 I love it. Can we have a go newslet? Go on. Good luck. All right then. Let's see. Yes, nothing's happened if I push those faders up. It is nine o'clock. Let's get a news update. Good morning, Michaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. A Donegal deputy says it's imperative mental health services for children and young people in Donegal are properly resourced, fully staffed and provide the services they need. Shin Fian brought forward a motion in the door last evening on the back of serious concerns over patients currently accessing child and adolescent mental health services in Ireland. Deputy Podger McLaughlin says it's clear the processes in place are not fit for purpose. He says there needs to be a complete overhaul of the CAMHS model. When we look at people who profound mental health difficulties across Donegal and across the country, they start often in the teenage years, so it's critical that there's an intervention as a support immediately. That means resourcing mental health services properly and not relying, as we do in Donegal, on the goodwill and good hearts of the voluntary sector. Donegal County Councils have passed a motion opposing the granting of licenses for prospecting anywhere in Donegal. Council Michael McMahun told members this week a strong resolution has been passed by Leetrim County Council and he believes Donegal must follow suit to protect its clean waters and its reputation as a tourist destination. Officials noted the motion and pointed out that even if a license is approved by the minister, planning applications must be submitted and assessed in the usual way. County McMahun says Donegal has a lot to lose. We have been bombarded with prospectors who have no respect and have no regard in anybody. We're a tourist area, we're a tourist county. And in the water, the environment, and we hear all the talk about the environment, I'm starting to be very worried about the environment. I'm very worried about the becoming against these people and also the way they treat residents and farmers and the way they treat the general public. A tidal wave of evictions are likely to happen if the government decides to lift the current ban in place. That's the view of people before Prophet T. D. Paul Murphy who says although homelessness is at an all-time high, the rate of increase has slowed since its introduction. T. Shockley of Radker told the door yesterday that a decision on cost of living support will be made in mid-February. Deputy Murphy says the eviction ban cannot go if the government wants to address this incredible national scandal. We now have 11,500 people homeless. It is an incredible national scandal. If you trace the evolution of the figures of the number of people homeless, the winter ban has been imposed and the rate of increase has substantially slowed as a consequence. If what is the partial eviction ban is lifted on the 1st of April, we're going to see a further tidal wave of evictions. Whether or not you mix up sunny spells and scattered showers today, breezy with highest temperatures of 7 to 9 degrees. That's all from Hynan Radio News for now. We'll be back with news again at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. Switch with the On Pust money app or pop into one of our 900-plus post offices. You don't even need to make an appointment. Take back power over your money today. On Pust is authorised by the Minister for Finance, Provide Payment Services and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland in the provision of such services. This is the talk of the North West, the 9th and Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Hynan Radio. Hello, good morning. Forming is past 9 Wednesday, the 1st of February, the first day of Celtic Spring 2. How are you keeping this morning? I do hope you're very well. Thank you for choosing your number one local radio station, Hynan Radio. We're here with you for the next three hours in the 9th and Noon Show and loads to keep you informed and entertained. So stay with us and get involved in the conversation. WhatsApps and texts 0866025000 0866025000. Now give us a call on 07491 25000 and you can watch this programme as well on your smart TV or your Firestick. Go to the YouTube app. Type in Hynan Radio Ireland. Like and subscribe there if you don't mind. Or just go directly to those apps on your phone or tablet or laptop and search at Hynan Radio or on our website HynanRadio.com. Thank you very much to Donal who sat in for me yesterday. We were down watching Lewis Capaldi on Monday night, strange old Monday night down at the three arena and a few local faces down there as well. Actually it's a small country isn't it that you can go to a venue with 12 or 13,000 and bump into people that you know at the other end of the country almost the other side of it at the very least. But he's excellent now. It was a fantastic night. As I say, thanks to Donal for facilitating that yesterday. Let's get on to the newspapers today. The Finn Valley Voice, Balamafe and Stranola have been dealt with unfairly by Transport Infrastructure Ireland according to Councillor Patrick McGowan. His motion at Donegal County Council's primary meeting, a plenary meeting, I beg your pardon, on Monday at County House Lyford demanded a public consultation to review Department of Transport and NTA initiative zebra crossings without beacons that are being pitched in the twin towns. Now you know we've spoken about this quite a bit on this show as well but in driving down to Dublin there the other day, you drive through the Routai to Kenoway, quite a number of villages. And they've got these beautiful crossings with big pelican crossings, you know big flashing lights at the top and you think wow what a great way of doing things. And then here we are trialling out something that removes those safety elements. And it was only then the other day when I was coming down Donegal Road and a gentleman was crossing the road and it was a real close one. He nearly wiped out of it on that crossing at the bank there. People don't want it to go, they just want it to be safe and it feels as a motorist and from the pedestrians I'm talking to, from a pedestrian's perspective it does not feel safe. That one in particular, the others I think we can come to terms with but that particularly given the layer to that junction seems problematic. People, drivers and pedestrians have identified the crossing at the bank of Arlen-Ballabour phase, the most dangerous. The crossings are also being piloted in Limerick and Dublin. Councillor McGowan wants advanced advisory signage directed immediately to inform drivers and pedestrians of new pedestrian crossing layouts ahead as well as the removal of any dangerous crossings. But the one at the bank, keep it because people want it. If you look up the two poles with orange things on the top, people know what it is and try that. Let's pilot that because it works elsewhere. Why would you pilot something that removes safety features? I can't get my head around it but I don't want to bore you as if it's some sort of a hobby horse of mine, it's not. But I just fear that someone's going to have the legs taken from one of them or worse at that junction. First Times this morning, Fulcher Arland has said it will work with locals over concerns about plans for the Tourist Visitor Centre at Donry, which is expected to open in April 2026. The 12.5 million euro project, the biggest single investment by the state in a tourism facility in the country, is aimed at producing a visitor attraction that will explore the history of the site, its people and its ecology. The Donegal Post this morning, positive news. After months without a GP service, the community of Duncan Ely has welcomed a new doctor to the health centre, Dr Jeninda Mohandrianj, and I hope I've pronounced her name correctly, has been formally appointed to the post and has taken up the role as GP Duncan Ely on a full-time basis. Cahiroch of the municipal district of Donegal, Councillor Neve Kennedy said, I absolutely welcome the appointment of the GP. On to the Irish Independent now, and NCT Backlog leaves 375,000 vehicles on the road without assert. Now the whole notion of the NCT obviously is that cars are safer, isn't that the notion of it? But they don't have the facilities clearly or the resources to ensure that all cars are certified. That's 375,000 is an awful lot of cars. There's 160,000 people in Donegal, heads effectively double that and you're getting close to the amount of vehicles without an NCT. Well the operator of the National Car Test, Aplos Automotive, will today blame the problem on a range of issues including a high proportion of motorists failing to show for appointments and its ageing workforce. So it's our fault really. The Irish Independent previously revealed how motorists in some parts of the country are waiting over six months to secure a test appointment. Representatives from the NCT will apologise for the backlog when they appear before the Euraktas Transport Committee today, but they'll also admit further challenges lie ahead in the coming months. Well why don't they have a system whereby they book your car in automatically and notify you and say, your car is due for a test on the 3rd of February 2023 if this appointment doesn't suit you, please change it. Try and pre-book them or something, I don't know, try something different because what they're doing here isn't working. You know, let's have opt-out testing times then. The firm will outline how there are 375,000 vehicles overdue their NCT which it says is more than double the normal amount for the early months of the year. The company which will be represented at this meeting by its county manager, country manager Mark Sinett, will also outline how 3,500 people a week are not attending appointments they made for their vehicles to be tested. Let's switch over now to the Irish Times. And have Radcar defends nursing home legal strategy? Tshaklil for Radcar has defended the use of a legal strategy aimed at containing the state's potential liability on private nursing home charges. Speaking in the doll yesterday, Mr Radcar described it as a legitimate legal strategy by the government. Now we learned on RT last night, though I haven't watched the programme, that this is seemingly common practice. He said that although he must have been briefed on it, he did not recall being briefed or authorising the strategy which has been strongly criticised by the opposition in recent days. So what he said there is he must have authorised it, he must have been briefed on it but he simply can't remember. The government is coming under pressure to explain why it adopted such a strategy and to clarify which ministers were privy to the plans with opposition TDs demanding to know who sanctioned the approach and also I think opposition TDs should be asked, will they continue this strategy? If they are elected into power, will they remove this strategy? Because if they do, it could expose the state to billions of euro inclaims not just in this area but also in other areas as well. So I think as well as the opposition trying to call out the government on this issue they need to state what they would do in power. Would they abandon this strategy or would they go well you know what we have to protect the country's finances? Because I think that's a really important question. Thomas D'Amico Martin said through a spokesperson that he was not aware of a number of memos from 2011 onwards which reaffirmed the strategy. While former Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin who was reportedly copied in on the early memo also said he could not recall ever being briefed. The memories have gone to part. Attorney General Russell Fanning is now preparing a report on the matter of cabinet next Tuesday and the government has committed to publishing the report. There will also be dull statements on the controversy after the report is published. But as I say what is critical at this time is I think the opposition or whomever might be in power in the next government to state are they going to scrap such a strategy not just in this area but in other areas as well. On to the Irish Daily Mail. An extension of drinking hours across the country would be harmful to public health and safety experts have warned the Dall Committee. A number of stakeholders have warned Norakda's committee that the proposed sale of alcohol bill 2022 would not fulfil its purpose of reducing alcohol related harm. The drawing committee on justice in examining the bill unveiled by the Minister for Justice Helen McIntee last year which proposes a major modernisation of the country's licensing laws. One of the elements of the bill is to support the night time economy by enabling bars to stay open an hour later until 12.30am seven nights a week. It also proposes creating new annual permits for late bars and nightclubs which would replace special exemption orders. The committee heard from a number of public health organisations that deal with alcohol related harm. Now the bottom line is is any drink is harmful. So I think anyone in the business of reducing alcohol related harm is not going to endorse such a thing. Because we are already drinking too much even under the current safe and inverted commas guidelines. I'm not sure of the appetite amongst the general public for longer opening hours of pubs or bars but I'm probably a little out of the loop now so maybe there is a huge interest in that. On to the Irish Sun. Thousands of families who use childminders could soon see their bills plummet. Fresh fees were cut by up to 25% last month after government subsidies announced in the budget finally kicked in. Help offered under the National Child Care Scheme was increased from just 50 cent per hour to 140 per hour. The government claims the average saving per child is 1200 a year. However, thousands of parents who use childminders instead of creches are unable to benefit from the scheme. Minister Roderick O'Gorman yesterday brought proposals to cabinet that would address the anomaly and enable parents who pay childminders to get the same subsidies on their childcare. There are an estimated 15,000 childminders in Ireland but only 80 are registered with Child and Family Agency to slap. Parents paying on registered ones won't be able to claim the cash boost but thousands are expected to register ahead of the legislation becoming law. But what does registration entail here? I'd be interested to hear from childminders out there because certainly in some cases I'm sure it's done in their own home. The children are adopted or adopted almost into the home as a second home. If they have to register with Tusla, will they have to have warning stickers everywhere and price lists and have to jump through all manner of hoops where some people might say, do you know what? For what I'm charging it's not worth it. That would be my concern because then if they don't do that right, I think people then in general childcare and creches might say, well this is not a level playing field. We're having to pay these wages. We're having to jump through these hoops. Why are these, this group not having to do so? I have a feeling that's one's going to get pretty controversial. What do you think out there? I mean obviously parents will get some financial help but a lot of people who provide childcare will have to have Tusla and will have to have their property up to a certain standard, I'd imagine. It hasn't been drafted yet. We don't know what they'd be looking for but it sounds to me like maybe are they trying to fix something that isn't broken? I don't know. The Irish Daily Star this morning, detectives investigating the death of Natalie McNally were last night quizzing a suspect. The PSNI announced yesterday they had arrested a 32-year-old man in the Lisbon area. The man arrested had been detained before on December 19th, the day after Natalie was killed at her home in Lurkin. Its understood officer had initially released the 32-year-old after deciding he was no longer a suspect. The arrest comes after police earlier this month carried out house to house inquiries in the Lisbon area. A car was also seized from an address in the Lisbon and Castle Ray area. It's unclear if the seizure of the car is directly connected to yesterday's arrest. A 46-year-old man and another 32-year-old man are currently on police bail having also been arrested by major investigation team officers investigating that awful, awful murder. And last but not least, well maybe it is least actually, the Irish Daily Mirror, a high street coffee had four times the amount of caffeine compared to a can of red bowl tests have revealed. I'm surprised at this. Consumer Group Witch found a medium cappuccino at Costa contained 325 milligrams of caffeine. By comparison, a 250 millilitre can of red bowl has 80 milligrams of caffeine. Costa packed the biggest caffeine punch among popular chains with the equivalent of four cups of tea. At the other end of the scale, a Starbucks cappuccino had the lowest caffeine content with at least 66 milligrams, which meant Costa had an early five times that amount when tested. Now I would have guessed red bowl was wedged with caffeine compared to coffee, but if you go into Costa, at least according to this test, four times as much caffeine as in a can of red bowl. Wonder what will be people throwing a vodka into it, who certainly wouldn't encourage it. Okay, that was a run through of the papers this Wednesday morning. We're going to be speaking to our guests, the first of them, in just a couple of moments. Courtesy of Kelly Centra Mountaintop Letter Kenny, the 2022 C-Store National Off-Licence of the Year. The 9-tonning show with Bluebird Care, providing home care services for all ages and done it all. Visit bluebirdcare.ie and bring care home. If you smell gas at home or on the street, don't ignore it. Open windows and doors. Don't smoke, vape or use a naked flame. Don't unplug or switch anything electrical on or off. Turn off the gas at the major. Then, no matter who your gas supplier is, call Gas Networks Ireland on 1800 20 50 50. Visit gasnetworks.ie to screenshot the safety steps, save them to your device and share with friends and family. Join Homeland and Nutrious Animal Feeds for our farming future event at 8 p.m. in the Mount Aerical Hotel Letter Kenny on Tuesday, 7th of February. An informative evening highlighting essential schemes such as CAP 2023 for each advice and the 2022 Donegal Sailage competition results and presentations. Speakers will include representatives from Chagosque and Grassland, Agro. Enjoy spot prices, refreshments and meter suppliers on the evening 8 p.m. 7th of February, Mount Aerical Hotel Letter Kenny. Looking forward to seeing you there. For more info, visit homeland.ie. Okay, we welcome on to the programme now. Karina Malloy, former Army Officer Karina, good morning to you. Good morning, Greg. It's good to have you with us. Thank you very much for joining us. Right, your new book, A Woman in Defence has been released. I have a copy of it here in front of me. What's it feel like to have your book out there and available for public consumption? Is there a mixture of emotions there? Yeah, it's a bit surreal because I've been manifesting this book since 1982. I served my diaries 1982 and even had the title of my book since 1984, but that wasn't the title that was used. My original title was deemed to be too negative for the publishers, but we compromised and I got it in as a title of a chapter in the book. So yeah, so it's great to actually see it in print and hold it in my hand. And I also have one right here with me. In telling, did you want your story out there? Is this about your experience? Is this something of a whistleblowing exercise or is this just to let people know? What is your motivation for this and what was your wish to do this, Karina? Yeah, the original thought of it was a blowing that never and never entered my head. Originally it was two folds. Because I'm part of such a historic group of women, 38 of us joined and we were the real pioneers of the Irish Defence Forces. I felt that on behalf of all the other women, somebody had to ride the bike and I just thought, well, we did try and attempt to write a collective book, but it failed in the first hurdle. So I decided then having been involved with the Woman of Honor as a writer was a good avenue to go ahead and try and get my story out there. But originally it was to write the historic significance of being part of the first female group to join the Defence Force. Yeah, and it's a difficult story that you tell and obviously it's going to be a difficult read in parts, but it's also too about you pursuing your career despite an awful lot of people's efforts and perhaps even behind despite the institution's efforts almost. Yeah, I mean, it's not all that. I would say 80 per cent of it is pretty good. There's a few funny stories as well, but yeah, it's a story of resilience. And from my point of view, my attitude was if you're not in the room, you can't change the room. So I decided to stick it out and just it has to get better and to make the pave the way for all the other females that came in. And thankfully it did get better for them in parts and a lot of parts actually. It was really, really good for them. Yeah, and it's interesting really to get an insight into how that comes about because often we hear of, you know, your experience and then maybe the modern day experience if I can put it like that, but there's an awful lot has to happen in between those two points. And I think your book gives us an insight into how things change and how slowly they can change and how things can be exposed and what have you. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting to read it because I mean, I know that everything when I joined Oh, I'm going to be the first woman to attend the Army Rangers selection course. I'm going to be the first female needs to come in to you. I'm going to be the first female. I never, I never joined for those athletes. It just happened to work out that way. But you're right. People don't realize that it took a long time to break down those buyers. And I mean, I'm not the only female that had to break down the buyers. Yeah. We all had to have, we all had our own little individual fights to get for all the other girls got to as well. And would you call your experiences as part of that journey? What you experienced, sexual assaults, bullying, the promotional glass ceiling. How do you characterize them as part of, are they sacrifices? Are these things you have to sacrifice to get to where you wanted to go? Or to maybe make it easier for those that followed you? I mean, how would you categorize them in your experience within the Army? Yeah, well, I personally feel I sacrificed a lot. I didn't get married, I didn't have children. There again, there are a lot of girls out there now that are still, that are managing to combine all of that. But maybe, I mean, yes, that was my personal choice because I was just really focused on my career and I didn't want anything to interfere with that. But it's the same in every society, women, they have to be great at juggling everything. But they also have to work twice as hard to get half the respect. And I feel like the lack of respect throughout my entire career was the one thing that really, really hurt. It takes a while for an institution the size of the Army and that has been the same way for so long. And there are many other examples, it takes an awful lot of time for change and really often an awful lot of the people that were there in its original form have to move through it. They have to be gone really for change to actually happen. Do you believe that is the case and do you believe that has begun or is well underway happening within the Army? Yeah, change is happening as far as the women are being allowed to be, to get into any unit within the Irish Defence Forces. But as far as the culture change is concerned, it's very, very slow and changing. And I'm calling upon the Chief of Staff to really pay attention to the action and accountability, especially accountability, because it's just not happening in the last five years. Men have been found guilty of various sexual assaults and they're still serving. I mean, these people shouldn't be serving. They have to take a leaf out of the Canadian Armed Forces and just distort these people because those victims are still walking around and they can see these perpetrators walking around in the same barracks. So how difficult and how emotionally and mentally distraught is that for victims? Also to, I presume this is of the Army in that, you know, we'll sort it out amongst ourselves here. You know what I mean? You know, there's a kinship or however you might describe it, there's a loyalty. Maybe some might see you as being disloyal to the uniform or what have you. Is there an element of that still even perhaps with soldiers that agree with everything that you've said and everywhere the Army needs to be? But they might say, well, listen, let's not wash our dirty linen in public. We'll sort it out amongst ourselves. Does that persist? Yes, it's actually open. The veterans Facebook page at the moment, this woman is being disloyal and disgraced to the uniform. But I don't feel that way. That was only one person and I dismissed it straight away. But I'm not being disgraced to the uniform. As I said, I'm not being disloyal. I'm pointing out injustice that are happening within the organization and the organization has the power to change that. Even if they want to continue to do within the inner sanctuary of the organization, fair enough, but they must make serious efforts to bring about accountability. Yeah, and just running through what's sent out from the publishers and a lot of it highlights, you know, awful experiences that went through. But there's more to this story perhaps even than it's on this sheet of paper. So, you know, I mean, it's a remarkable story. You're a trailblazer. Many, many firsts, despite, you know, incredible pushback and an awful experiences. So talk to me how you want the reader to read this book. You know, what you see this book as from front to back. Beyond maybe what would be seen as, and I don't want to diminish it in describing these, but you know, the headline things that have been highlighted in this piece of paper. In your words, what the story is and how you want the reader to consume it. Yeah, yeah, well, of course, the blurry back of the book is sensationalized. I mean, none of my experiences have been exaggerated or enhanced. They're all true. But I would like people to read it as a historic book. Again, as I said, I was one of the first 38 women and to look at the historic significance of that and to look at how I and all the other females had power through. Like for the first 10 years, the public have no idea that we, the government brought in female cadets every single year since 1980, but the government only allowed us to join as one group between in 1981 and the next female group between did not come in until 1990. So we were walking around, I know I've been a vocal scientist, we've been walking around bars for 10 years like unicorns. There's only eight in each bar, eight in each command. That's among, you know, 5,000 men at that time. To look at upon that, how vulnerable we felt how sometimes men felt embarrassed to be in our company, how we felt embarrassed to be in their company, because they just didn't know how to treat us. A classic example would be when I was having my orientation through our headquarters for female to go and our headquarters and a junior officer were storming me around and we stood at one of their massive big doors and I said, well, we have a problem here, because normally we're officers and gentlemen, so we're going to open the door for a female coming through, but now we have this dilemma. And I said, well, what's the dilemma? I said, I'm a private, you're an officer, so I'm going to open the door for you. You know, silly little innuendos and situations like that. We had to deal with it for 10 years, like of course we did. Unbelievable. Were we outliers in the period of your career in terms of how women were treated in the army? Like, I mean, was it very different here? Were we a generation or two generations behind what might happen in other similar countries or through you telling your stories? Have you learned that it's reflected in France or Germany or Britain or America? Yeah, I have to say that during our training and after afterwards, because I was very passionate about the military and how other women were getting on with the military. I have to say that the Irish defense force were actually well advanced during our training, because we got weapons training and to my horror a few years later when I was doing research I discovered that the British army and the women's service corps they didn't do military, they didn't do weapons training until about six years after we did ours. So we were quite advanced in that way to allow us to have full weapons training. But in other sense, you know, we passed out as three stars and to get, for the male recruits to get to three stars they had to go back and do an extra six weeks training. Whereas in our training, they combined those six weeks into two weeks. They removed all the tactical training and all we did was learn how to address them, type letters and how to answer the phone. So there's the two sort of opposites. We're allowed to do weapons training, but then it's not just to do advanced tactics you'll go into the office and learn how to answer the phone and write letters. I wonder a lot of this comes down to leadership if things have been put in place properly from the get-go presumably that would have trickled down. Do you know what I mean? I think there's a big challenge for leadership in relation to what they were doing. Listen, one other question I wanted to ask you is while a young woman, young person reading this book what do you think they might take from it? Do you know someone on the start of their career? Not necessarily in the Army, but anywhere because an awful lot, some of this in very different ways is replicated in many different industries as well and that's only being addressed now too. I mean even this morning we're hearing of female representation in farming groups for example even though many women are farmers but they aren't represented and moved to try and address that so this is happening all the while but what do you think an 18, 19, 20 year old woman or person for that matter would take from your book? Do you think they'd be inspired by it, discouraged, invigorated? I don't know. I'm hoping that they will be inspired because I did stay and I did hope I did make a difference for the females coming behind me so I would say to any woman going into any organization read your hitch or write some dignity chargers if they have it and don't be afraid to speak up and tell stories we know I feel that that's inappropriate for you. Speak up, it's so important. Right, listen it's been lovely speaking to you again the best of luck with your book A Woman in Defence, a soldier's story for the enemy within the Irish army it's about Karina Malloy written with Catherine Rogers and it's published by Hatchet Ireland I presume available online and in all good and maybe even not the good ones, book shops. Excellent, okay thank you so much take care of yourself it's been lovely speaking to you thank you. Okay, right so households to get a refund after the ESB overcharged for big business subsidy Caroline O'Doherty is the environment correspondent with the Irish independence going to tell us a bit more about that free money Caroline how did this all come about and good morning to you. Good morning, well I'm going to take you a brief little history tour back to 2009 obviously we're in a recession and government is trying to do something to ease the burden on our big businesses for fear they'll all flee the country and even cause more economic harm that's already been caused and they look at the energy bills electricity costs for big companies here and they say one of the things that companies are complaining about is that electricity costs are higher than in other parts of Europe so the government comes up with an idea of how to sort of ease the burden on big businesses and the idea they came up with was well look at, as part of your ESB bill your electricity bill you pay for how much electricity you use but you also pay just charges regardless of how much electricity you use and some of those charges are there's levies different charges, standing charges there's network charges and they decided well we could lessen the network charges for what they call large energy users of which there's roughly about 1,500 in the country, big manufacturing plants big IT plants, data centers, pharmaceutical companies all of those and we could put that extra take that cost off them and put it on to domestic customers, so you have holders by 2 million, 2.1 million of them in the country and that's what they did and they said we'll take about 50 million euro a year off the cost of the big businesses and put that on the bills of ordinary people I love the name of it too, the large energy user rebalancing subvention and that gives you an idea why even though they didn't exactly hide it it gives you an idea why it didn't come into popular discussion because it just sounds like a technicality, nobody really understood it it sounded quite abstract it came into effect in 2010 and even though it was kind of introduced at this time of economic crisis it stayed in effect every year up till October of last year so that was kind of bad enough to sort of discover that, we reported on it last year and a lot of people raised eyebrows and said well I never heard this, why didn't I hear about this and I said well you know again the name, the technicality offered you know it happens a lot of these charges and things in the energy work behind the scenes and people only know when they get their bill in their hands they look at the bottom line and that's kind of the only thing that gets people's attention but what has been discovered since is that not only were they taking 50 million a year the people in charge of if you like switching the money between the burdens of the cost between big businesses and domestic customers was air grid which runs the national electricity grid and it's been networks which brings it sort of closer to transmission if you like air grid did it as they were supposed to do it ESB networks applied this subvention, this rebalancing incorrectly and they actually took more from domestic householders and gave more if you like off the bills of the big businesses than they were supposed to now, yeah take a breath Caroline you're doing brilliant as always and thank you so much so it's not that we're getting it all back it's we're getting the stuff back that was overcharged to us is this going to are they going to pay this back to us out of our money effectively or are they going to try and claw this back from the big businesses, that would be a nightmare I'd imagine this is the question now look it even up to last night we had a struggle to get roughly how much do you think you overcharged and this was discovered in March of last year it only became somewhat acknowledged in letters in November last year and the energy regulator who's in charge of all the energy companies and making sure they stay in line and all the rest has was insisting still yesterday before in a rock this committee of TDs and senators to whom they are answerable that they didn't have the figure and wouldn't have the figure and I'd start looking at the figure as part of a kind of an annual Troll of Figures in April this year eventually we kind of managed to hammer it out of the ESB last night that they reckon probably it was a few years ago or every year and so it comes up to possibly about 50 Euro on each household and that money is to come back now bear in mind each household probably subvented and rebalanced unknowingly about 500 or so Euro over that period of time to two big companies so maybe by 50 Euro now that's the question who does it come back from because ESB networks didn't actually get this money for themselves they kind of took it if you can imagine they're the middle man they took it off and paid and gave it off the bills off the big businesses so essentially who benefited big businesses the chances of them paying that back with a smile on their face I think was very very slim so that's the interesting thing who pays because if you say well look ESB networks you made the mistake you've got to pay it back well that's actually our money because ESB networks gets its money from the public so there's a little point you're going to have to make sure now that we don't end up getting this back and then having to pay it back because it would be ridiculous we need to find out how they're going to fund this and if they're not going to try and claw it back off also again if they end up having to pay it out of their own coffers and when you said a little earlier on about discovering the existence of this subvention and it kind of was as you said it was running there for 12 years it wasn't just us like the likes of me or you that weren't really aware of this I would say this subvention came as a surprise to an awful lot of people that it was just sitting there on people's bills you know higher up when I started asking questions about it it kind of came to light when the energy regulator decided to discontinue it last year and the documentation they were doing a lot of work on looking at the energy crisis and what makes up the kind of various charges that householders face and it was in this kind of obscure line and you know I looked at it and said well what is that that they're discontinuing now I have to say in discontinuing it they actually added a slightly new a new levy on to householders so even in discontinuing it we're not benefiting from it we gained by about 40 euros and we lost by 41 euros so that's another side to it but anyway at least they discontinued it but you know I mean when I started asking questions I found myself having to explain to people what it was what departments and people in state agencies because they didn't seem to be aware of it the government when they agreed in 2009 for implementation in 2010 that government was gone through the next year but here's a really interesting thing and something I didn't realize at the time because it was framed as a kind of an emergency measure and big businesses are in trouble and we've got to keep them in the country and all that kind of thing but Lynn Boyle and the Sinn Féin senator followed up on my story about the implementation documents in the last couple of weeks there and one of the documents actually shows that the government at the time described it as a permanent measure so even though there was very little discussion about it when it was brought in that little discussion was based on well you know it's a crisis time and we've got to do something to help big businesses but it turns out it was intended to be a permanent measure that also raises questions because why would you permanently subsidize proper cut bills of big businesses whoever you want to term it at the cost and expense of high-solders there's still an awful lot of questions and in those documents Caroline maybe that doesn't have to be what will we get in return I mean I wonder what kind of commitments big business or whoever or whomever was negotiating on their behalf what kind of a commitment did they give in return did they say well look if it keeps us in the country it does that's fine or did they give a commitment beyond that and did they lobby for it to be in place permanently and you know what were they bringing to the table I wonder well we get an inkling of that more from the documentation that's publicly available although when I said publicly available it's within a very convoluted system of papers in the Energy Regulators website last year when the Energy Regulators said we're going to discontinue this there were letters from big businesses some of them possibly in existence from the original implementation of this rebalancing subvention and probably some of them knew and they complained and said no please don't do this but also the Department of Enterprise said don't do this and why are you doing this have you checked the impact so we can be we can absolutely sure when the decision was taken in 2009 the impetus kind of came from the Department of Enterprise at the time it was a cabinet decision now it was implemented through the Department of Energy which was Energy Manager at the time was Ayman Ryan he actually once again now has the energy portfolio as Minister for the Environment the energy portfolio has moved around so we've been sort of attempting to get his take on what happened at the time because it did come through his department but in those freedom of information documents as so often happens you see a lot of it is redacted in other words black dead including some intriguing paragraphs which are headed ministerial observations so we haven't quite got out of them what were your observations at the time did you object to this did you so we're hoping to still find out what his thoughts were at the time and did he really intend this to be permanent and ongoing long after the crisis and also there's questions for the energy regulator how come they didn't spot that ESB networks were wrongly applying it they just used a different system of applying it it was meant to be a set figure every year they used some percentage figure percentage grew over the years so as the energy regulator is supposed to be the oversight body there's questions there well you know were they just sort of taking the box saying well that's been done again this year I'm not actually looking at the figures involved and if we do get 50 year old back we're not going to be able to go out and buy ourselves a kebab or something with it it'll just be a credit against our presumably you know and I know what people say it's only 50 year old we're compelled to spend the 50 euro on electricity but it's when you accumulated over the over the 10 years it was 50 euro per household and we buy 2.1 million households that's 100 million euro extra that went into companies pockets at a time when households were you know in the year 209 209, 2010 until about 2011 about 20,000 disconnections of electricity customers in a year you know it was a period of it was grave hardship for customers for households but big businesses were the ones getting the assistance there was one justification and I'll just say because this will make people's ears go red there was a discussion that because the energy market was opening up so you basically at the time basically you had ESB and now of course we have PINERGY and SSCE electricity and flow gas and you know about 10 or 11 different electricity companies these new companies are all coming in now the marketing is opening up so you know prices for householders will probably come down and people will be able to get better value if they shop around you know I think over the years I'm not sure how much of that actually even though there is more competition as such I'm not sure how much that actually played into lower prices I don't think it ever came to pass and my ears are bright red with rage listen thank you as always Caroline I appreciate your time take care of yourself my pleasure bye bye that's Caroline Audelhardt correspondent with the Irish Independent with some good news potentially with good news off the back of really bad news I suppose as Caroline has been outlining there this levy being introduced just sitting there no one really knew it was there as such until it was discovered last year but it could lead to 50 euro off your electricity which is better than nothing I suppose but again thanks to Caroline for that info please visit www.the9telninjo brought to you by Bluebird Care providing nurse-led home care services in Donegal call Bluebird Care 9129562 and bring care home Kill Ross boarding kennels Bali Buffay are delighted to announce the opening of their brand new Cattery alongside their boarding kennels the perfect stay for your dog or cat dogs must be vaccinated including kennel cough and cats must be fully vaccinated Kill Ross boarding kennels and Cattery 0863572769 At Ulster 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 from mobiles may not be free Ulster Bank Ireland DAC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland Alright you remember last month we were speaking about a number of council houses that were given to tenants but they weren't living in them and in some cases actually I think it was the exception rather than the rule some of these houses ended up on air B&B so for whatever reasons someone was on a housing waiting list they were given a house but they were not living in it so we were speaking at that time to councillor Mihill Cullum Magala Asbeg and he's back on the show with us again this morning Majin Waimi thank you very much for joining us good to have you on the show Majin Waidah Jaagre Right so we have a figure here now upwards of 100 maybe even 150 houses that have been given to people but aren't being lived in is that an accurate estimate? Well I suppose it's very difficult at the moment to put an exact figure on it I know that other area or some of the areas are looking hugely into this here they're putting a lot of time and energy and I'd like to take the opportunity because I'm often on radio here scrolling the council but I'd like to take this opportunity to praise the staff in the housing section especially in my own area of the Glen Tees municipal district area and the work and effort and energy that they're putting into this here but yeah we need to look at what figure we're talking about here if you look at the Glen Tees there's another four municipal district area within the county there's five all in one whereas one of the smaller populated areas within the council area there's a huge population obviously in towns like Bali-Shalan, Bollywood-Ningal, Bondour and Agus-Leci-Cannell in the county so you know we expect the figures to be obviously a lot higher in them areas so what I've done here is look I've been tack tacking back and forth what the council in relation to this here I've also and I'd like to again to take the opportunity as well to thank Thomas Pringle I've requested that this would be raised in Lanceter house what the minister to actually commission a report into this here right across the whole free state in terms of how many of these houses are vacant right across the council area Well let's talk about Donegal for a second there's a figure of 100 to 150 an estimate there now we're not saying that's exactly what it is it's an estimate is that county-wide or in your municipal district No no no this is only a rough estimate that I reckon that's possible across the county though this across the county where we've seen and the other areas because I do I do talk to other council staff in different areas as you know I'm very passionate about housing it's really important that we're on top of this here we're in a housing crisis caused by government and their policy of pro-capitalist capitalism and for me it's important that we start building but the concept and the idea that people have council houses that they're living somewhere else and isn't morally right it's not right when we see people who not alone who are just homeless but who are on waitlist for many many years either with children or not on their own or with partners but the idea that somebody then would go a step further and rent out the house to somebody else long term or even worse again we've seen some evidence in terms of renting out to Airbnb that is absolutely not acceptable in any shape or form I would call on the community if not certainly get in contact what what the council and if this is being just go back there go go go back there because the one second me whole because the line broke down there what do you say what what are you that's okay no problem what are you saying to the public is as if you know look if I if I was in a situation where I was homeless if I was in a situation that I had kids and I'm on the waiting list and I'm being torfed out of a house in the common weeks when the ban is lifted in early April and I know that Johnny or Mary or whoever lives up the road who has a council house but aren't living on it I'd be going absolutely apeshit I'd be going really really angry about it I'd be protesting outside the office about it and it's not acceptable and and and and anybody who is doing this they're actually withholding a house of their own community that is what's happening here so you're saying to the public if you're aware of this happening report it to the council yeah of course get in of course and like I said nobody wants to be snitching on on neighbors or any community absolutely not but we're in a crisis here I work with people who are homeless you know we've spoke many a time on Highland Radio and look I've experienced homelessness myself in England and a number of places in Ireland and it's something that I'm passionate about and nobody should be waiting the length of time that we are but unfortunately due to the capitalist society that we live in and the government's policy and support for that there we're not building the houses so the houses that we have built and the houses that we've allocated should be lived those who have been allocated these houses should be living in it not somewhere else I mean what commitment have they given to you to audit their stock and see you know what houses are being lived in and which houses are not like what if you received any commitment from housing and if not what are you seeking from them well look what's happening now is that I know that in our own glanty's municipal district that we're looking into this there's a lot of resources and time and resources and time that could be spent somewhere else because we are looking to develop housing in the states in Gideon and Hohenlia there's other places we're looking at you know like Duhuri and you know Falkara and Al-Chihara and that's where the resources need to be in building houses not time wasting here where people think it's okay to have a council house and rent it out neither if they're living here or not because we there's possibly a circumstances where people have emigrated to find work and it's unfortunate that people have but while they're away the rent and you know what there's a real irony here in that it's very possible that a number of the people that are renting these houses are themselves actually on the housing waiting list which is which is crazy they're themselves waiting for council property but they're renting council property off a landlord who is a council tenant I mean it's possible and that's very, very possible and I know that people need to do what they need to do but for me the idea that we're just taking advantage of the system in this way I just I can't I cannot stay silent on it I can't turn a blind eye on it I just think that something has to be done so what's going to be interesting now is it's going to be interesting to see obviously the council and how quick that they can identify because it's not an easy task without a shadow of a doubt and again unfortunately here we are having a situation where we have a situation where it has taken up a lot of time of staff and staff instead of investing into more staff which we need doing we're taking up more time and to looking into this but again it'll be really interesting what the minister does what the minister's response will be and I would appeal to anybody that isn't living in their own home that's been allocated to them by taxpayers by the community through the council if you're not hand back your keys don't don't wonder how often that actually happens thinking you're going to get away with this here no well some people have some people have been contacted and they have handed back the keys but the idea that you're going to fight this here and try to hoodwink your community because that's what it is the services belong to us as people they're only managed by the council on our behalf and it's taken from the community itself hand back the keys do the right thing okay we'll see where the story goes from here a national audit would be very very interesting if we're have 150 houses here for example we don't know the let's just suggest it could be that you multiply that across the 26 counties and then you match that to the homelessness that problem that we have and you can see that the figures could be quite close there well it's going to be high I expected to be high figures absolutely look isn't such a big issue for a lot of families now I know families or individuals who have absolutely want to live here who have work here but they know they could never afford to build a house here they know they can't get to rent a house here they know that the council list is like years down the road so they leave, they emigrate they emigrate to foreign countries and they're unfortunately become Irish immigrants abroad and with all the difficulty being an Irish immigrant abroad it brings as well it's just absolutely crazy we can house everybody and I mean I'm using deliberate the word deliberately everybody we can house everybody here but unfortunately due to the neoliberal capitalist agenda of the Dublin government this is why we're in the state we're in alright I think you have another call coming in there we definitely need a progressive government alright listen thanks for your time this morning that was me hold Colin McGill and Asperg Councillor independent Councillor there what are your views on that 08 660 25,000 he quite strong in his comments there a caller says there are now 375,000 vehicles on Irish roads without a valid NCT cert is it any wonder with the state of our roads that's not the problem but they're interconnected I suppose one of the reasons why the NCT is so packed is because some people are booking NCT appointments and then selling them on for profit it's a massive thing among the car selling community in Donegal does that happen I imagine there are companies that import cars they seem to get NCTs quite quickly I'm not saying they're buying I don't know what's going on I'm not suggesting there's any in propriety there but our people have you ever been offered for sale an NCT slot please let us know it's an important question 08 660 25,000 08 660 25,000 back after the news and obituary notes crossed on a call there's never been a better time to go full lead let's hear it from our customers it's great value for money anyone that has a big family they should be shopping in little they have a holiday at the end of the year go full lead today Highland Radio Weather Updates with Ireland West Airport thinking of a sun holiday this summer with the family Flight to Alicante, Malaga, Faro, Lanzarote Mallorca and Milan with Ryanair Ireland West Airport, don't just take off take it easy The Nine Tunning Show with Bluebird Care providing home care services for all ages in Donegal visit bluebirdcare.ie and bring care home Wet and Wild is celebrating 20 years in business with a massive 20% off absolutely every product in store in February choose any top outdoor brand product in store and we will deduct 20% of all prices at the tell buy premium quality outdoor clothing footwear and equipment today and save 20% like to eat well all week at amazing Aldi prices? I like the sound of that. Feed your family for 5 euro with a delicious chicken casserole and from February 2nd enjoy Super 6 fresh meat offers like specially selected Irish Angus steak mince 5% fat now only $3.99 and try our Aldi savers offers like Mamiya Mini size 2 nappy 60 pack save 32% now only $1.79 I don't like it I love it Aldi every day amazing Live on Air online and on the Highland Radio app this is Highland Radio News Good morning it's Donna Marie News it's claimed over 100 council houses in Donegal while rented out are not being lived in it's believed in some instances some social homes are being listed on Airbnb or rented out to someone else councillor Micheal Collin Miguel Aspog told today's 19 inch show that it is totally unacceptable at a time when Donegal is crying out for housing the concept and idea that people have council houses that isn't morally right it's not right when we see people who not alone who are just homeless but who are on waitlist for many many years what children or not on their own or what partners but the idea that somebody then would go a step further and rent out the house to somebody else long term that is absolutely not acceptable when we look at people with profound mental health difficulties across Donegal A Donegal deputy says it's imperative for mental health services for children and young people in Donegal are properly resourced fully staffed and provide the support when and where needed. Shin Frayn brought forward a motion on the dial last evening on the back of a series concerns over patients currently accessing child and adolescents mental health services in Ireland Deputy Patrick McLaughlin says it's clear the process in place is to be a more complete overhaul in the CAMHS model. When we look at people with profound mental health difficulties across Donegal and across the country you know they start often in the teenage years so it's critical that there's an intervention as a support immediately that means resourcing mental health services properly and not relying as we do in Donegal on the goodwill and good hearts of the voluntary sector. The Public Accounts Committee today to discuss an alleged failure to provide payouts to families who are illegally charged for nursing home stays. Opposition parties want the government to release the documents associated to a so-called secret strategy. It's been reported to the current members of government we're aware of the practice but a spokesperson says the story has been misrepresented. Brian Stanley chair of the Aractus Public Accounts Committee says plenty of questions need answering. We will want to know the legal position of how this developed, who is involved we'll be looking for all papers regarding this. We have the power to send for papers and all information, all documents. We'll be looking for those I suspect by the time the meeting is over today and we'll also want to know who is involved and how this actually came about. Donegal County councillors have passed a motion opposing granting of licenses for prospecting anywhere in Donegal. Councillor Michael McMahan told members this week a strong resolution was passed by the Litrum County Council and he believes Donegal must follow suit to protect as clean waters and reputation as a tourist destination. Officials noted the motion and pointed out that even if a license is approved by the minister, planning applications must be submitted and assessed in the usual way. Councillor McMahan says Donegal has a lot to lose. We have been bombarded with prospectors who have no respect and have no regard in anybody. We're a tourist area, we're a tourist area and in the water, the environment and we hear all the talk about the environment. I'm certainly very worried about the environment, very worried about them coming against these people and also the way they treat residents and farmers and the way they treat the general public. A tidal wave of evictions is likely to happen if the government decides to lift the current ban in place. That's the view of the people before Prophet T.D. Paul Murphy who says the rate of increase has slowed since its introduction. T. Shockley told the doll yesterday that a decision on cost of living supports will be made in mid-February. Deputy Murphy says the eviction ban cannot go if the government wants to address this incredible national scandal. We now have 11,500 people homeless. It is an incredible national scandal. If you trace the evolution of the figures of the number of people homeless, the winter ban has been imposed and the rate of increase has substantially slowed as a consequence. If what is the partial eviction ban is lifted on the 1st of April, we're going to see a further tidal wave of evictions. And now for weather, a mix of sunny spells and scattered showers today. Breezy with highest temperatures of 7 to 9 degrees. That's all for now. We'll be back again with headlines at 11 o'clock. The obituary notices this Wednesday in the morning, February 1st. The death has taken place of Anne Rogers, Nick Hannon, John Stone Scotland, and formerly of Farragans Letter Mac Award. Funeral mass at St Aden's Church, John Stone, at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. Funeral mass may be viewed on the church's live stream. The death has occurred of Ailish Tinney, formerly of Dunhamore House, Dunhamore Castle Finn, and recently of Tonraghi Valley Shannon. Her remains are opposing at St Mary's Church Castle Finn. Funeral mass today at 12 noon, with burial immediately afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. For more details, including any family health guidelines for wakesome funerals, please go to highlandradio.com At Ulster Bank, our team is continuing to close current and deposit accounts, along with 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 Ireland DAC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The Counties number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. OK, welcome back to the program. Good morning. If you're after joining us, it's seven minutes past 10 on this Wednesday the first of February. Thank you so much for listening to the show and for calling and texting in. Here are some of your comments so far. I'm not to check the people in the houses every two months. Same as social welfare does. They're checking. I suppose. They could just say, well, I wasn't in when you called. It would take multiple visits and you could mult on multiple occasions. You could argue that, you know, I was out doing this or I was over visiting or I was out on the farm or whatever it might be. So I'm not sure that would achieve the goal. It would take an awful lot of manpower. Let me put it like that, but I'm not sure if the council is correct. Regarding houses not being occupied, letter can a tenant worked abroad and rented the house to another family. Another well said me whole column. Lots of you texting in on that different issues here too. The quickest way to get an NCT date is to ring up. I got mine within 10 days of ringing. Well, that's a system's failure though, isn't it because we're being pushed online and we trust that system. But as that listener says ring them and we closed our Ulster Bank accounts over three weeks ago, we're still waiting to see our money transferred to our new bank. We cannot contact Ulster Bank as any other listeners experience this. I would be worried about that. It shouldn't take three weeks for the money to be transferred. And presumably, you no longer have access to your Ulster Bank accounts to see if it's still there. Maybe that's an understandable period of time. Normally for me it was a working day, so let's see, it's troubling. Can anyone out there help this listener? Closed their Ulster Bank account three weeks ago, transferred their money into a new account, but the money has yet to arrive in the new account. Or maybe you have a contact number for the Ulster Bank that still works and they can chase it up there. Greg listeners should be made aware of the enormous charges being made by ATM owners when withdrawing foreign currency on Sunday last. I wanted to withdraw £10 sterling from an ATM in Sturban. I was astounded to find that £10 cost me 18 euro and 12 cent. This extortionate rate should be illegal and the operators should be subject to some sort of regulation and control. I should point out that this ATM is not owned by any bank. It's a privately owned machine. Customers would be better off going to a bank or opt for cash back from a shop. I attach a photo of the transaction, which they did. I don't have it, but Caroline's looked over it. Needless to say, I cancelled the transaction. Wow. £10 costing 18 euro and 12 cent in Sturban. Would you ever have imagined that could be the case? Another caller says, there are so many older people living in bigger houses which they no longer need on one of them. I've tried to get into sheltered accommodation because for me it would be company security and lesser bills. Can anyone point me in the right direction to do this? You're not the first person that's contacted us on this matter. There's a couple of callers going back a couple of years ago now. Older people, as they described themselves, living in four or five bedroomed houses, they no longer needed and were hard for them to maintain. They wanted, and I think at the time they suggested maybe the council could work with them to take over their houses and to bride them with a one or two-bed bungalow or a different type of accommodation and they had no success in that regard either. Now, I'm not quite sure what sheltered accommodation is, but this listener for that, anyone got any advice in relation to that? Right. Is this 50 Euro Caroline mentioned, along with the 50 out-of-profits that the ESB feel sorry for us and her Indo colleague Charlie Weston had said it's criminal. They even increased the PSO Levy that they didn't have to but they did as who's going to stop them. I don't know, that's from Kevin. I don't know if it's the same 50. This is an overcharge. I think it's a different one. A caller says 98 of combat fatalities are male. Timed armed forces adopt a policy of equal gender quotas for front-line troops or do women only want that sort of equality in politics in the boardroom. And last one before we take a break. Greg, there is no crowd in this country as bad as Electric Ireland in ten years time. Someone like Caroline will uncover the complete scam that's taken place last year with regards to prices. I have a small business and in one and in one two month bill I have three different prices per unit ranging from 31 cent to 66 cent. And that's challenging and often business without having to deal with that. It seems to be and I've said this before in this programme that your ESB bill can just be random. It can be a minefield it can be guessed and then you can send in the actual readings and it can go up, it can go down. We don't really know. You shop around what you're told on the website. Well, your bill this year is going to be two grand switch here and it will be 1200. There's not real explanation. I find it really quite confusing and certainly from a business perspective to have three different unit prices on the one bill is really quite remarkable. I call it says every planning permission for change of views is to people creating flats. Soon there'll be nothing left in the country but quick buck apartments. Is this really what we want for this county? Well, what do you want instead? We need accommodation. People have nowhere to live. But tell us a bit more to your comment there. How many government scandals we have seen now that Lee Overhead can do nothing about. We are all fools believes that listener. All right. Good luck if you're playing the bingo today here are the numbers. It's time for NCBI bingo on Highland Radio. It's Wednesday the 1st of February. You're playing on the blue sheet. The reference number is S3. It's game number five. The numbers are 2 44 40 9 82 33 64 11 89 and finally 47. Phone your claim to 9104833 or 8 tonight. Leave your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day. Get all your NCBI bingo information at Highland Radio.com Kill Ross boarding kennels Bali Buffay are delighted to announce the opening of their brand new category alongside their boarding kennels. The perfect stay for your dog or cat. Dogs must be vaccinated including kennel cough and cats must be fully vaccinated. Kill Ross boarding kennels and then we'll call you back. Call 8 6357 2769. Wild Atlantic Way adventures await you this spring with a midweek escape to the luxury Radisson Blue Hotel and Spa Sligo from just 120 Euro with complimentary breakfast each morning indulge in afternoon tea overlooking Sligo Bay unwind with a treatment at the spa enjoy a delicious meal in the brasserie, sit back and relax in waves bar or surround yourself with your Sligo's outdoor pursuits right on your doorstep. Book now at RadSligo.com for the perfect spring midweek escape. The Nine Till Noon Show brought to you by Bluebird Care providing nurse led home care services in Donegal. Call Bluebird Care 9129562 and bring care home. Okie dokie, very welcome back to the Nine Till Noon Show. I mean Patricia McBride talking about something completely different there. Patricia of course director of theatre. Welcome to the programme. Good morning to you. Thank you, Greg. Nice to see you. You too. And we're talking about exciting times at On Green On Theatre in letter Kenny. Half a million. Is that right? Being spent, would you call it a face lift or an improvement or improvement works or how would you describe it? Well, improvement it's £600,000 actually. We got £300,000 from the Department of Arts and that is being matched by the Royal County Council. The building is nearly 25 years old and one of the things that we have needed over the years is a workshop space somewhere for rehearsals and somewhere for intimate performances. So this is an improvement to the building as well as a refurbishment I guess because what we'll be doing is we'll be repurposing the upper foyer to make a studio space there and that requires anybody that's familiar with the building will know that there are three big voids in the first floor. Two in the window and one Like unused space? So the voids were originally for a public art commission which never fully materialised and so the benefits that we'll get from filling those in and that makes it sound like very simple. We don't have a full design solution yet but when that area is filled in we'll have much more floor space in the upper foyer we'll create a workshop space stroke intimate studio but the benefits we'll get also is that we will have a much more energy efficient building and the amount of heat that's lost through those voids at present is problematic. And as you said 20 years ago things were very different perhaps we went maybe for the aesthetics rather the practicality of things at times Well absolutely and one of the other key elements of the refurbishment is an improvement is that we will redesign our box office. As you said standards 20 odd years ago were different and currently our box office and reception counter doesn't meet access standards for people who are wheelchair users for example it's very high so I mean sadly like the late Frank Larkin helped us prepare the application and when he was sitting in his wheelchair at the counter you literally couldn't see him from the seat of position behind. So in a way too he will have influence on what is part of his legacy really absolutely Frank helped us with that which I think is nice actually it will be lovely to see it come into fruition because not only will it be a better space for customers but the new design will allow us to actually employ someone who potentially who is a wheelchair user and this area upstairs that will be created that you'll create the workshop from just kind of interested because I'm not really because I'm learning as much as anything smaller scale performances as well you describe them as intimate performances is that sort of maybe one or two person and you could have a group of people standing around watching them is that what that would be? I mean I think it will be used for workshops and rehearsals I mean our own theatre need a space to work but a lot of community groups are looking for spaces it's something that you know in terms of what's available throughout the town there is a shortage of spaces for workshops but yeah we do a lot of development work so for example if we were doing a play reading of a new play then we have potential what our brief states is that we would like to have seating capacity for around 50 to 60 people for that kind of thing so you know so it would be a very low tech maybe poetry readings very intimate music recital that type of thing and more flexibility the space to be used when it currently can't be read and also I read also proposals for a continental style dining area yes I mean that it's kind of fortuitous the two things are on track at the same time but yeah there's the eat out outdoor dining space which will be a development of our outdoor plaza and that's being led by the county council that is something that was funded by the tourist board and again with match funding from the county council so that the idea there is to create a more you say continental forget the weather I know what you mean you can eat outside where the theatre is on the lower port road there are a lot of take away places so it's to provide flexibility for people to get their take away and come and sit in a nice surrounding and you know what we get a few decent days and it's quite sheltered up there as well it is absolutely and the design concept for that is being finalised or present but we'll also incorporate the ability to do outdoor performances there so there are plans to have like a raised area you know kind of like a stage but the details designs are happening now I get the feeling you want to move on with this as quickly as is possible without compromising anything in the process either so the €600,000 that's not how much you're looking for someone to bid for this work either I presume you want estimates, you want designs and then that can be adjusted up and down if necessary I mean it's a public tender process so we have put that in as the absolute maximum budget available that deadline for submissions is the 7th of February has there been a good interest? there have been expressions of interest through the e-tenders webpage so hopefully we'll get some good bids and in terms of planning I mean a lot of this is internal works when you get the right crew for the job it can be progressed quite quickly yeah absolutely because the work internally is refurbishment and it isn't really encroaching on any new space or anything so we don't actually need the full planning for that planning has already been approved for the outdoor space so that's all moving on so it's shovel ready I think they call this time from production do you hope to have it done this year? oh absolutely yes I mean I know there's a lot of talk about the cost of construction and the difficulty of building builders and all of that but we're aiming to have it all done both things done in tandem this year I mean at the end of the day it's an enhancement of a community resource and you know it'll make the theatre better it'll energize that lower port road area as well it's hard to believe it's 20 years old because looking at the building from a design perspective externally stood the test of time well was it the place where it was built last month? no I think it was a very modern design at the time actually Greg it's 25 years next year we'll be celebrating our anniversary in 2024 so yeah it really has stood the test of time well I think so but like all buildings need to be attended to and things break down it's not just the physical that gets a re-juvenation you know it's the staff, it's the management it allows a new breath of life through the building too with this new space upstairs well yeah it allows to do different kinds of programming from what we do currently I mean we do development work we do small scale performances but a 383 seat auditorium can be quite on forgiving for that kind of work so it'll be fantastic to put that in a proper space yeah and you know it will be a boost for staff as well because these are projects that we've been talking about for a long time we actually got the funding for the internal works in 2020 so given the pandemic things have been very delayed so we're really keen to get on with that and get it done this year alright excellent stuff and anything good coming up soon? there's always something good coming up it's just to set you up for a plug really you're asking the wrong person if you want me to say anything different we've got a great weekend actually with three events in a row all pretty much sold out this weekend but yeah we've got a great program of comedy coming up Neil Delemer this weekend Dermott Whelan there's a handful of tickets left for Dermott we've got Colin Murphy, Jared Farrelly Tommy Tiernan already sold out but we've got some brilliant dramas well we've got The Abbey coming back to us with a new play by Mollier and an adaptation by Frank McGinnis and directed by Katrina McLaughlin so great Donegal connections with that project but we've got Druid coming up very soon they have an award-winning show called The Last Return which got like five star reviews when it ran in the Dublin Theatre Festival and the Edinburgh Festival last year and then we've got a lovely little play called Dante Dan and it's a coming-of-age story set in the 1970s down in Cork speaking to one of the actors in that and there's a connection to the Banshee of what do we call it? the other great thing is Frank Canavan is coming back with his new play called King people will know his plays silent and forgotten people like to perform though it must have a good reputation to anything because it's a great venue in the North West but it seems people like to go back to On Green On they always talk of those that I interviewed that are coming back again they genuinely seem to look forward to coming back and playing in that environment well the theatre itself is a beautiful physical space with a great sort of relationship between the stage and the auditorium but actually everybody raves about Donegal audiences as some of the warmest in the country and you know the whole community that people like to come back to the theatre and I still think it's I often say it but you know I think we're very lucky even though I'm not exactly beaten a path because for different reasons babies and things I wouldn't get as much as I would probably like to but we're lucky in that we have a facility that brings acts and performances that you would travel to Belfast or somewhere else to see or even up to Derry you know or down to Dublin or whatever they're brought closer to us do you know what I mean? I think that's really quite important because it gives people access to the arts without having to travel great distances in many cases and I mean we offer a diverse programme with comedy, music, dance, drama you know and there's so much local community work as well from the amateur companies what's really lovely this year is seeing all the schools back in the variety concerts and we had an event just before Christmas called Constellations which was a kind of a celebration of all the local talent and it was great to see so many groups participating in that and what's the story in terms of plans for the quarter century birthday? Are you going to go to town on that or still working on it or what? Oh yeah, well definitely still working on it because at the minute I'm I'm just trying to balance the programme against when capital works might actually happen so I think we'll be thinking about it and planning but certainly not announcing anything for a while You could have worse problems to worry about isn't it? Absolutely. Your programme and development and stuff it's great OK listen thanks so much for calling in and you don't really have an idea at this point when works might start but you'll let us know and we'll let the listeners know We'll let you know, if everything goes to plan we'll have a clear idea once we get the actors on in early February All right lovely stuff, thank you that's Patricia McBride, director von Green on Theatre in Letter Kenny Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com I was told as 10 men but he squished himself into a 10-year-old car any time he had to travel somewhere quite far One day the engine exploded with a cough and a puff and he finally cried, enough is enough I lost the credit union for an electric car loan, I could apply online from the comfort of home Monster loans from the credit union Imagine more Loans are subject to approval, terms and conditions apply, if you do not need to this will go into arrears, this may affect your credit rating which may limit your ability to access credit in the future Credit unions in the Republic of Ireland are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland Hello, thanks for waiting, could you hold a line? 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Shockley of Red Car yesterday said he must have been aware of a government plan to curb payment to families who were overcharged for nursing home care and he doubled down on his defence amid an outcry yesterday as he said medical card holders were not entitled to free nursing home care. I mean that's obviously a significant scandal but Pat O'Connor, policy specialist with age action this is maybe a symptom really of our attitude and treatment to older generations. Is it that this would be seen as and we don't know exactly what is to come but that it would be seen as some way acceptable? Well this is a long running saga unfortunately I mean it starts in 1970 with the Health Act which states quite clearly that someone with a medical card was entitled to free of charge nursing home care in public beds and what happened from 1970 is that people despite having a medical card were charged. So this is known unfortunately this is a scandal that went on for decades various court rulings ruled that this was illegal it was known to be illegal within the department and that that saga continued all the way up to the 2000s where there was a redress scheme but it was quite narrow in its remit and about 480 million was paid out to about 20,000 families affected but it's clear that there was a couple of hundred thousand other people affected by this over the decades who were in some way illegally charged for nursing home care and that the scandal here is really that this was known to the department they had legal advice there were court judgments but what was revealed last weekend is that there was a top secret legal strategy to frustrate this ever coming to court and so what ministers have said in recent days quite accurately is that the state has never admitted that this people were entitled to free of charge care but that's because it never got to court because there were lots of settlements before court or before documents would be disclosed so as a result we've never had that sort of final legal clarity and the net result is that many people paid for nursing home care and had to perhaps sell their home or farm Well that's it because you've outlined it perfectly there as to what went on but the impact it had on families ironically in a way the person who needed the care was getting the care but as you say those around them partners, husbands, wives children to provide that care that they received they in some cases lost everything that they had earned you know that the person in care or the partner that everything they had accumulated their entire life had to be liquidated to pay for this care care that they should have been receiving for free I mean the consequences are huge That's exactly it and the Ombudsman wrote a report in 2010 with the rather apt title of who cares question mark detailed cases of individuals so for example you could have a couple where one has gone into nursing home care and the spouse handed over most of their pension and people were living on what today 30, 40 euro a week because all of the rest of the resources were being paid to afford nursing home care in other cases not only the person or the couple was assessed but the wider families means were assessed and they were all to contribute money to pay for nursing home care and this was happening outside of the legal structures that's the key thing now the nursing home support scheme the so-called fair deal scheme comes in in 2009 and it provides for a legal regime but the net issue here is from 1970 through to 2009 these were unlawful charges or at least there was a lot of legal questions that were have never been satisfactorily answered and many tens of thousands of families suffered privation in some cases because they were paying for things whereas if somebody had legal advice because they had the wherewithal to fight these charges they weren't charged sometimes for the same kind of bed as the person beside them and that's the inequality or the injustice as part of this and just to imagine someone in care who themselves had worked really, really hard to leave something to their children and for them to be aware that as I say had to be liquidated or sold or lost effectively to pay for their care just how that in some cases perhaps their last months or years of their lives the emotional impact that would have towards the end of the life it's horrendous and I think this needs to be out in the open we don't need cloak and dagger language or I must have been told about it but I don't remember being told about it do you know I think this just needs to be a very open all cards on the table type of conversation going forward I think people deserve that absolutely I mean we've had these reports before in 2005 we had the Traverse Report which looked at the whole system as I said the Ombudsman Report and what we need is absolute clarity and we need a process that people can have confidence in that it's not just about who knew what and when but it's that people can have confidence that there is a regime in place for care that is balanced and that you know is going to provide care for people and yes under the fair deal scheme we have to pay for care it's expensive but that there's a fair system and there's a cap put on how much you have to pay and that for people who were affected in the past if there was an injustice there needs to be some kind of remedy not necessarily a colossal compensation scheme but recognition that it was wrong and a remedy put in place so people can have that filter and listen what you're saying is correct but what is required for that to happen is either people currently making decisions and some in different positions now that were in position in the early naughties for example to admit that they were complicit in this or to suggest that they simply have no recollection of ever being told about it that one of those two things has to happen before we arrive at a position whereby there is some sort of a redress and I just see this process being frustrated to ensure that doesn't happen because I can't historically remember where you know current decision makers were to put their hands up and say look we were part of this it was wrong we got it wrong but now what we're going to do is provide such and such well I mean there have been those moments and you're right we need it again because it's exactly as you say either the ministers knew or they did not know and so you have to ask why did senior officials not inform their ministers and 2005 Travers Report makes that point that it does seem that officials withheld information from ministers or didn't fully briefed them or briefed them in a very scant way where things were brushed over rather than the enormity of the decision being fully brought to the attention of the minister and likewise health officials in the past have briefed the advisor to the minister the assumption that the minister would be briefed but in the slew of information that always didn't happen so there was a breakdown in the kind of the basic duty that ministers should be informed of these key decisions and that's a governance issue at the heart of the decision making but then there's all the nuances to this as well because you know there are references to people saying this is a good strategy it's working well keep at it you know there's an awful lot there and I just can't imagine me sitting here and someone coming up to me and saying by the way we have a strategy you know just running this past you briefly whereby we are frustrating people to the point whereby we know we owe them the money but because they may not have the money to pursue this they're not pursuing it but if they do have the money to pursue it and we have to tell them what we know well then we're going to settle with them on the QT I can't imagine me sitting here going right okay keep at it and then forgetting that conversation ever took place because it's really really quite significant and we're talking billions here and we know how we're reminded of the cost of the Mike redress game for example being far short of what this might have cost I find it hard to believe that someone could be briefed on that and forget that well that's just it and over the decades advice was given again and again that if we settle this now we will limit the future costs but if we let this run there's the risk of compensation or liability even as early as 1975 there was a sense that the 1970 health act was deficient in some way needed to be reformed because you know you could make an argument that states simply couldn't afford to provide nursing home care free of charge to everybody that's a reasonable argument and so we have to find the right way to pay for the thing but instead of passing a law to bring that in the issue was fudged there was no law but instead you had for example a 1976 circular that took people's medical cards away from them so that they could be charged once you went into the residential care you would be deemed ineligible for the medical card and therefore you could be charged for your care so these sort of administrative rules which were unlawful they went outside the legal powers of the officials involved and yet they persisted for decades and so we eventually got there but it was 2009 before we had their deal scheme in law so that's the issue is that nobody grasped the nettle for decades that's the scandal or a large part of the scandal and this is a tried and tested strategy seemingly because RTE revealed last night that the state denied up to 12,000 vulnerable people their disability allowance payments and the same strategy Bartheshouten was employed to limit the liability to the state from age actions perspective what needs to happen I suppose going forward I mean we're not going to sort out retrospectively here at this point but going forward what needs to happen to ensure that our older persons and their families aren't subjected to this type of do we need an extra layer of oversight here and if so what form might that take yeah there's a couple of things that we have proposed one is a commissioner for aging and older persons we've had a children's ombudsman since 2004 for children but we don't have that for older persons we've a minister of state for older persons services and mental health but it's not quite the same thing as minister for aging across all government departments but if we had an independent commissioner that would be an office that people could go to to seek investigations for research to be done and an independent office that would have that all of government remit so that's really missing there is one in Northern Ireland there's one in Wales and there's good evidence there that how they have worked effectively to defend the rights of older persons so that's important and the other thing we need to see completed is the state's long-term care strategy we have a success story of an aging population most older persons are in good health but you know we're going to double the number of people aged 80 and older in just 12 years so we do need to plan for home care for nursing home care and for other forms of care and that we're promised a commission on care which you know it seems it's in the program for government but that hasn't happened yet so it's really important we see progress on that and that we see a care policy joined up that's going to guarantee all of us that if you know in older age we're a situation where we can't care for ourselves and not everybody has family for example to step in that there is a plan that is funded that is transparent and fair that how we will be looked after after we've all made our contribution to society that would be agreeable to older people as well too because some of the options sometimes are well it's like that or nothing and the like that is not what people want I mean it's going to I think a lot of the problem not in this country but in other countries and this isn't a conspiracy theory it's fact is that we can legislate and plan and what have you but unfortunately with slowing birth rates there is a tipping point down the line whereby we have an older population much fewer younger people to either fund through taxes or actually provide the care that's required but I think that's a few years away but I wonder if it's at the back or front of government's minds around the country we've seen in Japan for example they believe they're right at the verge of a crisis in that regard but anyway that is to say I don't think me and you are going to sort that out today listen thanks very much for your time Nat I really do appreciate it have a lovely day and we appreciate you helping us highlight these issues thanks very much indeed all right bye bye Nat O'Connor policy specialist with each action 08 660 25,000 is the whatsapp and text line for you there if you're about to use an electrical appliance like your washing machine which uses a lot of energy just ask the question is this a good time ah yeah it's barely breezy out you're good to go if it's windy out it is a good time because wind generates renewable energy which Ireland will be relying on more and more to find out the best times for your electricity usage sign up to our pilot at ESBnetworks.ie Ireland's biggest ever tribute weekend is coming back to Donegal 2023 is taking place at the Clannery Hotel Letter Kenny on the 10th and 11th of February the nation's very best tribute acts take to the stage with a fantastic award-winning Johnny Cash and Jun Carter tribute show Cash Returns the sell-out show Mac Fleetwood as Fleetwood Mac the smash it Abba tribute with Bjorn Identity and the show-stopping Queen tribute limited tickets available now at the hotel reception and online at eventbrite.ie Tribbash 2023 the perfect Valentine's party weekend Ireland Radio weather updates with Ireland West Airport Salah, Nunes, The Beatles you can now fly to Liverpool eight times a week with Ryanair this summer Ireland West Airport don't just take off take it easy all right a mix of sunny spells and scattered showers today the showers will merge into longer spells of rain at times breezy with fresh to strong and gusty west winds highest temperatures of seven to nine degrees tonight cloudy some occasional rain or drizzle lowest temperatures in fresh west to southwest winds with some mist and at some hill fog right okay Tony Grant is community activist and he's going to speak to us now about plans for the tourist visitor centre at Donnery it's expected to open in April 2026 Tony good morning to you good morning Greg Hi thank you for joining us are you amongst those who have concerns about this development and if so tell us a bit about them yeah certainly of you know the proposed investment of 12 million for Donnery the development in Donnery is welcome but it's welcome but you know there's always a but but the money should be used wisely and tastefully and you know nothing should be pushed as a result it should be a plus it should be an addition there should be no losses here and that's what I'm saying what's your main concern about the plans well the main concern is that it was floated in the media now that they're proposing to install this high tech funicular vehicle that people would be attracted to the area from all over Europe they believe and they would come for this joy ride in a glass cube that would take them up the hill to the top of Donnery hill and to view the views of the surrounding areas yes and then they would come down again and it wouldn't stop but we would go right over the water and there would be a wow factor there and they would all get excited about it it would be a huge exciting thing and this is supposed to be something that people couldn't resist and they would have to come and experience it I don't mean it's funny Tony but it sounds fantastic you've sold me and I'm not being facetious there but it sounds brilliant so what's the problem indeed indeed you see it's the wrong place Donnery fort is a unique piece of property it's got a unique history it's got a unique location and it should be respected for that and to turn it into a theme park is ridiculous I think it's a slight overreach to call it a theme park though isn't it though Tony I mean the way you describe it in terms of it going out over the seas very flying people aren't going to be strapped in it's slow moving it affords people a view of our coastline that would ordinarily be hard to see and what's really important to me or what I think might be really important in this is access that people of all abilities in terms of moving around whether the wheelchair bound or whatever would all be able to go up and experience the wonder would be able to see it that we all could enjoy regardless of our ability to walk or what have you Yeah on the surface Greg now that sounds reasonable you know they're already searching Europe to get the best machine to do this job but hasn't been decided yet and they're still doing market research hasn't finally decided but I'm just putting a word of caution and warning here that we live in remote Ireland here in Dunray and and very high skills are going to be required to operate this high tech machine and you know it's going to be an enclosed glass cube and well it's wheelchairs in it yes as you said and if that breaks down you know it's a safe evacuation of trapped passengers from the lift and it is really a lift it's like a lift but Tony I understand exactly where you're coming from Tony and you're making very strong arguments but I suspect that your core objection to this would not be necessarily if it broke down and how you deal with that are you concerned about the track are you concerned about the track going up and down the hill are you concerned at the visual element to this box no I don't want you to keep I have to say it is my I am concerned because I've worked in this industry for 40 years and I know it's like a back of my hand and that's my concern is that we're installing somebody something a machine that might just become a white elephant in Donry because if it breaks down and we have to import the skills to fix it every time it'll be out of order for a week before it's fixed and that's not exaggerating and also the cost of insurance a comprehensive insurance policy there for the comprehensive maintenance contract which will be mandatory by the insurance company this is all going to I am estimating here I am estimating that would cost 100,000 a year to operate to work and my other concern is once you've got installed that thing that's just the thin end of the wedge people will be looking for other experiences and exciting things to do there swinging out of ropes and all sorts of things which will be destroying what we have in Donry as a military it was a military and it's not military anymore but it's a terrible center I would love to put forward just as you could bear with me for a brief that there is something that would be far more valuable and also return on investment would be more if we turn that into some sort of a marine institute it's right on the water and we've got a new Atlantic Technical University in Lederkenny and we could award degrees through this and people could have good jobs going forward and we could restore the huts in Donry and we could have them as workshops and classrooms and then we would attract people all over Europe because we have in the next five years Europe is going to designate more of Luxury as a marine protected area and here would be a fantastic hub to capitalize on that and to bring wealth to the area instead of a white elephant and this is why we're in this consultation process and it seems the likes of you and others are very open to hearing your views Tony and the viewer of others as well because I mean obviously no development is going to be 100% satisfactory to everyone but it's important and I think it's good to see that they seem keen to engage with the likes of yourself to get your views and draw on your experiences Yes, I agree but can I just say that people contacted me after the meeting that I don't know and never met and they phoned because my phone number was where I handed it out and that they are they are upset because they are military families over 30 military families came to Bunkrana and the environs around Inneshaun and their families came here from other parts of Ireland and over 30 we can count at the moment and maybe there are more and they are feel they are just being brushed aside and there could be possibly be an entrance fee to this and this with this and people now go into moment and they walk around, they go up the hill and they have great freedom and it's a wonderful place to visit and recommend anybody Could you be happy with the balance of locals who traditionally use it for walking and other recreational activities maybe had free access but visitors, tourists were charged could you see a business case for that It's going to be very difficult to do Greg because there is it's it's a right of way it's a right of way for the country if I'm not mistaken because because cattle used to be driven through there even when it was used by the army and you know people I have asked them would they be willing to have their stories written down now because they are now you know they're excited in the wrong way in a negative way by what they think is going to happen here and they feel it to be disregarded and disrespected And do you feel, it's part of your concerns Tony as well that you believe the history of this site has been disregarded or disrespected in that I mean those making the trek at the moment perhaps have an interest in military and history but what we might actually see is the majority of visitors are just going along for the rides that really what is at the top of the hill doesn't really interest them in the slightest is that part of it that maybe in some way it's even maybe disrespectful to the history of Dunnry Yeah just running roughshod over the history of the of the fort Right, I do agree but I suggested to a met Dunnry Gold County Council representative there the other night and the board falcher and as you said they were very receptive to sat down at the table and were very receptive to listening and I suggested to them and they agreed with me that what we need in Dunnry Gold County Council is an environmentalist at the top decision making position so that things are done tastefully and that the environment is respected and this is not happening and I said we need this in every every Dunnry Gold County Council in Ireland every Council in Ireland needs this I'm not annoyed anymore when I see Dunnry Gold do things because I told them this the other night I said because I see that's your level of consciousness because you're not aware of a better way of doing things you're still pouring mass concrete into things far too readily and an example of that was Swan Park far too much concrete and everybody knows that now recently that is the one thing all they say it is very nice it is very nice but there's far too much concrete Call us as I'm with Tony on this one far too much money being spent in Dunnry and so many people homeless and struggling with this announcement just don't think it's right now I'm not sure you're making the latter point to that but this is certainly agreeing with you in terms of the initial spend Tony thanks for your time I hope you feel you've had your views well aired well thank you Greg as long as you feel you've got your voice OK thanks so much indeed Tony Tony Grant there a community activist in that area what do you think 0860 25000 time to quickly mention our community hero initiative that we are working with iMotors on in relation to this and it's really quite simple we're inviting you to nominate a community hero someone you see as a hero in your community that has been of a great assistance to you they might work for an organisation maybe you're an organisation that wants to nominate them the winner will receive access to a 231 Nissan cash guy for 12 months a brand new beautiful car from iMotors so if you have someone in mind and I'm sure someone popped into your head that you think that this would be a lift for them maybe they don't have a very reliable reliable vehicle at the moment or maybe they don't have a vehicle at all and they would get benefit from this vehicle please give us the name and jot down a few details you don't have to write an essay send it to comments at highlandradio.com or write it down and post it to Highland Radio Mountain top letter Kenny or drop it into us and the lines close or the draw closes or the competition, it's not really a competition but it closes anyway entries close on the 22nd of February and then we'll announce the winner on this programme on the 24th so I think it's a lovely thing and I think it's really generous as well access to a brand new beautiful Nissan cash guy for your community hero get your nominations in and bring care home Transport for Ireland invites you to bring someone on board for free this February bank holiday weekend simply pay your fare using a TFI Leap Card and your plus one travels free on participating TFI bus train and tram services this promotion is valid for travel from Saturday the 4th to Monday the 6th of February so with cleaner, greener and cheaper travel the only question is who will be your plus one see transportforarland.ie for details, terms, conditions and participating operators Counties number one talk show the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio Okay, heading into another hour of the programme but first let's find out what's happening in the newsroom we say good morning now to Donna Marie Daherty Thanks Greg, good morning It's claimed over 100 council houses in Donegal while rented out are not being lived in, it's believed in some instances some social homes are being listed on Airbnb or rented out to someone else the EU and UK have reportedly struck a new customs deal which could put an end to talks around the Northern Ireland protocol the Times of London reports that Brussels has accepted a proposal that would stop checks on goods coming from Britain destined for the North however goods travelling from the North and into the Republic would be subject to routine checks the paper says a separate long term agreement to see the UK upholding EU veterinary standards for meat and life animals a Donegal deputy says it's imperative mental health services for children and young people in Donegal are properly resourced fully staffed and provide the support when and where needed Shin Frame brought the forward emotion in the doll last evening on the back of a serious concern over patients currently accessing child and adolescent mental health services in Ireland Lachlan says it's clear the process and plan are not fit for purpose the public accounts committee will meet today to discuss an alleged failure to provide payouts to families who were illegally charged for nursing home stays opposition parties want the government to release the documents associated to a so called secret strategy it's been reported that members of the current government were aware of the practice but a spokesperson says the story has been misrepresented 4.5 million has been allocated to Donegal County Council for 36 active travel projects the money will go towards the development of segregated cycle lanes and widened footpaths new walking and cycling bridges and new pedestrian crossings among the projects to benefit is the letter Kenny Cathedral one way active travel scheme as well as other projects in Fintown, Dunfanahe and Bunkrana and grain on theater letter Kenny is set to get a major refurbishment 600,000 euro is being invested to transform and enhance the immunity plans include repurposing of the upper foyer of the building to create a studio space, redesigning the box office and making the theater more energy efficient and finally a new state of the art community x-ray facility has opened up in letter Kenny the facility has opened at the Eregal chronic disease management hub and will improve access to diagnostics in the community and reduce pressure on the acute hospital services the HSC says capacity at the facility will increase in May with appointments of a second radiographer it will operate Monday to Friday from 8 30 a.m. to 4 30 p.m. with a current capacity of 25 to 30 pre-scheduled x-rays per day that's all for now back again with more news at 12 o'clock thank you very much Donna Marie back with more after this really short break 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 cost may vary and calls from mobiles may not be free Ulster Bank Ireland DAC is regulated by the central bank of Ireland now yesterday the GEA central competitions control committee ordered a replay between two sides that contested the All Ireland club final after a hearing into the tobacco which was sparked during the original final when Kilmer Crodd defended the final play of the game with 16 active players on the pitch a date potential replay could be complicated further as Glen midfielder Emmett Bradley is due to get married next weekend while the Allianz football leagues are also underway now both clubs have the option of taking a further appeal to the central hearings committee and after that the dispute resolutions authority it's getting a wee bit complicated Brendan Davani presenter of the DL debate and notice way around the football pitch as well of course Brendan good morning to you good morning Greg send me lawyer off it's time to lawyer up okay right come here it's get I mean it's complicated isn't it and all started really with 16 players being on potentially you know during a crucial between a crucial part of play did the CCC have any alternative to other than ordering the replay do you think they did Greg yeah there's no actual rule rule and that's great for something like this to say rate of 16 players in the pitch it's a replay you know there can be no action there can be the game could be forfeited there can be a fine or they can be a replay so they had to adjudicate on this and I think Greg the biggest issue in all this and every GA person knows it is just the mess the time lag and the lack of clarity so once there was an incident in this which was going to be trouble the GA needed to get together on a Sunday even basically almost stood after the game and at least warned the teams that this and we're looking into this as it stands croaks of the cup but there could be a replay and if everybody was on board with that from then so croaks get the cup there the speeds they have their nights out then this starts to rear its head that the GA left it to Wadi Graham's in Mahara to come forward with an objection and instead of the GA acting on it so that was in a very strange place right because Margot Roark the manager who's a real GA man come out after the game and go this and find them croaks which happens we won't be you know we won't be contesting this but of course then there was a massive media circus that started then and then of course Graham's had to decide then Glen Mahara had to decide what are we going to do here and before we know in that board room there could have been some people against that I would imagine and some people forward but it could push that they would go with the objection both teams and put their case forward and that's why I'm wondering now if Glen or the counter object or sorry croaks or the counter object the GA have basically already ruled that they think replay is the best option as you're saying between I know you mentioned that wedding there as far as I know my friends in Galway told me shame also is the way the others say the word is in a month's break they're straight in that so there's massive issues around the replay Can I ask you all views if you were a croaks player right you know there would probably always be an asterix next to that win do you think the croaks players want to play this again to put it to bed or do you think they'd have been happy to say look it probably didn't make much difference we were going to win anyway even the opposing manager suggested that we're going to take this win and you know and crack on with what else we're doing or like do you think croaks some of them would want to replay themselves I know I definitely don't think they want to replay and I would suggest that actually the players mentally and Glen don't really want to replay other because it's just one of them is a player it's all in the pitch see this carry on this going on listen the players would have nothing to do that this is all boardroom stuff and this is not all people saying what are we going to do croaks of course were through last year lost the final in the last play of the game and like you think about the season that is you know most people never see that type of season where you win your county you go through your whole province you go through the all island semis you come close to won the title a course called crew beat them in the last basically the play of the game last year they go through it all again this year they won the title and now we're throwing up a replay so it's a nightmare scenario for them and I think for Glen let's just say croaks don't play it and Glen get it by four foot there could never I mean that actually would do more harm to their club than good so it's on a much place now because of croaks do you dig their heels in and say they're not playing it no one would ever say here we're all island champions for the 2022 season you know and a lot of it does go back to the GEA handling of this again at convoluted rules you know not showing perhaps the leadership they should have been saying well look at we'll look at it if Glen complains when there were there is scope within their rules for them to have made a decision themselves you know not deep GEA bashing the hierarchy of that organization or that association but they've made this more difficult for the clubs than perhaps it needed to be yeah and Greg it's interesting because people look at the GEA and they sometimes look at that as a professional setup you know and you have so much amateur involvement here and the people who made the mistake here which was officials it wasn't croaks it wasn't Glen it wasn't their fault it was officials fault but they're amateurs and giving their time on that and they're vital to the game so party is kind of thinking like see if it was obviously something across the water and millions involved in all that millions involved in the outcome it's a different thing but it is an amateur game sometimes mistakes will happen where for these make mistakes all the time this now you're saying is that a mistake to change the game and I think if you ask 100 GEA people I'm not far from Mahara right now it might be different if they ask 100 Mahara but I think they would have said that player being on the pitch did not affect that outcome now people might say that's impossible to say but realistically now if we're looking at the chances of that changing the game there was a point on it Greg and that guy had been enough to stop a shot going away you might say would it be closer but the fact they're going for a goal very difficult thing later on so it's one of those ones that's in such a gray area but I think most people would have thought that the croaks deserved to win the game a mistake from the officials listen it is what it is but I suppose you can really factor in the what ifs like say for instance it turned out that Glenn had 16 players on the pitch and one of them scored and that the outcome was different it would be more clear what you'd be calling for yeah yeah yeah listen we've had these instances before we've been on the Royal County Final a couple of seasons ago where a penalty ticker for Neve Collins in the pitch we took a penalty and that shouldn't happen but there was no nothing happened then I guess Greg so I wonder is it just because it was such a massive game and it was so highlight listen if this was a semi-final or down the tracks a championship semi-final or something in the county nothing would have happened here and I do think going the sense of the of the media and the whole and what was right what was wrong and what happened has really filtered and there's no huge pressure on Glenn I suppose to either either contest or not and be honest like I thought that they wouldn't but then some people say listen rules are rules and so that's the two arguments that you're in there yeah that's what I'm saying if it was the other scenario that I mentioned we wouldn't even be you know because it would be clean cut we wouldn't even be having this conversation it'd be yeah replay you have to have a replay so I can see it from both perspectives so I mean obviously it's already a mess for one reason or another Brendan what do you think happens next then I mean if they do go to a replay what kind of a game would it be when would it be played what would the outcome really mean that's it I mean if they didn't replay it and somebody won it I think either team particularly Cokes would be like right that's a tough now give us that cup we've been chasing this now for a couple of years and we've finally got our hands on it it would be much less a big deal than if Glen were now to turn around and won it and I just think like you know the way people are in parishes and that there would be a lot of fun poking and nonsense then between you know you shouldn't have that title I just have that feeling even if it was replayed and won now if Glen won it by default I think that's it it actually would be a negative as crazy as that may seem because how would anybody ever say oh we were all island champions from 2022 people would be like yeah whatever you won it in a boardroom turn over you lost the match in the pitch so you know what people like the slag and the mess and the abuse actually they would get for that so I think it's in a very funny area if it wasn't to be replayed and going to Glen by default that could be terrible I think for Glen to win the title like that so it's in a very grey area unless in the GA it's really bad now what might be the best outcome the best outcome here is if Kilmer Cod appealed the decision and it's found in their favour and then just Glen let it go at that point yeah yeah well actually I'm saying the fact that they both made the recommendations to the CCCC on Monday night and they you know have initiated that as a replay but tell me that what's going to change they've seen all the facts I'm sure they both put their cases forward so the fact that they've said replay but the thing is the GA on the price because it was their officials that caused the problem so if you have a club saying listen this was illegal what happened at the end of this match you can't understand the awkward position there and now but I go back to the biggest problem behind this was how long this took to sort and the fact that that croaks have already celebrated won the title and all this do you know what would be would be funny right now this is stupid right but set everything up as was for the last few minutes of that game and go through that play again can you imagine go through that play again and everyone has to then stick I know it sounds silly but can you imagine literally just that replay that and snooker the way they set the balls back up for a miss just set everything back up play out that last few minutes of the game boom we'll get you on the CCCC let's imagine you do that the chances of then getting the goal are close to zero and I think but see that's why that is why most people like here they won the match they were too up you know there's one extra guy and there with that account it's such a far from I suppose thing at that point that they could have go on I think that's why this has left a very funny it's not a clean cut you know because it depends on where the position of all the 16 players where it's a technicality here it's it didn't prevent the 16 players it's a technicality it did not prevent a goal yes so okay right Brendan I still don't know what you think's gonna happen can I try what what's gonna happen such is the mess like if you see if you if what we're hearing coming out of croaks because of players away and players doing other things we gotta remember the season them guys have put their life in hold because they're in the All Ireland run and they're after the whole degree of this All Ireland title and they get there right so everybody knows plans I mean everyone in the background that's supporting these guys I'm sure way their partners are like here right it's holiday time let's go you know even if you're in the county team get some time off and relax and go away and do other things so now as you're saying right you got to be up the All Ireland final next week or the Wednesday night or whenever the hell they're going to try and fit this in with the schedule so it's a it's a real crazy thing to try and pull together I can see croaks digging digging their heags and it's saying no Greg and it was which will really add to the mess you know all right okay it is mess Brendan listen look great chat to you on a Wednesday take care of yourself sorry Greg all right and don't forget Brendan's latest podcast the DL debate where he reflected with a great team of guests he reflected on all the weekend G actions available for you right now actually it's on our website in the playback section so don't miss that if you didn't hear it yes it's available for you to listen back as I say as a pod all right our next guest joins us after this short break players across nine countries are guaranteed to win one million euro each 100 million years guaranteed so play your millions on February 3rd the National Lottery it could be you play responsibly play for fun time to support your immune system and gut health choose new Udo's Choice Super 8 immune microbiotics with Vitamin C to support the normal function of the immune system illness poor eating habits and stress affect your immune system and can alter the balance of your friendly gut bacteria 42 billion friendly bacteria per capsule and Vitamin C makes new Super 8 immune your number one choice for gut health and immunity this season discover the Udo's Choice microbiotics family range in the fridge at your local health store or pharmacy Richard Ryder is a communications and marketing manager with disabled drivers Association of Ireland and he's with us on the program now good morning Richard good morning great thanks for having me on no it's our pleasure and we're talking to you in the context of your new campaign it's our Baywatch campaign great name actually and it always helps doesn't it to sort of get it more into exactly it really helps in that regard right so tell us I think we probably know why this campaign is needed but sure give us an overview and what you hope to achieve from it Richard great first of all thanks for having me on to highlight this issue so first of all with two objectives the first objective is we want to tackle the glaring hole in the existing legislation whereby the Gardie and traffic wardens are not permitted to go on to private property for example into car parks in hospitals schools workplaces shopping centres that kind of thing to issue parking fines for people who illegally park in wheelchair accessible parking base and secondly we want to just highlight the ongoing abuse of parking base in general across the country 42% of explosive virus shadows that were interviewed in a national survey thought that you could go on that that guards could go on and give it a fine and the other 45% said they didn't know so it's kind of a grey area not many people know and if you did a straw poll with your listeners or people you know they would have said of course they can go in but anyway they can't so that's the issue Gardie and traffic wardens cannot go into your local shopping centre your local garage whatever business it is in force rules if you pull your car in or someone pulls the car in in a parking bay that's reserved for someone with a disability now is it complicated by the fact that in my experience now and I'm not greatly travelled they seem to be crossover they seem to be either for people with a disability or parents with toddlers like that they're two separate ones some of them seems to be both I've never seen that I might have a look again to make sure I'm not misreading I don't park in them in any case the picture on the ground will be a child in a pram and that kind of stuff and the one with the disabled is the picture I haven't seen that but I look out for it but I suppose what we're also asking for is greater enforcement so we need 70% of DDI members said that their disabled parking badge or blue badge had never been checked or by a traffic warden and I know a man who's on the board of our directors he's in 50 years of having a disability no one's ever checked his card so we need that kind of stuff to go on as well there's a reason that people with disabilities need those spaces so for somebody with a disability be them a driver or a passenger they need to plan their journey if they're going into town for example they will need to think where am I going to park if I go there can I park in that spot because they can't park in a regular spot because they may need to deploy a ramp or a lift at the back of the side of their vehicle so if you can imagine you know when you get to a car park and you try to get out of the car and you have to suck your tummy in to maybe open the door slightly that's not an option for somebody with a disability or somebody who has limited mobility they need the wider space and what I know to is and you know Richard and I've spoken to them many many times on this program is they keep going and go home and they don't go back try to get back into that certain town because they know they'll do two three loops and they can't do it so they just go home and then eventually what do you do you go somewhere else or you don't do so you're right your ability to function like everyone else can is taken from you it's really significant it's not just an inconvenience no no you're just commoding it's stressful for people you know they may have thought a bit I have to go into this doctor's appointment or whatever it may be and they just have to go home and you're dead right we hear that time and time again and look it's fair enough if the space is taken up by somebody genuinely needing it and has the blue badge up there look that's fine but if it's somebody who's abusing the spot and I kind of came up with this over the last few days because I'm saying so much serial bay abusers you know it just kind of fits the thing that these people who do it all the time people email me saying look down in my local supermarket I go down in the same car as they're all the time what can I do about it is it a private car park when they say yes they say there's nothing you can do only go to the management of that particular place and complain to them they say can I ring the guards no the guards will just tell you the same thing as I'm telling you there's nothing you can do very frustrating for people I'm not sure what is the precedent for guardie or traffic wardens enforcing the law on private property and secondly we do know some companies, major companies they do employ parking limits there so is it a private public kind of a mix here or is the precedent for the guardie enforcing this kind or do we need a statutory change in how these are recognised or what do you think Richard yes Greg it is a statutory change that's needed the legislation is contained in the road traffic regulations and essentially what that means is to ensure that there are no numbers and all that kind of stuff if there is no local authority sign above the wheelchair accessible parking spot then or any spot then the guard or traffic warden cannot issue a fixed charge notice so it goes back to young to go to private private property and it's down to the property kind of end of things so we need to dig down into that we need to sit down with the government department of transport and trash this out and say look let's try to change this why is that you know there's obviously there's a reason and we've got to get to the bottom of it and try and going to trash it out and change it you know sorry Greg it can be very hit and miss in the private the clamping you know some days it happens some days it does I've never seen it only in the big big big places as you say that can afford to bring in these places so in the interim in the meantime Richard do and it depends on where these parking spaces are do we need maybe businesses to recognize the importance of these spaces and maybe casual enforcement of it to hear a conversation like you and say right okay in the absence of regulation we are perhaps discommolding of our customers and there's always all the spaces available I don't think you've ever seen a full car park and then someone says I can't find anywhere I'm going to use it's because it's closer to the door let's face it right so do you know exactly so do you think maybe then businesses should take note and say right okay maybe you know we don't want to be confrontational with people but a gentle reminder and it might it might be easier to hear from someone in the uniform walking out of a shop I totally agree with you so it is upon the management of these centers or of a shop in place they're asking people to come and shop with them so they need to provide the proper facilities for people when they do come and they need to enforce that as well yeah they do but I suppose it's not shouldn't just be on the management themselves it should be the Guardian and the traffic order should be allowed to come in and I suppose that's what we're trying to change and you know we're going to do that we're going to we're going to do our best anyway and if people want to kind of help us on that we have set up on our Facebook page a survey monkey just asking the question would you like to see the legislation to be changed once it says yes or no you just take yes or no so far we've had four people who said no and about 800 people who have said yes in two days so that'll show you I don't know who the four people are or the reasons why but maybe they clicked the wrong button and Richard too I think you know it might the reason why it might need enforcement is is that a person who doesn't care enough that will use one of these spaces is probably inclined to tell someone who raises their concerns with them to f off right so and I think your survey has shown that right so it is a maybe an attitude that they have that no one matters but me and in that case then maybe the only thing that matters is to penalize them and that's probably why we do require this statutory change I don't think genuine mistakes or I'm sorry I didn't I'll pull out now and you can pull in that doesn't really happen it's mind your own business or f off or something 100% and I've been on with you before about three years ago I think we did a survey asking people what the top 10 excuses that were given when they did approach somebody the first one is I'll only be a minute f off I thought you could park here after 6pm what does that mean that people with disabilities don't go out after 6pm curfew is that all curfew isn't it curfew for people with disabilities you know all joking aside I wonder if they would have that view maybe they're confusing it with loading bays but it just talks if they believe that maybe we need more education then yeah I think it's or it's just an excuse Richard yeah just nonsense okay right so I think what people can help here is obviously first and foremost to heed the call don't park in these spaces because other people who need them want to be able to access them secondly go on to your website and I think the more people the more people that take part in that survey the better so just remind us that you are there again Richard yeah it's ddaie that's ddaie are our facebook pages facebook forward slash disabled drivers we don't want people have an agro either but call it out if you see call it out too isn't it alright Richard great to have you on the show again see you soon thanks so very much bye bye that's Richard Ryder communications and marketing manager with the disabled drivers association of Ireland okay why not oh this is someone who's along the same lines as me why not replay the last kick of the game with the correct number of players in each side again it's never going to happen but it kind of would you know kind of answers the questions plenty of you messaging into read the developments up at Donry I think it should be left in its natural state says this listener perhaps some money could be spent demolishing or refurbishing the old buildings that are in decay but please please don't spoil our beautiful Donry well done to Tony he spoke well thank you I agree with Tony it's such a beautiful peaceful place the idea of a theme park is just too far out of context for the place I get the theme park reference but there is an accessibility issue here as well and it is a rail track running up the hill with a glass cube on it you know people aren't going to have to be strapped in or there's not going to have to be sick bags or anything you know what I mean I get I get what people are trying to express with the theme park element to it but it's not for it's not to give people a thrill and exhilarating things to get people up and down and people to be able to see but I understand exactly where the terminology is coming from a caller lives beside Fort Donry I agree with Tony I think such a large development will destroy the true value and history of the area I heard on the radio one day last week about a cafe in letter Kenny that only takes donations but was wondering if anyone knows where in letter Kenny it is an opening hours thank you it's in Donegal town I'm told and we're not sure if there is one in letter Kenny could you ask Greg is it a bank holiday this Monday coming it's a public holiday stop the banks yes it is it's the new public holiday to thank us I don't know what it was for in the end but it's same Bridget's Day now and lots of you out there last night making you same Bridget's crosses hopefully you enjoyed that whole experience charged 130 euro for a daughter to do mock cert ridiculous can't understand it as teachers in school correct them according to one circular I seen from one school the markings outsourced so and it was 120 at that school and they wanted payment ASAP so they could figure out how many papers and what have you to order as they say free education me bum also banking letter Kenny still open for anyone with trouble I'm told that's off the back of a contact earlier from someone who quite worrying actually close the roster bank account three weeks ago and the funds are still not rived in their new account to be slightly worried about that myself early H released a statement over a fortnight ago apologising to patients who had elective surgeries cancelled and stating they'd be reviewing over the following fortnight rescheduling the affected patients are not kept informed so it'd be helpful if letter Kenny University Hospital now provided an update maybe Highland Radio could assist by contacting the general manager Mr Murphy well we'll put an inquiry in to find out I mean obviously we can't go into every elective surgery and when that might be rescheduled but we can certainly ask on your behalf what is the situation in terms of providing those who had their surgeries delayed a new appointment that might be helpful and it'll give us some sort of an idea idea idea or a time frame radio it is the 90 noon show here in Highland Radio this Wednesday afternoon we are going to be talking business very shortly stay right where you are watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at Highland Radio dot com purchase in store during the month of February choose from our massive in-store stock of quality outdoor clothing footwear equipment and accessories and 20% discount of all prices will be applied at the till with eight 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 eight higher diploma in food business and product innovation it's just one three hour lecture weekly call 918 6600 or email gary.miguel at atu.ie okay Kieran O'Donnell presenter of business matters in studio now Kieran good morning to you good morning Greg how are you keeping I'm good on yourself very, very good indeed okay interesting guest on your show this week I think we can say that reliably every week but we'll get to that in a moment let's first get a roundup of some business news that's outside Paddy Cosgrave he's a controversial character I don't want to say too much in case I have to feel his wrath on Twitter or try and avoid that ah well good man Paddy you give yourself a good chance there now good man Paddy but anyway you're digging into his private life so Paddy go after Kieran yeah Irish entrepreneur and probably best known for being a co-founder of the web of summit Paddy Cosgrave and this web Faye Dunsmore have paid 1.8 million euro for Coulmore, Manor House and Ross now that's down your the sale of the house which is on an 11 acre site was completed back in December and the property had been on the market since 2018 and Faye native of beautiful Balantra as well of course okay best of luck to them in their future home new program at ATU yeah Donegal ATU is now taking enrollments for a new level 8 higher diploma in food business and product innovation and that is commencing in March it's 100% online flexible and it's over 12 months co-designed by industry participants will use their existing place of employment as a learning environment so people can check out ATU social media platforms for more info than that Greg all right Mary Coughlin a former Tannister of course she's chairing a conference upcoming yeah back in that same sector again for today only former Tannister and Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlin as you say is chairing the first national dialogue on women in agriculture conference and that has taken place in Port Leish so just to release this Greg this CSO statistics show that women account for around 13% of all farm holders in Ireland and there are approximately 75,000 female farm workers in Ireland so this points to over 50,000 women working and farming without visibility and without status as a farm holder yeah and that's an imbalance that needs to be so I'm sure that will be discussed along with other things today yeah for sure right trading online voucher workshop what's this about yeah just a wee bit of local news Greg to support small Irish businesses to enhance their online trading presence trading online vortures to the value of two and a half thousand euro are available to Donagall businesses so it is compulsory to attend a trading online information session if businesses want to make an application for the voucher so the next workshop locally is fixed for Wednesday February 8th from 10 a.m. to 12 noon it is being delivered via Zoom and it is free okay now a decrease in the number of vacant houses yeah the number of vacant houses in Ireland has dropped to its lowest level in more than five years and that is according to new statistics figures published by Geo Directory that is the property data firm owned by Ann Pust and Ordinary Survey Ireland it reads that the number of vacant homes in Ireland fell by 7% last year to less than 84,000 at the end of December 2022 and do we know from that Kieran I didn't get a chance to dig into this yet I'm not sure if you did are they habitable homes I wonder because you know there's old houses here there and everywhere that might have an air cold but don't have a roof I'll give you an honest answer I don't know yeah we don't know okay because it's interesting I think Donagall's the fifth or sixth highest vacant we're well up there with terms of vacant property again I'm not sure if they can cross over to holiday homes but certainly well worth digging in a little bit deeper there but still interesting 84,000 homes let's just look at it very simply we've got 12,000 homeless people do you know what I mean there's I think there's an area more can be done probably sooner rather than later just need the wilderness I think there's a way and not in other words taking people's property from them either but just finding a way whereby vacant homes are agreeably matched to people that need a house need a home okay right tell us what's coming up on this week's podcast yeah on this week's business matters Greg I am joined by the owner of Ghost Productions and owner of Kickboxing LK Tommy McCaffrey Tommy's decision to buy a camera to help market and promote Kickboxing LK led to him setting up Ghost Productions in 2018 and his first paid for job was for a gym and a stir-ban since then he's moved into the lifestyle and commercial sectors a two-time world kickboxing champion Tommy also has a degree in agriculture so on this clip Greg Tommy talks about the benefits of joining the McKinney Chamber of Commerce I found the chamber a big benefit to me to be honest at the start I kind of want somebody mentioned the chamber to me and I went ah that's that's that's that's that's a big business that's not me and on town it was a meet the chamber morning and I was actually at school with Christine Reynolds I've been friendly with Christine and the Christine says to me she's he's like I don't know Christine this isn't really I'm not a certain tag in a person and she goes Tommy I'm vice president and I burst out laughing as you're joking me and she goes hi and I was like it's worth my time joining give me a general answer goes hi it is I and be fair it was the people you meet even just like me and the people getting advice of people you just realize that even if you're a sole trader or run the business yourself you're not on your own you have another $200 businesses that are all kind of tied together and always kind of working and bouncing off each other it was definitely it was a good if I said advise a couple of people since do you do the same thing and people are probably the same as me going I mean he's a fascinating character isn't he I mean that's a quite diverse portfolio of skills between architecture agriculture obviously the the the combative sport and everything else and now in the in in his other business interests a cure he developed us Greg during COVID I was a sideline to start off with been involved in the kickboxing club I started in as you say he's a degree in architecture but a few one of the things he said to me during the interview was he was in placement one day while studying for his degree and he looked out the window in a summer's day and he says I'm not going to be in here for him 50 so he had to get his mind up at that stage that all the things might sort of take over he's moved into different sectors and the business now fitness commercial lifestyle I suppose the one thing that was sort of set to me apart and it's the one thing that I find with people involved in sport Greg is their their drive and the quote he had to me was you know he wanted to prove people that he's he will be better than what they said they would be or that he's that then they said he would be so the all thing that there was the martial arts I suppose the strive for perfection and if the if they're doing whatever routine or exercise or combat of movement they're doing it has to be perfect so it's practice practice practice that's what Tom is done with the buzzers he's at and he's always someone who looks forward there's drive, there's determination, there's discipline and all those type of things that you get and that's why a lot of people try and encourage people into the likes of boxing, the kickboxing, young people because it gives them focus and drive and competition and all that right I think it's going to be a really interesting interview with Tom in McCafferty it's available right now on our website highlandradio.com and it's currently at the top of the page but it will always be in the playback section, the on-demand section also available wherever you get your podcasts and it's on there as well a little later on in this week suppose the weekend Kieran. Yeah after the six o'clock news Greg also leaving. And if anyone wants to get in touch with you feedback on the program suggested content just to say how nice you are how do they do so? This is matters at highlandradio.com How many have you done now? There's a big catalog there of stuff. One, two, nine. And I know I repeat myself Kieran but I just think it's worth it because there's a great deal of effort and there's a great deal of information in that series of podcasts. You know you don't interview someone on a Tuesday asking them what happened yesterday. A lot of these are timeless these are great insights to anyone who's in business or thinking about business or just has an interest in it some really really great stories in there Kieran. Yeah and the old thing is the fact that they're on the arcade you can go on and play it anytime you want. Exactly. All right plenty of listening there if you're out and about. All right Kieran chat to you next week all being well thank you. Good morning Greg thank you. All right we're going to take your really short piece of music. We're not really short piece of music just while we gather our breath stay where you are more to come before 12. Donnie Gall call Bluebird Care 911 29562 and bring care home. What? What? Larkins of New Mills are offering an early bird special for only 695 Monday to Friday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. A full menu is available 7 days per week along with daily lunch specials. Call in any time to Larkins of New Mills or phone 074 9126 679 and let our family look after yours. Highland Radio weather updates with Ireland West airport discover Edinburgh this summer with Ryanair's 3 times weekly service stunning architecture endless winding streets and an all inspiring castle. Ireland West airport don't just take off take it easy. Breaks of rain easing through the afternoon leaving some occasional rain or drizzle by this evening breezy with fresh to strong and gusty westerly winds temperatures of 7 to 9 degrees now Ireland is perceived to be less affected by corruption than the UK for the first time. The annual corruption perception index from Transparency International was put Ireland in 10th place out of 180 countries. Ireland is perceived to be the least corrupt country with 90 points out of 100 while South Sudan is bottom of the list with 13 points. The chief executive of Transparency International Ireland is John Devitt and he joins us on the show now John good morning to you. Good morning good to have you with us so it's not clear from that script I was given we're 10th from the bottom or 10th from the top 10th from the top right so we're perceived to be the 10th least corrupt country in the world out of 180 countries that were included in the index this year the more points a country scores out of 100 the cleaner is perceived to be and the index is essentially a poll of polls we're using survey data gathered from international think tanks and agencies that monitor political risk and corruption these are agencies that are used by investors credit rating agencies and others to determine the likelihood of corruption when doing business in a particular country and they ask business people what's the likelihood of encountering a public official being asked for a bribe what measures are in place to prevent corruption and public contracting what's the likelihood that senior public officials will steal public resources and we define corruption as the abuse of power for private gains so it's not covering it wouldn't be dealing with issues such as the one we've been reading about in the papers over the last couple of days involving legal strategies depriving people of their rights to compensation so and abuses or what are perceived to be abuses of power more generally we're looking almost exclusively at the abuse of power for private financial gain or personal advantage here and Ireland is improving or has improved slowly gradually since 2012 when we suffered our biggest fall in the index on the back of both the publication of the Moriarty Tribunal and the Mahan Tribunal reports which suggested that corruption was endemic in particularly local governments for decades and we haven't seen since then any major public controversy that has part of that is reports into some of it not least in this county are gathering dust on shelves they're not being published absolutely well yet it's not to suggest to make it clear that corruption is not a problem here but if you don't publish reports you don't know the extent of it I think that is a factor but I think the fact that we haven't had a scandal of the scale that was reported on by the both Moriarty and Mahan Tribunal reports is probably a factor in improving international perceptions because you have to contrast that with events for example in Westminster and Whitehall where corruption at a political level is endemic right now where VIP lane contracts were given to associates of Tory ministers for PPE during the pandemic where there are no caps on donations to political parties meaning that millionaires and billionaires can give as much money to political parties there and we often see a link between the awarding of peerages in the House of Lords and donations so obviously the scales here so say for instance a series of instances where it appears politicians haven't been completely transparent with the standards in public office for example would those type of controversy be enough to influence the perception of Ireland or does it have to be on a bigger scale than that they could be but they're not making international news the same extent as for example the Mahan Tribunal or Moriarty Tribunal reports they're not appearing in the New York Times or The Guardian for example and those are the papers that international observers are reading they're certainly not on the same what we witnessed over the last few months for example failure to disclose personal interests or financial interests by ministers or to disclose election funding or expenditure election donations or expenditure are not likely to shift perceptions, expert perceptions on levels of wrongdoing here like as I say I don't mean this in any way I don't mean it to be terribly controversial but I presume there are those that would look at this index and might be drawn to a country that seems more corrupt than another if they've got if they've got so if they have maybe not pure intentions from a business perspective or if they want to influence certain things like in other words I just got a sense that maybe there could be someone looking at the most corrupt rather than the least corrupt as an attractive proposition it's highly unlikely businesses view corruption as a tax and businesses are not inclined to pay taxes if they can avoid them there's a direct correlation between levels of foreign direct investment and perceived corruption around the world so the more corrupt you're perceived to be the less likely you are to attract investment because it creates uncertainty on the part of investors they don't like having to deal with corrupt officials in part because they don't keep their promises if someone's prepared to pay more bribes than you are a competitor as an inside track with or has a personal relationship with a public official you're going to lose out I'm going to say that in versus scale over in UK it's the perception there but then of course we see at the top level government signing deals and then trying to change them or not agree to them so in terms of obviously what you want is to be less corrupt as possible so that's one way you can improve your rating here is there anything else that you believe we should be doing or that the government should be doing to improve that in terms of I suppose more transparency or what have you so is there any ways you can move up that list other than you know not making the New York Times front page let's put it like that well we can't take it for granted we'll continue to make progress on this index we know from monitoring international perceptions that your score can go up or down in any one year and it is highly sensitive to scandal so we need to do far more to prevent controversy and crisis and put in place safeguards against abuse of power or even the perception of abuses of power that means we need to enact long overdue reforms to our ethics legislation to avoid the kind of controversy courted over the last year or so by ministers whether it be Robert Troyer Damien English failing to declare their financial interests we need to pass legislation the ethics or the public sector standards bill that should have been restored the last election that would have empowered the standards of public office commission to do its job to undertake investigations without a prior complaint and would have also expanded the list of interests that our TDs and office holders need to disclose we also do need to do in the meantime we could modernize we should be modernizing the way this information is collected from from political candidates or public officials currently they're asked to fill in their interests or their electoral statements using pen and paper very often those documents are then scanned and posted on different websites making it very difficult for investigative journalists to look into the financial interests and personal interests of our public representatives meaning that it takes someone like the Ditch with dedicated resources to look into this for us to public to come to light to come to public attention we shouldn't be waiting for crisis we should be preventing corruption and wrongdoing or even the perception of such by enacting these reforms modernizing our systems and also need to also pay attention to the role Ireland is playing in laundering the process of corruption from overseas Ireland is one of the big home to one of the biggest financial services sectors in the world we have trillions of euros and funds managed by wealth managers banks financial services and much of that is likely to be the process of corruption and organized crime and we need to do far more to shore up our responses to that to empower the guard eat and resource them adequately to investigate and then to also do adequate impose checks on companies established here which are often used as fronts to evade sanctions that are to line with the process of crime and corruption too John maybe you've already touched on it but some of the issues that have reflected poorly on Ireland that leave us with the rating that we have have you just been giving us examples of what is determining our rating in this or is there any other major issues that sort of broke internationally that have affected our rating some of the the think tanks that are whose scores or their whose research is used in this index reforms that have taken place over the last few years including regulation of lobbying acts that the protective disclosure is actually we have made some progress but like I say we need to do much more build on that progress be more proactive and less reactionary as well exactly there's a lot more to do as well to intercultural shift in the civil service as well to make information more proactive in sharing information with the public you shouldn't have to file a freedom of information request every time you want details of public spending or how a decision was made that information should be put into the public main as a matter of course and it would also do much not just to build confidence internationally but also build public confidence here in Ireland that our officials are acting in their interest and not on behalf of anyone else as they should be fascinating, really appreciate that John very insightful thank you so much for your time, great stuff John Deavitt their chief executive of Transparency Ireland Transparency International Ireland actually is the full title he mentioned the ditch there quite interesting to me the ditch now are members of the press council so they'll be in attendance the journalists in the doll so it would be interesting to see what kind of stories they uncover from within as well as without Hi Greg, so angry how landlords can ask a 700 euro deposit and then charge 150 weekly for rent when you've people coming into this country and getting everything for free it's wrong how our own people are being treated in this country indeed and again I'm not here to it's not my fight or whatever but historically that's how we've been treated by the way it's not that it's changed since anyone else has come in here the current issue about overcharging patients in private homes for 30 to 40 years being illegal it crosses my mind what about girls being sacked for their employment in the civil service for getting married for people still living who suffered this guilty and just government verdict and very few of the present population even know of this crazy law if it was a law could this be as illegal now as the private homes issue after all it was implemented by the same Fianna Fall and Finnegal governments is there any hope of a claim here well it's well recorded that and I think an awful lot of people that were impacted by that still are currently suffering because there are pensions what pensions they're entitled to I think a lot of them still very much with us and suffering as a result Ulster Bank, oh I read that one already thank you very much for that what is going on in Donegal I've been trying to contact a local counsellor and despite several calls this week I've had no one answer the phone and despite leaving messages no one has called me back what is the point to these people being elected if they'll not help once elected well listen I mean it was just maybe it was over a weekend or something if you want us to pass on any information for you many of those pods used during Covid for outside dining are still there in my town there are four on top of disabled parking bays interesting point I have asked several times for them to be moved and they're still there I'd love Richard's campaign to help have them moved alright okay that's a good point you make there thank you alright thanks very much to all of you who listen to the show we really do appreciate it and for those of you who got involved in the conversation and I