 Union Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Do you currently have vacancies that need urgently filled? Have you tried various ways to find new staff but didn't succeed? Let Highland Radio help you source and fill your current vacancies in the most cost-effective way. Simply sign up to our new job spot and we will tell our listeners about your vacancies both on air and online. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during our primetime shows we will broadcast the latest job opportunities across the Northwest and into Counties Derry and Turon. All job listings will be available online at highlandradio.com For more information contact the advertising team on 07491 253 22 or email advertising at highlandradio.com Highland Radio, we are here for you. Gregory, good morning Tia. How are you getting on? Oh, I've got a tickly throat. Oh no. No, it's all right. I'll dial 9 and then 9 and if it gets any worse then I'll just dial 9 and send. You're no real help to me, you know. But it's only a wee snuff. But it's hard to shake. You must have a good immune system. I always seem to be, I'm very lucky in that thing. I don't want to say it in case you jinx me. Things generally don't go to my chest. Do you know like it clears through me quite quickly. Yeah, but I never heard you on the radio with a big bunged up noise. I haven't ever taken a sick day yet. Have you not? Not one sick day. What do you have for breakfast? Nothing. When do you eat? About two or three. Oh no, Gregory. That's bad for all the preaching you do about healthy food and stuff. But do you not be starving? I'm very quick to point out my weaknesses as well. So, you know, I'm not on a high moral ground here. If I had weed to mix now by 10 o'clock, half 10, I would be so starving I'd start getting a sore head. It just works for me. It's not ideal. What do you graze on then at two o'clock? You must get the big feed. I have a wee sandwich. A wee sandwich? At my age, your metabolism slows down so much. Well, not going on to your age, boy. But if you can't exercise, it has to be a calorie deficit. It's the only way. All right. So, you can't find time to do 40 minutes of exercise? Yes, I can. I don't want to argue. I've been arguing already this morning with someone. Well, with one of the boys in the house. All right. That happens. Yeah, it was about where the ketchup goes in the cupboard or the fridge, you know. Oh, no. We started putting it in the fridge while we did this last year. Is that why you put the ketchup? No, well, we did. Why do you put the mayonnaise? I don't have mayonnaise. Right, okay. What about onions? They're lying underneath the bag of potatoes. What about apples? They're on the bench. Mustard. Don't have mustard. Brown sauce. Don't do brown sauce. Barbecue sauce. Don't do barbecue sauce. You are the worst person. No, but we have tomatoes. Why do you keep your tomatoes? Tomatoes in the fridge. Where do you keep your tomatoes? What about bananas? They're on the ones that are still available. What about bananas? What about bananas? Bananas are on the bench. And what about this? Eggs. Well, eggs. That's a good question. Now, there's one for you. Where do you buy your eggs? They're not in the fridge. We keep our eggs in the fridge. We came out of the mother-in-law's chickens, of which I didn't realise, bum. Where did you think come out of their mouth? I thought there would have been a separate place to come out of their mouth. Stop that stupid talk. Honestly. There's something I would be saying. No, I thought so. Where did you think they came out of? There was a... A separate department. A separate end. Where did these chocolate eggs come from? Chocolate ends. You're some cookie. For a very intelligent man. You're already joking. Well, I didn't... I never really thought about it, but I didn't think the eggs came out the... bum. I'm just being honest. I've never lied. That's okay. Honesty is the best policy. Caroline's going to see you in a different light now. Four years ago, that they have to be cleaned before... Yeah. They didn't know. They'll be washed, do they? But then you can... You have to, you see, because I've seen them before. All right. Right, okay. Enough of the eggs, right? Easter it is around the corner. Leap here and all of that. Can you eat Easter eggs? Of course I can. Well, I need to check. There's no wheat in them, but I can, I. All right. You're going to buy me one. It's nearly Easter. Are you going to buy me one? Yes. Good night. It's nearly Easter. Bye-bye. Love you. All right. It's approaching four minutes past nine. But it's content, you know, Michaela. All right. Let's dress up Thanks, Greg. Good morning. The government has been criticised over the lack of mental health support for defective block homeowners. Speaking during the mental health bill in the doll last night, Deputy Padre McLaughlin said that the defective block crisis has taken a severe toll on the mental health of families. He says a reality for many is stark. The realisation that's all of your hard work, all of your savings, everything's falling apart. So we had a huge mental health crisis. There are people who took their own lives. Some of it has been documented. Some of it hasn't been. What supports have been put in place for children? There's been supports requested by Donegal Educational Training Board. There's been supports requested by campaign groups. Nothing substantial. Nothing additional for those families. That's the reality on the ground, Ministers. A ruling will be made today on whether the UK's controversial Troubles Legacy Act is in breach of human rights laws. Grounds for the legal challenge before Belfast High Court and the Act to end police investigations into Troubles crimes and the potential for immunity from prosecution. It's claimed it adds to victims' trauma by denying them access to justice and contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights. Those responsible for a recent spate of vandalism on businesses in Bonkrana are being urged to reflect on the hurt they're causing. Substantial damage has been caused to properties on the Tynes Main Street with windows smashed. Councillor Jack Murray says efforts of the Tidy Tynes Group is being put into place. We see the Tidy Tynes volunteers, of course, are out a couple of times a week in the middle of the morning picking up litter, planting flowers, and the town looks absolutely amazing. So for one or two individuals to take it upon themselves to just start wreaking havoc and causing damage on the street, it's just, it's totally unacceptable. They just need to reflect on what they're doing and think about who they're hurting because it's your local, your neighbours and your friends that suffer at the end of this. There's further calls for harsher fines for illegal dumpers. Now, base books and clothing were among the items found dumped at the side of the road in the Corvine area. Councillor John Hamey Shofari says Donegal County Council cannot be expected to continue to pick up the cost of cleaning up after people who refuse to dispose of their waste responsibly. People that are caught illegal dumpings should be named and shamed to find out who these people are like. It's just not good enough to open the council, come along now and take this up. It's costing thousands and thousands of euros every year for the Donegal County Council for a few individuals that are causing this. Weather now today will be mostly cloudy with eye breaks of Rhian and Drizzle highest temperatures of 10 to 12 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. Here it is. Ah, Kate. It's lovely. Especially after your last chill-oppy. Full licence, two years now. I thought it was time for an upgrade. Now, it's been properly checked. Yes, ma'am. And the paperwork's all sorted? Yes, ma'am. I even managed to save on my car insurance by switching to Allianz. Isn't that great. Pop in and we'll take Franco over to see Granny. Franco? My car? Ah, Kate. For flexible, young driver car insurance and 15% off, visit Allianz.ie. Allianz PLC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Standard acceptance criteria, terms and conditions at a minimum premium of 284 euro a play. And now, it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9th and new show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. And it's a very good morning to you at 7 Minutes Past 9 on this Wednesday, the 28th of February 2024. How are you all keeping? It is a leap year. Is anyone born on the 29th listening to the show? What is it like being whatever age old you are? Do you count your age every four years? I don't know. Anyone out there celebrating a leap year birthday? Let us know 08, 660, 25000. What is life like for a leap year baby? Also, is anyone going to pop the question tomorrow? Is today or tomorrow not the day that traditionally or in the past, ladies can propose or do or tend to propose to men? Has that ever happened to any of you listeners out there? Let us know again, 08, 660, 25000. Or maybe you want to pop the question live on the show tomorrow. I have no problem with that whatsoever. We can sort that out for you. But anyway, whatever way you want to, whatever you want to talk about, by the way, if you want to text in on those topics or raise your own other issues, the lines are open for you right now, really is where I was trying to get to 08, 660, 25000. That's the WhatsApp and text number 08, 660, 25000. Or give us a call at 07491 25000. We welcome your contact from outside the Republic as well. Many of you listening to the show, feel free to get in touch there. For WhatsApp, it's free to text wherever you are in the world, 003538, 660, 25000. And emails, you know yourself. Comments at highlandradio.com. And feel free to comment on our social medias if it suits you to watch the show YouTube, Highland Radio Ireland on your smart TV, your forestic, or your mobile devices. And we're across our Facebook pages as well. The Finn Valley voice this morning, the mayor of Donegal, Councillor Martin Harley, has vowed to fight for the retention of physiotherapy services at St. Joseph's Hospital. It emerged last week that physiotherapy services at the Stranola facility would be discontinued. Relatives of residents at the facility are said to be alarmed at the news, which was only communicated to staff in the days leading up to the movement of services. The HSE chief said the decision was communicated on the back of a recent Hickor report on the facility. On to the Irish Times now, and of course, that RTE story continues to rumble on. Joonie Rahaly warned she could resign before a crucial appearance by Minister for Media Catherine Martin on RTE primetime last week according to the minister and resisted attempts to arrange a meeting to discuss Ms. Martin's disappointment in her. During a meeting at the Erachtes Media Committee, Ms. Martin revealed a day of frantic exchanges between her officials and former RTE chair, Ms. Nee Rahala, in the run-up to the minister's appearance on primetime last Thursday evening after which the chair resigned. Now, I have sympathy in this instance for the media minister because, you know, she, as it relates to exit packages, there may well have been some communication from the board to Minister Martin's department. But my understanding is that twice she asked Ms. Nee Rahala whether or not the board had knowledge or sign off on this exit package and she didn't give the answer to that correctly. To say, well, the information is somewhere in your department. For me, I don't know. I think that's information that if I were asked by the boss here, that I'd be expected to answer. And also, the DG was sitting in on at least one of those meetings. What did he got to say about it? Also, the minister had booked a live TV interview. You know, we're always giving out that ministers refused to answer questions or the skirt around questions or they try, you know, they feel a buster effectively to waste up the time from time to time. But she didn't. She answered the questions pretty honestly. And she was asked if she had faith and it's the big got you question. Do you have faith in such and such a person? And she probably answered that question honestly. So I don't know if you agree or disagree. It is a big mess whatsoever. But in this instance, I do have some sympathy just as a consumer to four minister for media Catherine Martin. Well, following on, following an appearance that shed light on a dramatic breakdown in relations last week, the committee has now decided to extend an invitation to the former chair of RTE to appear before it as the fallout over Miss Niraela's resignation continues to rock the government and the broadcaster. Miss Martin outlined yesterday evening repeated instances of Miss Niraela giving her inaccurate information about the board's involvement in sign-offs with an exit package for the former chief financial officer, Richard Collins, as well as having apologised for failings to tell the minister she had sought the resignation of former RTE director General Dee Forbes, which is very, very significant in that Dee Forbes departure left an awful lot of questions unanswered that remain unanswered that perhaps if they'd have been answered right at the beginning of all of this, we might not still be here. OK, your views on that if you're interested. Oh, wait, 60, 25,000. Enoch Burke remains in prison. Sat school teacher Enoch Burke has been paid around 72,000 euro by the Department of Education since being suspended in August 2022. The High Court has heard Burke is still on administrative leave and being paid despite not working for the past year and a half, during which time he has spent 281 days in prison for contempt of court. He's still in receipt of his salary while appealing against the decision by the Board of Management of Wilson's Hospital School to dismiss him in January last year. The appeal hearing has been delayed as a result of Burke's unsuccessful legal challenge to the composition of the appeals panel, and it remains unclear when it will take place. Burke remains on the payroll emerged during a hearing where the court reviewed his ongoing detention for contempt of court over repeated breaches of an order restraining him from the premises of the County West Meath School. Now, the court is of the view that he's in prison because he was sacked from the school, he kept attending the school and they sought a court order to stop him attending the school. They were successful in that court order and therefore is in contempt of court. That is the school's position, that's the court's position. He seems to go back a step or two and says the reason he's in prison is because he was sacked because he wouldn't accept transgenderism, and that's what they need to sort out. I'm not sure if anyone is actually benefiting from his incarceration, either he or the state, it's costing a fortune, but they need to sort of resolve somewhere in between his contention and I hope I'm not misrepresenting it that he is fundamentally in prison because of his opposed to transgenderism. But the reality is that according to the courts and according to the school he's actually in prison because he was sacked for whatever reason, probably what we've been mentioning and he kept turning up at school, they didn't want him near the school, they got a court order barring him from the school, he kept turning up at the school and therefore he's in contempt of court. A significant story, I think, you know, in politics I think, you know, when books are written into the future this may be recorded, who's to say, who's writing the books, it's in the Irish Daily Star, but Michelle O'Neill became the first nationalist first minister to attend a football match at Windsor Park. The Sinn Fein vice president yesterday stood for God Save the King at the South Belfast venue where four Northern Ireland women's football team took on Montenegro. They drew the game. Michelle O'Neill arrived at the stadium with DUP Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengley and they were greeted by IFA president Conrad Kirkwood and its Chief Executive Patrick Nielsen. In the past what has tended to happen is that of course these people do attend games but they might turn up late or they might leave early to avoid having to stand for a particular national anthem or other but in fairness to Michelle O'Neill and to say it is a little, it's another little step perhaps in the right direction she turned up on time and stood for that national anthem. The Irish Daily Mail, obviously anyone out there with little ones either your own children or grand children or nephews and nieces, you know the story, TV does play a role in their lives. Peppa Pig has been around for ages but now American parents are accusing Peppa Pig of turning their children into brats. She's the little pig whose puddle jumping antics with her brother George have delighted children for years but now parents in the US have turned on Peppa Pig accusing the popular British animated series of turning their children into brats. They've complained to the Wall Street Journal that Peppa is a bully who fat-shames her father and is a malign influence on impressionable minds. One parent warned others not to let their children watch it saying their daughter had begun to lash out after seeing it. There is so much verbal aggression. Peppa is rude, bossy, a liar, tattletail and more they wrote beneath review of the show. Has Peppa Pig been on in your has? Do you agree? Does it turn kids into brats? Oh wait, 60, 25,000. Now you know the issue of bosses comes up all the time on this programme and has for years and there's been a few issues to it having to firstly, how close you have to be to a school to be able to qualify for a boss pass they're looking to maybe reduce that I'll tell you more about that in a moment having to go to a nearest school we've heard the stories of the routes being calculated over a mountain road that's impossible for half of the year for one reason or another really silly rules all kids need to get to school I don't think it's unreasonable for a boss service to be provided but some of the rules, a lot of the rules around school bosses make very little sense from the tendering process to the allocation of seats but fair boss school routes could be on the way unfair rules barring kids from state funded bosses because of how close they live to their school are set to be scrapped Education Minister Norma Foley ordered a review into the school transport scheme three years ago after complaints children were being left behind because of them different rules a secondary school child cannot get on a boss if they live within 4.8 kilometres of their school why primary level kids must be at least 3.2 kilometres away from their school the travel threshold for primary level children will now be reduced to just 1k while secondary students will be allowed on the boss if they live 2.8 kilometres away so this is probably quite significant for some of you out there the price parents pay for the bosses is quite broad frozen at the current rate of 50 euro for primary level 75 euro for secondary level students and 125 for a family the scheme currently costs the state 444 million with the cost due to rise to 672 million in 2032 pilot programs will be run in certain areas in September before rolling it out across the country and also the looking at allowing over 70s to drive the bosses my understanding is that if you're over 70 I think you can drive bosses generally but you can't drive school bosses so they're looking to change that because of a shortage of drivers lastly more drivers than ever are now claiming that electric vehicles generate the cheapest running costs this is in the Irish Daily Mirror as many as 90% said they've made savings an increase from 85% last year not surprising because obviously petrol and diesel start to edge up now particularly if you've a smart meter you can get some savings at night the prices are coming down most people charge their cars at home 80 odd percent I think among the key findings of the latest study into the EV is the high repurchase rate with 70% of drivers intending to stay electric for their next purchase which I think is kind of interesting it is quite high 70% well that means 30% 3 out of 10 people who went electric are actually thinking when they purchase their next car of returning to an ICE engine which I actually think is quite a significant number a spokesperson for Don Deal which carried out the study said the survey found 90% of electric car drivers in Ireland have noted that the running costs are cheaper than petrol stroke diesel cars and yet we still await for this the numerous investments we've had announced to build up the charging infrastructure and yet still you don't really see it on the ground and still they maintain that by 2030 some 950,000 electric vehicles will be on Irish roads but sales are slowing down a little so it will be interesting to see you can't you wouldn't buy a petrol car if there was electric charging points everywhere and you wanted to buy a petrol car but there were only like four or five petrol stations in Ireland you wouldn't buy a petrol car so until such time as they actually properly build up an electric charging infrastructure they're always going to have issues with electric car sales ok we'll be back with more after this quick break stay right where you are coming to the Brunswick movie bowl from March 1st choose regular, junior or family wristbands and enjoy some of Europe's top thrill rides choose fun for all ages a legendary Fundamenia event 1st to the 17th of March for details see Fundamenia.co.uk Donnie Gall County Council is reminding landowners and occupiers of their obligations to trim hedges and trees beside the public road this should be done before the bird nesting season commences in early March Donnie Gall County Council thanks to many members of the public who have already carried this work out Donnie Gall County Council protecting our communities and environment Are you building, rebuilding renovating, what heat pumps or solar panels would suit your build come along and speak to the experts efficient renewables on heat pumps and solar panels get advice on installation and grants available visit the efficient renewable showroom in Newton Cunningham and see these products in operation for yourself Just like that If at social live, Donnie Gall this Friday tickets from 2925 are on sale now Where are you going with all that gear? I'm applying for a community heritage grant maps, a scanner night vision goggles for the nocturnal animals But you don't need all that stuff, do you? Not at all, all you need is a worthy project but the grant covers so many heritage projects you can never be too prepared Well good thing we're going up so Give your project a lift So we've seen reports that the council plans to fast-track building 24 social housings in the Flaxfields area of Convoy The current estate consists of 65 houses built around two decades ago and was built as a private housing estate and I suppose on the face of it the delivery of social housing, good news But Garvin joins us on the programme now to discuss this, good morning Garvin, how are you? Good morning Greg, how are you? Thanks for joining us, I think really the point you want to make from the get go is that you're not against the provisional building of social housing but you do have questions as it relates to these proposals Greg, no, definitely not against social housing, I was raised that a council estate myself so it would be remiss of me to have any objections whatsoever but I do have I wouldn't call them up objections, more observations and concerns in relation to what's happening with the build On what are they? Well, in relation to the construction there's a new storage drainage plant in the houses and the storage with the area, it's to be dug it's very close to existing houses the area is formerly quarry I'm very concerned of how the digging would affect the residents and the houses there already So you're probably looking at a prolonged period of rock breaking, you know that kind of stuff, that's what you suspect do you wonder what impact that might have on existing properties? Yes, I'd be worried about structural damage and I mean the council was approached about this and I was actually informed that this is a civil matter particularly what they're saying is what's happening happens I have to go against the developer and the way things are going I don't want myself or other neighbours to be just another statistic with the council You're also concerned that this patch of land that these houses might be built on was earmarked for something else previously? Yes, it was it was marked for a childcare facility and a park for the current residents but I'm also on speaking to councillors myself I was informed a few years ago that the area was actually zoned by the council and that no further building was permitted as per the council, the convoy didn't have the infrastructure for these houses now, flex bins is built on a very steep hill there's a house that's across from flex bins and there's one down below flex bins and at the bottom of the hill it's very layable to flooding if there's any sort of rain at all and there's concerns as well that these new houses being connected to the current storage and drainage system will cause even more issues And you have a number of other observations and I mean if you want to pick one or two out you can but at the end of the day though is it not the case that we are in a housing crisis particularly here in Donegal and that everything's not going to be perfect Gavin and that unfortunately given the need for housing everyone's not going to be happy with it and that's just the way it's going to be I understand that and again I have no objection to the houses and once they're constructed good luck to whoever gets them and I hope they're happy in them but it's the construction of them and the planning of them that needs to be got right from the start in relation to the planning I just where's me I'm just finding my notes here That's alright Gavin, take your time I've stated the new build is the continuation of the existing estate that's been built for 20 years there's currently 65 houses in Flaxfield 24 social housing to be built so that's a total of 89 and 20% of that is 17.8 which would be 18 houses allowable if you take the 65 there's 13 houses allowable so whatever way you do the maths it doesn't add up and what is the what's the problem with the social housing being a greater percentage than you know might be laid out what issues does that create or what's the problem there well it creates extra stress stress on the resources and the drainage and the sewage in convoy that isn't sufficient already to satisfy what's there and in relation to the planning also and on the account all these documents are available on the council planning website on the original application that states that is this land was it previously liability flooding or quarry the box is technology impact the land is quarry land and another part states that are any third parties required to grant permission for the new sewage stream as it connects to the current scheme and that is answered that no third party permission needed as developer owns the green areas I find that very difficult to believe as a private state I guess you can have your personal concerns but that's what stated in the application and that's what I understand that's what I have to go by but you believe then that this is not given full consideration to the existing residents of convoy the infrastructure even something as simple as the local road not being gritted as much as it should you're saying that more consideration needs to be given to all of this before it proceeds well I think it needs to be looked at and we need to get answers to all the questions and the council needs to be open and transparent with the residents that's already there you know as I said all we're looking for is answers we're not looking to object to anything and I want to state as well I'm not a part of any organisation or group or committee I'm just voting on behalf of myself as a resident there and concern for my neighbours as well you're entitled to a point to a point of view and we'll always platform people's points of view on this broken garden well okay your views have been aired so if you want to inquire see what we get back and if anyone else in the area has something to say they can contact us too but thanks for contacting the programme and speaking to me Garvin have a good day take care alright if you want to view on that 08 660 25000 that's the whats up and text number watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com choose life truly fun choose fundomania coming to the brunswick movie bowl from march 1st choose regular junior or family wristbands and enjoy some of europe's top thrill rides choose fun for all ages a legendary fundomania event 1st to the 17th of march for details see fundomania.co.uk use selection of top household electronics featuring energy efficient posh appliances premium brands such as sage electrolytes cooker taps and more interest free lay aways service available urwinx for electrical letter kenny and bunkrata all you need to make your house a home at patterson's the hall livert from garden furniture to kitchens soaps and dining sets all under one roof need a new mattress why not visit our sleep centre on the first floor with a range of quality beds and mattresses in stock and ready for collection or delivery relax in our coffee shop serving hot lunches daily open monday to saturday 9am to 5.30pm patterson's kitchens and interiors the hall livert nutritious milk replacer range which includes nutritious start and nutritious start offers the best start to your calves this spring season with 23% and 25% crude proteins ideal for calf to beef your calves the best possible start available in your local homeland store visit utrius.ie for full nutritional information find us online our call 0749175989 macklehoney an associate solicitor strunholder join the multi-award winning patrick feeney and his band for his country and gospel show at the millenium forum deri on sunday 10th of march tickets are now on sale from the millenium forum box office telephone 04871 26445 or book online at www.milleniumforum.co.uk welcome back to the 9 till noon show now obviously we keep a close eye on developments at letter candy university hospital because it's such an important facility for all of us and more potentially concerning news from letter candy university hospital which we are seeking to get some clarification on but the pathology department and pathologists at letter candy university hospital and other hospitals as well play a vital role in the treatment plan for a patient they help other healthcare providers consultants and gps reach diagnosis so that makes it an important member of the treatment team now I have been informed that the pathology department users i.e. gps and consultants are being informed that the department can no longer process all samples within its routine day of 8am and 8pm so from monday some samples received by the department will not be processed on the day of receipt and that means that those samples will not be suitable for analysis due to the delay the issue I'm told is not one of staffing and it's not one of equipment it's simply down to floor space having enough space in that department for the people that work there to do their work now we understand as well that options to increase capacity at the hospital have been put to senior management there and the hsc states and that the issue has been discussed at the last hospital liaison meeting but and that's the hospital ch01 meeting but no of the options that were proposed by the head of that department as I understand it none of the options to increase floor space to accommodate additional analysers was acceptable to progress to date so this is obviously going to cause inconvenience to consultants and their patients so as I say at this point where we know that this is the situation it's not about staffing it's not about equipment it's literally about floor space the head of that department the manager of pathology has written or had conversations with senior management at the hospital they've had senior representations with the hsc it's been discussed at the last hospital ch01 liaison meeting but unfortunately none of the options that were proposed to increase floor space to accommodate additional analysers was acceptable and also to they can't use a private service because they haven't been given the okay to finance that either so it's not it's not insignificant what impact it might actually have on the workings of the hospital or for gps in terms of diagnostics you know it's possible that gps might be accustomed to it being a busy department and not getting the results on the day but effectively tissue samples or whatever it might be will be sent to the department they can't all be processed and that means that those samples then are no longer fit for purpose if they can't be analysed on the day in which they're received so as I say that's just a little bit of news we can bring you the full consequences of that of course we'll tease it out over the course of the next while right okay Doctor Gerard Rorty is a vet and one inclined to comment on different matters and we always enjoy having you on the programme Gerard good morning to you good morning Greg I'm okay right we're responding to the news that the European Parliament has approved the nature restoration law this despite opposition from certain quarters firstly do you welcome this news Gerard I welcome a nature restoration law principle the original nature restoration law was fantastic because it dealt with major problems biodiversity lack of nature restoration lack of carbon sequestration, poor water quality massive pollution all throughout the 27 member states so the original proposal was a great proposal but but farmers mobilised as they do and throughout the 26 other member states there was an incredible cavalcade of tractors and all sorts of unrest on streets and people have seen it on their news over the last couple of months and wondered why are all these tractors on the streets in Paris and in Brussels and all these farmers protesting throughout all these European countries and they successfully watered down or removed all the major teeth of practically everything in the water and the nature restoration law Mick Wallace is on record saying that it has been massively watered down however and this is a total irony for Donegal the one piece that they didn't remove was the two areas that affect Donegal most so it's totally ironic that we know of a nature restoration law that was totally watered down and yet the whole focus on the type of ground we have in Donegal so to give you a quick summary the only three countries the only two other countries in the whole of Europe that has more peatland than us Finland and Estonia and they're too cold the area where they have the peatland is too cold to farm so we we in Ireland have 21% so if you think about it a fifth of our agricultural area is peatland Donegal is much higher it's probably about a half so that's targeted the other area that is targeted is what's known as designated sites so we talk about the peatland first though what would be the proposal to the proposal now long term the short term targets in long term is basically we're going to have to stop farming the way we're farming at the moment and we're going to have to be flooded and rewet it supposedly to reduce carbon release and increases methane release but the good news is and people when they meet their MEPs canvassing on their doorsteps in June they've been totally insulted because we can raise water buffalo in Donegal on the peatlands and you know it would be comical it's sad if it wasn't so comical you actually read the text and you can see that European Union are proposing that in places like Donegal we've got the flood and totally rewet ground that our forefathers spent hundreds of years dragging boulders out of piton lime and draining to create agriculture land we're going to have to flood it we're allowed to raise water buffalo water people in Donegal don't farm water buffalo water buffalo is not a viable species for them as a vet how many water buffaloes have you been called out to check on their welfare I've dealt with water buffaloes in Africa but never in Africa so Jared I just want to be really clear that we all understand exactly what we're talking about here so can you give us an example of of rewetting peatland okay so where might that happen where might that happen and what might that look like and what farming practices does it mean will no longer happen if you could answer that sort of in three parts okay so outside of the lagoon and outside of the Sun Valley outside of that narrow strip of East Onigour all have any shown Glen Swilly, Glen Finn, Glen Column Kill Fulcara, Gorta Hork, Ardraha Glentis, the Sleeve League Peninsula South Donegal all peatland all that land has been targeted to be flooded so in other words the idea is that you put it on underwater and then you're going to be allowed to raise water buffalo water and my point is you can make an argument that that should have been one of the measures but there was about 20 measures in the original Nature Restoration Law and the one that has been left in compliments of all the farmers protests throughout the 27 countries the one that has been left in is the one that affects Donegal most in particular Well you can come to that in a second chair but I want us all to understand it from your perspective clearly does that mean then given the high level of this type of land in Donegal that to raise the national average so to speak our compliance with it that there's going to be an awful lot of pressure for you know absolute compliance across our county Well it's not to meet the national this is the critical one it's not even to meet the national average it's to meet the European average so in other words to satisfy the objection the objectives for the 27 countries for the Nature Restoration Law peatland and designated sites the two areas that Donegal has a disproportionate amount of targeted everything else has been quite quietly dropped out all the measures that affect intensive farming quietly dropped out all the measures that affect pollution throughout Europe quietly dropped out What kind of farming or farming activity that we currently see in Donegal can you see being phased out over the medium and long term then You can take we have nine and a half thousand farmers in Donegal 210 guys milk they will be able to continue to milk we have 50 big tillage guys they will do that 50 big beef guys they can do that outside of the guys like myself who's way up on the mountains and not affected by the peatland the rest of those areas I've just mentioned will be severely limited in what way they can farm in other words if you go west of a lane between McCool Park and the Adonal Park you're going to see measures these are mandatory these are not just optional you're going to be measures not sure it's going to stipulate the drains are going to be have to be closed ground it has to be flooded this really is a death nail for farming how does this then work in terms of properties that have been built on this land that are protected by the shucks and the ditches and the drains and what have you you know because we're talking no there will yeah my understanding of it for commercial properties or residential properties and so on you're going to be allowed to continue to drain land so those places aren't flooding the critical one though with agricultural land is going to be taken out of production we have something just to think in terms of it we have 345,000 hectares of peatland in Ireland so a hectare is a couple of pits if you look at the Adonal Park we have 345,000 times the amount of that over 50% of Donegal is peatland or designated areas we have 604,000 it's basically been a case that Europe has bowed the pressure from the militant farmers throughout Europe the continent of Europe and we have been left as a low flying low hanging fruit and unfortunately our farm organizations and our politicians have represented us because from what I can understand Chris McManus from Sinn Fein and I've been the only people that have spoken out an objective to this. Alright stay where you are Senator Pauline O'Reilly from the Green Party joins us as well I mean obviously presumably on the face of it Senator you're happy that this past yesterday you believe it to be a turning point Senator O'Reilly are you there? No unfortunately not Caroline? Senator O'Reilly is not there okay we'll get back to her. Right so what is the timeframe on this George? Just go back I think can I make a point I think it's a useful one to make Yeah and I would welcome Senator O'Reilly's point on that because I got a lovely message from the Green Party yesterday because I've got myself organized they get emails from telling me that I was part of a toxic coalition so they address anybody who actually opposed this has been part of a toxic coalition I mean from the Green Party's point of view they are totally totally right. Peatlands need protection designated sites need protection but why real road and act through that had took all the other 48 measures out so there are 50 measures initially they took all the other measures out the two measures that were left in were the measures that disproportionately affect on a goal What's the timeframe on this like when are we likely to see you will see over the next 10 years so it's been phased in so initially there's going to be if they talk about a third then a fifth so long term over the next 30 to 40 years Peatland and Donegal will not be farmed unless, this is the total insult unless we graze water buffalos and you know the amazing thing about in terms of there's so much that the Green Party could have delivered on in terms of the monoculture so biodiversity is the massive problem so what do I mean by biodiversity that's having as many possible plants as possible so if you look at all the dairy farmers in the south east almost all of them have one particular grass only a perennial rye grass we could have achieved equal objectives from this by encouraging these guys to have a monoculture in other words having different species of grass I admire them because they have an incredible lobby against that to ensure that that lobby that actually wasn't forced to deliver but again to my point is that we are left with this which will totally devalue farmland in west Donegal but people don't realise that your peatland and Donegal now will become value this because you're not going to be able to farm it but is the next fight going to be now that oh that is what it is democratically this was passed within this agreement there are emergency break facilities which give the option for targets for the agriculture system to be temporarily suspended over exceptional circumstances so it's our next conversation going to be this year next year or whatever about trying to get exemptions for Donegal or particular areas our next conversation Greg is going to be the fact that there's 3.1 billion and again this is a Greens project there's 3.1 billion allocated in the Biodiversity Act to start buying up Donegal to make to enlarge Glen Bay National Park and that is already happening farms are being bought out around Doverie so again what we have to look at these people in the eyes and question them is do they want people, do they want family farms in the Highlands of Donegal or do they just want one great big national park OK well what about the argument from the Greens that you know 80% of species are in decline and we need to be doing something Listen I welcome that and there is nobody that is in more favour of that in fact I have challenged we challenged Chagas at the last farmers meet and I was at to allocate a minimum of 1% of their budget for research on cattle in the uplands because we know from research done on Cumbria and Aberystwyth in Scotland that that improves biodiversity at the farmer biodiversity is something that I am very very keen to achieve I agree as cattle on mountains to achieve biodiversity totally right we are lacking biodiversity but going back to the point I made earlier when we have tillage farmers with just a monoculture that is just one single species when we have a lot of dairy farmers with just one single species those need to be challenged and those need to be encouraged as well to diversify that was all water, that was all taken out so the one measure that is affected that has been left behind is peatland and designated sites what is the effect on the goat let me put it to you like this then this is just to try and tease it out at the end of the day most of the farmers I speak to small medium sized farmers they are just in it because of heritage or because of family commitments or because they love it there is no money in it farming has to be subsidized for people to make money from it some might say in some areas it is sort of like a sunset industry does this not maybe give us an opportunity for a just transition away from loss making farming and to create something new and at the same time do something for the environment as I say I am saying that but I am just saying how long can we flog a dead horse which for many is farming can use this money and European money to have a just transition if the inevitable is inevitable in any case the first point I will make to you there is no sign and there is no promise at all for European money to compensate us to be forced out of farming the second point is we have got to break up and realize in 2050 we will have 10 billion people on the planet in 2050 because of climate change we are going to have a very narrow zone that can actually graze animals we are going to have a massive shortage of protein and that protein is going to be provided on the hills of Scotland Wales and Ireland where we can continue to graze animals because we can continue to grow vegetation so I hear totally what you are saying at the moment that farming has been very difficult but in fairness to the minister we have had the best organic schemes introduced last year probably that I have experienced in farming over the last 40 years so the balance has totally shifted farming now in the hills of Donegal with the organic scheme is actually viable Greg so it is ironic that from 2023 on we have actually been viable to be farming in Donegal and when I say farming organically and yet on the one hand Europe has introduced a fantastic scheme the minister has produced a fantastic scheme and on the other hand they say well that is grand there is the scheme but by the way there is no conflating here but lots doesn't make sense to me we are getting rid of farming it seems we are trying to we are talking about pumping water from the Shannon to Dublin to cool down data centres and at the same time we are talking about the environment and signing deals to cut down rainforests and import beef from Brazil none of it makes sense to me and I will go like all something has to be articulated to me to where it makes sense that is fine and my point of view has very easily shifted do you know what I mean I am not stuck in any way shape or form but if I look at all those things I mentioned it doesn't make any sense to me the point I would make is that there is nobody as passionate about the environment as me we totally needed a nature restoration act we need to deal with biodiversity but we needed to deal with the other 46 measures but all those other measures were removed because of farmers campaign on the streets of Brussels now we are left with a draconian measure which disproportionately affects us so you have cruise ships burning up all that carbon you have the data centres we could talk to kingdom about all the other massive sources of carbon and yet the we guys who are farming in western eagle have been targeted to somehow or other we are going to save the earth and the science on it is not exact because nobody can actually respond to the fact rewet in bogland or peatland actually releases methane so on the one hand we are saying it is brilliant we cut down on the amount of carbon now we have discovered the methane which is the other ugly word we are actually causing the release of methane but the frightening thing about it is this is now law so I am saying to you farmers who are sitting in glenfin or glenswale at the moment thinking about the shuckling cows water buffalo is what the a carrot art listener wants to know and we will leave it on this one tongue in cheek I presume a carrot art listener wants to know where on earth are you going to find water buffalo in donningall well if they had the way everywhere but in reality no I looked and done deal tell them I looked and done deal last night I am actually looking over an important sum from england so we are not going to lie down totally so reforma we could see water buffalo up there in the not too distant future all right dr jared rotate carry yourself thank you very much indeed to dr sorry senator Pauline O'Reilly a little later and I put some of jared's points to her she had another interview lined up and had to leave for that choose life choose fun choose not sitting at home getting bored choose something better something really fun choose fundomania coming to the brunswick movie bowl from March 1st choose regular junior or family wristbands top thrill rides choose fun for all ages a legendary fundomania event 1st to the 17th of March for details see fundomania.co.uk .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com .com 39 3 58 44 12 27 And finally 54 Phone your claimed 9104833 before 8 tonight. Leaving your name, contact number and the name of the shop will you purchase your book and we'll call you back the next working day. Get all your vision Ireland bingo information at highlandridio.com If you're into makeup then you'll want to know that Longcom's elite makeup artist Lorraine Byrne will hold a makeup and skincare masterclass at McGee's Camist Thursday 7th of March at 7pm. With refreshments, giveaways and prizes on the night it promises to be a really enjoyable experience. Tickets just 25 euro redeemable against any Longcom purchase on the night. Places limited booking essential. Call at highlandridio.com or call in store to guarantee your VIP place. House to Home Bridge End Donegal. Our modest front door opens onto two floors of Irish made furniture, suites, beds mattresses, dining and occasional furniture. Step into our showroom and see how we can transform your house into a home. House to Home furniture, flooring, slide robes and interiors. Bridge End Donegal. Choose Life. Choose Fun. Choose not sitting at home getting bored. Choose something better. Something really fun. Choose Fundamenia. Coming to the Brunswick Movie Bowl from March 1st. Choose Regular Junior or Family Risk Bands and enjoy some of Europe's top thrill rides. Choose Fun for All Ages. A legendary Fundamenia event first to the 17th of March. For details see Fundamenia.co.uk . OK, so we were talking a little earlier on, tomorrow being February 29th and it's unique in a couple of ways. I suppose the first being that if you happen to be born on the 29th then you're, I don't know, 66... Why did I pick a number not easily divisible by four? Anyway, you'd be a quarter of the age that someone born the day before might be. We're going to talk about that a little bit later on as well, but also traditionally, and I was questioning that a little bit earlier on, but I think it might be an opportunity for women out there to propose in line with traditions. But women don't need dates to be assertive, apparently. Well, of course they don't. Dr Caroline West is a Bumble sex and relationship expert and she joins us now. Good morning, Caroline. Good morning, Greg. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. So we're supposed to coincide with this and hey, if it gets the Bumble name out there all well and good as well. Just a little bit of a survey. What were you asking women? Yeah, we're asking women how comfortable they felt making the first move because that's what Bumble is all about. Women can send the first message on the app and the good news is that a lot of women feel that sense of impairment in their daily lives. So one in three are saying they're rejecting those timelines around you have to be married by a certain age, you have to have kids, you have to do this. You should, should, should all those kind of pressures. So it's really great to see that opportunity and empowerment. And two thirds of women surveyed are comfortable being the first to say I love you to their partner in a relationship. Yeah, I think that's great. You know, for years women, you know, we've been judged if we were too forward, you know, that meant we were too easy or too desperate or, you know, worried about being left on the shelf, you know. Worried about being left on the shelf. All these kind of social pressures that we put on women and now it's great that we're like, going to throw that in the bin, going to live my life the way I want to, which is fantastic. And also to the majority of women are, you know, it's very clear they're very, they want to establish their role in a relationship early on. You know what I mean, they're not prepared to suck it and see, see what it says, you know, see how things pan out. They want to sort of have their status in their relationship. Clear from the get-go. Yeah, which is great. You know, we found in Bumble that women really prioritise emotional intelligence. So that's, I think it's a result of lockdown, you know, if you were locked up with someone for a few months, you know, it might be great how good they look, but, you know, how did they solve an argument or, you know, how do you divide the chores and the household, all those awkward conversations that we're all going to have. So I think that's really important to suss out, you know, early on in the relationship, like what the stance is around equality. Do you have the same values? Are you on the same timelines? Are you, you know, what does marriage mean if that's what you want to have in your relationship? So all those really important questions are now being asked and it's just such a fantastic change to sitting around waiting for a man to, you know, decide the timeline or decide what the relationship will look like, which historically in Ireland, that's what women had to do. Yeah, I can't remember the exact figure, but looking at the most recent CSO stats, an awful lot of people are single and, you know, the default position might be that they just, you know, they can't find the right person or no one wants them, whatever it might be. I'm not saying that's what I feel, but maybe it's because people are becoming more discerning. They're content enough in single life and they are prepared to wait for the right person who, you know, they match their needs and they match their own needs. Absolutely. Like if you look back 100 years in Irish society, like you kind of had to get married and especially if you wanted a child, you had to get married because if you got, you know, if you had a child at a wedlock, it was one of the worst things you could do and you could end up in a laundry or mother and baby home, all these like social stigmas that were just really quite suffocating for women. But now it's, you know, we don't have to have children and we have more control over what our families look like. So we've got all these new types of families like blended families, step kids, no kids, being happily child-free. So we have so much more freedom now to have the kind of relationships that work for us. It doesn't have to be you do this, you do this, you do this. But some listening Caroline, and everyone's entitled their opinion though, will feel that's not progression, that's us going back. You know, I mean, we need actually to be making more children because we need to knock out more babies to look after us when we get older. Do you know what I mean? So in terms of, you know, people making decisions not to have bigger families or have any family at all, there are consequences to that. You know, we're not going to dig into that right now, but, you know, there's someone say, well, maybe that's not really as progressive as we might think. And then we could find ourselves like they doing the conversation that's happening in China at the moment that, you know, you do actually need to be having children. Yeah, well, you know, part of that comes down to the expectations of your children. You know, you don't have children to have an inbuilt carer, you know, you have a child for them to live their lives. And if they all immigrate to Australia, you don't have anyone to look at you then in your old age. So, you know, your children don't owe you anything. I take your point and not be an argumentative, but it's actually in terms of paying tax, you know, to pay pensions and to work and to have a, but I get you, I get you and everyone has different views and that's fine. I don't know what the right view one that is, so I can't argue on way or other. Now, you proposed to your your partner, your husband, am I correct? And was it on a leap year or different time of the year or what was that like? No, not at all. No, it was at Christmas actually. And yeah, I decided that this was it. You know, I met someone that I really liked and we'd had conversations about potentially getting married. So it wasn't something out of the blue, which the the feelers were out and you were pretty confident of a yes. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, which is always a good thing to know when you're going to propose this month. So maybe, you know, proposing in public when you're not sure what the answer will be might not be the wisest solution. So yeah, I proposed to him and then a few weeks later he proposed to me because it's a mutual decision. I think we should both be asked to do it. And I think it was great, but we did get some kind of questionable looks from people who had to kind of rearrange their faces really quickly with the shock when they heard that I had proposed. So it really kind of shows people still have, you know, ideas about what women should be and what a proposal should be. And you know, it was great to tear that up a little bit. Yeah. And this caller says, guys, before I start, I love men. I'm not anti men, but no, no, no to women asking a man to marry her. Men have an easy time in life compared to the crap women go through. So let the man pop the question, let him panic in case the answer is no lol. And I get that, but this is really about that person feeling comfortable to sit and wait if that's what they want to do, but that other people, her sisters, can feel empowered to say, you know what, I'm going to take the ball by the horns. So I think both views and both ways can live in the same space. I don't think one is a contradictory to the other. So there's a lot of dating apps out there. What is the unique thing about Bumble? It puts the woman on the front foot. Is that one of the big things of it? Or is that just something you see? What's the story there? Yeah, so women can send the first message on Bumble. So men can't. So it really takes a step to empowering women to decide this is who I'm interested in rather than waiting around for a man to do and there's lots of great software that stops unsolicited nude pictures, things like that coming in. There's zero tolerance for any kind of body shaming or any kind of homophobic or sexist language. So I think that's great because on a lot of dating apps, you do see that and you know, you see that lack of respect and I don't think that's a healthy way to find your partner. If you're sending unsolicited photos, things like that. Listen, I mean, obviously women can be as interested in a hookup as men can be in a hookup, but does this on other apps you might get a fella that will cast the net wide really and with no intention of ever establishing a meaningful relationship I can phrase it like that. With your approach, does it mean that you know I can see how it works. It gets rid of that or it would help eliminate. Now if a woman on Bumble wants to cast that wide, that's grand, but unfortunately there are sort of patterns of behaviour that are different between men and women in this area. Have I avoided the minds that land mines there correctly? I think there's still that stigma you know, if you want to have a hookup once a week or ten times a week whatever, that's absolutely fine. Steady on ten times a week. I mean, if you're busy, happy days, but also if you want to have a long-term relationship, absolutely fine too. So the idea of empowerment is like your previous caller, that works for them. Doesn't work for other people, you know so it's about deciding what you want and being able to clarify that so you know, if a one night stand makes you happy, great. If it doesn't maybe then have a look about well, what does work for me? Is it the long-term relationship? Is it marriage? Or is it a whole bunch of casual things and there's no shame in any of those options, it's just about finding what works for you. What do most women want from a man? Oh, that's a big question but I think the number one thing and especially we've seen this in bumble stats is emotional intelligence. So being able to solve the difficult conversations being able to be a cheerleader for a partner, being able to communicate, being able to take care of your sexual health and your physical health and your mental health and being able to be present in the relationship. So people don't want to have to mother a partner, you know, they wanted to be an equal relationship where everything is talked about and there's a sense of equality and respect at the heart of it. OK, thank you so very much indeed. Have a wonderful day, Dr Caroline West Bumble's sex and relationship expert. So some women might choose tomorrow to pop the question. Caroline maybe she's planning, I don't know, Caroline are you planning to ask me to marry you or anything? No? Yeah, OK. But women also don't feel they have to do it at that time of the year but they can be more assertive in their relationships and so on and so forth. Any views on that? 08, 6, 60, 25,000. Let us see. On electric cars, maybe all electric cars should run on renewable energy only and see how that works. Who is time to possibly sit in a queue to get your car charged at 20 to 30 minutes? It's not like a petrol car, a petrol station where you top up in a way you in a way at the moment can replace 17,000 to 25,000 for a replacement battery. You see the thing about the replacement batteries and again I'm coming at this on the fence and people might think I've got so many splinters in my backside but like I've had engines go on cars all of the time. Now it doesn't cost 17 to 25,000 but you know I saw an advert recently there where there's a 1 million euro sorry a 1 million kilometer guarantee on an electric engine. I think it's guaranteed that it will retain 70% of its charge for 60 odd for 10 years so I mean there's a lot of misinformation out there too there's a lot of people with an agenda against electric cars that will say oh well the engine goes and you're stuck but there are going to be people that's had that experience too but I don't think there's it's happening all of the time I just think there's a lot of people very busy in not wanting other people to drive electric cars and I don't understand that I don't understand why there's a lot of people on social media seem really really keen to discourage other people from having electric cars you know if I choose to have one I choose to have one but I'm not going to try and browbeat my neighbour into not having one he just makes or she makes her own decision but anyway as I say I've driven a few electric cars no bother with them and great okay but each to their own we'll be back with our next guests on the show after these watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com choose life choose fun choose not sitting at home getting bored choose something better something really fun choose Fundamenia coming to the Brunswick movie bowl from March 1st choose regular junior or family wristbands and enjoy some of Europe's top thrill rides choose fun for all ages a legendary Fundamenia event first to the 15th of March for details see fundamenia.co.uk enhance your skills with SIFTECH's part funded training programs at SIFTECH we provide courses including first aid, road works, people moving and handling, confined spaces electrophusion and machinery training for Ireland and UK sites also online programs such as water hygiene, construction supervisors, safety reps and much more if you have a group for training SIFTECH will go to you contact SIFTECH today at SIFTECH.ie and take the first step towards upskilling and safety compliance Kelly's Diner winners of best family dining at the Highland Radio Hospitality Awards is open right through the week with extended opening hours every weekend try the renowned breakfast or the tastiest burgers in town or something from the selection of healthy options all on a menu that's packed with all the most ingredients and confirmation catering is also available to book all at Kelly's Diner Mountaintop Better Kenny Uno Dos Trace, a Hain Adoa tree one two three, the Orona, the Ateca and the Turaco three great SUVs from SEAT and when you order now you can enjoy three years free tire insurance and three years roadside assistance plus three flexible payment options to purchase your new SEAT visit SEAT.ie to discover fantastic offers great things common threes at DMG Motors Dunneagall town and while I have three seconds allow me to say that yes terms and conditions apply. Dunneagall ETB's Further Education and Training Fair is on this Wednesday and Thursday in the Radisson Blue Hotel Better Kenny Wednesday evening from seven to nine is aimed at leaving cert students their parents and those in employment looking to upskill with talks on courses and apprenticeships Thursday the 29th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. is for anyone interested in full and part-time education or training opportunities. This free event is perfect for finding out about the various options offered by Dunneagall Education and Training Board across the county. Now we're joined on the program by Ailish. Hi Ailish. Hello Greg. Nice to speak to you. Now am I correct in saying that you raise hands? Yes I've got my own hands again. Okay very good. We were talking earlier on I was talking to Lee Gooch about eggs. Yes I heard. I'm sorry about that my ignorance but you know what if you don't ask you don't learn that's my attitude okay. Absolutely. Isn't it remarkable that these birds can produce these things I always think it's an amazing sign of nature but how are they formed or what do you do with the ones that come out? I'm trying to choose my words carefully here Ailish. How often do your hands lay? Each hand lays one egg per day. Right. So it makes that egg over the course of 24 hours? Yes. That's correct. We were discussing whether or not one should wash eggs after they've hatched. What's the rules there? Oh not hatch sorry after they've been laid. Since you raise yourself you don't wash the eggs because there's what's called a bloom on the on the eggs when it's laid it's like a wet substance waxy substance because there's pores on the eggshell so that closes the egg and to protect what's inside it. So in terms of obviously our consumption of them then that keeps them fresher for longer? Absolutely see my eggs when my eggs can last I don't fridge refrigerate eggs because they're not supposed to be what I do is I keep them on the side board and use them as and when but sometimes I have too many eggs and I can then glass them which is a different story altogether but the eggs will last out on the board for at least two weeks. That's what I find. And is it easy for you to turn? But chopped eggs are a different matter. Yeah indeed is it easy for you to I will talk about that in a sec is it easy for you to know when an egg is no longer fit for use you know too many if it's been out too long is there a I seem to recall my mother put them in water whether they circle float. Yes Absolutely. If they sink it is the best way to test them if they're fresh or not. You put them in a bowl of water cold water and the eggs that rise to the top you can't eat them they could be dumped or whatever and the eggs that go to the bottom are fresh you can eat them. Okay Now what's the difference between your eggs and the chopped eggs then? The eggs are fed organically this is just a type of they're fed organically right and the chopped eggs are washed so the bloom that is on them when they're laid is gone and that leaves them open to perishing quicker. Now another question I have for you what's the difference between a chicken and a hen? A chicken is a baby hen now lots of people call grown hens that lay eggs called them chickens but that's not right a hen is a hen that's laying eggs a chicken is a baby hen So it hasn't started laying eggs yet? Before the hen lay eggs Okay very good Am I correctly saying as well that chickens they don't lay eggs in the cold do they unless you obviously heat where they're living they generally prefer the heat to lay eggs Sorry Greg what did you say at the beginning I was asking do will hens lay eggs in the cold naturally? Yes they do my hens do and my hens are free to roam well I don't like to say it but they'd be in the neighbors garden but they're okay with that they're okay with that We've just got a text in here my neighbors chickens keep coming into my garden what can I do to keep them out completely unrelated completely unrelated I must give my neighbors some eggs Do you need a cockerel Eilish No no absolutely not if I wanted a young chick if I want the hen to I would need a rooster because I only want eggs I only want eggs you don't need a rooster We're also wondering what you refrigerate or put in the cupboard bananas, tomatoes things like that you don't refrigerate them at all No like I used to use food that needs heat to mature like peppers peppers let me think here anything that needs to ripen anything that needs to ripen anything that needs to ripen needs heat to ripen tomatoes they ripen beautifully out on the sideboard they don't in the fridge there's a different taste you don't put bananas in the fridge no because they're I mean you eat bananas kind of not long after buying them because they go black I think to an apple or a banana out of the fridge I think coldness and they do this with beer I think it stops the flavour absolutely the taste is different my apples I leave them at my apple but I have my own apple tree too but sometimes I don't have enough I leave them out for a week and they sweeten they really sweeten and I buy grapefruits and oranges and I have sometimes the grapefruit leave it for two months and they taste so much better and they're juicier really and truly the fridge isn't for everything it's for like butter, milk and meat probably where do you put your tomatoes ketchup ketchup we don't have that kind of stuff because when I ask that question no one has it everyone has it except the people I ask the question of ok so you don't use ketchup you probably make your own tomato ketchup from your tomatoes on your side board I've been known to do that yes but I just keep it out and make enough to use to use maybe out for a week do you actually make your own ketchup you know you can make your own ketchup tomatoes, sugar, mustard and any of your stuff ok listen Ailish I won't delay any longer it's been lovely speaking to you do you have names on your hands by the way no no no I just call I can't even I just call them the bloody they come they come to me they're always around you know alright take care of yourself thanks Ailish I do appreciate it 08 6 60 25 thousand now they seem to have been an issue with the bingo numbers I'm not sure if they didn't go out or the wrong numbers went out but anyway here are today's numbers if you are playing it's time for vision Ireland bingo on Highland Radio it's Wednesday the 28th of February you're playing on the blue sheet the reference number is s3 it's game number 9 the numbers are 24 90 33 42 76 46 48 44 57 40 and finally 9 phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 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 Ireland bingo information at HighlandRidio.com choose fun choose not sitting at home getting bored choose something better something really fun choose Fundamenia coming to the Brunswick Movie Bowl from March 1st choose regular junior or family wrist bands and enjoy some of Europe's top thrill rides choose fun for all ages a legendary Fundamenia event first to the 17th of March for details see fundamenia.co.uk Nutrious XL Yo with Lamb and Nutrious Yo with Lamb Crunch are formulated to ensure a vigorous lamb and excellent milk yield. Available for lambing season offer 25 kg bags buy 10 get one free and 15 euro off per tonne in bulk available at your local homeland store visit Nutrious.ie for full nutritional information Social Live, Johnny Gull this Friday tickets from 29.25 are on sale now for details time is running out to avail of the Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Program this year you could receive a fully funded gas conversion at a insulation LED replacement bulbs and more applications closing soon search nisep.co.uk to apply today terms and conditions and eligibility criteria apply to you by Grant building a new home choose grants a triple plus rated air to water heat pump and you flex under floor heating visit grant.ie let's look at that weather forecast today will be mostly cloudy with that breaks of rain and drizzle rain will turn heavy no I think is that the right weather forecast let me just double check that no it is the right weather forecast okay today mostly cloudy with that breaks of rain and drizzle rain and drizzle rain and rain will be mostly cloudy with that weather forecast early tonight highest temperatures of 10 to 12 degrees with moderate to fresh south to south west winds as I just want to double check that sows not to mislead you a call it says Mr. Burke on the terms of his contract had to turn up to school each day this is what the media isn't telling you to fulfill the terms of the contract as being employed as a teacher but he was transgenderism, full stop. You might believe that, but he doesn't have to go into court and change his views. He just simply has to go into court and purge his contempt by saying he won't attend. Right, let's go to, let us go to current on a community school with a number of guests there. Firstly, we'll say good morning to the teacher, Pauline McDermott. Good morning Pauline. Good morning everyone. How are you? Nice to see you. Often the teachers, I sort of see them for a second then they run off. That's what we do best. But that's to give the spotlight to the children as well or to the younger people, the young adults or however they want to call themselves. The John Couture students from Carnham Donner Community School are Julia Grant. Good morning Julia. Morning. We also have Kiera Gilmour. Hi Kiera. Hello. And also Ailish Doherty. And I suppose I'll ask you, Kiera, first if that's OK. Talk to me a little bit about John Couture. So John Couture is a sustainable fashion competition where lots of young people from many different countries take junk and turn it into fashion or mature. And it's a brilliant competition that lets young people express their talent and art through the fashion. And Julia, how many pieces did you have to create? I'll just do one dress. OK. And what was it made of? Well, Miss McDermott's sister was doing away. Some storage shoe container boxes. And we just took them, cut them out. A heap of circles, spray-painted them. And that became the main part of our dress. And then we had a mesh lining and a few sharp curtains or the bathroom curtain. Bathroom curtain. And I mean, is it about how it looks or how easy it is to wear? Or it doesn't really have to be incredibly comfortably, I would hope. Does it? Or perhaps it does? I think we should ask Elish that one. Go on, Elish. Did you end up wearing it? OK. It's definitely wearable, but it comes with a few scars afterwards. Given what you used to construct it, that doesn't surprise me. And Miss McDermott, it's a clever competition, isn't it? Because it talks of sustainability, but it also gets the creative juices flowing. It gets people working together. It works on so many different levels, doesn't it? It really does. I mean, it really... I suppose teamwork really is the key to success in junkiture. I mean, the skill has been involved with the competition for many years. And as the gearer said, it's really essentially about taking rubbish and turning it into something beautiful. I mean, we are just so proud of the gearers and their achievements. And a great deal of thought went into this. Who wants to talk to me about the inspiration and what kind of address? Because it's not just finding bits and throwing it together, right? So you look at what's trending, maybe your favourite designer and trying to emulate that. So is it you, Elish, that wants to talk me through the inspiration behind the design? Yeah, sure. It was inspired by the Dutch fashion designer Iris Van Herpen. So it was her fall 2020 collection in Kutcher. And there's just so many dresses in that collection that we absolutely loved. And it was more like the circles we took inspiration from. And then Julie here, she found another dress with that mesh bottom for inspiration. And we just combined the two. And we wanted the green to represent Ireland. And that's how our dress came about. And Julia, this is an international competition. Was it done remotely? Did you travel or what was the story there? First, for the final, we travelled to Dublin and got through Top 10. And then that took us to the world's competition in Monaco where we just last week... Just last week, we had a two-day trip over. And the final was on Thursday. And it was an amazing competition. It was really quick. The time flew by whenever we were there. It was like you were going back in a second. Alice, did you have to walk in this dress? Was there any issues there? There was. I had to do like a catwalk sort of thing. We had to walk to music for about a minute. All the contestants, all six of us did that. We actually opened the show. So it was quite nerve-racking, but it was really, really fun because the crowd was really supportive, obviously, for the opening act. It was easy enough to walk in. It was just a little bit painful at times. Kira, are you not there going, God, I hope nothing falls off or worse, still Alice falls over? Especially because the dress was shipped the whole way to Monaco and we were just hoping and praying when it got there, it would also be intact. And then when we got in this young stage, we were just praying the whole time. But we were probably all stayed together. Yeah, a big shout out to Davey and DHL who ensured that the dress arrived intact. Pauline, you know, like, our Donegal links to this competition, which has now grown into sort of, you know, an international monster in all the right ways. John Kutcher, Bonkranaman Troy Armour, he was behind this, wasn't he? That's not where the Donegal connections end. Yeah, I mean, we have, I suppose, really, John Kutcher has grown from Donegal, you know, really. And we were very lucky. We actually won the glamour prize. So that is actually part of, sponsored by ATU and Donegal as well. And we would have very, I suppose... Actually, just to recap that, because that's an important further Donegal connection. So we've got the founder from Bonkran, Troy Armour, the award that used one, which is ironic, instead of going down the road to pick it up and let it kind of, you decided to go out and win a competition in Milan. But it was Lara, Jane, Darty, Elizabeth, Clover and Ema McLaughlin, who also attended the event, but they created the award that we see Ailish gripping onto, ATU actually created all the awards for the event. It's astonishing. And it was, again, through the whole idea of sustainability, because they used the old COVID screens that we would have had, I suppose, during COVID times. And they... I'm not going to call this technical expert, because I'm not sure exactly how they created it, but I think they printed it onto the COVID screens, but they made these beautiful awards from the COVID screens. And they made it into the award that we see here at the... Everybody who won prizes at the event. It's pointy. It's pointy. I don't know how it passed health and safety, but anyway, it's beautiful. And if that wasn't enough, Moff DJ Oshbosh is banging out the tunes, as they say. He won the things. All right, OK. So, Julia, what next then? Rest on your laurels. Is that it now? You've won that. Don't be sure, I guess, but hopefully maybe some... They haven't even started to think about now. So that's a breeze. What's your takeaway memory from the whole experience, Kira? I think it's the friends that we made when we were away. We really had a great experience with all the Irish teams, and just enjoying the time away with everybody. And what about you, Ailish? Mine would definitely be, like, walking on stage. But I didn't want to leave the stage. I loved everyone cheering for me, you know. Yeah. I think we'd all love that. And of course, from your perspective, teacher Pauline McDermott, putting the current on a community school that's already on the map further so, and a great deal of pride right across the school and the community and the county, of course, as well. I mean, as I said, we're still proud of the girls. We have an amazing art department here. I'll have to say a shout out to the other art teachers. They are amazing. I know the other art teacher, Miss McGee, has got to dress us through to the Dublin Regionals this year as well. As I said to the girls, the girls worked really, really hard. This was very much their project. Not only are they extremely talented students, but they're also really lovely girls. Yeah. And we are very, very lucky that the school is so supportive. It has been very supportive of us and of the girls and of, you know, all the rehearsal time and random things can help with this. Again, a big shout to John Collins, who is always there to help on the technical side of things and really everything as well. And as I said, we're very lucky. Our principal, Mr. McGinnis, has been very supportive of the John Couture competition as well and has let us go through these things, which is really important too. Have I missed any more girls? No, I think you've mentioned... Our teacher also, Miss McGinnis, quite big present. Wow, talk about fishing for a mention, Pauline. Have I forgot... Have I forgot anyone, girls? No, I'm only joking. You mentioned half the girls. But, you know, it's a brilliant achievement and I'll let you go now and get back to your studies from the inception of shall we, what shall we do and brainstorming ideas to be sitting here now with the award on your lap. It's a really long journey with so many experiences. It's fantastic. And we congratulate you in the whole school and it is the support of the school. Pauline, as you quite rightly pointed out that allows it to happen. So, we couldn't be prouder of you, Pauline, but particularly Julia, Grant, Kiera Gilmore, thank you for joining us. And the best of luck with the leaving search, as well. I hope you achieve everything you wish. Thank you so much. Thank you. OK, take care of yourself and also another mention to three students and graduates of ATU, letter Kenny. They designed the awards. They are Lara, Jane Doherty, Elizabeth Clover and Ema McLaughlin. They also attended the events. So, as I say, fair play to all involved. And then not to forget DJ Oshbosh. DJ Oshbosh in what he achieved, as well. 08, 6, 60, 25,000 is the WhatsApp and text number. We're going to Mahary Senior Social Club and there is, I wonder, can Mary Rogers, she's just joining us at the moment. I'll just read a couple of comments as Mary joins us because we've got a very, very special guest, particularly given the day that is tomorrow. I just want to just see when the audio joins here. Caller says, I was reading on Google that when a lithium battery is punctured or broken the escaped lithium reacts with air and starts a fire in the event of an accident would this not be a serious cause for concern? I suppose the same way a petrol or diesel tank can rupture and start a fire. Mary Rogers at the Mahary Senior Social Club Mary, can you hear me? Are we going through loud and clear? Mary, are you there? No, I don't think Mary can hear me. I'm going to kick her out and bring her back in again because there's a very important gentleman that I want to speak to. I'll ask one more time. Mary, can you hear me? No, okay. So we'll bring Mary Rogers back in. Stay where you are. It'd be worth it. It's a nice wee thing. Sinn Fein have the opportunity to bring down this government and go to the country. Pro-usual, this caller says, run away. That's how that's being framed by that listener. Mary, are you there? Mary, are you there? No, Mary can't hear me, unfortunately because there's a very special gentleman with Mary that I really wanted to say hello to but unfortunately my audio doesn't seem to be coming through. Do you know what we'll do? We'll take a quick break and I want to reconnect with Mary. We'll do that after we take these messages. Good movie ball from March 1st. Choose regular, junior or family wrist bands and enjoy some of Europe's top thrill rides. Choose fun for all ages. A legendary Fundamentia event first to the 17th of March. For details, see Fundamentia.co.uk And they're gone. Also, all rugs are still all half price. But when all the half price rugs are gone, they're definitely gone. Drop by your local home store and more. Visit us online at homestoreandmore.ie New store now open at Prescotti Centre Black Rock. Home store and more. A happy home. For a competitive insurance quote today called Hickey Clark and Langen on 911 2688 or pop into their office at Bally McCool Letter Kenny. Hickey Clark and Langen General Insurance is limited. Trading as Hickey Clark and Langen is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The Lotto Jackpot is an estimated 3 million euro. Play responsibly in store or in store. The Lotto Jackpot is an estimated 3 million euro. Play responsibly in store or in app. The National Lottery. It could be you. It's all kicked off at Brian McCormick Sports with new football boots in FG or SG. Try the new Adidas Predator in classic black, red, white. Puma King boots in many options from only $49.99 in adult sizes. Match it up with shorts and socks, gloves and gum shields. Click on BMC Sports.ie Brian Adams is back on tour in 2024. Join Highland Radio on our trip to Dublin to see the man himself at the 3 Arena on Tuesday the 21st of May 2024. Your trip includes luxury transfers, bed and breakfast at the 4-star Carton Hotel Blanche Star, your standing ticket to the show and a shopping trip to Dublin City Centre the following day. Find out more on the outlet at highlandridio.com or call us on 074 9125000. Now hopefully I can go to Mary Rogers at Marry Senior Social Club. Can you hear me, Mary? I can hear you loud and clear. How are you? I am doing good. I barely recognise you without a guitar in your hand. Well, I have it right beside me. You're never too far away from it. OK, very, very good. And you've got a very special man beside you, Huey O'Donnell. Hi, Huey. Hello. It's lovely to see you. How are you keeping Huey? Even very good. Thank you. Very good. And I want to wish you on behalf of everyone at Highland and all our listeners a very happy 88th birthday tomorrow. Thank you very much. Or are you 22 because you've only celebrated 22 birthdays? I don't feel like 22. Well, what do you feel, Huey? I feel it here. There's the cake. 22, I'll tell you. It's a nice one. Huey, are you doing anything nice for your birthday? What? Are you doing anything nice for your birthday? No, we're just out here in the centre. OK. And we pick out every Wednesday in the centre six of us. Fantastic. Huey, where are you from? Where's your hometown? I'm from Dunlop. Beautiful. Excellent stuff. And is Mary looking after you there? She's looking after me every Wednesday. Oh, very, very good. No, you couldn't get a better woman. Excellent. Indeed. And she's good for a song too, Huey. Oh, you tell me she's good all right. There's another couple of Mary's. I'll tell you, the three of them aren't too bad. There are three of them here. Hi, Greg. Hi, Mary. How are you? Lovely to see you again. And you too. Thank you very much. How are you keeping darling? Are you well? Very well. Yeah. Doing all right. All right. OK, excellent stuff. And Mary, I presume you've got the cake out now. Are we going to celebrate Huey's birthday today? Yes. OK, excellent stuff. We're celebrating now. I just want to introduce a few of our friends. Of course. Go ahead. We have Charlie. Charlie, how are you? And we have Kathleen and Sally. Hi, Kathleen. Hi, Sally. John, Kathleen. Mary. John, Margaret. Huey. We have Molly. Grace. Gracie. Eddie. John. Kath. Beth. And you're back to the full circle. How are you, Mary, again? Huey, there's an awful lot of tea on that table. There's no stiff ones there for you. Yeah. Yeah, there are cakes here, too. We're enjoying the cake. Go on. Oh, my good man. 22. But I say the balloons on the wall are 88. You see the balloons? They're 88, though, the balloons. All right. On the cake. The cake's 22. All right. You're a song and you're Mary's. Can I take the news and I'll come back for a song? Okay, we have a song. Yeah, but stay there. Don't start yet. Stay there because I'm going to take the news headlines with Donald Kavanaugh. Just a wee surprise visit. It's lovely to do it. Okay, it is a minute past 11. We're going to be going back live to the Mahary Senior Social Club. We hadn't planned this. It's just going to happen. And the story is about a person who was born on the day of his mother's first stroke 88th birthday with all the stories that matter across the Northwest. It's Greg Hughes on the Ninth and Nunes show on Highland radio and all the stories include the big one. Huey's birthday. Okay, let's get a news update. It's over to Donald Kavanaugh. Thank you, Greg. Good morning. It's emerged a lack of capacity in the pathology department at letter. of them unsuitable for analysis. A letter sent to GPs and other users of the service says this will be the case as of this coming Monday. More details on our website. Those responsible for a recent spate of vandalism on businesses in Bunkrana are being urged to reflect on the hurt they're causing. Substantial damage has been caused to properties on the town's main street. Councillor Jack Murray says the efforts of the Trady Towns Group in the town are being hampered as a result. The New Zealand Council believes tourism bodies need to restore the faith of businesses in the area. Councillor Mark McDermott says there's a huge opportunity to expand and promote Ineshaun's tourism offering, but to do that he says financial assistance and collaboration between Fulcher Ireland, Govid and Ineshaun and Donegal Tourism will be vital. The government's been criticised over the lack of mental health supports for defective block homeowners. Speaking during the mental health bill debate in the Dall last night, Deputy Patrick McLaughlin said the defective block crisis has taken a severe toll on the mental health of families. The Northern Ireland Assembly has passed an STLP motion supporting the need for an all-island rail policy and seeking to implement the recommendations of the recently published Strategic Rail Review document. Moving the motion, foil MLA Mark H. Durkin said every county on this island should have rail provision and highlighted the lack of rail services in the northwest. And campaigners have gathered outside Belfast High Court ahead of a ruling on whether the British government's Troubled Legacy Act is in breach of human rights. The challenge has been brought forward by families of victims of the Northern Ireland conflict. The act includes provisions for conditional amnesties and will also put a stop to future Troubles-era inquests and civil cases. There are the headlines back with news headlines again at 12 o'clock. Thanks, Donal. Okay, so we've gate-crashed a party for Huey O'Donnell. He's 88 tomorrow, albeit 2022. It's whether you believe the candles or the balloons. That's the issue. Huey, a very proud Don Loman. He's a Maori senior social club that having a little bit of a party and I'm sure there's going to be a bit of card play a little later on. And we've got two-thirds of the three Marys. So it's all just coming together. So, Mary Rogers and Zoom can play up with sound when there's a few people. We'll see how we get on. Take it away whenever you're ready. Thank you very much. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Unfortunately, because there's a few people singing, it's cutting out. I'm so, so sorry. But anyway, we could have planned this, but we didn't. It was for fun and we gotta sing song. Happy birthday to you, Huey. Thank you. We wish you and here's to another 22 years. I'll tell you, by the looks of it, I don't think I'm going to be too far wrong. God bless you, Huey. It's been lovely chatting to you. Thank you so much, Mary Rogers, for facilitating it. And a big hello to everyone at Maori Senior Social Club. It's been lovely to drop in on the birthday celebrations. Have a wonderful day, everyone. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. I wish we could have heard the singing because the Marys and the rest of the crew, beautiful singers. But unfortunately, just with Zoom, we have to set something up on the other end as well, so it doesn't try and filter out the sound. But hey, you got a sense of it. You even got me singing a few bars. Happy birthday, Huey O'Donnell, 88 today. It's not just that Sarah can't rely on the rains to come this year. It's not just that the only water left could cost her her life. It's not just that she has seen all her crops destroyed and she is struggling to feed her little boy. Like thousands of parents living in regions devastated by drought, Sarah is living in fear and it's not just. This lends your help to make all the difference. Visit trocra.org or call 1-800-408-408-Trocra together for a just world. It's time for Wellness Wednesday now and tomorrow, the 29th of February, is Rare Diseases Day. Daira Woods is a HHT sufferer and founder of HHT Ireland and you might go, well, what's HHT? Well, it's in that part of the issue. It's probably, it is a rare disease and therefore it doesn't get talked about as much as other diseases. And what follows conversation, I suppose, may be further research or investment or treatments. And I imagine that's what part of, that's part of Rare Disease Day to sort of bring these conditions to the fore with the hope that we can make advances in understanding and also in research and treatments and what have you. Daira, good morning to you. Thank you so very much for joining me today. Good morning, Greg and to all your listeners. Thank you very much for having us. And we'll talk about Rare Diseases Day and its importance and I've kind of touched on quite a bit of it now, but I want to hear about you and HHT. What is your condition? Okay, so HHT for everyone is hereditary, haemorrhagic, telangiectasia. Now, hereditary meaning genetic, haemorrhagic meaning bleeding, telangiectasia is the one that gets everyone and believe it or not, you have telangiectasia and I have telangiectasia. Another word for tiny blood vessels, but mine are fragile. They're haemorrhagic. They're bleeding. They rupture and cause a lot of trouble. Yours don't. Internally or externally or both, Daira? Internally. Internally, we have them. We have them sitting, they're visible on the top of the skin and our lips and our gums, our faces. So actually, external and internal, most of the damage is going on inside. So if you were to have, say for instance, a blood vessel breaking your digestive system or your lung or indeed your brain, how do you become aware of that? Because it could continue to bleed until such time as it shows itself? Is it as not as simple as that or as complex as that? I suppose that you have to wait until it shows itself. It does happen like that 90% of HHT patients suffer unexplained and recurrent nosebleeds. Now, nosebleeds in themselves are fine. They're healthy. Maybe the football hits the child or an adult and you nosebleed, that's fine. But when you find you're suffering recurrent nosebleeds for no reason, they're unexplained. Then you know, there might be something going on here. And then the other thing is because it's hereditary, we take a look at the family and say, strange granny, granda and uncle's cousin's dad, mom, you know, so when there are a few people in the family suffering these unexplained and recurrent nosebleeds, then it's time to have that conversation. And so nosebleeders would be very, very lucky in one way because that's alerting them to the issue. Others then don't suffer the nosebleeds and they may have fragile blood vessels, as you say, bleeding internally. And until it causes a stroke or a hemorrhage, a brain hemorrhage or whatever, it's serious stuff. They know they haven't. Often people might feel a heaviness in the head or a headache or something like that. I mean, if that happens to you, Dara, you're thinking all different things, aren't you? It may well turn out to be just a simple headache and inverted commas, but you have to take any sign your body gives you incredibly seriously, Art Manchin. That's right. And once there's a chance of it being HHT, once there are those signs in the family of the nosebleeds, it's time to contact the centre. We're very lucky to have a centre down in Cork in the Mercy Hospital. The national centre has been run by interventional radiologist Adrienne Brady for the many, many years and he's just recently retired. Dr. Stephen Powers filling his shoes. But when you go down there, you're incredibly lucky because they will do full screening. They check the major organs, the brain, the lung, you know, whatever they feel is needed. But that's how we find out if we have involvement in our lungs or our brain. And that's what happened with my family. We realise there was an interview on the late, many, many years ago. I think it was 2000 and a father talked about how he found HHT was in his family and his young daughter, Grace Nolan, died suddenly from a rupture vessel in her lung. And he pulled out all the stops, went to America, met the experts, got them back to Cork, to the Mercy Hospital. And that's where they set up the centre in Cork. So they were on the late, late show one night and my father, who suffered from incredibly chronic nosebleeds, saw the interview and he rang me and he said, I think this is what we've got. He said, we need to take steps, ring the hotline in Monday morning and see what we can do. And we did, we rang the hotline and the advice was, take yourself and your children down because it's genetic. So not just you, but your children have to be screened as well. The importance of interviews like this are absolutely, that's why they're so important. Because as I often say, we only have to reach that one family or that one individual and then it's all worthwhile. Very sadly, you talked of this awareness, coming through a father losing a child. Very sadly, you lost your son to, attributed to HHT and I'm really sorry for your loss, Dara, I'm sure it's never gets any easier. What do you want to say about the circumstances of your son's passing? Well, when Paul was about 12 going into secondary school and the sister Katie was a year behind him, we went down to Cork and we had the screening and I was told my brain and lungs were fine. I just have the nosebleed, which will go down into my digestive tract and cause problems as I get older. The kids were screened, they had the nosebleed issue too, but they both had the long issue. They have telangiectasis in the lungs. Now with Katie, we call them AVMs, but let's call them malformations in her vessels where microscopic and we were told they may never grow and cause any trouble at all. Whereas Paul's were macro and being macroscopic, they were causing a lot of bleeding inside. We weren't even aware of, but thankfully they were able to intervene and embolize these bleeding vessels and back it was a day procedure and back to school then after the weekend and then once he's on the system and once anybody's on the system, you're brought back so many years later, but you have to bear in mind you're giving your child radiation for these CTs for the screening. So every three years Paul would be brought back and his new ones had formed and were badly bleeding. So he needed intervention every three years, Katie didn't need any at all and Katie's now living a fabulous life in Madrid and in great form. Paul every so often would go back and have them embolize and get on with it and this is where education comes in. We didn't know anybody else going through this at all so we didn't know what to look out for. So Paul headed off to Paris and Paul had graduated from DCU, went to Paris for this summer, he was going to work his way around Europe with his girlfriend and five days in he was reading a book, sitting up in the bed reading a book and he collapsed and died and unfortunately it was a pulmonary malformation that just ruptured there and then. Now the week before he'd had a bit of coughing and bleeding during the night and he was kind of concerned and he said this doesn't seem right and I said okay we go into the hospital in the morning just get it checked and not knowing anything we went into A&E and hospital in Dublin and they'd never heard of HHT, never heard of it but as a parent I said please do an x-ray for him he looks fine to you now but he wasn't fine last night and they did an x-ray thinking I was panicking but I didn't know at the time an x-ray wasn't sufficient it wasn't going to show up any bleeding IBM it should have been a CT so my words people who go through this have this experience and there's bleeding they're coughing up blood you think it's from an old nosebleed but it may not be and you need a CT and I can't tell enough people that. Of course and this has been a theme on the programme so far this week of similar sorts of stories about knowing the information trusting your gut or whatever it might be. Okay now obviously there's all the things that can happen to us in our health over the course of our life as a HHT sufferer say for instance do you have to avoid things like aspirin or you know if you had another condition that would ordinarily be treated with blood thinners that that could be a complication for you and other sufferers so in other words it's not simply the HHT perhaps it's how you can intervene in other medical matters. Well absolutely for us we have to stay away from all blood thinners be it in medication or be it in our diet we have to be so careful so anything that will dilate our vessels like spices alcohol is a vasodilator just naturally and we really should stay away from alcohol but many of us don't we enjoy a nice glass of white wine the red berries and the red wines for whatever reason many patients will experience bad bleeding and it's the nose bleeding is not the the brain or the lung but the nose tends to bleed when we drink the red wines and eat the red berries. So and this is not to startle but it's to educate but just so I understand and so that anyone listening before the messaging you know you will get young people that are prone to nosebleeds and one of the interventions is I don't know what it's called but they'll burn the uh up the nose like okay excellent thanks for your help is it possible would that would that be an effective treatment for the nosebleeds and mask the HHT or that wouldn't work for HHT and people who have to go through that needn't worry. Well intervention like that causes more trauma in a nose so if your nose is healthy and your vessels are strong around the one off one off cotter is fine but it's not and this is where we need to stay up to date we need to know what's going on around the world in Europe and America because the techniques are changing all the time the treatments are changing we find still here uneducated medics are taking a HHT patient in and giving the cottery not knowing the future damage it's it's causing so cottery is a no-no laser has been the preferred choice of action up until now but if we look across the waters laser is now a no-no again it's causing more trauma to the surrounding mucosa so now we are fighting for this in Ireland sclerotherapy is the new treatment in Europe and America and it it injects the sclerophant into the bleeding vessel itself directly it doesn't harm the surrounding mucosa and it's fine it seems to be a great success now we how many people suffer officially from HHT and I wonder how reflective of that is the actual number in other words people that aren't diagnosed well one in five thousand people in the world will have HHT okay and they reckon in Ireland we're talking about five thousand people in Ireland roughly but the stats are awful 90 percent go on diagnosed wow okay 90 it's huge we're talking about a rare disease but it's rare in the fact that it's going on diagnosed but one of those affected is a listener to the show James thanks very much for texting does that lady with HHT take cayenne pepper I take it daily now and has helped immensely with nosebleeds it helps to seal up tiny bleeds internally but I mean that's James James is what's worked for them but we've got to remember we're all so different and we're one food acts differently to James than to somebody else so we all just try and find what works for us in our diet and stick to that and rule out the ones that make us bleed so the reason we're talking about rare diseases is that because they're rare it doesn't affect an awful lot of people a cynic might say doesn't mean an awful lot of votes it means that you have to campaign doubly hard triply hard quadruply hard to sort of get in a change in terms of treatments and what have you because you're not heard because there's a few yeah but that's why it's good that people come together under the umbrella of rare Ireland because whilst individually a lot of these conditions diseases or whatever way they're called are rare collectively there's an awful lot of people in the our country isn't there are affected by rare disease absolutely in the world there are 300 million but in Ireland there are 300,000 people living with a rare disease but there's a new campaign launched recently one in 17 where one in 17 people in Ireland are affected by a rare disease and I'm one of them and it's great to have rare Ireland bringing us all together I work a lot with HHT Ireland specific HHT patients but it is great to see the umbrella group of rare Ireland there for us all and then the next level up rare diseases Ireland which looks after all the organizations and then another level up HHT Europe HHT Ireland sits around the table in Europe with all the members in in Europe for HHT specifically which helps us stay up to date with what's going on around Europe and also a factor two with many conditions you look as healthy as a trout and I'm sure you are but you know the people may not be people may not be aware that you have this condition and the impact it's had on you and your family as well people can go on Facebook and go to rare Ireland I think it's the best way to find out what's coming up get information I want to leave you with a text and it's from the Woroski family and they say hi I'd like to say a very big thank you to Dara and everyone at HHT Ireland for the fantastic support they give to families affected by HHT and the ongoing work that they do so it's funny life isn't it from your father watching something on the late late show to the awful loss that's that that was visited on you Dara from that HHT Ireland comes to pass and yet here we are you're reaching people in Donegal who are very grateful it's a great testimony to you and your son as well I think as as well yeah thanks a million and it's just I would just like to send a lovely hello to Dr. Parraher and team and LUH they are so incredibly interested in HHT and they're working on a personal care plan for many of the HHT patients there and that's what's needed because it's a multi-disciplinary issue it's not just one and where somebody might work in your lungs you've got to be aware of what's going on in the liver in the brain and whatever so a special word of thanks to Dr. Parraher and this team in LUH and to reiterate the message that knowledge is power and hopefully people have power now through this knowledge and we have a great trust of medical professionals for very good reason but a general practitioner the G stands for general and sometimes you know you can bring information to them as well and trust you got trust your instincts trust your knowledge and hopefully that leads to better outcomes for everyone you're operating down the country but I think we can claim you as a Donny Gauler Oh absolutely absolutely letter Kenny yeah you can indeed and I've many HHT family in letter Kenny and they'd be I think you've spoken to Michael McGinty my brother over his HHT last year so I'm Michael's sister yeah and look if the Donny Gaul County Council could light up the poll start tomorrow we'd love that we've we're eliminating monuments and buildings around the country where to show you care we're lighting up lots of our buildings all colors do you see the colors behind me pick a mix pick a mix and all around the world this is happening and it'll be all over social media tomorrow evening so I'm heading down to Swords Castle because I'm actually living in Swords and I'm heading down there tomorrow with Louise O'Keefe from Rare Ireland and a gang of rare people so rare as many rare is proud all right best wishes to you your daughter in Milan and the rest of the family thank you very much for joining us it's been really informative take care of yourself Dara Dara Woods there okay back with more very shortly the county's number one talk show the 9 till noon show on Highland radio choose life choose fun choose not sitting at home getting bored choose something better something really fun choose Fundamania coming to the Brunswick movie bowl from March 1st choose regular junior or family wristbands and enjoy some of Europe's top thrill rides choose fun for all ages a legendary Fundamania event first to the 17th of March for details see fundamania.co.uk at Lidl we've dropped the prices of over 600 products so you save on essentials like shower gels Irish chicken breast fillets and fusilli pasta that lures the price of a whole trolley from 87.01 to 71.94 plus like 15 euro back in your pocket that's even more reasons to go full Lidl today for full list of products see Lidl.ie for slash price drops get the right tools or equipment to get the job done with great hire deals at Watson hire and letter Kenny everything from diggers to power tools dumpers to Porta Luz and pressure washers to cherry pickers. Watson's offer a fast and reliable service to book call Watson hire in letter Kenny a 911 67777 SAI is delighted to announce the return of the Zevi EV dealership of the year awards and this year's Ulster winner is Connelly's Volkswagen letter Kenny to learn more about the awards and EV brands visit SAI.ie supported by the government of Ireland. Announcing the spectacular doors and floors two-day sale event at Donegal Town Hardware enjoy massive discounts on floors doors handles blocks scaring and more. Expert staff will be on hand to answer all your queries that's the massive doors and floors sale event happening for two days only this Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd of March at Donegal Town Hardware. Derrick Ryan returns to the Abbey Hotel Donegal Town for his weekend of dancing on Friday 1st Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd of March joining Derrick will be some very special guests Olivia Douglas and Keelan Brown on Friday night and Robert Mazzell and band on Saturday night Barry Kerwin and Elish McBride will join Derrick for an afternoon family dance on Sunday that Derrick Ryan's weekend of dancing at the Abbey Hotel Donegal Town Friday 1st until Sunday 3rd of March paid the door for each dance. Business matters in association with the faculty of business at ATU Donegal for a career in financial governance consider the level 9 MA in governance and IT in financial services call 9 1 8 6 2 0 6 or email donald.handigan at atu.ie today. Okay so that means it is business matters time and we welcome into studio Chris Ashmore the podcast live for you right now we'll tell you a little bit we'll tell you much more about that a little later on but first let's catch up on some news and Chris good morning first and foremost of course good morning Greg good to have you in studio okay uh green light for a massive housing development talk to me about this yeah developer PJ McDermott has got the uh go ahead from Donegal County Council now it is subject to a large number of conditions but it's a major residential development in the Glencar Irish Glencar Scotch area of letter Kenny and it will take a number of years what we're talking about in the region of 100 houses seven apartment blocks containing 28 apartments and it's quite a complicated planning matter because there is an adjacent proposed development of 90 units that's with board planola there have been some objections mainly in relation to concerns over infrastructure but it does look as if we are going to see quite a a large development in that part of letter Kenny now commercial vacancy rates that the latest figures have been published Chris what do they tell us yeah you may have heard this mentioned on the news uh the commercial vacancy rate in Donegal uh now this is for December which is the most recent figure 18.2 percent so roughly one in five so it's it's pretty high uh the national average is about 14 percent uh Balboffay has topped this chart for quite a while it's of the towns that were surveyed in Donegal it had the highest commercial vacancy rate 29.4 percent so there's a lot of vacant property there is but these figures uh I would just like to dive a little bit deeper in them because they're based on active aircodes so you could have 15 businesses in the premises in Balboffay for an example with a central delivery system yes and you could have 14 vacant premises yes yeah and it doesn't actually tell you how many active businesses they are and and every time they come out it just makes me go look yeah and at what stage two are they purging some of these vacancies to say right okay these are no longer you know going to be uh businesses into the future like I don't go through Balboffay and see you know two let's signs absolutely everywhere so as I say I'm not saying it's not accurate it's just the way the figures are compiled and presented yeah how are they being updated how are they being sort of freshened up to actually reflect the reality well it's yeah as you say it's based on the data that they have and you know there always is a certain amount of vacant property anyway because there has to be for the market to turn over by the way just uh I walked up letter Kenny lower main street one day recently and I counted 23 vacant pieces of property in a small area and I suppose you would hope that with this 2040 project investment which I think has a particular focus on that area of letter Kenny that maybe that could be reversed or convert them to residential or whatever it might be and as we've mentioned there's there's quite a few grants out there at the moment and the counsellor are doing their best yeah for sure uh sleeve league distillery back in the news for a lot of reasons good news a nice little bit of publicity for it the independent newspaper in the UK has named its 15 best Irish whiskeys for old-fashioned cocktails and sipping neat and the best Irish whisky overall well the award went to the Dunigolds sleeve league distillery and its silky Irish whisky so that's a nice little bit of positive PR for them yeah for sure um go ahead sorry I just want to mention today Greg the Dunigold ETB excuse me it's hosting its further education and training fair in the Radisson hotel in letter Kenny from seven to nine this evening very much geared towards school leavers and employees tomorrow from ten till two and you can find out of about all sorts of courses that are on offer well worth dropping in you know there's a really big range of things there yeah right our last piece of news kind of ties in or does follow tie in with uh the podcast today local enterprise week starting on monday march fourth is that next monday as soon as we're crossing a month i get very confused especially when it's sometimes got 28 days other times got 29 but i'm kind of confident this is next monday this is next monday it runs all weekend they do these all over the country uh now there's so much here that really the advice is to go on to the local enterprise dot i e website you'll find the details there we have quite a lot of household names coming up at Richard Curran the uh broadcaster known for business matters himself uh i think he lives in in a show and actually um he'll be there that's at the start of the week um there's uh food uh food coast producers showcases on there's lots and lots of people there and we can hear from Brenda Hagerty head of enterprise with stony gold county council so it's a great opportunity for those that are in business and those that might have an idea that would like to start in business to check out the wide range of events that are happening all free of charge and it's really a great opportunity to see um what is the trends happening in business the opportunities but most importantly an opportunity to network with um peers and other business owners anybody interested they can go to local enterprise dot i e forward slash dunny gold and the brochure is available to few and all the links to book the events is available on that website so it's local enterprise dot i e forward slash dunny gold Brenda Hagerty there and you have a second guest on the podcast Chris that's right Greg when Malaysian woman Farah Maiden came to Ireland first little did she think that she would end up living in dunny gold and running her own business she qualified as a doctor from Trinity College in Dublin and completed her GP training here in dunny gold before she founded the medical skin clinic in dunny gold town and it was a big move for her but one she certainly doesn't regret and then it all kind of came to a head for me where GP was becoming too stressful it was you know i was taking things home with me it was you know i wasn't sleeping right at night it was just it was all too much and that coupled with um my interest in skincare and skin health and what i was doing in aesthetics was basically just injectables but i'd love to have focus more on the skin quality skin health which had never had time to do so anyway all all in all it just everything just kind of fell into place for me i got in well with the colitis it took some time off work and reassessed everything and decided to come into aesthetics and see how it went and here we are okay interesting story you can hear much more of that in the podcast as well as the full interview with Brenda Hagerty it's available for you live right now on our website highlandradio.com in the listen back section for you to stream or download also Spotify and iTunes and broadcast over the weekend chris that's right after the six o'clock news on sunday and if anyone wants to get in contact with you the email address is business matters at highlandradio.com okay chris thank you so much for calling into us that was business matters and the business use with chris ashmore and we'll be back with more and then until noon show after we take this quick break choose life choose fun choose not sitting at home getting bored choose something better something really fun choose fundomania coming to the brunswick movie ball from march 1st choose regular junior or family wristbands and enjoy some of europe's top thrill rides choose fun for all ages a legendary fundomania event first to the 17th of march for details see fundomania.co.uk the perfect family day out starts and finishes with a visit to the dunagall boardwalk resort carry gart packs the buggy's bikes and trikes and trek along the boardwalk visit the playground and finish with a tasty lunch or dinner in our restaurant open wednesday to sunday complete the experience with the stay in our cozy colleges explore more at dunagallboardwalkresort.ie we're driving the citron c4x on dublin's most speedbumped road as voted by an online poll to test citron's progressive hydraulic cushion suspension the music is coming from a vinyl record playing on a record player set up in the backseat here comes speedbump let's see if this record skips perfect went off without a scratch book a test glide in a citron today visit citron.ie nutritious xl yo with lamb and nutritious yo with lamb crunch are formulated to ensure a vigorous lamb and excellent milk yield avail of our lambing season offer 25 kg bags buy 10 get one free and 15 euro off per ton in bulk available at your local homeland store visit nutritious.ie for full nutritional information are you female currently unemployed and looking for a new career in construction rural enterprise skill net is delighted to announce the launch of a new women in construction program commencing April 2nd in letter kenny join us for an information briefing on march 5th at the raddison blue hotel letter kenny at 12 p.m. or for more information visit rural enterprise skill net.ie the vote. Now you're very welcome back. Tommy on Facebook brilliant interview with Dara Woods. Dara and the team at HHTR and provide huge support to HHT families and raise awareness among HCPs and the public a healthcare professionals that is rare is sure proud and strong at all says Dara does a phenomenal job. Thank you and loads of requests in for Huey as well, which we'll get to a little later on. Do you like David James? I'm sure you do. Do you like tea and coffee? Well here I've got something for you because David James is holding afternoon tea. It's tea, coffee and sweet treats. It's in St. Johnston's resource center on March the 2nd between 12 noon and 3 p.m. If that wasn't enough to go and have a bit of fun, you can do so in the knowledge that you're supporting a wonderful individual and her family. That's Patrice McCrossan and her family and that is why this event is being held. I'm sure many of you are familiar with Patrice's story. So if you want to support her and her lovely family, you can join David James for afternoon tea. It's in the St. Johnston resource center between 12 noon and 3 p.m. on March the 2nd. So there's going to be tea, coffee and sweet treats. And you'll not find a better course to back there either. And at the same time, hopefully have a nice afternoon. Okay, we need patience as who's it? Was it, I can't remember who sang patience. I do know who sang patience, but the name won't come to it. It doesn't matter. Forget I said it. Tracy joins me on the show now. Hi Tracy. Greg. Nice to speak to you. Right now, you and your daughter particularly like so many others are for many different reasons trying to get on out on the road. As part of that, you put up the old plates and you hope that maybe other drivers have a bit of patience or have a bit of understanding of what's going on. But what's your and your daughter's experience been Tracy? Yeah, well, just recently, Greg, I've added my daughter on to my car as a learner driver. She was her dad for her test. And so obviously I have the learner driver plate displayed, but I'm really disappointed in other drivers on the road because when we're out driving, when she goes to college, obviously I'm in the passenger seat with her cars behind, they're driving so close. They're so impatient to the extent that one day last week, a driver overtook us and started beeping at her. And I mean, she's driving to the rules of the road and she's trying to find her confidence, you know, and I'm just trying to reassure her there as well, you know, why she's driving. So really, I just thought I should say like, I mean, we all had to learn to drive and I just would hope that other drivers would be a bit more considerate to younger drivers when they're on the road. All we're looking for Tracy is just a little bit of kindness. Exactly. Be kind to your fellow man or woman. Is it putting her off? I don't know what your daughter's like, but is it putting her off that those drives because she feels like, you know, and I think when you're younger, you think everyone's watching you to begin with, if you know what I mean, but are you fine that you're having to try and say, look at that's just a few ignorant drivers. It's good for you to get out and do your practice. Exactly. And I just, they just focus on the road ahead and let them do whatever they want to do. You just, you know, keep focusing the road ahead, you know, but she's determined to know it's not going to put her off. Good stuff. Okay. And it's just particularly, I think people driving up close to you, but the beeping of the horn as well. I think any, any person should realise if there's a car in front of you that's got L plates on and two people in it, it's likely the driver is just trying to learn the ropes and just a little bit of kindness and patience. That's 100%. Great. Okay. Did you get a date for the test yet? She'd been another few months, hopefully. Okay. Great stuff. Well, happy motoring to you and your daughter. And I wish you're all the luck going forward. And it's a simple message. Just show a little bit of understanding, care and patience. It costs absolutely nothing. It's completely free. Thanks, Tracy. Take care of yourself. All right, I appreciate that. Food for thought. Now, this week on the 9 till noon show, and thanks to our friends at Fundomania Fairground coming to the Brunswick movie bowl in Derry, London, Derry from the first to the 17th of March, we're giving you the chance to win incredible family passes for a day of unlimited fun and excitement. We're giving away two passes every day this week to be in with the chance of winning this prize today. You just have to identify the Donegal town from these three clues and the clues are Wednesday. That's today. I shouldn't have read that out. The clues are golf links, pollen beach in a shone's gem golf links, pollen beach in a shone's gem. What town could I be talking about? Just jot that into your phone. Add your name and where you're from. Text or WhatsApp your answer and address to 08 60 25,000. And please only enter if you or someone close to you can go and enjoy a wonderful day's entertainment on us at Fundomania Fairground. It's at the Brunswick movie bowl in Derry from the first to the 17th of March. Now, the family passes. It's an all day family pass. So it's great. And you will everyone of all ages are being invited to get ready to experience the thrill of a lifetime at Fundomania coming to the Brunswick movie bowl. And for the brave souls out there, you can dare to take on the extreme ride or feel the adrenaline surge on the Batman, which sounds interesting. Okay, so we've got about maybe eight minutes on the phone lines. Oh wait, six 60 25,000. That's the WhatsApp. That is the text number. Right. Okay. We are joined in studio by our next guest and we're welcoming back onto the program, Liam Cannon, cancelling director at Raphode Dyson Pastoral Centre. Those are time, Liam. I felt like I was speaking to you two or three times today. Good morning, Greg. But we decided we decided I think we all decided to give the process an opportunity and give everything a little bit of space. And we're going to talk about the process, but I also just want to, I just want to remind people of the Raphode Dyson Pastoral Services, what they do. So tell us that first, what what they have been doing for a number of years. Okay, well, I suppose for 30 years, they've been offering a child and adolescent or sorry, let me start again. For the last 30 years, they've been offering a counselling service. It started off under the diocese with Sister Mary Donovan. And what they were offering at that stage was counselling services for adults. So I came on board with them back 13, 14 years ago. And I started to develop the services that were there. So in 2016, I launched a child and adolescent service in Lettercanny, with one counsellor trained to work with children and adolescents. But anyway, very quickly, we ended up within four weeks, we had 48 kids on our waiting list. So we knew it was not going to work. So anyway, we have a team now of in total 26 therapists. And we deliver counselling services around the county and seven different locations, Easter and all or Chrysler, Bonkranagh, Karran Donah as well. And the reason it's important to mention that because sometimes a lot of these services, because that's where the population centre is is Lettercanny base, but what pleases me about this is that there's a spread there. Yeah, and it grew a because you started it will be because of the demand that's out there because this is the only service of its type. And it's not a reduction of this service, it's a growth of this service that what we need. This story then came to the fore when the rug was effectively felt like it was being pulled from under the under the service, you released a statement which read, it's with profound sadness and regret that the referral dice and pastoral services board of directors is announcing the complete cessation of its counselling services across Donegal due to a lack of public funding for a full time director of counselling. That's part of it. That would that funding of that would have got things going, but there's other stuff that needs to happen. Very quickly after that, this became a hot topic. We've spoken to you. It's been mentioned in the door. There's been questions left, right and centre. And then we kind of got to a space, Liam, whereby I think too, and the HSE recognised the value of this service and started a process of looking at it, auditing it, going through the books, going through the requirements and coming up with a plan to continue. Is that how you would have assessed? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's where we're currently at at the moment. I'm just aware weeks have passed. For me, the issue here is that when I made that announcement, mid-march was our cutoff point. And so mid-march meant that all services would end. And so we're getting into the start of March. Negotiations are ongoing. We're still in conversation with the HSE and with Toosley. And I'll come back to that in a minute, but my main concern right now is that we have a team of almost 30 people there. Mid-march was the deadline. They're working with clients as in wind-down mode. Clients are expecting to be finished in the next few weeks. And for me, I think, you know, I can't come out and say we're home and dry and safe. And so let's continue. But it's affecting, I suppose, the whole team. And it's affecting at this point, cancers that are paid. That's what I'm going to say, because these are individuals with their own responsibilities and their careers. They can't sit in their hands waiting on optimism at the end of the day because you go back to your partner and say, well, hopefully things will be done. They say, well, how are we going to pay the bills? So these are humans with everything. And the care is well for their clients or however the people that they work with. So in terms, so listen, the bottom line is, is there's still a deadline here that needs to be met. There are three parties in this. There is the Raphode, Diason, Pastoral Centre, there's TUSLA, and then there's the HSC. So how have the negotiations gone with TUSLA in terms of, I mean, they are the child and family agency, aren't they? So they've got a big interest in one would hope in the mental well-being of young people. So what have TUSLA brought to the table at this point of anything? Well, actually, do you know, to be very honest with you, Greg, straight after, you know, that statement came out and after the interview with yourself and, you know, when the media caught hold of it, TUSLA responded very quickly that day. And we had a meeting the following day with TUSLA. So, you know, at that meeting, you know, it was an online meeting, but at that meeting we have, you know, the local TUSLA reps here. And also, we had head of commissioning in TUSLA from Dublin, you know, on those calls as well. And I have to say, TUSLA has been exceptional, you know. Credit words, true. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the benefit that TUSLA has is they know us. They use the service, we have service level agreements with them. So they're familiar with us, they were familiar with the agency, with the governance, with all the standards. And they're also, you know, very aware of the quality of the work that we have delivered. So what is their role and have they committed to continuing this service? Yeah, well, I suppose we met with both the HSE and TUSLA. Now, the HSE, on the other hand, I suppose, didn't really have any service level agreements with us in relation to the current services that we were delivering. So I suppose in one way they were getting to know who we were and what we were doing and what we're delivering. So, you know, TUSLA were very quick, they were very quickly able to say, okay, we will, we know your governance, we know everything. So it's funding they bring to the party, is it? Yes. Okay. So they're on the basis of, you know, carrying out, you know, an overview of services. Yeah, of course. And which is very important, they were able to get to that decision making process much quicker. So I know it's a little bit more complex than this, but suffice to say then, TUSLA are on board. TUSLA are on board, yes. What's the dragging, the foot dragging with the HSE? Yeah, well, you know, then I suppose the HSE had to do, I suppose go through a complete new process for themselves. Yes. As in what are we doing, what are we delivering, what are better governance, you know, all those things, what are better accounting, you know, all those things, which have to be and what actual money would be required, not just in the interim, the appointment of a director to replace you, but also in terms of, you know, building or maintaining this long term. We get that, right? But we also do get the timeframe that's involved. So what's the hold up, can you determine what the hold up from the HSE is? Well, I mean, the hold up from the HSE is, and I suppose it's different and different, you know, I suppose organizations do things different ways. When we had meetings with Too Slow, we had the head people, decision makers at those meetings. And the difference is when you work with the HSE, you're getting, you know, local managers, which are doing their very best, but they have to gather the information and then feed it up the line and then wait for a response coming back. So it's a much slower process. So that's a bit of the hold up that we're waiting for. Have you any white smoke from the HSE? Well, you know, we haven't any white smoke as yet. I mean, I can't jump and say, yes, we do. But, you know, I think they have everything that they need currently. And it is on, you know, Dermot Mollhan's desk, you know, hopefully today. And really, Dermot Mollhan is the guy who makes the decision here. So, you know, I do expect not to be dragging this out for another few weeks because of the situation we find ourselves in with clients and counselors and the service, but that it needs somebody to make a decision. Could they not give you a provisional indication? So was that you can reassure that you can reassure your counselors that they can switch from wind down mode to the future mode? I mean, it would just be, look at, we're going to be looking favorably on this, just give us a week or two. That's all it would take. You know what I mean? Well, maybe it might take a little bit more. But my point is, is that we've a very small gap here that needs to be bridged, right? And it's in the gift of the HSE to do that now, I feel. Well, no, that's it exactly. And, you know, I think, you know, TUSLA would be very, are very happy to stand over the governance. And I think, you know, it really would come down to an agreement being reached between TUSLA and the HSE together to fund this as a package, because both HSE and TUSLA benefit from it. And I think now is a real opportune time for the likes of us, which we will to make our inquiries to the HSE to try and get a timeline on this. But we've got five elected representatives in the county as well who have access to these departments to try and work on the centre's behalf, but actually, really, it's on behalf of the public that need these services and the councillors. So I think we've got like, you know, a couple of days left in this week, it would be nice to get the pressure across the board back on the HSE. And you'll come back and we'll sing the praises as well. You know, we're not anti here as well. What we all want, really, is this service for its future to be secured and for the uncertain to be relieved. That's it. It's nothing crazy. You know, in fairness, you know, when we did sit down to look at this, you know, in fairness to both HSE and TUSLA, and again, you know, it's about them making sure for themselves that things are done properly. What they were saying was, look, Liam, you actually need a sustainability package, not just a director. Yeah. Oh, we get that. Yeah. We don't want this coming back. But look, I think we kind of knew that it had to be articulated in a certain way. And I think, and I'm not saying it was done for any, but it had to be articulated in a way that really it is a director would keep it going. This is how much that would cost. Obviously, as things progress, as this is put in a study of footing, maybe as it comes, you know, the Raffaul Diason, maybe if they take a step back, I think the Bishop, the outgoing Bishop, said that that would, we know that's where we have to go. But this was an immediate problem. And the immediate problem could have been fixed with a very small amount of funding. But yes, hey, but we don't want to get HSE bureaucracy as well. Yeah, no, I mean, I think that's it. And I do think we are getting to the end of this process. But you wouldn't have come in here to chat to me unless there was a good reason for it. It's to keep the pressure on. It's to say, come on, we appreciate we're making progress, but the time is short now. Get on it. You're making that appeal. We're going to find out. And I call on any politician with any influence or completely to get in on this. Let's get this over the line before March. Be tight. But you know what I'm on about? I mean, I think, you know, you know, the clients are the most important people here. And I think we have to be able to give them reassurance because there's a process and closing down, you know, when you're working with some of this process. And we want to, you know, avoid that comment to that. Right, Liam, thank you for the heads up. Thanks for calling in. Thank you very much, Greg. We're going to make our inquiries. And as I say, I appeal to anyone with any influence to do so as well, because this is our children and our young people that we're talking about here. We'll be back with the weather. But again, thanks to Liam Cannon, cancelling director at Raphodeis and Pastral Centre. Thanks. Choose life. Choose fun. Choose not sitting at home getting bored. Choose something better. Something really fun. Choose Fundamenia. Coming to the Brunswick Movie Bowl from March 1st. Choose regular, junior or family wristbands. And enjoy some of Europe's top thrill rides. Choose fun for all ages. A legendary Fundamenia event, first to the 17th of March. For details, see Fundamenia.co.uk. Stay local, stay safe and protect what you value most with Sheridan security systems. To see the lineup of events and speakers and to book, visit localenterprise.ie forward slash dunigall or call 9 1 6 0 7 3 5. Getting married. Don't leave it too late. Book with us today at the groom's room in Evolve clothing. Let it Kenny retail park. Highland radio are celebrating another birthday. We are inviting you to join us for our Highland radio birthday bash on Tuesday the 19th of March in the Mount Eregal Hotel. Joined by the one and only Margo, myself David James, plus special guest Brendan Quinn, Declan Ernie and Patrick Feeney. This is a night not to be missed. Tickets now on sale. For more information, visit the outlet at HighlandRadio.com or give us a call on 07491 at 25,000. We'll see you at the Highland radio birthday bash. Weather updates brought to you by Grant. Building a new home, choose Grant's a triple plus rated air owner, air to water, heat pump and new flex under floor heating. Visit grant.ie. Okay, rain turning lighter and patchier this evening. More persistent rain will develop in the west and spread eastwards. Temperatures 10 to 12 degrees. Congratulations to Jacinta Galahar from Bali, Liffon, not from Straban, from Straban and Mary Worsk from Kerry Keele. Both of you correctly answered Bali, Liffon. You're heading to Fundomania. We'll be in touch and we'll be back with you tomorrow morning at nine. Thanks for keeping us company on such a busy, busy show. Such important stuff we talked about today. You can listen back on the pod or watch back on our socials. We're back live at nine tomorrow. John Breslin's