at nine o'clock. It's time for a news update, and it's over to Catherine Gaffney. Good morning, Catherine. Good morning, Greg. Significant changes are expected to the Michael Redress scheme. Campaigners are hopeful the proposals for the long-awaited scheme will finally be ready by next Tuesday, following several delays and weeks of negotiations. The enhanced scheme will be complex, with improvements said to be timely and reasonable, according to comments made in the DAW last night. Donegal Deputy Joe McHugh added that the scheme must be realistic too, and says that homeowners must be afforded peace and hope in the run-up to Christmas. Maybe we could add to timely, reasonable and consistent. Maybe we could throw in realistic as well. It has to be realistic. The previous scheme was not the scheme that certainly I signed up to. Lastly, and by no means least, the homeowners who are hearing those cracks grow louder. On a stormy night in the middle of the winter, they have to be allowed something that I certainly used to take for granted, and that is peace. Peace of mind and peace to face into their first Christmas in a decade. Responding on behalf of the housing minister, Minister Malcolm Noonan gave reassurances that the work undertaken to get the scheme right has been phenomenal. And again, taking on board the points you make about dedicated staffing in the department, the local mechanisms for delivery, and the trust around Earning Trust and the homeowners at the centre of the scheme. That's what we're trying to achieve. I know there's other issues being raised in the DAW about modular bills and affordability. I think those are for another day, but I do think just to reassure you, Deputy, that the work that has been put into this has been phenomenal by our department and by the minister himself. The head of the HSE says he fully appreciates restrictions on children are difficult. Neffat's advising against indoor community gatherings for under-12s, including parties, communions and sleepovers. It's also recommending that children over nine wear masks in schools, on public transport and in shops. HSE CEO Paul Reid says children attending hospitals with respiratory related illnesses is having an impact on the health system. We were assessing the emergency attendances to our children's hospitals in the period of October to early November. And if you compare with 2019, which would be a year before pandemic, to about 11,700 presentations in that five-week period, in the equivalent five-week period this year in 2021, there are almost 20,000 presentations, so it's a 70% increase. And it will be towards the end of December before COVID-19 vaccines will be rolled out to children aged between 5 and 11. It's expected the jobs will be administered through HSE vaccine centres. A final recommendation from NIACS likely in the coming days, following yesterday's approval by the EMA. John Boyle from the teachers union, the INTO, says he's optimistic parents will opt to get their children vaccinated. Within three weeks, if I recall, over 62% of the children in post primary schools had been vaccinated. So, you know, there's obviously a window here for parents to familiarise themselves. And I know that on balance, that the decision was strongly in favour of providing access to the vaccine for children of that age group. Whether now a cold, windy day with temperatures of six to nine degrees, there will be widespread showers heavy at times and falling asleep in snow over hills and mountains. We're back with more ten. Until then, good morning. It's not just that Sammy has lost his home in the conflict. It's not just that everyone he's ever loved is gone and he's been forced to walk hundreds of miles alone to find safety. And most of all, it's not just that Sammy is only seven years old. Like thousands of children in regions torn apart by conflict, Sammy is living in fear and it's not just this Christmas. Your love can make all the difference. Visit trochre.org or call 1850 408 408 trochre until love conquers fear. Today's Ninetown Nune Show is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires. Get your tires ready for winter. Call in to Ulster Tires in Lattrackenny and Bali Buffet today. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the Ninetown Nune Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, a very good morning to you. It's just turning five minutes past nine on this Friday, the 26th of November. I hope you're well and hopefully you're with us now for the next three hours on the program. We have a busy one for you, of course. We're going to be looking at the big stories of the day and the week with our panel very, very shortly. Also after 11, we will be having Michael and Finula in studio, easing us into the weekend, talking all things entertainment and lots more in between. Right, so let's introduce our guests for you now this morning. We can say good morning first to Independent Deputy Thomas Pringle. Thomas, good morning to you. Morning, Greg. How are you? It's good to have with you. I'm fine. Thank you. Fianna Fall, Councillor Liam Blaney. Good morning to you, Liam. I don't know if it's Liam muted there, is he? Or we can also hopefully say good morning to Independent. Oh, Liam, good morning to you. Can you hear me? Yeah, here you go. Good morning to you and Sharon and Thomas. The Kehirloch might accept that kind of tardy on muting at council meetings, but not on this programme, Councillor. I'm glad that you've agreed to unmute me this morning. Thank you. And also, Independent Senator Nass, but not least, of course, Sharon Keown. Good morning, Sharon. Good morning to you, Greg, and good morning to you, business. It's great to have you on the programme for the first time. And in fact, I'll start with you, Sharon, if that's OK. Because I think what a lot of people are talking about at school, at work, at home, is the news today that children under 12 have been told to avoid indoor gatherings for the next two weeks under new recommendations from Nefit, Chief Medical Officer Tony Hulhan. His team advised that children should not attend birthday parties and activity plays, communions, sleepovers or indoor play dates, while the level of COVID-19 transmissions continues to surge. They're also recommending that all children over the age of nine should wear masks on public transports and in shops, while they'll also be necessary for pupils in primary schools from third-class upwards. And of course, too, NIAC will be considering advice to extend the vaccination to a younger population. What do you think of this, Sharon? I think I'm disappointed to hear it, to tell you the gods honest to it. I'm disappointed to hear that our government have failed the people of Ireland again for another winter. They're expecting us to carry the HSE through again because they have failed miserably to manage our HSE and our hospitals and failed to invest over the last 18, 19 months. We knew it was coming. We knew the virus wasn't going to go away. There's no way, and I think people have got groups with that, that this virus is going nowhere. And already this morning, they're talking about the B11529, a new South African, Botswana COVID virus. So there's new variants coming out of the time. It's important that we get out in front of it. We have failed to do that. The rollout of the booster vaccines should have been coming much earlier. They're only starting them in November. So unfortunately now, the target is now the children having children wearing masks, and particularly for children with disabilities, that's going to be very, very challenging and for the school teachers as well. So having children wearing masks at school over the age of nine, they're going to have to wear them in public indoor spaces, in the shops, right up until mid-February, and that might even be extended out again. I would want to alarm any parents. I'd imagine if a child has difficulty for whatever reason, the same as adults in wearing a mask, they won't be compelled to do so, Senator. Absolutely. I mean, there has to be medical reasons there. But you know, younger children, they might keep the masks on for a certain period of time, but they do take them down. So it's very hard to police that in a classroom. So it's going to be very, very difficult and very, very challenging for the school teachers. But it seems the teachers are keen on it. You can see, I mean, look, definitely there is community spread there within our schools. And, you know, we were told very, very early on that our schools were going to be safe, that it was safest environment because children were not going to be infected. And there's 4,000 schools in this country. The state have funded 13 ventilators. Those keep ventilators, 13 of them. They just are not out in front of this at all. They're not taking it very, very seriously. And they have to invest in ventilation. Having children in schools with windows open, getting calls, particularly to the next couple of months between right now to right up to it. It's not on. It's absolutely not on. So you feel they're too reactionary and not proactive? Absolutely. They haven't been proactive. You cannot say that this government is active in a proactive way in relation to handling COVID. They're not living with COVID. Derek can say that horrible phrase. We are where we are. All that being said, what are your views, though, on, you know, I think you've conceded that it's clear there is spread in schools. Do you think that we should allow that to happen or take mitigating measures like rolling out a diluted vaccine for younger people and asking them to wear masks in the school environment? You know, we can't change where we're at now. Do you think that's an appropriate response to try and get some sort of a handle on this through the winter? I'm reluctant to give advice on the vaccines for children because I don't know enough about giving vaccines for children at this moment in time. So, yes, the vaccine was approved yesterday for the five to 11-year-olds. It's allegedly going to be rolled out in schools in early New Year. How that's going to be rolled out? I don't know whether it's going to be in the schools or whether it's going to be through the HSE medical centres. But I suppose we have to deal with the issue. The issue is the rising cases. The issue is that we have to reduce our contacts. That is the key. And a lot of people over the last couple of weeks have been doing that. I've noticed it. A lot of retailers have noticed it. And also a lot of retailers have to get in front of it as well. I see a lot of retailers are not as good as they were with regard to hand sanitising. So that is something that they need to get in front of as well. They need to be having their hand sanitiser right outside their premises. So people have that, that they literally have to walk into it to get inside that door. Hand sanitisation is really, really important. The mask wear over this next couple of months is really, really important. Yeah, I think to your sort of hesitancy on the vaccine question is probably going to be reflective of how people feel and what the decisions they're going to have to be making themselves for their young people. We'll come to you next, Deputy Thomas Pringle, if that's okay.  But we are in this situation at the moment. Are you in favour of third class and above wearing masks? You know, there's a huge football game, for example, in the Aviva. I think it's a record attendance expected for a cup game. And at the same time, we're sort of saying to young people, don't go to or don't take part in a nativity play. What's your views on it all? Yeah, I think in the Aviva as well, they've recommended that masks should be worn at all. I tour gatherings as well, too, which is very important. Look, you're right in saying, Greg, that we are where we are. I wouldn't have started off here, but we are here now. The measures do need to be put in place. I think that the NAFID have recommended mask wearing for children not up to from between 9 and 13. I mean, I think that in that case, it should be done. I mean, I think parents know that it needs to be done to control the virus, the highest rates we have now are amongst children because the vaccination rates are so high everywhere else that the virus has to infect children mostly. You know, it's a bit rich of the government to say that schools aren't infectious when we're banning everything else the children go to, but then schools are grand. Like, no, that doesn't make sense. And I think everybody knows that doesn't make sense. Are you confident that when, you know, you say NAFID have recommended this so that we need to go with it, right? And I'm just, this is for conversational purposes, I'm not expressing a view here, that they are balancing everything that they're balancing the impact it might have on them emotionally, mentally, in terms of, you know, I don't know if it might make them all prone to catch other respiratory illness. We don't know that. And I'm not trying to scare monger. But you know, like, I'm not saying you have blind faith in NAFID, but are you confident in sort of saying, well, if that's what they're saying, we need to do, are you sure that they're not only thinking right, how do we stop the spread of this? Because we were saying schools were very safe, you know, we were saying the virus wasn't really spreading in schools. Are they covering there are severe part in the phrase? Or are you confident that they have reviewed everything and this is not going to actually be detrimental to our young people? I think I think it's a combination of both Greg. I think they have reviewed everything. You would hope they have reviewed everything anyway, because it takes a long making decisions that hopefully it's because they're actually reviewing the evidence and making that decision on it. You'd have to say that NAFID are more qualified than me to make a decision in relation to whether school children should wear masks or not. But I think the other side of that is that I think always the decision was made that children should stay at school because it's better for children to be at school than to have schools closed down. It's not that school, I don't think anyway, personally, it's not the schools were any more safer. But you have to weigh the rest and for children's development and for children's well-being and something like that. But you say that you don't know as well as NAFID and of course there are doctors and medics and what have you. But do you not think, say for instance just for argument's sake, we could really have given antigen testing in schools a real go of it.  But could we not have tried that first and then sort of see if that can control it and then move to the masking? Well, the thing about it is I think the masking is probably less intrusive and I think the masking actually works better. Because I mean, you know, the problem with the antigen testing all along and I kind of would agree with NAFID in relation to antigen testing is that it's been used in the wrong way. It's been presented as being the solution to all the problems when it's not. It's actually part of the like mask wearing and washing your hands. It's part of the suite of overall defences we have against it. We should have against it. And that's I think that that's the reality. So I think mask wearing is probably less intrusive overall than nasal swabs for young children. And you know, and I think partly I think the government's resistance to actually put rolling out the antigen wide spread antigen testing is because they won't they don't want to have to pay for somebody to actually give the test as well. And you know, and the thing you've seen that it's up to us to make our own to do the test ourselves. And I know in other European countries and that people actually do the test for you. It's free and it's and you get as many tests you want, but somebody actually does the test rather than relying on it to do it yourself. Yeah. All right. Councillor Lee and Blaney, I suppose you know, on the same two topics there in terms of you know, asking our young people or enforcing mask wearing and as you know, I would hope that if a child is very uncomfortable wearing a mask or for medical reasons, they can't or if they can't adjust themselves, they'd be they wouldn't have to. And I also suppose the rolling out of vaccines to the younger population. What's your views on both? Well, like Thomas said there, Greg, I definitely wouldn't have the same knowledge as an effort would have. And although it was said there about that had been said about the schools that were safe for children, but there's been a different variance of this strain spread across the community. And I suppose this is a complex stage now where we're going to be asking the young ones to wear the mask for a couple of weeks and anything that helps to stop the spread of it, whether it is the children wearing the mask at school and there will be children that can't wear the mask at school and they will be allowed. I'm quite sure I have to have good enough reasons for it. As far as the as far as the vaccination is concerned, they don't have to take the vaccination either. That's the parents feel that they don't want to give it to them. But I'm quite sure that a lot of parents would add that their children better get the vaccination as well. At the same time, it won't be another element to help to fight this pandemic and try and keep the numbers down. There's a lot of other information out there. Some of it is actual practicing medical people with a practice and patients and stuff. A lot of it is just bits and pieces shared from the internet, though it does plant seed and I think we've seen that particularly with pregnant women. It does plant a strong seed of doubt. I imagine it's going to be really ramped up that other information as we get a date for the rollout of the vaccine to the younger people, councillor. Yeah, I'm quite sure. Well, again, as you rightly said, it has been different versions put out as we went through the program of vaccination already and I'm quite sure the same will happen now whenever we're talking about the children getting it, but as we've seen from the 90% of the population that has already got the vaccination, I'm quite sure that they will encourage the children to take up the same and hopefully we'll have something around the same kind of a percentage of young people that will accept the vaccine or is available for them. All right, we'll have more from Councillor Lee and Blaney as Senator Sharon Keown and Deputy Thomas Pringle after the break, just to remind you to get involved in the conversation. WhatsApp or text us 08 660 25,000 08 660 25,000 or call Caroline on 07 491 25,000. If you're watching us across our social media, feel free to comment there on YouTube and Facebook as well. We have a short break to take. We'll be back out with much more in just a couple of moments. Today's 9 till noon show is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires. Get your tires winter ready. Drop in to Ulster Tires in letter Kenny and Bali Buffay today. Concerts are back. Join me, David James for a night of the stars in concert on Thursday the 2nd of December in the Strand Hotel Bali Liffon featuring Robert Mazzal, Patrick Feeney, Trudy Lawler, Jim Devine and Sean McStravock. Tickets 20 euros available from hotel reception or by phone in<PHONE_NUMBER> and night of the stars in concert Thursday the 2nd of December, the Strand Hotel Bali Liffon. Don't miss the crazy Black Friday deals right now at Watson Hire in letter Kenny up to 70% of the recommended retail price on hand and power tools, paint, homeware, clothing and much more. Many are clearance prices that won't be repeated. Loads of great present ideas now reduced. That's amazing Black Friday deals right now at Watson Hire. Kill toy, letter Kenny. Visit Watson Hire.ie or see Facebook for daily offers. Things are deteriorating quickly here in DRC. It's now the biggest hunger crisis the world has ever seen and 3.4 million children are on the brink of survival. Concerned staff are working around the clock but we desperately need more supplies. Your gift will save lives. Visit concern.net and send life-saving food today. Thank you. Are you tired of waiting for treatment or surgery? Did you know you can receive immediate treatment across the border under the new N.I. Planned Healthcare Scheme at potentially no cost? Donegal patients are still being treated with us at Kingsbridge Private Hospital Northwest Post Brexit. The process is easy and our dedicated team will help guide you through it. So why wait? Contact us today to find out how you can skip the bidding lists and receive treatment in Northern Ireland. Visit kingsbridgeprivatehospital.com because life matters. What do you give someone who has everything? Everything because that's what you get with an Aldi gift card. Choose from delicious Christmas food and drink or even our legendary Aldi special buys. Values range from 10 euro to 500 euro. It's perfect for loved ones and it shows them just how gifted you are. Purchase in store or buy online. Aldi, make Christmas amazing for everyone. Term supply visit aldi.ie4 slash gift cards for details. At Letter Kenny Shopping Centre we're already dreaming about the festive season so why not make a start, park for free and enjoy your Christmas shopping this year. Letter Kenny Shopping Centre bringing you the time at? The time is 22 minutes past nine. You're very welcome back to the nine till noon show. Just a quick word on news yesterday that a double bank holiday is on the cards for St Patrick's Day. The tonnage just said which would mark two years since the pandemic began. Leo Varadkar said that March 17 and 18 could both be bank holidays for four day weekend in 2022 with the new bank holiday moving to an earlier date for St Bridget's Day in 2023. Senator Sharon Keown, do you think that's an appropriate sort of thank you to our frontline staff, many of which will have to work over those days and if the truth be told it's really, it's employers, it's employers that pay the prices and it's not the state. Absolutely, it is employers that are going to have to front the cost of these bank holidays. Yes, it is nice to have one more national holiday. I would like to see it being St Bridget's Day, the 1st of February to mark the spring and to mark St Bridget herself. So, yes, I would welcome that particular day being a bank holiday going forward. And just the significance of if it becomes St Bridget's Day annually, the first time I think we have a public holiday in the name of a woman, is that significant? Well, it is significant. I think it's significant to the women in Ireland because we've never actually had any day dedicated towards a woman in Ireland and St Bridget obviously has been a patriarchal figure, she's been a Christian figure and yes, it's someone that we all know, all the children in the school know her or everybody throughout this nation knows who St Bridget is and she would have been a good representative to women in her time in history. So, yes, I would welcome that particular day turning into a bank holiday. Yeah, Councillor Lee and Blaney, do you think it's a fitting tribute to our front-line staff, an extra bank holiday or public holiday, I suppose, that nothing to do with the banks really anymore? Well, they deserve it. Yes, they deserve it. I think it should be a financial contribution as well because it's not just towards the staff that give so much service over the pandemic. Everybody's going to enjoy this bank holiday and I think they should be acknowledged with something different and somebody to be a financial boost for that same weekend. Because they kind of got themselves in a bit of a stick really by letting it leak that they were considering something. I mean, they had to let it die down for quite some time before they started talking about a bank holiday but it was going to be financial, it was costed, do you remember all that conversation? And obviously they buried that. Absolutely, they buried it because there was too many looking for it at that stage. The guardie were coming out, the nurses were coming out, the doctors were coming out, everybody was coming out looking for this contribution. And then how could you exclude, how could you exclude then those who were working in our retail and stuff? Absolutely. I mean, you cannot exclude anybody, even those the haulage drivers who are bringing our foods to the supermarkets, the farmers, you cannot exclude anybody. So the idea of a financial contribution was probably a little bit ridiculous in the first place because it wasn't a feasible suggestion. So very often did that in the very beginning. So they're going to have to look at other ways that they might be able to support those workers that have really been on the front line over the last 20 months. Yeah, and before I bring Thomas and Liam back to you though, I mean, you know, this should really, I presume what particularly those in the health service have done and this is no disrespect to everyone else that's worked really hard. But you know, there's people in the health service that have had, they haven't had five consecutive days off in five days. This should really have been a catalyst to sort of have a proper look at particularly conditions if not wages for our health workers, Liam. Well, you did talk about leaks there and I'm not aware of this being announced yet. Sorry, I mean, in case I was confused, this was going back about, I don't know how long it's about two months, it was all being costed and they were saying it would cost this much, it would cost that much and so that's that's history now. But do you think this should have been a catalyst really to look at the conditions, particularly maybe even the pay of our health care workers seen as we've seen firsthand what they do? Well, first of all, I still think that they can, we all know what the frontline workers are, I think it can be defined and you could take on everybody if you wanted. What I think the reality is that we do know there were frontline workers out there during the whole pandemic and I do still do think that they should get some kind of reward financially, but if that is ruined out, I do believe what you're talking about, the conditions and their pay can be looked at both and hopefully maybe on the same weekend or before it began, some can announce with me that they intend to prove them and prove both the conditions and the pay, especially with health care workers. Yeah, Deputy Pringle? Yeah, I think the pandemic has shown what really are essential workers and it would be the bankers and everybody else would be very disappointed to see what's classed as essential workers now in our society and I do think that they need to be acknowledged, but I think it could be better acknowledged by actually sorting out the health services and making the health service work for everybody and it could be better organized by actually increasing the minimum wage to the living wage and that would be very important because most of our essential workers are actually minimum wage workers and that's, you know, so on the idea of the bank holiday, I think St. Brighton's Day being a bank holiday is, pardon me, I think it is significant too that St. Bridges is would be the only woman that would be recognized in relation to bank holiday. But an extra day off in February though? Well, February would be great, I mean, that's probably, if we could change St. Brighton's Day, maybe till July, that would be ideal, and then we could have the best of both worlds. What do you think of that, Sharon? Well Mark, I think we're going to have to do it later in the year. It's always been the 1st of February, it's always been that day, I mean it would be slightly ridiculous to change it into the middle of May or, wait, you could do something in May, but we already have a holiday in May. It's very hard to know when to have a bank holiday, but we don't have one between, between I think January and St. Patrick's Day. So yeah, I think it would be a good time to have a bank holiday. We actually have less bank holidays than all of our European countries as well. Absolutely. And you know, so that's not going to be a known or as cost or anything like that. I mean, the next thing we'll have is all the business people are going to go, oh, you can't have a bank holiday because it's going to have so much cost and all that. It's not going to be and it's, and European standards were well below the average in terms of bank holidays as well. But more to the point though, as it marks, you know, is it an appropriate thank you? I'm just wondering what nurses and doctors and others on the front line thinking that, you know, like, you know, we all have someone in our lives I presume that works in retail. They're going to have to work on that day, for example.  And yes, maybe they might get it in lieu down the line. But really, is it, you know, it might make the country sort of go, yep, that's, that's fantastic because everyone benefits. But really, is it, I don't know, I haven't spoken to enough people that are affected by this to sort of, because it's their opinions that count, but what's your gut feeling, Thomas? Look, no matter, there's nothing you could do that everybody would benefit from. And like even on Christmas Day, people work on Christmas Day, and they're not benefiting from Christmas Day. You know, so, I mean, I think a bank holiday is appropriate, but I think it shouldn't be the only thing. I think the government respect the bank holiday because it's the least impact that they can do. And, you know, and what's what really should be the tribute to the pandemic and tribute to the people who have passed away during the pandemic is to start out the health services and to actually pay people who are on minimum wage workers and actual living wage. I think that would be a real thing that they could actually point to, you know, that this pandemic has been worthwhile. The big problem we've seen all through this pandemic now is that the government is going to revert back to type. And they're going to say that the last two years haven't happened. And we're going back, they're going back to cuts and that as well. When we've seen how during the pandemic, things went an issue, things weren't a problem because they had to be sorted out. Like we didn't have a homeless issue during the pandemic, but we're going to rapidly back to that again now because the government has decided now that the main thing to do is to cut down a borrow. It's discouraging, isn't it? That, you know, we do have problems that we, for generations, we don't seem to be able to fix yet. Many problems can be fixed very, very quickly with the stroke of a pen or what have you during the pandemic.  But again, you know, we're all going to be changed when we come out of this. Wouldn't it be useful maybe if how we govern was changed somewhat? Well, some things, you know, you can't just go a stroke of a pen and some people will try to make it out. I know some people before they go into, into our rafters at all, promise what they would do with a stroke of a pen and what could be done with a stroke of a pen. And I see some of them on there, Samsung, haven't done very much since I'm done. Are any of them on this call? No, no, no. I've been with Thomas for quite a while. I don't know what you're talking about me. No, no. I don't know locally. I'm talking about locally here where the word was told that thanks could be done with a stroke of a pen. And there's people there on there a long time since they said that and they didn't do what they said could be done with a stroke of a pen. So look, it's easy to say that thanks could be done with a stroke of a pen. Although we don't see during the pandemic where things was done near and off with a stroke of a pen. Then further in the line. 40 million, 40 billion was spent in the last 20 months in the health service. 40 billion euro. And they haven't fixed anything. They've done nothing. 40 billion that this nation is going to be paying for. And nothing. And here we are again. And what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks back, back, back on the pop payment back on the Chris back on the E. W. S. S. The only thing about that, the only thing about that, Sharon, and it's probably even worse than what you propose. Some might feel in that businesses, hotels, you know, hairdressers, all these businesses, restaurants are seeing people cancel their bookings, you know, they're seeing their order sheets empty. And because it's being done this way, the government is not having to to to increase support or pay the P. U. P. You know, it's almost actually worse than if they did close them and support them and support their staff. What is it be interesting to see what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks and what the guidelines are going to come out from the net of recommendations in the government? I do believe that there's going to be changes within 30 between now and the 13th of December. And I definitely believe that the cases are we'd like to think like to get the cases down, but the trajectory is not going in that way at this moment in time. It's not going up either. But the hospital case in the ICU is obviously very, very important. The ICU beds are really where the figures you need to be watching. And we are at just 150 yesterday, 126. So we have, we have, I think it's 297 beds in the country. It can be searched up to 330 at the moment, I believe. Yeah, I think he actually announced this week that they're funding for extra beds there. So I thought he was bringing it up to 297. Now, there's no talk about the private health service this year. Last year, they secured contracts with the various private hospitals to access ICU beds. There's no talk about that. There is. In fairness, Senator, we are, we have, we have access to the, and we are actually using quite a few beds in private hospitals at the moment. I'm not contradictory just for the sake of it. I don't believe I am, but I do know that they have, they have arrangements in place where needed there. But that obviously, that's not going to fix everything. That was certainly not going to fix it, but it should have been fixed. They had 20 months to fix it. They knew this was not going to go away. They knew it in 2020, the new was in 2021. This is a failure to act on their part. It is nothing else. And, and, and what's going to happen? These things are going to be different in 2022. It's 305 ICU beds, by the way. All right. So I was, I was quite dear at then. Yeah, you were indeed. So just, just to be absolutely, absolutely. We've had the huge, we've had the huge benefit of growing that by 50 beds since the pandemic started. I mean, that's the height of the ambition that the government has. So, and that's, that's Sharon's right. The last two years are going to be lost because the benefits are going to, we're going to, we're not going to see them. And what really, what we should be doing is we should be looking at what worked over the last two years and making that permanent.  But what this government is going to do is we're going to revert back to type and go back to making everything. Basically, like the last two years haven't happened. And what's been very interesting over the last couple of weeks, yeah, but the last couple of weeks or so within the whole pandemic thing that the government has shifted the whole thing around to its our fault. And it's our responsibility to actually sort out things. It's our responsibility to make sure that the pandemic doesn't increase. And that the government has no responsibility at all in relation to this. It's actually very interesting how they've done that. But Councillor Blaney, I mean, it's easy to say these things in opposition though. Is that how you feel that, you know, when you're in there, you have to make the tough decisions. You know, you have to, you know, like we have 100 and we have 127 vacancies at letter Kenny University Hospital that, you know, those jobs are there, they're advertised, they're funded. You know, 100 and I think it's 127 might be 126. So, you know, I presume, you know, the government would say, we're doing what we can, it's trying to get people to take up these jobs. Well, it's easy to be a populist and throw out everything that sounds good and all sound based on everything else. But the reality is for decisions to be made and I'm not on there having to make any decisions as far as government is concerned. But I see it in the council and the same people that opposed everything at once or anything at the same time. But I'm saying that, you know, I think it's 127 vacancies there is and that at Kenny Hospital and, you know, we're astonishing to hear that. That kind of figure is there. It hasn't just come overnight. It's been there for quite a while. I'm quite sure maybe building up over a period of time. But the Kenny Hospital series, he needs a real look at because as we're saying the thing was yesterday, it was the most overcrowded hospital again in the country yesterday. And there's a lot of a lot of both money and capital to need to be spent. Although we have the private hospital comments letter. Kenny, I think it's going to be hopefully get get up and go next year or start the building on it. But the serious capital needed to provide a lot more than at Kenny Hospital and what is right in there. And the staff is there on the huge pressure. And because of so little or so many people that are so many vacancies there. And I think if then vacancies were starting to be filled, we could see maybe a bit easier pressure for our staff is concerned. And hopefully with the private hospital coming on there and the extra workers coming in that the staff will get things a bit easier. And we'll see improvements hopefully as far as Thomas Pringle. I don't know if you're praying or you're disagreeing. I mean, to say that the private hospital coming into that again is a solution. I mean, that shows you how bad the government decision making and government responsibility is. So a private hospital coming into that again is going to be a great sign of progress. I think that's depressing. I think that's the private private hospital will only be accessible to people who can afford to pay for it. But does it not make it a more attractive proposal for certain medical professionals to move here? Because they can also do some work in this facility now. Sorry, I didn't mean to pray for the hospital. Yes, the nursing home you're talking about. Yes, the community hospital. The whole community hospital is coming out again. I think it will be a place where people can come out. People can be coming out of the operation. Step down beds and what? Exactly. Right, okay. That's okay. Yeah, the steps on beds and that makes sense, yes. Okay, we can agree on that so I can take a break. Okay, we're going to hear more from Deputy Thomas Pringle. Senator Sharon Keown will go straight after the breaking counselor Liam Blaney. Today's Ninetown News show is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires. Are your tires ready for winter? Call in to Ulster Tires in Latter-Kinney and Bali Buffet today. ESB Networks serving all electricity customers. Candles, lanterns, Christmas trees, decorations and all types of lights. Everything you need for Christmas. Experience the magic of Christmas at Cuny's. Our biggest and best Christmas shop has outstanding value on lights and trees. There really is something for everyone at Cuny's Letter Kenny Retail Park. Something exciting is happening at Dunstores. The Dunstores Christmas millionaire draw is now on. With winners in every store every week. For our grand prize, one lucky shopper will become our Dunstores Christmas millionaire. Winning one million value club card points. That's your shopping for the whole year worth 10,000 euro. Simply come in store and swipe your value club cards to enter. Swipe and win today with the Dunstores Christmas millionaire draw. Terms and conditions apply. See Dunstores.com for details. Footwear, check in store for details. Asics, new balance and on footwear. Save 20% on Black Friday weekend. Clothing from all the top brands. Adidas, Elesse and Under Armour. Kids' tracksuits, hoodies and bottoms. 20% off this Black Friday weekend. In store and online at bmcsports.ie. Hi, Theresa Mannion here with a road safety alert for bad weather. Black ice is one of winter's biggest hazards and is hard to see. Watch out for sheltered or shaded areas on the road, under trees and near high walls. Visit orsa.ie from the Road Safety Authority. Looking to gift your staff this Christmas? Why not spoil them with a Michael Henne's gift card? For corporate packages call us on 074 91 312 17. Michael Henne's ballet buffet for the dreamers this Christmas. Open Sundays, 1.30 to 6 p.m. or shop online with free next day delivery at MichaelHenne's.com. Homeland Fuel offers, keeping you warm for less. 20kg Eco Bright, buy 5 bags for 50 euro. Softwood Logs, 3 bags for 10 euro. 1kg Fire Logs, 4 for 5 euro. Shop in store or online at homeland.ie. Okay, you're very welcome back to the programme.  I mean, I remember when I was a child, when shops were closed on Sundays, even half days on a Wednesday, can we not do with one day, just to relax and spend time doing family things without shops, restaurants, etc. being opened? But that's, instead of them getting quite a boost, I suppose, of a bank holiday, they take an actual hit. Morning Greg, my family had COVID, two adults, quite poorly for about a week. The children age 7 and 2 years old, no symptoms, and the 4-year-old didn't get it. I would not be happy to vaccinate children. Another looks like real trouble ahead. Any variant of COVID, B-11-529, has broken out in South Africa. The variant is much more transmissible than even the Delta variant, and COVID vaccines are ineffective against it. That's really, that would be the worst-case scenario. They simply do not know that at this stage, whether that is actually going to be the case, and I wouldn't be worrying too much about it until we know more about it. But to say that it's more transmissible and evade vaccines, even the top medics in South Africa don't know that just yet. But obviously the UK government, taking it very seriously, they've introduced a quarantine for people arriving from some South African countries. The caller says, would it not be sensible for the Irish government to do likewise and not wait till the horse is bolted? Well, the EU are meeting on that today. So we'll see. Greg, I'm a frontline health worker. It's lovely to get an extra bank holiday, but a lot of frontline workers will still have to work. And other, what happens to small business owners who may now have to foot the bill for a public holiday? Do they get looked after? Wouldn't it be great if the likes of Councillor Blaney would forego the massive pay rise and donate the bonus to health workers? We've been talking about this one pay rise for quite some time, Liam. I mean, it's an extra eight grand, I think on top of 18. I'm not comfortable talking about other people's income, but you know it's out there. This has been agreed. Is it something that you're in favour of? I'm not asking you to defend it on behalf of 37 other councillors in the county, but... Well, I certainly will. You'll defend it. Excellent. Well, we'll start with you. I will absolutely defend it. I mean, county councillors are on the ground 24-7. It is a full-time role. It's gone as the days, but it is a part-time role. It is definitely a full-time role. I was a county councillor before I became a senator. And I know the work that I put in, and I know the work that a lot of councillors bring throughout this country. So it isn't even a living wage. It was less than just 17,000 before they got the pay rise. So now it's gone up to just 26,000 it's gone to. And it is very much appreciated by the councillors throughout the country. And we did fight for it. I know a number of us independent senators did fight to make sure that the councillors throughout this country got their pay rise. And so it's not a living wage. It wasn't a living wage. So I mean, would you work for 17,000 a year full-time? Nobody would. So I absolutely... I think a lot of people that know what the work councillors do wouldn't do it for either the 18 or the 26, if the truth be told. Because it is a tough job. It's thankless, like, for the most part. It is a thankless job. But you're literally on the go from early morning to late at night. And you're the first go-to person. When something goes wrong in your community, people reach out to the local councillor because they have the solution. So we have some fantastic councillors throughout this country. And Liam is among them. And many, many of the other councillors around the country work very, very hard. So I will defend councillors all day long. I was one myself. And I worked very, very hard. And I know exactly how hard councillors work throughout this country. And they deserve every single penny that they get in a pay rise. Deputy Pringles of TD, you must be laughing like what? One pay rise? Look, I think actually the councillor's eyes is necessary. And Sharon does say, she's talking to her electorate as well. But the thing about it is that the pay rise is necessary, I believe. I was a councillor for a good few years before I became a TD. And the one thing about it is it is a full-time job. And I would have loved to have been able to work at a full-time. But it's just something I couldn't afford to with having a wife and three children as well. And that's the reality of the situation.  And it should be paid as such as well. And I think it would mean then that you would get people that actually could devote the time to the role, make the role responsible. But I think what we also need to along with that is to actually make councillors responsible for the run of the council as well, rather than having a complete run by the executive. I think that would be necessary too. But I do think it would definitely have no problem with the councillors getting the pay rise. Liam Blaney. Thank you for the well-off answer there now. We're allowed to. And I'm not supposed to outload the top of councillors. But Thomas and Sharon, both were councillors. And Sharon was elected. And two elected leaders of the last council election, not just one, but two. So she's just well aware of the role of councillors. But this is on this last July. I don't know why you all the noise is now. And there was a report on it. It took years for the Moorhead report to be acted on. And it's now, we're now, I think, getting paid somewhere to three-fifths of a grade four. That's what we're connected to. So as they get increases, that's our service, as a grade four, we'll get three-fifths of it as well. But it has been said, it is a fall-time job. It's turned out to be a fall-time job. And more so, I see it more so, and I'll let it get in. Minister of District now, since the town council has done away with the pain, town councillors have done away with America now. And that void has been felt. We still have a long way to go now, Game. And you probably acknowledge that it is not the most family-friendly environment to be working in. You're not getting a lot of young people to go into politics. You're not getting a lot of women going into politics. So that's things and their challenges that we have to work on. Trying to get maturity leave for councillors, trying to make it more family-friendly. Having meetings in the middle of the day or late in the evening. So we have to try and make that environment a much more family-friendly environment. And an environment where we can encourage the best people to go forward for local government. And that's really what you want. And indeed, that's a conversation we have regularly on this programme. The barriers to, you know, elected... A lot of it is down to the kind of stuff you've talked about. 400,000 fans, I'm not sure if any of you three were amongst them, snapped up Gareth Brooks tickets yesterday. Two concerts, then three, then five. Some people going to all five concerts. Gareth, he's got 32 million in his back pocket already, which is nice for him. I never thought we were in a situation where one artist could effectively get. What is 500... 400 is a percentage of 5 million. It's pretty significant, you know. You take babies and stuff out of it. It's like one in five or something. One in six. Thomas, I mean, I don't mind. It's good if people are happy doing it. Yeah, look, I mean, if people want to go and see Gareth... Did you get a ticket? Good luck, Thomas. I got six. I wish I hadn't gone... You're going to face value to support your wages, or slightly above. No, actually, I don't see what the attraction is. I'm a person and I suppose maybe you shouldn't be saying that. But, you know, if people want to go and see Gareth Brooks, good luck to them. I wouldn't go and see him if he was in the back pocket. If I hadn't in the back garden. Aye, you would. No, I wouldn't. Well, I know, I know I can sense that Liam Blaney is a Gareth Brooks fan and has his tickets. Am I right, Liam? No, you're wrong. Oh, there you go, Gareth Brooks fan. Gareth Brooks fan, okay. But I have no tickets at all at the time to go to it. But look, I think you have the country left, certainly after the last year, two months we've had. And I don't see why. Well, although you have to take the consideration of the people that have been beside the place, but I do think it's from once off, the five concerts definitely that are out in the sea where Ed Sheeran is chatting, we're going to come in a few concerts here in the next year as well. So I think it's all welcome to give everything you can, both the people left, that's going to it, and the people who are watching as well. Well, Sharon, it's all on you now. Certainly none of the 33 million that went into his back pocket came from Sharon Hogan, I can assure you. I mean, I think they're calling him now Gareth Bucks, instead of Gareth Brooks. But you know, it's marvelous to see, it's great to see that people are having confidence in spending their money, getting their tickets, even if it is for Christmas gifts and stuff like that. But you know, I'm already hearing that a lot of the hotels around the Dublin area are putting their prices up. Oh, they were up there as almost the first year in hands, they were up at 400. Yeah, and that's really sad. I mean, look, I know they have to make money and, but you know, look, I'm a little bit disappointed in that, but look, that's the way business is and they're trying to make money as well. So yeah, so there's lots of, there's lots of bucks being made out of Gareth Brooks, I can assure you. Gareth Bucks, were you looking to come in there, Thomas? Yeah, Greg, I was just wondering, who's going to set it for you when you're going to concerts? Well, you know what, I've never been, I have never, ever been to a concert in my life, ever. Ever? To any concert? Never been to a concert in my life, but I'm going to Gareth Brooks. Oh, whoa, have you got the hat? I have got three hats, Sharon. Three hats, I'm going to wear them all at the same time. I've got me Stetson's the whole lot. I'm just trying to do things that I never did before. I've placed barriers in front of myself for no reason. So I'm going to say, you know what, I'm not even a Gareth Brooks fan, but I'm going to go. There you go, there you have it. Thomas Pringle, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. I appreciate your time today. A pleasure as always. Sharon Keogan, I beg your pardon. I was pronouncing your name incorrectly, Sharon. I wish you'd have corrected me a little bit earlier on, but that's what I was given. I think no, it's okay. Everybody makes that mistake. It's just the first time I've spoken to you, and it will not, a mistake I won't make again. Thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you very much, Greg. It's been lovely having with you. And last but certainly not least, Councillor Lee and Blaney, thanks for your contributions today. I appreciate it. Thanks, Greg. All right, take care of yourself. That were, those were, they were. That was our Friday panel. They were Lee and Blaney, Thomas Pringle, Sharon, Keogan, and we'll be back with the weather forecast after these. Today's Ninetal Nuncho is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires. Winter is coming. Get your tires winter ready. Call in to Ulster Tires in Lettercanny and Bali Buffay today. It's Black Friday sale time and an ish fitness at the Waterfront Hotel down low. Save a massive 20% on memberships from 26th to the 30th of November. Give your loved ones a gift of fitness or treat yourself to a healthier you. Secure your membership or gift voucher with 20% off by calling Inish Fitness down low 074 95 22 590. Looking to upgrade your business with a new van but not looking to compromise? Then look no further than the Ford Transit Range from the award-winning custom plug-in hybrid to the new active trail and transit 5-ton. Need a new pickup? Then check out the multi-awarded Ford Ranger. And with 2 to 1 upgrade offer, save up to 6,500 euro and get a low-rate APR and selected models. Ford Commercial Vehicles Search Ford.ie Leading criteria conditions apply. Participating dealers for selected models ordered by the 31st of December and registered by the 31st of March. Business hire purchased by Bank of Ireland leasing limited trading as Ford Credit. Dealer charges may apply. Ownership remains with Ford Credit until the final payment is made. Warning, you may have to pay charges if you repay early in full or in part a fixed-rate credit facility. Hi, Theresa Mannion here with a road safe dealer for Fog. When driving in Fog, use your fog lights, slow down and drive with caution. Open your window and stop at a junction and listen out for traffic.  Visit rsa.ie from the Road Safety Authority. This week at Chrysler Supermarket, we have special offers. Buy 9 chicken fillets for only 10 euros, steak gross 2 pound, 9 euro, 3 pound, 12, 25, 4 pound, 16 euros and 3 pound of stew and steak only 10 euros. Chrysler Supermarket offering quality and value every day. Open 7 days for your convenience. Connect hearing are offering a free hearing test at the Courtyard Shopping Centre, letter Kenny and Dunlowe Clinic. We also offer a home visit service for test, wax removal and repairs, perfect for those who are unable to visit our centres. Are you struggling to hear the TV or radio? We have the solution. Our wireless devices can be connected at both your TV and phone. With the latest in technology, coupled with a first-class repair and service facility, call us today on Ozone. Call us today on 07491 13296. Connect hearing, connecting you to life. Highland radio weather updates with National Fuels, delivering home heating oil to letter Kenny and the surrounding areas at competitive prices. National Fuels 9137 400. Okay, so a cold and windy day today with temperatures of six to nine degrees. There'll be widespread showers. They will be heavy at times and falling as sleet and snow over hills and mountains the northwest to north winds will be fresh to strong and gusty and we'll reach Gale Force on our coast. So it is going to be a windy one, right? We've one more break to take before we break for the news and obituary notices. Stay tuned. We'll be back with much more on the programme after these. Today's Nine Till Noon show is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires. Are your tyres ready for winter? Call in to Ulster Tires in letter Kenny and Bally Buffay today. Buy a ticket in Highland Radio's mega draw to win a car. Get your ticket by November 30th and automatically enter an extra draw before the big draw. The big draw. One lucky winner will walk away with 2,000 euro. Imagine, that's Christmas all wrapped up. Christmas sort. The draw will take place on Wednesday, December 1st on the Nine Till Noon show. Nine Till Noon. And you're still in with a chance to win the Kia X-Seed worth over 28,000 euro. 20,000! It's that simple to win that car. To get your ticket, log on to Highland Radio.com. Highland Radio. Exceeding your expectations. Entitlement changes for 30,000 farmers. In this week's Farmers Journal, we reveal government plan for leasing and clawback of entitlements. As the fertilizer crisis escalates, we have five pages of essential advice for beef, sheep, dairy and tillage farmers. In a changing jobs market, don't miss our Agri jobs focus and what to look for when buying a second-hand tractor. Plus free newspaper for young farmers only. Inside this week's Irish Farmers Journal. On sale now. Raymond Sweeney here from Ben's from the Ironix to let you know about the great gifts we have this Christmas. We have fitness trackers from names like Carmen, Samson, Fitbit and Waui. Wireless earbuds and headphones from as little as 29 euros. The Ninja Air Fryer is a low-fat, healthy way to cook your favorite fried foods from fluffy golden chips and crispy chicken wings to roasted vegetables. And a great selection of TVs, laptops and printers. Ben's from the Ironix or to a letter Kenny and the shopping centre down below. With great present ideas this Christmas and great Black Friday deals in store right now. Join us in Dunnegal Town this Christmas for a special Christmas extravaganza. 100 plus boutique stores. Discounts galore. Late opening. Capture the festive atmosphere at the Dunnegal Town shopping spree Friday the 3rd and Saturday the 4th of December. At SuperValue we want to share even more magic this Christmas by giving you savings off your shopping with our real rewards vouchers which are available on our handy app. So no need to worry about leaving them at home. If you haven't already download the real rewards app to get new vouchers every week until Christmas. Share the magic this Christmas with SuperValue. Every home needs that something special. At Max Light Lighting that's exactly what we can do for your home. High quality stylish interior lighting and illuminated mirrors at exceptional value. See maxlight.ie or call into Callan Electrical in letter Kenny retail park and see a selection of our lights that will give your home that wow factor. Live on air online and on the Highland Radio app. This is Highland Radio News. It's 10 o'clock good morning I'm Catherine Gaffney. Significant changes are expected to the Micah redress scheme. Campaigners are hopeful the proposals for the long awaited scheme will finally be ready by next Tuesday following several delays and weeks of negotiations. The enhanced scheme will be complex with improvements said to be timely and reasonable according to comments made in the door last night. Donegal Deputy Joe McHugh added that the scheme must be realistic too and says that homeowners must be afforded peace and hope in the run up to Christmas. Maybe we could add to timely reasonable and consistent maybe we could throw in realistic as well. It has to be realistic. The previous scheme was not the scheme that certainly I signed up to. Lastly and by no means least the homeowners who are hearing those cracks grow louder on a stormy night in the middle of the winter. They have to be allowed something that I certainly used to take for granted and that is peace. Peace of mind and peace to face into their first Christmas in a decade. Responding on behalf of the housing minister Minister Malcolm Noonan gave reassurances that the work undertaken to get the scheme right has been phenomenal. And again taking on board the points you make about dedicated staffing within the department the local mechanisms for delivery and the trust around earning trust and the homeowners at the centre of the scheme that's what we're trying to achieve. I know there's other issues being raised in the door about modular bills and affordability and I think those are for another day but I do think just to reassure you deputy that the work that has been put into this has been phenomenal by our department and by the minister himself. The justice minister says hotel quarantine could be reintroduced following the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant. The European Commission's proposing member states ban air travel from the southern African region after cases were identified there. It's also possible the monster rugby team who are currently in South Africa may have to quarantine upon the return to Ireland. Minister Helen McIntee says the variant could be more transmissible than previous strains. While we're obviously still learning about it the early indication would show that this is potentially more transmissible and potentially more able to evade the vaccination what the commission has proposed is that obviously in coordination with member states that they would activate an emergency break this would stop all travel from the southern region. The head of the HSE says he fully appreciates restrictions on children are difficult. Neffat's advising against indoor community gatherings for under-12s including parties, communions and sleepovers. It's also recommending that children over nine wear masks and schools on public transport and in shops. HSE CEO Paul Reed says children attending hospitals with respiratory related illnesses is having an impact on the health system. We were assessing the emergency attendances to our children's hospitals in the period of October to early November and if you compare with 2019 which would be a year before pandemic for about 11,700 presentations in that five week period in the equivalent five week period this year in 2021 there are almost 20,000 presentations so it's a 70% increase. It'll be towards the end of December before COVID-19 vaccines will be rolled out to children aged between five and 11. It's expected the jobs will be administered through HSE vaccine centres. A final recommendation from NIACS lightly in the coming days following yesterday's approval by the EMA. John Boyle from the teachers union the INTO says he's optimistic parents will opt to get their children vaccinated. Within three weeks if I recall over 62% of the children in post primary schools had been vaccinated so you know there's obviously a window here for parents to familiarize themselves and I know that on balance that the decision was strongly in favour of providing access to the vaccine for children of that age group. Afina Fall councillor has acknowledged significant capital investment needs to be pumped into letter Kenny University Hospital. The hospital has been in the spotlight every day this week from being the most overcrowded in Ireland to over 22,000 people on waiting list and almost 130 staff vacancies. There was also news this week that construction on a new community hospital in letter Kenny could start next year. Speaking on today's now until noon show Councillor Liam Blaney says while the new hospital might alleviate some issues down the line he believes a lot more money needs to be spent in the main facility. Both money and capital need to be spent although we have the private hospital coming to letter Kenny. I think it's going to be hopefully get up and going next year or start the building on it but the serious capital needed to provide a lot more at letter Kenny Hospital than what is already there and the staff is there on the huge pressure. Now cold one day day with temperatures of six to nine degrees there will be widespread showers heavy at times and falling a sleet or snow over hills and mountains. That's it for now. We're back with the headlines for you at 11 o'clock until then. Good morning. The obituary notices for Friday morning the 26th of November. The death has occurred of Annie McCauley, Neymal Hearn, Curran Sport, Gortha Hork, Donnie Gaul. Her remains are opposing at her late residence. Rosary tonight at nine o'clock with house private after the rosary until 11 a.m. Funeral mass in Christ the King Church, Gortha Hork, tomorrow at half past 12 with burial afterwards in the adjacent graveyard. The funeral mass can be viewed on MCN media, Gortha Hork, and on Kearn Rorty Funeral Director Facebook page. The death has taken place of Marian Doherty, Ney Harkin, Ardahi Inver. Her remains are opposing at her late residence. Removal from there tomorrow going to Gallagher's funeral home, Mount Charles. For prayers and service at half past 11, private to family and friends, followed by cremation in Lakelands crematorium, Cavern at three o'clock. Family flowers only please. Donations in lieu if so desired to the rehab unit, Letter Kenny, care of Gallagher funeral directors, Mount Charles. House private to family and friends. The death has occurred of Dennis Boyle, John Tague, Acres Burton Port. His remains are opposing at his late residence. House private to family, neighbors and close friends only please. Funeral mass tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock in St Columbus Church, Acres, followed by burial in Belchurch Cemetery. The death has taken place of Kay McGee, Balear Remelton. Her remains are opposing at her home, which is private to family only please. Funeral mass this morning at 11 o'clock in St Angus' Church, Burt, with burial afterwards in Burt Cemetery. The funeral mass can be viewed live on churchservices.tv. Family flowers only, donations if desired, to the Donegal Hospice, care of Patrick Sweeney, funeral director. The death has taken place of Mary T. Coyle, 30, Dr. McGinley Road, Letter Kenny. Her remains are opposing at her late residence. Funeral from there this morning, going to St. Unan's Cathedral for Requiem Mass at 11 o'clock, followed by interment in Umla Old Cemetery, Carrigart. The funeral is private to family and friends please. And the death has taken place of Bridget McColgan, Bokin Caldaff. Bridget's remains are opposing at her home. Bridget's funeral mass will take place tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock in St. Mary's Church, Bokin Caldaff, with burial afterwards in the adjoining graveyard. The funeral mass can be viewed live on caldaffparish.com, house private to family and close friends only please. For more details, including any family health guidelines for wakes and funerals, please go to highlandradio.com. Some people have actually called me the world's greatest archer. It's kind of a stretch. In a brand new, six-part original series, shouldn't we be worried? No. I'll be able for Christmas. I promise. Christmas never felt so good. It's going to be the best Christmas ever. Marvel Studios Hawkeye. First two episodes, streaming soon, only on Disney Plus. 18 plus subscription required. Teas and seas apply. With all the stories that matter across the Northwest, it's Greg Hughes on The 9 to Noon Show on Highland Radio. And you're very welcome back to the program. Thank you for all your texts and comments so far this morning. Let's run through some of them now. My caller says we are at breaking point in the health service COVID and they are not fit for purpose. You take the COVID situation out. You replace it with what's being canceled and who can disagree? Does Thomas Pringle have a plan on entering government by putting on the green shirt and helping to make these tough decisions? Or is he going to remain in opposition forever and just complain? It's an easy seat to sit in, they say. Another caller says the GP service in this country has turned into a shambles. It's impossible to get to see a doctor unless I could get a negative PCR test first. It's no wonder the hospitals are full. It's time for the GPs to step up. They are far too interested in getting money for vaccinations, though they're not really doing that at the moment, are they? Other than what they would normally do at this time of year. But they say it's time to remove the vaccinations from them and put them in the hands of the pharmacies and vaccination clinics. I have a lot of sympathy for like every GP is different and that's clear from the comments we get, right? But I was listening to Paul Reed of the HSC on earlier today and in most counties, except up here and a few others, in most counties you cannot get a PCR test if you want one. So if you're feeling a bit ill and you want to know whether you've got COVID or not, you can't book an appointment for today in the majority of the country. And then Paul Reed on this morning and this is not having a goal of blaming Paul Reed. He says we have to prioritize the situation and I'm not quoting him directly. We have to prioritize cases and we are currently prioritizing GP referrals, right?  So what happens then as soon as he says that people go, right, I'm not checking the yeah, I'm not checking the the PCR booking portal. I'm going to ring my GP now. So as soon as he says that, you've got hundreds, sorry, thousands, if not tens of thousands of people then calling the GP saying I've got symptoms and I need a referral. Okay, that's inevitable. So that's also the doing that because it's the only way we can get a PCR test. So then you have people who are sick with other things, right, trying to ring the GP and the GP's phones ringing off the hook because people are trying to book PCR tests and what do they do? They say, well, I'm not risking this. I'm going to go to the ED and I'll sit in there and next thing the EDs overrun. So I'm not saying, I'm not saying it's, I'm not criticising Paul Reed, by the way, on this occasion and I'm not saying it's doing it purposely. But one interview where he says we're prioritising GP referrals, everyone rings the GP looking for a referral and then maybe the GP can't answer the calls as best as they would like to to deal with other issues out there. So I would say that contributes to everything because then what do you do? If you're worried about someone, you say, well, I'm not sitting here. I've tried to ring my GP. I can't get through. I'm going to get into the ED because at least down there if something goes wrong, I'm surrounded by medical professionals and that's just one thing. I could be wrong and if anyone can wants to pose that view, do so. But it's that kind of situation that we're in. You can't get a PCR test. Head of the HSC says you can if you go to your GP. People try and go to the GP for the PCR test. Other people can't get through with other medical conditions. They go to the ED and it just seems like one thing feeds into the other. Wouldn't it be great if they'd like to cancel a Blaney? Oh, I've read that one already. What about hospital staff? They still have to work bank holidays, indeed. But I think they get that time somewhere else so they still get the day if not on that Friday. What different strains in the community is he talking about? Does he know something we don't about other strains? Numbers don't equal deaths. 96% of adults vaccinated. So why vaccinate children to protect adults has been said when this doesn't affect our children. Greg, why is it always down to children? Yes, they are back at school but it's like everything else, bugs, flu, all start in the classroom and they bring it home. I'm so disheartened with the decision that caller says. My nine-year-old granddaughter is in a class of 22 in primary school in Galway. 13 of that class of Covid. The other classes are just as bad so surely this school should be closed. In Britain, there are schools just closing. There's principals are saying that. They're saying it's working. I'm closing up. I'm surprised we don't see more of that here. But we did see it once, didn't we? And it became a national story and the principal ended up getting quite publicly scolded. Another caller says it's criminal to give an experimental vaccine that's not fully trialled. I mean, we could argue that back and forwards all day, couldn't we? But to give the vaccine to children whose immune system haven't fully developed yet in order to protect adults. Hi, Greg. It seems like school children weren't a problem until it was time to vaccinate them just like under 5s on a problem at the minute. But you can be sure they will be when it's their turn for the vaccine. This is about getting every single person on the planet a vaccine, passport, digital ID and they won't stop at anything unless until this is achieved. I mean, you know, what we're going to see now is, you know, and it's a very tough decision. It's a very tough decision for 12 to 15 year olds. And it's a very tough decision too for the younger children. It is a tough enough decision. I think that parents should be given the space to do it to make that decision. I think already it started whereby they're being told that they're killing the children and this is going to happen and that's going to happen. That's not free choice to me. I think free choice is parents being actually or guardians being able to make these decisions without others trying to scare them into that decision one way or other. You know, if we are all about freedom of choice and there's going to be a lot of people marching on Saturday and Dublin probably looking for freedoms. Well, let's give parents and guardians the freedom to make their decisions as well rather than trying to scare them into a decision one way or the other. I mean, it's generally accepted, thankfully, very generally accepted that children very, very, very rarely get very sick with COVID. That's the one saving grace of this whole thing. So parents have to make a decision. Do they trust the health advice and do they think it's for the greater good? I think that's a tough enough decision without people trying to scare them into a decision one way or another. That would just be my views if we are talking about people's freedom of choice and what have you. Right, good luck if you are playing the bingo today. Here are those numbers for you. It's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio. It's Friday, the 26th of November. You're playing on the Yellow Sheet. The reference number is S15. It's game number 47. The numbers are 29. 30. 54. 48. 84. 34. 2. 23. 46. And finally, 50. Phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 tonight. Leave in your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day. Get all your NCBI Bingo information at HighlandRadio.com. Today's 9 till noon show is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires. Are your tires ready for winter? Call into Ulster Tires in Latter-Kennie and Bali Buffay today. A ticket in Highland Radio's mega draw to win a car. To win a car. Get your ticket by November 30th and automatically enter an extra draw before the big draw. The big draw. One lucky winner will walk away with 2,000 euro. Imagine that's Christmas all wrapped up. Christmas sort. The draw will take place on Wednesday, December 1st on the 9 till noon show. 9 till noon. And you're still in with a chance to win the Kia X seat worth over 28,000 euro. 20 grand. It's that simple to win that car. To get your ticket log on to HighlandRadio.com. Highland Radio. Exceeding your expectations. For Black Friday weekend there's great savings at McGee's Chemist at or Kenny. With 20% of Longcom skincare. 20% of Inglot and 25% of Cerevi, La Roche-Posay and Vichy skincare. Special offers on Clarence. Be perfect. Sosu and more. Great discounts on fragrances by Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss and many more top names. That's from Thursday to 25th until Sunday the 28th at McGee's Chemist in store and online at McGee's.ie. Stock already discounted and gift sets are excluded from Black Friday offers. This is the new Toyota Yaris Cross. A new kind of SUV. New point of view. New compact style. New spacious feel. And exclusively self-charging hybrid. The right choice for today. Get a new perspective with the Yaris Cross self-charging hybrid. You'll never take a wrong turn with Toyota. Built for a better world. Don't miss the crazy Black Friday deals right now at Watson Hire in Etter Kenney. Up to 70% of the recommended retail price on hand and power tools. Paint, homeware, clothing and much more. Many are at clearance prices that won't be repeated. Loads of great present ideas now reduced. That's amazing Black Friday deals right now at Watson Hire Kiltoil Etter Kenney. Visit WatsonHire.ie or see Facebook for daily offers. Hi, Theresa Mannion here with some advice about the dangers of sun glare. You may not think it, but sunshine can create extremely dangerous driving conditions. Sun glare can be intensified if your windscreen is dirty or greasy or if it's been raining. Keep the inside of your screen clean. Use windshield washer fluid and check your wipers. Keep sunglasses in your car and be extra vigilant coming out of junctions and around bends. If you're dazzled by sun glare, slow down and be prepared to stop. From the Road Safety Authority. Christmas is well underway at Letter Kenney Shopping Centre. Park for free and get everything you need. Thank you for shopping with us this Christmas. Letter Kenney Shopping Centre bringing you the time at... 20 past 10. We'll play Gareth the 1030-ish. Pick a song. Go on, which is your favourite one of his? 08, 6, 60, 25,000. WhatsApp us and all text us and pick which Gareth Brooks song we play at 1030 for the day that's in it. Hi, there's a big tree down between Church Hill and Loch Cibbon covering nearly the whole road. We're going to see maybe more of that over the next... between now and this time tomorrow, perhaps, a lot of wind coming in from different directions too. You know, the old trees and what have you can be resilient to regular wind directions, but perhaps maybe they could be undone with a wind coming from it. An unusual direction at a strong pace. The UK government's giving antigen tests for free to the public. Nobody there is saying the public is too stupid to follow the instructions on the box. Our government is a cheapskate and we will pay for their ineptitude. That being said, dare I even say, their figures are through the roof over there and that's with antigen testing and I think that's what... I think Nefert have referenced that. Do these restrictions for children include indoor training for sport? There's no restrictions as of yet. There's a conversation been had by Nefert. Their recommendations, as you might expect, have been leaked. The government is meeting on Tuesday, so nothing is decided at this point. Caller says, this is just a push to vaccinate our children. The masks are just part of the conditioning for it when the government wanted the children back in schools while the minister and Nefert all said schools were safe. It's all about lining the pockets of Pfizer. Next is 25-year-olds. Next is 25-year-olds. Guaranteed, oh, two to five-year-olds. Okay. Listen, people aren't obliged to do anything. I think they'll probably... I'd say probably a 50 or 60% uptake in that at all. There's more of skin in the game than Pfizer. I also wondered why Pfizer gets so much attention, because there's obviously Moderna, there's Johnson, the Russians have their own vaccine, the Koreans have their own vaccine as well, and there's more coming on, and this over-focus on Pfizer. I might have my opinion more swayed if it just wasn't focusing on one company when there's so many companies lining their pockets off the back of this. Neil Collins, chair of Milford, aimed to, and we're talking about road safety. Hi, Neil. Morning, Greg. How are you doing? I'm all right. Now, you're raising concerns about a stretch of road. It's overlooking Mulroy Bay. Tell us, describe to us what is the situation there, what you think needs doing. Well, this is a stretch of road, just below Cranford. It's called The Ponds, or basically called The Courage Cruise on the road road. Well, this is just three weeks today that we're going to carry it off the road. And as we're going down on the bank, we're going to go with the wall, and down about 15 to 24. Now, she was absolutely blessed. Actually, on another four or five foot further, she was over another embankment, and down another 40 foot. And God only knows what would have happened there. But I have a feeling the next car goes in there. It's going to be a fatality. I mean, this is the third car to go on now in the last number of years. We've had a lot of other accidents at it, but this is the third car that's gone actually off the road. And the three years, there was a woman from Remelton who had only seen years ago. And she was in there from half eight in the morning, because I think it was six, just half six in the evening when they finally got her. The only way they got her was with her phone, her signal and her phone, I think. You can't see, once you go over and down there, there were threes in it at that time, and they stopped, they saved her a bit. But now the m3s, they want another car in a couple of weeks after that. And the m3s are cut away, so there's no car now. If you want to go with the wall, if you go with that fortune, that's just gone. So what you're saying is we shouldn't be relying on luck. We have to put in some measures here. There has to be a crash barrier put up here. Absolutely. After them, other incidents happened, the council did put up what I would call a clay bank. Over the years, now the last couple of years, that's upside, and it's kind of formed what you've achieved from the last car that went in there.  Yeah, I get you. Once it was off the road, it was around the car, you know. And it's just... How big a stretch are we talking, Neil? How big a stretch are we talking for a crash barrier? A crash barrier, but say about 40 metres or more. So it's not hugely significant. Oh, it's not at all, no, no. And I mean, in three weeks today, this happened on shop, but nothing has been done. But you would need signs approaching from Malford at this corner. There's animals, yellow animals on the side of the road, but there's nothing telling how just how dangerous this corner really is. Yeah, and I suppose, you know, we have to make sure that drivers are aware of dangers on the road, as we say. That is part of our... That's part of the causation of collisions is, you know, our drivers being made aware. Are there safety measures in place to as limit as best as possible injury? Yeah. All right. Okay, listen, thank you for that. Good points, well made. As always, thanks, Neil. I appreciate it. Okay, you're familiar with that stretch.  And a couple of cars have gone over one, three weeks ago. The person had a very lucky escape by Neil's testimony there. Obviously still shook by it. 08, 660, 25,000. Right, I just want to give a quick mention to our mega-car draw. Mega-car draw. The mega-car draw, which is taking place here on Highland Radio. That's towards the end of December. This week, by the way, though, if you buy your tickets, you're in for a chance to win two grand in cash next Wednesday, I believe it is. We'll be making the draw in this program for €2,000 in cash. It's an incentive for you to get your tickets early. And the main prize, of course, even if you win the cash, your name goes back into the draw drum. You're in for that. Now, what is the top prize? The top prize is a beautiful Kia Exceed in association with our friends at iMotors in Mallon and Drumkeen. It's a petrol model in white, and it comes with all the extras you get with a Kia. And it's worth almost €30,000 to be in with a chance to win. And go on to our website, highlandradio.com. Click on the win this car icon, and you can purchase your tickets. They're a tenner for one. You can buy six for 50 if you're looking for presents or what have you, or you just want to treat yourself 10 for 80. But obviously, you know, well within your means and for fun and for nice gifts for people. Good luck. If you buy your ticket this week, you could also win that two grand. So if you're thinking of getting a ticket, right, if you get it this week, you can also win that two grand. But on top of that two, I'd imagine, and you'll still be in the running for it, there might be other little incentives, maybe not so little incentives, as we head toward draw day in the towards the end of December, just in front of Christmas. Okay, good luck if you're playing, not good luck if you're playing, good luck if you've entered there. Why a widow who is not a pensioner can only get the fuel allowance, but I cannot get other allowances like phone, TV, license, free electricity, units or the living alone allowance. Surely this is discrimination against younger widows. My niece is a single parent and she gets a lot more allowances than me. The difference in her and me, I chose to get married before having a family. It's not my fault that my husband died suddenly. Why are no politicians acting on our behalf? Morning, Greg, will you be talking about hotel prices as they jump to 400 for one night next year? And who did and didn't get Gareth Brooks tickets? Some absolutely hope broke and I didn't. I have no bank account. Oh, well, listen, there are people that, you know, partners that were all buying tickets and maybe someone out there has some tickets available at face value that you can help this person out. They don't have a bank account. Hopefully they have access to money. Maybe we can put you in contact with them. I don't think the prices jumped because the prices, they did jump, but they didn't jump when the tickets became available. They actually jumped when the concerts were announced, when those five nights were booked. All of those nights became expensive. Children have been going to school for the last two years without masks. Wasn't a study in Europe. Germany, I think, that showed that masks did not help. In fact, there were so many germs on it. That's not true if they're used correctly. And it's in a very simple process.  Private Hospital will solve our health crisis, this kind of comment you would expect from someone of direct lineage. I think there was a crossover there because it wasn't a private hospital. It was the public nursing home community hospital. Morning, Greg. So we went from Children are safe from COVID to making them wear a mask to giving them the vaccine and no doubt a booster. Target then newborns to five-year-olds, it's atrocious and shocking to even get down this road. Frontline staff are people who work in hospitals and healthcare settings. All others are second and third line in my option, or sorry, in my opinion, and all healthcare staff should be given annual leave plus proper resourcing. All right, keep them coming. I'm going to get through those over the course of the next half an hour or so. We're going to take a break. Keep your suggestions for a Gareth Brooks song coming during the break, and then we'll play that for you after. Today's Ninetone show is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires. Get your tires ready for winter. Call in to Ulster Tires in Latter-Kennie and Bali Buffet today. For great fuel deals, contact Gortley Sales & Hire, large sacks and trailer loads of logs, also briquettes, coal, kindling and gas with free delivery locally. Contact Gortley Sales & Hire in Latter-Kennie on 911-262-76. And now, stocking, selly mix and sunny car and commercial paint. Central Auto Parts, Port Link Road Business Park, Latter-Kennie. Find us on Facebook or call us on 074-9127-491. The day has finally arrived. Some say the most important one of the year. Tesco's Christmas home delivery and free Click & Collect slots are now open to book. This Christmas, nothing's stopping us, so give yourself a little help this year and book yours today at Tesco.ie. Book early. Slots will be going faster than, well, Santa's sleigh and Christmas Eve. Tesco, every little helps. If you want to get in shape or stay fit through the winter and beyond, you won't want to miss the Black Friday Sale and Enish Fitness at the Waterfront Hotel down low, where they're giving a whopping 20% of all memberships from the 26th through the 30th of November. While waiting till Christmas to purchase a gift voucher, give your loved ones a gift of fitness this year or treat yourself to a healthier you. Call 074-95-225-90. Enish Fitness, the future of fitness in West Donegal. Come visit their massive sleep center on the first floor. Christmas decorations and gifts now on display. Patterson's Black Friday Sale is now on at the Hall Effort. For fantastic Black Friday deals, visit Rossview Interior's Letter Kenny, where there's amazing savings on a large range of sofas in stock and ready for delivery before Christmas. There's also huge savings on bedroom and occasional furniture, dining sets and Hollywood mirrors with dressing tables, the perfect Christmas gift. That's right now at Rossview Interiors, the home of better deals. At Rossview Business Park, Letter Kenny, just off the Polestar roundabout. See RossviewInteriors.com. All right, that ended a little bit sooner than anticipated. Okay, thank you for every one of you who messaged in and texted in. Funny enough, it was all of Garth's slow songs, not all of them, but the majority of people were looking for songs like The River, Unanswered Prayers and the most requests came in for this one. This is The Dance. Back in three minutes and 39 seconds. Okay, and that was requested by one particular person for a special reason, so hopefully they're happy with that. Right, Frank Harburn is Sales to General Manager for the rollout of the vaccination program in the west and northwest. Frank, thanks for joining us this morning. Good morning, Greg. How are you? I'm okay. Now, for those who are looking to get a vaccination, they have an opportunity to do so this weekend. They do indeed. Yeah, so we're running two walking clinics for booster vaccines for people aged 60 to 69 and also for healthcare workers. So that's on Saturday the 27th at 8am to 3.30pm. Now, what are the criteria there? Because do you have to be five months? Is it six months from your second dose or what if you got a single dose of vaccination? What's the story there? Yeah, so it's an interval of five months from your second dose, which is about 152 days, except if for those individuals who got the Johnson, the Janssen vaccine, which was the one-shot vaccine, and that's a three-month interval since they had that. So we imagine everyone who got that would be pretty much eligible at this point for four. And how do you prove that? I mean, is there a database there? Will that be checked? Yes, it will. Yeah, so everyone will be checked when they come in. So on Saturday the 27th, like I say, 8am to 3.30pm, and that's for people who had their second dose on or before the 28th of June. Again, specifically for 69-year-olds and healthcare workers. And then on Sunday, the 28th of November, 8.15pm to 5.20pm for those that had the second dose on or before the 29th of June. And it's very important as well, though, for those individuals who are eligible and it's their time within those groups of 69 healthcare workers, if they've had a positive COVID-19 diagnosis in the past six months, they won't be able to take their booster yet until that six-month period is up. So they can either phone HSE Live or there's a form they can complete and send in on the HSE TOTITI website. So at six months post when you would have been determined clear of COVID before you can get the vaccination, so the booster? Before you can get the booster, that's correct, yeah. At least six months after you've had a positive test result, then you can get your booster. Healthcare workers, is that clearly defined? You know, is it all healthcare workers? You know what I mean? Just to say if anyone turning up and they go, well, you actually wouldn't qualify into that category, everyone knows who they are, do they? Yeah, well, yeah, they should do. The vast majority will have already been working in healthcare when they had their previous doses. So they'll be on the system as a healthcare worker as well. They could bring along some proof that they are a healthcare worker, like a staff badge or something like that. You know, that's fine. But they'll bring down on the system as a healthcare worker there. What is the situation as it relates to those seeking their third dose if they have underlying health conditions? Is there any progress in that regard? Yeah, there's a couple of things going on there. We're currently vaccinating people who've been referred by a consultant or GP as being immunocompromised. So that's a clinical decision that has to be made about an individual based on some criteria that is set nationally. And so those people will get appointments for those as they come through. For other individuals, there were some people who were at high risk or very high risk for some particular conditions. And they'll actually be due a booster and they'll start to get appointments and they'll be appointment only to start with, as most of these groups are. There was some suggestion that it could be the end of December into next year after Christmas anyway, before those aged over 50 would be called for a third dose. That timeframe might be slipping forward, moving forward a bit. Yeah, we're hoping. Yeah, I mean, nationally, we've been looking at operationalising this. We're hoping we're going to get started with the 50-59s around mid-December and certainly before Christmas. I think it's important when we're talking as well about the walk-ins for, say, healthcare workers in 60-69, as we are at the minute, is that those individuals will get appointments anyway. This just gives another opportunity for those that haven't been able to attend their appointment yet and are due, or those that feel that are due, but were concerned that they haven't been called yet. And is the system robust enough now or developed enough now that they are taken off the list if they turn up, or if someone goes to a pharmacy that they're not recorded as a no-show? Like, is the system in place now that we can properly keep a track of this?  And equally, pharmacy is a very good point you mentioned, and there's a wide range of pharmacies offering booster doses to eligible groups, but also doses for dose one and dose two. And so details of all those pharmacies are online at hse.ie as well. Some of them are on... Ring a local pharmacy. Yeah, the problem with that, and maybe this is not your problem, Frank, there are pharmacies listed on the HSE website that actually aren't doing vaccinations because they aren't getting the numbers to justify opening vials and all that type of stuff. I mean, is that list really, you know, you're looking to encourage as many people as possible, I presume. Is that really the best way of doing it? Because it can be a bit hit and miss and whether a pharmacy, although they're a bit listed, whether or not they are actually providing vaccines. Yeah, well, obviously, from our point of the program with the vaccination centres, I can't really speak for what individual pharmacies are doing, but I would suggest if anyone rings their local pharmacy or go or pops in if they're passing and have a chat with them and ask them because they may well be able to get the appointment they want there. Right, just as it relates to walk-ins now, is it specifically for the people that you've mentioned a booster vaccine for those aged 60 to 69 and healthcare workers of all ages, presumably, with the caveats that you mentioned, Saturday the 27th of November between 8am and 3.30pm for people who had a second dose on or before 28th of June, Sunday the 28th, 8.15am to 5.20pm for those with the second dose, on or before 29th of June. Any other groups of people able to walk up or is it specific to those categories, Frank? Well, those categories absolutely spot on, but also in terms of we are going to take some dose one and dose two walk-ins on Saturday as well. Again, at the same time between 8am and 3.30pm. All right. And that's for the second dose on or before the 28th of June. And that's this weekend, Lettuce Kenny Vaccination Centre. What, sorry, what vaccine are you administering and does it matter what vaccine someone got previously? Pfizer. So it'll be Pfizer for the Beasters and the dose one from those twos will be Pfizer as well this weekend. Okay, thanks for your time. Terrific, thank you. All right, take care. Frank Harbourn, well, we didn't contact him, they contacted us looking to get that information out there.  It's not for you, but it's for those who have decided that's what they want to do. And they asked us to give the information as to how they can do it. Right, more after these. Today's 9 till noon show is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires. Get your tyres winter ready. Drop in to Ulster Tires in Lettuce Kenny and Bali Buffay today. As you start rediscovering Northern Ireland again, we want you to explore with confidence. That's why we've introduced the we're good to go industry standard for tourism and hospitality businesses. So you know they've agreed to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines like social distancing, following the recommended cleaning processes and undergoing spot checks. So you can enjoy your break to the full. Look out for the safety symbol for businesses that are good to go. Northern Ireland, we're good to go. Brought to you by Tourism Northern Ireland in partnership with UK national tourism bodies. There's two kinds of O's you hear at Christmas. The O of disappointment and socks. Oh, thanks. And the O of surprise, joy and great taste award winning food. Oh, this looks nice. Prepare to hear plenty of O's at Lidl this Christmas with our biggest ever Deluxe range and more great taste awards than any other retailer in the Republic. Lidl, more for everyone this Christmas. Be properly prepared for a Donegal winter and the odd parkot with a visit to Wet and Wild.  Smile this winter with a visit to Wet and Wild. This Christmas we've offered so good it's impossible to choose. Like Christmas dinner, now one month's heating, presents for the kids, two weeks rent and winter jackets only this week's electricity bill. Many families will face impossible choices this Christmas. Please support the St. Vincent de Paul annual appeal. Donate locally at svp.ie or call 0818 176 176. Starting from Monday the 22nd of November, Leta Kenny driving range has a one week Black Friday special with 20% off all stock. Yes golf clubs, bags, balls, clothing and accessories. If it's in store it's on offer but only while stocks last. Leta Kenny driving range where the real golfers go. If you're aged 60 to 69 you will soon be offered a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose. COVID-19 vaccines offer protection from serious illness but this may weaken over time. The booster is recommended to give you the best possible protection. When it's time for your vaccination center appointment you will receive a text message from the HSE. It's very important to take up your booster appointment. For more information visit hse.ie or call HSE live on 1800 700 700 from the HSE. Join us in Donegal time this Christmas for a special Christmas extravaganza. 100 plus boutique stores, discounts galore, late opening, capture the festive atmosphere at the Donegal town shopping spree, Friday the 3rd and Saturday the 4th of December. Highland radio weather updates with National Fuels Leta Kenny for a keen price on your home heating oil called National Fuels on 9137 400. So a cold wintery day and windy day with temperatures 69 degrees. There'll be widespread showers heavy at times falling in sleet and snow over hills and mountains. Northwest and North winds will be fresh to strong and gusty. They'll reach Gale Force on coasts. Right we were talking earlier on about a crash on the Milford Carragart Road and Neil was expressing his concerns about the safety there and referenced a person who had a crash there and unfortunately Caroline you're going to have to put that call through. I just neglected to take that to take that in. The person who was involved in that crash is on the phone with us. Marie, how are you? Good thanks for having me. Now unfortunately the line is not fantastic and it wasn't great being put through. Tell us, we'll see if we can hear what you have to say, Marade, and if not we'll have to get you back at another time on a better line. But what happened on the day? Well I was coming from Milford after having a really good interview. You know so I was really positive and I was on my way back to Creaster and I was leaving from Milford, going on the, you know, the Carragart, the Milford to Carragart Road and so I went around the bend at the lake on Cranford and then I went around the next one but as I went around the next one my back wheels spung behind me. I was going wonder action. It feels like slow motion at the time but it was quite fast and then you compensate and go the other way and before I know it I'm across the road over a groove and I'm sliding down from the road and I'm like now ten feet below with a verge just below me for another ten foot and I'm sitting in the car holding on to the steering wheel thinking I'm going to go further down here and thankfully I was able to get out of the car and then claw the guards and they were about 20 minutes away so they were on the other side of the road. But for a period there it must have felt like that end scene in the old the Italian job you know where the boss is teetering on the edge was it like that did you think were you sitting there going is this car going to slide further and what happens if that does happen? Yeah that was the situation I was like am I going to, am I safe to stay in the car and I thought no I have to get out because I'd be safer the car can go, I'm not going down there and luckily when I got back up through bushes, trees and on the ground and then I got back up to the wall and then this guy came along with his white fan he was cute and he was so good he saved with me till the guards came and obviously you start to get into shock then your body's like your heart rate goes up you're shaking yeah so he was really good and got me to sit in his van and when the guards come along they were really really good as well and at what stage do you start thinking like if this had happened what if a lorry had been coming in the other direction what if there was someone walking along the road what if I was going a little bit faster and the car had continued down the slope when does that stuff start racing through your head or were you able to control that Marie? You're looking down back at your car and you're thinking thank god somebody's looking after me that day because I could have easily rolled over on the side and it could have easily been and I could have just passed the car coming the other way so they had passed me from the other way but timing wise they were only a minute or two away from the accident happening things like that there was so many things where I was lucky not everybody's lucky in these situations but it always reminds me about the crew, teenagers that died and Chrysler maybe it's two years ago on the road and so the car crashes happen and sometimes people are lucky sometimes our people are not lucky and as I said to Neil earlier we can't rely on luck in your case like given the nature of the way the car lost handling and you know do you think a barrier would have kept you on the road? Oh definitely definitely yeah there's no way you would have been overlaid you would have stayed on there's definitely something along with that spot yeah and what do you think happened? what do you think are you a rear wheel drive or do you think there's some oil on the road or what do you think happened right? I, it's a similar kind of day today but gusty and wet yeah and it's a similar kind of day it is a farming area as well so there could be lots of stuff on the road just lost traction and that's it okay how are you feeling now? are you okay? yeah I'm really lucky that I haven't got any injuries yeah anything with it after the claims process then it took quite a long time to get through the car insurance company and a couple of days and then even they said that they're got a high volume of accidents and that they were a pair of companies in Lerner County they're saying that they've also got a high volume of accidents at the moment so it could be I think a bad time of year as well yeah you do like we're getting reports of them thankfully you know a lot of them aren't involving serious injuries but I agree is your car written off or can it be repaired Marie? it can be repaired thankfully I'll get back on the road soon with stories to tell do you remember the time? yeah okay listen I'm glad I'm glad you're okay I am glad and this is again that the best of us that there were people there that were there when you needed them and supported you because that's when you needed them and it's great that they were there and listen you know you're quite clear that if barriers had been there you wouldn't have gone over and you'd have been kept on the road and you know there's nothing more we can say than that this road sounds like it definitely needs barriers because the next time an extra five kilometers an hour what might happen Marie do you know? yeah thanks for your time good to hear you're doing okay yeah thank you all right take care thanks very much that's Marie there who was involved in that collision on the willful car at Mulroy Bay they're overlooking Mulroy Bay that we were talking about a little later on so thanks to Marie for telling us and I'm glad that she's doing well Neil is right a crash barrier is needed on that stretch of road and I can also see a major problem on the opposite side of that road a little further down where the council could all the trees rocks are coming loose at the top and with heavy rain will soon begin to slide down onto the road and could hit passing traffic so a high barrier needs to be put up to stop those large stones and rocks rolling onto the road thanks James for your comment Greg, Mike, Ryan of the WHO yesterday was praising the UK government for their great handling of COVID I didn't hear that I'd love to hear it and the context I'm a healthcare worker in the community this past 16 years and I got no pay rise is this acceptable? well I think very few people would say it is acceptable so what about school secretaries fighting for over 20 years for terms and conditions on the front line of schools the majority on 12,500 euro no pay for holidays no sick pay no maternity pay come on well regular lists would know that's the story that we've covered and continue to cover regularly on this programme it seems there were some positive moves the last time we discussed it we shall wait and see what comes from that I believe it was a labour court recommendation and then there was a period of negotiation to continue between both parties so listen if there's any update in relation to that another caller says that this pay rise for the councillors is on top of about 20 grand they get in expenses and paid hotel rooms and travel expenses they get each year why is there no mention of that I'll go through the figures obviously there hasn't been much of that the last day or two sorry the last year or two Gareth Brooks is going to bring in a fortune to double them with the price of hotel rooms and the tourism yeah indeed a lot of crash barriers left damaged and not fixed after cars hit them an example is one at Dunlewy and another near Ankerch Hotel these should be fixed straight away since this is the very point of them that would seem to make a great deal of sense my son was booked to go to a teen disco this weekend they posted last night the following guidelines only teenagers vaccinated can gain entry so that's my son out he told me that the mates in his class are just using their brother's vaccination so it's made it very clear he'll not be going sorry he'll not be doing this when he sought a refund he was told the event is going ahead his decision not to attend is his decision and he'll not be getting a refund is this fair after all the club posted these guidelines after the booking had started there is a post up on the website that says refunds can be made at ticketstop.ie the nightclub in question says that they were contacted by public health HSE representatives telling them there are no options that they can only allow vaccinated teenagers into the teenage disco they say it's with a heavy heart that they're doing this but they say the law is the law and they must abide by it right so I presume it's disappointing for the venue as well we'll be back bigger better and stronger than before offering you the best entertainment in the northwest we do not discriminate discriminate against anyone they say but the law is the law so they're saying it's not they presumably that are discriminating and not everyone will feel that by the way they are saying that they are being compelled to do so if they want to open up at all it's for vaccinated teens only which is going to leave it's going to leave a lot of people disappointed and its parents and guardians that end up picking up the pieces of their and trying to explain it to a younger person it's not easy right it is time to take a break as we head towards the news stay tuned lots coming up on the show primarily Michael and Finula chatting all things entertainment have you been watching anything of note did you watch what is it true story on Netflix that's no one heart show what else have you been watching I'm a slab anything at all have you been to the cinema have you been to the theater even if you listen to certain music whatever it might be it's all about entertainment and just ease in our way into the weekend talking nonsense okay back after the break today's nine told news show is brought to you in association with ulster tires winter is coming get your tires winter ready call into ulster tires in letter kenny and balli buffet today concerts are back join me david james for a night of the stars in concert on thursday the second of december in the strand hotel balli liffen featuring robert mezell patrick feeney trudy lawler jim divine and shona mc stravok tickets 20 euros available from hotel reception or by phone in<PHONE_NUMBER> a night of the stars in concert thursday the second of december the strand hotel balli liffen entitlement changes for 30 000 farmers in this week's farmers journal we reveal government plan for leasing and clawback of entitlements as the fertilizer crisis escalates we have five pages of essential advice for beef sheep dairy and tillage farmers in a changing jobs market don't miss our agri jobs focus and what to look for when buying a second hand tractor plus free newspaper for young farmers only inside this week's irish farmers journal on sale now at esb networks we're connecting arland to a clean electric future and as part of the national smart metering program we're now installing smart electricity meters in your area your new smart meter will reduce the need for estimated bills help you to manage your electricity usage more efficiently and enable you to access smart electricity products and services we'll contact you before your meter is installed find out more at esbnetworks.ie slash smart meter candles lanterns Christmas trees decorations and all types of lights everything you need for Christmas experience the magic of Christmas at Cuny's our biggest and best Christmas shop has outstanding value on lights and trees there really is something for everyone at Cuny's letter kenny retail park do i just spout into the mic yeah okay so my name is steven and i'm a little teapot fairly typical i'm short i'm stout don't put i can fly off to handle if the house is cold to getting a home energy upgrade with grants from seai changed everything now i feel warm inside even when i'm not making tea search seai home energy upgrade and discover a new world of comfort supported by the government of Ireland is on rail it's black friday sale time an anish fitness at the waterfront hotel down low seai of a massive 20% on memberships from 26 to the 30th of november give your loved ones a gift of fitness or treat yourself to a healthier you secure your membership or gift voucher with 20 off by calling anish fitness down low 0 7 4 9 5 2 2 5 9 0 good morning you are tuned to Ireland's number one local radio station this is highland radio we are the 90 noon show with you 90 12 each week day another busy hour on the way but at the top of the hour 11 o'clock it's time to find out what's happening in the world of news it's over to kathryn gaffney thanks greg good morning hotel quarantine may be introduced in response to a new variant emerging from south africa the world health organization is meeting today to assess the seriousness of the situation significant changes are expected to the mica redress scheme campaigners are hopeful the proposals for the long awaited scheme will finally be ready by next Tuesday following several delays the enhanced scheme will be complex with improvements said to be timely and reasonable according to comments made in the door last night the head of the hsc says he fully appreciates restrictions on children are difficult nephits advising against indoor community gatherings for under 12s including parties communions and sleepovers it'll be towards the end of December before COVID-19 vaccines will be rolled out to children aged between five and 11 it's expected the jabs will be administered through hsc vaccine centres as you've been hearing serious concern has been raised over what's been described as an accident black spot on the millford to carry guard road the area overlooking mulroy bay is said to need safety barriers installed there as a matter of urgency following a number of crashes there in recent years a phenolfall counsellor has acknowledged that significant capital investment needs to be pumped into letter kennie university hospital the hospital has been in the spotlight every day this week from being the most overcrowded in ireland to over 22,000 people on waiting lists and almost 130 staff vacancies meanwhile the hospital is the most overcrowded in ireland today yet again 45 people were awaiting admission there this morning with eight on trolleys in its ed while a further 37 were waiting on wards walk-in booster vaccination clinics will be available for healthcare workers in those aged between 60 and 69 in letter kennie this weekend the booster jabs will be administered to those in this cohort who have reached an interval of at least 152 days since their second dose vaccine and snow is expected to fall in parts of the northwest due to storm arwin there'll also be strong winds with yellow wind warnings for donnie gall slygo and mayo from 3 p.m that's it for now we're back with an update for you at 12 noon thank you very much indeed Catherine a very very quick break and then it's michael and fenula there are those who fear change those who welcome change and those who drive change at nissan we've always believed in driving change now the all-new nissan cash guy is here with the style and tech you want and the power you need it's the future-proof family car so are you ready for change the all-new nissan cash guy electrified with mild hybrid power book a test drive today at nissan.ie nissan innovation that excites and you're very welcome back to the program and we welcome into studio firstly fenula hiya fenula nice to have you with us hello how are you i can't believe we're are they all again i know naturally just turn to your right and now you'll see i know and the lovely new glasses so handsome you look about 12 michael in a good way oh wait a minute wait that suits me because i've been acting 12 for a very long time well now your looks match your now your looks match your demeanor thank you very much very good listen it's great to have these both back with eddie's watch much telly and stuff this week fenula well i've been i've been bad week of watching stuff last week i know i had a bad week watching stuff last week but this week i haven't been feeling well so i was off for a few days now i go with thank god that's why i owe michael an apology i hope the play was good i missed the play down in the theatre um on tuesday but um so i actually have managed to watch a decent amount of tv when i'm lying around feeling sorry for myself we should not somebody to make me cup of tea but did you watch decent tv that's the question some of it was absolutely brilliant i absolutely loved some of it was really happy with it and then others of it you'll be happy to know i've returned to my state of i don't really know what's going on well listen we missed that so come here what did you watch what was the highlight of the week let's start with that um well my highlight of the week was hawkeye hawkeye started on wednesday um it's the new marvel you know i'm obsessed and really we need to probably stop talking about marvel so much on this show and but it started with the first two episodes uh dropped as they say just this wednesday it's going to be an episode week now running up to christmas and hawkeye is the bone arrow character for anybody who's not very familiar with the avengers it's a worst born film yes yeah and he's and he's in the super is that a superhero though i mean has he contributed anything over the course of like he fires arrows it's not really explained are they magical arrows because they keep appearing in his uh what do you call the quiver quiver um no they seem to be more that they're it's more that they're kind of electronic he is in they have different things some of them explode some of them have grappling hooks some of them do all kind of things but in all fairness first of all i i've never shot a bow now but i'm assuming it's hard so i'm giving him that too he shoots bills now while running jumping off buildings you know aliens come he takes them down i'm nothing against him this one i actually the reason why i really like this show is um it's i mean it's only the first two episodes um but there's something very uh familiar about it and i think it will end up being one of them one of the nicest of the tv shows yeah that marvel has put out as part of the scene level like in the tv shows versus the obviously the big cinematic for any of them it's it's the same yeah i have to say now and wandavision was very much like that i wasn't mad about the falcon and the winter soldier but this one is fabulous it's set in um uh new york it's set over christmas it really has that kind of a feel but it really kind of plays into the corniness of that kind of a you know christmas in new york premise thing on the movies and that type of stuff there's lots of fighting there's lots of explosions hawkeye is there and there's this young girl who he doesn't realize but he actually saved her earlier on in one of the avengers movies and um since then she has uh you know learned a lot of the skills that he has and martial arts and different things like that and archery and different things like that and then it turns out that he becomes targeted for another alter ego that he had that if anybody had watched the uh full avengers movies you kind of know what i'm talking about so i don't want to give too much away in it because when when you're watching the thing it all comes you watch the two of them i watch the two oh my god yeah i watch them back to back it was absolutely i would totally and when the third one comes i might wait for two more and then watch the four of them in a row it really was good because you could watch it kind of like a movie it really has that kind of quality value and aesthetic shoes and that kind of thing and it had that sort of a fun element that how long's the run do you want to see episodes are in the oh it's only running up as far as christmas so it's their own they all only run for like six to eight weeks so you can watch it like three to our films almost yeah yeah all right okay cool sounds fantastic if you watch this yet michael did you say you're holding off on this or something yeah i'm going to hold off on this one till christmas i wait let's finish i did that with Loki as well which i loved and i ended up watching it in two blocks so i had two three hour blocks which really felt like two movies uh on different nights so i'll do the same with hawkeye i've read great things about it for newly i read that the people behind the guy behind it is using the hallmark that one of his influences is those hallmark christmas films and all that kind of stuff so yeah i think it's going to be a good one to watch i had a ten full marks oh i really really enjoyed it i have to say because as i said it goes right back to the what you want from a comic book type of situation as in you know it's farcical but it kind of takes the mick of itself when it is farcical it's got all that kind of christmas in new york explosions happening behind you know sent out trying to raise money they're go you know massive big christmas trees and stuff so really just kind of takes that even like i said that kind of home alone sort of a christmas feel type thing with it pretty much full marks um you were in the theater watching the enemy within on grain on theater um i mean obviously you thoroughly enjoyed it i think everyone who's everyone who's gone to see you thought it was great yeah i absolutely loved it um great performances um i was surprised the play was not what i was expecting but in a good way i thought it was going to be very monologue heavy and very angsty and kind of you know kind of amorphous in content it's actually really plot driven very straightforward you could easily turn into a feature film no bother because a lot happens and it's surprisingly humorous you have two of those guys uh bring a lot of comedy it's a hugely enjoyable show and not what i was expecting but i did expect great performances and i was right about that the guys were fantastic on stage um yeah i would he praise them and i loved uh yeah i love the ending i love what frill did at the end i just thought as i was sitting there i was like how was this going to wrap up how is he going to do this and then i really liked what he did tinder and uh i shouldn't mean that surprise because other than dancing at lunacy which i'm not a huge fan of love translations i love philadelphia here i come love uh any of the the anything i've seen before so i should have known that i would probably like this a lot and like the cast who have said in other interviews this week they don't understand why this isn't done more often i don't know why it's not done more often either it's it's it's it's a very enjoyable production um i i i understand i'm not calling them out on that but i don't understand why they don't understand why it's not done more often because there's lots of stuff that you know gathers a bit of dust and it's oh yeah of course yeah yeah yeah true enough that's true that's absolutely true as i'm trying to criticize some of that commentary but it's just not yeah i know you're doing it now i can imagine i think right now it's enough to take them maybe they stay away from it it's a it's a play which has a large cast of men who are all more or less the same age in the same costume that may be a turn off unless you have incredibly dynamic and charismatic performers which we have in this production it might be a play that might not work that well but in a production like this one when you have this cast it's going to fly so i think maybe that's a turn off and also to presumably you know if you're looking for a broad audience now if you go and watch it you'll understand but you are talking about a historical character and a period of his life you know what is the plot line do you know what i mean i suppose when you you're because there's an awful lot of money goes into these productions presumably like how do you sell it how do you market it do you know what i mean and and obviously it's tied in now with the column kill celebrations it's all relevant and it's getting great reviews but i can understand why there might be a hesitancy to sort of you know how do you market it like you know absolutely yeah and again yeah and it's because i didn't know the production and they didn't mention its content in any of the opportunities i didn't realize that it it does really work is very plot driven it's almost like an adventure film you know a lot of stuff is like without telling anything away i'm not giving out but it's about his decisions he has to make he has to go away and do certain things he's to come back he goes away um there's a heck of a lot happens in this and again i was delighted i was like i thought it was just a bit of this guy on stage monologuing his misery but it's not at all it's not at all that's this program that's me uh come here um and it's a it's a blended opportunity so people can go and they can go watch it live like you did um but it's also going to be available to stream is it the type of production that lends it work self yeah to sit at home and watch it yeah it is i mean i i i obviously i know it's going live from i think this are going online from the second to the fifth yeah have it here in front of me second to the fifth to december it'll be available online um absolutely you can totally watch it because again it comes back to the performance is these guys when you show them again he boss go hold and you have a lot of these guys who are you know say fans didn't say fans yeah they're they're good all right uh so that's the enemy within on green on theatre full mocks uh from you by sounds of things thank you thoroughly how do you stream it because i'm there i missed it on green on uh who's in bed with my limbs so i don't get to go that's okay finula i forgive you the way you forgive me for the whole i was wondering go to on green on uh the website oh it's going to be on the tickets that way brilliant i have to say as well i thoroughly enjoyed the show but obviously i was watching it through the tears of disappointment glancing at your empty seat and people stopping at the break and they were like all right michael someone stood you up didn't it's actually really quite heartbreaking fairness i am upset about it speaking our first day you see anything about true story on netflix it's a kevin heart uh no i i keep looking at it and i'm like i'm not sure can i do it i watched the first series but it's this one of these strange it's not about him but it could be about him yeah uh you know he is a comedian as he is you know he's on ellen and he's on the ellen degenerous show and all that kind of stuff he's got a brother who's a bit suspicious wesley snipes uh which i couldn't believe i thought wesley snipes was persona non-gratum for something i can't remember i think he supposedly did back in the day reference being in in in prison for years for murder and and he wasn't as far as i'm aware but i think it kind of is sort of saying i don't know maybe there's you know what it is and he played his character is i don't know he plays an interesting character but his brother anyway and he might have i haven't watched it all i've only watched the first one uh and it's fine like it's all set up quite interesting i don't know how much he can give away but i'm not giving anything away but he takes someone b