizabeth known as betty graham our dad st. johnson Her remains are posing at her late residence Funeral from there tomorrow afternoon at 1 15 p.m for 2 p.m funeral service in st. johnson Presbyterian church with burial afterwards in the family plot in the adjoining graveyard Family flowers only donations if desired to st. johnson presbyterian church care of james phleming or ternspy clintock funeral director The death has taken place of jama daily knee gallagher 23 oakland park stirban and formerly of barrick street stirban Funeral from quigley's funeral home this evening at 6 p.m going to the church of immaculate conception stirban rakeway a mass tomorrow morning at 11 a.m with interment afterwards in st. mary cemetery melmont The rakeway a mass can be viewed live on mcm media dot tv The death has taken place of cathleen pollock nicole ben 14 milview arty garvin Funeral leaving her late home tomorrow afternoon at 12 30 p.m Followed by a service of thanksgiving for her life and like patrick presbyterian church at 1 p.m With burial afterwards in the adjoining church yard Family flowers only please For more details including any family health guidelines for oaks and generals. Please go to hideinradio.com Be well and get healthy size savings then you'll really like our aldi savers offers with up to 43 percent off Including coco loco coconut oil save 43 percent now only $1.99 Ballymore cross sandwich thin save 25 percent now only 89 cent specially selected irish pasta sauces save 19 percent now only $1.49 and tasty healthy soup save 13 percent now only $1.99 I don't like it. I love it aldi every day amazing The county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio We're into the second hour of the program on this thursday the 26th of january I do hope you're very well, and thank you so much for listening and getting involved in the conversation And just a reminder for you listening on repeat or on podcast or overnight You can text us with your comments anytime 08 6 60 25 thousand and we can pick them up in the morning Or when you send them or your emails to comments at highland radio.com We'll care about now close at 12 midnight. I asked that question of Our guest and the answer there was no if a doctor is on call in malin head Do they realize how long it will take to see an emergency patient in falcara? It's only going to increase ambulance call outs, but according to Uh our guest the um according to our guests that the service will actually improve and that Where it's located at the moment that would maintain Greg when is the last time someone tried to book b&b in donnie gall? I called for this weekend and could only get one night b&b for two people at 180 euro Some places would only let me book two nights at the weekend at 600 euro For two nights b&b for two people in doubling two nights b&b's 1400. How can tourists pay for that? Not going to lie. It's not my experience. I would use b&b's I would have more in the past And I never had that problem 70 80 quid a night really was what I was paying in letter kennie and I've stayed in a few places unless things have drastically changed. I don't think that's b&b prices though, and I'll be I think there's an Expectation that b&b slightly less than a hotel isn't there those that seem very much like Hotel prices we the parents of special need children in a show and they're still not getting information On why our children are still not in full time in cash on the core. Can you please ask what's happening? Thank you. Yes, we've put a question in to try and get an answer for you on that um cancel arena donahe says things are improving not as good as we hoped But we are hopeful that will change in the coming weeks some of two days back Some of five days we understand parents are suffering burnout and we're doing all we can to resolve the issue So that's a comment from cancel arena donahoe on those services. They're working on it back to now doc How will care doc deal with triage any faster when they struggle to deal with what they already have? Um, it would be different people doing it is the impression. I got potentially Uh, dr coin seems to be the view that things will improve. What's your opinions on it now though? I think maybe they're Uh, as I said, I thought it was really worthwhile to get a conversation with dr coin Um, that's one side of it. We're hearing from from other people's views But you know in the early parts of this conversation Um, you know a lot of people are very worried about what was to come Are you assured or reassured or more optimistic? About the future of the now doc service if it were to change get involved. Oh wait six sixty 25 000 or call oh seven four nine one 25 000 I just got my esb bill and it's 500 euro It was a red bill as all of them were my last bill was 216. I was away for christmas Can anyone explain this huge increase that is a huge increase they weren't even at home at christmas It's gone from 216 to 500 It's not on usage because each bill has been read and they weren't there in december part of december at least That's a big jump isn't it a dread getting mine. I really do Hi greg uh from the west i'm from the west of the uh county and young people are leaving in their droves Will soon not have a soccer team or a gea team pubs and cafes will close They believe the government government doesn't care as they have pascal's job It suits the government if they all leave i'm sure that's not the case any government would need people here to uh contribute taxes um and whatever what what what everything a population actually does Um, I think that's off the back of the comments I made yesterday that every second post on social media seems to be young ones leaving and to say i'm torn i don't know if it's fantastic for them and they're doing it because they would anyway and they just want to spread their wings and get life experience Or do they feel they have to I don't know uh to highland radio restudent student grants both me my husband work as nurses in the public service second child at college just outside the threshold for the susie support we've immediate family support with loans etc credit unions have been a good support also for fees both children often offered subs from fellow students in receipt of susie not under some same financial pressure as the rest of us so that's two people working as nurses in the public sector and they've a second child at college having to borrow from family credit union loans just outside the susie support which is terrible for them and um a lot of pressure a lot of pressure as they're probably no i mean you're still very young but maybe we have this unrealistic expectation that as you get into your 40s 50s that maybe things get a little bit easier uh certainly not uh homework conversation just finishing up a few remarks on that as people took the time to text in homework should be no more than some light reading or just verbally discussing what they've learned at school that day a lot of children just need to decompress after a day at school no more than we do after a day at work then when it comes to homework time in the evening it's just added stress and work most of the time for the whole family especially if the kids uh play football or dance etc after school in the evenings a lot of people say in the same story um i think what a lot of us go through have gone through lots and lots of us can relate to it because it seems it's the same in every house uh we spend hours on our children's homework but it's never corrected that really bugs me i can understand that yeah and last one just for now on this regarding the discussion about homework i believe homework is important because it lets me see how my children are doing we only see their teacher once a year i know from seeing them actually doing the work uh what they are struggling with what they need extra help with i can then make sure that they get the help if needed if as that lady says it's causing conflict or tension then maybe there's a bigger issue i've seen firsthand major conflict with my niece and parents for years about homework turned out she had dyslexia no teacher came to parents saying it might be a possibility it was only because the parents struggled with doing homework with her they knew something was wrong and pushed school for assistance okay i actually partially read that email yesterday and i wanted to make sure to get it all out today so apologies you might have been frustrated if you only read the first part there it is in its entirety right it's thursday it's bingo jackpot day someone could well win 14 grand today just a reminder for you that you are supporting the national council for the blind of ireland raising significant funds for them for the work that they do here in donagol and this money is spent locally it's not a club by the way or subscription or anything like that there any of you can play highland radio bingo when you want you just go into your local shop when you're in doing your bits and bobs you can pick up a book it's a five euro to play for the week a euro a day we've got hundreds of euro in daily cash prices which are always one uh regularly one and also that big jackpot which we hope will go to someone really really soon i want to see that picture of the massive check at the front of highland soon all right good luck if you are playing today thank you for supporting the national council for the blind of ireland it's time for ncbi bingo on highland radio it's thursday the 26th of january jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 14 000 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s 19 it's game number four the jackpot number is 47 this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers 46 6 10 47 63 77 52 57 54 and finally 88 phone your claim to 910483 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 highland radio dot com this january staying in is the new going out at kelly centrum mountaintop with mega deals in fresh healthy ready meals range with great deals in our award-winning off license and winning offers and fresh meat and produce kelly centrum mountaintop 2022 winner of the national four court retailer of the year we need to go to ellen check out these special offers at simpson supermarket letter kenny there's kellox koko bop 720 gram three euro lions teabags 240 back five euro fire letters 60 back two euro 50 dead coke cans eight pack four euro birds eye chicken dibbers 22 back three euro plus lots of other special offers in store while they're check out baggage kitchen coffee for great food teas and coffees only two minutes from letter kenny hospital simpson supermarket red value every day the nine to noon show brought to you by kelly's toyota where you can now test drive the newest member of the iconic corolla family the corolla cross hybrid electric suv uh caller says in relation to cash on a core my child attends there they love the routine and it's a place to meet their peers the buzz uh in them rising on a center day as opposed to a day at home is incredible i do worry about their mental health surely routine should be back to normal by now and our children deserve better trust we will stay on that issue for you all these people talking about mike but they never mentioned joe mcquee is he even still a td for donnie gall well joe mcquee gave up the party whip the finnegale party whip um on the issue uh outside of that and he's also uh flagged his intention to resign outside of that i don't i'm not defending uh joe mcquee's were able to look after himself but what else would you like him to be doing uh has darrow brian the minister of housing uh ever been speaking on highland radio and if not then why not my heart goes out to all of those mica people the government has let donnie gall down big time roll on the next election and we'll show them uh thanks for airing my views it's our pleasure he was on at the time of the announcement of the scheme and obviously defended the scheme um but you know people make the decisions when and when not to speak on the radio and the public can make up their own minds in relation to that we do continue to invite him as we do regularly uh minister so we've got very good access uh thankfully uh because i think most of them feel that they get a fair outing uh mark mccollom's the community campaigner joins us on the program now come on into your mark come on into your great having Greg having your year and same to you uh same to you mark right okay uh you're speaking out on um i don't know it's a frustration it's beyond the frustration i'm sure it's something you wish you you want to highlight well it's just that we it's now we're the it's a new year we're entering the the um almost the second quarter of the 21st century and we are in a very bad place you know we have a crumbling health service we have an inadequate mental health service we have crumbling houses we have um systems that are failing our our people and you know it has to change it has to change um you turn on the the assistance the radio this morning and it's the the number of posters or our campaigns that um politicians had in 2016 is sort of the first story because there's more important substantive issues that people should be dealing with i get that but these are on a pole i understand that and i don't dispute that and i think it's time for for people to move on but these are the legislators okay and if we can't if we if the legislators uh are not abiding by the rules i think that's a very important indication then as to how they might be able to function in determining policy that addresses the very issues we're about to talk about now so i think there should be a space to make sure that those that make the decisions and are very well rewarded to do so are doing so within the same kind of boundaries and guidelines that we're expected to live by exactly well and all their standards and ethics and and we we are governed they are governed by um the codes that are supposed to adhere to but you know they we ended up we are we are now because of the policies that have been implemented by the governments for the success of over the years and you know it it's painfully obvious that society has never been as unequal um the wealthy 10 percent are um much much more advanced than the the vast majority of the the ordinary people and the disconnect between the those making the decision making the policy decisions and those on the ground is is um it seems to me wider than ever before that you know that the politicians and the policymakers don't seem to be actually realising what the impact that this is having for your the average person but mark i think and we'll tease it out by the way i'm not cutting across you but i think you know you're not the first person to make these points and people or the people have made these points and stood for election but don't get elected you know the people uh you end up with the politicians and the policies that you elect though so why is is sort of your views they're not resonating to the point where the electorate vote for change if it is the if it is the fault of success successive governments maybe the majority of people who choose to vote believes that the government's doing a good job well i i don't well maybe that's the case but i from my perspective i don't think they are i think they're they their policies over the years we've they have led to the housing crisis who led to the health crisis have led to uh uh young people not be able to get accommodation for studies or having to emigrate because there's no point no chance of them ever owning a house you know this is this is the first generation now there's going to be probably even worse off than the the generations before um and anybody who says that's a good job being done by the government is is delusional you know that says they can wrap it up or spin it to whatever way they like but they're not they're not uh delivering for the the average person of the citizens of this country um and there is a need for a change you know um and it's a cross party i'm not aligned to any sort of political party or um or a convention but it's just i see inequality i see injustice and just feel it no things have to change mark i don't want to be negative about what the future might hold right but i wonder in how we do politics really can there be change because if you look to every other country in the world seemingly pretty much every other country that we can relate to i suppose it's the exact same uh they've had successive governments um in different in in in different countries in france germany britain to some extent you know what i mean the government's changing and that different coalitions different leadership but every country in europe it seems in america and other places are suffering uh are suffering the same like we've got loads of people heading to australia okay yeah but in australia the population there they've got uh 130 000 people homeless they're struggling with immigration the same kind of conversations access to health poor mental health services do you know what i mean it's not like how young people are heading to a a far-flung land where everything is it might be better for them because they can get a room uh work their socks off accumulate some cash but they're not heading to a utopia either do you know what i mean so we need to be doing things completely different wherever wherever we are then surely i i think you know what we have to start with is you know we we have to put people at the center of it you know it isn't about party it isn't about um you know it has to be or what what policies are going to serve the vast majority of the people positively as opposed to um serving an economy and the country isn't an economy we hear so much about the markets and what economy and how we have to continue growth that's that's that's sort of neoliberal politics is failing and it's it's certainly obvious it is failing you're right it's not just failing in our land it's failing everywhere it's been implemented but there are alternatives like we look to Scandinavia we look to they've dealt with their homeless crisis uh they they've eradicated it their education systems is is much better than ours their mental health services are more adequate and have much better results so there are models of practice that we can look to and and learn from as opposed to just the definition of madness is doing continually doing the thing that you're doing and inspecting a different outcome we are i mean just implementing implementing these policies over and over again expecting change to happen and it's not going to happen unless there is a is that radical shake-up that there is sort of some radical thinking there that is going to um shake up the complacency and shake up the apathy that people say you know there is this i'm sure what can you do attitudes you know we're doing our best it's not we're not doing our best we're not serving the people of Ireland we're not serving we're and we're failing our young people we're failing our older people you know and the society can be judged on how it treats the most vulnerable people and its and its members and at the minute Irish society is not serving its most vulnerable people in any way adequately at all you know there was a report published on Monday on the mental health services and it's just it's just was abysmal that we are the services for young people uh in in this in this country are absolutely abysmal places that's the only system that's exactly it's also worth pointing out it's really worth importing out too that that uh report on CAMHS was for 10 percent uh of yeah of the services you know and and we we've been given stresses now that people are under and the you know the lack of uh lack of opportunity and the pressures that are people under people are more likely to be suffering from anxiety and suffering from isolation and they're more need of more needs of supports and services there and they're not there so um this is just going to be a problem that isn't going to be just cured quickly but if we look to other other other jurisdictions in other countries they dealt with the problems differently like they they're doing more than Scandinavia and Switzerland that we there's no there's programs there called the sultry models uh non-medical interventions that have been running there since the 70s and 80s that we um they're even on the radar over here you know there's not even talked about but we could be using the one why are we not doing providing the people of Ireland with these services those services have to be paid for um yeah well we're paying for services anyway we've a government came in and said right i mean obviously they'd have to equally tax the wealthy um but if they said everyone's going to have to pay a bit more uh because this is the services that you just want would would would we would any government would any government be elected in if that's what they proposed you know what i mean so i think it's almost like itself defeating well no i feel if the services were improved and if people can see an improvement in the services can see improvements in the medical health system and can see the mental health system improved they would they would acknowledge that and they would be that the they wouldn't be in a rejection of paying an additional tax because we're paying tax anyway and there isn't there's we're not a per country we're investing vast amounts of money in our health system and but it's you know how is that investment and where is that investment going yeah again go back to if you're just plowing money into something that's not working in the first place that's that's that's just you know it's not that's deluded thinking you know that's a failed policy but if you can look at okay why is this not working what can we do different and how can we improve things and there has to be that willingness to change and it has to be willing to to um to look at things and how can we do things different how can we improve our health system for for for the people that we're not constantly hearing that there's the waiting times in hospitals that they're that the the ADs are over being overrun you know we've that's this we've almost become complacent that these are we accept this now that this is normal and it's it shouldn't be normal this should not be normalized you know that should be normal but we have to be careful too I suppose you know you'll you'll use in Switzerland as an example it's been a while since I I looked into to because you know there are certain countries that are listed as being well look what they do here like Switzerland has it has homelessness problem it has it depends on where you live it depends on your background if you're in a french speaking part of switzerland you know there's a higher rate of homelessness just using that as one example again you know I think when we're making comparisons mark and I'm not calling you up and I'm on about myself as well because I can be quick to this is that we have to really dig deep and say really is it better over there you know it well there's facets of it there's elements of what they're doing that could you know that we could incorporate take the best of everywhere then sort of okay looking at what looking at what's working and in other areas that they're doing correctly and implementing them here you know and that's what you know there is no utopia there is nowhere that's perfect there is no so we can just point to that and say yet we can look at Scandinavia yes they're tacked they're good services but yes they pay a higher rate of tax for that you know but but that's that's that's the trade-off and again there is we're talking about we have this view in our number we're constantly looking at bringing an establishment multinational companies over here you know there's a need for growth at community level at community supports and looking at where people are at you know people people are not corporations you know we forget again that and we sort of focus on the economy and we focus on growth we focus on development you know that's not and this sort of measure of GDP as a measure of of success it's measure of GDP isn't uh isn't sustainable you cannot have constant growth if you have a certain you know you have to have supports there for the people that are providing the growth it sounds to me like I know where you're coming from right but it sounds to me like this world's not set up for us to live like we should I mean because I mean obviously we there are certain rules in terms of taxation that we have to abide by within the EU I mean we have to ask the EU permission to lower evap rates on diesel at times don't get me wrong like I just I understand like people say right let's get out in the street enough is enough you know let's stand together let's change things right but who's going to change them I don't think the current government can be compelled to do so I don't think Sinn Fein for example will promise what you want at the next election so in terms of how people can affect change right the type of change that you want if they agree with you who do they vote for like who who who do you vote for because the promises that you want will not even be sorry that what you want won't even be promised at the next general election so what are we standing up for what are we uniting for what are what are we showing solidarity for because I think sometimes maybe just doing that is occupying our minds but not actually taking away from the reality that where who delivers this change because the real decisions we can make are at the ballot box but who do you vote for yeah well that's this is the thing we have the illusion of democracy we have the illusion the illusion of choice that we can affect change when the reality is it is that we don't have the you know our ballot isn't as powerful as we would like to think it is and we are it's a flawed system where we are presented with two or three options with whatever party is going to promise and commit to delivering on whatever policies you come up with and that's but I think what what should be happening is that the parties would need to be listening more to the people and and serving the people as opposed to serving their their own political agendas and party agendas and you know this this sort of emanated and sort of has roots back in the sort of mid 80s with the neoliberal agenda in terms of the capitalist economic growth being the the barometer for success of a country and not how it treats its people and not how it treats and treating people as economic units and as as it contributes to that society we need to get back to a situation where we were treating people fairly we had an equitable society we had you know that people could people could have an idea of having an adequate living an aspiration to have a house aspiration to have a job you know nothing nothing grandiose just to have a life that was going to be but was our expectations say in the 80s or 70s did we expect everything that we expect now like maybe having the house was enough for us but now we want services to our front door we want the best of roads we want a rail service we want we want to have a certain standard of life we want to have a certain standard of health care do you know what i'm like i'm i'm saying that those are very good sound aspirations don't get me wrong but are you what pleased us in the 80s and 90s and what could be delivered would that please us now would that be enough i think i think the difference was when we in the 80s when they sort of came in with the the the the neoliberal liberal politics and became more about privatization and about profit and about we ceased you know it ceased to be about more about supporting people and supporting services and it it that became more about ireland became more a bit of an economy and the uk became about an economy as opposed to a state that looked after its people and looked after cradle to graves you know looked after the youngest the oldest the most vulnerable disabled people that we don't have the situation now where we have the the queues at hospitals that we have a failed mental health service you know this is the this is the the fruit the all that neoliberal politics let's not forget how let's not forget though our attitude back in the days that you talk of to someone if they got pregnant or how we called them lunatic asylums yeah you know what i'm like you look back at this i'm not saying there was i'm looking at i'm not saying back in the day but i'm not trying to i'm not trying to cut the legs from on this either but i mean there was an awful lot went on that you couldn't even discuss now that's things are better now because we can't discuss it or not i don't know but there were there's always been the downtrodden there's always been the lesser you know there's always been the the lords and the peasants do you know what i mean historically i don't know how i think we do it in a different way now but really are things any different now than they were 50 years ago 100 years ago 150 years ago it's it's shifted it has shifted and society you're right society has become less less equal and more and more divided than any other time like the gap between those who are the running the companies and running the organizations and the average person who's delivering healthcare or delivering mental work has never been wider you know and there is this how do we is almost like how do we end why do we end up here how do we end up here and but it's it's it's the implementation of the successive government policies that have led us to this point you know this as i said before this is the second almost the second quarter of the 21st century and we we are this wasn't in the script or it shouldn't have been in the script for us we should have been we should be now in a situation where we have where we have security and how our older people are going to be cared for security and how are disabled people are going to be looked after but you know what what has gone wrong and and what all I see is that the successive government's failing people and promising to alleviate change and affect change and nothing happens but the majority do you think the majority like you can't I don't think anyone should be left behind don't get me wrong but the majority of people that say for instance go through the health service might say uh well the surveys would suggest that they have a very positive experience you know there are way more people access and mental health services than on than are unable to access them even when we talk about the school transport every year you know 95 percent of people are satisfied with it but five percent or not um but I'm not saying this as a defense or it's just to tease out the conversation are things for the majority of society as bad as you're outlining them lots of people have lovely new cars lots of people are in big houses lots of people are going on holidays look at Dublin airport you get it's chock a block do you know like um but it but we're the same token we there is a significant proportion of people who are are failing um abjectly you know it's not just uh people are in the margins people need there are a lot of people we have over 10,000 people who are homeless you know that that's an indictment to any any government policy we have as we have here we have homes homes but let's look at like I mean that is an absolute disgrace and again I'm only saying this stuff to try and have the conversation mark right we've been a population of on in the Republic of Ireland of in excess of five million um obviously when you have a homeless problem there's a certain amount of them it's not like just giving them accommodation they need wraparound supports as well because there could be other issues there it's completely unacceptable that there is that level of homelessness right but how does that rank in international terms you know like if we were it there shouldn't be 10,000 but but when you have a population is there an inevitability going to be a level of homelessness as I say please I don't want listeners to think that I'm in any way saying anything is okay but it's just mark you understand I hope I'm just what I'm just trying to make sure our thing I'm just trying to make sure that people who feel that things aren't that bad feel their voices getting heard does that make sense yeah we are as I said before we are a wealthy country we you know we are a wealthy economy and that that has been we have been successful in that terms but but but the same token there's a lot of people being left behind yeah and that's that's the sort of the that gap between those who for no business if somebody seems to be it's almost as if there's only some people in individualization if somebody's failing or somebody is home it's somehow down to their fault that they're not they've failed they're not working hard enough they're not they're not contributing whereas it's a structure within society itself are geared up so that there's a large sections of society will cannot function in that way without additional supports but and it's this individualization of of blame that somehow if you work hard enough and just drive away you can be successful you know that that again is illusionary you know that a lot of times that is that's not the case no matter how hard you work or some of the hardest working people I know are struggling oh you just work a lot but I think most people are actually just working to survive though they're working to tick along it's like you know it's been like being on a hamster wheel you're just spinning you know and maybe that's life I don't know maybe that is life what well that's that's that's quite in the last minute or two then in reality though how is change effective because you're not talking about voting for opposition parties here because they're not promising what you are looking for so independent well I think people well I think people have to have their voices heard you know tell the politicians what they want they want improved health service they want and so the politicians are being guided by the people so it's not just that the the politicians are saying coming city going away for a thinking over a weekend and coming up with some policies and saying here's take it or read it they have to listen to the people I think that's what's missing from politics that the that the voices of the people that need to be heard aren't being listened to in terms of looking for improvements looking for to making the quality of life for the the citizens of the country for the not just for some but for everyone making it better for everyone all right mark it's an interesting conversation and it starts a conversation interested to hear what people say I say I don't I'm not saying I disagree with you I'm just trying to you know widen out a little bit because yeah you know there's we do say you know rise up or wake up but but fundamentally what does it actually mean do you know what I mean that's kind of what I was trying to uh tease along with you it's not a criticism in any way shape or form I hope you know that it's just to progress it all right mark lovely to chat to you take care of yourself mark my column there community campaigner watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com the nine to noon show brought to you by kelly's Toyota where you can care for your car with Toyota relax giving you a year's warranty with your service terms and conditions apply I saw your be good baker run a boy 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this evening just after the seven news the nine to noon show brought to you by kelly's toioza test drive ireland's best-selling hybrid electric range at our showroom port road letter kenny at elster bank our team is continuing to close current and deposit accounts along with some of our branches at this time if your notice period and your deadline has passed your account is now queued for closure all personal and business account deadlines are fast approaching you must take urgent action if you are still relying on your bank account and in need of more support please contact us immediately visit ulsterbank.ie your local branch or call 0818 210 260 call costs may vary and calls for mobiles may not be free ulsterbank garland DAC is regulated by the central bank of ireland don meat set to buy kildare chilling for more in your farmer's journal his paul mooney we look at what the deal means for sheep and beef farmers bore be it to ratchet up farm audits for all farmers we reveal factory 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um updated you need to let us know your new account details to ensure you continue to get your social welfare payment the quickest way to update your account details is online at my welfare dot i e oh okay thanks brought to you by the government of ireland highland radio weather updates with ireland west airport salla nines the beetles you can now fly to liverpool eight times a week with ryan air this summer ireland west airport don't just take off take it easy all right dry with good spells of winter sunshine highest temperatures of seven to nine degrees in night light north to northwest breezes we're joined on the program now by dr john donahoe senior clinical psychologist with donagall cancer support center good morning to you thank you for joining us thanks ever so much great really appreciate your time to speak with you this morning no it's an important thing that's coming up living with uncertainty webinar is taking place on tuesday the 31st of january and it's focusing on learning how to live well after a cancer uh diagnosis i presume uh people who've received that diagnosis or someone close to them you know have an understanding retrospectively uh but people are getting this news all the time and i suppose how are we equipped to to deal with that um i think that it's worth saying that it's actually surprising to a lot of people that the difficulties arise for people particularly psychologically really in the aftermath of treatments because when people are being overseen by their doctors by their nurses um it's almost like they have a a wrapped around around them and they're going through their treatment and they're developing a kind of a routine and that's actually quite a stabilizing feature psychologically it's also sometimes an element of camaraderie because they might find themselves their treatment coinciding with other people's treatment or they might travel to treatment with other people and there's a support a little bit of a support bubble there yeah when they're in the chemotherapy they're often seeing the same people around about the same time over the course of maybe three or two or three week cycles so absolutely they do develop a relationship with people who are going through very similar sets of circumstances and of course they'll develop relationships with the staff they're at the hospital as well they'll they'll see the same people they'll receive generally the same treatment you know during the course of their of their sort of treatment cycle but of course that has a that has a certain finite amount of time and that generally comes to an end and as part of the the world day of cancer which is the 4th of February Cancer Care West have kind of put together it's the second of two webinars the first was held just before Christmas and now we have our second one coming up as you say on the 31st and this actually is really concentrating on on on what happens after after after treat after treatment so that's why we call the living living with uncertainty and learning how to to live well again um after a cancer diagnosis and there's that I don't mean it all depends on people's outcomes and I don't want to give examples in case it's upsetting to people but even if someone is told that their their cancer is in remission then you know how soon after that uplift that you might receive do you start worrying about well when's it going to come back is it going to pop up pop up elsewhere or do you know what I mean I don't know how long that window is where or maybe it's immediate where those thoughts might start to dominate and I think as well too it may be you're predisposed to something like anxiety it's going to be much more difficult potentially for someone like that with recurring sort of circular thoughts and what have you so your tool people up as best as you can I suppose that's that's exactly it and and I think you're right like because there are there are some people who are naturally going to be predisposed to anxiety not not all of us kind of tolerate uncertainty well some of us actually kind of get really rattled by not knowing the the sort of the road ahead and for those people the uncertainty of of what might happen it really can begin to get under their skin just to kind of talk statistics I suppose just briefly yeah anywhere between 25 and 75 percent of people in the aftermath of treatment will experience what's called fear of recurrence which is a very well known phenomenon and sometimes that fear can escalate into into you know day to day debilitating it's about seven percent but maybe about seven to ten percent people will will really find that they're really affected by anxiety but they want someone like you doctor to say it's not coming back it's coming John sorry they would like you to be able to say it's not coming back or they'd want you to give an exact percentage or they'd want to give you an exact time frame in the world of medicine maybe it was different in the past but certainly now that's not possible so how can you help people to manage that that uncertainty without raising or lowering expectations for example well there's there's two there's two ways there's essentially this kind of what we call psychoeducation so that would be giving giving people a frame or to understand mind now mind is a complicated thing but it has it has an element of biology and it has an element of psychology so we would kind of one of the things in the webinar which will be talked about is is we'll be talking about act and act is a is a psychological therapy which has part of it a a sort of a an explanation of how our mind works in terms of response to threat so when we're threatened what gets activated neurobiologically and when people have an understanding of that they can kind of understand why the alarm bells are going to go off and they're in their mind really radically and then so that's the psychoeducation bit the second bit will be the actual kind of techniques we'll get into quite too much out here but in the webinar we'll be talking a little bit more about various techniques that can people can can use and begin to habitualize the the key area in those techniques is practice we're trying to kind of tone down the alarm bells so that actually they don't get to be the in the driving seat as much and actually increase capacity to kind of portion it isn't it i mean you can't you can't eliminate a fear of cancer research but you have to you have to put it into context and and into the and allow space for for for living within you know around them it's it's worth saying as well it's it's unwise to turn the alarm bells off yeah it's like just like it would be unwise to kind of turn the alarm off on your car and leave it outside wherever overnight we want we want a certain amount of vigilance to be to be present but we don't want that vigilance to be so activated that it that you're you're sort of paralyzed completely so it's getting that it's getting that kind of balance correct okay and also orientated towards kind of living as as well as you possibly can moving forward you have a couple of speakers amongst them dr katey barrett a psychologist and mary kelly a counselor you know there's there's tried and tested this is tried and tested you know what i mean like the tools that will be discussed the conversations will they are proven to help people uh and and that's why you know you've brought these guests together for this webinar now it is tuesday the 31st of january from 11 a.m to 12 p.m uh it's via zoom so we are going to give people a number to we're going to retain the number here but to sign up because you have to get an invite to the zoom call uh 0749601901 you can also sign up via social media links go to cancer care west will it be replayed after the fact as well if the times don't suit uh john or yeah what we're doing is is uh because of confidentiality what we what we do is we record the presentations so there is it runs over about an hour uh there's about 20 25 minutes per so katey will will speak for the first 25 minutes uh then mary kate will speak or vice versa depending and then the so that that part of the of the presentation will be recorded so um and the question in our answer bit that's actually a lot of people will be asking questions obviously so we don't record that bit for the cases of confidentiality and if it's okay john i'm sure if they're invited i think this might sorry there's a slight delay here of course you're going to cut out the bit that could identify people after the fact i understand but i just want i think this would be very important for people around people who've had a diagnosis um john can you hear me okay there know that the signal's gone to pot um it's kind of jumping or it's jumping around a bit unfortunately yeah no what i was just asking you is uh this is open to for people around people who've had a diagnosis as well that they can help them presumably is it is that okay well i think that's so can you hear me yes go ahead um great i think it's worth saying that people around the patient loved ones particularly can really experience anxiety as well in fact some of the research would say that um whilst low mood would sort of dissipate anxiety in loved ones can remain and escalate over time so really it's actually something that loved ones could be could be uh we would really welcome welcome their participation as well because they too will be able to use the techniques uh as well and get some understanding as well that actually you know they're they're in they're in this as often as much as as the patient themselves yeah and then people who are yep i get you listen the connection's not great uh but we really appreciate your time uh people can go to uh don't know all cancer support center and their social medias for more info thanks very much john have a lovely day will you take care of yourself thank you so much the message uh came across uh clear albeit a little bit stuttered at times the nine to noon show brought to you by kelly's toyota port road letter kenny home to a wide range of toyota commercial vehicles your perfect business partner urgent news the house proud group stock disposal sale at the stroban store must end this sunday all remaining clearance stock has been transferred to the store and final price cuts made with drastic reductions on furniture for every room the massive stock disposal sale at house proud abacorn square stroban sale ends six p.m. sunday also at the oma store at centra this week we have great mega deals in the center range like centra family meals 1.2 kilo selected range now five euro each centra gold blend teabags 80 pack now one euro 20 and centra soft quilt of bathroom tissue 18 roll now five euro smart choices choose centra centra live every day is your car or van winter ready get your free winter check now at hegelty's ford in letter kenny it includes checking your lights wipers and coolant also the most common cause of winter breakdowns your battery and what you depend on most to keep you safe on the road your tires where the thread depth should be at least 1.6 millimeters hegelty's will check all these and more to keep you motoring safely through the winter and beyond get winter ready by contacting hegelty's ford in letter kenny today do you need a little extra help staying in your home at bluebird care we offer a wide variety of qmark approved personalised home care services across dunny gall and are fully trained and committed staff will always meet your care needs with kindness compassion and dignity to get your personal home care assessment plan visit bluebirdcare.ie or call our care team today on 07491 29562 and bring care home giving your time to be a samaritan means being there for people who need someone it means making a difference to someone when it really matters our volunteers come from all walks of life and we'll be right behind you with training support and mentoring for more information about volunteering visit samaritans.org forward slash volunteer the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio okay it is 11 o'clock time for a news update we say good morning now to donemary darty thanks greg good morning the clinical lead with the now doc service says the plan to vacate the current letter kenny base at old town and move to the hub on kill mcrenum road will improve services and facilities for both doctors and patients and is not linked to the ongoing review of the now doc service on the prospect of care doc taking over the out of our gp services in dunny gall dr martin coin says they already provide and manage the gps who run the service and the separation between the gps and the now doc administration can be problematic particularly in terms of gdpr over 38 000 have been waiting over 18 months for a health scan in hospital they are among 251 000 people who are waiting for a ct mri or ultrasound as an outpatient the hsc says funding has been provided to address the problem under the 2023 wedding list action plan the number of people waiting awaiting beds in letter kenny university hospital continue to fall reports show a total of three people waiting for beds with only one of those being in the emergency department shin fane is seeking a cross-border meeting to discuss what could be significant delays in delivery of the riverine park project west ron mp orla begley says she's received a letter from the chair of the riverine community forum expressing concern of the delays in the project linking stirban and leford she wants the two councils to meet with a party delegation as quickly as possible abong krana councillors says the housing crisis in initial one has never been so acute councillor jack murray says there are already long waiting lists for social housing with the added pressure of homes impacted by the defective blocks in the area he's welcoming the 56 new homes being constructed as part of the rocky town development phase two with work set to go in tender in june and commencement early next year and finally donnie gall county council's parking section is to increase enforcement of the sprakburn drive area of letter kenny a recent meeting of the letter kenny millford municipal district was told carers parking on the footpath at the junction with high road often blocked the vision lines of drivers and make getting out of the cul-de-sac unsafe that's all for the news now we'll be back at 12 noon so close done and re thanks very much indeed and the news team never forget the first time we arrived at our beautiful lodge our cozy base for the next week of fun we cycle through the forest for hours and rush down the rapids again and again and again remember when dad couldn't even hit the border archery and when the ducks wouldn't stop following our boat we'd never giggled so much it really was something special and that's why we love to go back start your story today center parks ireland family forever book now at center parks dot i e the nine to noon show brought to you by kelly's toyota home of genuine toyota parts and accessories at port road letter kenny okay you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show just to let you know if you want to register for uh that webinar uh living with uncertainty managing fear of cancer recurrence it's on on tuesday the 31st of january runs from 11 a.m till 12 p.m the webinar is provided via zoom so you will need access to your mobile or a tablet or your computer oh seven four nine six zero one nine zero one is the uh number to call if you want to sign up or you can sign up via their social links um cancercare west dot i e and so on and so forth all right uh let us see i want to play a request for patrick and phyllis people's the married this day in 1953 in st unan's cathedral in letter kenny uh happy anniversary patrick and phyllis uh would like to send get well wishes to rodney bogel in bali shannon who's in slago university hospital get well from jerry and schnade in bundoren and all of us here of course in highland radio happy birthday to james patten from nana uh gaga doherty happy second birthday to james patten my hero boy letter kenny love kathy tim matthew and harry and holly james a popular young lad today happy birthday james have a second birthday on the way myself in the not too distant future get a great clarence gift this week from the geese chemist in letter kenny you'll receive four free beauty treats and a gorgeous beauty bag when you purchase two clarence skin care products one to be moisturizer or serum this great clarence offer is available while stocks last in store at megies chemist letter kenny and online at megies dot ie where the best costs less for any skincare advice call in and talk to the resident skincare consultants mary or jemma the acruity cuddle to shah no mavi imfui vru agoni shah no imni ok gminic to bwindoku illegled of your slant came do we will it's a good day show a leg brah name in me if i'm free marisa old it imni bruce shasta ish libri gana behanon cola when she chill illegled of your slanta denon kyangle agus vaikun of a cure mental health dot ie oh i'm in a serfisius launcher liven and dairy is absolutely fantastic everyone's so friendly they're the salt of the earth and there's a great atmosphere i've always wanted to be a paramedic i decided to apply to ulce university because this is a pioneering course in northern ireland it's laid the foundations for a successful and rewarding career as a paramedic studying at the mickey campus is absolutely fantastic it's a compact but vibrant campus right in the heart of the city center it's where old meets new and where culture meets character i'm ben and i'm a first year student paramedic studying at ulce university the guardian university guide 2023 named ulster number one university in northern ireland ulster university delivering sustainable futures super value makes saving money as easy as one two three one we match ali on the products you love like super value free range large eggs six piece 225 super value irish creamery butter 227 gram 199 two get thousands of special offers and three money off vouchers every week on the app super value makes saving money as easy as one two three a new season of the score returns this evening there's a preview of dunnegall's league opener against kerry with heiland's own martin mcquee and tim moinehan from radio kerry there's ladies football with maxie corn and dunnegall hurling with mickey mccan plus we hear from finharp's manager deb rogers on how the pre-season campaign is developing that's on the return of the score this evening just after the seven news and you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show right uh we're going to go back talking about um uh tourism in in a show and cancer johnny mcganis of finnegall joins us good morning johnny thanks for taking the call today good morning great right you've also been raising the issue of tourism uh on the in a show and peninsula what is the the why was this back on the agenda again what is the sense uh as it relates to tourism and the state of it in in a show well in fairness it's never been off the agenda to be fair greg and i myself and the other councillors here are are very much adamant that we're going to be making sure that what's needed here in the show and it's delivered and i feel at the moment we we're not getting a fair share of the resources that are available within the county for the promotion of tourism and now going forward we have a a sort of a joint up uh objective of marketing that's going to take place between cosby coastal route and the wild atlantic way and i'm calling for the resurrection of the pre-existing initial and 100 and the rebranding of the initial 100 and really and truly it needs to be repackaged with a complete overhaul of the marketing around it new signage uh passing days and whatever else it may need but we have everything there it'll take very little investment and it's very important especially in light of um the fact that we could be just swallowed up within a large marketing campaign between the wild atlantic way and the cosby coastal route currently and sorry i'll let you go on to that the initial 100 routes uh what what's its relationship to the wild atlantic way is there a crossover there like is there any danger that in in trying not to be subsumed into a wider uh a sort of advertising campaign that in some way you could get lost within it if you try and form your own identity if that makes sense them if my question makes sense well i can understand what you're saying now the wet atlantic way follows the initial 100 for for almost i would say 80 percent of the route it's only in a couple of places where it deviates and that's really because the road is probably so small that it can't take the coaches that would be considered to be coming along with you know large tour operators but the drive itself for the typical tourist who comes and rents a car at the airport and heads off around the coast the initial 100 is perfectly suited for them it will need some passing lanes of course but the marketing and the signage of the route it should be it should be put in place immediately in time for the upcoming tourist season and i would ask you to think if you're if you were thinking about going to Kerry the first thing that would spring to mind would be the ring of Kerry so the ring of Kerry is still promoted twice that is always part as also part of the wild atlantic way as it's done ago as it's safe for instance sleeve league it gets its own individual marketing campaign but i mean it's on the wild atlantic way as well why not i mean the initial 100 it's unrivaled there's not many places you know there's not many routes could offer what it offers so why not look at it as a standalone tourism attraction and not merely a a drive if you know what i mean well i would say there's there isn't a drive like it anywhere quite on with you so the fact that we're letting it sort of slide down the pecking order i mean to name out a few of the attractions along the way going north from muff and sort of counterclockwise you start off with northward castle you have the museum the marty museum and planetarium shrewd lighthouse and beach kind of go bay the history of the trinidad valencera you've darsie megea tramone bay come on around then you're going to punkot church and cross you have the balkan stone circle and other monastic sites and stone circles that are recently being discovered there you have the obviously the kodaf blue flag beach go on around then you've bamboos crown you've wild the pack i'll pack away you have the we house at malin you've knock them in the bends you've kerned on a cross doe famine village kargibrahi castle pollen strand taller strand the moor gap fortanry odore these keep neds point swan park straggill strand wild arling glen even waterfall which i miss sorry green in avalia i mean we are absolutely snowed under with attractions and if we're looking to increase dwell time for our tourists which subsequently will then help the accommodation sector the pubs the restaurants the retail outlets you must promote finish on 100 as this all encompassing place to come visit and and you know make one of the the towns and proximity your hub and stay there for one two three nights and not the not the 20 minutes that we're getting on average at bamboos crown for instance at the moment and it's awful it's terrible to say for instance like some allen head people drive up and clear off you know you need to have something to hold them there to spend money in the local area as well that's just one example so we heard from your fellow councillor councillor martin mcdormick yesterday about the funding of tourism in in a show and that the effectively you know cap in hand organizations have to go to the council to try and get their fair share do you agree with that does that fit in with those calls with how we structure and finance tourism across the county does that fit in a line with your calls for us to focus then specifically on one particular project within in shown well i mean we're certainly underfunded to this for sure i know the tourism operators in the area they don't have the the they don't have the financial capacity to deliver the marketing campaign that's required and i think it's my opinion that that it should be a branch of donnie gall tourism and the same investment that goes into the rest of the county should be invested in in a show and that has to happen as a matter of urgency and until that happens really and truly you know we're on we're on a losing a losing path and i think it has to change immediately in order to have a mark on the upcoming season because it'll take it'll take that 10 12 14 weeks to put in place a campaign that will have any any sort of positive reaction then on the ground as far as football numbers overnight stays and the actual spend for the summer upcoming summer and and really truly the businesses on this this drive the businesses of initially on they're just hanging on by a thread right now the the cost of electricity the cost the cost of the wages have gone up everything is just skyrocketing out of control and and you know even keeping the doors open this time of the year is very very hard and in fact it's proving uh beyond the reach of many small businesses and it's the small businesses that are the fabric of our society here and they're the largest employer nationally not just in Donegal so if the small businesses are hurting and they're no longer viable then we're looking for some we're looking forward at some very stark times in relation to employment and the reason we're having this conversation too and you've outlined it earlier on and i think it's a it's a legitimate thing complete legitimate concern you're concerned aren't you that if people are planning and a lot of people plan their holidays that they will effectively do causeway coastal route hop on to the wild atlantic way below the peninsula or vice versa that they will go ugh you know is it really worth going all the way up there and down and that's why specific focus has to be put on the initial 100 to make them realize that yes you do need to do this or actually you can just come and do this shorter route and not go near the causeway route or the wild atlantic way is that really what's led to you i know you've outlined it but i just want to be really clear in my own head that's really where we're at well i mean the fear is that uh somebody coming in with a long journey ahead of them you know we're all on behind schedule that happens especially when you're on holidays and you know picking up the car goes wrong or whatever whatever goes wrong goes wrong you get to the to the to muff and you decide well we just cut across here will we go on to letter Kenny will we go to the west in the county you know are we really going to go up there what's up there you know we've read the reviews and the reviews are saying there's nothing at bambus crown don't bother yourself that's just really what happens now bam you know mallinhead is supposed to be one of three signature points along the wild atlantic way there's no investment there a signature point is supposed to be a point of great interest that spurs the tourist to make the effort to travel there now the tourist that goes there they're getting there they're not even sure are they there and they're subsequently writing reviews saying don't bother yourself you know so we have to we have to shout louder right now and we must we must get the investment necessary for the signature point and we must get the investment for the any show in 100 yeah uh who has to take the ball by the horns here like in other words is this fault to arland is this the council is this in the shown tourism because obviously this needs to be marketed if if your if your wishes were to be followed through on this has to be marketed nationally and internationally so what what agency do you think needs to to take this on board these calls on board well think firstly it must start on the ground so you know with the tourism operators locally then with the elected representatives then we should make the approach to falchireland and tourism arland and i think that each municipal district should have a representative on the falchireland board and they should be regularly invited to attend and they should be maybe in the employment of falchireland but at present i don't believe that we are getting the investment that we that we truly deserve and until that happens we are going nowhere so i will shout up every tree and i implore the other councillors to to you know to join in and help deliver the message to those that need to hear that we need proper representation proper proper and fair marketing of our attractions and our routes just for us to remain in existence you know it's it's it's of grave importance now that the businesses in any shown get the most footfall in this upcoming season or else they won't be there next year it's simple as that johnny thank you very much for your time i appreciate it um what do you think i'll wait 60 25 000 that's uh uh councillor johnny mcginnis of finnegale does that let's get some comments here now does that make it okay today greg history does not make the levels of service today acceptable that comes in from neem of course it doesn't but what i'm saying is is if we look retrospectively and say oh well in this it was like this then right you know that that's not realistic either or to say it's like this in switzerland again we say that but let's dig into that say is that the case uh were things better in the past because we always feel they are i mean anyone who's got parents will know their parents told them about how things used to be great but you look into the history books were they it's not a contradictory point it's trying to tease out a broader conversation uh greg you cannot speak for shin fane as they haven't got the chance to run the country and i think they have yet to get the chance to prove themselves good or bad then you can speak coming from union not speaking for shin fane but what i'm saying is is what mark is aspiring to no political party is promising that or or hasn't in previous elections if you listen to what he was actually stating i mean obviously parties are promising to improve mental health services to improve education but uh the the wider point as to a completely different way as to how we view the country in terms of what you heard mark what he was talking about how being uh money orientated and all that type of stuff uh you're a hundred percent right we have illusions of democracy that we would need it every community stand a local person to challenge each seat let the present parties know that we've had enough and it's time to listen to us for change and not the EU the corporation not big tech and civil servants the parties don't care they promise one thing and don't really care what's selected time to change the civil service within the parties they seem to have more control in some cases mark speaks excellently but if you allow the governing parties to ride rough shot through democracy uh democratic equality measures like the intensive marketing conditions like polls to get etc they'll continue to get away with it the fabric of society is changing and not for the better i totally agree with mark there needs to be more voice for change and stop accepting the status quo um we have a td in our town who shouted constantly about what he'll do when he got into power yet i don't see him delivering anything this country was wrong better 40 years ago i totally agree with mark i think it's time to see more individuals starting to stand for election and bringing collective change political parties are only self-interested the island we want is not the one we are living in but then if you look at independence often people might say and i'm not saying this of any independence in in donningall but you know there may be there there to feather their own nests or for their own interests as well um it's complicated because then you have people who get behind someone and then they turn on each other as well because everyone when you think a certain way it's very hard to get an awful lot of people that align with the way you think you know it can be divisive uh caller says the only way we're going to change governments is you don't phone to any of them in a game but the ordinary joe soap in the door like paddy diva who was instrumental in getting that micro situation uh there in the public eye with the ordinary people see what's needed but the government look after themselves not us we uh sure see that in a show and the forgotten people yeah sure time for change get them all out that being said again the majority of people may well be saying or a good portion of them is that you know the measures brought in in terms of electricity are working i see from the credit union the um sentiment is is through the roof you know an awful lot of the same people will be returned after the next general election you know so not everybody is anti this that and the other or pro that uh this that and the other either uh hi greg my daughter just back from venice four nights and flights guess how much a hundred and seventy euro why would anyone holiday in arland last weekend donig all one hotel was looking for a hundred and seventy nine euro for one night stay for myself and my wife 170 for four nights in venice that's all right isn't mark is right our elected rep should listen to what the people want but the problem is that too many are apathetic uh greg great interview with mark all his points that were made were correct and other government should set up a section to get to know people's needs it's easy to talk about what's available but is anyone asking what the people need it's a very good point too how can you service deliver uh if you don't know exactly the services that people require let's hear shin fain justify their election expenses where's the voice of donig all shin fain today well we had um a journalist on that talking about them uh next time uh we have a shin frame rep on um at all rev of course we'll be asking them those questions good morning greg super shocked by a home electricity bill received yesterday 479 euro for two months for a family of five now we had a caller earlier on whose bill was 500 there is 479 for two months it was self-submitted reading so was 100 correct it wasn't estimated what i did notice was that a third of the way through the bill the unit rate went from 0.33 cents effectively 33 cents per unit to 444 cents so a big jump in costs their suppliers and energy i wonder could any listener or experts give advice on the best value supplier at the moment thanks for all your team and for you uh okay listen thanks for the comments i won't read them out but i appreciate it uh if you have access to the internet if you go on to a switching website they will give you the costs the estimated annual costs per electricity supplier i think that's the best way uh really to do it um so go on to any of the switcher websites you input your details it'll give you your calculated bill how much you can expect to pay over the year and it will tell you what you can expect to pay from other suppliers simply switching in and of itself uh can be enough uh to save you money everyone's complaining about there being no wealth or sorry being no health or housing but if you look at all the extra people in the country no wonder there's no country can cope with it again i get what you're saying but our problems predate um predate the arrival of 70 000 people i mean we have a population here of uh in excess of five million now um and before an extra 70 000 people came in and that's the figure uh 50 odd from uh ukraine 20 000 um international protection people 70 000 people across the country of this size with a population of an excessive five million uh percentage wise in terms of the increase in population what's less than two percent the country was pretty in a in a bad state if it can't absorb that isn't it i mean when we see other countries like germany and belgium millions of people they've taken in uh our figure is is minute we must have been in a bad state if an extra 70 000 people especially when you consider how many extra we can accommodate in the summer for example millions in the summer no problem plenty of space then uh but 70 000 people seems to have brought us to a halt to a standstill it's as if housing and education and health were perfect before these 75 but and i'm not in any way taken aside in that debate what i'm saying is is that you know how bad was it that that was the tipping point uh morning greg we're heading down the country for three nights bed and breakfast in the hotel 40 euro a night in may that's all right isn't it not bad hi greg young and middle-aged people are living this godfors are leaving this godforsaken land as they describe it this was all part of a plan to give migrants a vote because the majority of irish will not be voting can i just say there's no logic some people say that that uh some people say that people are being brought into this country to upset elections again for example uh ukrainians the majority of uh not half of them are children okay they can't vote uh the other half make up about 30 000 people um and then you have got 20 000 um international protection people who don't have a vote okay so whatever about the conversation please if you think that our government in any country would be capable of importing the right people to vote for them uh i mean also you can't dictate how they vote they might well vote independent or shin fane who's to say they would vote for the government again i don't mind i i really appreciate the text but it doesn't make any sense um that you try and get young irish people to leave and then offer international protection to other people in some way to swing an election it doesn't make sense to me but if you see how it makes sense please text in 08 660 uh 25 000 um meville panto group good luck tonight with allison wonderland they're running 11 shows all the best from a proud mommy there's another thing i was asked to mention here as well while i was at it where is it um it is a fundraiser yeah okay it stars in their eyes it's a native clay community hub it's taking place on saturday the 4th of february saturday week isn't it uh the special guests on the night uh it's followed by a dj to late it's an on green on hotel which is a beautiful venue of course so what are you doing saturday the 4th of february the couple of things on but you might want to go to stars in their eyes in clay community hub uh tickets are on sale from facebook via paypal uh mats takeaway mclean fuels and the alt bar uh and we've got contact numbers for you here as well so sounds like a good night out stars in their eyes followed by a dj and he's supporting clay community hub there uh can the poor counselors who travel to the mica 100 redress demonstration claim expenses from the council for their trip no and they can't it's uh not like that all right listen but i appreciate your gesture presumably uh your suggestion it's tongue in cheek i imagine um okay back with more shortly watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com the nine till noon show brought to you by kelly's Toyota with over 45 years of experience trust us to help you on your electric journey go full needle for a trolley full of savings clean up with w five sponges cleaners furniture polish wipes and formal detergent capsules all for a sparkling 838 and all for less than one pack of personal three and one non-biocapsules 26 washes and tesco don't get rinsed go full needle to shop without compromise needle more for you urgent news the house proud group stock disposal sale at the straban store must end this sunday all remaining clearance stock has been transferred to the store and final price cuts made with drastic reductions on furniture for every room the massive stock disposal sale at house proud abacorn square straban sale ends 6 p.m sunday also at the oma store don meat set to buy kildare chilling for more in your farmer's journal is paul mooney we look at what the deal means for sheep and beef farmers bore be it to ratchet up farm audits for all farmers we reveal factory prices vary by over 300 euros for the same animal sheep farmer squeezed as costs rise and prices fall we have the latest on the controversial quilt your forestry deal and could virtual fences be a game changer for farmers only inside this week's irish farmers journal you cannot afford to miss it at esp networks we're connecting our land to a clean electric future and as part of the national smart metering program we're now installing smart electricity meters in your area your new smart meter will reduce the need for estimated bills help you to manage your electricity usage more efficiently and enable you to access smart electricity products and services we'll contact you before your meter is installed find out more at esp networks dot ie slash smart meter the ceo application deadline of first of february is fast approaching don't miss the opportunity to add our land's highest ranked university to your ceo choices trinity college dublin offers over 100 undergraduate degrees 170 clubs and societies and so much more our world-class lecturers and beautiful campus in the heart of dublin city have been inspiring generations for over 400 years visit tcd dot ie forward slash ceo and be inspired that's tcd dot ie forward slash ceo okay uh following up on a story that's emerging this morning and that is the uh death of a uh donag allman in uh castle re prison uh we run to the prison service just to try and get more details for you and receive the following reply the irish prison service can confirm that there was a death in custody of a person in the custody of the irish prison service on the 26th of january and the next of kin have been notified they say this death in custody will be investigated by the irish prison service the inspector of prisons and on goddess yukana where circumstances uh circumstances warrant the cause of the death is determined then by the coroner's uh office uh greg one billion per annum uh overspending government capital projects from 95 to 2005 prove and it continues at pace to this day children's hospital the doll printer how much better would we be if we would actually manage our tax receipts finigale uh finifor successive governments object uh incompetence we have to try uh something else that comes in uh from liam there call us says broadband is down increase like just wondering um just wondering if it's just then uh i'm not quite sure shon you're gonna have to move over there right side finula how are you getting on uh finula rabbit good morning to you good morning how are you doing i'm all right shon i'm great great yes it's not acceptable in your microphone oh okay you're here long enough i thought my voice is low enough he's here long enough to know in your microphone and into the little numbers on your oh that's what that's for okay exciting times finula highland flinging flinging Glasgow yes we are very excited about this and over the years we um have done trips in which we've brought people away and we've taken them um all around the country well go away and that alone and that's all around the country where else is there and what we're with covid and everything we had put all of that on hold along with our concerts and along with everything else and i'm delighted that we can finally say when it comes to this kind of thing that we are out the other side so as everybody knows on march 28th we have our fantastic uh daniel o'donnell concert which is coming up and then this is the second event that we have uh within our um concerts and uh and trips so what we're looking at is people may remember back in the day long long before my time here um we used to take trips to scotland and so we taught as kind of a treat for everybody that what we would do as our first big trip back is we would head over to glasgo so we are heading to glasgo on the bank holiday monday so monday the first of may you will come here to the station get on the bus we will then head over sing songing the whole way uh and over on the ferry and drive over as far as glasgo and then we'll be staying then in the four star crown plaza hotel and i forgot the name of the hotel that's why shawna is here you're doing well so far in the four star crown plaza hotel in which then you will have um three nights of awesome entertainment okay and um monday the first of may there's a dance with david james and the riot ryan turner band tuesday the second of the may concert with dekla nerney and more and then wednesday the third of may it is robert moselle and my understanding is and i've never been on invited on or attended one of these there's a lot of crack around it as well it's not just the not just the set set events the crack is well it's just you're there it is it's absolutely amazing now um i have to say i was on the last couple that we had and they're just fantastic basically what is there like it's everybody kind of all trumped in together so that's what makes it good it's nearly like a it's nearly like a grown-up school tour it's a school tour but you can have but you can have a genotonic which is awesome don't keep don't employ remarketing anyway everybody gets no but you know those things where you're all just kind of clubbing together and having a good time the bombs get full and very early in these trips as well too yes absolutely and there's a lot of people who have been on all of our trips so they actually this is the times when they meet each other you know they're from all over the county and they come together and then they this is the time when they they meet up and they may not have seen each other in between times they're kind of like the Highland Trip Buddies so basically as as you said there the Monday night we've got a dance with David James and the fantastic Ryan Turner band then there will be music afterwards and sing song later on in the bar afterwards for anybody that wants to the then on the Tuesday night then we have Declan Nerney Olivia Douglas and John McNichol and Sinead Black to name a few that will be on our concert and then on the Wednesday the Tuesday night that no no that's yeah the Wednesday night then is the um is a fantastic dance with Robert Mazzell the hotel that we're going to the Four Star Crown Plaza is an amazing hotel people may have stayed in it in the past when they've headed over there because I know a lot of people here have family in that I myself have only ever been to Scotland once and I spent it in a convent but that's a whole other story which we will hold for another time and I will be telling on the trip tell us more about I will be telling that story on the trip how I spent a summer holiday in a convent in Scotland but they we are going to be staying in the Four Star Crown Plaza hotel in Glasgow it's all your meals everything is a your breakfast dinners this is a really important part of these things because you see when you plan a holiday it's the extra stuff that that can kid you really I know myself you know it is the the boss it's the this that but your breakfast and your meals there you can head out for lunch if you want as well all your tickets into the gigs is there your hotels paid for you know this is very easy for someone to budget out we'll get to the cost in a moment but a lot of the stuff that racks up over the course of a little trips included in this too which is what I like because I like a bit of certainty I like to be held by the hand well that's the thing about this trip is you have both choices with it so we have everything everything is lined up with your meals and the hotel is fantastic and we'll sort all of that your transport everything is all sorted there's also be an opportunity for day trips when there isn't anything on anybody who's been on our trips in the past know that we usually hold do a little bit of a a tea and coffee and a bit of crack and a sing song on one of the days in which we tend to come back into the station and do if not a whole show then a partial show from there as well so it just gives people an opportunity again come together have a bit of crack a bit of music that kind of thing so all that all that has been going on there as well right show what are you doing here I'm just trying to put that one out just making sure for those okay are you here for emotional support I have to tell everybody breathe breathe there breathe there no just to reiterate they I'm yeah I I know this hotel very well I've been lucky to stay in a few times it's a fabulous hotel location location location it's in the heart of Glasgow and as as Fanola alluded to there so you can go and explore the city you can you can walk into the city within 10 minutes and we can also we're looking at the opportunity of going to Edinburgh for a day as well so people have never been to Edinburgh then we can take them over in the coach and they can go to the castle and in May believe it or not the weather is normally pretty decent uh and and now it's warm rain as opposed to no rain well May's wedding into the summer in May I mean a couple years ago the April we had in May we had also but listen come here if the weather's great you can go and explore if it's not it's a good excuse to stay indoors if you know what I'm saying oh I know the hotel has all the facilities you know what I mean so with the spa and the whole thing so you can be bringing all your bits and bobs and you know get a pampered if that's what you prefer to do during your trip is you know they'll be giving rates and stuff for people that are staying in the hotel for them to be pampered or do any that kind of stuff we can look at trips and that's what we're looking at the moment to see what we might be able to do as Sean said Edinburgh is up the road I'm told dying to say it as well and people can spend the day in around Glasgow and if there is an appetite for it we can talk about doing another trip the scenery in Sligo is absolutely fantastic Sligo Sligo it's actually Loch Lomond it's it's about 25 minutes from Glasgow and it's it's like a it's like a mini dunny go it's beautiful it's honest it's the it's the route up to the highlands of Scotland and yeah it's worth the visit all right just to recap for anyone just tuning in what we're talking about here it's and it's great that we're back doing this kind of stuff it's just around the corner to I'm one of these people like you know Donal's great in the newsroom for planning things he can plan thing a year away 18 months away you know I it's fantastic if you can do it I can't May just around the corner and off for me it's the first the fourth of May Highland radios fling in Glasgow we are offering you uh excuse me four-star accommodation in the beautiful Crown Plaza Hotel breakfast and dinner and entertainment each evening luxury coach transport so you don't have to worry about a thing on the Monday dance with David James in the ride Turner ban Tuesday concert with Declan Ernie and more and you heard Phanula mentioned some of the other great acts that in and of themselves would be headline acts and then on Wednesday the third Robert Moselle and uh cost-wise so the cost of this is going to be 575 euros per person sharing there is a slight uh single supplement so people can give me a call if they want to have a conversation about it here at the moment the way we did it and we've done it in the past and we're still going to continue to do it again you do not need to pay this all in one go I don't want anybody out there panicking to think oh god you don't have the money today basically give us a call put your name down so send us a hundred euros deposit and then you can just pay it off along the next couple of weeks the next couple of months to get yourself ready for it you know it doesn't have to be a major outlay straight away and it also um we will be having an opportunity for people to be able to purchase online if that makes it easier for them we're trying to set that up at the moment that again you can just go in and just kind of pay the amounts off it as you're going along kind of think of it like that sort of like a Christmas club type idea and sure like I mean it's a considerable amount of money and it's not going to be for everyone but there's a lot of people out there that will want to sort of get away they probably haven't or maybe haven't got away since and they've been able to put some money to one side the way I'd look at that is if this is what I was sort of saying on earlier on if you sort of add in a dinner at night if that wasn't included and the price point was lower or a breakfast you'd be well in foreign excess of this you know what I mean so it just gives people a bit of price certainty and something to look forward to if it's within their means there if it's yeah and I think the final alluded to there is the fact that if you want to put a deposit now spread the cost over the next couple of months it makes it easier for you but it'll be a brilliant opportunity to come together enjoy the crack it's a great there's some great music there there's some great sing songs I can nearly guarantee that and and the motion I can guarantee it I'll guarantee it there'll be an amazing thing I know that for a fact there will be absolutely absolutely there will be guitars and every bloody thing we have a max obviously numbers the max is 300 and so we would say if you're looking to do this do it early get your name in there don't be disappointed because as the as the saying goes when it's gone it's gone yeah we have we have booked a maximum of 300 yep and also too it's going to be I'm sure there's going to be regular as you talked about vanilla because we haven't been able to do this for a while but regular is coming back and then a new audience to get over and see Scotland and it gives you a fair bit of time of your own time to explore Scotland as you say that we will be putting things on for people to do but some people just want to go about they might want to hire a bike you know what I mean but they've got space to do that during the day to go and do whatever you want to do and have a bit of fun or visit family or friends or family and friends can come in and meet you while you're there and presumably maybe I shouldn't presume will people in will there be any extra tickets for the night yes that's another way you can invite friends over in Scotland yeah great minds think like that's exactly what I was just about to say as well a lot of people have connections and a family over in Scotland there will be an opportunity with this trip to be able to sell tickets for people just to be able to come on the night so if you have friends or family or anything like that that are in Scotland at the time we will be working that out at a later date just to see if there's extra people that would like to come or they can contact us directly just by email or give us a call here at the station so at the moment in order to get involved in it you just need to give us a call here at the station if you need more information or anything like that give Katie or myself a ring here that's no problem whatsoever I think look at it is a lot more than what it had been in previous times for the trip because we had stayed within Ireland but even those trips are now kind of up around the 400 listen I can say no one's gouging here no it's it's it's how much unfortunately flights not flights in this case yeah no the ferry the accommodation and everything that's finished we really we the reason why we decided to go back to Scotland was not for any kind of a profit idea it was more just that I think it's it's one of those things that everybody here has always talked about how in the past we had such fantastic trips to Scotland and I'd like to get back to it again so I think people can be guaranteed of is and that's the one thing I think people take comfort in from Highland is that it's going to be top class across right across the board you do all you have to do is drop your bag onto the bus when you get here and then pick yourself back up when you come back four days later we will take care of the rest and we will make sure that you have an amazing time. Are you going Fanola? I'm hoping to I'm hoping to. Sean? Yeah I go yeah. Really? If I'm allowed. Somebody has to stay at home and mind the shop. Exactly you know you're on the big Vogue Sean. Greg wants to go you want to go. Actually I don't think it's not that I necessarily want to go I think it would be a benefit. You know I think if you stuck me on the poster. I'd sell how many more extra places. I could sit in the morning if Greg is the if Greg is the one thing that you need in order to make this trip. Oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand would it help if I went I'm just thinking on the stage the Ninth and Nune show live come down in the morning. There's no reason why we can't do it. Anyway listen it's gonna it's gonna be it's gonna be wonderful and as you say you know like you pay a hundred quid now you can pay in though over the next wee while but that means your seat is guaranteed and it is going I've spoken to people that have come off the back of these and I'm not just saying it because there's no there's no advantage in me just saying something like this here they've loved it and they talk about it now and they were on them years ago so it's not going to be for everyone but if it's in people's wheels house what a wonderful opportunity and great music as well right anything needed to be added other than oh seven four nine one twenty five thousand for more details to chat to Katie and uh all for Nula it's the first to the fourth of May it's Highlands flinging Glasgow that's it looking forward to seeing everybody there bye bye thanks Greg Toyota Port Road letter Kenny stock is of a wide range of used passenger and commercial vehicles the two we live happy sale is here with savings of up to 250 euro per booking free child places even in the school summer holidays plus low booking deposits from 50 euro per person with holidays to suit all budgets relax and get booking to we live happy offer tees and sees apply hello hill 16 insurance how can I help you open the dobes ah hi I am looking for a home insurance quote right now I'm one part of Dublin the 11 I don't actually live in Dublin Roy they least apart the dobes what I'm just looking for home insurance well you're gonna have to keep looking pal because hill 16 is Dublin only get the feeling that your insurer doesn't want you at local insurance we understand your needs call today for a bespoke quote or find us online at localinsurance.ie local insurance we'll get you sorted the local insurance network Dak trading's local insurance is regulated by the central bank of Ireland local insurance is a tide insurance intermediary of acorn brokerage limited acorn brokerage limited trading is acorn insurance is regulated by the central bank of Ireland like to eat well all week at amazing al d prices I like the sound of that feed the family for under five euro with delicious spaghetti and Irish meatballs and from January 19th enjoy super six fresh meat offers like Irish round roast beef joint save 20% now only 7.99 per kilo or try our weekly range of super six fresh fruit and veg offers like two pack avocados save 50% now only 99 cent I don't like it I love it I'll be every day amazing it's where you live it's where you relax it's where you make memories treat your home to a visit to coonies home interiors we have everything in store to help recreate your home choose for extensive range of sweets tables beds mattresses and home furnishings for every room coonies home interiors letter Kenny style and perfection at incredible value highland radio weather updates with Ireland west airport discover Edinburgh this summer with Ryanair's three times weekly service stunning architecture endless winding streets and an awe-inspiring castle island west airport don't just take off take it easy okay dry with good spells of winter sunshine today highest temperatures of seven to nine degrees in night light north to northwest breezes we're joined on the program now by Brendan Holland good morning to you Brendan good morning Greg it's lovely to speak to you how are you keeping Brendan I'm playing I'm playing thank you okay and we're speaking to you about gigantism is that the correct pronunciation Brendan um well it's likely giantism giantism okay that makes that gigantic as an as an adjective and you can't make a nine out of an adjective so it's giantism this is why I should have concentrated more in English thank you Brendan um now um talk to me about your your story Brendan yeah I developed a condition uh it's a metabolic or an endocrine condition which is caused by a tumor on the pituitary land which in turn makes the plant overproduce growth hormone at the expense of the other natural hormones that one would normally produce so you have this imbalance going on in your endocrine system and it causes all sorts of side effects and and you know one of the main ones was I was still not shaving when I was almost 20 years old and and Brendan what height have you grown to six ten okay and how has it impacted on on your life I mean not the actual heights don't get me wrong because I mean there are people at varying heights but uh giantism how is it impacted on your life um not you're quite right I mean the height hasn't really bothered me um what is bothering me now is in my latter years I'm 71 years old is that um you know my mobility's reduced and and therefore you know I can't get around and I can't walk very far because I get breathless and just it's the pressure on the uh the muscular skeletal uh frame you know that that makes life a little bit more difficult than would be for a normal person you know now you're a distant relative of Charles Byrne um and have the same condition as he I presume that's not coincidence Brendan is there a genetic hereditary element to this there is yes uh that was discovered in 2009 by a wonderful woman in London called Martha Carbinates who's a Hungarian professor of endocrinology and she discovered that the condition isn't genetic it's handed down from generation to generation it doesn't um form uh or it doesn't follow any particular pattern Greg in that you know if if the father has it that will follow that the offspring will have it uh it it it can skip generations so it's very difficult to protect when it will pop up and the only way to do that is to take DNA test samples saliva samples uh of of the children of people who have the gene and and then you know if those samples prove that they uh are carrying the gene then they can be kept under review by the by the medical fraternity you know and in your case versus that of Charles uh you know I think or have we progressed beyond now whereby uh Charles Byrne's uh remains didn't they end up ended up on display as some sort of a was it as an attraction is that how it was viewed at that time I wonder Brendan um well his skeleton uh was obtained by by dubious means by uh what was then called an anatomist uh his name was John Hunter he bribed the undertaker and got his body and and uh boiled off the flesh of it and and then uh kept the skeleton for three or four years before admitting that he had it and then put it on display and uh when he died and the um what have you his brother then will be his collection of specimens uh Aminal and human to the to the museum in the Royal College of Surgeons and that's why that's how uh Charles Byrne skeleton ended up there and for listeners what is uh the current uh status of Charles's remains his skeletal remember up until a few years ago he was under he was housed in a glass case under lights and you know the public could come in walk in and you know have a look at it you know but now they've removed it from from public view it's it's only going to be available to medical students and people that have uh an active interest in the condition you know I wonder can anything else be determined from the the remains there is a conversation as to whether or not and it depends on people's view that they should be in turn that he's you know uh laid to rest so to speak what's your view Brendan well you know I have some sympathy with that argument but uh the fact of the matter is that it was through DNA testing of his teeth uh with with I'm comparing with my own DNA that the the lady was able to prove that this condition is in fact genetic and is uh endemic in East Toronto South Derry uh that seems to be the area that's most affected by it and we're not sure I mean I'm no doctor or medical professor and like that but even even the most powerful brains in in medicine can't predict what other secrets the body may hold or the skeleton may hold we just don't know that and they were saying that he should be buried but my my own view is that I think we should be more concerned with the living than the dead you know great I don't remember it's going back some time now um there was remains of someone with Giantism at Critch Island I believe there's a big who are about people wanting to to exhume those remains I'm not sure if that ever came to pass we did try to exhume the remains uh Greg but unfortunately um it shows the wrong grave it was the grave adjacent to it I've since found out that that uh that uh carried the the graves the the bones of the gelatin that was found on Critch Island yeah right okay remember now Brendan listen lovely to speak to you thanks for your time and your views I really appreciate it that was Brendan Holland there that is where we have to leave it on the program today thanks to all of you for being with us either watching or listening we're back with you tomorrow morning from nine with our Friday panel and Michael and Finula at eleven and all their stuff to keep you informed and in between entertained in between have a lovely uh thursday John Bresson is coming up next the nine to noon show brought to you by Kelly's