 rush on over now to Greg. He's Greg. Welcome back sunshine. Yes, boy. You were like, thrown up nearly every feeder in there. Quite literally, bigger. Can't say better. I was going to say, here we go now. Bigger. Oh, yeah. So we're all back bigger. Should I graced? I would say, I don't know what I just, I just, you feel it on the tummy, do you? Huh? You feel it on the tummy? I can feel it on my own tummy. It's big. We're going to be talking about what I can do with my life a little later on in the programme. No. But should we do, should we, it's a Christmas yesterday at our age, Lee? It's hard to shake it. You're a bit more advanced than me. You know, it's like, is it visceral? You're going to be in advanced trainer levels. Is this what you do? Just go in there and it stays there. It won't go. No, well, I'm going out to do a bit of exercise. I don't know. How do you motivate yourself to do that? No, it's a point I haven't done it, isn't it? Do you know what it means? Anyway, we're going to be talking about health and fitness and mental health and all of that. You know, they say sometimes it's not a good idea to make big changes at the start of the year, but if it's the right time, you know, whatever, man. But it's like the wee small things, you know, just to implement, like even you say, look, I'm going to go for a 20 minute walk a day, right? So you say, I'll go 10 minutes one way and come back 10 minutes. West 20. Can you squeeze 20 minutes into your day? No. Can you scroll your phone for 20 minutes? Yep. Easy. I can, of course. Yeah. But I can't walk at night or in the rain. What are you doing during the day after this program? Do you seriously think when I finish this show, that's me finished? I have to read, I have to study, I have to do my research. I'd love to see Caroline's face here now. Anyway, news resolution, leave me nice to me, please. Oh, I'm going to be good. All right. Listen, see you tomorrow, right Thursday. Yeah. Okay, good stuff. All right, it is the night. All right, Leo, take care of yourself. It's the night till noon show coming up after the news headlines now, and it's over to Michaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. The leader of the Ulster Unionist Party has called on the DUPG and its boycott of the institutions in Northern Ireland. The DUP withdrew from the Northern Ireland Executive in early 2022, over concerns with post-Brexit trading conditions. Assembly elections in May 2022 have been unable to form an executive since. UUP leader Doug Beattie says the DUP should work out issues with the Northern Ireland protocol, while power sharing is up and running. Mr Beattie says his party also didn't support the protocol, but are willing to work through issues. We've never supported the protocol. The Windsor framework is not the starting point that we wanted to be at, but there are opportunities within it. We want to maximize them, but there are still issues within it, and we want to deal with them. We think that can be done in tandem of getting government up and running and dealing with those issues in a democratic way. I think the DUP can do exactly the same. Housing and the defective block crisis will be the focus heading into this year for the key airlock of Donegal County Council. The defective block issue affects thousands of homeowners in the county, many of whom have been waiting years to get their home remediated. Councillor Martin Harley says the severe shortage of housing in Donegal has compounded the matter. He says while positive initiatives are being rolled out by Donegal County Council, more support must be forthcoming from government. I think we need to put more money in place for those air leak properties. There's a lot of red tape there and some of the schemes are available. People are finding it hard to get onto the scheme, so it can be done, and with not a big amount of money we could make massive inroads into that. But I think central government needs to listen more to the councillors and the executive of the council. While a similar sentiment on the need to urgently address the housing shortage in the county has been echoed by the key airlock of the Glendies Municipal District. Councillor Michael McLeafrey says the refusal to permit the building of homes along the N56 is severely humping efforts to provide much needed accommodation. Last year, all members of the Glendies MD presented a case for the overhaul of planning regulations to ensure the survival of rural and guilt talk communities. The refusal of planning permission along the route is said to be one of the main reasons people are being forced to leave the area. Councillor McLeafrey is once again calling on the office of the planning regulator to review the current regulations. It seemed to be up to you blocking anybody at all from getting onto the N56 unless there's a particular need for it. This is not good enough because anybody has land along the main road which many people do. Unfortunately that's not my says that they have, but what the regulations there at the moment and certainly more stringent and more tight regulations put forward, we're not going to get onto the N56 at all. Whether nice sunny spells and scattered showers today, some hail and thunder possible with highest temperatures of six to eight degrees. That's all from Highland Radio News for now. We'll be back with news again at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. As a woman, you know your body better than anyone. But when you're looking for answers, Irish life health gives you access to GPs. who are specialists in female health to guide you in areas like menstrual health, contraception, fertility and menopause. Our female health benefit is available on all hospital plans like our first cover plan from just 41 euro 92 cent per month. Join today, search Irish life, female health terms and conditions apply. Irish life health DAC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9 to noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello and a very good morning to you Wednesday, the third of January 2024 and a happy new year to all of you. Of course, we were back on air yesterday, but Donald sat in for me. My first show of 2024. How are you all keeping? I hope you're keeping very well indeed. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and new year as good as possible. It was a tough period for some, of course, but anyway, we're into a new year and hopefully things will improve from here or stay great, dependent on where you are in your life at the moment. Okay, so we're going to kick straight off with a reminder of how you get involved in the program because of course throughout 2023, we enjoyed amazing support of the 9 till noon show and Highland Radio set general record numbers of people tuning in and watching and all that type of stuff and keeping us really busy with their views and opinions and keep it going for 2024 08 660 25,000. Is that WhatsApp and text number 08 660 25,000? Now give us a call on 07 491 25,000. If you're outside the Republic, you know the international dialing code, don't you? 00353, drop the O and away you go with the rest of the number there. Emails from anywhere in the world of course to comments at highlandradio.com and just to remind you for those of you tuning in for the first time, maybe you're not back at work yet or what have you that you can watch this show every single day live and see most of our guests live and in person as well. And how do you do so? Well, on your smart TV or your fire stick, that's the YouTube app, type in Highland Radio Ireland, you can watch us on your big screen or across your mobile devices. And we also stream on Facebook, Highland Hub, Highland News and Sport and on Twitter or X as it's called now. So no excuses. Right, let's see what's making the front pages of the newspapers and the insides of some. We'll start with the Innish Times. Donegal County Council has refused planning permission for an industrial building in Farn. The local authorities rejected an application for a new development which was proposed at the Lisfan and Industrial Estate. The application submitted by John and Christopher Duffy sought permission for the construction of a single story industrial building totaling 583.6 square meters. The Finn Valley voice headline this morning, standing ovation for Maureen at Hutanani. And that's the same story too. On the inside of the the Donegal post Maureen Bradley has described the experience of performing with some of with some musical legends on Jules Holland's Hutanani as amazing. The Bala Befe teenager appeared on the BBC Two show on New Year's Eve and her stirring rendition of Candyman was given a standing ovation. It was the abbey vocational school students first televised performance. Millions tuned in to the show and the rising Donegal musician was one of the real highlights. It was a really amazing experience. Everyone there was just so nice. Maureen told Artie's Morning Ireland of course and well done to her doing herself her family and was all incredibly proud on to the Irish Times this morning. There was an arsonist suspected arson attack on some property in Dublin over the Christmas. The director of the Dublin region homeless executive has defended the service after politicians said they were not told of plans to create homeless accommodation at the vacant pub in Dublin, which was then set on fire. The fire broke out in the early hours of New Year's Eve at the shipwright pub in Ringsend and took six fire tenders several hours to bring under control. Gartie have confirmed that the fire was the work of arsonists. The building has been at the centre of the false rumours spread by far right campaigners that it was to be used to house dozens of asylum seekers. You know the usual rhetoric fighting aged unvetted males. But a row escalated yesterday after several politicians and local representatives called for a better communication strategy from the Dublin region homeless executive and a formal notification process and how long have we been talking about that on this show for an example? You know if you have more conversation and what have you it's much more beneficial in the long run isn't it? On to the Irish Independent now and lower speed limits on roads will be put in place by the end of this year with all local authorities being told to review the streets in their areas by the end of the summer to ensure the measures can be enforced as part of the most radical overhaul of speed limits on Irish roads in nearly two decades junior transport minister Jack Chamber said he wanted changes sequenced and synchronised nationally. Under new laws speed limits will be lower to 80 kilometres on national secondary roads, 60 kilometres on local and rural roads and 30 kilometres in town centres and housing estates but in a new and significant development all local authorities in the country will be expected to carry out speed limit reviews this summer to give effect to the new regime by the end of the year. Now my understanding of this when it was first announced was that this would give powers to lower speed limits where deemed necessary you know and I think we all know roads that perhaps have too high a speed limit and what have you so I presume that is still the situation that it's not going to see a blanket reduction in speed limits but certainly on certain roads where the speed limit is too high like 80 kilometres per hour on you know small country roads with grass up the middle not that there's anyone there to enforce those speed limits or or other roads that have a 100k limits that perhaps would be better served with an 80 kilometre per hour limit presumably it will not be just across the board but as I say the article doesn't really make that clear so quite a bit of work for local authorities across the country to have done by the end of the summer. Onto the mail this morning and politicians have been accused of being dishonest or deliberately vague with farmers about climate change policies out of fear of losing their vote social democrat leader Holly Karen says she finds the political approach to communication with farmers ridiculous and a little bit insulting the cork southwest TD who grew up on a farm criticizes opposition parties for not having a clear position on the night traits derogation for Ireland and take same at the government for not preparing for the exemption being removed entirely which is a bit of straight talking if that's the way it's going to be asked why she thinks political parties might not be clear about the scale of change needed Ms Karen says I think they are scared of losing the farming vote and seeing everything in terms of election cycles Ms Karen says they need to be forthright when discussing climate change proposals we're not willing to say the things that a lot of politicians aren't in relation to climate because like that it's this short termism the thinking that we better not say that but I think kind of the majority farmers have a fair idea of what's coming down the tracks no doubt about it okay it might be interesting to get a word with Ms Karen's on that story some good news if you're out shopping and god knows I think lots of people have spent overspent maybe have overspent over the Christmas new year so any saving we can make all the better consumers had a spring in their step yesterday as little announced it was slashing the price of hundreds of products as the cost of living continues to bite the German retailer confirmed it was cutting the prices of some goods in its everyday range it brings more than 600 the number of products the retailer has reduced since October 2023 and this might sound like an advert for little but the idea is that you know you get one big supermarket that makes these changes and others have to follow as they compete for our euros little announced reductions of up to 35% across a wide range of products from fresh food to frozen favorites cupboard staples to baking treats and home essentials recent Kantar data fan most Irish people surveyed said they are extremely or very concerned about the rising cost of groceries hopefully we do see some you know a noticeable change I think we noticed when it went up you know whatever your weekly shopping happened to be you could see that 10 15 20 percent increase hopefully the change is such that we see the reduction as well and can be felt the sun this morning the future of the TV license fee must be sorted out within three months aim in Ryan the Green Party there is demanded a decision on the 160 euro license future has been put on the long finger by some in the government but Ryan believes the coalition needs to bite the bullet in the first three months of this year he said the first and most important thing is we can is the the first and most important thing is can we get an agreement to fund our broadcasters as I think the funding of broadcasting media is probably the most critical decision we need to make in the first quarter of the year it's important is the most critical I don't know but sure most of the year they're not back till the 17th anyway so a good third of the first quarter of the first quarter will be gone anyway no a third not far off it maybe a quarter so they're on their hollybobs to the 17th two more wednesdays and then they're back in the dob and I heard Lee and Arshine reference an amazing story that's emerging at the world darts championship it's a staple for many over the the christmas new year watching the darts but one person just has burst onto the scene at a senior level and he's only 16 years of age he's Luke littler and he is in line potentially for a 500 euro sorry 500 euro pound prize as he reaches the darts final but he's facing the best art thrower in the world teenager Luke littler has roared was roared on by his family last night as he became the youngest ever player to reach the pdc world darts championship final the 16 year old said nicknames the nuke and his fans almost blew the roof off the alexandra palace as he knocked out world number eight rob cross in the semi-final who doesn't come across as someone you necessarily want to hang out with so I wasn't disappeared disappointed about that tonight the boy wonder will aim to claim the title and pick up a 500 pounds 500,000 pounds sorry the number is so big and it's for such a young person that I'm struggling actually to get out of my mouth half a million anyway that's the winner's check in the process the biggest prize in darts as I say I think you'll struggle tonight but he has nerves of steel and I think lots of you out there will be watching that as well won't you all right anything you want to talk about anything you want to highlight to us anything happened over christmas new year significant or if you just want to say hello to someone or whatever the lines are open for you right now 08 660 25,000 what's apps and text so give us a call at 07 491 25,000 park and fireplaces livered ignites the new year with a massive january yard sale starting wednesday 3rd discover an impressive selection of fireplaces stoves electric fires gas fires and elegant kitchen work tops all on sale don't miss out on your perfect fireplace or kitchen work top at an unbelievable price at harkins fireplaces massive yard sale from wednesday 3rd of january pro unpacker hiring become a member of the pro unpack dunigall team the following roles are available in her ever-growing food to go packaging company in ghidor human resource manager environmental manager warehouse and logistics manager maintenance technician send your application by email to hr dunigall at pro unpack dot com or call pro unpack ghidor on 074 95 327 90 all positions are also advertised on indeed apply now expecting a baby in 2024 then get to cool kids lego winter baby sale with up to 50% off selected prams push chairs car seats nursery furniture and high chairs cool kids lego your premier destination for baby equipment in the northwest will take a deposit and deliver for free nationwide shop online at babyaccessories.ie highland radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letek entity dublin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time ass the time is nine uh sorry the time is nine seventeen you're very welcome back to the program we're joined on it now by uh fina full counselor uh leon blaney good morning leon and a happy new year to you good morning great and happy year to you so it's good to have you uh it's good to have you on the program okay we're talking about uh port salon uh pier and just looking at an image of it here for our live streamers and it uh it looks in good condition but what is the the current situation because i was contacted as i'm sure you were first before i would have been uh over the christmas with people concerned about its condition uh and also maybe slip time frames in terms of when it would be finished greg and i give her a rundown on it what the thing you're up to prior to christmas and i got an update yesterday again and uh the story was that there was contractor the work on the pier they were subcontracted out some of the work subcontracted out um wasn't standard i believe the damage that had been done there over the christmas period so whilst the end of the pier looks disastrous it perhaps will be the way it is but it is part of the ongoing process the works that have been done at the earlier stage of christmas have done more damage but it was coming out anyhow and uh the work is ongoing at the back of the pier and they're moving out towards the head of the pier and it will take time and as i said yesterday the mcglock county council they're still hopeful to have that mostly completed if not completed later time and the contractor's aware that there's going to be days that they're not going to be able to work down the end of that factored on their plans but they do still hope to have uh they have to subside to complete as they have not complete the big the big time though is and we don't know when it might arrive is summer uh you know it's a critical piece of infrastructure um just to attract people and and and for you know for an area i think we don't have to explain that uh would you be hopeful if we have an initial deadline of Easter that we certainly will see works substantially completed if not completed by the summer contractor holds to this time that it is going to be completed by by Easter time and certainly long before the summer time and as you say it is it is a massive attraction over there and ports online ensure different piers and different parts around the county as you're aware of as well attracts a lot of people for the summer time they do it well everybody's jumping on there whether something on the pier or having picnics on the pier and the local businesses all benefit from that but unfortunately because of this Brexit has got an extension to that fund and is guaranteed the funding will be there to get this job completed so i have to thank him for that too yeah and of course that the you know the deadline initially was like really do we have to start this now uh bought that being said i think most people accepted that we don't want to lose it you know use it or lose it and in the long run it'll be far more beneficial for the area uh but there's more information going to be made available to people next Tuesday night at the store bar there at the pier in Port Salon a council engineer is going to be attending and is that just to sort of outline what you've been outlining to us and and maybe answer any further questions the public might have like it has any concern to have as to give a more final update on it to let them know what work already has been done since this new group for this other group that started work at the back of the pier who are working that is give them an update on what progress they've made so far and uh hopefully people will go away with a phone story at that stage instead of half stories and look forward to the meeting on Tuesday night and the the contractors and the the marine engineer will be in attendance as well as they have to laugh with the stores bar in Port Salon here okay eight o'clock in the stores bar listen thanks very much Liam take care of yourself nice night take care Councillor Liam Blaney there who was speaking to Dolan yesterday who I didn't hear but anyway that's the update just been contacted by a couple of listeners to say that there is a car on fire on the windy whole road in letter kenny it's up beside the hospital please avoid from the windy whole road up and from the Glencar road down as there's no way through so obviously we'll get a more official update on that and bring that to you a little later on but just for now to remind you that there's a car on fire on the windy whole road in letter kenny and please avoid from the wind hole roll rolled up and from the Glencar road down as there's no way through currently at the moment I'm doing my second boot camp of 2024 in an hour I'm a tad tender after yesterday hate the thought of it but once you get there it's not too bad it's hard pushing yourself to get to the class yeah and I think then something kicks in doesn't it or I'm told that and I was chatting to Lee before nine and suggesting that you know where do you get the time to do this of course there is time and Lee quite rightly pointed that out it's just motivate yourself to maximize that time isn't it a call of says I'm so glad to see the back of 2023 I lost two members of my family a parent and a sibling so it was tough but I went with the flow did the decorations and cooked dinner but I was so glad when midnight on the 31st came this year can only be better happier 2024 wall and the happy 2024 to you too and I hope it is much happier and unfortunately and it doesn't it can happen at any age but you know as we do get a little a little older you get those years don't you whereby it seems that everything's happening and especially when you lose two people so close to you I had the same situation my sister and father very in a short period of time a couple of years ago and went through with Christmas for for for children and what have you but it's tough because they're not there things with time dependent on on the individual with time do improve and I hope 2024 does so drastically for you it's been a tough 23 and if you want to let us know if you want to let us know what you would like to see in 2024 please get in touch with us so wait 660 25000 oh it's 660 what I would like to some changes I would like to see and this is not as serious of course as the awful situation our last listener was pointing out for them in their personal life is if we could develop a system now right at the start of the year where we could capture all the rain for the 51 weeks of the year wait pitles down right and then we could use that water for the one week it's sunny without having to restrict water supplies you know something like that wouldn't that be fantastic but anyway not likely to happen right we're joined on the program now by beg your pardon yes we're joined on the program now by James a parent of children in the Killy Gordon national school good morning to you James thank you so much for joining us morning Greg thanks very much for having me again no no it's it's good to have you on the program you were on with us in relation to parking and road conditions outside the children's school has there been any update for the new year because we said we wanted to come back to this because it was just at the mouth of Christmas James as you might remember you know and it had been an easy easy for us to sort of let it slide so what's the situation yeah so pardon me I still kind of don't have a voice but um effectively what I had done was on the morning um that we had been on the radio with yourself um I had explained that at the time and back in September we had spoken to Gary and the council and we had sent a few emails in and to that point nobody had responded um so using sort of the the clout if you will from being on the radio and that sort of bit of exposure um I sent both the guards and the council the clip from the radio and said that you know it's been two or three months and nobody's got back to me we've been on the radio this morning explaining our concerns could somebody at least come back to us and follow up and see what we can do and the next day the very next day um on I believe it was the Thursday we had the guards actually came back to us um and they explained that um outside of school hours and an unmarked vehicle they were doing speed checks and that everything was fine um but they did say that they would try and do some high vis checkpoints in the new year when the schools reopened and they would bring it to the attention of the council to carry out surveys um in order to maybe get the the speed awareness fans and so on and so forth in there and they were looking also at the parking um on that as well um now uh the officer I don't I don't want to name him obviously at this point but he was very prompt and coming back to me and he sent an email on the Thursday to the council just you know sort of highlighting our points um and the very next day to that so the Friday the council came back to him um which I find which I found was very prompt and they said that they were going to put up um some traffic counters in the new year at the location that can uh just to look at traffic speeds and volumes um they explained that there was a safety scheme due for completion of traffic signals in Killie Gordon next year um they've identified something as a HCL um a one kilometer section outside of Killie Gordon towards Stornorle starting from the entrance to Forest Park where they hoped to uh engineer solutions by 2025 um but also they were saying about um they were looking to standardize a bus set down point between Forest Park and the traffic signals outside of the school now this is fantastic obviously that the the guards have come back to me then after having to go to you um but the council responded to the guards like councils still haven't responded to me um council haven't responded to you and a lot of the information that the the council have sent to the guards here um I'm led to believe that the school itself know very little about that um so we're we're sort of banging our heads against the wall here they're all happy to talk to you so yeah okay but let's because hopefully James some progress is being made obviously Christmas was in between our conversations so maybe now they're going to use the couple of working days now that everyone's sort of somewhat back to normal now uh get everyone's ducks in a row and get those lines of communications open and get that information into the school and get something firm so that we all know exactly where we're at because you've done fantastic work and got some great information uh so yeah hopefully now there's someone back at work today or maybe they've already been back that will build on this and formulate something that we can sort of hold to account if that makes sense yeah that's it and it's just opening up the lines of communication with the council because as I said it just feels a little bit that we're we're sort of always just kept on the back foot there's obviously you know there's a couple of questions we would just like to pose to council and to the authorities just to see you know what can we do to help where can we go with this how can we you know sort of get involved in this and keep that line of communication open without having to go to you know as I explained there that the guards then have to email somebody and then they go back to the guards when we're getting the information you know sort of second and third handle um so we've tried that we reached out to a couple of people we as I said before we've spoken to councillors but they're they're not very forthcoming um and this is this is sort of why I've updated you on this why we want to just put it on the radio first thing in the new year you know keep it fresh in the minds everybody's got new year's resolutions and everybody's got all these you know great wishes and hopes for the year ahead and you know it's something that we don't want to let slip um because very easily forgotten about as you as you explained before we're a small school in a small location um and it's very easy to forget about it so um and I think you know listen the whilst there might have not been any serious instances all the warning signs are there and it only takes one incident and that's what we're all trying to avoid isn't it James exactly and that's the thing you know the you know the guy they came back and they said that why there was no serious incidents that warranted the speed van there or any sort of additional um you know uh visible response or checkpoints or whatever as you say it takes that one and when they're looking at these things outside of school hours or maybe they're looking at them in the evening when it's a lot quieter you're not really taking a first sample of that right it's great that they've got all these you know these plans and ideas but you know it'd be great if we could get a time frame and you know it's calm and you know it's just kind of planned out so that at least the student knows you know what's going to happen when's it going to happen who's going to be where so that we can you know that we can work with them on that because obviously we do want to isolate ourselves um you know from all of these departments we don't want to be seen by the guys or whatever listen at the end of the day it's like other issues we discuss James I am sure you us the guard the uh the council we all want the same thing or we all want to avoid the same thing so listen sometimes you have to go on the public airways to give thing a move a move on but I don't think it pitches you in an opposing position we just need it formalized now and I think the guards have been very forth coming with you in fair play to them now we'll contact we're going to contact the council as well and just see what the plan is in relation to uh you know traffic counters what does that mean is that a means to an end is it's a ti is this council you know there's loads of further questions that need to be chased up on with the council we're going to do that I'm sure you're going to do that but there seems to have been a bit of progress we just need it formalized now and and all parties working in the same direction James absolutely and if we can get the as I say if we can get the support of the local councillors on board and just a look at this and just help us push along that would be great um because as you you know we can only really reiterate that you know so many times just we don't want that accident to be the one that is you know that the you know that the cause for all this so and prevention is better than curious but uh yeah no I just thought we'd let everybody know we just keep it fresh and everybody's mind going forward and um there's any changes or whatever then surely we can we can have that discussion again in the future of course you know the number is now at this stage or the email thank you very much uh for that James and obviously we'll keep you in the listeners updated with any responses we get from the council but for now thank you so much great take care bye bye 08 660 25 000 James good to his word to keep us updated and uh first show back for me in the new year there you have it okay um right okay we got a wee letter in from the lake house uh which is nice the director of nursing jennifer ranking on behalf of the lake house nursing home staff and management we'd like to thank you most sincerely for your very generous donation of 500 euro for the patient's comfort fund and the christmas hamper we really enjoyed the christmas broadcast our plan is in the new year to take residents to our local hotel arnold's for a meal and music and the money will be spent towards that wow thanks for the update actually to know uh where it's going and thank you to the lake house its management and staff in port nabla for um accepting our request or to for hosting us is the way i wanted to describe that yeah to host us it was a lovely little run up to chris was really really enjoyed it put me right in the spirit heading into it and again we had shanaid and tommy and alex a late sub uh around five of our nursing homes community hospitals visiting staff and um residents and it was it just lovely gave me a wee lift and we appreciate it and it's great to know they're going to arnold's which is lovely that's where they said wasn't it yeah arnold's i wonder if you'd raise the issue of the lack of transport from doblin to letter kenny the friday before christmas my son and his partner had the bus booked on the friday before christmas they were coming from england but the plane was late in and they missed that bus they were told to go online and book the next one but they were told all was full and um as was the one after that the next one had one seat free but that was no good to them of course as a couple they waited for the next one the next one after that was nine o'clock at night so we ended up having to start driving to doblin to collect them why is tonnagor the forgotten county when it comes to transport especially the week of christmas yeah indeed it's a nightmare situation hopefully in 2020 fight for the rights of an sna roll i've been an sna for four years and i've good experience now the department have called an sna roll uh ukrainian hours and it's reviewed every three to four months just so they don't have to give us yearly contracts i'm giving this country one more year and then it's time to exit if things don't improve everyone gets everything when they come to this country leo and martin please stop not answering the question and start looking after the irish at the real irish people that put us into power hardworking irish people are sick of this crap i understand where where you're coming from but what's real irish versus not real irish but anyway listen get into that nice and early in the new year radio let's take a quick break back with more shortly watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com get ready for easy living furniture's biggest ever winter sale absolutely everything reduced across sofa dining bedroom mattress and accessories it's the furniture you want at amazing winter sale prices winter sale now on at easy living furniture present link retail park wishing all our wonderful customers a happy and healthy new year once the menswear's big january sale is now on in store and online with great discounts across top names in menswear like andre tom penne remizumo penguin and tommy bow don't miss out on some great bargains in the january sale now on at what's in menswear main street at a kenny and online at what's in menswear dot com the second reign of jim mcginnis as manager of dunny gall begins with the first competitive game of the year this wednesday evening with dunny gall playing host to our ma in their opening doctor mechanic cup fixture join the highland team for a full match commentary from the 730 throwing highland's coverage of dunny gall in the doctor mechanic cup is brought to you by highland motors in letter kenny with the new citron c5 aircross an suv with great comfort and styling perfect for dunny gall roads for a test drive or to order your new 241 pop into highland motors welcome back to the nightly noon sure how you're keeping uh we're on the line now with denis sherryton denis good morning to you good morning greg um it's not a pleasant story to have to talk about is it so early in the new year uh tell us what happened monday night denis um it's a neighbor of mine here in killin mcglennan he rang me yesterday morning to say that during the night that uh some people came to came to his house and uh at the doorstep of his house they were upped up uh pathan's labs and there was flower pots and stuff there thrown around the person and not around the back of the house and there was a gate at the back of the house which tried to damage the gate as well and uh the damage really to the house wasn't that much weave fixed it up yesterday for him the damage really wasn't that great but he's been left very badly traumatized by it and um this person is a pensioner and actually and not in good health at all at the minute you know and others uh it has left him in a bad place you know he's very nervous staying there on his own at night you know when he's scared these people might come back again you know yeah and i mean obviously he can be somewhat reassured that he's got wonderful neighbors around him that came and uh undid the damage that was done but of course like any of us we would be wondering well why my house are they kind of come back am i being tarred you know all those type of things would be going through your head and and i can understand how you'd feel nervous on his own there now yeah well i i don't think really that there were no target you know because the house is on on the main street they're going through kill mcranon and me personally i think there's probably maybe possibly some people done it maybe just for a bit of a laugh or didn't think it was you know the damage they've done wasn't that that's great but the probably you know maybe if it was young people they don't understand the effect it can have on older people you know live on our own and that's um but it has had a really big effect on this person you know when i when i talked to this person yesterday they were really in a bad place you know i'm really concerned and i'm worried about not sleeping you know and actually not sleeping sitting on the house in the dark just to see if anybody else would come again you know so it's that's just that can you know the damage the material damage to the house was as easily fixed it's just put the the damage to the person psychologically as what is the most worrying part of it you know and the worst thing is Dennis you know the people who did this maybe aren't listening to us but secondly they probably don't even consider the consequences of their actions that what for them might seem i don't know where they derive from from it but what they seem might they just think it's a bit of horseplay or something but they don't realize that this has had a really strong impact on a person yeah i would say you're exactly right there gregos and you know probably as that i realize i'm sure you know there's you know i'm not out to you know to demonize these people but i'm sure as i realize you know that the effect that they have on people especially when somebody is old and on their unwell health you know i'm sure you know but uh you know as of most really as well but we all should be looking out for our neighbors especially our elderly neighbors at this time you know and you know our world is our world is changing and there's a lot of more people around and i think it's a time to be extra vigilant with what our elderly neighbors and watch out for them and that's a fair point too and one that's not discussed it's not necessarily to say whatever change is happening is bad or good that's maybe a conversation for another day but it's going to affect different people in different ways isn't it and how you know in terms of you know some people especially if you're an older person change is not nice you know it's i'm not saying that's the same for all older people don't get me wrong but for some you know that they see a lot of change and it can be quite um uh worrying for them absolutely so i think it's it's more important now than ever that maybe we call them on on our elderly neighbors and just let them know that that we're around and that that we care and we realize that you know that they are that they that they do feel vulnerable and just to to reassure them that uh that we're keeping keeping an eye out there you know and uh if we see anything strange activity around the place or people hanging around or strange vehicles or whatever that we just that we're aware that you know something might be right and that maybe just to to you know if we see something suspicious maybe reported to the yard or whatever all right okay listen danis i'll play to you in the neighbors for rallying around and getting the damage repaired quickly but as you say the real damage that's going to be more difficult to repair is the emotional damage but we hope this person uh feels the warmth of the community and the safety of it and uh is feeling better sooner rather than later denis okay thank you thank you thanks very much take care yourself denis shared in there that was damaged caused to a property on monday night uh in uh on kill mcrennan's main street and you know what if anyone saw any of that activity maybe the person who was the the victim or feels the victim of it might get some comfort if the garity would speak to those responsible of probably cctv around the place or maybe someone saw something i'm sure uh the garity would be uh very welcoming to any information there it's a game we're in that we're in that cycle where many of us have loved ones living afar many in australia at the moment live in their best life uh seemingly according to facebook anyway while we were huddled around the turkey uh they were out in the beach won't have you but that's the lovely side of it um for others maybe it's for other reasons but lots of you have uh loved ones over in australia and maybe sent stuff over and i'm just wondering have you had any issue with them not receiving what you might have sent them uh and it's off the back of a message in from a listener i have a daughter in australia she has been sent cards in different things over the year but never received them when i asked the post office about it they said that unless you registered the cards you can't track it which is understandable she put it on the irish in osboard online that she wasn't receiving post from home and a number of others have not been getting anything posted from home either a lady received a card that had money in it and had been opened they put a note in it to say that money wasn't allowed to be posted didn't know that they say if people complain something can change about this don't put money in cards put cards in a for envelopes so that they look like documents and the card might be received so it is this a case where the australian customs is is um intercepting cash being sent from arland and elsewhere into australia if so where does that go have you had this problem is this something your loved one over in australia said mom dad i never got that stuff yet you sent me but anyway this caller says if you put your cards in an a4 envelope uh they're less likely to be flagged as potentially containing money or something i presume well this listener's daughter is in brisbane and it's probably happening in the rest of australia so let us know if that's something you've come across oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand or give us a call on oh seven four nine one uh twenty five thousand right let's take a quick break and we're going to be returning to the issue at maherabeg school where we've had contact from a number of listeners who uh were receiving fines and penalties there are temporary lights there but they're sure the lights weren't on uh when they were being uh flagged for speeding uh because it's a variable speed limit anyway we're going to have more on that on the lancel noon show after these messages lk bakes now ready for bikes to work 2024 use your bike to work benefits for bikes and safety equipment including e-bikes up to the value of one thousand five hundred euro visit our showroom to explore a comprehensive selection of e-bikes there's your bikes road bikes and mountain bikes available for you to try out our shop online at lkbikes.com with free nationwide delivery lk bikes that are kenny every year about two thousand six hundred people in our land get bowel cancer bowel screening helps to reduce your risk of developing it the age range for bowel screen is changing if you're aged 59 to 69 register for a free bowel screen test kit once you've done the test at home return it by free post and we'll test your sample if you need follow-up tests we let you know register today at bowelscreen.ie or free phone one eight hundred forty five forty five fifty five from the hsc hi there can i help you you're looking for something for the garden well i want to plant for me what she wants is a nice lay landing head am i right no i'm a lovely big hot tub your vote is your voice so don't let someone else decide for you and a pair of those crouching stone lions they'd look great either side of your front door uh do i know you that's our new trainee he's very keen make sure you're registered to vote go to check the register.ie and be a voter so that it's your voice that's heard from on commission talchon ireland's independent electoral commission and would you like that for delivery yeah apartment three sixth floor oh you're going to need a crane for those lions then highland radio weather updates brought to you by grant building a new home choose grants a triple plus rated air owner air to water heat pump and you flex under floor heating visit grant.ie okay so sunny spells and scattered showers today some hail and thunder possible highest temperatures of six to eight degrees in the light to moderate westerly wind now scattered showers will continue overnight with clear spells in between lowest temperatures of one to five degrees in the light to moderate west to southwest wind right okay so we recently spoke to a number of people who received speeding fines outside maharabeg national school uh to update this uh update us on the situation we talked now to cancer paul canning who's been in touch with a number of representatives on this issue good morning to you mr canning thank you very much for joining us good morning greg and happy new year can you hear me okay yes loud and clear same to you and and your family as well paul i think most people might be aware but we've got listeners in the west north south east of the county uh describe to us where maharabeg national school is and its situation as it relates to this road it would be um the the maharabeg school would be on the national primary road between darry and letter kenny um probably within about five mile of letter kenny um there thereabouts that would be my best location of it you know um that's a that's a school that was there prior to the road been actually developed so the road came after the the school or the speed of the road came after the school so there's probably a reason why they are working or trying to work with the school and and slowing down the traffic at that location um the situation with the school unfortunately is that well it's not unfortunate but because they should work on parents and that the maharabeg school opens up but earlier than than the norm so a lot of people are getting caught out with the time frame they're coming up the road and they're saying well it's only half eight here um and the school will not be open about nine o'clock but maharabeg school opens earlier than that so the actual periodic uh speed limit starts at eight twenty i think it is um till about uh eight fifty that's the first and that's where a lot of people are getting caught as they're coming up the road and they're saying it's not even half eight here. Paul does that speed limit apply even if the uh digital lights indicating that speed aren't on? No whenever the lights are not on that speed limit doesn't apply and the problem we had over Christmas is those lights were not working and there were people and I find it very ironic that the actual speed van didn't check the the the speed lights you know um so the speed van was there at a time that the the lights weren't working now I have spoken to to the local guard involved on it and I've spoken to the director of roads uh with the Donegal County council um I've emailed them both as well just for a paper trail but there's a company uh Swarco is what the that looks after they're a Dublin based company and I've also emailed them to get the exact clarification as to when these lights weren't working and when they were working to but but the problem being is because it was over the Christmas period the time frame anybody getting their penalty the time frame would have ran out so they would have had either a pill or pay it so I advised them to appeal it um I have also the the look I'm not I listen I have no problem with speed bands but I'm not very happy as to the location of this particular speed van um because when a person is coming into the actual flashing lights and they were they are traveling at 100 kilometers per hour for them to get down to the 60 kilometers a text 20 or 30 meters depending on what's behind you that that speed van seems to be trapping them within that short speed that's a particular issue coming from the dairy direction isn't it it's a sweeping corner and it's on you immediately effectively immediately but that being said can we have our cake and eat it too Paul we've just been speaking about Killy Gordon national school um and they're struggling with with with traffic in their area as well flying past the school they would love to see a speed van outside their school is it not the responsibility of motorists to sort of uh you know there are school signs that are there to already be maybe saying our children going in and out of school to be slowing down as the approach do we not have to take some responsibility I'm paying devil's advocate here now but do we not have to take some responsibility as motorists because what we're talking about here is children's safety here and it only takes one instant and we could be talking about an awful awful tragedy yeah you're a hundred you're a hundred percent right it's down to drive your driver behavior as well don't get me wrong um but this is this is periodic speed speed limits you know so there is a difference but there is nothing stopping the speed van from relocating to a location that whenever the car is coming within 50 meters or 100 meters off those speed lights that the car see the the speed line the speed van so in other words if this was about road safety it could be in a much safer place but if this is about revenue collection it's where it is now now I'm not saying that's the motivation but you're saying it could stay offering the safety aspect of it but give drivers a fairer cracker the whip given the fact that you get quite late notice of a speed change that is temporary yeah that's exactly what what I'm saying you know and the situation like you know um and if you read into the the if you read into the whole picture analysis of the location of the speed van the speed van is also creating um maybe its own issues with Sabre where it's located so I would find that for the speed van to move closer in the in the dairy direction and allow then uh the people they see the speed van to see the lights to slow the traffic down and that then works um so people are slamming the brakes on effectively and and and well this is it this is it and the thing about it people are not breaking any breaking any laws coming into that at 100 kilometers per hour that's just from whenever they had the the the lights they are slow I can assure you whenever they are passing the school they are at the proper speed but it's from the traffic from the the flashing lights to the school that they are getting caught which is a wee bit unfair but whenever the lights is not even working that's even worse so what I mean how do you estimate how many people might have got speed and tickets when the lights weren't even on because I think you know in that moment you'd have to be a lot of people go geez worthy on weren't the on I'm not quite sure uh you know it's one of those but we're talking rush hour here we're talking the dairy to letter kenny letter kenny to dairy road the vans can get you in both directions but perhaps mostly from the dairy direction as far as all motorists were concerned there was no reduction in the speed limit you know we've had contact from you know a handful of people but that number could be massive really uh and as I say they're second guessing themselves as to whether the the the lights we show in the reduced speed limit or not yeah you're you're 100 right those that will appeal it will appeal it no we'll just say no I should just pay it listen what me and you're doing here today uh is helping the speed of the at that maravine school because we're highlighting the fact that people will start realizing and also the people that have got the speed finds will also um say well let's start uh take a note here it's just the fact of that first initial stage where people are coming along the road they're driving they're 20 past eight they're not expecting the school to be open at that time maybe for the first time so people in are getting caught um a little bit unfair I think in my opinion so I'm hoping that that I get word back that they might relocate the the actual speedband closer to the dairy side um and give the people an opportunity to slow down further back from maybe corn support and also make it safer uh for traffic and those in the school because this is let's these are go safe you know not go collect they're go safe fans uh and the emphasis should be on the on the safe okay it's it's uh it's uh it's an interesting story uh I mean theoretically hundreds of people could have received fines we just simply don't know I would imagine that's the case but then again maybe there's a lot of light flashing and stuff that goes on but anyway be that as it may thanks for that paul I appreciate it and maybe keep us update with any update that you get um this is going to be down to the motorist to appeal this presumably no one's going to review it and cancel these fines because we talk of the fines where a lot of people renew their insurance in the next couple of months you know they could be sitting with points on their license that could affect their insurance as well so we need to make sure this has gotten right yeah you're a hundred percent right it's up to the people and I would say the time frame's probably out for the appeal but I've also personally have sent an a into the into the department about the location um of the actual of the actual speed ban because it is there is there is uh entrances going on to an actual primary road and that uh speed ban is impairing the vision line for those entrances so that's not located in the best places either which is also really quite significant okay thank you very much for that I appreciate it very much take care of yourself Councillor Paul canning there they should make a walking tunnel under the school that so that people can cross a private company would need to come in and do it there's too much traffic it's dangerous to cross yeah who would do it though and it shouldn't be funded the schools shouldn't have to campaign for this stuff because as we've said a lot of the times it's the school uh the road that was built beside the school so just be uh to be clear about the reduced speed limits at macro beg school thousands of you pass it every single day so is significant um when the schools open the lights are on monday to friday um from 8 20 am to 8 50 pm and then in the afternoon from 13 25 to 145 and then from 225 to 245 speed limits of that time is 60 kilometers per hour but for that speed limit to apply of course the uh temporary speed limit indicators need to be on and giving motorists a fair shout let us know if you've been affected by that on the usual numbers 0 8 6 60 uh 25 000 0 8 6 60 25 000 or by calling 0 7 4 9 1 25 000 it is the 9th of noon show on this the 4th of january we'll be back with much more in the next hour after we take a break now for the news and the obituary notices anyway last week i was in the house i'd done a crossboard watched a bit of telly about 40 and i just thought today is the day you see i haven't been out much lately but i knew the bridge night was on so i went i was great seeing them all they were a really good laugh i missed that reconnecting with others is always good for your health maybe it's time to say hello again world a message from healthy ireland if you need advice on what's best for coughs or colds or what's best for sore throats or flu just ask at your local brennan's pharmacy if you need advice on the best vitamins and tonics to put a pep in your step just ask at your local brennan's pharmacy whether it's about back aches headaches or tummy aches your brennan's pharmacy team can help if you need advice from someone you trust we're here for you at your local brennan's pharmacy is the appearance of your staff important to your business it's the first point of contact for customers when entering your premises at cnn embroidery and letter kenny they have a huge range of clothing covering all areas of the workplace it's widely known the customers warm to and trust employees that present themselves well have your company name embroidered or printed on all your work uniforms contact cnn embroidery on 07491 28097 and get your staff looking their best on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning it's 10 o'clock donal kavanaugh at the news desk the fire service has been at the scene of a car fire in letter kenny the blaze on the windy hall road broke out shortly before nine o'clock this morning no further details are known at this time an elderly man in the criminal area was left frightened and traumatized after paving stones ruffled up outside his home pots and plants were thrown about and his back gate was damaged on today's 9 to noon show denis sharden a neighbour of the man said people in the area are supporting him and the damage to the house is minimal and has been addressed however mr sharden says the psychological impact the incident is having on the man is a lot worse the damage related to the house wasn't that much we've fixed it up yesterday for him the damage really wasn't that great but he's been left very badly traumatized by it and this person is as a pensioner and actually and not in good health at all at the moment you know and i just left him in a bad place you know he's very nervously in there on his own at night you know when he's scared these people might come back again you know the leader of the austrianist party has called on the dup to end its boycott of the institutions in northern ireland the dup withdrew from the executive in early 2022 over concerns with post brexit trading conditions assembly elections in may 2022 have led to an impasse with no executive formed uup leader doug betty says the dup should work out issues with the northern ireland protocol while power sharing is up and running mr betty says his party didn't support the protocol but they're willing to work through the issues we've never supported the protocol the winds of framework is not the starting point that we wanted to be at but there are opportunities within it we want to maximize them but there are still issues within it and we want to deal with them and we think that can be done in tandem of getting government up and running and dealing with those issues in a democratic way i think the dup can do exactly the same housing and the defective blocks crisis will be the main focus is for donnie gall county council's career look this year the defective block issue affects thousands of homeowners in the county many of whom have been waiting years to have their homes remediated council martin harley says the severe shortage of housing in donnie gall has compounded the matter he says while positive initiatives are being rolled out by donnie gall county council more support must be forthcoming from government i think we need to put more money in place for those derelict properties there's a lot of red tape there and some of the schemes is available people are finding hard to get onto the scheme so i think that needs to be looked at as well and and to do it properly but i know what can be done and what's not a not a big amount of money we could make massive inroads into that but i think central government needs to listen more to the councillors and the executive of the council and that need for more housing has been echoed by the career look of the gentes municipal district council micah matlivity says the refusal to permit the building of homes along the n 56 is severely hampering efforts to provide much needed accommodation last year all members of the gentes md presented a case for the overhaul of planning regulations to ensure the survival of rural and the growth of the communities the refusal of applying permission along the route is said to be one of the main reasons that people are being forced to leave the area councillor matlivity is again calling on the office of the planning regulator to review the current regulations seem to be off the view blocking anybody at all from getting on to the n 56 unless there's a particular need for it uh this is not good enough to cause anybody is as uh land along the main road which many people do unfortunately that's not my says that they have but what the regulations they are at the moment and certainly more stringent and more tight regulations go forward we're not going to get on to the n context at all well more people will be able to buy their local authority homes that they live in when new rules kick in this month changes are being made to the incremental tenants purchase scheme and that includes replacing the previous income limit however rory hern the assistant professor of social policy at manuth university says there are potential problems because it means social housing stock is then being lost we have in the region of about 200 000 homes currently controlled by local authorities with social housing tenants in them we built in the history of the state almost half a million social housing homes so we have privatized essentially half our housing stock and when we look at for example homelessness now one of the root causes of homelessness when we're at historic levels of it is the lack of social housing a public meeting will take place next week to discuss ongoing works at port saloon pier works at the pier began in july there was concern because it was understood the project needed to be completed by october 31st in order to ensure funding from the brexit adjustment fund could be drawn down it's since been confirmed that funding will be made available to complete the works the meeting takes place on tuesday next at the stores barport salon at eight o'clock councillor leon blaney has given a commitment that an update will be provided as to try and answer any questions the public has any concern to have as to give an update on it off the work as well as what i've already said to let them know what work already has been done since this new group for this group that started the work at the back of the pier who are working as give them an update on what what progress they've made so far and hopefully people will go away with a full story one of our cast only spells and scattered showers today some hail and thunder are possible top temperatures six to eight degrees celsius that's the weather forecast you can check up on all of today's news of course on our website island radio dot com next headlines at 11 o'clock but for now from the news team have a very good morning the obituary notice is for this wednesday morning january the third the death has occurred of brendan call 210 art bathon st johnston brendan will be reposing at his late residents from five o'clock this evening until 10 o'clock for wake with rosary at nine o'clock punal leaving his late residents to more morning at half past 10 going to some bathon's church st johnston for 11 o'clock recreation mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family time please on the morning of the funeral family flowers only please donations in lea if desired to the friends of letter kelly university hospital care of any family member or kelly's funeral directors the death has taken place of cecilia conway nao brian glen car irish letter kenny and formerly from listillian cecilia's remains will repose at archview lodge nursing home dromany letter kenny today from three o'clock until five o'clock and tomorrow from two o'clock until five o'clock funeral from there on friday morning at quarter past 10 going to the church of the irish martyrs letter kenny for 11 o'clock recreation mass which can be viewed on their youtube channel internment afterwards in kelly donald graveyard family flowers only please donations in lea of flowers if desired to archview lodge nursing home comfort fund care of any family member the death has occurred of shea mist ortee main street newton conningham shea mist will be reposing at his late residence today from four o'clock to 10 o'clock and tomorrow from 11 o'clock to 10 o'clock family time please on the morning of the funeral funeral from his late home on friday morning at 22 12 going to all saint's church newton conningham for 12 o'clock recreation mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery mass can be viewed on newton clay parish family flowers only please donations in lea if desired to the rehab unit saint connell's hospital letter kenny care of any family member or kelly's funeral directors the death has taken place of he doherty 45 clonus road new bliss county monaghan formerly deris clee carry guard county dunagall hughes remains are opposing at his brother peter's residence mass ray kill mcranon until 11 o'clock tonight funeral from there tomorrow morning for recreation mass at 11 o'clock in saint columbus church termin fall by interment in the adjoining cemetery funeral mass can be viewed on church services dot tv the death has occurred of john neilis meeting high street refoe john will be reposing at his late residence today from 12 noon until 10 o'clock for wake with rosary at nine o'clock funeral leaving his late residence tomorrow afternoon at quarter to two going to saint june's church refoe for two o'clock recreation mass fall by interment in the adjoining cemetery family time please on the morning of the funeral the funeral mass can be viewed online via the parish webcam family flowers only please donations in lea if desired to the irish heart foundation care of any family member or kelly's funeral directors the death has taken place of kathleen barne higgarty bali brack mobile kathleen's remains are opposing at her home family time please from 11 o'clock to 11 o'clock and on the morning of the funeral kathleen's funeral mass will take place on friday morning at 11 o'clock in st mary's church bali brack fall by burial in the adjoining graveyard family flowers only donations in leu to the dunigal hospice care of any family member the death has taken place of lily mcdermott margaret naysmith port law muting conning him funeral mass in all saint's church muting conning him this morning at 11 o'clock fall by interment in the adjoining cemetery funeral mass can be viewed on church services dot tv the death has taken place in glasgow of kathleen daugherty name mcdevid formerly octore carry keel remains will repose at her home in octore carry keel this evening from half past six funeral mass to more morning at 11 o'clock in our lady of leu's church carry keel burial afterwards in milford cemetery funeral mass can be viewed on patrick sweeney funeral directors facebook page the the death has taken place of margaret diver 114 church street remelton remains reposing at her home funeral mass to more morning at 11 o'clock in st mary's church remelton burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery funeral mass can be viewed on church services dot tv family time from 10 o'clock tonight and before the funeral tomorrow the death has occurred of william foster church road killie bags removal from his son's residence granny killie bags this morning at half past 10 going to st mary of the visitation church killie bags for 11 o'clock funeral mass with burial afterwards in the local cemetery mass will be streamed live on mcnmedia.tv and the death has taken place of john shawne harbour 14 gorta crumb road glenn morning formerly of 26 dergilt road stroban and syon mills reposing at his home funeral leaving from there this morning at quarter past 10 for recreation mass in the church of the immaculate conception stroban at 11 o'clock interment afterwards in stroban cemetery the recreation mass can be viewed live via the parish webcam for family information and more details regarding wakes and funerals please go to highlandridio.com the steakhouse stack with two beef patties crispy onions and peppercorn sauce it's the kind of mcdonald's you take photos of to put pride of place in the mantelpiece sure you'll need to make room but you remember what your wedding day looked like the steakhouse stack it's mcdonald's and then some available until the sixth the feb serve from 11 a.m subject to availability participating restaurants only and now in rose 2023 best local original news program the voice of the northwest the nine till noon show with greg hughes and you're very welcome back to the second hour of the nine till noon show good morning i hope you're all very well indeed we had a bit of busy first hour and more to come we're going to be talking a little later on about any lifestyle changes we may choose to make in january some believe it's not the best time to do it but for some it is the start of a new year and perhaps even maybe a new you for most people it might actually just be the first steps into sort of getting a little bit healthier it's not always just about how you can run to the gym or run 5k or from the get go right it's about how do you begin and i think often for me the barrier is well you know where do you start and i think i'm pretty normal perhaps below normal but anyway so if you have any questions about you know what you can do maybe in the home or whatever it might be to try and improve your fitness or maybe you want to tone up a little bit get your questions into us now and we'll get them answered for you a little later on 08 660 25,000 is the whatsapp and text number or give us a call at 07 491 25,000 also a little later on chris is in to talk business with us as well that's all coming up in the third hour and we've an interesting and hopefully an informative conversation coming up for you very shortly as well so don't go anywhere it's great to have you all on board what i get to some of your comments though i think speed vans should be outside schools every so often i live outside a country school nobody takes any notice of the school doing up to 80 miles an hour another they should have ramps and speed bombs to slow people down as they don't pay any heat to speed limits i listen ramps are popping up everywhere i don't know we seem to have got the real love of ramps in this county lately but ramps and speed bumps on main roads especially when sort of the speed restrictions are temporary i don't think are necessarily going to work rafael national school there were two speed ramps put in front of the school and a pedestrian crossing and footpath over the past eight weeks this should be done at every school no matter the cost okay how's that going there was a bit of conversation we talked about that actually on the program didn't we before christmas the signs specifically say when the lights are on but the problem was is the lights were off you see they were supposed to be on or they probably should have been on like we all we all can't keep track of when schools open and close you know between christmas east and all summer holidays and what have you but the reason we're talking about this is people were done for speeding when the speed lights were off the speed restriction lights were off and that's if i'm reading your text correctly the speed van saga is a business and a revenue stream nothing to do with safety as they were promised and supposed to be utilized i mean uh some statistics i wonder can i find the post now but i was looking at some statistics over uh the christmas as it was one of those national slow down days um right let me see is it here yeah so uh this was on the 22nd of december in the first 10 hours of national slow down day go safe vehicles the the ones that are temporary on the side of the road they checked the speed of 131,660 vehicles 137 sorry 132,000 vehicles effectively but only 0.2 percent of those vehicles were clocked at speeding which was 290 cars now that still is 30 odd thousand between 30 and 40,000 euro in revenue which is pretty good isn't it but in terms of clocking people that are speeding uh the only identified 0.2 percent of 132,000 cars so like either no one speeds or it is just money making do you know what i mean we know more than 0.2 percent of the population speed but still 290 didn't get the warning or didn't see the signs and they gathered around 30 or 40,000 euro in that 10 hours alone but 0.2 percent of 132,000 vehicles speeding i don't know the numbers don't add up for me uh what dates were the lights on the dairy road not working or call us say she also received a fine well that's one thing we can't actually determine um specifically when because we weren't necessarily notified at the time people didn't realize until they got the the notice through but if anyone out there has the dates um and they did contest them please share with us and then we can share with others you know none of us should be speeding of course but we shouldn't also be fined for speeding when we're not legally speeding on to the issue of uh posting to australia i have sent three different letters to my family on the gold coast which never arrived so i decided i would use moon pig to send my christmas card and guess what they never received it so that's four letters from one household to family on the gold coast none of them arrived what's going on there so it's not a once off i sent a card to my daughter in Perth she never received it was a milestone birthday there was no money in it as it was told not to put any in it there's another my other daughter sent her a parcel from melbourne to Perth and she never received that either people aren't getting their post and on it goes okay let us take a break uh we'll be back with more in the night until noon sure after these messages it's time for vision arland bingo on highland radio it's wednesday the third of january you're playing on the blue sheet the reference number is s3 it's game number one the numbers are 23 78 56 25 84 13 73 43 62 and finally 82 phone your claim tonight one zero four eight double three before eight tonight leaving 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 vision arland bingo information at highland radio dot com january supersavers at homeland willow warm briquettes buy five bales get one free five kg wild bird peanuts buy two for 25 99 save 25 percent of all julux ready mix color emulsion regatta clothing save 20 across all lines shop all offers in store and online at homeland dot e offers available until january 21st the lotto jackpot is an estimated 11.2 million euro play responsibly in store in app or at lottery dot e the national lottery it could be you shared in security now introducing zero wire smart alarm systems zero wire zero mess and a real piece of mind with a simple press of a button your alarm can be set or on set or download the free app and control it from your phone call us today on zero seven four nine one two six zero two five and get your alarm from two hundred and ninety nine euro stay local stay safe and protect what you value most with shared in security systems okay dry january could bring about a lasting change in drinking habits benefiting arlands low and no alcohol drinks industry which which is one of the fastest growing alcohol free markets globally we read non alcohol beer sales in arland have tripled since 2017 with a 25 increase in 2022 alone when it comes to who's planning to moderate their drinking most adults age 18 to 24 said they take part in dry january according to a survey from the non alcohol beer brand lucky star who of course are promoting their brand in that article i read but i think it's slightly more complex than that ethna joins me in studio now good morning to you ethna thank you so much for your time today thank you very much delighted to be here right you are three decades sober at this point aren't you i am indeed yes and what was coming up to three decades now okay yeah but do are you still in a program well how do you describe or define your situation yeah well for me there was no such thing as dry january when i started out you know when i wanted to go alcohol free so my choice at that time i wanted to stop drinking and my choice at that time was to join the fellowship of a so i'm i'm there now coming up on 30 years sober this Easter and what was life like before that if you want to talk about that or as much as you want to talk about it or why did you feel you wanted to make that change or whatever you're comfortable talking about ethna okay well firstly what i'll say is i don't speak for a i don't have the authority to speak to a no one has the authority to speak to the media about a i speak here as an individual and as a member of a and i couldn't speak highly enough of the fellowship it has given me a life which i didn't have previously in that it allowed me to be authentic it allowed me to participate fully in life and i suppose it introduced me to a program that what we call the 12-staff program a program for living before that my drinking it in the early days it could have been described as normal drinking you know i socialized i went out i partied i'd all of those things but as i got into my late 20s and early 30s it became not working for me i don't like to say maybe the word problematic but it became something that i wanted to divest myself of that it wasn't working for me anymore was having a sort of a negative impact on life it wasn't adding anything to it well it was taking away from it and what for me even back then even addiction that word wasn't used there was no white oaks so for me at that time to get help or to get we'll say an insight into what was happening it was very very difficult and i can only tell my story for me i had asked myself the question was it something i could live without was alcohol something i could live without and the answer was no at that particular time and once i could answer that question that was enough to say to me it was something that i had to get out of my life and as we say in but do you think this is sorry yeah maybe people struggle with that realization do you know what i mean that your mind will kind of try and protect you right so if you've an issue with the substance your mind will sort of try and keep you on it necessary so like you were able to answer that question could i live without it no i wonder if lots of people could ask that question and the answer would be yes but in reality it would be no if that makes sense it takes a while to come to the insight and this is why maybe dry january is so good you know it it's a new innovation and i heard the statue we're reading there as you introduced the program that is 18 to 24 year olds who wish to go on dry january so there has been a change of mindset where people are so much now more aware and they're much more aware of mental health as well well you see we have in this country lots of people that that haven't got an issue with drinking okay and and sometimes i think when you start talking about it they go oh you know leave us alone there's very few things we can enjoy in life and that's fine but there is a a serious issue with alcohol and drug abuse in this country one which we can't actually put a figure on but what we can say is that it's a huge contributor to people attending the ed we know we're not really counting the impact it has on suicides on road traffic collisions that information is is is not readily available the impact it's having on domestic abuse situations young people in their 40s and 50s that are that are dying because of of the impact of alcohol misuse so yet you know whilst of course there are people out there that can enjoy a drink and that's fine and and that's great we have to recognize there's an awful lot of people that alcohol has a very negative impact on their lives and is taking their lives as well well firstly what i would say is that alcohol is a wonderful substance you know it's a social facilitator you know when i was drinking like i had great fun like and you know i really enjoyed it and then it took me places you know were a great experiences and that but it it was when it became a dependency where there was an issue around it where i could say honestly to myself i cannot do without the substance it's a daily habit and it's impacting on my freedom i think and that's one of the things we say in a happy joys and free we get freedom whereas before when we were using a substance such as alcohol or and it was only alcohol in my case because i'm talking about back in the day but nowadays sir it can be cross substance addiction yes anyone under 40 we're talking about alcohol and whatever the and is but there is another substance with the alcohol but to you asked me to come to the realization where it was a problem my story is that i was self medicating with alcohol okay and whereas in the early days you know it was great fun and everyone drank and you know we went abroad we went to school and we did all those types of things and it was great like you know but my drinking then after i got married and i had children it moved into the house and i became we'll say what's known as the house drinker and it again it wasn't it wasn't the amount it was the effect and why i was using it and i used it to sleep and that when i realized that i couldn't do without it then it was a problem and then it had to be addressed so so yours was sleep for some it could be how they feel it could be a life situation it could be stress or anxiety but often once the effects of the alcohol is worn off or whatever other substance might be on you everything else is exacerbated so whilst you might get a short reprieve it can often then feel much worse once the alcohol leaves your system so what do you do you you take more alcohol well yours was for sleep so it's not quite the same i'm talking more people that use alcohol for other reasons well as a depressant too and it is being used to mask depression like people are resorting to alcohol and you mentioned suicide and that's where there's a very real problem and a current problem you know where people are using alcohol to mask the depression then when maybe the alcohol or the substance is taken out there's a real problem and people you know unfortunately will take their own lives you know so um in terms of how these programs work yeah right so how do you get because we were talking a little bit earlier on and we'll be talking later on about sort of getting healthy right so yeah often it's the first steps the most difficult or how do you or even knowing the first step so what would you say to someone who's listening to this and goes you know what Christmas was okay but i don't remember a lot of it i had a lot of blowouts or i ended up arguing or uh you know i had the own nose or the horrors or whatever you might describe it or you know i would actually really when i balance it up how i feel um the fun i had you know the impact it had on me negatively it's much greater so i want to train change something so what would you say to someone like that how do you go about changing especially if you feel that you can't do it on your own well the first step is probably the self-reflection you know i've said that several times at that stage and anyone will say who's maybe going for the dry january they are thinking about their health they're thinking about the year ahead they're setting goals maybe there might be work goals there might be goals in the gym or whatever do you know and they reckon that alcohol isn't going to contribute to that so it's the first step is the self-reflection the second step probably is the action doing something about it now when i went into a first i um i wasn't drinking i was alcohol free for three years wow yeah and um what took me into a a um all those years ago was um people that i met along the way who were actually i had started to do actually a counseling course mr bam and the people that were doing that counseling course they were doing other things as well and um those people were there was one woman in particular i got friendly with and she was working the program and i used to meet her a lot for coffee you know and i saw that there were things in my life that i needed to change um one of them was a very negative work situation that i had to change so um it it was really when i came into a it was to deal with the life situations that were challenging me and i when i arrived you know i didn't know if i was in the right place at all or not you know and i said that and like i was very honest and i said i don't know i should be here not you know because i'm not drinking and i haven't had a drinking quite a while but um what i was told was give it a chance you know and um it's quite interesting because you were still welcomed with open arms even though you were three years and on yeah yeah yeah and um you see it's not about the drinking really that the a it's about putting down the drink and then there's a bit living effectively and um i was told to stay for six weeks and see what i thought you know so i stayed the six weeks but what attracted as a program of attraction and that's why you know there's no promotion you know we don't take out ads in the newspapers or to go to ads on radio or any of those things you know and and i will be honest to us with a certain amount of trepidation that i do come on the media you know but it there's no point in hiding either you know one has to get out and so in terms of like is there a difference now do people have these meetings now virtually or in person because obviously with the pandemic yeah in person meetings would have been when they've been scrapped i don't know if they've bounced back to the way they were like it's it's just the the the program need a bit of a reset so that people are aware that you can come in and chat and that maybe is more beneficial what's the situation things have changed since the pandemic and it was one of the aims we'll say you know the health service continued during the pandemic and did wonderful work well one of the things that had an exemption was the AA meetings but they were kept to six people you know anything that were running strangely the the restrictions in northern Ireland weren't as severe so the meetings kept running in northern Ireland but here in in in Ireland they were restricted to six meetings but a lot of people stopped going simply because they didn't they were afraid of bringing the the the virus or the COVID into the home so a lot of people stopped going and then a lot of people started using meetings online which was great you know so it opened up AA in the sense you could join a meeting a US meeting or you could join a UK meeting or whatever and it it opened you up to to new experiences and new people but one of the downsides of that is that people stop going in person and it is taking a while to build up momentum again and strangely some meetings um have bounced back better than others and it's nearly a sign of the economy and times we'll say everything has become an urbanised and the I go to meetings in Dublin quite a bit and the meetings in Dublin have recovered very much like they're they're actually very very busy but it took a while now um the country meetings the and we'll say the west of Ireland have suffered more than the more urban areas right and and just as it relates to the benefits of the the 12-step program there are 12 steps clearly which we can't go go through now because of time yeah yeah it's it's it's well established program that works for people and what's the most important step I wanted to pick one out but you know it may be the most important step is the fact that there's 12 of them if you know what I mean so that too yeah it takes it's a journey you're taking on is that it's a journey yeah it's a lifelong journey and just to give a little bit of context to it that this started in 1935 in in Akron, Ohio in the US and they there were these hopeless cases who drank themselves to death and no no one doctors psychiatrists prisons nobody could deal with them like they just drank themselves to death and where it started really was with it for the called the Oxford group it was a Christian will say group in Akron, Ohio and people that got a certain amount of spirituality they were starting to get sober they could leave the the alcohol down for short periods of time and it was Carl Jung recommended that this guy oh he was I have to think back in his name but that he would attend this group in Akron, Ohio which he did and it was he then this guy who contacted Bill Wilson in New York and Bill Wilson got sober Bill Wilson was a stockbroker so these people they were very educated with say people that professional people who for whom will say money was no object in getting sober but they couldn't get sober they were going to drink and Bill Wilson was in many many psychiatric units but it couldn't cure him so Bill Wilson got sober and then he got what's called Dr Bob Bob Smith sober and the two of them are accredited was starting AA it was Bill Wilson who wrote the 12 Steps in 1937 so there's a foundation of AA the 12 Steps and the 12 Steps really are what keep us sober um a day at a time it's only a daily program and the first step really is putting down the drink and the first three are getting a god into your life of your understanding and that can be any god you know it it's it's not a religious program but it's a spiritual program and then the last three steps really are living the program in a spiritual way so everything we do is you know in we see the prayer and meditation and I talk about prayer can people can people replace mindfulness uh absolutely because I mean so it is someone who maybe doesn't have a belief system or yeah because I just looked it up last night actually to what the definition of prayer is and prayer is just opening your heart and mind to God you know it's not sitting with a whole litany of prayers I've never done that so uh just the last couple of months minutes that we have then where do you start like so I say I wanted to go to an AA meeting like well do I find out where do I go do I just walk in do I have to call someone in advance will I walk in and everyone look at me and uh go if you've got the right room or you know what I mean like so so what if someone's listen go where I would like that so yeah it's simplest way possible how can you get involved in it then well um probably the best way is if you know someone who is um already a member to approach that person and they would gladly take you and um the other way is just to go online and to google it and all the meetings are there's a directory an online directory and one can attend any meeting there are meetings here in letter kenny um every day and every night there's a lunchtime meeting and there there are nightly meetings and I remember actually the stern order group we meet um Monday um Monday and Friday date 30 and there's a very good Sunday morning meeting at 12 noon so you just turn up you know and um you'll be very welcomed you get a cup of coffee and you know and you've made very welcome okay listen it's been lovely speaking to you yes thank you I appreciate your time I appreciate you giving us some understanding and we'll just listen if two or three people that uh uh it relates to decide to sort of say right I might try this well then it's been more than worthwhile uh but it's been worthwhile in any case speaking to you and getting a better understanding and thank you so much for calling in thank you for your time it's our pleasure we'll be back with more shortly watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com Loganair's big summer sale is here save up to 15 percent off on over one million seats across the uk booked by 9th january travel from 1st february subject to availability exclusion supply visit logonair dot co dot uk logonair your journey our joy as a woman you know your body better than anyone but when you're looking for answers irish life health gives you access to gps who are specialists in female health to guide you in areas like menstrual health contraception fertility and menopause our female health benefit is available on all hospital plans like our first cover plan from just 41 euro 92 cent per month join today search irish life female health terms and conditions apply irish life health deck is regulated by the central bank of ireland hi paddy here at shane connelly cars in dunagall town are you looking to upgrade your car well shane connelly cars you'll find mixing models for every budget great finance options and they also accept radiance check out shane connelly cars dot com or call on to us at shane connelly cars from london her road dunagall town guess what it's now simpler than ever to look after your health with the new gut shot from mns food and the scientists at zewey combining delicious taste with scientific research is a great way to give your gut a good dose of fiber and a source of calcium which supports the normal functioning of your tongue and it contains over five billion live cultures from 14 different strains of bacteria this is not just a gut shot this is our ultimate gut shot from mns food and zewey now you're very welcome back to the program we're joined on it now by jillian mcnulty health campaigner with cystic fibrosis good morning to jillian thank you so much for your time good morning how are you i'm doing good how are you keeping i'm good thanks that's good um right okay we're talking about um hospital food really you've been in and out of hospital uh many hospitals i'd imagine or at least a few uh for years at this point jillian i have yeah um in the last three years i've been in in the last two years i've been in three different hospitals um and the food was basically the same in everyone and uh you don't rate it terribly highly do you no i don't um the food is never hot it's tasteless there's absolutely zero effort um and a lot of the time it's actually inedible and that's just not acceptable when patients are in hospital recovering from surgery or recovering from illness like i have cystic fibrosis and nutrition is a huge part of cystic fibrosis and you just don't get the nutrition that you need when you're in hospital what kind of food have you been uh given oh gosh everything ratters and scrambled eggs i remember one um evening for tea i got ratters and scrambled eggs and the grease was literally pools at the bottom of the plate it was disgusting and you get like steak and beef pie uh or steak and mushroom pie and stuff like this it doesn't even resemble a pie a volavon doesn't even look like a volavon like it's it's crazy it's crazy lumpy spuds lumpy spuds cold spuds overcooked veg or undercooked veg so you could get peas that are burnt almost that they're shriveled up or parrots and broccoli say would come basically raw you actually can't eat them uh your last hospital stay was just before christmas uh what was the food like it wasn't great to be honest i i asked for the soft food diet because i had spinal surgery in september and i couldn't eat because the incision was in my throat and so i was put on um soft food that was fabulous really hot uh the potatoes were mashed properly the veg was mashed like really good so i actually requested that this time because i could not cope with getting cold food that i knew i was going to waste um and on the saturday just before christmas eve i had ordered a boiled egg and toast for my breakfast and that came and they were cold and the tea was barely warm so i was like that's it i'm out i can't do this over christmas so i signed myself out and uh i mean you since you've uh there's an article actually uh in the Irish Independent uh that was published and i'm sure maybe you've made your views known on social media what's the feedback been like i mean you will get some people that will come to the defense of a certain hospital where it is might be in the country i mean you can only speak of your experience in three hospitals but what's the the feedback if any that you've been receiving from around the country so far general the general feedback people agree um a lot of people agree that the food is crap um i've had people text me going oh my god like thank you for highlighting this because it is atrocious um i know someone that's been in hospital for two years and they've literally it's only had to rely on family to bring in food or take away yeah and that is an acceptable yeah and and there's two things going in here obviously is that the quality of it like lumpy spuds cold chicken or beef or whatever but if you quite rightly pointed out as well there's a nutritional element of it which you know can be quite serious for people it all serious but you know what i mean if you've specific dietary requirements there's an extra level added on here yeah yeah and i mean it's people in hospitals that are sake of recovery from surgery we're not asking for five star foods you just want something basic that you can eat that is of nutritional value you know what i mean instead of sending back an empty a full tray with dinner that you haven't eaten so therefore you go without a meal or you buy in a takeaway now i don't buy takeaways anymore because i'm post kidney transplant and i wouldn't take the risk of food poisoning or whatever but literally i could i could be starving in hospital you know and this thing of the bring around the breakfast at half seven eight o'clock your lunch is at half 12 and your tea is at half four that's it you get nothing else until half seven eight o'clock the following morning it's absolutely insane do you think we're less likely to complain because you know we're aware that hospital staff are under pressure um that maybe we're just delighted if they get us better and get us out of the building and and and you know the the the memory of of the the bad food tends to fade away do you think like maybe it is more people's experience but they're less likely to complain in that setting i don't know i think the Irish people in general don't complain that i was like oh yeah it was fine it was fine but when you're in hospital regularly like i am and other CF patients and cancer patients whatever the case is um when people are in regularly you need to complain you have to say something because i've been in hospital for three four months at a time sometimes you know one particular admission in 2020 i was in for nearly four months and that was during covid so everywhere was closed i wasn't allowed to leave my room and i was handed this horrible food day after day after day and it breaks you because all you want because you're hungry obviously you're recovering from a really bad infection and you're brought dinner that you can't eat like it just breaks you the amount of times i've ended up in tears and it seems really insignificant to somebody that's healthy from the outside thing oh well what is she complaining about you know it's great the services are great participants by roles and for everything like that but we need proper nutrition as well um and of course we you do and i think the timings of the meals he mentioned there is really quite significant as well because if if you skip one of those or if you feel can't eat it's a long old day and you are in recovery mode hopefully you know um so i think the timings of the meals is really quite an interesting point you made there as well yeah like that's now in my hospital i know another hospital very close to me back in the evening the patients would get a sand wager and something like that yogurt or whatever there's not that option in the hospital that i attend in Dublin now i'm sure it's different in every other hospital but i mean to be left without food for over 12 hours is it's it's not right i mean there's a lot of patients that can't stand up for themselves or feel like well i can't say anything because um and that's not that's not fair that's not fair to do that to a patient okay jillian that's your experience and thank you so much for sharing it with us take care of yourself thank you for your time jillian mcnaughty health companion with cystic fibrosis my my experience is is a little bit different uh in our local hospital and uh the catering staff fantastic and also um almost not catering for demands but you know putting an extra care in so as i say that's my my experience that our local hospital here later kenny university hospital it wasn't quite uh the situation jillian described but again that was her experience and i can only talk of of uh ours okay this caller says i've been in hospital a few times and i disagree with jillian the service i got was unbelievable maybe she's used to five-star hotels but i cannot say a bad word about the food and this year i've been in letter kenny doblin and wardford hospitals but as i say jillian is a uh cystic fibrosis patient who spends and has spent quite a long time in hospital and has particular dietary requirements as as well and that's as i say is her experience i agree uh with jillian is the nutritional value of the food that concerns me is there any dietitian consulted before any of it is served um i was in hospital yet this is uh on on different issues now i was in hospital yesterday visiting my daughter after the arrival of my group new grandchild i was so shocked to see the amount of people standing around coughing not covering their mouths or coughing into their elbow no wonder there's so many doses about it's terrible to see so many people with all these doses all of the hospital staff were wearing masks and only one or two visitors were well the the the hospital has asked everyone who's visiting the hospital to wear a mask in the fall so asked everyone who's visiting the hospital not to do so if they have any respiratory uh illness because what's all right for us in the community uh and not universally but for the most part it can be deadly of course to someone who's already uh ill or vulnerable so i wonder is it a case that people aren't heeding uh that advice they're asking people to wear masks in the hospital because of the amount of virus v covid and flu going around but also not to visit if they have respiratory concerns but according to this one person's experience that is not being heeded there best wishes for the new year and to you i was interested to hear your last guests insights on alcohol and dry january but i just don't concur with the suggestion of any god there is one true god our father in heaven the creator and lord of all so beware the many false gods enticing people in the world today and that is your view but there are many hundreds of gods and there are people in different countries who believe that their god also is the one true god and their father in heaven um that's just the the reality of it and you can't exclude people from um you can't exclude people from um trying to get off alcohol because they might happen to believe in a different god that wouldn't be very christian either would it it's a complex one all right what do you think oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand back with more after these the lotto jack budd has an estimated 11.2 million euros play responsibly in store in apre at lottery dot e the national lottery it could be you know january 2024 the contributory state pension will become more flexible but what does that mean for me and me it means you can still claim your pension when you're 66 years of age or you can wait and claim it at any point between the age of 67 and 70 you could receive a higher rate of pension as a result to find out what option is best for you visit gov dot ie forward slash flexible pension a government of ireland initiative brought to you by the department of social protection highland radio weather updates brought to you by grant building a new home choose grants a triple plus rated air owner air to water heat pump and you flex underfloor heating visit grant dot ie sonny spells and scattered showers today some hail and thunder possible highest temperatures of 68 degrees and the light to moderate westerly wind now the government's being called on to hold a referendum to protect patents and intellectual copyright 17 of the 27 EU member states were already signed up to the uh let me have a look at this with my uh unitary patent court my apologies but arland is not the court provides legal protection to those who invent products or create matter that is governed by intellectual copyright finafore senator malcolm burn says if we signed up arland could become more attractive to outside innovators it's an interesting one the senator joins us now good morning to you malcolm thank you for your time good morning Greg i'm helping here to you and to your listeners and same to you the line is brutal i'll ask you another question just and hope that improves um right okay so why do you think it's important that the government holds a referendum on this uh issue and why is a referendum required sorry malcolm can i just can i disconnect the line and and reconnect with you if you don't mind there's a noise on it thank you senator i'll be back with you uh momentarily um in 2024 i'd like to see zero tolerance against all abusers including child abuse false allegations parental alienation no matter the gender and storm stop working for all the people of uh the north and the rest of arland what's your new years wish show eight six sixty twenty five thousand relights outside the school in manner a caller say should be curious what date they were not working as a daughter also received a fine however there should be some responsibility taken by parents who also don't look out properly when they are collecting their children and often drive out in front of traffic it's a wonder no one has been hurt uh so far yeah i get what you're saying but listen it's collective responsibility isn't it right senator barron sorry about that just wanted to make sure our listeners and myself heard you clearly so i'll just ask you why you believe and why does there need to be a referendum on us joining the unitary patent court no problem greg so if if we invent or create something in order to protect our intellectual property in that the standard way we go about it is that we look to get a patent to protect us and we assert that patent in different jurisdictions so it's a little bit complex within the european union at present because there are slightly different rules depending on member states and the idea behind a unified patent court system is that if you invent something in arland that that patents can be protected not just in arland but in france and germany right throughout the european union but there are similar rules that will will apply and similar enforcement mechanisms so this court has been set up to do that it's particularly important for anyone who's an inventor so we see a lot of inventions in arland in technology in pharmaceuticals and arlands have in principle signed up to join the unified patent court system but we're not fully there yet because it has to be ratified 17 of the 27 EU member states have gone out and do it but they can do it because of legislation but in the case of arland because it involves the transfer of a small amount of sovereignty to a new european court system we have to change our constitution and as your listeners will know in order to change the Irish constitution we have to have a referendum so this isn't i appreciate it's not it's not the biggest news story but for enterprise and for inventors in arland this is crucial and so for me it would make sense there's already talk about that we're going to have a referendum on the role of women and society in march and we've locally in european elections taking place in june so for me it would make sense to hold this vote at the same time as either the march referenda or the local and european election as it stands welcome um does this require uh for it to become effectual ratification in all member states or currently if you get a patent in one of the 17 that have already signed up to it then your patent it covers those countries if you know what we know does everybody have to sign up for it to become effect effective well the the the 17 that are fully signed up the system is already in place uh so if you're in one of those 17 member states which for instance would include france or belgium you can use the system uh that's in place at present uh there is a you know there is a mechanism whereby you can look to get a european patent uh and have it enforced and apply it across the european union but it was a quite complex system so the idea behind this was to make it as easy as possible that if you're an inventor or creator so if you're done a goal and you come up with a great new idea but you obviously want to protect that idea right across the european union rather than you having to go through the courts of all the different member states or through a more cumbersome european process that there would be a very simple process that would allow it to be recognized right through and just finally in brief you mentioned the s word their sovereignty uh and given that it's not necessarily for most the most pressing issue is it a bit of a messy one that the government might not want to sort of get involved in at the moment well i mean the government says we're in principle we're signed up to this um it's and i i do appreciate and i i totally guess you know it's probably not in the list of you know 100 most important things that we need to address but for those who are inventors and creators this is something that that is quite important and you might go somewhere else and do it somewhere else where it's simpler exactly so part of this is around trying to encourage and support the creation of new ideas in ireland and the development of intellectual property here it's a good idea and that's why i'm saying not that we'd have a separate referendum on the issue but if voters if we're going to be going to the polls in march and in june let's let's just put that piece of paper before the voters at that stage as well right yo senator thank you very much for your time i appreciated that senator malcolm burr news on the way we have recycling all wrapped up this festive season use your local bring banks for all those empty glass bottles jars food and drink cans please remember not to leave any waste materials at the banks to find your nearest spring bank visit dunigalco.ie recycle more with dunigal county council actions speak louder than words so i'll keep the words to a minimum last year thousands of people chose seat for their new car why because with the orona at teca and toraco we have a stunning lineup of suvs and we offer a wide range of purchase options to suit your needs to see what you've been missing out on visit sead.ie and check out our 241 offers visit sead.ie what are you waiting for go on sead.ie for our 241 offers it's the right price tiles and wood flooring half price sale get up to 50 of all tiles wood flooring bathware cladding everything's reduced tiles from only 8.99 per square yard and wood flooring from only 11.99 per square yard right price tiles and wood flooring half price january sale is now on the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio okay if a hunter of if a mcgill personal training is going to be joining me in studio to talk about perhaps taking the first steps to getting fit any questions for e for 08 660 25 000 but at 11 o'clock let's get a news update with mcayla good morning mcayla thanks great good morning an elderly man in the kill mcrennan area has been left frightened and traumatized after a vandalism incident outside his home on monday night paving stones were pulled up at his front door pots and plants were thrown around outside his home and his back gate was damaged the holster unionist party says bad decisions made by politicians over the next few weeks and months could see things in northern arland crumble to a new low storm and would return if the dup ended its boycott of the northern arland institutions over concerns around brexit trading arrangements gardi have confirmed that investigations are continuing into an alleged sexual assault in west denigol on christmas eve a woman is believed to have been assaulted at around 2 a.m on december the 24th in the bon bague area ccdv footage has been reviewed by investigators a denigol counter is advising people to challenge speeding find safe receive for allegedly speeding outside maharabeg national school close to manor cunning him on the end 13 letter kenny dairy road counter paul canning says there are issues with the location of a ghost safe speed van close to the school and also with the flashing lights near the school warning of reduced speed limits not working at certain times changes to a scheme that will allow more people to buy their console highs have been described as problematic from january the 29th the eligibility criteria is being reformed to make it easier for tenants in local authority homes to buy the property there's calls for tech grants to help older people live more independently midlands northwest mep column market says government schemes to help older people live in their homes for longer are outdated and need to be revised he believes funding for the seniors alert scheme should be amended to include assistive technology and a public meeting is being held next week to discuss ongoing works at port sallum pier works began at the pier in july however there was much concern as it was understood the project needed to be completed by october the 31st to ensure funding from the brexit adjustment fund could be drawn down it's since been confirmed that funding will be made available to complete the works those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon thank you very much mikaela tracy twain tried a twister on the train and the twister was so tasty tracy went to kfc again to try another twister rap and tracy's got the right idea because the kfc lunches kind of a big deal get the twister rap of the day just 290 that's right just 290 elmi at kfc weekdays elmi from january 2nd to february 4th not available online okay you're very welcome back to the 9th lune show we didn't even get a chance to say hello properly but we can do so on our ifa hunter of ifa magill personal training how are you getting on ifa good great how are you good what's your views about us trying to make life changes at the start of the year is it a good thing to do bad thing to do or is it just depends on the individual no do you know what i do think it's a good time of year to reset i like january and september to reset i think everybody's a bit fed up now the sweet treats and the heavy means over the month of december really christmas parties and things start maybe even towards end of november so it's a good time to to reset and start to create some healthy habits again and i suppose what's the best way of doing this then is it to have a plan is it to set goals is it to and i'm not necessarily talking about weight goals i'm on about sort of activity goals yeah in general i think across the board it's a good time of year to set goals with your nutrition and your exercise habits um in relation to both i sort of always like um i think i mentioned a few times before about sort of the healthy habits to create that you can sort of adapt into your into your daily routine and maintain them like consistency is the key um five real habits i suppose uh my work and things always relate to them as five golden guidelines so one is as simple as just open your water and take daily talk to me about the water intake how important is that the what's it usually like who usually keeps your high body hydrated for a start but like the the recommended daily allowance for well men and women is roughly about eight glasses a day but really how many of us do that over seven days of the week and for good health alone it is massively important um and a lot of the time when people feel hungry they they're dehydrated so i would focus on the the water intake have you drunk any water yet i have i have my glasses this morning two glasses i've got on me and a herbal tea your tea's in kind you promised last year you would up your water i know that but i promised lots of people lots of things i do want to i i i do be good at it but then i i'll be uh forgetful right so like i went to get uh my back i had issues with my back and um i had to keep reapplying the uh oil or whatever it is because my skin was so i was so dehydrated my skin was literally drinking this stuff you know what i mean that's what really brought home to me you know the relationship between your body and hydration or dehydration right so you have a green tea too well done that's a point for you i've had two cups of coffee that's a zero uh zero for me so you're talking about eight okay yeah like that'll be a rough a rough gay somebody more active would need more of course but really your your average person will be eight i'm sitting here my lips are so dry right somebody hydrated i'm trying to moisten them because in case it's so bloody obvious keep a bottle of this idea okay i i i really am definitely gonna try and work on that um i have been trying to improve certain things so that's definitely gonna be one of them okay so that's a a key thing that's a simple thing we can all do that it's a bit of moally through it okay i would you could go the sugar-free versions of you know if you're diluted using a snow helmet or something else do that last you're sparkling water with whichever way you get it in okay right but then the second like the water's one another one at your at your meals i would just try and get a bit of color on your plate you know just for your nutrient value and everything um third simply move more you know as far as exercise goes back to nutrition sorry protein i always like to emphasize what is protein so i would always recommend try and get a bit of protein at most meals yes because it does a variety of things for the body but your sources would be it doesn't have to be your meat to fish your eggs which are great sources but the likes of greek yoghurt and things remarkably this year probably until last year as well a lot of our local supermarkets have really really jumped on a bandwagon with the with the protein and they have loads of um like handy pouches you can take if you're on the wrong and they're okay yeah yeah okay then is that is that to do with energy is it yeah is that like slow release well do you know what it's a thermic effect that on your body on on the breakdown of protein so your body in simple terms just uses more calories to break down the protein so and can aid body fat loss right it's your body breaks down fats and carbohydrates a lot quicker has to work harder to break down your protein sources but the main thing really keeps you fuller for longer which is hugely important and it helps retain your muscle mass so it really is like the holy grail of your macronutrients okay so that's important i wouldn't go low fat at low carbohydrate but emphasize your your protein so that's another just little thing you can do so we're already three things right three things you talked about moving more since the last time i spoke to you they sort of downgraded the amount of daily steps you need to get the benefits of it from ten to two thousand yeah i was never a big one on the ten thousand steps anyway for like i find it sometimes if somebody wasn't getting if you somebody said entry and they weren't getting their ten thousand steps today they're automatically deflated and they feel not as good as somebody else who's on their feet all day and getting those things and it might seem like a non achievable target unachievable that's it and that's exactly the word back to being not sustainable or my watch tells me how many steps i do a day right so do they count against activity yeah so you don't have to literally like i mean obviously we're going to talk about maybe getting out for a walk or what have you but you're when you talk about sedentary versus active you know if you're walking around or busy or in and out and this that all counts does it yeah you're basically on your feet all right use the stairs park in the fire this is the way car park of the supermarket you know anything to get a bit of activity and treat your day and it all adds up even if it's in small little bits it adds up throughout the course you know it just saves you from season up you know it's in simple terms all right okay so that's that those that we can do that that's three or four we can definitely do what else they're all simple really really simple so what did i forget well we've we've done we've done walking water uh greens your greens and your calorie deficit is one that i always recommend because myself yourself and ten other people clean up but you want to be in a maintainable calorie deficit january is a typical term where somebody will go for 1200 calories a day because they heard somebody said that was a good thing to do i wouldn't touch it why you'll be hungry you know it's just and moody and everything else it comes with that lethargic you want for example like for a woman your rda for um calories is 2000 calories a day men's men is 2500 so if you're just reduced that even by say 200 a day over seven days you'll have your calorie deficit and not field of pride and that means that your body is burning more than you're taking in exactly like we all have this thing called gain weight with the calorie deficit no you're looking to lose yeah exactly body fat i kind of like the term to lose body fat more so than weight because again back to the weighing scale and if you're getting muscle massed at all ways and whatnot so i would aim for losing body fat and not so much worry about body weight maybe it's how your clothes go over the clothes exactly get a tape measure check around your midsection i don't think we're gonna look at ourselves in the mirror anyway because sometimes we see what's not there do you know what i mean so yeah and the scales i mean my weight i i kind of like you know you'd go up in the scales but depending on the time of the day your weight can vary by four or five pounds i mean you up your water and i have people genuinely who will not get on the scale when they come in they go door to their onto the bathroom first i mean it is so menstrual cycle everything has got like an effect on the scale how much food is in the gut you know throughout the day you could you could be two pounds lighter in the morning than you are in the evening it's not a true reflection of your body fat loss water or hydration does tea count as hydration yeah well tea is a geriatric you know so liquids get your liquids in but you don't want to get dehydrated so i would have your tea herbal teas of a tente for for a few reasons is because yeah but herbal tea is disgusting you don't dunk a biscuit in it no but i mean like your cup of tea is lovely herbal tea is mild i have your tea i have your coffees i would cut nothing out but maybe lesser now your teas that's okay as long as there's not three you don't want to be saying i'm fine i've had ten cups of tea today exactly do you know what i mean especially if you spoon of sugar in it or something or whatever so does tea count against hydration yes should you get all your hydration from tea no possibly no yeah there you go so try and maybe cut one cup of tea out firstly and have a glass of water instead there you go okay uh right we're getting there right so then the thing is where do we start like where do you start because that's i know what i want to do right and i'm like this is not all really me talked about maybe some of it is but i know where i want to be and it might not even be incredibly ambitious but i just can't take that literally the first step now for some it might be sit standing up and sitting down in the chair a bit more i would put across the board so you start tomorrow slowly gradually over the next six eight twelve weeks to add an extra wee element in but as far as nutrition goes go and do a food shop plan the meals for the week so that you're not rushing to the to the bread shop and picking up the convenience bits and pieces on on the way exercise wise then it depends where you're starting if you're completely sedentary and i've done nothing in years and years then start off with a simple walk a few ailments and things a walk in the pool it'll help swim is fantastic but you could be that person that has maybe some balance issues and it could be simply because you're not walking enough the muscles not reacting as it shows because a lot of that stuff is involuntary isn't it yeah and things like um like arthritis and osteoporosis that people are terrified of exercise but you couldn't do better and one thing that i couldn't recommend enough for those people is strength training and people women in particularly are terrified of it and women in particularly should really really strength train not working out like a bodybuilder but you can strength train with light um you can do with your own body weight at home you can go to a trainer with light dumbbells kettlebells you can even use resistance bands but the strength training again paired with your protein can do wonders for for a body at the table person can't walk what can they do to exercise waving their arms around is boring as hell and you can get that but you know that person might benefit from a greater upper body strength so strength training exactly so we're talking about it could be two bean cans or yeah i would even go to the but maybe an assessment with with the trainer maybe initially um like done and gals got a broad range of facilities um even close to here we've got like no barriers and then we've got like our own facilities at the nation or county where there's loads but for that person to save within a chair i'm assuming it's from the lower body doing maybe that's the impression i'm getting no no that's what this interview indicated but definitely upper body strength training dumbbells kettlebells resistance bands loads you know yeah okay um what about eggs just wondering is too many eggs bad for you i i get it bad for your partner but anyway go ahead and moderation i would go there go the eggs as well but eggs is a great source in the morning to kick start your protein for the day but i appreciate to not everybody's got the time so you i would maybe alternate yours that your eggs and bacon one morning to your porridge or you can boil the eggs the night before well it's right you know you know i didn't but i can whip scrambled egg in no time at all um so eggs they're good for you but i mean you don't have an egg some morning do you know another thing there you get um and your supermarket's now you like egg white so it's got the lesser calorie that's my rank isn't it so you can rank the breakfast you know if you're conscious too many eggs you could balance it out let's say an egg to two egg whites or something like that it's the most versatile food eggs you can have them in so many different ways and they taste different almost whichever way you you go to cook them so say for instance right um i don't want chips with my things they'll say i'm having chicken or whatever it might be so i don't want what's a good substitute for that he's rice good for you yeah you're right and i like back to the i could eat rice all the time yeah and you know i assume if you're eating out it was everything you're not your house could usually suppose in the deep fried fire but from home like the air fryer's got so popular you know so the chips you really are cutting up your fresh potato that's fine you know you can spray it with a bit of but the your oils or your fry light sprays and things like that you know it doesn't people don't restrict yourself if you if you like your chips have them this is not good advice you're giving me here totally if you don't restrict myself no no because it's not sustainable then long term lesser what you like that's why i'm not a lover of food plans you know if people come through the door i would say tell me what you like i've got nothing off you maybe cut back and i have suggestions of other but this kind of comes back doesn't it to the calorie deficit exactly really if you you can eat you can eat the food that you like it's the amount the quantity and the regularity with which you're eating isn't it because if you are consuming less calories than you would ordinarily burn in a day you're never going to gain weight and hopefully if you start to cut back as you say you know over a period of time you you will burn fat because and that is actually it's like a car use in petrol it just is a fact isn't it you might get this issue where you get your maintenance weight and you're and you're happy and then you can maintain your your a certain calorie content or deficit but the one thing i'd really really own in and on and and such as the calorie deficit is over seven days it's absolutely pointless to be really perfect with it Monday to Thursday and forget about a Friday Saturday Sunday because come towards it the seven days 48 a month there may have been no deficit at all yeah i get you all right now we as you mentioned we've got many many professionals around including yourself but even McGill personal training and and all across the county and they're really quite accessible in different places as well they're there for a reason they're professionals they will give you advice they'll give you some some guidance wouldn't you you know and we we go to professionals in many areas of our life you know say for instance if you want to stop smoking you you do the hsc system you're far more likely to succeed support network i think exactly so in terms of our health why wouldn't we sort of at least in the first instance go in and get some support and some help maybe take a membership depends on the individual so we should we should try and find the money or the time to do that i think you would endorse that wouldn't you yeah you know and as i said not everybody needs the likes of um our services but if you feel like you're stuck and you've tried everything and you want that bit of advice and help then surely calling us as you say across the county there's loads of professionals willing to help that you might not need long term you know sometimes you just need the knowledge to get going and you can keep at it yourself and maybe a public leisure centre at home you know but it's just say in relations of strength training and things that's learning the correct techniques um not so much download and apps off phones and you know it's not necessarily um getting it correct so you don't want to end up with injury and well that's it but but you can also help prevent entry with exercise and don't can't you because you know if you suffer with back problems uh you know support your core strengthening will help in that regard you know if you if you suffer with you know tension in your back and neck stretching exercising stretching we don't do enough of stretching as a nation we don't stretch we don't do any stretching for well between me and you i think one of us does right but and other things you also mentioned you know asper process and support the bones and what have you stronger muscles do you know what i mean so it's not when we talk about exercising and being fit the instant from first maybe someone in this like so you're thinking about body shape and weight exactly but the benefits far go beyond that don't they and the mental health if we haven't even touched on this is a thing like there is an element sort of modern day which is a bit sad to be honest that things have gone a bit aesthetic but it's not what it is all about but health and fitness is somebody who struggles somebody who's our osteoporotus or arthritis or whatever it is diabetes there's loads and loads of those benefits for us all um health benefits mental health as you say sure i always say and i know it's maybe such a cliche but if you could genuinely bottle the effects of exercise you'd have a miracle cure for a lot of things listen so many people say it and it's not just people who help people it's those that have started to exercise themselves and feel better about it um it's not surprising i suppose this time of year that the tv shows are coming out you know i don't know what the called again don't watch them uh i hope they don't still weigh people on those shows show do you know they do a lot of them to do it's kind of counterintuitive to the message people like yourself to try to get out there to boil it down to i do have a hang of it yourself on telly and getting up on wainscales and stuff yeah yeah i do i as you know like i do you always have a bit of issue what's that because because it is just it's a it's a tool surely there's no denying that but we do call it the sad step i mean it's not a true reflection of your hard work month long um you know there's so many factors that influence the weighing scale and i would genuinely take progress pictures of yourself nobody else needs to see them but say it four weeks eight weeks and twelve weeks and you'll see your shape changing it's all about the body fat loss you know not the weight you gain muscle that weighs on a weighing scale and and i would just drive you crazy believe me because it's the disappointment people have then you know so say oh again two pounds this week yeah go and have a poo i don't want to be i don't want no i don't mean it i don't i know it really sounds like a thing i was saying was true i don't mean but that is when you are looking at the scales it comes down to stuff like that you know so many so many factors yeah okay but anyway um so if uh it is a good time now i think this is a new year yes we all want to be strolling up the beach but if people want sort of have a chat with you and it's and i think people from from speaking to you will realize it's a realistic chat now i've spoken to some we as i said before you know there's a brilliant community of personal trainers out there and and they really want people through the door to make positive changes and impacts in their lives and that's one of the key motivators for someone like there's no better feeling you know when you feel like you've helped somebody along along the way um and as a broad range of people so it's not just your as you say this time of year there seems to be a thing where people assume it's your athlete who's looking to go and run an adventure race by Easter it's not it's looking for somebody who's or to help somebody who has just doesn't do not know where to start they're absolutely blind to it terrified of it come and let us help you and we're there for anybody who needs it okay listen and if you listen to us today and it has kick started you remember us and come back to us in a month or two or three months or four months and tell us how you're feeling now if it's always a pleasure having you in thank you very much if a hunter if Eva McGill personal training you can check if right on facebook if you McGill personal training uh and as i say we've got loads of friends working in this industry as well who will be more than happy uh to help quickly before i let you go what's the best thing to eat for putting weight on in a healthy way not crisps because there are people too actually looking to to increase their weight yeah like that like we touch on calorie deficit for body fat loss body fat gain uh now you could talk to professional as well but it's like up in the calories up in the protein like say for example your protein recommendation for your say your average um moderately active man or woman is about a gram of protein per kg of body weight now for more active would be pushing closer to two grams or whatnot so that person could pop i'm assuming now they're they're health's well and everything and they would need to get their go ahead from the gp but they're up their protein up their calories and that'll come down to their bmr and bmi but like that if they need help um we're always there to get some more details is bmi important yeah bmr more you see bmi you have to measure your tank you know what i mean it can look good on paper but you really have to put your tank in there as well if you're a fella don't you all right a for thanks for your time we'll be back with more after the break the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio why leave all the magic moments or great scenes you've captured on your phone sitting there or in the cloud when you can have them printed at big east chemist using the mcgee's app or one of the in-store kiosks you can upload your photos from your phone google photos facebook or instagram and have them printed instantly within an hour or in by 10 and ready by five see mcgee's dot i e for more details hold your memories in your hand with mcgee's chemist letter kenny get ready for easy living furniture's biggest ever winter sale absolutely everything reduced across sofa dining bedroom mattress and accessories it's the furniture you want at amazing winter sale prices winter sale now on at easy living furniture present link retail park wishing all our wonderful customers a happy and healthy new year highland radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letter kenny to doblin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time ask okay the time is 11 24 you're very welcome back to the program we're talking to jillian about hospital food um that lady must never have been in letter kenny hospital best food in ireland uh i think that's good too uh i agree i said that myself uh the food in letter kenny's excellent in my opinion says another caller being in and out of letter kenny hospital several times and the food is very good um yeah indeed that's the experience locally um so in fact if nothing else has come out of that uh interview uh lots of people have been able to praise the catering staff at letter kenny university hospital in terms of hospital food nutrition the key is in resourcing the right ingredients uh or sourcing them local organic produce free of chemicals and gmo's of course this will be a bit more expensive however what could aid a patient more in their recovery another hospital food was always excellent family and friends would agree that it was always good i don't know what kitchen she was going to she's condemning everything about hospital food which i think is totally wrong but listen it's her experience uh she's a cystic fibrosis patient in and out of three uh doblin based hospitals um and that was her experience and as i say it's given us an opportunity to praise the staff at letter kenny university hospital which people are doing in their dozens which is good isn't it okay um right what time is it it is time for business matters business matters in association with atlantic technological university donnie gall study for a doctorate of business administration and obtain the highest level management qualification available visit atu.ie forward slash dba and you're very welcome back to the program after that 15 second break uh it was just to welcome our friend chris ashmore good morning chris happy new year to you and to you any new year's resolutions no good because you're perfect how well could you change do i didn't give it much thought at all this year yeah just so i think a lot of traditional stuff like that uh is not pushed as much anymore yeah i think you should always be asked and now it's very only bold idiots ask that question now it's good to be back into a routine though it is yes indeed uh but um it was also good to have a break absolutely life balance lovely christmas actually i must say um right okay uh local enterprise office they're always uh in a routine they're always busy uh and plenty coming up from them yeah number of events coming up this month as we sort of get back into normality uh on friday week that's january the 12th there's a virtual business support clinic lots of useful advice there uh you can go online for that and the first of this year's always popular start your own business programs well that's on tuesday the february the sixth for the next one of those and you can get more details on the local enterprise office website so uh something to look out for and some advance notice as well that the uh local enterprise office and enterprise europe network are hosting a webinar on the 30th january it's called going green reduce costs and carbon footprint uh basically focusing on the energy efficiency grant which is available to businesses and local man uh ronad makintar from max deli and letter kenny he'll be on the webinar to share his experience and look we all know about the need to improve energy efficiency in businesses and there is support there so why not find out more about that easiest way to get people to change is to show people the advances advantages of it rather than maybe punitive tax uh on to uh your eye across planning yeah there's been a flurry of planning applications in just before the end of the year and uh the last few weeks seems every week there seems to be a new housing development which is good to see given the housing shortage and increase in population so just looking at some of the things that are in the pipeline at the moment uh turning to remelton first of all glen mack developments limited have been given a green light by the county council for the completion of a previously approved housing development uh now quite a lot of developments had been uh planning permission had been sought a number of years back they hadn't gone through there's uh there is a time limit on planning permissions and then you can get that extended so bottom line uh plans for 45 new properties at balibo in remelton in carndona amp co builders company limited well they've been given planning permission to proceed with the construction of 23 houses at church land quarters in the town meanwhile the apex housing association they're planning to build 32 houses at convoy town parks in convoy initial stages of the planning application underway there and in balba fe long march development limited seeking planning approval to build 36 new houses at the beaches in the navani area of the town so plenty in the pipeline yeah indeed and uh business matters the pod is available uh for you to stream or download from our website now and we'll tell you when it's broadcast a little later on uh but you guessed this week chris i guess this week 24 stir chief executive officer of letter kenny chamber and uh founded in 1965 the chamber will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year plays a significant role in fostering business development and promoting opportunities to create a thriving business environment and it's uh members pays that off their website i think and i added in the word thriving thriving like that word um so it's grown considerably now is more than 300 members and appropriate to speak with tony farster as she reflected on 2023 looking ahead to this coming year and she's very upbeat about the future for denigol's largest town and she is basically explaining to me about how the chambers members are made up of a great diversity of businesses but it covers such a range of businesses you know all the really large employers right down to micro one person businesses and and that gives gives us a really i suppose important breadth of knowledge um so we can kind of gather you know what what what are people feeling at the very small end and the very at the large end of the market or of the of the business community and that's it's a very interesting place to be so the chamber tries to have all those as much as they can and different businesses need us at different times but as you said the collective um helping each other is really important um and sometimes it's hard to get that across but we we watch now particularly when we have a business development executive marie shales we kind of try and connect people as much as we possibly can so somebody has a need for something we'll try and connect them somebody else who can help yeah and i'm looking forward to 2024 the the chamber have a very useful tool in their armler in their sentiment survey which they sort of can get a sense from the various businesses and letter canyons surrounds us to you know how they view things going so uh good to see recent to be optimistic because we're likely to see chris um in the first quarter a reduction in interest rates to as the EU tries to get a its grasp and it would say it has on um inflation so you know those little things yeah you know do help with sentiment and people spending money they have absolutely and likewise uh the reduction of interest rates there should be a knock-on effect for the mortgage rates so that's going to help a lot of people out there as well a bit of competition in the supermarkets at the moment big price drops yeah little with a first I think and uh also um one of the newer entrants into the electricity market again has cut its cost which will put pressure on the others as well so hopefully hopefully uh people will see a little bit more value in their income now in 2024 and that obviously then leads to a greater spend and also from the retail point of view you know the fact we've the new tax year coming in people are going to see a little increase in their wages because most people are going to be better off as a result of the changes in the budget and also at the end of the month there is still another bonus payment for social welfare recipients so this is all going to be a little bit of money circulating locally so that's good yeah all right okay uh cause to be cautiously optimistic for some out there of course uh fully conscious that for others the changes won't make a significant an impact all right chris ashmore thank you so very much indeed uh the podcast before you go chris the podcast available right now it's broadcast on sunday evening just after the six o'clock news and if anyone wants to get in touch with you chris yes they can uh drop me an email at businessmattersathighlandradio.com back after the break business matters in association with atlantic technological university donnie gall study for a doctorate of business administration and obtain the highest level management qualification available visit atu.ie forward slash dba watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com slancy care healthy communities program in dunneagle county council in collaboration with dunneagle sports partnership and the irish farmers association are running a health and well-being main on the move program in rosnickill community hub fanat starting on january 8th the program will run on mondays and wednesdays at 7 45 p.m for six weeks join us for a mini health check light exercise and informative workshops on maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle contact orla on zero eight nine four six seven five seven two three for additional details or come and join us on the eighth of january for a healthy start to 2024 new this week in homestore and more all home gym equipment all floor lamps and all prestige kitchenware are all half price but better hurry because when all our half price home gym equipment floor lamps and prestige kitchenware are gone they're gone also all 100 percent cotton printed duvet sets and all feathering down duvets and pillows are still half price but when they're gone they're definitely gone drop by your local home store and more visit us online at homestoreandmore.ie now open in frescati center black rock homestore and more a happy home at ledle we've dropped the prices of over 600 products this january we've given over 600 of our products a fresh price drop for the year ahead so now you put more money back in your pocket with savings through breakfast lunch dinner and beyond that's 600 more reasons to go full ledle today discover the ultimate experience in the spa orchids at the hollywood hotel bundoren with our tranquil japanese themed garden rejuvenated in massages revitalizing facials luxurious spa baths pampering body treatments not forgetting the outdoor hot tub and sauna in our secret garden visit on a luxury spa day popping for some me time or buy the perfect present with a gift voucher relax and let the spa orchids transport you to another world for more see hollywoodhotel.com and you're very welcome back to a really busy nine till noon show the first for me of the new year so thank you so much for as i say keeping us busy there giving us your feedback and so on the food and letter kenny is fantastic the catering department hasn't been privatized and every meal is excellent they say try being a diabetic in hospital to see the mock they serve you that's one person's experience there a lot of you actually get in touch with us about posting stuff to australia so i'll get to those in a moment just as we get them all in the one pile greg i sent a gift to a grandchild excuse me please in our mar it never arrived we're not supposed to send cash in the post even if registered it was the post office told me that the only thing is registered mail is traceable greg going back to the comment about people being asked to wear masks in the hospital people simply don't care anymore about anyone other than themselves we live in a selfish society as long as i'm right or i'm all right stuff everyone else it's a sad society we are living in i do see elements of that as well and listen of course the the mask mandate was incredibly controversial we know all of that but listen to hospital or a nursing home i would be very reluctant personally to go in there if i wasn't feeling well because i wouldn't want to harm someone else and if i was asked to wear a mask so as not to spread germs to someone else who could be much more vulnerable than i am just going in to visit uh well i also would be inclined to um i've been inclined to take that advice on board and to to heed it out of respect good morning greg is it true that these new hate laws concern thought crimes as in you may have not posted hateful content but may have digital content that could be posted on our so-called thought crimes punishable by prison how will this even be enforced listen if you take it to the absolute extreme the idea being that you could have an offensive item on your phone that you could potentially send on whatsapp or something it's not going to be enforced um really i the hate laws haven't been adequately explained to me but i have sought clarification on a few things such as what you've just outlined and what have you um no you can and you can still actually offend and upset people on the internet as well under the new hate crime laws if that's what you want to do uh but obviously there are those that use social media and they're afraid that it will be used as a way to uh stymie what they have to say or to censor what they have to say well shall we shall see i don't know i don't know enough about it just as of yet uh to say whether that's the case or not right let's get back to uh donagall town uh towards the end of last year uh we were talking about new one-way systems new road layout for donagall town initially um people could see the advances uh the advantages maybe even outweighing the inconvenience uh up until now but it's become clear uh that for some it's simply it's not going to be workable it's going to be done in general uh damaging to business it's going to drive traffic into parts of the town too that don't have hadn't ordinarily seen so much traffic well we had christmas to suck it in sea i suppose to some extent port kennedy's the mayor of donagall tanny joins us on the program now good morning park good morning greg and good morning how been your year right so what is the what is the the sense being uh over christmas a busy time of the year not just for shopping or socializing um what what's the feedback you've been getting i've been the well what the people are saying is it's not working uh and it's affecting their business and chatting to business owners and chatting to people that coming into the town it's just the total inconvenience and some of them weren't wouldn't even come into the town that's ah gee i'm not going to be going on the airship and then traffic and as you said a way back it was creating a problem that there was never a problem and and i know initially you know we we said we would give it a chance and maybe it would be a good job but like there are certain parts of the town that may be merit a one-way system but then there's other areas of the town that definitely don't merit a one-way system and they're strangling the rest of the town and it's portion cars in on the diamond and forcing trucks to there's that there's a junction up at super value and if you were coming down from the businesses up in the glee you would not be able to turn left there you would have to turn right and come down and go around the diamond and go back out because that is obstructed there now and i know in slaggle that there's uh the finished junctions about a month ago and they're they're taking them out of it because the obstruction that's causing to buses and and trucks and stuff and you know i mean i initially said yeah maybe it will be a good job but i was wrong and and i would like any girl county council to say you know maybe maybe we got some of this wrong and before it goes any further when they're going to resurface the roads and i know that some footpaths down but like what what it's really strangling the town and coming into the summer season and all the positive about denigol and tourism and all that there it's drawn more people to denigol and denigol town and i just think why are they going to sit in traffic trying to get into denigol town i don't think the world just by going to bypass and the lack of me the time at all well that's it bypasses bypasses can be 50 50 they can enhance the town or they can be negative for a town now i think denigol town up until now has benefited from being bypassed um but you're suggesting that these changes may actually undo that that people will just go you know there's loads of options bundawren's there you know killy begs is there letter kenny's there are you afraid that it will have a negative impact on the economy and the throughput well it already is having i could take you to four or five businesses um and i could take you to one business that even was thinking a lot of opening on the new year like because of the effect that it was having on this business and you know it's just people are are there and they're just not even coming in the killy begs road they're sitting in traffic there where there was never traffic jams and like according to the plans as well up now at the tech and up there they're going to widen the footpath there and you're going to be forced to drive on into the school and turn up at the gymnasium and come back down like there's no way there's enough room to take the cars off the roads to allow parents to drop off their kids at the school so that's going to give more tail back as well there i think they need to take a look at the whole thing i think they need to stop like water street you see what i don't understand we'll get to that part of this what i don't understand they see when we for i wasn't really aware what was going on in donald town believe it or not when i spoke to you first and this is not to have a go at you uh this is not about you because you you you know you've you've you've seen the lay of land and you've changed your opinion somewhat but i actually at the time um i was chatting to you and um raymond rooney i think at that time i couldn't i couldn't figure out the problem that was being fixed if you know what i mean uh like i couldn't work out well what is the problem that this is going to aid what is going to improve uh and and i'm not the wiser now so is it still the case if i'm coming then say down by john boscoe center and i want to go to go to uh urwins or littlemags that i would i would have to go out onto the diamond and come around the way or if they change that yeah no and if you were if you were coming down and if you wanted to use the mark lane which kind of there's a two-way system there that goes up the gavel of erwin's hardware you can't you can't come down there now you you would have to go around the town to come down to use that mark lane and you can't you couldn't come down past the boscoe center to go to erwin's or the vets or any of that kind of thing and that's for forcing you back and round the diamond to come round like if if they left if if you come up to main street in dinningall town and you were only allowed to turn left down water street and if you were coming up from water street and you're only allowed to turn left like that keeping that a two-way along water street new roll you know but people don't know it's over by magies factory over that way keeping that whole system two-way there i mean i initially i was in favor of it because i suppose it was given more access uh and accessibility on the footpath and who were resurfacing and and you know overall appearance was going to be enhanced but i suppose i mean you look at main street in letter kenny uh even in slaggle i mean would would the businesses say that that was a great job and really helped their business i would say no all i know is that as a consumer if i wanted to go down and get something in that area i never had an issue with being stuck there uh the road was wide enough for two cars and parking in in much of it access to the business generally get a parking space never had an issue what it sounds like now is this has been made incredibly complicated i don't want to go on to the diamond there i might come over the bypass cut in by the hotel there uh michael mackintosh or mickey max yeah you know what i mean now i will have to go on to the diamond if i want to go and get a spice bag out of little max for an example yeah okay yeah no you're right you know what i mean like how does that make sense no and as you said it created a problem where there never was a problem and i mean even dinningall town when there was never even a bypass like it always moved i mean killie bags was flat out trucks used to come through the town everyone through the town and it still kept moving and now you know with the bypass and it the bypass did make a great job of dinningall town it was a big success and dinningall tried because of it uh but this here is definitely going to strangle it and and i know there's counselors on and they're saying i don't know what i'm talking about i'm talking to the people and they're saying this is not a good job it's not helping them it's not enhancing their business in any way and i would i would definitely appeal to the council to reconsider before they go any further they're all in now they'll park they're all in the roads have been narrowed at this point some of them i mean this is uh this is we're too late now the tide can't be turned no no it's never too late greg because you know and i'm sure you covered it was the polly air junction as it was called there it was never going to be changed then or i said no this this would slow down traffic it would impact and it would cause serious accidents if you put a roundabout there the junction caused more accidents than the roundabout ever caused in a way and and they were wrong and they had to sort it out and this and there's certain roads in the town that merit a one-way system but overall the water straight new road that does not merit uh to be one way i can't see i can't see with respect again i can't see off the top my head what roads merit one way especially if it drives more traffic up past residential properties i don't you know either side of the river well well water street yeah yeah they they you know our castle street sorry castle street along the river bank you know it's probably wide enough for one one-way traffic and i know it operated forever two way but you know coming up there probably it merits one way there okay so i think the proof of the body here is this and apologies to listeners from outside that area but you'll have been down donagol town you know what we're talking about is you know if you're coming into donagol town say for instance from the toly all roundabout that you referenced there you can be sitting awful long time to get in the question is is will this do it or actually coming down past the church in from from uh the uh the other end will this make it easy to get yeah exactly will this make it easy to get in and around donagol town personally i can't see how it does especially considering i'm sorry to repeat myself but the problems are caused by a bus station in donagol town on the diamond effectively and people double parking right around the diamond now whilst those things persist traffic will never move freely around donagol town that is a simple fact and you're right and it's amazing that one car or i'm only just stopping for two minutes like amazing how much one car will slow the whole traffic down and as you said it created a problem where there were never a problem and i mean if they wanted to trial it out and set out the cones and set out the system like i was coming over to connell speak the last day and i met a car coming at me and i'm like gee you're not supposed to be here but there again they didn't know there is no signs anywhere at the minute temporary signs even saying one-way system and operation there's nothing there's there's nothing i mean why didn't they just set it out in cones and and properly sign it and say right we're going to try this for a month and see how it works out and if it's a success and businesses are happy then we'll go with it we'll set it and store it but now they've set it and store it but listen concrete can be cut and can't cut can be lifted it wouldn't be the first time footpaths were moved or lifted or adjusted and roads were set out like we'll see part i don't know i i i don't know but you see what will happen is is that the cars there'll be an enforcement of double parking and the buses will be moved off the diamond and then it will be celebrated as a success um where maybe we should have tried to do the traffic management and bus issue first and then see if this money would be best spent as it is but anyway who do i don't know anything i'm just a crappy radio presenter the powers that they know everything as someone commented that i know nothing either i don't know what i'm talking about neither but you know what i talk to the people around and they go i'll talk to the businesses and i know overall the general feeling is one of upset and and and discontent or dissatisfaction with what's going on at the minute and i think in this instance the money could be better spent in a leisure center library uh facilities for the youth and you know rather than spend it on this year because i do think it's wrong and i don't think it's the right way to go thanks for a candidate mayor of donagall town john good morning to you what's your observation um i think it's more to do with uh lorries and what have you around the town and parking yeah so there's great uh no i was in uh supermax area this morning for 45 minutes was in the car park at supermax and directly opposite supermax which is behind the fire station there is a parking space there with uh bottle bins in it now arty drivers and that was able to come in there park for their break and go out and get someone to eat well i observed this morning the council has put a footpath down across anthans and put the bottle bins out to zero and block the car park off now and the week while i was there there were six arty's come in how do you go around the roundabout and go out again because they couldn't get parked anywhere and i think it's bloody ridiculous that car parks line empty now and have a footpath down through it and the bottle bins are put out across anthans wow that and i presume amongst the arctic driving community the word had got around that that was a handy place to park get something to eat if you have a a bathroom break yes you're able to come in there go to the toilet get someone to eat and take your 15 minute break or whatever it was and there were bottle bins there but they're for the bottle bins right now they put a footpath down through the anthans put bottle bins now and behind the petition there and that the whole thing blocked off and the lorries have nowhere to park this morning they just had to turn go out again wherever they went in for their break and they're probably some of them was probably could have been run out of time you don't know yeah i think it's ridiculous yeah and i just wonder though if there are bigger plans for that bit of land there um john that maybe that's what it was being useful temporarily well it didn't seem to be much notification of ending being done to it just said it's been closed right so the sign ups and it's closed so the footpath continues from the fire station towards the um where the gp government boulders the hhc is there now the footpath has continued on down through it no park no longer exists no longer exists now there's a bottle bank in front of it there you go okay so i think it's ridiculous right we'll see what the drivers think john thanks for your time this morning all right no take care all right okay that's new and if you're watching the show you'll get to see where we're talking about as well there as we uh show the images back after these we'll take a weather forecast after this break is 2024 the year you need to change your mattress rustic beds letterkenny massive january sale is now on sponsors of today's show do you suffer from high cholesterol men of all symptoms digestive issues anxiety aches and pains or a lack of energy they're highly trained team at the natural way letterkenny can provide advice on natural remedies for a number of individual health issues the natural way also has its own brand of herbal treatments to help fight fatigue relieve digestive discomfort maintain a healthy immune system and alleviate common menopause symptoms the natural way letterkenny shopping center your one stop health shop set yourself up for slimming world success at done stores we've got a great range of slimming world products from sweet and sour chicken noodles for lunch to a hearty beef lasagna for dinner all now exclusively available at done stores order online for delivery or find them in the frozen isle and save with a till with a five of 25 grocery voucher try the slimming world range today exclusively at done stores always better value terms and conditions apply voucher can be used on extents or grocery shop of 25 year or more range available in selected stores only highland radio was seeking applications for a producer to join our busy sports team ideal candidate will take direction from the head of sport and will be required to produce and present our main sport programs and bulletins must have an interest in sport across the northwest and be able to retrieve and assemble stories while constructing scripts for on-air broadcasts and our website a strong knowledge of multimedia and social networks will also be required the position is on a four-day basis that includes weekends those wishing to apply should forward a cv to highland radio sport pine hill mountaintop letter kinny f9 to vw08 or email hr at highland radio dot com the closing date for applications is the fifth of january highland radio weather updates brought to you by grant building a new home choose grants a triple plus rated air owner air to water heat pump and you flex under floor heating visit grant dot ie sunny spells and scattered showers today some hail and thunder possible highest temperatures of six to eight degrees in a light to moderate westerly winds scattered showers will continue overnight with clear spells in between lowest temperatures of one to five degrees in the light to moderate west to southwest wind nafta tomorrow there'll be a mix of sunny spells and well scattered showers along with light to moderately westerly winds highest temperatures of five to eight degrees have you noticed i wouldn't say it's a quare stretch but if you notice the we stretch in the evenings i think i have um certainly just not quite as dark as it was around about sort of 20 past half past four 20 to five depends on how cloud it is though i suppose was the public consultation and surveys among the business owners about these changes in donogaltown have been going to donagall for decades and never ever had an issue with traffic movement not sure i think it's all part of an agenda to put people off traveling in cars and to use public transport okay there's a slight problem there what public transport uh that is the issue um greg my boot camp done time for you to start should head to efa after the show you're passing the place well maybe i will i could just you know new year new me 2024 could be could happen uh i want it to happen i probably can make the time flashing signs are too close to the school coming from dairy should be before the corner indeed that seems to be a sentiment that's out there give the drivers a fair crack of the whip and get them slowed down in time for the school uh back to our conversation with ethna uh who has been um off drink for over third or almost 30 years ethna is correct in what a lot of things she said but as a member of the aa since 1996 i've seen people who've only drunk once a year at a christmas party in aa because every year when they get drunk they got into trouble drink driving extramarital situations abuse in the home verbal and physical blackouts etc etc etc let me see post to australia will finish up with these a number of our listeners as you know have gotten in touch to say that friends and family in australia have not been receiving post from home Mary says last year i posted christmas cards to my son in sydney in november he received them in may donna says yes my sister received everything from family Sharon i received an envelope from within the country that had been slit open down the side and the voucher removed very disheartening not just happening with outside mail uh randru i'm in australia and australia posts are pretty useless at the best of times also there are delays due to extreme weather here at the moment in every state martina this happened to me last year sent cards never arrived this christmas i revolution my son money uh rosemary my post arrived to Perth no bother good news louis yes sister in australia she's not received anything from us this year another i sent a post also to sydney and my son received it the day after boxing day another sent package by on post to go coast they received it had to go to reception in their apartment to pick it up as post held there maybe just lucky as sent early for christmas thanks laura and lastly my family lost so many cards some containing money we now use envelopes and boxes from the post office they receive all of them it is great to be back after the break thank you so much for listening to the program for getting in contact we're back with you again tomorrow morning from nine from me great hughes and the team have a wonderful wednesday stay tuned john brezens around the