I told you. See, Greg will not buy a set of headphones for himself. You're that tight. At least I bought this one. The sponge is stuffing my ear. The sponge, do you want me to get some glue or stuff? Sell a tape? No. I've got the inside of everybody else's ear inside my ear right now. Why don't you just spend the bit of money? I don't have the money. I really don't have the money. How much is a set of decent headphones? I would say now for the broadcast quality headphones, which protect your ears with all this noise and everything going on in your ears. It's probably a bit horrible. See, I told you, I've been on to you for years to buy your own set of headphones. It's only now that it's starting to poke into my ear. But you see, like, if you did, you know what, the mic was scoping to there. Yeah, but if you did that with anything, the mic, this microphone, the desk. I would stop. I'd just go, okay. Oh, enough then, enough then. How was tea yesterday with Rita? Me and Rita got on the best. See, I was a bit, I was a bit wary. You were a bit nervous. No, but I didn't know where the house was, right? And then you go to somebody's house and you knock on the door, and you don't know if this is the house or not, the house. And they knocked on door and then it was Rita. And they gave her a big hug. And then we went in and it says, I just got some kind of queen cakes, you know. Do you bring them? Well, Rita had them for me. No, I had to buy my dad a birthday carriage so I said I'd get some buns for it as well. Right. And Rita was off me scones and she makes all this bacon stuff and stuff. I said, no, I don't bother, because you don't want to put anybody out. But then Margot, the daughter, came around and we had a cup of tea and it was great in chat and all that.  She's renowned for her scones and a bit of jam on it. I'd be nice with that. Did she not offer to bring any in? Excuse me. What I'm just saying. What do you want? A scone? A scone. You want a scone? Oh, this is European now. Rita's scone. You wait and see now. By 10 o'clock you'll have three scones in front of you. No, it doesn't work like that for me. Doesn't that? No, no. You're not that popular. David James mentions a pizza. He gets the deliveries. Yeah, exactly. What can I mention at five o'clock in the morning to get? Weed to becks. Weed to becks. No, thank you. Oh, Bran. No. Back massage. No, it sounds good. I'll take that. Yes, please. All right, good luck. We should leave them there. You're the one who's at home. We won't leave them there. We'll leave them there. Yes, please. Good luck. The office is near you on his way home, so make sure your doors locked. All right, it is the ninth onoone show. Coming up after a news update in a minute past nine. It's over to Don Emory, Dorothy. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. Hundreds lined the streets of Kloniz County, monahin last night as the community comes to terms with the death of two local teenagers. 17 year old Key in the can and 16 year old Slavin Mohamed on their way to the prom. Investigations into the crash are now being headed by a senior investigating guarder. The driver of the car, a man in his 60s, remains in a critical condition and a 18-year-old girl is in a critical but stable condition, while an 18-year-old boy is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. A Karen Donner councillor has questioned if Donegal County Council has taken all measures to break away from what he described as a housing logjam in Donegal. Councillor Albert Doherty says a cohesive and comprehensive housing remediation program is needed for council housing stock affected by defective concrete blocks. While it was confirmed a pilot for social housing remediation will be approved in respect of 60 vacant social homes, councillor Doherty says this isn't enough. He further questioned if Donegal County Council placed a bid to be a part of the Department of Housing's plan for 1800 rapid build homes. It was revealed they had not. I've been forwarded a reply from Owen O'Brien, the Shinfane spokesperson and he has identified 10 council areas where they're building over 1500 homes using the MCC method and no word of Donegal. That's not good enough and I'd be pursuing that matter at all times with the council. Every available angle created by government should be pursued by Donegal County Council to ensure that we can deliver ample housing, sufficient housing, much needed housing for our Donegal people. A crude pipe bomb type device has exploded in a residential area of East Belfast. Police say it was planted next to a household bin in an alleyway in the Heinfurt Street area. Families were evacuated last night after a loud bang was heard. No one was injured but police say the device had the potential to kill. Looking now to the weather forecast, rather cloudy and wet start with outbreaks of rain, heavy and persistent for a time this morning, the rain will gradually clear to a mix of cloudy periods and isolated showers, highest temperatures of 15 to 17 degrees. That's all for now. The next news update will be at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. Ah yeah, we're good mates. Yeah. Look, I'm always there for him. 100 percent. Too thick and thin. And sure, he likes having me around. Any time he's going out, I'll get the shout, you know? And someday, I'll probably kill him. Smoking isn't the friend you think it is. Quit for 28 days and start taking back control. Find out how at quit.ie or free phone 1-800-201-203 from the HSE. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio and now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9 till noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello. Good morning to you. It's just turned five past nine on this Wednesday, the second of August 2023. Very welcome along to the 9 till noon show. Thanks to Lee for another entertaining naughty alarm clock. Hopefully we'll keep you on board here now for the next three hours. We've got loads to keep you informed and entertained and we want you involved in the show as well as always. And thank you to so many of you who text in and call in every single day. It's really appreciated and is a vital part of the program. As you know yourself because we dedicate so much time to airing your views 08 660 25,000. That's the WhatsApp and text number. If you're listening to us outside of the Republic in Northern Ireland or wherever you might happen to be, then it's 0035386 60 25,000. The telephone number for you, Caroline and a new taking your calls 07491 25,000. And if you want to email, it might be convenient for you to do. So it's comments at Highland radio dot com. Right. Let's look at the front of the newspapers today. We'll start with the Finn Valley voice and IFA delegation led by Donegal IFA chair Joe Sweeney met recently with officials from Donegal County Council to discuss farmer concerns in relation to the Tenty Roadway and Barnasmore Gap Greenway Projects. Mr. Sweeney says that these roads will have a devastating impact on farms and farming enterprises in the vicinity of the works. The Innish Times this morning, pressure is mounting on the Minister for Housing, Dara O'Brien and leading government officials to attend a public meeting with homeowners in Donegal affected by defective concrete blocks. The microaction group has written to all public representatives in Donegal seeking responses to three questions. This follows a mag information evening on July 24th in Burt after which a letter was sent to Minister O'Brien, requesting he attend a public meeting. Thousands of homes and other buildings in Donegal are blighted by defective concrete blocks. A recently received defective concrete block scheme was approved, but concerned homeowners remain worried about its inflammation. The most implementation, the most important thing is that homeowners get to meet the minister. Secondary to that it would have been great if he was available to speak to the local radio station so to speak. It's an open invitation for him to join us and answer the questions that people might have, but we're being told he's unavailable weeks at a time now, so we've been told he's not available this week and as you would know we have limited access unfortunately on this issue and seemingly only in this part of the world to be able to ask important questions on a multi-billion euro scheme. The Donegal post this morning, the Donegal Tan cinema saga has taken a new twist and it could potentially lead to a positive outcome, though I really wouldn't hold your breath, but I understand the motivation for the article. A prominent for sale sign has been placed in Drum Lonahur announcing the sale of a one-point acre site with full planning permission for a cinema. The initial planning permission granted in 2019 has not yet expired, so perhaps this could, speculates the paper, be an attractive prospect for any potential buyer. There was major disappointment earlier this year when rumours of the site being sold began circulating. It had been understood that plans had simply been on hold due to COVID-19 and the restrictions of the last few years, but with the restrictions lifted and the clock ticking on planning permission time limits, questions were being asked and not being answered. So it is a curious situation. It's not speculation or rumour. The site sale had been agreed between its owner and the adjacent supermarket now whether that sale fell through and the original owner is now remarketing it or maybe Lidl decided that they didn't need it and are selling on. I don't know, but it certainly, sale was certainly agreed in that regard. But there was a major kick in the Gotford-Onigaltan community when it was announced that the site had been sold. They had mounted a well supported community campaign and played a huge role in driving the project over the line in getting planning permission in the first place and it remains to be seen if the site will be sold and if the new owner is keen to develop it with the original plans. On to the nationals now and all of the papers are carrying extensive coverage of the awful tragedy in Monaghan and I do wonder, I mean, I can kind of understand maybe if the local press, the local media in a community role, you know, providing information and updates to the community. I do wonder sometimes about the national interest in these stories. Maybe if it's, you know, there's kind of a process that these follow or maybe it's important for all of us. I don't know, but I just know that this story is going to feature quite prominently on the front pages for some time to come. Guardi investigating the fatal crash in Monaghan, which claimed the lives of two teenaged girls, are investigating whether weather conditions may have contributed to the incident. Best friends, Kier McCann, just 17 and Dilava Mohamed, 16, both students at Largy College and Clones were killed when the car in which they were traveling to a Debs ball left the roadway and collided with a tree. The 60 year old driver of the vehicle from Nublis County Monaghan remains in a critical condition in Belfast Royal Victoria Victoria Hospital. An 18 year old woman remains in a critical but stable condition in Cavern General Hospital and an 18 year old was this is a male was treated in hospital for injuries suffered in the single vehicle incident on the N54 in Legna Kelly. Now as I say, you know, the two young victims of this awful crash pictured in the front of the pages today. The story is just sad and sadder and sadder it gets in that all the students would have witnessed what went on because there was a convoy going parents and loved ones were very quickly on the scene as they may have been traveling to the venue to take pictures. It's just layer after layer of just tragedy to that story. The Irish Independent. It's kind of August. It's hard to pick out too many stories. I'm not going to lie to you, but pressure is growing from another organization because we were heard from the Irish Heart Foundation yesterday about their wish to see disposable vapes band all together. Well, an environmental group is putting pressure on government ministers to ban disposable vapes as they almost advertised as candy. Voice Island has now written to Minister Ocean Smith and Stephen Donnelly regarding the environmental and health problems that come with disposable vaping. The group has a petition with almost 3000 signatures to prohibit the sale of the product. Stephen Byrne project manager at Voice Island said disposable vapes have become a huge thing. They are very noticeable on our streets as litter. And it's not just litter it's health is because as we heard yesterday, we don't have any figures beyond 2019 for Ireland. 20% of young people were vaping in Britain. The most recent study shows that more than half 60% of young people vape, which is worrying. And I would say that figures here would correlate with those in Britain if there were a further study. The Irish Daily Mail talks about cocaine and it says that it's now even more widely used than it was during the Celtic target years. The psychiatrist has said a new report shows cocaine use has risen by 135% in the space of six years, along with a rise in people seeking help for alcohol addiction. Figures from the Health Research Board show that a total of 7,421 patients were treated for the problem alcohol use for problem for problem alcohol use last year, an increase of 8% on 2021 cocaine has now surpassed cannabis as the main common additional drug reported in 2022, increasing by 135% between 2016 and 2022 the date the data states and listen, there's a huge market for cake for cocaine here in Ireland. We saw recently the, you know, really quite significant sized hall of cocaine that washed up on the shores of North Donegal. I mean, that's just that's just a bit of waste to them. There's so much of it being brought into the country, even though it's worth 4 million euro, it's simply the tip of the iceberg. It just goes to show how it's being brought in and how it becomes so easily accessible. The Irish Daily Star this morning, and I've said this on the show before and it hasn't proven popular, but if you look at the figures and if you look at how governments have formed, it's certainly not impossible that the current government, Finnegale, Finafoul and the Greens or whoever could end up back in power again. As I say, I have said it on this program before because it's statistically very, it's possible, whether it's likely or not, I don't know. T. Shockley of Radgar, he believes it's possible because he says the current government coalition could be re-elected following the next general election. The Finnegale leader said that while he wishes Sinn Fein the best of luck, their current performance in opinion polls does not a government make Finafoul, Finnegale and the Green Party entered a coalition in June 2020 following a general election in February. Speaking on News Talk, the T. Shockley said he believed that there is a very good chance the current government will be elected again. However, he said that prospect has not been discussed with Miehal Martin or Eamon Ryan. We're all separate parties. I think it's unlikely that we'll run as a ticket, if you like, or as a coalition, he explained, which is quite interesting. So they might not run as a coalition, but they all already have in their head the notion that they may well reform that coalition again. I mean, if you're thinking on that, at least run like that so people know precisely what they're voting for. Now, many of you might be feeling this already. There's a new report out, but I know a lot of people are gathering bits all over the summer because of the pressures of sending our young people back to school. It's featured in most of the papers today, and it's in the sun as well. One in four secondary school parents will fall into debt to pay for skyrocketing back to school costs this year. A shocking new report has revealed. Now, before I read on and completely anonymously, by the way, like, why don't you message in the reality of your experience in terms of, you know, getting books together or getting uniforms together or shoes or anything like that there? I mean, is this something that you can relate to that you will find yourself getting into debt, getting into debt, beg your pardon, to send your young ones back to school 08 660 25000. Well, according to the 18th Bernados back to school survey, two-thirds of secondary school parents and half of primary school parents are worried about meeting costs this year. The Children's Charity found that sending a fourth class pupil back to the classroom will set you back to 320 Euro. Sorry, that's 320 Euro. And the fifth year student fees will cost 363 Euro. While parents of first year students will be stung for a whopping 972 Euro this September. I mean, there's not an awful lot of people just have that change in the back pocket to pay for that. The government has said they've responded to the back to school costs crisis by bumping up their school clothing and footwear allowance by 100 Euro per child. The payment now totals 260 Euro per child. But still, in this day and age, in this day and age, and okay, some scones arrived. Thanks for, we'll mention that in a minute. Okay, I'm distracted. I'm talking about some what? Okay, so what is this? Are these readers? Kelly Santra, Mountain Top Letter, Kelly. Okay, thank you. Okay, thanks. Yeah. I'll have one at 10. Thank you, Kelly's. Really appreciate that. That's not Ryan Topperty level kind of bribery. Is it we're okay? Oh, we do have to declare that? I don't know how that works. Thank you very much to the team over at Kelly's Fair Play to you. They're good cracks. So what was, what was I saying there? Thank you. I'm not sure she realised she was on air. Did she? She did. Okay, that's good. Yeah. So what I was going to get back to the back to school allowance that are not the back to school costs is that in especially in a cost living crisis, is it still the situation because I'm a little bit out of touch now for the time being is it still the case that you have to get uniforms from specific places at a specific cost? Like I saw some great, some of the big supermarkets advertising some great prices in terms of, you know, affordable jumper shirts, trousers and skirts. But is it still the case now in 2023 in a cost living crisis that you have to specifically get a uniform from a certain place? Is it still the case that you have to get maybe get crested PE outfits? Is that still the way it is now? Do you still have to pay for all of your boxies? Some questions I know the answers to and some I don't.  Oh, wait, 6025 first and like help us on each other to understand the difficulties many people are facing in relation to a relation to this cost living crisis and this unavoidable expense of sending our children back to school. And finally, what do you make of the situation with the Irish ladies team? Obviously, there's a bit of tension there between the manager and members of the team that became apparent throughout the course of the World Cup. But at the same time, this is a coach that has delivered history along with the players in getting us to our first World Cup, getting our first goal, getting our first point, whether or not she gets on with the team, she is, you know, going to go down in the history books as the coach that helped along with the team to deliver that. Now, a lot of people would like us all to pretend that there's no issues between her and the players and that they can come home and everything's rosy in the garden and we can say how you're getting on. You did fantastic and you know, and we will do that. But we do have to discuss don't we as well if there are issues because we've followed the team. We're emotionally invested in them. There does seem to be a lot of friction or some friction at least between the coach and certain or some or all of the players. We don't know that there are some question marks over the manager from previous roles that she had the re speculation as to whether or not she will lead us into the next competition. The first game takes place in September. So things are moving along very quickly. Many of the players were asked what their views were on how remaining as coach or being given an updated contract, not one of them as far as I could hear and maybe I missed it, but I don't believe I did. Not one of them said what you would often hear is, yeah, I mean, you know, we love this coach. This coach should be signed up or extend the contract or this should have been sorted before the competition or whatever. There's a stock answer to avoid that answer. But anyway, reading on Ireland's World Cup players homecoming parade tomorrow could be overshadowed by a simmering route between the team's manager and captain. Look, it's not going to be overshadowed by the two things.  It's not overshadowed by any rows. But observers of the camp have revealed tensions spiked spiked between skipper Katie McCabe and coach Vera power in the match against Nigeria on Monday when the girls in green secured the first point at the finals Arsenal star Katie called for a substitution in the second half, but Dutch boss power blasted Katie is not the coach. Now was Katie right to call out the manager in such a public fashion? Lots of you out there involved in sports have been involved in team sports. I have myself. You don't you certainly don't publicly do that or do I don't know. So what's your views?  Do you think it's something we should be talking about? Is it storming a tea cup or something bigger than that? Let us know what you think on any of those issues we've been talking about so far this morning. 08 660 25,000 08 660 25,000 that's the WhatsApp and text number or give us a call and 07 491 25,000 I'm going to see if I can eat a skull in a minute and 56 seconds. 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Highland radio time checks with Expressway travel route 32 from Letty Kennedy Dublin when you book online and travel for less Expressway bringing you the time. Okay the time is 9 23 young adults who have experienced sexual violence are more likely to tell a friend than a family member. New statistics show two-thirds of people aged 18 to 24 who have disclosed an experience of sexual violence as an adult have spoken to a friend first compared with 13 percent who told a relative first this is according to new figures from the central statistics office. But 12 percent of adults who experience sexual violence as a child and disclosed to someone disclosed to the police don't know why in this survey they're being referred to as police but the guardie but that's besides the point. Okay we're joined on the program by Marina Porter who's manager of the Donegal Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre. Thanks for joining us this morning Marina how are you keeping? I'm good great thank you. Okay is there anything in this survey that I mean at all I mean any time we sort of you know get to see the reality of people's experience through these statistics it all jumps out but what particularly if note was for you maybe an area that we need to sort of you know take particular note of and start working on. I think as a society we really need to stop victim blaming and when someone discloses to us to know that we're actually in a position of huge privilege that we're being trusted because as you can see in the survey it can take weeks months years for someone to actually share what has happened and it's about that initial response from the initial person that someone tells that will really dictate if they're going to go forward seek help how they're actually going to deal with it. So it's really about reassuring the person because a lot of people say they don't know what to say to someone so it's really about reassuring them that you're there with them that you can help them with whatever they want to do and reassure them that you don't need to know the details that it wasn't their fault because there's a lot of shame blame and guilt self-guilt and if people are met with questions especially you can see that a lot of young people tell their peers because they might have been out they might have been drink involved or something like that so then if they're met with well why were you drinking why did you go to that party why did you do this why did you do that they're already asking themselves that and they're blaming themselves so they don't need to hear that yeah from wherever they decide to tell for sure over a third of women who did not disclose any experience of sexual violence as an adult did so because they felt ashamed and embarrassed now they actually hadn't engaged and weren't made feel like that that was their belief that they would be made feel like that so that's a perception of what they believe society's attitude to the victim of a crime is which I think is and I'll tell you what even what what I find upsetting about that further to that is there's another set of statistics 83 percent of adults who experience sexual violence as a child who used a support service found that helpful so that's almost nine out of ten or just over eight out of ten and that's something that 36 percent are missing out on which is really sad it is very sad it's very sad and I think it's something that we all have to look at as members of our society you know what's portrayed in media reporting even just general comments you know when cases are brought to light I know you had a very courageous young lady talking to you last week who disclosed and went public and not everyone has to do that but it certainly paves the way for more people to be able to speak up and see that there is support there is light at the end of the tunnel but not in relation to that particular interview but I have seen women particularly who've spoken out of late and particularly on social media there are there's a lot of people that that said well it couldn't have been that bad if you're prepared to speak out or if you're okay or like and it's not I don't think it's necessarily going to be in programs like this where people are given a space and and respect and and the comments are overwhelmingly respectful but there's certainly in the social media space and a lot of it's anonymous there are people I don't even know if it's what they believe but they just love to take people down or they get some thrill out of adding to to someone's pain that's already there I'd love to know who these people are and sort of be able to interview and question them and sort of yeah just they're anonymous but there's a lot of them in there's clearly a lot of them because you see a lot of this commentary on on on social media sadly there is and it's very easy to put nasty comments online when you don't even have to reveal your identity and when someone's coming forward about sexual violence they're talking about the most difficult most traumatic experience of their lives they're laying themselves bare and especially if they've gone through the legal process where they're questioned in huge detail about what happened and what we were wondering we would have yeah yeah all that your previous history everything which you know I know there are things in process to make the the legal process better you know but but but it's so tough for people and especially it can be the first time they've actually seen the perpetrator for years can I say something Marina and it's not something I've heard said before but but this perception I just wonder if we we don't are we in danger of amplifying the anonymous small cohort on social media and it is they small in number and anonymous who are making people feel reluctant to come forward when in reality the overwhelming majority of people would be supportive hopefully say the right thing and be there for the person who discloses to them I'm just concerned that we might be amplifying this very noisy absolute minority and it's just having an impact on people in the real world I think a lot of times you know I personally feel that a lot of times comments should be disabled and a lot of articles that are posted online I know the people then they're they're missing out on the positive encouragement that they're getting but then they're also shielded from the negative comments because sadly we would have a lot of clients here who may have suffered sexual violence as a younger person or as a child they're coming to us now many years later and comments from those there to them quite often can be it's nearly the attitude that you should be over it now yeah where you bringing all this up now sure you've been dealing with it for x amount of years or whatever and this is something that stays with people they need support to deal with this and to regain their power again and be able to move on with their lives and pursue their dreams like we all have and not give the perpetrator or perpetrators that power over them so it's a huge step coming forward even for people to pick up the phone and call us here it's massive it can take weeks months years for somebody to make that call and you know we always tell them you know you're going to be really tired now they often haven't slept the night before thinking about making that call so we we just need to try and support people the best we can I heard it to the justice minister that because 12 percent of adults who experience sexual violence as a child and disclosed to someone disclosed to the police that and it was put to her that that's because there's a distrust of the police and in fairness yeah minister McIntyre didn't reject that she says oh well we it is a something we need to work on I don't necessarily believe that is the case I don't think I actually think that's a misread I think that's just the way people approach it because we speak to organizations mariners you know when they say look come forward speak to a support group contact the rape crisis centre you don't have to necessarily go to the guardie the important thing is that you get your initial support and then you can decide from there so like I thought it was a misread of that 12 percent to suggest it's because people have a distrust of the guardie and I was surprised the minister didn't back the guardie up in that regard I think so because we have excellent guards all around the county here and we have the special protective services unit here based in letter Kenny and they are the most kind caring supportive group of guards and detectives all the feedback from our clients are you know highly highly positive and we're so lucky that we have so many great guards interspersed throughout the county and you know they'll often call me if they're worried about someone they're working with they'll check in with people on their days off so I really think that's very unfair to not have refuted that okay you know and it doesn't really do much then for somebody who who might be a bit cautious yeah about going down the legal route and it doesn't do much for the morale of those that sacrifice so much as you say to try and because we have improved listen there's always room for improvement but I think certainly listen I mean the bottom line marina is is that people should come forward that they if they choose to the likes of the rape crisis centre they will believe they will be supported and as we said 83% of victims of sexual violence as a child found the reaching out experience helpful they found engaging with whatever support stories they did to be helpful and then we as a supposed as a society there's a great little I can't remember the name of it now but there's a great program whereby it's you go through a series of questions and it relates to how you deal with someone if they come to you with a mental health issue or to spot the signs of of you know mental health crisis or things that you could do or look out for it would be interesting to see one of those developed that you could run through if someone approached you to say you know that they had been abused or they tried to open the door for that conversation so that we know the right thing to say you know because it yeah like if you want to say well Greg yeah we actually have disclosure training we're members of the general society of course you would yeah and and just if if we could get more funding to be able to deliver it now we're hoping to roll out some now in august for different organizations yeah working with anyone affected but I think for general society and I'm really looking for money now to fund this um because I think everybody needs to know yeah I think everybody yeah because it's not rocket science but it's just the basics and people I was even talking to a lovely lady yesterday and she disclosed to her friend and her friend said I don't know what to say yeah you know and and of course they don't know what to say because you're so upset on behalf of someone you really care about and you just want to do the best for them because you don't want to sort of make it worse than the the victim might feel it is exactly you don't want to make out that it's not as bad as the victim might feel it is you don't want to sort of start saying well you know if you say anything now you're opening a can of worms you need to know what the right thing is to say and I if I was faced with that you know I might struggle as well and I do a lot of interviews like this I just think it'd be useful to have some sort of a series of questions and that you could go through and then you know what the the correct thing to do is but as you say that's something that can be worked on with funding marina yeah and I think as well we have a new website which is still being updated at the moment Greg and I do want to put on like basic tips for disclosure because we have little leaflets pocket sized leaflets that we distribute that give a few bullet points about responding to a disclosure right brilliant we need to get more of those and get them out just for people to have you know and and then I think as well knowing where to pinpoint someone for support and did they want to think about having counselling or therapy do they maybe need a medical checkup even if it's historical they can still go to satu and get all that done free confidentially any medication or anything they need and and then obviously if they want to consider reporting and we're very lucky here that a lot of the great team will actually come and meet people who are thinking about reporting and talk the whole process through with someone before they even make a formal complaint so marina could you speak just for a moment then to the 36 percent of women who feel ashamed or embarrassed and haven't come forward and you know they're afraid maybe they're afraid that they're not ready to tell all the details or maybe they're afraid that engaging with the rape crisis centre means next thing you know there's a guard standing in the room stuff that's generally not the case because people are moved as they feel comfortable with so firstly and foremost people should not they're a victim of a crime they shouldn't neither feel ashamed nor embarrassed but what's your advice to them about a huge part of our work Greg is actually helping people believe and understand that the shame the blame all those negative emotions that weigh so heavily on people they're not theirs they don't belong to them and it's about taking them and putting them squarely on the shoulders of whoever hurt them and that takes time that takes a lot of time and as well we have a parents group here and a lot of the parents feel you know such guilt as well that something happened to their beloved child on there we received we happened and they didn't find out for years later off the back of that interview we huge part of our work off the back interview we did we got quite a few people contacting us whilst the interview was ongoing and afterwards people that were wracked with guilt because they didn't see what was going on that the person didn't feel that they could come forward to them like that broke my heart that side of it because yeah these crimes against people affect more than just the victim it's it's terrible how it impacts so many people around them as well. Ripples out hugely so we do support parents siblings friends partners whatever you know and I think another important thing really is you were talking about need to report people can come here absolutely without needing to report the guards we're not going to quiz people on the details of the sexual violence itself now if they want to discuss it if they feel comfortable at any stage of course they can but we're more about helping people where they are and providing them with coping techniques for say anxiety and somnia all that stuff and just helping people get their power back so it really is about making people where they are it's not about going back over and possibly re-traumatising someone and our service really unless you're coming here you wouldn't know where it is it just says counselling on the door so we do our utmost to respect people's privacy as well. Marini if anyone wants to contact the Donegal Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre even just have a preliminary conversation it could be the first time they've ever discussed something today and hopefully that would set them on a pathway of improvement so how do they get in contact Marini? Well they can call us our free phone number is 1-800-448-444 they can email info at Donegal Rape Crisis.ie or manager at Donegal Rape Crisis.ie we have a Facebook page Donegal Rape Crisis so they can send us a message on that people are very welcome to just come in and have a cup of tea a cup of coffee we chat we look around see the centre and it's warm bright people feel it's welcoming a safe space because obviously that's our priority to make people feel safe secure that this is their space their time here is their time they can come in they can bring a friend with them a parent partner whatever you know come in and have a look around and we chat and then they can really make an informed choice about whether they want to use the service or not and we'll explain the different types of therapies we have as well. All right Marini listen thanks for so much of your time this morning and hopefully maybe we can help someone this morning. Well thank you for allowing me the time. Okay take care Marini Porter who's a manager of the Donegal Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre.   Michael Hennie's summer sale has just gotten bigger and better. Don't miss out on amazing offers with up to 50% now off fashion, kids, home, jewelry and cosmetics. Shop our summer sale end store at Michael Hennie's department store Ballybuffet or online at MichaelHennie's.com. When you choose Chadwigs you get the best branch network now get the best value with our summer sale wooden picnic bench set only 99 euro, Sorento eight-piece garden table and chair set now only 279 euro 99 super savings on ProPlus garden tools but hurry they're selling fast plus lots more offers on doors floors bathrooms and paint shop online at Chadwigs.ie or visit your local branch Chadwigs. With the largest selection of pre-owned vehicles in the northwest check out iMotors.ie we have it all starter cars family cars and even a bit of luxury all available to drive away all cars come serviced and with warranty check out iMotors.ie Okay you're very welcome back to the program keep your comments coming in very busy this morning there's a kind of a theme to our question as it relates to the back to school and a lot of working families clearly from these messages and as I say I'll read them before the top of the hour I feel that they're being left behind that they are struggling but there are no supports for them right okay Liam O'Dwyer is international and migration advisor with the Irish Red Cross and he's back on the show with us great to see you thanks for joining us Liam thank you again Greg for inviting me right now we had really quite devastating floods in east Donegal not weekend the last weekend but the weekend before it was particularly the east of the county affected and we saw people's homes being pretty much destroyed on the ground floor level at least and serious impact on businesses and other organizations as well so a scheme has been announced now and you're going to sort of let us know what's available and who and how people can access it sure yeah no the flooding was very serious actually in east Donegal particularly in Rathol so the government what they do is they announce the scheme and we manage the scheme for them and we're currently managing a scheme in Kerry and Wexford which was the similar timing but the one in Donegal is more serious the scheme is for businesses it's for small businesses that's businesses with under 20 employees who cannot who could not get insurance and that's that's the target for the business for the scheme also the scheme supports voluntary organizations community organizations whose premises might well have been damaged and the scheme works in the same way it's there's an up to 20,000 can be found in the scheme with an application the first 5000 is on the basis of the initial damages that people estimate and they send in a list of those damages and we analyze them here centrally and then we make a payment up to 5000 euros as soon as possible and that generally would be within a two week period if the if there's a more significant damage and it is the person is looking for up to 20,000 euros well then we have a team of assessors they're independent assessors and they would call out we would send the first 5000 and then arrange for the assessor to call the assessor gives us an obviously their view and then on the basis of that we pay up to a further 15,000 euros it's a it's a scheme that's worked really effectively for many years but it is targeted at the community and voluntary and at businesses as business sector and I know that the Department of Social Protection will deal with people who and support people whose whose own homes private properties so so the first criteria then if you are a business or a voluntary group that you have you can't get insurance for flooding so in other words this scheme is not open to you if your insurance covers flooding and you could make a claim on the insurance but listen that's right the majority of them probably don't have that and further to that so how I mean if you were we've talked about you know Castelfin and Ruffo but that's not all of it how do you determine if these people were in the flood area or effect affected by floods do you know what to mean outside of the the more commonly known areas and well the way this works is there's firstly we say to people to contact us via the website there's a form on the website which people complete and part of the the the information required would be their number with the local authority and we go back to the local authority that's our first protocol just to confirm that the area was actually flooded so that really is that the a critical piece for us and that the business is a business in the locality and is paying rates etc in other words it's on the local authority list and in that way you identify very quickly the the needs that a that a business would have and the local authority to be fair particularly in Gaudi Gall they come back absolutely smartly to enable a payment to be made and I'm not trying to pick holes I'm just trying to answer get to all the questions like in terms of you would you have to be fully up to date with your rates or tax compliance is there any criteria there to be reached yeah we we had those questions around that I suppose I suspect once someone has been paying rates the local authority will will then approve it equally then I suppose we ask for a tax clearance notification and that's that's straightforward enough that becomes more important if it's a landlord because we have to show them that a person is actually in the system at the time they were flooded and that's the critical piece now obviously certain businesses would have moved heaven and earth in the two or three days afterwards to get their business open to gain be the hairdressers or a butcher so whatever it might be can they sort of even if the work has been carried out or money spent can they still apply to sort of cover those costs yes they can and what we would advise people is take pictures you know take the pictures and send us the pictures because people want to get their businesses back up straight away so the idea is immediately take a picture of the damage that has been inflicted on your premises are the loss of the loss of stock etc all of that can be looked and the scheme is the scheme is not focused on giving people back income that they would have lost the scheme is focused on bringing the premises back to where it was and the stock back to where the stock was prior to the loss yeah okay and as you say there are other support mechanisms there through the Department of Social Welfare that deals with private properties people's homes this is a specific scheme for businesses and voluntary organizations it's a government scheme administered by the Red Cross because of your experience and the people on the ground that's so this is not a Red Cross thing saying we're not doing homes user administering yeah exactly user administering a government scheme specific to this these sectors okay all right hopefully that benefits as many people are as has been impacted by this in business and the voluntary sector as well thank you very much for if unless there's anything I have missed that you think's importantly I'm I'll bid you adieu as usual Greg you're tore out to be fair and just to say to you that what I'd like people to do if they want to make a claim on the on the scheme it's www.redcross.ie and then they'll see immediately a link to flood support schemes and just to go down there you the ones that pop up straight away I noticed myself would be the the Kerry and Wexford but if you scroll down within a couple of seconds you will hit the Dunny Gaul application form so send that form in the closing date is Friday the first of September so we must have an application in there other than that people can also ring the office here and get a bit of advice yeah and they can ask for a lady called Rachel Don who manages the scheme for us and document everything even if you've got work on going take pics or if you have taken pics retain them of course because that's good if it's required all right Liam thanks very much for your time Liam Oldwire international and migration advisor with the Irish Red Cross so go to redcross.ie forward slash flood dash support dash scheme hopefully as I say we spoke to a few of the businesses affected by that hopefully that will give them some assistance there's 5000 initially and you can claim up to 20 000 euro through that scheme the main criteria being though that you couldn't get flood cover so if you have insurance and you could claim for flood damage I think that excludes you from that scheme as well and you need to be a a rate payer it seems as well there okay 08 660 25 000 if you've any feedback on that get ahead of back to school this year at Dunn stores from prepping for their very first day to refreshing their uniform now's the perfect time to shop school wear for the adventures ahead pick up a three pack of playproof polos from just five euro and knitted school jumpers from just three euro 75 stuck up an essentials like easy care joggers from just five euro and sweatshirts from three euro 75 back to school at Dunn stores for little ones with big schedules shop in store and online now terms and conditions apply do you suffer from high cholesterol menopause symptoms digestive issues anxiety aches and pains or a lack of energy they're highly trained team at the natural way letter canny can provide advice on natural remedies for a number of individual health issues the natural way also has its own brand of herbal treatments to help fight fatigue relieve digestive discomfort maintain a healthy immune system and alleviate common menopause symptoms the natural way letter canny shop in center your one stop health shop hi it's claire here from claire clothing our summer sale has started i've loads of discounts of dresses tops trousers all of the summer stock so we'll see you at our summer sale in claire clothing main street letter canny because that's when we flag like the cat to get you in the mood for the big bucks it's all coming soon only on highland radio okay we were speaking of we don't actually speak to them we heard from a listener who was out and about it was around letter canny and they saw three instances of of course a couple of days where uh by people were blowing the horns showing a lack of sort of patience and really quite intimidating behavior uh kevin joins us on the program on a kind of the same issue hi kevin good morning great what's your experience been well the new traffic lights at uh mcginnelly motors i was coming over there with me sister on tecner to the doctors and uh i was on the right hand lane there on a red light and it stopped and then we have the green light then for going straight on but there's also another light that turns green for turning right yeah so i i stopped and whether it was right or wrong i stopped but i was waiting for the green light to go right turn up to the right and there was a wee white van behind me and i blew the horn uh it was kind of a rate looking when i was looking on the mirror but a reverse back and drove out around me but while he was doing that maneuver i got the green light to turn right so i took off but it caught me off so i blew the horn at him after having blown his horn at me i thought god man you're you could have caused an accident so go on up towards galleys tail back the traffic all stopped he got out of the van and he started to chastise me about uh it's a fault early and it's a fault early and then he got very cheeky and saying how long have you been driving referring to me age kind of thing you know right okay uh uh red mist descended on kevin and i said i've been driving that long i probably dug more miles in reverse and he's going forward so so the traffic started to move and uh i dropped my sister took her in and uh she went up to the doctors i was something he had followed me around and parked up my sister came out now you can imagine how long it takes for a consultation on the doctors yeah and the sister came out she got into the car we took off he followed us up to the the traffic lights at the little courthouse so i thought now this guy's going to tail me right up to the house so we're going up and he was right behind me all the way up and i turned left up by the guard barracks and he disappeared so when i got into the house i thought what did i do right or was i right and what i was doing at this right hand light so around the guards barracks explained the thing to the guard and the guards that i was doing yes i done right now when i was right or wrong i don't know but i was doing what i thought was right you know but he was very intimidating now i have to say and that that kind of stuff wouldn't have bothered me 20 years ago but it bothers me now you know when you're collecting out pension and kind of thing you know but as we fight ban i was a cork registration and it was we read head squats man okay and as early 40s and you know as he's last done good luck to you lad but what he'd done was totally wrong i had a dice cap you know it could have caused an accident but it bothered you though obviously it's bothered you oh it's bothered me because of the fact that he followed me that he waited until my sister went on and had her consultation with dr surgery and then if i had drove home he would have followed me to the house yeah but the fact that i drove up new lane road towards the guards barracks scared him off he went straight on up you know that that length of thing you know to set the length of time that he set to it for me to move off again you know from being parked down as galleys yeah it's it's kind of holy but that's the mentality of people out there uh at a set of traffic lights you know now as i say well i was right or wrong i thought i was right you know but i thought i was wrong i still didn't deserve what he dished out to me no i get that you know some of that can't some of that can't repeat on the radio like you know yes please don't okay well listen i'm sorry you went through that but thanks for i mean again it doesn't make sense but we appreciate you sharing the story with us what you'll say makes sense the person's behavior doesn't but thanks so much kevin for sharing that story with us we'll be back with more after the news and a bit of rain notes is get ireland's best broadband with virgin media and enjoy speeds of up to 2 gig and 99.9 percent reliability hear that if there's no better way to get lost in that scandy crime season go to number yeah no idea what's going on here you should really put on the subtitles fair point whatever way you play switch the day at virgin media dot ie virgin media it's playtime terms and additions apply subject to location and availability ireland's best broadband award about omelette see virgin media dot ie forward slash proof do you need a little extra help staying in your home at bluebird care we offer a wide variety of qmark approved personalised home care services across dunny gall and are fully trained and committed staff will always meet your care needs with kindness compassion and dignity to get your personal home care assessment plan visit bluebirdcare dot ie or call our care team today on 07491 29562 and bring care home have you heard about charlie's chips they're made from potatoes that are carefully selected and peeled cut and like everything else at charlie's in letter kenny cooked to water that's why they taste so good from 12 right through to eight in the evening charlie's at pierce road letter kenny offer an extensive menu that includes a great selection of gluten free options all available to sit in or take away the next time the hunger hits pull into charlie's because that's when we flag like the cat to get you in the mood for the big bus it's all coming soon only on highland radio air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning it's donna mary dory with the news in full at 10 o'clock investigations are underway in dairy after what police have described as a brazen and reckless attack during which shots were fired at a house last night two masked men were seen fleeing ross keen park after gunshots were heard in the area at around 10 40 p.m damage was caused to the front door and the inner door of a property however there are no reports of injuries police say they are working to establish a motive for the attack and are appealing for witnesses or anyone who has camera footage which could assist in investigations to contact them meanwhile a security alert is ongoing in dungevin county dairy police remain in attendance on the bali quinn road ps and i say there are no further updates at this time the community in clonus in county monahen last night gathered to mourn the loss of two local teenagers 17-year-old kia mccann and 16-year-old dilava muhammad died when the car they were in crashed on their way to the largi college school prom three others including an 18-year-old girl and boy were injured in the crash to the clonus smitherer but rode at around a quarter to seven on monday evening the driver a man in his six days remains in critical condition in hospital an initial and councillor has questioned if johnny gall county council has taken all measures to break what he described as a housing logjam in dunny gall councillor albert doherty says a cohesive and comprehensive housing remediation program is needed for council housing stock affected by defective concrete blocks while it was confirmed a pilot social housing remediation will be approved in respect of 60 vacant homes councillor doherty says this isn't enough he further questioned if dunny gall county council placed a bid to be a part of the department's housing plan for 1800 rapid build homes it was revealed they had not i've been forwarded a reply from ono brownish and fame spokesperson and he has identified 10 council areas where they're building over 1500 homes using the mcc method and no word of dunny gall that's not good enough and i'd be pursuing that matter at all times with the council every available angle created by government we should be pursued by dunny gall county council to ensure that we can deliver ample housing sufficient housing much needed housing for our dunny gall people it's been revealed that young adults who have experienced sexual violence are more likely to tell a friend than a family member two-thirds of people aged 18 to 24 who have disclosed an experience of sexual violence as an adult have spoken to a friend first compared with 13 percent who told a relative first it's also seen more than a third of women who did not disclose any experience of sexual violence as an adult kept it a secret because they felt ashamed or embarrassed speaking to greg who's this morning marina porter manager of the dunny gall sexual abuse and rape crisis center says blicting feeling victim blaming plays a role in the figures think of the society and we really need to stop victim blaming when someone discloses to us to know that we're actually in a position of huge privilege that we're being trusted because as you can see in the survey it can take weeks months years for someone to actually share what has happened and it's about that initial response from the initial person that someone tells that will really dictate if they're going to go forward seek help how they're actually going to deal with it two preview days are being hosted this weekend at ballet shannon community hospital which is due to open in the autumn a wide array of services will be available for older people tara dougan reports the public will be able to view the 31.76 million euro facilities is saturday from 2 to 5 p.m and sunday from 11 a.m to 2 p.m by the new main entrance off the nadir road the hospital has 52 long stay beds 20 short stay beds providing convalescence rehabilitation respite and palliative care beds a dementia specific assessment beds and a day hospital service it's set to cater for older people in south dunninggoal north litrum and north sligo and provide a range of services including gp pharmacy dietitian podiatry and tissue viability nurse specialists as well as this a hairdressing facility dry cleaning and transportation services will be made available to residents and patients in a bid to support physical and social well-being the hse will also have a stand on the day to provide information about upcoming jobs within the sector looking to the weather rather the cloudy and wet start with outbreaks of rain heavy and persistent for a time the rain will gradually clear to a mix of cloudy periods and isolated showers highest temperatures of 15 to 17 degrees that's all for now the next news updates at 11 o'clock until then good morning the obituary notice is for this wednesday morning august the second the death has taken place of john higgarty mina largan glendys and formerly mina wania reposing at his daughter eilish gilday's residence strana lock glendys john's funeral will take place on friday in st. connell's church glendys with requiem mass at 11 o'clock followed by interment in the local cemetery the death has occurred of rita strean naked 10 cherry burn gardens kilfen and dairy remains are posing at her late residents funeral from there tomorrow afternoon at half past one going to all scenes clinic for funeral service at two o'clock interment immediately afterwards in bali on cemetery family time please from 11 p.m to 11 a.m family flowers only please donations in lay of desire to the foil hospice care of any family member or murphy funeral directors the death has occurred of geraldine harley nate casey one and cullen moth geraldine germans are opposing at her late residents removal from there tomorrow morning at half past 10 going to the sacred heart church moth for 11 o'clock requiem mass with burial in the adjoining cemetery family time from 11 p.m to 11 a.m please and the death has occurred of hazel mohan nae dowry current morning bali buffet and formally recoup balantraa remains opposing at the home of her daughter and son-in-law paul and all since cherd larga nalore bali buffet funeral leaving from there tomorrow afternoon at quarter past one for service of thanksgiving in st. orla parish church at two o'clock interment afterwards in the adjoining church yard funeral service of thanksgiving will be streamed live by the parish facebook page donations in lay of so desire to the dunigol hospice and st. orla parish church fund at care of any family member family time from 10 o'clock tonight and before the funeral tomorrow for more details including any family health guidelines for wigs and funerals please go to hindland radio dot com apply online for learner permit and driving license services including renewals updates exchanges and replacements it's easy and hassle-free visit ndls online today at ndls dot rsa dot ie verified my gov id required a message from the road safety authority and you are very welcome back to the nine till noon show here on highland radio it's great to have you on board oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand that's what's up in text number oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand give us a call on oh seven four nine one twenty five thousand oh seven four nine one twenty five thousand thank you so much to all of you who've been messaging in so far this morning let's have a look at some of those messages right now and this is from a listener who very bravely contacted us now i would imagine potentially talking about this on one of very few occasions and it reads as follows from previous experience from 40 years ago of my rape within the family i still carry the shame none of my family were ever made aware of it i feel great shame from what happened my husband and family do not know and will never know because my 14 year old self will take it to the grave this man is now elderly and i still see him it's made me very protective of my children and those around him even seeing him today makes me feel dirty i know i'll never be able to say these words out loud under no circumstances will i ever tell because i can never see that pity look in the eyes of my children and husband i just i just battle on with my mind and me i think there's a lot of people in my position who would never tell and of course that's something that you've had four decades to consider and i do understand where you're coming from in terms of how you're how the perception of you would change maybe from your children and your husband but maybe there's someone if you're interested maybe there's someone else out there that's been in a similar position and wants to have a comment on that i'm sorry that you are having to struggle with that on your own if that's the right word i don't want to sort of mischaracterize what you're going through but maybe even just reaching out to us and maybe that will in in some way be of benefit to you that angry van driver had to work had no work to do even all that time to chase you around the place as a listener and other people who have mental health breakdowns due to whatever reason are often in a place of terror unfortunately the guard e do not receive training in working with extreme sensitivities or de-escalating of a situation like this as far as i know obviously there are individuals amongst on goddess you cana who are better at this scenario than others but the appropriate approach is not standardized now i'm not sure if that is the case i do know that would be the guardian would get a lot of calls in relation to that type of issue so as i say i i don't know what specific training is there but like in any organization maybe one person's going to react a little different to another but we hope there is a training there should be sounds to me that man was being stalked quite aggressively you would wonder if that man had a few on him when heading towards the guard station scared him off very odd but there seems to be a rise in this sort of road rage that's the conversation we kind of wanted to trigger from our uh conversation yesterday because is it a growing problem and is it particularly in certain parts of donagola some are suggesting and although that situation arises quite often in that junction at McGinley's where cars in the queue pull out from behind those who are doing the right thing waiting for the filter light to go green yeah because it's some motorists misunderstanding of how that works that's um that's causing the problem they're getting impatient with other people who are doing the right thing in england everyone blows the car horn and they often jump out of the car if you made a mistake and start shouting about how useless a driver you are here you blow the horn and people here think you're saying hello yeah well that's the nice side of it kevin is right you have to wait on the green arrow to turn the man's wrong yeah indeed uh that gentleman was completely writing what he'd done at the lights you wait for the green arrow signal so lots of people backing kevin up there uh listen say some other lists now let's get real here there is no services in this country for any of this or mental health either full stop that lady knows this um there are support services that i know exactly what you're saying but i don't want to say anything that's going to discourage people from uh seeking uh support when they need it there are issues we have to talk about those issues and there are people out there who've struggled with the services but for a lot of people they do work as well so whilst we have to uh obviously make sure that everything is as much as possible resourced and in place but we also don't want to make out that there's nothing there either or do you get where i'm coming from you seem confused as to how our electoral system works each party sets out its policies the people vote then the parties form a government based on the numbers if no party has an overall majority then compromise is required wouldn't i have a pretty decent understanding how politics works what you have a situation is and you'll often hear the comment well we have a government we didn't vote for this government yes that is proportional representation that happens if you don't have enough seats you you engage with other parties form a coalition to get a majority and then you govern that's normally the way it works the situation i was referencing is we have a current government which is finna gale finna fault and the greens who are in coalition with each other and they're in coalition with independence as well but that's not normally talked about and leo for our car quite rightly i think accurately has pointed out that that government may well be returned that they could get the numbers to get back into government as a coalition but what he said was is that they wouldn't be running on that platform that they would be running as three separate parties so the question would be are you going to go into a government with finna fall or would you consider government into government with the social democrats they will say yes all our options are open blah blah blah but here we are a year out and the leader of the the government has said in reality that they may well form the next that government again but it's not how they're going to run the election now if you don't think that's do you not think it would be better to say re-elect us we have done this we'll go back into government together vote finna gale and then your second preference finna fall or greens or whatever uh but rather than that he's saying is they're going to run pretending the coalition never happened but at the same time they're all happy to do it again i just think just run on that platform if you're confident that you could be re-elected as that coalition then run say look if we are returned back and the numbers are there we're going to do it again i call it says business is getting taxpayers money again what about non-business people are they getting money for being flooded yes they're apparently and i wouldn't mind some details of that scheme the department of social protection is assisting people if anyone out there has tried and failed or tried and been successful again in um in confidence if you can get in touch with us to make sure uh that is actually happening because i don't want to say something's happening if it's not happening so if anyone has an insight in the castle finn refo surrounding areas uh that they are being supported in that way please let us know jive time is back on the road this afternoon from 2 30 sounds like it's going to be a great uh a great show actually it's jive time with david james of course live at the marquee in dunlow um from 2 30 to 5 p.m live music and special guests uh anore are going to be on the show uh the hottest property in music at the moment danie lo donnell is also going to be there the tumbling paddies have been lined up uh for a chat ronan collins who placed tonight as well he's also going to be on uh the jive time show it's at the marquee which is located at mcaffery's bar dunlow you're invited to come along and enjoy the show it's going to be particularly good uh outside broadcast there's no doubt about that i think and just before we take the bingo numbers uh and i've got loads more of your comments which i'll get through too of course uh a listener says oh i've been asked to mention sorry our annual tractor run is on the 5th of august this year uh this year the run is in aid of the ncbi the national council for the blind of island and insight in its own it'll be a great day for all the family with live music with the jcb man and dj race been in the tunes afterwards kids entertainment with parky while the auction is taking place kids many tractors bikes run in the marquee bouncy castle raffles and chip van on site uh tractor registration will begin on sunday at nine a.m with all leaving at larentic bar lynnsford bonkrana at 10 sharp 10 a.m sharp okay that's going to be a great day out and it's possible the weather is looking a little bit more favorable for the weekend there's obviously very from done loads the dannings festival that's on there's loads of all the things happening around the the county and region and just hopefully the weather plays ball this weekend for the bank holiday weekend uh and there are indications that we might do okay but we shall see all right we'll be back with more on the nine till noon show after these the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio it's time for mcbi bingo on highland radio it's wednesday the second of august your plane on the blue sheet the reference number is s 13 it's game number 31 the numbers are 63 45 58 41 23 17 60 26 33 and finally 59 phone your claim to nine one zero four eight double three before eight tonight leaving your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your ncbi bingo information at highland radio dot com if you'd like to make a difference in children's early learning and care why not join the team at wonder years with an attractive pay scale you'll enjoy a four-day working week have access to a pension scheme and a scholarship program to upskill to degree level help give young children the best opportunity to become lifelong learners with a range of skill sets by joining the team at wonder years in ross bracken manna cunningham and now also a castle shanahan letter kenny email your cv today to info at wonder years elc dot ie new this week at home store and more all 100% cotton children's duvet sets are all half price but better hurry because when all the half price 100% cotton children's duvet sets are gone they're gone also all garden furniture sets and all school bags are still all half price but when all the half price garden furniture sets and school bags are gone they're definitely gone drop by your local home store and more or visit us online at home store and more dot ie new store now open in frascati center doublin home store and more a happy home okay 08 660 25000 thanks for keeping us so busy on that line today right we are joined on the program by orla to me who is chief executive of the advertising standards authority for arland good morning to orla thanks for joining us good morning right now we are talking about the advertising standards authority of arland trying to make or going to make influence or advertising more transparent for consumers it's a murky old not murky space that's that sort of suggests something but it's we should know what's going on really i think absolutely yeah i mean i think there and the requirement for advertising to be clearly disclosed as advertising that rule has been in place for a long time now for decades and clearly on ad on radio stations you know you go in and out of ad break so everybody knows that when you're in the ad break it's advertising and then when you're back on the program it's editorial the thing about influencer marketing is because it is content that mirrors content that they would be creating just talking about something they're interested in their own lives be it you know if it's if it's a beauty blogger or if it's someone who's interested in in motor cars they talk about these things well then they have an audience that is of interest to advertisers who will then seek to work with the influencers to create content now when the when someone is given money or benefiting kind and the the a pre-product pre-product or use of something but they have an obligation to create content either the type of content or they're specifically to ask to say particular things well that's advertising and it should be to clearly disclosed as such and we have actually I mean we've been working in this area for some time now we issue adjudications which are published to media and get covered by media very regularly but we are now working with the competition and consumer protection commission to develop joint guidance to I suppose simplify the number of ways that advertising can be declared as such there's lots of different you know hashtags that that are used at the moment and perhaps our viewers really if there was just a few that were very simple very clear then that would make it easier both for consumers for the audiences and also then for influencers like at this time does it like say for instance I wanted to bury that hashtag is that doable at the moment so if I put seven or eight hashtags up and the ad hashtag ad was in the middle of it I mean you know you could it would be easy to conceal it might not be to the spirit of the law but is it currently within the guidelines well the requirement is that it should be immediately clear to consumers when something is an ad but the point you make is actually is a good point because sometimes it does happen that the hashtag isn't the first thing that you see and it could be the end of text or sometimes what can happen is that when say if a photograph is being posted when it before it's posted to the platform it could be clear you could see the hashtag ad on on the photograph but when it's published to the platform the platform features might obscure it so these are the kind of things that that need to be born in mind when designing the advertising and so the guidance that we're developing with the ccpc will call out all of these areas and I suppose just give it is an evolving area I mean I think since we've started been looking at this over the last number of years things have changed new ways of even the platforms now have tools that you can use to disclose when something's advertising yeah but in terms of the content just in turn we'll move on to or I'll give you an opportunity to move on to what you were going to say but the issue I have is well there's two issues firstly in terms of the research like I think really for it for us to know exactly what's going on it needs to be demographic specific because I think you know on these influencers are reaching a particular audience and I'm not sure if the the research is focused on that particular audience which is easily identifiable because I think the figures might show something else but second to that or separate to that too it's the content of the ads it's different sort of pointing at a car and saying you know this car for all your driving needs but when they start sort of applying a makeup or a cream or drinking a certain new drink or whatever and they go oh yummy I love this and this and we've no evidence whether they've ever tasted it or used that before they're simply using that trust they've built up with their followers to endorse a product and the follower might naively believe that they're promoting this because they think it is good have you any power in relation to that because that's the area I have particular problem with and that seems harder to control sure well I suppose that I mean most of the complaints that we've got in this area are around disclosure and we do get some complaints around product claims and whether or not there is substantiation for that I think ultimately advertisers have the ultimate responsibility for the content that they cause to be created and I know anecdotally you know have heard of people saying well some influencers and I don't think this is the case for for the vast majority but some will you know be promoting one product one week and a very similar product the next week ultimately that is a failed business approach because their their followers will know that they're not being authentic about it and for the influencers their reputation their and this is what it comes down to it's reputation and trust if you're not honest with your followers with your audience they'll stop engaging with you because they won't know they'll know you're not authentic so it's about being authentic in what you do and I think the ones that have longevity and you know they know this and they and so they will work with brands that they genuinely have liked before or that they have come to like and they will and they will have they will have an integrity there clearly if there is and if there's something misleading being said in the in the content then that is something that we we can look at because the codes does require that advertising shouldn't be misleading by inaccuracy, exaggeration, omission, ambiguity or otherwise so it is very very broad and and there's also a requirement that claims and advertising should be capable of substantiation now it would normally be the on the advertiser to provide the substantiation for the claim influencer marketing is you know I mean there's two parties involved which is not the same way when like something is published on the radio or broadcast on the radio or published in print and but the substantiation rules and the misleading rules bill cost all advertising it doesn't matter what the median is yeah it'd be very interesting and this is not really necessarily for you to comment on a sultra all over just and then I'll ask you a question that you might be easy for you to comment on like I'm surprised influencer not influencers but advertisers don't really take a step back especially in the market the size of ardent to say really you know what value are we getting for for what we're doing here is it damaging our brand is enhancing our brand I think there's sort of a an influencer bandwagon that that agency's a chuck in money at and if I were an advertiser who was spending that money I'd say well really where's my bang for the buck here how is this influencing me how is this sort of you know improving our business because the statistics show that 63 percent of consumers are concerned by influence who do not influence those who do not come across as authentic which could be brand damaging and almost 60 percent of people said they trust brand advertising more than social posts by an influencer so if I were a business I'd be looking at these stats as well and saying well where's my my ad spend going in a difficult market yeah and and you're right that it isn't something that ACI is actually concerned with we're concerned with whether or not shall I ask you a question you are concerned with but I would say I would I would say that I do know that a number of years ago and agencies and you know at the PR companies who would work with with influencers it's becoming more professional because they're more contract driven so there's a contract between the parties what's expected what's not allowed so it is it is becoming more professional but I think is is to be welcomed but it is huge there you know this is this goes from influencers with you know large numbers of followers working with very large brands to very niche influencers to small companies who might not be fully aware of the rules so it is a huge ecosystem that one size doesn't fit all and but what I was going to say was that one of the things that once we have and as I said we're working with this and the ccpc on this guidance and our intent is and when the guidance is launched which which will be you know in a couple months time we will do an awareness campaign so we will be we'll be going out to where people are you know likely to be seeing this type of content and telling them this is what the rules are so we want to address this both to to the public who are following influencers but also to the influencers very importantly and to brands so that everybody will know you know what the actual requirements are and our intent is to to raise the awareness of this and because I think by raising the awareness and doing it over kind of like a concentrated period of time hopefully then we'll get the message across to everybody who needs to know about it right now obviously we have a community of influencers here but some of the biggest influencers are from outside the country so how do the ASI ensure that I don't know your Kim Kardashian's of this world and others that they are you know because we don't want to give others an advantage over the sort of Irish influencers either so can who can you enforce this over these guidelines as such but how can you ensure that we don't have Irish influencers that are compliant and then we have international influencers that can have carte blanche that can do whatever they like well I mean obviously because we're talking about the online world there are no hard and fast borders it is it is it is all you know it's all cross border and essentially certainly within and within the EU and and also in the UK and there are rules and guidance in in those or in in different countries around influencer marketing which are broadly similar to to our own our view is that you know an Irish influencer our space influencer is within remit and if they are promoting product for a that has been directed to Irish consumers or for an Irish company it's something we'll definitely look at so there are there's content that Irish people will see and promoting products perhaps that are being promoted for sale and in another country and so that's not likely to be something that's going to fall within our remit but if we get complaints about influencer content that has been generated in in the EU or the UK and we feel it's not within our remit we can send it through our existing systems to the ad standards body in that country for them to deal with it under their code and that that happens with if that's not just about influencers that's any advertising that's out of our jurisdictional remit understood okay listen thank you very much for your time I do appreciate it that's all to me who's chief executive of the advertising standards authority of Ireland watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com hello there farmer tinny here it's summer and tinny's toys have loads of swings slides trampolines goalposts and many more outdoor toys and games we basketball stands swing ball sandpit diggers kids wheelbarrows and when the sun finally gets out we've loads of paddling pools of course we still have what we're famous for the largest range of ride-on and small farm toys and models in Ireland shop 24 7 tinny's toys dot com we're calling to lack road letter candy down by get a great clowns gift this week from a geese chemist in letter candy by two clown 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quarter pounder steak burgers then save again at the till with a five off 25 grocery voucher and get a full basket worth 25 euro and 31 cent for just 20 31 double savers from done stores always better value terms and additions of live voucher can be a sonic sensor grocery shop of 25 euro or more because that's when we flash flash the cash to get you in the mood for the big bucks it's all coming soon only on highland radio who's highland radio okay you're very welcome back to the program good morning to rosemary liz beth or tree amongst the hundreds of you watching across our various social medias there this morning just to remind you that you can watch this program every single day uh by going to our youtube channel highland radio arland on your phone laptop tablet your smart tv uh just type highland radio into the youtube app or on your fire stick as well and we're also across facebook highland radio news and sport and highland hub and you can click the watch live as well on our own website it's a little tab that's there michael you were listening to our last conversation there and and i suppose you feel burned uh by a particular company and then when you hear the ad it kind of uh i presume it it it triggers you it it angers you what's your situation michael yeah well i the irish life the company irish life have been have just finished an ad campaign uh where they're where one of the lines and the campaign the promotional lines was to say they've been taking care of irish customers for 80 years myself and a lot of our people lost every single penny we had given to irish life and and pensions and investments in 2010 so it doesn't sticks in your thoughts when you start here in the advertising chain how they've been taking care of people for 80 years well do you be inclined to make a complaint uh about something like that there because i think we can get frustrated but we don't complain or do you think we'll sure it's going to fall on death here is not an old comment yeah well you'd like to think that that uh obviously the person you were speaking to that little lady started yeah that you know that that that uh that they would be this was a big advertising campaign and you'd think that that they would have doubted that and realized the potential insult to people like myself the thing is greg and nobody build me out there's another the government in the step in behind the people who had invested in irish life and lost have i been seeing with irish life and an investment an investment policy from 1990 up to the year 2010 so it was it was it was it was a nest egg that had been set aside and it was you know it was a repentant for 20 years and effectively we lost every single penny of it that's unbelievable lots and lots of money was left but that's a long time to be paying into something as you say with one eye on to the future and for all in the blink of an eye for it all to be gone to be lost to be wasted very hard to recover from that michael yeah and you know that at the time obviously with a lot of our banks feeling and that between anglo irish and and the ab and all the various other banks of field at the time but you know we put a lot of a lot of attention media attention on feeling like junior bondholders in germany but we we we missed the whole point that a lot of irish people lost a lot of money and that same time and nobody there's been there was no schemes to compensate me there was no recourse to go back and clean that back from some of our source it just left totally out in the gold yeah and it's all one way track i've note this week that a lot of the banks are announcing their annual results and and most of them have been questioned as to whether or not they would help out borrowers and all this is separate to your situation michael whether or not they would help out borrowers who are stuck now with loan shocks non-bank lenders and none of them have clearly says yes we'll work with them they're announcing you know many many millions and billions of profits and none of them are saying right we're going to step in here and try and help these people that are struggling to pay seven eight nine percent mortgages to these loan shocks you know they're sitting there in the rivalry towers raking it in and and they could do a great thing in helping those people or even maybe go backwards and say what can we do for people like michael because they did get bailed out and they did get supported by us and certain people junior bondholders as you mentioned will help but where is that actual help in the other direction for regular customers or to sort of to compensate you in some way or other michael yeah it's a bit of a and a negative that that you know the people that didn't get helped are the very same people that have had to had to actually do the bailing out yeah because it's the people of the country that don't miss bailing out you know we all we all have the national debt when we talk about Ireland you know being such a wealthy country you know we we are laden with debt every single one of us owns about fifty five sixty thousand euros every man woman a child so my my advice Greg for all your listeners is the credit union yeah right i've gone over the credit union they give you all the services that you want it's stolen it helps the community and the profits generated from it stay within the community all right michael sorry for what you've been through tonight i mean it's 13 years ago but still all that money's gone that you paid in for 20 odd years it's a disgrace really okay thanks michael for that oh eight six sixty twenty five thousand uh working families on low income do not qualify for back to school allowance as a listener another um the difference in how veera pow is treated when challenged by a player compared to how mick mccarthy was treated in the same situation imagine a player in any other sport trying to call the substitutions but maybe that was just born of frustration another and understand what you say there i went to the louis con louis convent in monaghan the non's always and still do insist on their pupils wearing their uniforms the uniform always came from the same store they never cared if the parents could afford the costs for the uniform i always thought did the non's get a percentage of what the store got makes you wonder time these schools got withered and backed down on the uniform policy seems to tad outdated in this day and age but costs are more important than a uniform another red flag showing freedom of speech is already curtailed in this country we cannot express certain opinions people are afraid of being lambasted and called all signs of all kinds of names and that would be like uh if hate speech laws are enacted here it's if a team and coach trainer can't communicate with each other uh suggest tips change etc if there's a distrust or happiness then success will be limited or maybe absent greg back to school allowance this means tested on people on social welfare benefit only and although the back to school allowance is not for parents who are both working and living on the line we pay for everything they say there are times when you have to question if there is a god out there after that instant in monaghan five families will never be the same again you have to feel for the driver will he ever recover from this tragedy not sure many would god love all concerned i understand where you're coming from and i've heard that too from many different people even people of faith priests effectively you you know you would question at times your faith would be questioned of course a caller says everyone isn't on social welfare to get back to school allowance of course not um right okay we'll be back with our next guest on the program after we take a short break stay right where you are and we'll come back to you in a minute or while I come out to affect you or you funny day kaisu or in shi game oh my fact locked funny at a curfew again offic fianter etch you in the now why is usage trawled at a tease are funny agus gender no as bragu then a lower carbon you're in temple at the lady they cause costage on you for each loo mahalian don't know don't shi game he jumped a shi xxl a bunch of ma or you'll just a hoodie and quick a fangate then house to some land but you'll just or worse made the quick video is the an effect to lock the sakti he'll tell you all the shell a glocal enterprise punk I slash hantasi donnie go this weekend home store and more all garden furniture sets are still all half price but better hurry because when all the half price garden furniture sets are gone they're definitely gone choose from a selection of rat on sofa sets lounger sets and dining sets like the messina rat on corner sofa set for 374 euro 50 or get the san roco gray rat on sofa lounger set for 199 euro 50 drop by your local home store and more or visit us online at home store and more dot ie home store and more a happy home the highland video outside broadcast team are on the road once again tune in this wednesday at 2 30 for the jive time show with david james and friday morning for greg use and the nine tone in show with both shows live from the heart of the 56th mary from dunlowe international festival to celebrate their fun filled program of events check out the full lineup on mary from dunlowe dot ie brought to an association with cavana super value dunlowe the lotto jackpot is an estimated 3.5 million euro play responsibly in store in app or at lottery dot ie the national lottery it could be you okay our next guest on the program is katoe gumbay see good morning to you thank you so much for joining us it's nice to have you on the show today good morning i hope i pronounced your name okay that's that's fine it's i can let you get away with that okay just about though it's okay if we chat more into the future it will become more familiar to me definitely congratulations you've graduated from the migrant leadership academy it's run by the ici can you talk to us about what you graduated from what was what was the course about okay so um the course that i was doing it's a leadership course basically it's just people that are interested in leading people finding solutions for you know problems or situations that may come across and basically we want to advocate for the community you know i come from a different community and that's what drove my interest you know seeing the imbalance in situations and how things are run um we then felt that it would be of utmost interest to actually find solutions by not just sitting at home but going out there and you know getting more information on how we get into these spaces so that's what really drove my interest and i suppose it's being trying to be part of the discussion at decision making level and helping to inform or influence those decisions rather than having other people doing that for you yes yes um honestly it you know i always say um experience is the best teacher so it's easy for me to want to find solutions from the community that i come from because i know it best you know i know the challenges that i come across i know the impacts or the influence you know that that i may have so that's what really you know gave me the courage to say you know i can do it and it happened yeah brilliant uh arland is is a more diverse country now many different people from many different backgrounds and and communities but that's not really reflected in our local authorities or in our doll either we're at the point now that if a person of color were elected to the doll uh or two or three where it would be a big news story it'd be like oh this is amazing look the first the first is it kind of as a person from a different community does that kind of feel strange when you see a load of white people applauding themselves for having a person of color in a position of power and the reason i know that is how it would happen is because we have a a member of the traveler community uh from donagall who's now a senator and uh every time she does something for the first time it's all the first time a traveler has done something do you know what i mean i'm like seriously is it still a is it still a a big treat for us to have a little bit of diversity in these positions this is the reason why we want to enter these spaces because we want to change the narrative you know um we want to allow people to allow people of different races of different color to come into spaces and really bring forth um their skills you know their abilities you know their strengths and obviously learn um by by by rising from their weaknesses so if we are going to continue to look at things or address things in that sense then we are really far away from growing we are honestly far away from growing but we are in a space now where people hearing you speak like you're speaking might be threatened by that language that you're trying to take over or do you get where i'm coming from uh and i think maybe that's more now than it might have been five or ten years ago strangely we might even be going backwards but i mean at the end of the day it's normalizing something you know i think we need to talk to each other uh and learn about each other and see what each other you know different people want to achieve yeah that's what i'm saying that um if we want to change the narrative not only for us as people are coming into the country but for the country itself i always say that we are not here to get picked you know we are not here to get from the government but we are also here to bring forth what we believe can work for the country because if i'm here to make this place my home it needs to be comfortable for me as well not only for me but for the people within the community that has accepted me so such things are expected um however it's not a trained smash it's things that we will always find ways to work around you know the more we aren't we are into these communities the more we get such platforms it makes it easier for people to be intrigued and say okay who is this girl you know i'd like to have a word with her i'd like to meet her you know i believe there's something i mean for a person to have you know had interest to have this that says that there's a lot there's a lot inside of me that i'd really love to pour out given opportunities yeah okay and we're going to talk more about that uh because i want to focus on the positives as well but i also want to kind of address some of the uh what's going on around the world people think in arland you know there's uh the people could call it far right or whatever i'm not interested in those labels to be honest they don't see the benefit of it there's a rise of nationalism it's being seen here it's being seen in britain it's been seen in france germany the sweden norway poland it's it's you know there's nothing unique going on here and everything that people are seeing here at libraries or outside certain centres is being replicated absolutely everywhere there's a there's a effectively a global movement in a lot of different places so we're seeing that so nothing's unique it's a playbook that's there and that's what's happening but are you concerned as someone who might be picked out as not being a national even though you may well be naturalised or have irish nationality are you concerned about this rise in nationalism that really seems to turn its focus on you know anyone who looks different to the indigenous if that makes sense yeah no um you know what to be quite honest i i i honestly don't like paying attention to much of that because it happens even everywhere like you just said you know from where i come from we do have such situations so it's nothing new um it's nothing to look at in a different sense you know it's it's more of a situation whereby we need to have open minds you know if we want to see the country go to a different state we need to open ourselves to all of those things so it's it's it's nothing new it happens everywhere it happens everywhere what do you what would you like to influence what what are you particularly interested in what would you like to see change to be quite honest with you um i saw the imbalance in a lot of situations and my outmost interest was to wanting to bring solidarity into communities it's not easy for anyone to accept anyone with a different colour or just a different race you understand um however we want to come into these spaces and and and make sure that we accept it not for what we come we came here with not for our stories but for being human you know um there's more to to to just situations than what we actually can bring to the table so my interest is more in really bringing solidarity um so that it's a home for everyone you know it's a home even for the people within this community the Irish community so that they're able to accept us we are able to accept them with our differences i mean we are all different human beings i cannot like you you know and and that's okay but if we able to live together as human beings with those differences i think that's that's the beauty out of it and it makes for a much more peaceful life i i anger and like this is not a criticism i'm not criticizing people such because i'm not grouping people in but sort of anger and hate and fear that a lot of people seem to constantly live in uh some of it justified much of it not it must be so exhausting it must be so tiresome and on this island we have we have argued and fought and lost our lives over uh people of the same race but different religion we have uh ethnic groups that are whites and uh have would feel they have more in common with ethnic groups from outside of Ireland than they might with the uh the general population so it's it's not about necessarily a caller and stuff there's lots going on there how important is it that people be it you know from the lgb community uh or or people of color or different religions that they are elected so in other words right you're from the ballet buffet area it would be far easier for you to get the message of cost of representing the whole community and the subsets of communities within that from a position of authority i'd imagine that's the breakthrough point isn't it yeah yeah that's where we're going with with um um everything um you know one thing one of the biggest things that i've learned is that a leader is not someone that stands in the front you know and and points out direction it's a person that stands at the back of the people and sits down and listens to people because you only get to understand the depth of situations if you really listen to people and then find prominent solutions as to how do we now go about doing this so we want to advocate for diversity you know um that's what leadership is you know advocating for diversity and being the voice for the voiceless you know and it's not just being the voice for the voiceless but it's being the voice for those who have the voice but cannot speak for themselves yeah because we understand that we're coming from different backgrounds and unfortunately for some countries english is not a primary goal so people can't speak when they come into these countries so this is where now we come in we say we want to be able to come into these spaces um with the experience that all these people are bringing to us and just say this is what the the the communities is saying and we need them to be listened to yeah you know so this is what we want to do and i mean obviously there is a voice out there of people who uh do not like diversity that you know all of that type of stuff and then there is a group of people who uh like it but i think they spend too much time arguing with them and i think groups or organizations or individuals would be far more benefit by talking about the positives so in other words just spending your time arguing against someone who who disagrees with and and giving them oxygen effectively you i think you'd be far better putting your energy to talk about what's working well how things are working well friendships that are formed yeah how the health service is is it would be on its knees without a diverse workforce how people are working within different communities doing different things i would stop wasting my energy on banging heads with someone whose view would never change and counteract that negativity as someone would perceive it by promoting the positives yeah but there's not much more that make much more sense and a much more positive use of your energy yes that's exactly what i always say i say if we are going to come together not to fight to bring solutions but to bigger about problems and challenges that's that's not going to give us that's not going to give us any way forward you know we need to come together to strive to get solutions so that we are all out of these uncomfortable situations that we find ourselves in so it is off waste to come together and be you know sharing different agendas on things that won't bring any positive results you know so these are the things that we've learned we learned into the leadership academy that when we come together it should be for positive results you know and it's okay to to to to disagree that's okay that's how you channel your inability lots of people for different reasons it's okay it's normal it's human nature but now what is important is that after disagreeing do you find the reasons behind disagreeing and saying to yourself now i want to move forward i want to find a solution yeah so what is the agenda you know i always say if the agenda is to just be kind just want to be different and difficult then it's it's it's honestly not going to take us anywhere how important do you think integration is um you know there's no point having all different people of all different backgrounds whatever they might be living on an island and and and it being fine but there being no interaction i think integration we've seen from elsewhere when there isn't proper integration it can be problematic there is integration is it something we need to improve on yes definitely um however i feel as though it's not easy because it's not put out there for people to take account of you know it's not easy for me to come into my kind into a foreign country and just want to directly integrate with you you've probably never seen a person of my color right at hand you understand so if the leaders who are who are already there make it aware that people are coming into the country and it's okay for them to be different just allow them to speak allow them to to have their views have their opinions and before we know it things will change things will definitely take a different turn so integration is there but it's it's it's just a different space yeah in truth diversity is very young in this country yeah it really it really is if the truth be told uh and maybe that's where some of the the fear comes or the trepidation or the concern okay anything else you want to add um i'm really grateful for the opportunity um it's honestly a privilege and an honor um just like i said that you know i've learned a lot i've learned to to to not just you know um cry all the time you know about situations but to really channel yeah but to really channel my ability to to want to you know go out there and go into uncomfortable spaces and be like there's something about me my name is ketuya by the way and that's um the meaning behind that is chosen i believe i'm chosen for a different destiny and if this is the beginning of it i'm willing to take it on okay brilliant stuff and do you have ambitions for politics or do you see your uh influence being in different areas my influence is more in bringing solidarity so however way possible that i whatever way whatever situation yeah yeah as long as the end goal is for people to become one whole hands together and say you know what we fought we fought against different odds so that is that is the way i'm heading to okay kethaway gumbassie thank you so much for your time we really appreciate you calling in and congratulations again on your uh graduation and i'm sure we'll speak to you again into the future thank you so very much indeed thank you so are you looking for a career change or have you always wanted to gain a third level qualification at atlantic technological university dunny gall we can help you study our part-time bachelor of business degree using a blend of online and in-person lectures build skills in management leadership hr finance business law and much more with advanced entry options available find out more and apply at atu.ie forward slash business at you develop the skills you need to stand out fuel to win 50 000 euro with top plus get chances to win 5 000 euro every month sign up atopoilwind.ie and fuel to win with top have i got news for you the harvies point cabaret is back every wednesday in september and october amen has gathered a galaxy of stars to captivate and entertain a scrumptious dinner fabulous entertainment or a two-night accommodation package harvies point cabaret zero seven four nine seven two double two zero eight for an immediate reservation or harvies point dot com curtains at voying company letter kenny complete any room with our elegant and exquisite range of curtains designed to elevate your windows with sheer beauty whether you prefer classic patterns or contemporary designs our curtain collection offers endless possibilities to complement your interior decor let our expert staff assist you in creating the living space you've always dreamed of call in and get a free interior design consultation this month at voying company letter kenny okay you're very welcome back to the program there was a few requests did i do the request yet i don't know let me see where are they yes i wanted to do these just before 11 hi can i get a request happy birthday darin warisky from two polls the two polls enjoy your day thank you more than happy to do that can you give a wee shout out to our daddy darin warisky celebrating his 40th birthday today from hailey abbey keegan and amy popular guy today morning greg please could you wish my sister lisa galler all the best for her head shave this afternoon she has raised so much money for her cancer care and we're all proud of her and are amazed by her strength and bravery that she shows every day thank you so much that comes in from uh tanya would mind having a conversation with lisa if she wanted to if it would help because it's an amazing thing that she's doing uh and it's it's a save i could do anything at all using this platform to promote it i would uh be more than happy to do so with all the stories that matter across the northwest it's greg hughes on the nine to noon show on highland radio okay it is 11 o'clock which means it's time for a news update and it's over to donna marie daherty thanks greg good morning investigations are underway in dairy after what police have described as a brazen and reckless attack during which shots were fired at a house last night two masked men were seen fleeing ross keen park after gunshots were heard in the area at around 10 40 p.m damaged was caused to the front door and inner door of a property however there are no reports of any injuries hopes for a cinema in dunny gall town have reignited as a for sale sign has been placed in the drum naloner site pre-existing planning permission is in place for a cinema at the location mayor park kennedy says he hopes the developer will see the potential it's been revealed that young adults who have experienced sexual violence are more likely to tell a friend than a family member it also seemed that a more than a third of women who did not disclose any experience of sexual violence as an adult kept its secret because they felt ashamed or embarrassed marina porter manager of dunny gall sexual abuse and rape crisis center says victim blaming plays a large role two preview days are being hosted this weekend at ballie shannon communal hospital which is due to open in the autumn a wide array of services will be on offer for older people the public will be able to view the 31.76 million euro facility this saturday from 2 p.m to 5 p.m and on sunday from 11 a.m to 2 p.m via the new main entrance off the natter road and finally a current donna councillor has questioned if dunny gall county council has taken all measures to break what he has described as a housing logjam in dunny gall he further questioned if dunny gall county council placed a bid to be a part of the department of housing's plan for 1800 rapid build homes it was revealed by shin fame spokesperson oan o'brinn that they had not those are the latest headlines next news updates at 12 o'clock until then good morning all right thank you very much indeed uh donna marie dot hearty are you suffering from dodgy internet connection symptoms include endless loading embarrassing freeze face luckily there's a cure three home brawl band in ireland's fastest and most consistent 5g network get it free for the first three months and for only 39 euro per month after that plus no setup costs you don't want to miss this visit and store or 3.ie 24 month minimum term substitute location and availability speeds may vary based on analysis by uterus speed test intelligence data q3 to q4 2022 okay um bernardo's have issued a statement on back to school uh costs it's their bernardo's back to school survey for 2023 1100 parents had thursday on the real cost of free education which is a huge sample uh much greater than often uh can be sampled for an opinion poll on political matters for an example so it is telling and it is accurate susanne connelly's chief executive of bernardo's and joins us now uh susanne it's uh an annual uh conversation unfortunately that we are forced to have we have made some improvements but still and you can tell from the the texts and messages coming into this show this morning that parents are at the pin of the collar and it seems particularly you know working parents are are are struggling with back to school but not exclusively of course exactly it's a really difficult and stressful time for parents and we know that the costs of sending children to both primary and secondary are considerable and our survey shows that to send a child to a first year in secondary school costs 972 euro so which is a massive amount of money and for fifth year in secondary school it's 863 and these are average costs so what we're doing is we're calling on the on the government to build on the momentum of introducing free books at primary level to introduce now free books at secondary level and in this budget we're also asking the government and this is really very much come from parents is a low cost affordable school uniform option needs to be available at primary and secondary and this is part of what the government themselves and the Department of Education committed to in 2017 with a circular going to all schools but unfortunately not all schools have implemented that circular which is about having low cost uniform development should be done on that because there have been court stores of schools recently just changing the uniform so that even say for instance there was a second year and their sibling was going into first year just change the uniform for no particular reason there was nothing wrong with the uniform and and school still insisting on specific jumpers with specific crests and specific tracksuit up uh tracksuits with specific crests particularly in a country like a county like donagore which has a low income low disposable income i can't understand how schools have to be compelled to say hold on yet why are we doing this to these parents why are we putting them through a summer of discontent what's there's no need for it anymore exactly exactly you're absolutely right i mean all children need is a warm jumper decent clothes that it should be to go to school it should be that are available in a variety of stores that their parents can access easily and i don't understand either why schools are looking for brand new crested uniforms because what they could do if they do want to crest that they could have an iron on crest or so on crest and parents spoke so movingly i mean the amount of frustration exasperation the parents are experiencing and indeed some of the parents know about this 2017 circular so they're calling for on the government as well just to make this mandatory so there isn't an option for schools now they have to provide a low school uniform option and we all know the cost of living has really impinged on families so surely schools can show some compassion empathy for the strain on families and do something that is within their power to do yeah and also this marquee world of voluntary contributions and i describe it as such is because i mean it's for shortfalls as it and funding from government but we never really see the books or it seems like we don't how much is gathered how much is spent how many people pay is it only to meet essential uh essential needs of the school or if there's leftovers is it you know how is that money spent i'm not suggesting there's any uh in propriety but in the absence of what seems to be any information it's just like you get these text some messages 100 euro 150 euro 80 euro and you're like well where am i going to get that money and what actually is it for and if i don't pay it what what does that mean is my child going to be treated different again i can't understand how schools of the community do that or at least don't have a bit more transparency in what's going on yes i mean i think that's true i think for some schools they would say that they need it in terms of things as basic as as lighting and heat and that should not be the case i mean the government should absolutely pay school schools the capitation that they require in order to run the school so that's a given that should happen but you're right after that then there does need to be more transparency on what the cost of voluntary contribution is costing and the whole thing about voluntary parents don't feel it's voluntary they feel that they have an obligation because they feel their child will in some cases their child the child won't get a journal or have access to a locker another case is parents just feel the emotional psychological pressure to to comply even though they cannot afford it so we will be saying is that in this day and age with the with the amount of surface we have why can't the government just fund schools appropriately and the figures aren't mind-blowing we we see some of the expense that's going on at the moment in different areas of society between hospitals and whatever else might be going on we're not talking billions and billions of euro here that's that's where i get a little bit frustrated we could have an education minister in a government that could relieve so much pressure off so many families at a relatively low cost to overall spending exactly that's exactly the case and the government exists to serve the people so so it's clear that that it is incumbent on them to do something about about the cost of education that puts so much stress on parents and indeed on children because children will know their parents are stressed no matter how much parents can try and and hide it so so the government should use some of this surplus to deliver on on making education free which is what the government says is but it's not because we know the amount of expenses cost the parents every year so in terms of the costs across primary and secondary school the average cost of the basic needed for fourth-class people 320 euro a first-year pupil 972 euro a fifth-year pupil 863 now that is expensive but with a cost of living where your money doesn't go as far that's going to seem much greater than the actual figure add into that a quarter of secondary school parents are going to have to borrow to fund these back to school costs so they're also going to be labelled or later they're also going to be stuck with interest rates on top of that and then running into Christmas where another problem might raise its head it's crazy it's crazy that anyone could say we're a rich and well-off country whilst we're forcing people to live like that I couldn't agree more now the only thing that we can take some degree of comfort from is the government did introduce the budget 2023 is free primary school books and yesterday the government published a trial poverty and well-being program and in that they commit to to reducing costs of education so we're really hoping that they will deliver on free secondary school books and they've also said in in that program that they will look at the relieving the pressure on parents in terms of onto contributions and they've also said looking at uniforms so we really do expect the government to live around this commitment that they've just published yesterday so we hope there's some light there for parents I do hope so but I seem to recall interviewing the education minister I think it was mary coughlin I'm not sure if she's education minister at the time or tarnished her but that's going back I dare and even suggest how long and at that point we were talking about school but secondary school books um and the cost of parents do you know that's how long this has been going on so I hope and I was talking about action at that time so I hope your your optimism is is is is uh not misplaced I really do and I think you probably are right and but again though will this also these measures will they assist working parents because particularly here in Donegal you would be aware that you can have two parents that are working but between the child of cost of all of what we've talked of keeping cars on the road and all the other bills that are being faced at working parents have nothing they're there and they feel like they've got no support so the measures that you talk of would that also help low-income working parents absolutely because because free secondary school books is a universal ending voluntary contributions is a universal it's available to all parents and the other thing is well that would be the same with with school uniforms had low cost school uniform option being mandatory so we think that'll have that'll have working parents and parents on low-income which is really needed because we know that I mean the two-thirds of the parents in our survey we're working at a full or part time and we know that some of those parents say they feel there's nothing in the government plans for them and they don't feel the government thinks enough of them when they're thinking about income support so so that we think universal and payments that apply to all parents is really really crucial because as you're saying in some of the places like Dunnebaugh there are so many extra costs because if you live in a rural area the cost of petrol they're keeping a car in the road bringing your child to and from school is considerable and finally Suzanne I mean this is why has this not already been announced why are our parents being put through another nightmare August it's too we're not going to get anything from government ahead of this term it'll come out in the budget heading into a general election next year I mean why don't they do something now why don't they say right we can do something now for you rather than parents stressing themselves out through August not able to do things like go on holidays or even consider transition year trips or summer camps do you know what I mean it's crazy why aren't we doing it now I do I don't actually know the answer to that I mean we'd have to have a government representative talking about it all I can do is be hopeful that because they announced the child