Well, what's normal? But anyway, all right, good luck. It's a compliment. Lee, what? It's not really a compliment, but we'll knock it down that rabbit hole. See you, Lee. Bye. Take care of yourself. Nine til noon show on the way. But first, it's news with Donal. Good morning. Thank you, Greg. Good morning. The Health Minister is expected to update Senior Minister's letter today on the overcrowding issues facing Irish hospitals. It comes after the Irish Nurses and Human Rights Organization counted 931 people awaiting beds yesterday morning. That's a new record. There were 52 in letter Kenny and 48 in Sligo. That's a Northwest total of 100. Minister Stephen Donnelly says despite calls from the INMO for the reintroduction of a mask mandate, public health advice is unlikely to change. He shares the HSE's view that the crisis hasn't yet peaked. The modelling is difficult in terms of being accurate. However, what I can tell you is the HSE's view was that this is likely to get worse. We are likely to see more pressure. They don't believe that the flu wave has peaked. And so the question is, well, what can we do about that? The health care professionals have said to us all over many years we need more beds and they're right. House prices rose by just over 9% last year in Donegal, according to Daft.ie's latest analysis. The average house price in the county now 197,000 euro compared to a national average of just under 310,000. This time last year the Donegal rise was 14%. Economist Roland Lyons is the author of the Daft.ie report. He says people moving out of the cities during the Covid era created a lot of demand in the regions and in particular in Connacht Ulster. However, he says that's now eased significantly. Earlier in the year prices in Munster were increasing at 14% year-in-year and indeed in Connacht they were almost 20%. Both of those markets now have cooled significantly and they're in line with the national average with increases over the course of the year of about 6% or 7%. What that means is that those Covid increases that we saw, they're over in terms of dramatic increases over the course of 6, 9, 12 months in 2021 and into 2022. All aspects of oil emergency planning could be put on a statutory footing. It's part of a government plan to strengthen the state's capacity to respond to a potential oil emergency. However, they're stressing that's not the situation at present with more. Here's Iman Falvi. Ireland currently has an adequate oil reserve and a disruption to supply is thought unlikely. But the coalition is aware of the impact any disruption would have on households and businesses. This move is part of the commitment to ensuring the risk is prepared for. The government's approach is in keeping with that of other EU member states. Key measures to be introduced in the new legislation include clarity around the powers of the minister and how quickly they can be deployed to control the supply and distribution of fuel in an emergency, putting all aspects of oil emergency planning on a statutory footing and establishing a register of oil suppliers to ensure fast communication to retailers. Wendy with Bright Spells and Scattered Shars today. Some of those showers heavy in top temperatures of 9 to 11 degrees Celsius, fresh to strong and gusty west to southwest winds. It'll be mostly dry early tonight and chilly for a time with temperatures hitting 4 to 7 tonight. Becoming milder toward morning without breaks of rain and drizzle spreading from the south, moderate south to southwest, breezes would increase fresh and gusty later this evening and into the night. And that's Island Radio News. We're back with news again at 10 o'clock. Idel Cashman, liver transplant recipient encourages you to talk about organ donation with your family. People say it's the gift of life and that's almost become a cliche, but it literally is the gift of new life. It's just so important for people to talk about organ donation because it's not something I would have given a second thought to before it became my life. For information, visit hse.ie forward slash organ donation and start talking about organ donation today from the HSE. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Island Radio. And now, it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9 till noon show with Greg Hughes on Island Radio. Hello, good morning to you. Four minutes past nine, Wednesday the 4th of January 2023. How are you keeping? You're very welcome along to another edition of the 9 till noon show and it's another busy one for you. Plenty to keep you informed and entertained over the next three hours. Hopefully you'll stay with us and get involved. You can WhatsApp and text the show on 08 660 25000 08 660 25000 or call 07491 25000 07491 25000. We welcome your emails to comments at highlandradio.com. If you want to maybe put a bit more words down on paper, you're welcome to do so. Or give us or watch the show. Sorry on our Facebook page, either of them. Highland Radio Hope or Highland Radio News & Sport or on YouTube, Highland Radio Ireland. Or you can watch directly in your browser on our website. Just click watch live and get involved there. Send us a message, say hello. Right, let's look at what's making the front pages of the newspapers before we make our own headlines. Let's start with the Innish Times. They tell us that the number of people seeking assistance from St. Vincent de Paul in Bunkrana has almost doubled on the same time last year while donations to the organisation in the town have dropped by around 50%. That's quite a swing, isn't it? The voluntary organisation in the town has experienced an uptake in families seeking help since September as families deal with inflation and the rising costs of fuel and electricity with a striking change being the number of people in employment seeking assistance. And that's a trend that's being seen nationally, not just here in the Northwest. The Finvali Voice this morning, Airbnb, the most popular form of property letting in Donegal, faces tough new restrictions in the new year. Property for rent in Donegal, say staff.ie, 73 times more likely to be an Airbnb than a long-term rental of the over 1700 properties for rent in the county last summer. Just 23 were long-term rentals. The remainder were Airbnb, a highly flexible system under which clients rent a property for a few days or weeks under conditions which vary widely from property to property. Now the state is clamping down on what is often seen as a free-for-all system before rules applied to rent pressure zones. But seemingly, according to that article, it's going to be a cross the board. They were finalised in December, I believe. The Donegal Post tells us that eight people lost their lives as a result of road traffic collisions in Donegal last year. They form part of the grim statistic of 155 road fatalities across the Republic in 2023. But for the Donegal families affected, it will remain a pain that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Many others will have to live with life-changing injuries, along with family and friends grieving for lives lost needlessly. Brian O'Donnell, Donegal's road safety officer, said that a visit to any collision, location, an emergency department or coroner's court will bring home the reality of destroyed lives, horrific deaths and grieving families following road traffic death and injury. On to the nationals now, and as you can imagine, the situation in Ireland's hospitals is dominating much of the front pages, and perhaps you've got your own story to tell or your own opinion to share. I invite you to use the numbers I mentioned earlier on. Text or WhatsApp or wait 660, 25,000 or call 07491, 25,000. I've been sent stories privately, of course, on my social media of what people endured over Christmas and into the new year at the local hospital or in trying to access NowDoc or their own GP for that matter. We're going to be speaking about this a little later on in the programme as well, of course. But emergency department consultants are warning more unnecessary deaths will occur in hospitals as patients struggle to access timely care due to overcrowding. It came as Health Minister Stephen Donnelly admitted things were likely to get worse. The number of people waiting on a bed hit a record high yesterday, 931 patients on trolleys. They've been tracking numbers for 20 years. It's never been worse. Experts say this is likely to increase as elective procedures resume after Christmas, while some fear surgeries may be delayed or cancelled as a result of University Hospital Limerick, which had 97 patients waiting on a bed yesterday, said only urgent elective surgeries will go ahead in the coming days. And that elective word in surgeries is almost as if, you know, people are deciding to go in for a surgery, but it can wait. In many cases, they are incredibly important surgeries. Patients have reported spending up to nine days on trolleys and sleeping on floors. One woman who was kicked in the face by a horse told the Irish independence she waited 14 hours for an x-ray. And those stories are just right across the country. There's just no doubt about that. On to the Irish Times. Again, of course, it has overcrowding in hospitals, likely to worsen due to flu, but also they carry the story that the state is facing a shortfall of more than 14,000 beds for refugees before the end of March with government briefing documents starkly warning that the current accommodation system is unsustainable. A lot of hotels want their rooms back as well for one reason or another, which is going to be a problem as people have settled in communities and children have settled into schools. These hotel rooms no longer available. No property to rent in those particular areas. What are they going to do? It was always a short-term plan. And perhaps maybe if they had come up with something more long-term it would have been more sustainable. But papers drawn up last month by the Department of Integration show protected shortfalls in the immediate short-term and warns that a significant acceleration in cross-government efforts will be needed to source more accommodation. Without it they note, it's inevitable that there will be a shortage of available accommodation and internal modelling shows gaps in provision of accommodation emerging. Briefing documents drawn up by Minister of State Joe O'Brien, who's taking up new responsibility in the Department of Integration, warns that the present provision model is also unsustainable as oversight of accommodation at this scale and pace entails many challenges. And not to mention too, we are seeing increases in population, which is putting pressure on various services, and there doesn't seem to be any planning to deal with that either. So... And also too, still being contacted by people who offered second properties for refugees. They haven't even got a callback, which doesn't make much sense to me. The Irish Daily Mail health experts, we must return to masks. I don't know if we're able to have this conversation now without it being a pro-mask anti-mask thing. I think, you know, is there an argument for the return of masks to try and slow down all the spread of all respiratory illness, but then those that are against masks are dead against them? And it feeds into sort of an awful lot more than that, than those that are pro-them. I've started to feel uncomfortable wearing them out in public. Some people are being approached saying, why are you wearing that mask? So I don't know if we can ever come up with some sort of a consensus from a healthcare perspective as a society anymore, because we're so divided on such issues. But health experts, they want the immediate return of mandatory mask-wearing as hospitals buckle under the strain of respiratory viruses. The number of patients on trolleys hit a new record of 931 yesterday, 171 more than the previous highest total of 760 set a fortnight ago. But you heard from Stephen Donnelly there at this stage, they are not going to go down that route. And I suppose some might argue that the lack of sort of interaction, because a lot of people were staying at home or wearing masks has contributed to where we are now in terms of a spike in RSV flu, COVID and what have you. So above my pay scale, I really don't know what the right thing is in that regard. On to the sun now, sales of new electric vehicles soared by 81% last year according to the latest figures. The Society of the Irish Motor Industry said 105,000 odd new cars were registered last year, up slightly on the figure for 2021. 15,678 electric cars were registered in 2022. That's up from 8,600. And so it goes too many numbers in there for me, but suffice to say you add all the electric hybrid, plug-in hybrid, the most popular car at the moment. They're out selling diesel and petrol.  This is according to the Irish Daily Mirror. Fina Fallback Bencher, Porgo Sullivan told the Irish Mirror, people with dangerous dogs need to face tougher punishment because they cannot control their animal. Is this something you would agree with? The government has committed to reviewing laws around dangerous dogs in the aftermath of an attack that resulted in a young County Wexford child requiring intensive surgery, and he's pictured heavily scarred on the front, sorry, accompanying this story this morning. Statistics provided to Deputy O'Sullivan by the Court Service show that between January 2017 and October 2022, 363 people were convicted in the District Court for 415 offences related to uncontrolled dogs. However, it also advised that the number could be higher as the prosecutors may not have recorded the crimes under the proper codes on the system. And last but not least, very sad news from the world of sport, the world generally speaking in the Irish Daily Star, friend, star and former top gear host Matt LeBlanc and friend led tributes after the death of American rally driver Ken Block. This guy was just super talented. The Californian who competed in the World Rally Championship and was named Rally American Rookie of the Year in 2005, died in a snowmobile incident in Utah on Monday. He was remembered as a truly talented, sorry, as a true talent and friend taken far too soon following his death at the age of 55. He did compete here in County Donegal as well and the sports team here, Oshin Kelly, would have spoken with him and spent time with him. Has did quite a few others out there and all of them are speaking very highly of him. Sad, sad news, just 55 years of age. Okay, that was a run through some of the stories in the newspapers today. Get involved in the conversation if you wish. You can give Caroline or Donna Maria a call at 07491 25,000 WhatsApp syntax to 08660 25,000. Right, we'll be back with our first guest on the show, but first we take a quick break. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra Mountaintop Ladder Kenny, the Seastore National Large Four Court of the Year for 2022. We have recycling all wrapped up this festive season. Remember, you can recycle paper and cardboard, all plastic packaging and tins and cans in your household recycling bin as long as they are clean, dry and loose. Check out the recycling A to Z on MyWaste.ie. Recycle more with Donegal County Council. The world awaits you. Make that dream your next adventure. Cruise the Caribbean. Sail from Crete to Corsica. Soak in Santorini sunsets. Dine on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Stroll through cobbled streets for hidden gems or bring the little ones to a magical wonderland. Trust the award-winning Atlantic Travel to guide your next adventure. Step through our doorway to the world. Atlantic Travel Ladder Kenny.  He's been going for hours. On the phone all day, streaming, messaging. Stop the lights. Who is it? On Pulse Mobile. Wait, what? At 18-year-old month for unlimited data calls and texts, it's almost too good to be true. Switch to date. Your local post office or at onpulse.com slash mobile and get your first month free on Pulse Mobile for your world. Fair usage and ease in season 3. Auto top up 18-year-old for 31 days on limited allowance, otherwise 28 days. See website for details. Now, the Goddard Commissioner, Drew Harris, is going to be visiting Donegal later this month. The chair of the Donegal Joint Policing Committee is Councillor Jerry Monagle, who joins us on the programme. Now, good morning, Jerry. Thanks for taking the time out this morning. Good morning, Greg, and happy year to you and all the staff at Highlands. And same to you and to yours. This is an opportunity, isn't it, really, to lay out the facts for Drew Harris so that he knows what's going on up here. So that excuse can't... I mean, we often hear that senior guard are making their representations, but sometimes they fall on deaf ears in Dublin. This will be an opportunity to put the reality to the top cop, really, effectively. Yeah, we've been trying to get Commissioner Harris to attend the Donegal JPC now for a number of years. And I've met him on a number of occasions through the police authority meetings and expressed the concerns that were talked about at the JPC around personnel and resources, the closure of the guard station, et cetera, et cetera. So, Lucky's finally agreed. He's got the time now in his diary. And we're looking forward to, as he said, to put it to him directly, the concerns and to offer that opportunity to the PPN members and the community of the JPC and also the elected members. Do you have concerns about the future of policing here? I mean, already now pretty much all calls to guard stations are diverted to Galway and are dealt with in Galway. So you ring Milford or letter Kenny. You have a concern in your area now. You put through to a civilian in Galway. And then we have the Donegal Guarded Division being amalgamated with Sligo and Lytrim. It feels, some might feel, that the separation between the force and the public is widening. I'm not saying that is a reality, but do you have concerns in that regard? Yeah, I believe there's a pilot scheme at the minute and Donegal's are taking on that. I have concerns. I see how this sort of central call area is working in relation to Irish Water in the ASB. I see the difficulties we would have and indeed the general public have in describing an area where they live, two people in call centres. And are we really concerned that this will reduce the response times to guard a call out, especially on-going incidents if you're being referred to a call centre and have to... I know they're saying that in immediate emergencies that you'll be redirected to your local guard station. But this is all time it's consuming. And I think it's a very apt time now for the commissioner to come and maybe explain this further and how this, because it's obviously part of his overall policing plan. Yeah, because, I mean, obviously, routinely the public are invited to contact the 24-hour guard stations. You know, with information, vehicles acting suspiciously to have you and, you know, we wouldn't expect everyone in every station to have an intimate knowledge of every town land in their area. But there is some understanding of it and presumably that can build a picture. Now that information is going to be referred to a civilian in Galway. How is that processed? How is that logged? How does that go on the system? How does that feed into the intricacies of where patrols are? We've heard, you know, call the guard a station if you're leaving your home, you know, and we can, you know, drive past now because that all tie in my understanding is pretty much every call that would require a guard or response at any level now will be triaged for one of a better word in Galway. And that works quite successfully with the fire service, my understanding is. But I think policing is slightly different, slightly more nuanced. Yeah, and that would be okay even in a city or large town, large urban area situation, but we're in a very rural area in Donegal and what are also those, Greg, is it removes the personal relationship and the building of that personal relationship between the local community and the members of the Guardship Connor. And that is a retrograde step as far as I would be concerned because I think as long, and the way we've been saying this since Covid and all, but about building the confidence again of the community and the relationships between the community and the Guards, it's quite good and it could get better. And I don't think having a call centre type scenario with people phoneing and getting call centres is going to do that. It's not going to enhance that local relationship between the Guardship Connor and the local community. But them so less easily we'll have the opportunity to raise. Exactly, I kind of have been focusing a little bit on that one, so I want to hear from you what other concerns, and when we do hear regularly from the GRA about building, you know, the Guards are supposed to fight crime but they can't break the speed limit because there's no training there. Inadequate vehicles staffing issues, I mean thankfully it was quiet in letter Kenny over since Stevens Night and New Year's Eve, but my understanding there was four or five Guards here on duty on both nights, so sometimes it can be more down to look than anything else. So run through some of the top concerns you'll be raising with Commissioner Harris. Well, as the top of that list will be Guard of Resources Personnel and the vehicles and the resources needed by the Guard. Also the recruitment of local Guard and, you know, his plan is to get, you know, 303 every 12 weeks. But this doesn't happen and young people don't seem to be taken or looking at the Guard as a serious career path any longer and we need to change that attitude. But we've also got rising instance of drug use road safety issues and the social behaviour. We had what you said was quiet over the Christmas period. I was down to be honest at the might of Garthefts that there was over the last couple of weeks, even here in New York County. So there's obviously a lot of criminal activity. There's also the issue of 97% of the county's border being with the six counties and the problems that that poses. So there's a fair amount for us to discuss with them and a fair amount of issues have been getting raised at our local JPC meetings over this last number of years. So we've asked the JPC members and we've asked them to forward on any concerns, questions that they might have for the commissioner, so that we will give them to them before the meeting, give them time to look at them, understand them and maybe come back with very competent and full responses. And then during the course of his presentation we will allow you then for further, no supplementary questions to be raised on how we in Donegal feel about the new policing model but more importantly about the lack of resources which are clearly is in Donegal and has been for a number of years and how the impact of closing of rural garter stations and the impact that that had on the confidence of the local community. It would be interesting to see if he will understand or does understand or have a comprehension of the sort of unique policing situation there is here. We've got this, as you mentioned so much of the county is bordering the six counties and then of course we're landlocked on the other side as well. Do you know what I mean and on response and all that type of stuff that really needs to be addressed. It will be interesting to see if he gets what is kind of like on this island a unique county to police. Yeah and they explain the whole new policing model of us being amalgamated and with a sleight of only trim Donegal we would like to have a standalone division as it is. We were concerned because it looked like we were losing a superintendent but just recent weeks it's been confirmed that we won't be and we'll be keeping the same number of superintendents. The commissioner is talking to the last police authority meeting about giving more autonomy to local sergeants and inspectors we need to tease that out with them what exactly does that mean but the important thing is Donegal because we will be then at the top end of the country will be linked in with sleight of only trim which are connected to the other divisions down the country so we are going to become very isolated so it's very very important that we don't lose our central base and identity and that we get the necessary resources especially in relation to vehicles to be able to stay in contact with the people but also to fight crime as it rises around whatever part of the county so there's a lot of discussion that probably won't be all addressed on the 16th but at least we'll start the conversation with them and possibly he might come with good news and planning a notice of this he'll be well briefed on what the situation is up here and he'll want presumably to give some nuggets of positivity so we'll have to leave some space for maybe a positive outcome in some areas at least from this meeting and the other thing as a JPC we'd like to get across them is that it's a good work that the JPC is involved in and the partnership with and other agencies here in the county we've had a number of very good initiatives around the cybercrime our Guard of Youth Awards we've had a large number of national youth award winners we have a public order and the social behaviour we're always advocating on behalf of for the CCTV and it's all built in confidence the local text alerts the neighbourhood watch and then we had the property marking machines that we acquired and that was all done through the community and the elected representatives and the Guard of Youth working together identifying issues and problems and putting them in place solutions so we'd like to be telling them about that too and how effective and important joint policing committees are in counties like Donegal Yeah, they aren't there just to slag everything off they're there to proactively work to improve things and it's been shown as you outlined with that extensive list Can you ask the councillor to ask the Guard of Commissioner to put live crime units not something I'm familiar with I'm completely honest with you but maybe one of the JPC members will be raising that issue Yeah, there's a lot of issues to be raised and we'll certainly raise that around that there and if the listener would like to send us some more information in relation to that we'll certainly take it up with them and get a response back to them they can contact me through OK, listen thanks for your time this morning I appreciate it Greg Take care of yourself, that is councillor Gerry McMunnigal he is chair of the Donegal Joint Policing Committee just giving us a preview there of that meeting which takes place with the Guard of Commissioner Drew Harris in Donegal on January 16th and as you would expect we'll have a full run down from that meeting after the fact Hi Greg, just got my first letter Postman since Christmas it's not good news though, it's another rise in the mortgage now 70 euro a month more and they have mica as well no end to it, I mean it's just the injury being the injury being defective concrete block home and the insult being an increase in mortgage interest rates I'll send through some information that those on trackers now are but maybe it's something we should revisit actually if you'd have an interest in that I'll send those on trackers now I've been recommended to fix at this time we had of course Dr Joe talking history on the show yesterday listener says Joe's such a wealth of information a gentleman who looks out for his students so helpful to young teenagers beginning their careers keep up your good work Joe, had the pleasure of working with you excuse me right over the counter products these are medicines I rip off once the doctor gives you that prescription you're on your way to healing antibiotics will only work like there's no point taking antibiotics for a common cold for example and we're going to take a break we'll be back with more on the 9-10 news show in just a couple of moments stay right where you are watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at highlandradio.com so you're saying mental health difficulties can be smaller things like troubled sleeping or if I'm always stressed like or often anxious they're all part of your mental health thought those were separate nope, they're all connected how do you know all this anyway I'm sure I've been there myself anxiety, ongoing stress low mood or troubled sleeping they're all part of your mental health make the connection and find support that can help at yourmentalhealth.ie from the HSE to health care needs generations have trusted the experienced staff at McGee's Chemist Letter Kenny from coughs and colds to aches and pains from vitamin supplements to first aid essentials McGee's have what you need when you need it with a full prescription service available daily McGee's Chemist Main Street Letter Kenny for health care help and advice you can always trust shrink your bill this January with Dunstores Double Sabres saving the aisle on ingredients 14 rich chicken casserole that's 500g of chicken thighs only €3.89 Irish onions and garden peas €0.69 each baby potatoes, carrots and chicken casserole seasoning mix all for a total of less than €8 then save again at the till with our five of 25 grocery vouchers Double Sabres from Dunstores always better value terms and conditions apply voucher confused on next grocery shop in store with up to 20% of tiles, bathware, flooring flumming lights, vinyl and carpet job lots on display for sale delivery and fitting available Crawford Tiles & More Castle Fin 9143942 January sale now on miss it and miss out the Ristex Beds of Furniture Winter Sale is now in full swing at their showroom at the mountaintop in Letter Kenny supplying only the finest quality luxurious Irish made beds and mattresses with genuine savings throughout our range we look forward to seeing you at Ristex Beds and Furniture Winter Sale Alright we're joined on the programme now by Neil Donahoe Industrial Relations Officer for the North West with the INMO Good morning to you Neil, thanks for taking the call today What are you hearing from your members as it relates to working in an incredibly overstretched and under pressure health system over the last well we could go for years but maybe focus over the last couple of weeks Neil Well the situation is absolutely dire members there in Letter Kenny in particular I met them yesterday they're distraught, they're very concerned about the safety of the public they're really struggling to cope with what's happening at the moment there's a very large attendance in respect of flu COVID or a C and again when you have high levels of infection in the community and people are coming into an overcrowded department that's actually only going to increase there as well within the hospital so they're very concerned about that there's very vulnerable patients sitting on chairs awaiting treatment people waiting an hour for hours and hours and ambulances up to 10-11 hours we're hearing patients being treated in ambulances I mean this is unprecedented the HSE management is there in Letter Kenny this is completely unprecedented they're overwhelmed with what they're trying to cope with at the moment Neil And they are but it must be very difficult to get up in the morning or whatever time of the day you get up for your shift and head into that working environment Neil Absolutely I mean staff are attending there for very long shifts they're not getting breaks they're completely burnt out anyway from the onset of COVID I mean this has been relentless for the last couple of years I mean it has resulted in a lot of difficulties for the HSE in recruiting and retaining staff I know the HSE has put a lot of work into that but for the people who are there day in day out this is wearing them down completely people cannot continue like that forever and we're very concerned about how it's going to impact on the health services into the future but in this very immediate sense we need the HSE international level to come out and do something urgent to result What can be done Neil that might work say for instance locally here in Forslige or another kind of university hospitals what could the HSE do that might alleviate things in the immediate Well I think if we look at I mean we were calling our members were calling for assistance months ago I mean we were having discussions around the Twin Domex that was coming of flow and COVID this was predicted months in advance and the HSE seemed to do nothing for the acute hospitals nothing that's going to impact now and what we're hearing from the HSE nationally is they're telling people just not to attend hospital if you can avoid it the people who are attending hospital are sick the people who are going in through those doors genuinely need care management and staff are looking for efficiencies everywhere but it cannot be just up to them to try and stick to the problem Can I just catch on with the national level to say what they're planning I want to go back on two things you just mentioned there because it's very important and I mentioned this on the program yesterday I don't understand how it seems okay or acceptable and Stephen Donnelly is going in to his cabinet colleagues and I wonder would any of them pull him up on this today to sort of have a meeting with the HSE and come out and sort of go you know what it's going to get worse before it gets better as if there was no warning of this you quite rightly pointed out this was all warned this was we were told this was going to happen and you know I don't understand how it is acceptable in this day and age because to use that old analogy let's pretend this were a private company heads would be rolling left right and centre someone is severely severely dropping the ball here Neil in terms of preparing for what we knew was coming and there seems to be zero accountability and it's the public and your members that are either losing their lives or working in incredibly difficult situations and zero count but it doesn't seem to actually matter to the powers that be no one is held to account no and what matters to our members at the moment and to the patients coming through the doors is that something urgent is done so whatever mistakes have been made the HSE now step up to resolve it and come out with something fairly urgent and drastic because this is something that isn't going to resolve in the immediate sense we don't know when this is going to resolve a lot of people don't feel that we've even hit the peak yet so something urgent has to happen here the staff on the ground must be supported management must be supported absolutely horrendous conditions the patients are expected to deal with need to be resolved and we have this situation where we have this situation where the HSE the health service executive are asking the public not to go to hospitals and we have now doc and GPs saying you know go to your pharmacist first or you know I mean that is a broken health system and again we'd represent members in the community areas and now doc in various areas right across the health services and they're all telling us that they're under resource that they're struggling to manage the levels of work that are coming in and this is resulting in delayed care for people in the public it's resulting in potential adverse outcomes for patients that's not good enough if somebody is attending for an emergency service there in an emergency department waiting for up to 10 hours to get even get in the doors from an and then once you get in the doors you don't even have staff available it is horrendous to not even have a trolley people are sitting on chairs they're not even on trolleys in a lot of circumstances this is an absolute disaster at the moment and the HSE need to do more what could be done in Thatcher Kenny over the next few days or weeks to alleviate the situation as far as you can determine the difficulty here is the failure to plan has really from what we can see it's tied the hands of local management when we've met with them they've told us they're doing everything with them their power to try and manage discharges to try and exploit discharges they're facing challenges and getting beds in the communities there's challenges everywhere we can't continue to just listen to what the problems are we need somebody at a higher level who has control of the resources to say what they're going to do to fix it that's a really important point there because everyone seems to know what the situation is but no one seems to have a plan to actually fix it and you bring it up with the health minister what we've just pumped 30 million euro into Letcher Kenny University Hospital that doesn't cut it anymore we need more than that because you have problems at the hospital you talk about people being delayed in ambulances then that delays ambulances getting to emergencies you know it's it's just a ripple effect absolutely and again it's been said a lot even on the Highland Radio here around the capacity issues in Letcher Kenny Hospital and when is that ever going to resolve is it ever going to see the beds that they do need and it's a longer term goal that's not going to fix things in the immediate sense but why are we waiting years to see it happen but right now at this moment in time the HSE had time to resolve this months ago when they were notified of the concerns and they didn't do anything so we need to see what is the plan now what are they going to do to fix it I mean there's a lot of it's a management heavy company there should be people that you can speak to that will tell you what the plan is well the difficulty is we're not hearing the answers in terms of fixing it the only piece we've seen come out into the media especially is around hospital avoidance use other services, the other services are strained also so that's not realistic and we really have to call the HSE out here yeah and I think you know I think the health minister reiterating what the HSE says there needs to be more than that you know what I mean he is effectively the top of all of this he's not having a go or a witch hunt but I just can't understand how it's acceptable that he walks out to a pack of journalists and says yeah well I was just in with the HSE and they say you know what it's going to get worse before it gets better that's not a solution, that's identifying the problem we know what the problems are you can speak to anyone in any hospital they will tell you anyone who walks through the doors anyone who's trying to use the service anyone who's turning up for work day in day out to try and protect the very vulnerable public that need assistance at the minute and the answers from the people who are at the top and we don't seem to be getting them the I&M all seem to be of the opinion that the return of mandatory mask wearing in crowded settings would it maybe slow it down a little bit as a short firewall what is the thinking behind that call well we've seen how effective masks were during the Covid pandemic when it was out of tights at the moment it's respiratory illnesses again they're causing a lot of the pressures in the hospitals mask wearing would slow the spread of the infections at the very least and try and give the hospital the chance in order to get through the patients they were attending it would help absolutely and again I know a lot of people may not want to go back to mask wearing but this is about protecting the most vulnerable in our society wearing masks could prevent that and finally I presume your members here even for the most part almost unanimously when there is criticism of the health service there's praise for the staff working in that there is an understanding amongst the public I mean the public understand it the nurses, the midwives they are of the public as well but I just don't know how long they can keep going into that kind of a working environment before they say enough is enough before they're off themselves with physical or mental health issues I mean this cannot continue or else we're going to have no one to operate the health service that we're dealing with here nurses and midwives they start out with a tremendous generosity of wanting to do good they go into the profession to help people they go in to work day and night to do good and the difficulty is they are definitely experiencing tremendous amount of stress and burnout I mean that again presented itself in terms of the physical and psychological manifestations we know that sick leave is at an all time high as well they're not immune to viruses that are coming in the door they're going to experience that as well so they're putting themselves at risk always trying to protect the public and we need to see more support for them now Thanks for all your time this morning Neil I appreciate it Take care of yourself that's Neil Donahoe industrial relations officer for the North West with the INMO Mary T. Sweeney's name to representative joins us on the program now good morning to you Mary T Good morning Greg how are you well you have been contacted by I think I've inundated with contacts from people what's this, what is the case of this person I look at it he had contacted me one of her family had gone off the road with the ice and apparently there's been a horrific number of people with ice with slips and falls but from a stranger it was out in a rural area and the good Martin came along saw the car over the hedge and went down and helped the driver get out initially the driver appeared concussed and was bleeding from the nose and ear and phoned an ambulance and the ambulance the service told him that there would be at least a four hour waiting waiting time for an ambulance to get to that area by castle fin direction and the man was horrified and made a phone through got the phone number of the family member and phoned the family to let them know this person had gone off with the ice the ice was correct for it and so he had been asked by the ambulance services to take the person to the hospital and the mother that phoned me went to the hospital and met them but the reality was chaos what they saw in the hospital just before we get to that just before we get to that I mean you know this is someone potentially could have spinal neck concussive injury the ambulance services recommended that a member of the public transport them to the hospital and they were asked what advice might have been previously totally especially with it being down in the bank and they had had a cage at the back there was a cage in the vehicle at the back and the window at the front even though there was a seatbelt on they went from back to front with the embankment so there was definitely a potential for head injury as well and they were absolutely petrified at what outcome was going to happen and this person was sitting still on the chair as whatever hour I got a phone call late last night I think it was half eleven quarter twelve they were still sitting in the chair but they were seeing even worse situations people that had been told they just had a stroke and they're sitting in a chair no beds, no facilities no privacy they heard lots of the medical conditions being discussed in front of them when they sat there this is not acceptable and no money is going to fix this until we get accountability and reform but to deal with the current crisis of the respiratory problem by opening up services like what we have well we have qualified nurses in Lifford and Shenorder and Dunlowe and Cardona open up respiratory clinics where people can get free access to the steroids that they need to treat three times a day to treat the respiratory services my own kids unfortunately I had to use an emulator here with steroids for one of mine with bronchiolitis and more neighbours used to borrow it from the hospital we need to think outside the box here Greg, we need to start opening up service availability for conditions that we know the condition, we know what they need they need either a pulmonary cord transplant they need a steroid an emulator to administer some sort of steroid to help the lungs open up the respiratory nurse clinics around those situations where we have nurses is that it's not something I've dealt with this side of health matters but is that what GPs do or can GPs not be doing that but GPs wouldn't have the time to do it Greg because if there was nurse clinics in a specialist room I only know from my own family experience my eldest boy was premmal was left with bronchiolitis but the HSE knows this, there are the experts they shouldn't need me to tell them this where's all the lateral thinkers in the HSE where's all our leaders or the brain drain of our talent that's gone out of the country we need to keep the people here we need to ask simple questions we need a respiratory infection the doctors know it but they haven't the support in the backup to open up dedicated nurses and clinics let the nurses now allow nurses to do to provide prescriptions for respiratory conditions there's no there is a huge shortage of those nurses as well which contributes to these problems and GP nurses as well I just I struggle to understand how it's acceptable that the Minister for Health again I'm not having a go at him but we are in a crisis here we have done a conversation I just don't understand that he's saying well I've been told what the problems are here they are unfortunately it's going to get worse before they get better that I would expect a plinth saying this is an emergency here these are the measures I'm introducing immediately this is what we're going to do right now the same kind of approach we all saw what happened say for instance at the start of Covid it was all hands on deck there was no money was too much, no resource was too scarce and yet this is just remind us of what he said about this this morning the modelling is difficult in terms of being accurate however what I can tell you is the HSE's view was that this is likely to get worse we are likely to see more pressure they don't believe that the flu wave has peaked and so the question is what can we do about that the healthcare professionals have said to us all over many years we need more beds and they're right so that's the Minister for Health saying we don't know what the modelling is the HSE things say things are going to get worse before they get better then he says well what's the problem and then he says well we need more beds but how does that underline or stress the crisis that the health services and at the moment people are dying I don't need a Minister to tell me what we already know should you know it the INMO could have just told us that I can get any consultant from letter Kenny that will tell us all that we need solutions, fixes we need this to be treated as the national emergency that it is this is exactly what I'm saying and it was nurses and doctors that taught me for quick condition what you want to do especially when there's children involved if they're out of hospital even for our elderly and our vulnerable so we need to think outside the box and we need to say to people like when my 26 year old was born I had a very good GP the late Dr Scali and she had arranged for me to get a nebuliser at home which was fairly unheard of in those days but that saved him going into hospital on a frequent basis and I subsequently leant it out that had children that had really bad respiratory conditions which is probably not approved but they had already got diagnosed medical conditions where they went into hospital to get the same treatment as what we kept here at home I was contacted by someone who contacted out of our doctor service and was told that we're not dealing with respiratory situations at the moment people can't get appointments for this stuff so they end up in the ED as well I know what you're saying but people can't even get some people in some areas can't get to see a GP for these type of things and what happens is but the pharmacist when they have a prescription on file should be allowed to deliver those medicines that are needed nowadays a nebuliser is only 30 pound an alde or needle for 35 years we had Tom Murray on yesterday and I can't remember exact phrase of it but because of the crisis that we're in they want the latitude to be able to give antibiotics not the ones that are written down by the doctor because they're out of stock but a similar antibiotic in their experience they know works and they can't even get the minister to invoke that protocol why would they not? all their pharmacists are now going to be automatically allowed to prescribe from now on coming forward so that's somewhere we need to move also we have prescribing nurses which is very slow and rolling out in Ireland but that's for the long term educational planning of our health service but there's loads of things that we can be doing but there's no will power or knowledge or like there's no appreciation and the management of the HSE to sort this out this is not insurmountable this is something that can be we are providing some of the best healthcare staff for the world the floor corners of the world are coming we've done a goal to Ireland to employ our healthcare trainees doctors, nurses, whatever and yet why can we not provide the best healthcare service here the problem is in the management what's happening here at the moment is the recruitment drive for other parts of the world perhaps not the NHS because they've got their own problems but for some reason we seem to copy their model a model that clearly is broken and not working and is being destroyed people think that maybe the HSE wouldn't allow their prescriptions because of the fear of being sued if something went if something went wrong the reality is this is you covered one of the greatest assets that we had was our step down beds on multiple occasions the people in the streets try to call to the HSE to keep our beds open and increase the step down beds in Lifford and in Sturroder there's no reason with these people when they take an ocean in their house to close down step down beds they are the most important for the vulnerable elderly especially who need those beds at this time especially at this time of the year I just wonder how we're going to be in a year unless someone takes this by the reins where are we going to be in a year two years, three years this situation is speaking to the rep there from the INO Neil it wasn't a very optimistic outlook and if you just indulge me for a second Mary T it's not the important thing obviously is people getting the care when they need it now but there's parents listening to this that are scared stiff that a child might become sick compromise people that are afraid that they might catch something and they're afraid and perhaps they shouldn't be because you will get treated but they're afraid that they might get so sick that they need the health service that's where we're at now people are living in fear they might need to go into the health service because of all what we're talking about here we can't ignore it but there's so much anxiety out there over this as well Mary T this is something I have had a huge issue and you know I've had this out with you on the show about the anxiety and the media and the way it's been driven as a level of anxiety for the last two years that we need to start building confidence back up on people people are genuinely many people are afraid and there should be no need for fear of course they should present in the hospital and I listened to a consultant in the Royal Victoria on the news last night and he was saying that 5% of the people presenting at ANE are genuinely considered to really need to be there they're the really sick people that need immediate care in the Royal Victoria and Belfast so if we were to presume that there's something of a similar nature here why not do what I'm trying to get done with him to set up a GP service clinic in the ANE department I'm not contradicting you but listen, at the end of the day there's a thousand people that have been deemed sick enough that they need a hospital bed and they're waiting on trolleys waiting on trolleys for days on end I understand what you're going through but you need to see an linear line in beds that don't need to be there that need to be at home but have no care package we have no care if they look after them no step down packages no I agree with you on that I didn't marry T. Sweeney there Donagall, ANE 2 representative register today at hse.ie forward slash bowl screen or free phone 1-800-4545-55 from the HSE from only 899 per square yard and wood flooring from only 1199 per square yard right price tiles and wood flooring half price January sale is now on Callahan's Gala and Go Burt your one stop family shop drive into our newly renovated spacious forecourt fill up but our upgraded modern fuel pumps and save with our keen Go Fuel prices located on the main letter Kenny to Derry Road were the ideal pit stop on your Donagall journey fuel, self-service or attended with a smile shirts all go with Callahan's Highland Radio weather updates with Ireland West Airport thinking of a sun holiday this summer with the family Flight to Alicante, Malaga, Faro, Lanzarote Mallorca and Milan with Ryanair Ireland West Airport don't just take off take it easy so rather windy today with bright spells and scattered showers some heavy temperatures 9 to 11 degrees in fresh to strong and gusty west to south west winds mostly dry early tonight in chilly for a time with lowest temperatures of 4 to 7 degrees okay a caller says Greg don't think me running around with a mask on in a house and car going to stop the trolley crisis you're going to have to come up with a better solution than this well I am not going to be inserted into this debate about whether I mean look the way I would look at it if I have a cold and I don't want to give it to the boys I'll stay away from them that's it right so and if it was pretty bad I'd wear a mask to protect them that's the only way I would look at it right that's what I would always have done pre-COVID whatever I'm not saying I would have put a mask on but I would have stayed away from them I wouldn't have tried to avoid breathing near them try to avoid giving them what they have if people are going around with lots of RSV colds, flues whatever it is and they're all intermingling and we need to sort of stop everyone getting sick at the same time I presume a mask will catch some of the spit drops and all that kind of stuff that's what they wear in hospitals that's what doctors and nurses wear for the most part so you know I'm not going to drive around in a car wearing a mask either and I'm not saying I'm going to wear a mask in any environment but let's be able to have the conversation without becoming like making out people are stupid for even talking about it which you've tried to do with me. Hi the HSE is a joke my daughter worked there and was treated terribly by management as a result she had to leave and no one takes any responsibility one backs the other up and it's terrible no one does staff are leaving and things are in a mess the staff are being mistreated in the health service they say right I have to jam a break in here before the news and obituary notice is at 10 stay tuned we've lots more coming up after the as I say the news Cutting through the spin The 9 till noon show on Highland Radio Hi Paddy here at Shane Conley Cars in Donegal Town Are you looking to upgrade your car? With Shane Conley Cars you'll find mixing models for every budget. Great finance options and they also accept radiance Check out ShaneConleyCars.com or call into us at Shane Conley Cars from London Road, Donegal Town From the smallest shrub to the largest tree in an awkward place Donnelly Tree Services provide a complete range of tree surgery services whether you need to remove a dangerous tree or use some nuisance branches Donnelly Tree Services have the experience and expertise to carry out tree surgery to the highest of professional standards Call 083 005 939 Donnelly Tree Services Donegal No job is too small No tree is too tall The fines for many driving offences have doubled and could now cost you as much as 160 Euro 160 Euro A brand new pair of runners or some swanky headphones or a year of streaming or a nice meal out somewhere or tickets to the theatre Don't get fined There are better things to spend your money on For a full list of updated fines visit rsa.ie Always follow the rules of the road A message from the Road Safety Authority For any occasion from corporate celebrations, presentations and networking events to milestone birthdays, anniversaries and retirement parties There's audio-visual equipment, integrated PA systems and even a private bar Dillon's Hotel, perfectly located in Nettokennetown Centre with a award-winning food and 5-star service Call 911 229 77 Good morning Good morning, it's 10 o'clock Donald Kavanaugh at the Highland Radio News Desk The Health Minister will update senior ministers this morning on the overcrowding issues facing Irish hospitals It comes after the Irish nurses' and advice organisation counted 931 people awaiting beds yesterday morning That's a new record There were 52 in Letterkenny and 48 in Slago A north-west total of 100 Neil Donohue is the ILO's on today's 9 till noon show that their members at LUH are distraught and burnt out This is unprecedented even from the HEC management this is completely unprecedented what they're trying to cope with at the moment Staff are attending there for very long shifts they're not getting great they're completely burnt out anyway from the onset of Covid this has been relentless for the last couple of years and it has resulted in a lot of difficulties for the HEC in recruiting and retaining staff I know the HEC have put a lot of work into that but for the people who are there day in day out this is wearing them down completely There are fewer beds in Irish hospitals now than there were in 1981 That's according to emergency medicine Dr Lisa Cunningham who says the system is currently at breaking point she says increased bed capacity is the only answer to this crisis It is definitely the worst that we've ever seen we physically have no space to see patients have less beds now than we had in 1981 In 1981 we had 16,000 acute beds in Ireland we have 11,000 acute beds now which is the same as 2002 this is Department of Health bed capacity the last one was March 21 you can look at all these, these are their own reports House prices rose by just over 9% last year in Donegal according to the latest analysis report published this morning by daft.ie the average house in Donegal is just under 197,000 euro compared to a national average of just under 310,000 this time last year the Donegal rise was 14% economist Roland Lyons is the author of the daft.ie report he says people moving out of the cities during the Covid area created a lot of demand in the regions and in particular in Conox Ulster however he says that's now eased significantly Earlier in the year prices in Munster were increasing at 14% year in year and indeed in Conox they were almost 20% both of those markets were cooled significantly and they're in line with the national average with increases over the course of the year of about 6% or 7% what that means is that those Covid increases that we saw they're over in terms of dramatic increases over the course of 6, 9, 12 months in 2021 and into 2022 All aspects of oil emergency planning could be put on a statutory footing it's part of a government plan to strengthen the state's capacity to respond to a potential oil emergency Arland currently has an adequate oil reserve and a disruption to supply is thought unlikely but the coalition is aware of the impact any disruption would have on households and businesses this move is part of the commitment to ensuring the risk is prepared for the government's approach is in keeping with that of other EU member states key measures to be introduced in the new legislation include clarity around the powers of the minister and how quickly they can be deployed to control the supply and distribution of fuel in an emergency putting all aspects of oil emergency planning on a statutory footing and establishing a register of oil suppliers to ensure fast communication to retailers weather forecast met air intelligence it'll be rather windy today with bright spells and scattered showers some of those showers heavy in top temperatures of 9 to 11 degrees celsius fresh to strong and gusty west winds tonight mostly dry to start chilly for a time with lowest overnight temperatures 4 to 7 degrees celsius becoming milder as we head toward morning outbreaks of rain and drizzle spreading from the south with moderate south to south west breezes they'll increase fresh and gusty later in the night it'll be windy tomorrow with scattered outbreaks of rain and drizzle heavier and more persistent rainfalls developing toward tomorrow evening clear spells and a few showers will follow from the west later top temperatures on Thursday 9 to 11 degrees celsius again in strong south west winds and that's Island Radio News we're back with news headlines again at 11 o'clock good morning the obituary notices for this Wednesday morning the 4th of January the death has taken place of Kathleen O'Donnell Ney Sweeney Kulult Falkara formerly of Bannanes Falkara her remains are opposing at her later residence funeral from there tomorrow morning for 12 noon requiem mass in Christ the King church Gortha Hork with burial afterwards in the adjacent cemetery funeral mass can be viewed live on mcnmedia.tv rosary at 9 o'clock tonight with house private pleas after the rosary and before the funeral tomorrow donations in lieu of flowers if desired to the Irish Cancer Society Kirov and a family member the death has taken place of Paqui Farran Main Street Klon Mani reposing at his home funeral from there on Friday afternoon going to St Mary's Church Klon Mani for requiem mass at 2 o'clock with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family Farran's only pleas to nations in lieu of desired to St Cullum Kill Village Kirov and a family member or Comiskey funeral directors house private pleas from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. and on the morning of the funeral funeral mass can be viewed live on churchservices.tv the death has taken place of Phyllis Kelly Ne Doherty Woodlands letter Kenny formerly of Manor Cunningham Phyllis's remains will repose at her late residence from 12 noon until 10 o'clock this evening with rosary at 9 funeral from there tomorrow afternoon at quarter past 12 going to the church of the Irish Martyrs letter Kenny for 1 o'clock requiem mass which can be viewed live on the church of the Irish Martyrs YouTube channel in term and afterwards in Newlake Cemetery letter Kenny family Farran's only pleas to nations in lieu of desired to the Donegal Hospice Kirov and a family member family time please before the funeral tomorrow the death has taken place of Donal Kelly Doubola letter Kenny Donal's remains will repose at his late residence today from 12 noon until 10 o'clock this evening with rosary at 9 from there tomorrow Thursday morning at half past 10 going to St Patrick's Church drum Keen for 11 o'clock requiem mass followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery family time please before the funeral tomorrow family Farran's only pleas to nations in lieu of desired to the Donegal Hospice Kirov and a family member the death has taken place of Agatha Gallagher Nay Boyle 21 Sine Mills formerly of Straban reposing at her home funeral from there tomorrow morning at half past 10 for requiem mass in St. Teresa's Church Sine Mills at 11 o'clock interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery donations in lieu of Farran's pleas to the Foyle Hospice Kirov quickly funeral directors family time please from 11 o'clock tonight the requiem mass can be viewed live via the parish webcam the death has occurred of Catherine Campbell Caramone Balabafe her remains are reposing at the family home funeral from there tomorrow morning at quarter past 10 for 11 o'clock requiem mass in the Church of Mary Macalitsch to an order with interment afterwards in Drumbo Cemetery the requiem mass will be streamed live via the parish webcam family time please from 9 o'clock tonight and before the funeral tomorrow the death has occurred of James Patton, Caramone Balabafe remains reposing at the family home funeral from there tomorrow afternoon at half past 1 for service of Thanksgiving in St Anne's Church Monellyn Crossroads Killigordon at 2 o'clock interment afterwards in the adjoining churchyard family time please from 10 o'clock tonight and before the funeral tomorrow the death has occurred of John Kelly Stregatti, Terman John's remains are reposing at his home funeral from there to St Columbus Church Terman tomorrow for requiem mass at 12 noon with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family time please from 11 o'clock tonight donations in Louis Flowers to the Tlaad Award University Hospital Galway care of any family member the death has occurred of Shan Crawford Gorthon Grace Castle Finn funeral from his home this morning at 20 past 10 for 11 o'clock requiem mass in St Columbus Church Dunny Loop interment afterwards in the adjoining churchyard family fires only please donations in Louis Desire to the Dunny Gull Hospice care of any family member or Charles Lynch funeral director the death has taken place of Priscilla Rolston formerly of 39 Prehend Park and Convoy funeral service will take place this afternoon in Wright Presbyterian Church at half past two followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery no flowers please donations in Louis Desire to the friends of spruce at McGovern Hospital and the death has occurred of Denny Byrne Marine Drive Kelly Beggs remains reposing at his residence from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. today removal tomorrow morning at half past 10 to St. Mary of the visitation church Kelly Beggs for 11 o'clock funeral mass burial afterwards in the local cemetery the mass will be streamed live on mcnmedia.tv house private please before the funeral tomorrow family fires only please for more details including any family health guidelines for wakes and funerals please go to Highland video dot com modern hotels really are an important part of life from the norm that's why we've left the studio to record this for real live at a show join us or wrap up and go stargazing on the coast pick up some bits at a local market and cozy up in a snug somewhere special wherever you go you can save on every room every night when you click on Muldron at Muldron hotels dot com this is your news show good morning if you are just joining us your bingo numbers are on the way but first to some of your comments we have always kicked the can down the road says this listener we never get any answers or solutions just more and more of the same old same old now it's come home to roost add into the mix we've added almost 70,000 more people into our population a call of this is Greg they won't bring back masks but you're not allowed into a health Christmas Day. There were no delays getting through a and a I know ones that had to go and there were only two or three people sitting there on Christmas Day, they say. I'm not sure what the situation is. I know I don't know now, Doc on Christmas Day, so people still were getting sick. A caller says we need to go back to wearing masks in public places to stop COVID and flu. It's basic, but it's works. Another, hi, I had a lovely walk on the beach in Rathmullen on Saturday last with family, including young grandchildren. Know what destroyed it? Dogs. Why do dog owners think that their dog should have a free run on the beach when there's so many children around? Are all dogs not meant to be kept on leads? And if so, who is meant to monitor the situation? Back to mortgages, the problem with trying to fix your tracker mortgage is if you are with Ulster Bank that's closing and have mica, no other bank would change it, I would say. That is, of course, an ever present problem. Any time we're talking about mortgages and things like that there, the situation is always in house insurance. The situation is always going to be different for those affected by defective concrete products. And that's why we've dedicated so much time over the years to highlight that issue. Alright, Paddy Rooney is going to be joining us. He's a former assistant general manager at National Kennedy University Hospital. I want to get his insight into what's happening with the health service at the moment. That's coming up after the break. It's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio. It's Wednesday the 4th of January. You're playing on the blue sheet. The reference number is S3. It's game number one. The numbers are 18, 90, 78, 24, 39, 45, 40, and finally, 89. Phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 tonight, leaving your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book.  Get all your NCBI Bingo information at HighlandRadio.com. I've never seen her stand still. And she's running rings around the rest of us with our Brennan's B Good Bread. Only 60 calories a slice. 60 calories a soy. That's just a whole meal, is it? Now, you see, it's the whole meal, the whole grain and the waste. 60 calories a slice and high in fiber. Whatever way you slice it, that's why anything baked is better with Brennan's today's bread today. If over the holidays, you decide it's time to change your car, then why not treat yourself to a new Kia into 2023? Make an inquiry on our website, and we'll be in touch to arrange your purchase when we return in the new year. We have cars ready to drive away in January, so visit iMotors.ie. iMotors would like to wish everyone a happy new year. Another Christmas gone, another year begun. Another opportunity to do those things you've been meaning to do for so long. Maybe doing something about your hearing loss is one of those things. At Hidden Hearing, we are the hearing experts. Our expert audiologists will assess your needs and recommend what's right for you. The results can be life changing. Book a free hearing test today.  Hidden Hearing. Your hearing is our expertise. Have you seen the Grand Shoes by Brennan? Have their seal on? Yeah, I love Grand Shoes. They're the best for comfortable shoes, amazing service, great value, and better still. Grants are local and family run. Grand Shoes by Brennan. Seal now on. All right, Paddy Rooney, the former Assistant General Manager at Nutter Kenney University Hospital joins us now. Paddy, good morning to you. Good morning, Greg, how are we? I appreciate your time as always, and thanks for accepting the invite. I mean, obviously, we've saw record figures in terms of overcrowding yesterday, the highest in 20 years, I think, since these figures have been tracked all logged. But I mean, it'd be very easy to forget for some that this is a historic problem. This is nothing new. I mean, obviously, there's a scale issue here, but these problems have been identified for a long time now. It has. I'm retired now, Greg, five years, and within that time period, I started to your Friday morning gig about the review of the events of the week. And I suppose the very clear thinking of people who are many people who are contributors to that program, and even people to your program outside of that gig have been sort of given a clear impression here that the problems within the hospital were internal and the solutions were internal. Now, I'm not trying to say that things is perfect in the hospital right across the board, but they're not. But every band three and band four hospital in the country is creaking and breaking under the pressure here. And I think it was very generous and very gracious, actually, of now, but don't know who the Irish nurses in midwifery Union rep that was on this morning and he made reference to the fact that actually hospital management needs support in this too, because this seems to be gone beyond being able to manage it and to be able to sustain it.  And I have a funny feeling this is not going to settle down anytime soon. Is it as simple as this that I mean, obviously, there is a hiring and recruitment issue. We the amount of beds we have is somewhat static. They claim they've gone up 1000 across a country where we lead perhaps at least five or 6000. That's not going to have an impact. But yet, obviously, very dramatically, our population has increased and is naturally increasing also. Are those the key factors? Do you think? Well, there are calls from a lot of quarters, particularly from the Irish Medical Organization and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association about putting in extra beds. I think Dr. Patter Gilligan, the consultant one in Bowman Hospital in Dublin, said that there's a need for 5000 beds. But additional beds alone, Greg, are going to fix this.  And I said at the time that that was going to give the hospital about relief for about six months. And I don't think they even got that out of it. There has to be a lot more than that. I mean, if you remember back, Dr. Ken Mulpeter, a consultant physician, was on your program about maybe it was 11 or 12 weeks ago. And he talked, he expressed his exasperation. I think that's the right pronunciation about what the Department of Health and the HSE were doing about appointing 51 additional consultants in emergency medicine to deal with the overcrowding and the emergency department. Now he knew, I knew everybody else knows now that that there's just a complete waste of money because that's not what the problem are. There has to be a before hospital service. And there are hospitals have to be turned into a 24 seven service because they're not at the moment. Can you explain that after service? Can you explain that in terms of the hospital hospitals on a 24 hour service? Well, hospitals right across the state, they all operate in the same model. And this model of delivery of care was literally set up in the 1950s and 60s. And it hasn't really changed since then about why that I mean that from nine to five Monday to Friday, the hospital is working a solid throttle. All of the consultants are on duty on the ground. All diagnostics is opened inpatient or day case activity, endoscopy, oncology, outpatients and everything is going. But there is a dramatic shift in the tenure of delivery of service within the hospital wouldn't five o'clock comes because all the consultant cover then goes to on call. I accept the fact that some of them are in duty, but remember they can't be in all the time because these men and women have to turn up for duty at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. So the following morning. So some reason to expect them while they're on call to be in the hospital and then to work. They can't work all of the time because that would completely unsay. There's no diagnostics and then MRI shuts down, cardiac investigations shuts down, CT is only available on call basis and patients have to meet a certain criteria before a CT will be done because remember it's consultant radiologists who are going to be doing this, who are going to be on duty the following morning. We can't have it every way here. We either need the people to be working during the day and so we've all of this. We have very little professionals like medicine. And what about the weekend? The same goes for the weekend. It's downtime as well. And in terms of often the problems, there's extra problems at the start of the week. Discharging at weekends. Is that a particular problem? Well, one of the things that's getting no discussion at all, Greg, is about the number of patients that are in hospital up and down the country that don't need to be there. I think Mary T. Sweeney covered it very well before 10 o'clock on your program. I mean delayed discharges have always been a problem. I have no intel or no internal information about the number of delayed discharges in the hospital, but I was going to say about we have to have a pre-hospital, a hospital and a post-hospital service because when I was working in the hospital, we might have, there might be occasions when we had between maybe 30 and 40 patients waiting for a bed in various areas and trolleys throughout the hospital, but there might have been 30 delayed discharges. And I bet you a dollar that up and down the country is a good part of it, seven, eight or 900. And that's what that means now is that these are patients who have been medically discharged by the hospital consultants. They're not under any active treatment in the hospital anymore, but they can't go home because there is no home supports or there is no condolences or no step down or no respite or whatever. And of course, the worrying thing about all of this is that Dermot Monaghan, the CHO1, was quoted, I think, on your program and also on the Jolly Gall Daily platform at the last meeting of the Western Forum that home support services were maxed out in both the funding that they had available at the time and also the problem about getting recruiting staff to carry out this. So this is getting no coverage or no traction at all about the number of people in the hospital. But I mean, Greg, that's completely sinful to have people queued out the door. And remember, there's no elective surgery done in hospitals either, and still have maybe two wards in every hospital up and down the country, follow patients who don't need to be there. And in terms of the throughput, access to GP, access to out-of-hours GP services, I mean, we have a static or falling number of GPs. There's difficulty in accessing them, but we have an explosion in the population. We have an extra minimum of five or six thousand people. I don't know what the exact figure off the top of my head is currently. A lot of decisions are being made that are actually worsening the issue. And I'm not pulling this into whether we should pull about the drawbridge or anything. That's not my motivation here for this conversation. But we're adding to the problem, but we don't seem to be offering any solution. And then we have someone like Stephen Donnelly. Again, I'm not having a go at him. I don't know the person. His clip on the news is he's saying, yeah, we have a problem here, and we need a solution. What's that solution? More beds. But for what you're saying, it's not really more beds. It's how we get... More beds are good. Yeah. But how long before they're filled up? Yes. Like the 27 in... If you go back, yeah, if you have general pictures from about 10 or 12 weeks ago, it would be well worth playing it again because he made the point about, right, so you have all these beds and hospital consultants will fill them. Fair enough, because that's what the demand is there. But, you know, I said in your program before that patients in hospitals are up and then the country fall into three categories. There are people, there are patients that are under active treatment. That's about a third of the patients. There are a third of the patients that are waiting for something. They're waiting for diagnostics. They're waiting for an OT or physio assessment. They're waiting for, it may be an under a consultant surgeon, but they might be waiting for a medical consult. They're waiting for transport. They're waiting for something. Putting extra beds in the system is not going to do anything. All you're going to do, Greg, is just increase the weight. You've got to have additional professionals allied to medicine and diagnostic. That's a huge thing. I mean, in relation to... I said earlier on about the service this country are set up in a way to meet the needs of patients in the 1970s, not in 2023. And I'm sorry to say that primary care falls into the same boat. I know Dr. Dennis McCauley said a few days ago that GPs were burned out and under huge pressure and I'm sure he's right because he's speaking from the inside. But GPs can switch off at one o'clock and they can close down at four o'clock. And we have 85 GPs rounder about working across the spectrum in Donegal from nine to one and from two to half four. But that's probably not going to cut it anymore, Greg, because then we go down to three now dock centres with an individual doctor and a nurse or two in each of those areas. That's not going to wash anymore because the population is increasing. The proportion of the population over 65 years of age is increasing. That's the likes of me and older than me. And I'm afraid that we demand more health service than you and your age court. Dr. Professor Donald O'Shea, the consultant lead on obesity, said that it is now abnormal to come across somebody with a normal BMI overweight and obesity is associated with more morbidity. There is much more expectation out there on behalf of the general public. But the health service is like a 40 foot Arctic truck. It's not twisting around to meet the needs. Okay, so but right. So, Paddy, you've worked with the HSE in management in the hospital. So you've seen it all, you've seen the inside workings of it, right? And you say, you say, and I get it, and I don't doubt for a second that management's hands are tied to a great extent. We've got the likes of Ken Moore, Peter speaking out from within. And I think because of his seniority in his position, he's able to do that. But I have contacts from nurses and others who can't speak publicly, right? We've got the INMO screaming from the rooftops what the problems are. Yet there is no plan or no solution. And even the Health Minister's suggestion today doesn't seem really to tell the full story. So in your view, who do we call out here? Like the HSE, we just call it the HSE if it's one thing, but it's a whole myriad of people work, like what has to happen? How can we get out of this? Because this is only going, this is only going to get worse. I mean, we might get some rest bites when when flu and RSV and stuff dies down. But we've seen the hospital as busy as it's ever been in the summer during the summer, it was busy as some winters during the summer. So who needs to do what? You know, because no one's taking any responsibility here. Yet we're hearing from people like you, people who know what the problem is, is the solutions are there. Well, I've got bad news to agree with them because the if the impression has been getting that hospitals up and down the country are under a spike in pressure, which they are, because of the viral infections doing the rounds at the moment. Remember, there is a whole raft of hospital activity that's been parked here at the moment. So when and if the viral infections ever subside and go away, elective surgery is going to come back with the band. Because I suspect there's no elective surgery to be done in hospitals up and down the country. Can you give us some examples of what elective surgery is? Because I think people might think that's an ingrown toenail or something. And I don't mean that in any way facetiously. So I just want I want to emphasise when we talk about all elective surgeries have been cancelled today, that hasn't happened here. It's in Limerick, for example. What does what does that mean? And what is not happening when that when that announcement is made? Well, that that falls into the various categories of elective surgery, but up at the very top of that, since letter Kenny is licensed by the National Cancer Control Programme to do symptomatic breast surgery. God knows whether that's taking place at the moment. If there's 60 people waiting for a bed, where are they going to accommodate these people? The hospital is also licensed to do colorective surgery. That would be people with bowel cancer, but knee surgery. Then there is less heat stuff that would say, for instance, people that need hip replacements, joint replacements generally due to chronic or to their chronic pain or whatever that all is to be set aside. Then you would have people with chronic coli societies that neither gallbladder or moved and a whole range of stuff like that that goes from serious down to to non serious. But it's been put off. But remember that all of this stuff has been put into a to awaiting this queue that this is going to the never, never as well. And it can't really be to be to be set aside. It can't afford to be the side. But all of that stuff is going to come back with the vengeance, Greg, when the viral infection sets that so we have delays in treatment, having an impact on people's health. We hear warnings from from some that people are going to die as a result of this, those that are presenting to the hospital and trying to get through the hospital for treatment. It's immeasurable then the delays in diagnosis say, for example, example through through lockdowns and then knocking on to the delaying some of this very important elective surgery. This has to have an impact on an awful lot of people's outcomes. You know, and it's not to scare anyone, but we we have to face the reality if that is the reality party. Oh, but you see, Greg, there's a lot of research done on a lot of articles in medical journals, in particular, about patients that have delays in emergency department. And this research has been done in Ireland and England, and a lot of it's been done in the States and elsewhere, but particularly the British Isles of patients that have an immeasurable delay in the emergency department that it has a very negative effect on their it has a very negative effect on their health. You see, slouching care, Greg, was meant to be the solution to all of this, but it's been cannibalized and picked over and elbowed into the side roads because all of the bits that people don't like has been picked out and sort of quietly discarded them. That program now is seven years old, and I think it's three years left of delivery. And the probability is that it's going to run out of of a road and be forgotten about. I think we're 23 years now into this century. And I think we've had seven ministers of health, as my memory serves me right already. So there's no consistency there either. And I would suspect that Stephen Donnelly is waiting for the day that he'll become Minister for Education or something that he can get out of this very.  I don't care if the Sinn Féin, Phinegal, Phinephol ain't do independent doesn't matter, but a panel that it's de-politicized that they go in there over a 10 year period rotating whatever it needs to be to fix the health service because this people coming in and out is getting us nowhere is. And I don't know if it's a controversial question or not. We need reform and we need change. Are there are some people within the health service at certain grades that are resisting that change and frustrating progress? Well, you see, it's very wrong for me to get the impression that I have all the answers here because what should be done and what can be done are two different things. I mean, the NHS in Northern Ireland is a similar predicament and the NHS from Scotland down to England is probably worse. Of course there are because the health service in every country in Ireland in particular, it's full of vested interests who want to do what their own piece of do. I mean, it's in the interest of hospital consultants to have additional beds because they can get more patients in, which is right. And if they can do more, it allows them to do private practice. It's not such a huge issue in Donegal because a very high percentage of the population have medical care or whatever. But it is an issue, we'll say for instance, as you move to East in the country. There is a lot of issues as well with staff, for instance, because they like to work nine to five Monday to Friday. They don't like to work on the weekends and nights and Saturdays and Sundays and so on and so forth. Everywhere across the board in the health service, there's vested interests. It's not fair for me now just to pick out hospital consultants of the nine to five people. Everywhere you go, there's vested interests for one reason or another. I mean, look at the debate there was back in the autumn about the Stephen Donnelly's plans, which is a very good one, to set up three hubs in the country to do elective surgery only. And there was a whole bruja on your program about the fact that there was no centre in Donegal. Big deal is the answer to that. Is it not better to get your hip replacement done on time or to get your gallbladder removed or whatever you need it done? I think that was the takeaway from that. I think that was the takeaway from that conversation. If I remember it correctly, that look, if we're getting access to it, if we have to travel, we'll solve it. I mean, we've got to get away from that. We can't have a Beaumont hospital in every town in Ireland and stuff. I'm not going to work just, but I have a funny feeling, Greg, that we're not prepared to pay for what we need to do because launch care is going to cost a lot of money. And I'll just give you a small taste of that because now you're under time pressure.  Stephen Donnelly, the Minister of Health, was in town here in, was at the end of November or begin in December. And you interviewed him, yes? Briefly. I was on an OB so it wasn't ideal, but yeah. Yeah. And he expressed with great aplomb about the additional 35 million that he had to let a Kenny yes to the hospital. It was never actually teased out what that money was actually going to be for. Now, I have no insight into what that money is for either, but I take it that that was 35 million over and above what the hospital had got the previous year, yes? Well, I suspect, Greg, that that money has been used to keep the hospital just standing still rather than going backwards. There's 2000 staff in the hospital and the range of salary from 30,000 up to about 200,000. And there's two elements of the national wage agreement going to be paid out this year. And that's going to take up a chunk of that. Any staff that have been appointed within the hospital within the previous eight years have got incremental credit due to them. There's going to be a cost in that. The hospital is no different than the other house or institution that has got energy bill. It's got to pay for electricity. It's got to pay for oil. You can imagine what their bill has gone. Everything from the pharmacology bill, that's the medicines, the consumer bills, surgical stores, food, blood, all of that kind of stuff. Do you know much of your 35 million is left? You take all into that and buy you a packet of cigarettes and a box of matches. But Steve, the health minister presented that to us, though, was if that was the government taking the issues of Lerner County University Hospital series and pumping 35 million into it to improve the situation. That was the impression that was given. It was. This is why we need a cross-party panel or something then. Yes, Greg, I am reading this right. If that's what the 35 million is given, what a top of the following year. And you also have to take into account because the hospital has been in surge capacity for more or less constantly. That means there are areas in surgical daycare, in medical daycare that need to be staffed out of hours at nights and weekends that demand additional staff and that demand premium pay. You take all of those things into account. How much do you think of the 35 million is left? Little is the answer. Fascinating insight as always, Paddy. That's why I invited you on. I really appreciate your time. It is actually appreciated. Thank you very much, Paddy. Take care of yourself. That's Paddy Rooney, former assistant general manager at Lerner County University Hospital. Went a bit long on that, but as I say, it pulls the curtain back a little bit and even just maybe exposing the 35 million Euro announcement by Stephen Donnelly, I think, worthwhile in doing so. I sound like I've got it in for Minister Donnelly. I don't. He's the head of the health service and the health service is in an absolute crisis and I find it frustrating that he recognizes that, but is not taking any responsibility for providing solutions. And as I say, it doesn't matter to me what party is in or no party or whatever. For me, with what people are going through, we know on this program, I know personally exactly what people are going through. I've spoken to dozens of people over the last couple of weeks about their experiences and I would like to see a health minister that would get up on the plinth on schedule. 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We do need more beds. A bed is basic, essential that a person should expect when they go to hospital. At least then the patients are on the ward and being monitored instead of sitting on a trolley in A&E. More beds and more people on wards will fix the problem of overcrowding in the emergency department at the moment we have the ministers and heads of department contradicting one another and at no plan. Right, okay. Children's hospitals are dealing with an astronomical number of self-harm presentations. Two leading psychiatrists have warned. We're joined on the program by one of those, Dr Mary Cannon, consultant psychiatrist and member of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. Dr Cannon, thank you so much for joining us this morning. It's greatly appreciated. Can you give us an extent of the problem? Because words like astronomical aren't thrown around, you know, and I think they're chosen to try and get the message across to say you need to take note of what we're saying here. So can you give us an overview of what the situation is you see in? Well, this has been going on for a number of years now, almost, you know, nearly a decade. And I think it's time we started to take notice of what's happening in terms of, you know, children's mental health and mental health crises. So basically what we've noticed from about 2006 up to 2016 there was a 500% increase, more than 500% increase in the number of children attending mental health, attending children's hospitals, emergency departments with mental health issues. And so that number is continuing to increase. And last year, 1,222 children were seen for mental health reasons in an emergency department of a children's hospital. Now, this was, you know, these emergency departments were never designed for mental health care or for mental health assessments. They're not a suitable, you know, a suitable place for young people to be talking about their private concerns. So something needs to be done, I think, in terms of providing alternative means of young people accessing mental health care in a crisis. Right. And maybe we'll come back to how we care for them. But what has led to this increase? We've never had more awareness, more conversation. Is it possible that some of it's triggering? Like, is that something that needs a completely different set of analysis here? Because as anyone listening who's a parent, you're trying to do your right thing. We're almost treating our children with kid gloves. Maybe that's the wrong thing to do. Maybe the constant exposure to the conversation about mental health in our schools is, you know, when you're, you know, as you get older and your brain's not fully formed, you're trying to work things out. Is it possible that we're inadvertently planting seeds? And I don't mean that, and I'm not meaning that in any way a motive, if you know what I mean. But we've never had more conversation and, you know, support for people who are maybe not very seriously ill. And yet the problem is getting worse. It kind of, I have had this concern myself because I've found myself having to have conversations that I don't think I would have to have if this whole conversation wasn't happening elsewhere as well. Does that make sense? I hope I'm not being clumsy or offensive or anything in that. I mean, it's definitely that's, I've heard that said before. I don't think talking about, one thing we need, talking about mental health doesn't cause mental health problems. I think we need to get that clear. And for years, you know, back in the past, we never used to talk about suicide or suicidal feelings because we thought that wouldn't, you know, spark people to do it. But we know now for sure that asking the question doesn't cause people to commit suicide. But in terms of what's causing this, there's two issues. One is that there seems to be a genuine increase in mental health problems among young people. The other thing is that young people are, and their parents are now feeling the only place they can access crisis care is in the emergency department. So that's the other issue. So, you know, the one issue is what's causing, as you say, the increase. But the other issue is how are we dealing with it? And I suppose the issue of the emergency department attendance is, and it's not just the children's hospital actually, what we're seeing is we're seeing an increase in attendees and tendencies for 16, 17, 18 year olds into the adult emergency departments too. So it's not just combined to the children's hospitals. There seems to be a lack of, I suppose that the child and adolescent mental health services are under pressure. I think we all know that they're understaffed. The staff are under an awful lot of pressure. They just can't get through their waiting lists the way that, you know, and the waiting lists are growing all the time. So in order to access care urgently, people see no other option or GPs may see no other option but to say go to the emergency department. So that needs to be looked at in terms of providing an alternative. To get back to your question about what's the reason for these increases. We don't really know yet, Greg, that's the problem and we need to do more analysis on this. I suppose what we, there seems to be a genuine increase. We did a study of transition year students in North Dublin, Cavan and Monaghan and we surveyed about 4,000 young people in schools. This was October 21, so it's very, very recent data. The children answered a large survey anonymously and we found that the rates of mental illness were much higher than we had ever seen before. So a previous survey before the pandemic back in 2018, about 5% of young people would have fulfilled criteria for mental disorder and now we're seeing rates of up to 30%. So this is huge and more so in girls than boys. So what we have to say is what's been going on over the last few years that could have caused this increase and seems to be again particularly affecting girls. We can speculate about things like substance use, which is increasing in young people and becoming more normalized and thinking about basic alcohol or cannabis use and other drugs. Or social media use is also a new phenomenon that has occurred over that period where we're seeing this large increase. Also academic stress and then of course there's the pandemic effects on top of everything else. We haven't quite been able to unpick what the effects have been on young people. There have been, through the ages, there have been huge challenges.  You know, there's been other huge events in history but has it led to sort of this level of illness, mental illness in younger people? You know what I mean? I know like our young girls being routinely bullied on TikTok to the point where thousands of them are harming themselves, are cutting themselves. You know what I mean? Like if we could dig a bit, not us in this conversation now, but us as a society, dig a bit deeper into this. I've had younger people, not my own, but others that would, that feel, they're not feeling good today, but they label it as, you know, anxiety. Or they're not doing very well. You know, they're struggling to do their homework and they're labeling it as ADHD. They're using language I was never familiar with. You know what I mean? I'm not saying that's not the case either, but there's this familiarity with all of that. And I just, then you get a group of them talking together and I wonder they're saying, well, this is what I've got. What have you got? What are you feeling? And I just would be, and it is as a parent, but not that it doesn't really apply to me as much for a wee while yet. I just want to make sure we're doing everything we can not to amplify stuff, to tool them to say, you know, this is how you can feel and this is what it can be. All the options are, it's, it's whatever you want. Do you know what I mean? Well, in order to, to help young people, they have to tell us that they need help. So we need to get young people to talk about how they're feeling.  And I think we just aren't prepared for this. The services weren't set up this way. We have a range of services such as jigsaw, or spun out, or the crisis text line for dealing with, but they're mainly geared for, as you say, you know, anxiety, milder depression, stress. But when you get into the more serious conditions, then you're talking about specialist care and the child and adolescent mental health teams. And that is seriously underfunded. They're not, they're really just not getting enough of the budget. Our mental health, mental health only takes 6% of the budget. In fact, this dropped during the pandemic to 5%. So it's a tiny proportion of the health budget goes to mental health. But when you think about the number of people coming to GPs with mental health conditions, when you think about the results from that survey I mentioned, we need a lot more money. In this day and age, 5% is rice reed. And WHO itself says 12% should be the minimum. You know, and we have the lowest number of psychiatric beds, the third lowest number in Europe per head of population. So we're not prepared to deal with this increase. And there's no capacity in the system. And, you know, we're losing staff. That's the other issue. And young people, as you mentioned, ending up in adult facilities. I mean, that's, that is just unacceptable also. Well, there's two ways to view that, Greg. One is that there really aren't enough adolescent inpatient beds in the country. And we've been losing them again during the pandemic because it's not possible to staff. So the young people who need care will need to be admitted somewhere.  So we need to increase the number of adolescents, specific units and beds as well. Yeah. And we need to stop talking, not you and I, but the power is to be people with influence. We need to stop talking about this. And, you know, we need packages announced. We need to, you know, we need to say, right, this, we're going to, and we've been speaking about physical health with the problems in the hospital. And I'm sorry. It feels very heavy for people listening. It's just an accident of, an accident of scheduling. But the talk needs to be over now. We, you know, we actually need to say, we're not only going to increase it by five to six percent, we're actually going to double it and then add half on. And we're going to match what we need to do, what the WHO suggests we should do. Yeah. And Greg, you know, that's a really good point to make. I think what happens is when people get frustrated, when parents get frustrated, they say, oh, the waiting list are too long. You know, my child's waiting six months for an appointment. But, and then the staff get blamed. The teams get blamed. And the fact that we should be looking out, parents should be joining with the mental health professionals to say, this is not acceptable. We need more funding. So talk to the politicians better. Talk to the policy makers. Don't, you know, it's the same things happening in the emergency department. The frontline staff are often getting the brunt of the anger. It shouldn't be directed to them. It should be directed to, you know, higher up too. So when politicians come around to your doorstep, this should be high on the agenda. Yeah, for sure. Because this is something that affects us all by either directly or one degree of separation, you know, be it the physical or the mental health, both issues that have dominated this hour. Thank you so much for your, yes, go ahead, doctor. No, I just say, in particularly for young people, mental health is the key issue because they're physical, they're actually they're physically healthiest time of life. So, so this is what parents, you know, when, when children are very young, they're worried about their children's physical health. But when they become teenagers or young adults, it's their mental health they worry about. We need, like, we need a dedicated Minister for Children, for example, as well.  Well, we need, I think we need a mental health lead, particularly youth mental health lead. And I think there is movement on that in government at the moment. So there is, I think HSE and Department of Health are aware of these issues, but it's just it's just quite slow. Yeah, all aware, you see, that's the problem. The Health Minister's aware, the HSE is aware, the people that are at the the sharp edge of this is aware, but what we actually want is people that are empowered that make decisions that change things. Yeah, we need to flood money into mental health the way they do in physical health during the pandemic. It's a very good point to finish on. Thank you so much, Doctor. Take care of yourself. Thank you. Dr. Mary Cannon, Consultant Psychiatrist and member of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. And again, I'm sorry if the last hour is felt incredibly heavy, it's actually maybe even longer than that because we're talking about some serious injuries, issues. And I I feel it myself. I feel it overwhelming at times all of this stuff. But it's right here and now we can't ignore it. We're just I'm trying to see if we can come up with ways to talk about this that were solution focused. And it's proactive and moving things forward. Right. Let's take a break. The county's number one talk show, the nine till noon show on Highland Radio. Macklehenny's biggest ever winter sale is now on with unmissable offers on all your favorite designer brands. Enjoy major savings across fashion, fit wear, homework and more with up to 50% off today. Join us in store or visit our website now for spectacular savings in the Macklehenny's winter sale, our biggest sale of the season. Our wide range of 2023 scooters are going fast. This is the sound of the Breen family getting their powerful diesel Kodiak. And this is fully charged for your driving away in her electric Skoda. And this is the sound of someone who didn't place their order in time. Order your 2023 Skoda today before it's too late. Skoda made for Ireland. Your local Skoda dealer is DMG Motors Clare Road, Dunnegall Town, telephone 074 97 21 396 or visit dmgmotors.ie. The Red Castle Oceanfront Golf and Spa Hotel and Cighted Dunnegall invite you to their weekend wedding showcase on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th of January from 11 a.m to 5 p.m. View the breadstick in Ocean Suite set up for a wedding. Meet the wedding team, enjoy refreshments and more. A veil of superb offers for weddings booked on the day. Visit RedCastleHotelDunnegall.com Podcasts. Oh yes! Discover a radio experience that speaks to you with the Radio Player app. Download today. Highland radio weather updates with Ireland West Airport, Salah, Nunes, The Beatles. You can now fly to Liverpool eight times a week with Ryanair this summer. Ireland West Airport, don't just take off, take it easy. Radio rather windy today with bright spells and Scottish showers. Some heavy temperatures 9 to 11 degrees in fresh to strong and gusty west to southwest winds. I'll give you tonight's weather forecast while I'm here. Mostly dry early tonight in Chile for a time. Lowest temperatures of 4 to 7 degrees, turning milder towards morning as outbreaks of rain and drizzle spread from the south. Moderate south to southwest breezes will increase fresh and gusty later, but keep an eye out. It might get a little bit more chilly later in the week up here in the west and northwest. There might even be a weefall of snow here or there. We'll keep across that though and let you know as we get closer to the weekend. We're going to be talking fitness after the news at 11. So if you have any questions about your fitness, maybe you want to go to the next level, maybe you just want to get started. Any questions? I'll wait 660, 25,000, get them into us. We'll get them answered for you. Give us a call 07491 25,000 and we'll go through the usuals about bits and pieces of advice. So depends on what age you are or whatever. You know, maybe you're a person of a certain age or weight and you wonder what can you start doing now to sort of start making inroads if that's what you want to do. Well, I don't want to, that's just a suggestion of some of the things you could be asking about. In 2013, my husband got a check up for his knee and he needed a knee replacement and there would be at least a six month wait, if not more. He went private and a surgery in six weeks. Why is this the case? Well, other consultants do private work too. It's a shame what's going on in this country. My son is not getting seen regularly for speech and physiotherapies not good enough. And listen, there's a whole other area in there as well in terms of supports for children. Why are we spending vast amounts of money to bank staff? Can they not employ them? Another, how is Denmark's health service so good with a similar population to ours? We're both in the EU. We should look at their system. Yeah, indeed. Nurses are stressed in letter Kenny hospital. I know I'm a parent to one and I know and we're trying to support them in these conversations as well. And I hope that comes across mum or dad in our conversation. You're so right, Greg. We might as well have no health minister. I just don't want to be told what the problems are. I know what the problems are. We know what the problems are. We want solutions. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com. Your next move matters. So why not move better? Start your move to permanent TSB today. Apply in-app for our award-winning current account. So don't just move bank. Move better. Apply in-app today. Applications for Explore Current Account in-app for over 18 personal customers. Qualifying criteria, fees and charges, terms and conditions apply. Awarded bonkers.ie best current account 2022. Permanent TSB PLC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Don't sleep in and miss the very latest beds and mattress offers from dfibeds.ie. Ireland's leading online bed and mattress retailer. You'll get a comfy Irish-made mattress, upholstered base and headboard from an amazing 229 Euro. Check out the full range at dfibeds.ie. Delivery free and guaranteed to you within seven working days. DFI beds. Sleep well. Live well. A public interest message from Donegal County Council. Changes in the year when it comes to solid fuels. All coal products, wood products, biomass products and manufactured part biomass products are now subject to the new solid fuel regulations. All solid fuel must now comply with the new standards. This will also mean that smoky betumus coal will no longer be available from local retailers. These new regulations were introduced on November 1st to protect our health and our environment. Recent EPA reports have estimated that around 1,300 people in Ireland die prematurely each year because of poor air quality. For more information, including frequently asked questions for the householder and retailers, please go to gov.ie forward slash clean air for donegalcoco.ie. Donegal County Council protecting your environment. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at highlandradio.com. All right, good morning again. It's 11 o'clock. Let's get a news update. We say good morning now to Donal Kavanaugh. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. The health minister meeting with other senior ministers this morning to brief them on the overcrowding crisis facing Irish hospitals. A short time ago, the I&M all published this morning's trolley watch figures that are Kenny University Hospital 46 people awaiting beds there this morning. 20 of them on trolleys in the emergency department. That's down four on yesterday. Slaggy University Hospital 65 people awaiting beds there this morning. 42 in the emergency department. That's a combined Northwest total between Slaggo and letter Kenny of 111 patients without beds this morning. The industrial relations officer with the I&M all in the Northwest told Greg this morning on today's 9 to 9 show that members at letter Kenny University Hospital are distraught and burnt out. Meanwhile, the emergency medicine doctor Lisa Conningham said today there are fewer beds in Irish hospitals now than there were in 1981. Lisa Conningham says the system is at breaking point and increased bed capacity is the only way to address the crisis. Meanwhile, a former assistant general manager at letter Kenny University Hospital has questioned how much of the extra 35 million euro announced for the hospital at the end of last year will go toward actually improving services and addressing the current crisis. Patti Rooney says Minister Donnelly didn't specify how the money would be spent. He said he believes the money would be almost entirely taken up with funding pay increases and meeting the extra costs in energy, electricity and other utilities. Other news and house prices rose by just over 9% last year in Donegal according to daft.ie. Economist Roland Lyons who wrote the report says people moving out of the cities during the Covid area created a lot of demand in the regions and in particular in Conningham Ulster. However, he says that's now eased significantly. Donegal's rise last year was still 3% above the national average. All aspects of emergency planning in oil that could be put on a statutory footing as part of a government plan to strengthen the state's capacity to respond to a potential oil emergency that issue being discussed today. And Donegal County Council is being urged to construct a pedestrian crossing at MacArthur's Road in Moncrana between the Aldi and Needle stores which are opposite each other. Councillor Jack Murray says there is no safe point for crossing the road. A lot of pedestrians use it. He says it's a safety hazard that needs to be addressed. Back with headlines again at 12 noon. Donal, thank you very much. Easier to get healthier this January with the right support. The Irish Life GAA Healthy Club's challenge is helping communities get active. Every step you take could help your GAA Club win O'Neill's sports vouchers. There's 20,000 euro worth of vouchers up for grabs. Just download MyLife, the free health and well-being app. Register, join the challenge and start tracking your steps. A better life with Irish Life. The MyLife app is provided by Irish Life Financial Services. Teasenseas applies to irishlife.ie forward slash mylife. All right, wellness Wednesday now. We're going to talk about fitness. Eva Hunter, owner of Eva McGill Personal Training, is in studio with us now. Hi Eva. Hi, I agree. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. New Year, new me. Right, so if your New Year's resolution includes wanting to get healthier, decreased body fat, improved fitness and increased confidence while getting sustainable results by learning methods of how to maintain them, we've got advice for you. We do. We were hearing just earlier on, talked about the general population health and BMI was mentioned. Right, and BMI is not always necessarily directly linked to how someone might appear. No, BMI is your body mass index and it's not really always a true reflection of somebody. In basic simple terms, I sort of take that right back to the weighing scale. If somebody's exercising or training, if they're say strength training, it's not really a true reflection of your results in progress as such. Now, if you are somebody who's say excessively overweight, then BMI is for sure a factor and it's something your GP and that'll talk about. But as far as body fat loss goes and things, we really would go more leaning towards like say progress photographs and things and your clothes so that you're not stepping on the weighing scale and getting deflated if that's not the result that you're expecting to see after working really hard for three months.  Exactly. That's fair. And we can be slave to the scales, can't we? Like we call it the sad step. I say stay off it. It's a tool surely and you can use it. And you keep putting batteries in them. But definitely for for dragging progress, I would definitely aim more towards like take your take your photographs, go with your clothes size and don't go close dress size up, aim to get a dress size down. Use it as one of your sort of like attainable achievable goals for the for the new year. And it's how you feel as well, presumably, you know, about your energy levels, how you might be sleeping. Exactly. That kind of stuff. These are the key indicators really. Because there's so much more to it. Like that's what I really stress towards in the new year is surely like weight loss, particularly around January is on on people's minds. But definitely health, I would say to aim to take better care of yourself and to get healthier. And then everything else follows it. I don't really I really don't like I don't engage with them, but I don't like programs that get people to step up on scales. It's horrendous, it's horrendous, really in this day and age.  I don't think it's really responsible broadcasting. I'm not going to get you to comment on it. Because, you know, you get me in trouble. Yeah, but I don't care. But it's just I don't think it's as I say, no, I don't think it's really actually think it's irresponsible, especially with younger people watching because it's planting the seed again of, you know, your weight being determined by numbers. Which is remarkable because I tell you, well, maybe I'm hanging myself out here, but on a personal level, like I'm as heavy now on the weighing scale as it was as a full term pregnancy in my last baby. Caroline, bring the scales in. She's getting up on the scales, camera too. Just shows you how false the scale can be. Like I'm back at your same factory. Yeah, but you're still getting up on the scale. But I'm getting up. I use it as a tool. Yeah, of course. Yeah. And to prove points and, yeah, I'll catch you. And I agree with you. I've been a bit facetious, but I agree. Anytime's a good time to start, I suppose, trying to get better. When people start things in the new year, I'm not trying to put any businesses, I'm not trying to deter any businesses. But I think, you know, like, people might get the gym membership and not use it. Now, I don't think that's good for gyms, if they don't, if they get a month or three months and don't come back, you want people to sort of have a mindset that they're in there all year round. So I'm not doing a gym of disservice here. But you know, what way do we need to, what space do we need to get into our heads if we want to choose now is the time to make a difference. Even outside of the gym, say if you're somebody who's at home and you're just planning to eat that way a bit better and you want to move a bit more, I have still, everybody across the board, I would say, to set yourself realistic, attainable and then sustainable goals. Like, don't go crazy and pulling out through groups that you love, going on really strict programs for a short space of time. You might lose weight in that space of time, and then you put it on afterwards. You want, like, do a good goal from, say, from this current date. Now, a 12 week is a good aim. And that'll take you nearly through to St Patrick's again. And three weeks after that, takes you to Easter. So they're good goals to aim for. And you can get results in that period of time. Sensible results that you're not being too strict on yourself. So set your reasonable, so if you are completely inactive, maybe if you, if you're able to walk in a kilometer is a target. Walking's fantastic. And walking is a good kind of acutally exercise. Like, people nearly give it a bad rap, but not at all. Like, people forget, the hone and so much about weight loss, they forget about being healthy. Now with us, we push the health aspect first and everything else follows, follows through. Donegall is like fantastic for facilities as well, for beginners, for all, everybody who wants to begin to exercise or even right through to your athlete. But there's so many beginner programs, be it a gym, be it a leisure center, there's walking programs, there's, there's couch to 5Ks, there's so many things in the community. And I don't want to be hopping all over the place, but we will get down to some, some specifics.  Right. Okay. I'm 55. And I need to lose a bit of weight of severe osteo arthritis. What can you recommend? Can, can't walk in too much pain? Can't walk in pain. And wonder, see the, well, that's severe. No, if you, if you can't walk, like there's pool, yeah, physically walking in the pool because the water would help the density, but also types of exercise like pilates and things are really good sort of stationary on a mat movement and flexibility. But somebody like that might probably need a bit of help too from their GP just with maybe for joint aid medications and things, you know. Yeah, you need to be planning what you can do there, I think with your GP. Yeah, that's great. Because you don't want to exacerbate anything. Yeah. Walk will be like a low intensity extra change. If you can't walk, it's quite severe. Yeah, I get you. This is also a different type of question. It's actually on, it's actually a someone on the phone. Do you have headphones there? Yeah, good stuff. Thank you very much. Sorry about this. We're normally better organised. Tanya, good morning to you. Good morning, Greg and Eva. Now your question for, your question for Eva, Tanya. Hello. Right, we've lost that line. We'll get that back maybe. We'll come back to that in a second. I have issues with putting weight on and off. I'm never able to stabilize it. And I can't keep it regular. I do try to watch what I eat and walk every day. So that's the yo-yo sort of effect, I think. And Joe, that's sort of the typical example of people sort of rework with a lot. Because we really pair things back. And sometimes, and I'm not saying this person is like that, sometimes they go really drastic for a short period of time and they can't sustain it. So it's going back to the real consistency tip that I have with people. And creating the calorie deficit that you can maintain. And calorie deficits can sound quite scary, but that's really simple. It doesn't have to be hard work. Calorie deficit, basically, is consuming less calories than what you currently are for your maintenance weight. So say if you're currently 11 stone, then you're consuming so many calories to maintain that 11 stone. So this is a kind of a general tip. And if that person wanted more depth information, they could contact us. But a real sort of general rhythm. And this will depend too on their physical activity. I think he just said he was just walking. Was he just walking? No, that person was, I don't know, they didn't say anyway. Well, say with just general physical activity, then if you take your current weight, as you said today in pounds, multiply that by 15 and then subtract 500 off that figure. That'll give you a deficit for a calorie deficit from where you're sitting today. And that's not a huge deficit, but it's enough say over your 12 weeks plus to give you sustainable results that you can maintain that you're not falling on and off the wagon, but normally it leaves me. So if you're retaining, if you're, if you're maintaining a certain level of fitness, whatever that might be, the thing that will really vary your weight will be your calorie intake. Yes. It's not hard work. You can't out train a bad diet. It's sometimes people exercise and they can end the frame of mind, you can eat what you want. But you do have to be mindful of that as well. And I find that really helps with everybody, no matter what stage they're at. Because I think you recognized that you recognized a problem for a lot of us is that you see when it starts getting into calorie counting and good foods, bad foods, good sugars, bad sugars, carbs, whether or not you should drink orange juice or whether or not you should blend or do you know what I mean?  That's it. Trying to break the habits and create and just keep it simple to avoid putting it off anything. I would cut nothing out. Just reduce. You know, keep your balanced plate. Because remember back to the thing you want to be healthy as well as eating your weight. Don't I did actually. I think it did make a difference. I've got smaller plates. Big time. I swear at the smaller plates, you know. Like it's all of a sudden it looks like oh my look at the amount of food in that plate. Yeah, that's true. It's just a little psychological thing. Yeah, it really is. Let's try Tanya again. Thank you. No, it's not. You're doing grand. It's just the phone line. I understand. Tanya, good morning to you. Hi, good morning, Greg and Ethan. Great question, Tanya. Well, over the last year I've lost 14 stone and now I have the issue of kind of loose skin and