We're very worried about all the symptomatic children that T-shirt mentioned that for every four symptomatic people there could be six asymptomatic. So if that were to continue between now and Christmas, you could be talking about 20, 30, 40,000 pupils being off school in the lead up to Christmas with COVID-19 and obviously their families would be deeply concerned about that scenario. And a Donnie Gold deputy has pressed the government to outline plans to mitigate against the current difficulties being experienced in the car industry. Deputy Thomas Pringle told that all that a scheme needs to be implemented to protect jobs within the industry, which he says is struggling with the fallout of Brexit and the shortage of microchips. He warned the T-shirt that unless action is taken the situation will result in job losses. Over the last number of months I've been talking with Donnie Gold car dealerships around the problems they're facing in the moment. Because of the severe difficulties they're confronting with Brexit and the microchip shortage, car sales are in a perfect storm of lack of supply. It is likely by all reports internationally that the microchip shortage will last for the next year and possibly into 2023. This leads to a very real risk of job losses over the next six months if no action is taken. It will mean substantial job losses in every county in the country. Whether now, today will start mainly dry with a few showers and bright spells during the morning. Cloud will increase during the day with patchy light rain or drizzle throughout the afternoon and evening with highest temperatures of 11 to 13 degrees. That's it for now. We're back with more 10. Until then, good morning. Enjoy the delicious triple cheeseburger. Just two euro 90 from the McDonald's EuroSaver menu. Today's Ninetown Nune Show is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires. Get your tires ready for winter. Call in to Ulster Tires in Lattrackenny and Bali Buffet today. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest. The Ninetown Nune Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. And it is a very good morning. Four minutes past nine Wednesday the 17th of November and you're very welcome along to another edition of your Ninetown Nune Show. It's a busy show as you can imagine over the next three hours. Lots to discuss. There's been lots of news developing over the last 24 hours and lots of regular features as well.  What's absent texts that number 086 6025,000 or give us a call in 07491 25,000. If you wish to email the show, it's comments at highlandradio.com. And if you want to watch the program, hop on to our YouTube page, Highland Radio Ireland for handiness. If you want to just go on to our website, highlandradio.com. You can click on to the story there and watch us or on Facebook, it's forward slash Highland Radio News and Sport or Highland Radio and interact with the Sarah as well. Right, let's look at the papers this morning, the local out this morning, Donegal post, the average age of first time mothers in Donegal is now 30 years old, according to figures just released. And the number of births outside of a marriage or civil partnership in the county has risen to a record high of 40.4%. Over the past three decades, both these figures have risen steadily, reflecting the changing nature of Irish society. The latest CSO report shows that around one-third of all births were mothers in the 30 to 34 age group nationally. The average age of first time mothers is just over 33 years old. Only three counties, Carlo, Wexford and Waterford, have a lower average age than in Donegal for mothers giving birth for the first time. More on those figures on the front of an inside the Donegal post. Today's image at times tells us that the health service is broken. An initial woman has spoken out about the health challenges she's endured as a result of what she described as the broken health service. In 2015, Natasha Krumlisch from Moville noticed a lump under her tongue. She immediately contacted her dentist and GP and was transferred to the oral maxilloclinic in Letter Kenney University Hospital. And you can go on to read her full story, as I say, continued on the front of an inside the Inish Times there. The Finn Valley voice goes with a sporting headline. And of course, Jason Quigley is fighting on Friday night. He's got a really, really tough fight. Hopefully we'll be able to have a chat with someone ahead of that. He's got a really tough fight. There's just no doubt about it. He's fighting a world top draw elite professional. It's an amazing opportunity, an amazing platform across the Dazzone network. But it's going to be a tough one for him. A Finn Valley invasion will sweep into an old mill town in New England this week. Scores of them will descend into Manchester nestled on the Merrimack River in the state of New Hampshire. We'll be watching that one with interest, no doubt. The Irish independent battle to stop slide, stop slide back into another lockdown. Two weeks to turn the tide really. I think it's being labelled new restrictions announced last night. The government imposed a series of those new restrictions in the last ditch bid to stop another lockdown before Christmas. People have been asked to work from home where possible and a new curfew on the hospitality sector will force all restaurants, pubs and nightclubs to close at midnight. Now, on the face of it, that does seem like it could have an impact. But the reality is, is that nightclubs across the country are going to open earlier. They're going to run from eight or nine o'clock to 12, presumably. Now, I don't know if the public will buy into that and it will catch on and they'll continue to do it. But I imagine many of bookings and DJs coming or bands coming and they're going to do it this week. So you will have the same amount of people potentially in the same environment, in the same place. They just leave at 12. Now, as I say, it might not catch on. It might just before we can. Who's to say? But what happens next? Obviously, house parties, people are going to or now you might say, well, the people are being asked not to do that, but that's what we do. That's what's happened. And it's like Groundhog Day because then they'll go home. Right. There's a lot of cases now in houses because people are having house parties. There's no restrictions on that whatsoever. And then cases either go up or decrease slightly or stay the same. And then they look at that. And it's just, I don't know. And I'm speaking to couples who are getting married this weekend. Okay. And they've got the band booked and they've got the DJ booked the whole event planned. And they have to stop things at 12 o'clock. Now, did no one think, well, right, people of this plan that very short notice, this might be their second, third, even perhaps fourth time of holding a wedding. And they have to finish at 12. Now, if you're in a hotel and all of your guests are residents, well, the rules don't quite apply the same there. But there's always anomalies with these, but it seems so glaring in this situation that people will just adjust the behavior and mixing the same numbers in just different environments. The nightclubs again, under pressure, people losing out in jobs and income. They were closed for, you know, well over a year and open for 27 odd days and back closed again. What do you think do you make? Can you see the sense in this decision? I'm not saying it doesn't make sense. I'm saying let's have the conversation. But we know what's going to happen. 08 660 25,000. That's the WhatsApp protection number. Or give us a call and 07 491 25,000. Now the cabinet also agreed to make it a legal requirement for people to show COVID passes when going to the cinema or theater now. They already had to in a lot of places. I don't see that as a massive change. Now I'm open to correction. If there were under 50, you didn't require the passes as far as I'm aware. I'm not sure that's going to affect an awful lot of people, but I'm open to correction on that. The Taoiseach Michael Martin warned it remains to be seen if more restrictions would be needed over the coming weeks. He says, we're not ruling out any further measures. And Nefit can come back at any particular time, he said. And they are waiting in the wings. I know that because I've been listening to some a lot of these interviews and the tone of the language. And it's clear that Nefit has put the government on notice that if they don't see significant changes, then we are looking at a firebreak or another lockdown, even though that seemed very, very unlikely at some point. Nefit are in the wings waiting to in depart that depart that advice to government. And this all came as 4,407 new cases of the virus were reported yesterday. But more importantly, 114 people have been treated in ICU. It's down three. And Mr Martin insisted the country will now be will now be in lockdown if not for the national vaccination program. And the recently started booster campaign. Another new measure will require a household close contacts of people who receive a positive PCR test result to restrict their movements for five days, even if they're vaccinated. Now this is another huge one. And I wonder how much thought went into this. So if anyone in your house, if anyone in your house tests positive for COVID with a PCR test, right, everyone in that house is in effect, we have to restrict the movements for five days and have to take three antigen tests on day zero when you get it, which is a confusing way to describe it probably should be day one on day two and day four. And then if they're clear, you can go about your day to day business, but there's going to be teachers in that in that cohort.  We need them working, obviously, who've probably received three jobs, right? The one, the two in the booster, they're going to be, unless I'm missing something, obliged to self isolate for five days and take three antigen tests, they're going to either change that or they're going to worsen their problems because they're not going to have the staff to look after those that are in hospital. I could be wrong on that one, but that's how I see that one going. I'm not trying to be negative, but it just seems glaring holes in some of these plans. The Taoiseach was forced to clarify that the rules around restrictive movement would apply to teachers after Labour Party leader Alan Kelly claimed Mr Martin told him in the dawn that the new regulations for close contacts would not apply to the education sector. Presumably applied to the health sector. It was reported that they did, unless that's been clarified since Mr Martin said he was very annoyed by Mr Kelly's claims and said he never made the comment while insisting the five day rule will apply to teachers. Mr Kelly responded that he did not misconstrue what the teacher had said. But even in his press conference, Michael Martin said you had to take an antigen test, not multiple antigen tests. And I was watching, I was going, oh no, no, you say two or three, because it's not one, it's two or three. A lot of upset at the following story, two carried in the Irish Daily Mail, mother and baby home survivors and advocates have criticized the government's 800 million euro redress scheme and claimed that Roderick O'Gorman has let the women of Ireland down. Children's minister, Mr O'Gorman announced details of the mother and baby institutions payment scheme, which excludes those who spent less than six months in homes has a child. Now, I think he did say the press conference, they wouldn't even remember it yesterday, which was very clumsy to say the very least. But sometimes I think, sometimes I think what's said in a slip of the tongue or off the cuff is often really, you know, what you're speaking about privately or what someone said to you, you know, normally, if it slips out, if you blurted out normally, it's pretty indicative of perhaps what you might think, though I believe he may have apologized for that since. The amount survivors will be entitled to depends on the length of time spent in the institution with payments for mothers ranging from 5,000 euro to 65,000 euro, while all mothers will qualify for the scheme. Children who spent time in mother and baby homes will only be eligible if they spent more than six months there and did not get redressed previously under the residential institution scheme payments for children start at 12 and a half thousand and go up to 65,000 and that money and some of these people, you know, are quite advanced in years will not be seen at all until the end of next year. So it's a full year before any of that redress scheme will be paid to the survivors. A bit of news from North England here in the Irish Times, police and counter-terrorism experts investigating Sunday's explosion outside a Liverpool hospital are looking into how the explosive device was made and whether the man at charge failed to detonate the main charge. Ahmed El Swilmin, who's 32 and who's suspected of carrying out the attack, died when the bomb exploded in a taxi outside Liverpool Women's Hospital. After the bombing, Britain raised its terrorist threat level from substantial to severe the second highest possible, meaning that a terror attack is highly likely. Home Office Minister Kit Malthouse said police had yet to establish the motivation behind the attack but would publish more details in due course and the Liverpool bombing suspect had converted to Christianity in 2017. Right on to the red tops now and the Irish Daily Star tells us that almost three quarters of people in this country want the legal age for the sale of tobacco raised from 18 to 21. I'm not sure what difference it would make but anyway people who know more than me believe it might help. The Irish Heart Foundation says the findings send an overwhelming message to government that the public wants decisive action to save a new generation from the health catastrophe smoking which claims almost 6,000 lives in Ireland every year, 6,000 almost 6,000 people die not of smoking, a lot of people you know not necessarily you don't die of smoking, you die as a result of the problems it causes or the problems that you have that it exacerbates. The Sun this morning tells us that Patrick Quirk has lost his appeal against his conviction for murdering Bobby Ryan and must now serve his life sentence the Court of Appeal rejected all grounds 52 of them in a 100 page judgment over one year after the appeal hearing was heard. Quirk who watched the proceedings via video link from the Midlands prison in Port Leish made no reaction when the court ruled that he must serve his life sentence and last but not least kind of a sad story really is it um but not in a very serious way perhaps just four in ten people tell their partners I love you everyday research has shown 17% say the three little words to their other half just once a week a poll of 2,000 adults fans so pretty representative four in ten people prefer to demonstrate the love with an action or a gift according to the survey by Beaver Brooks jurors the most popular ways to show affection were a cuddle saying thank you making the other person laugh and kissing them and a black burn from the organization said sometimes a simple action or gesture can be a great way to show someone you care when you just can't find the words now they didn't say if all who responded actually do love their partners maybe if just four out of ten are just saying it but anyway six out of ten don't bother that upset you 086 60 25,000 what's absent text that number or give us a call you know that number too don't you it's 07491 25,000 the newspapers are courtesy of Kelly centra mountaintop letter Kenny today's nine til noon show is brought to you in association with ulster tires get your tires winter ready drop in to ulster tires in letter Kenny and Bali buffet today Brian McCormick sports and Azure Main Street letter Kenny your destination ASICs advisor looking to go further and faster or maybe some cushioning and support ASICs gel Keanu 28 with added flight foam cushioning to the midsole accompanied with a new and improved stability system new range of ASICs for men and women in store and online look the part play the part in store online mobile click and collect on bmcsports.ie it's that time of year again long evenings low temperatures and slippery roads so for your free tire check call dunagall tires they have all you need in stock winter or all season 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seven and find your happily ever after dressed at macklehanney's bridal rooms bunkranna heart's football club development draws 75 000 euro in prizes first prize 50 000 euros second prize at dashia sandero plus eight other cash prizes tickets available from any committee member or online at club funder the club funder link can be got at bunkranna heart's facebook page this ad is kindly sponsored by inish grass bunkranna if your child is age 12 to 15 you can register for your free covet 19 vaccine all children in this age group will be offered a vaccine but it's especially important for children with high risk health conditions or if a family member is more at risk participating pharmacies and gps now offer free covet 19 vaccines for more information and to register visit hsc.ie from the hsc at letter kenny shopping centre we're already dreaming about the festive season so why not make a start park for free and enjoy your christmas shopping this year letter kenny shopping centre bringing you the time at 21 minutes past nine you're very welcome back to their program now we welcome on to the show dr lydia divaney postdoctoral researcher at lyit good morning doctor thanks for joining us hi gregg hi are you thanks for having me it's great to have you with us now we are seeing letter kenny host arlands first hangover research seminars to be held as i said in letter kenny international experts will be joined in the seminar um to discuss uh this topic right why why um do we need to research hangovers well i suppose the alcohol hangovers affect many people it's estimated at over 520 000 people go to work each day with a hangover in the uk and that equates to around 17 million working days lost according to the institute of alcohol studies and we know that absenteeism due to alcohol misuse in the republic of ireland is estimated to cost more than 41 million euro but i suppose what's more difficult to calculate is the cost of presenteeism so it's likely that loss of productivity lateness accidents and poorly executed tasks at work due to a hangover our considerable expense to our economy but also in terms of health and safety i mean the risks are substantial and far reaching i mean during a hangover we can legally carry out daily activities such as driving a car or engaging in high demand cognitive tasks which can really put ourselves in serious danger but i suppose what's even more worrying from our perspective are the consequential delayed or impaired cognitive responses following a night's drinking for those in i suppose safety critical or cognitively demanding occupations so for say pilots flying planes surgeons carrying out operations and those operating having machineries i mean the consequences can really be fatal okay so what can we learn though because you know i presume if people didn't drink or didn't drink in excess or didn't drink before work or carrying out important activities we'd eliminate hangover as 100 percent or close to it so what what can we learn that would be beneficial do you think that we don't know well i suppose what we find in our research on uh on cognitive performance after a night's drinking so whenever we look at attention and memory reception things like that in our emotions that it's not a blanket effect so it's not that everything is impaired after a night's drinking it's you know it impacts our processes incongruously so differently so you know it's not a matter of everything is impaired and it's about picking through that to identify you know what is impaired what is affected and then how we can set about getting regulations and i suppose guidelines around sort of avoiding that i don't think hangovers are going to go away tomorrow so it's a matter of i suppose just putting regulations in place to keep us safe and a lot of what you talked about is in the work environment but of course who's to say what happens in caring situations you know if a parent or guardian is hung over and their attention isn't what it should be and something could happen to a younger person or indeed an older person that they care for absolutely a lot of what we find is that our response times are slower so when we need to act fast with that bit slow and it might seem like you know it's a couple of it's you know we're talking milliseconds or a few seconds but this can you know this can be life or death you know particularly if you're say for example if you're a parent and you cross the road and you hold your child's hand you have to be quick and honorable so certainly i mean daily activities are affected by it and i suppose in terms of driving be it you know regular vehicles articulated lorries buses whatever it might be we judge someone's post drinking ability to drive based on a blood test how much alcohol is in their system but who is to say you know how a bad hangover could be affecting their judgment in that environment as well do we need to rethink our attitude towards hangovers then yes i think so i think um i suppose we've tended to uh i suppose well currently for airline and seafarer companies and all my gas operators the medical surgery regulars they consider the excretion of alcohol as a marker of the end of the effect of alcohol so there's this sort of old school eight hours eight to twelve hours bottled to the throttle and i suppose in light of our recent findings i mean this has become you know somewhat dated now so i think we do need to have a to reconsider this and i suppose and we propose that you know organizations like the royal college of surgeons the federal aviation authority armed forces and really international transport workers and consider revising their codes of practice that's always a struggle and though because you know it's such a big industry it's so intertwined with politics and indeed you could say public health given how slowly we move in certain areas massive amount of lobbying ongoing any change and we'll talk about in a moment how we might get to conclusions on change through this seminar but any change is always difficult in this area absolutely but one thing that this event will do will be you know it'll provide an opportunity for us to disseminate some of the research and raise awareness to people so they can take their own action to you know consider the risks that we're taking every day when we carry out activities when we're hung over if someone were to attend are you going to tell them how to sort of mitigate the worst effects of a hangover or are we that wouldn't be really advisable would it we're talking about the consequences of hangovers here yes yes so mostly for myself i'll be talking about sort of how it affects our attention or and or mood in that and an alert researcher Dr Craig Gunn will also be covering that sort of area and there are some presenters that will be talking about how it's how COVID has impacted alcohol consumption and hangovers and as well I mean there are researchers that are working on cures and things like that too there will be a little bit covered by Dr Gores first on that as well so we'll be covering a broad range of topics really yeah it's a great list of guests that you have managed to get together for this yes it's brilliant and I've been you know researching the effects of a hangover now for some time and whenever I was doing my PhD on the next day effects of an ice drinking on cognition human performance I contacted Dr Joris first or who's the founder of this or the international group of alcohol hangover researchers and that was in 2015 and then a few months later I joined him in the team of researchers in Perth in Australia and I suppose since then we've been collaborating on research and coming together in different in different locations to talk about our work and publish papers and so I think that I mean it's great to be able to host this research event in my home country and my hometown and to really you know showcase this and raise awareness here in Donegal and so and Lydia do you find you know that one other example I could give here is if we post a story about a cannabis seizure or something you know what I mean it you're more likely to get humorous responses underneath that post than if it were maybe cocaine or if it were a different type of crime or seizure do you find that's it's a clunky enough analogy but do you find when you try and talk about hangovers that the initial sort of default position not amongst your you know your fellow academics but in general society that it's not taken very seriously that it's a bit of a joke that you know seriously a seminar on on hanging yes absolutely yes you always get a bit of a chuckle when you talk about you know hangover research and that I mean just I've described very briefly to you earlier there are just the actual dangers and risks and the costs and that you know it is a very serious topic and I suppose the more awareness we raise of that the more that that's kind of information will get out I think also we when people think about a hangover they often think about oh god I have a bit of a cure myself and not personal ideas or I could tell you a little bit about that and but it's certainly you know it's not the it's not where we're going for with this particular seminar I guess you and just one other question you know I mean our hangover is useful in that I do wonder sometimes you know moderate drinkers occasional drinkers if they didn't feel the worst effects of alcohol the next day or didn't get hangovers might be more be more inclined to drink more and then we'd have you know other consequences of that absolutely you know if we were to have a cure for a hangover we'd have to think very carefully about how we use it I mean there are links between hangover severity and lower incident or lower likelihood of becoming and dependent on alcohol and things like that so I think it's certainly something that needs to be need to be addressed very carefully and researchers need I suppose to take caution when we're doing that and so it's yeah it's something that we definitely bear in mind right Lydia how do people attend this event and who do you think might be interested in it is it open to everyone or is it for people in the medical profession or who are you inviting and how do they accept that invite so absolutely anyone who is interested in the area is welcome to come along so we'll be presenting research so there will be statistical analysis and information relating to the brain and cognitive processing and things like that but there you know there will be an opportunity for Q&As after each talk and there'll be discussion opportunities to discuss things at the breaks as well we're a friendly bunch Craig so I encourage anyone with an interest to just come ahead and if you have queries about anything discussed to just approach us and ask and so there is a link which I can share with yourself and that's to an event bright it's an event bright link and if you click that you can register it's free to everybody and it's being held in person in ly it okay thank you and congratulations to you in in getting this together and attracting such high-profile names in this field and hosting something like this that normally if people were interested in it they might ordinarily have to travel a great distance to attend so it's a great achievement on that level alone thank you very much for joining us thank you very much Craig take care of yourself and enjoy Dr Lydia DeVenny there postdoctoral researcher at LYIT today's Ninetone show is brought to you in association with Ulster Tires winter is coming get your tires winter ready call in to Ulster Tires in Letter Kenney and Bally Buffay today real people are winning real money buy your NCBI radio bingo book today and you can be in with a chance to be the next claimant it's that simple my name is Alton Gibson and I am a NCBI radio bingo owner at live pharmacy we're focused 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guaranteed to you within seven working days dfi beds sleep well live well he's the sales director finance director hr director and looks after it all without a single spark flying meet Sean electrician and Citroen van driver a great van is like Sean it can do it all like the Citroen Berlingo dispatch and relay all come with multiple load volume and payload options three front seats steel bulkhead twin airbags and bluetooth as standard the Citroen van range like you they do it all for more see citroen.ie your local Citroen dealer is Highland Motors mountaintop letter kenny letter kenny it's open day takes place on thursday the 18th of november both on campus and online whether you're a leaving cert student and graduate or considering a return to education there's lots of choice at letter kenny it visit the campus explore the exceptional facilities and meet academic and student support staff on the day if you can't make it to campus then join online take a virtual tour watch live talks and ask your questions let's let a kenny it's open day on thursday the 18th of november on campus and online visit lyat.ie forward slash open day for more information okay now i think one of the announcements yesterday that will have the biggest impact on the population as a whole is that if someone in your house tests positive via PCR for COVID-19 that everyone has to self isolate restrict their movements for five days and take two or three i think it's three antigen tests now Dr Kieran Alfari is a GP of course well known in donningall and he joins us on the program now good morning to you Kieran thanks for taking the time out this morning good morning Greg how are you i'm good now speaking to people off the record involved in in in public health they're not big fans this antigen testing they see what's happening in england and and britain more widely and they think it's maybe exacerbating situations over there people don't really use them correctly they don't know how to use them they use them to sort of suit themselves and and perhaps maybe if pressure wasn't being put on the health minister as much as it is by the press and it were all up to public health we wouldn't be going down this road at all as a GP what do you think of this certain new measure people having to restrict their movements for five days and three antigen tests well i think as you said there it is going to have a big effect on society you know up until now if you were fully vaccinated you're a close contact you got on with life and you could go to work and now all of a sudden if we're talking about 5000 cases a day that's a lot of household contacts that are going to have to restrict their movements so what the HSE has said is that they'll post you out as a case of five antigen tests that you do the first test on the day you get the tests you did the second test two days after that and that you do a third test two days after that so first of all you need a good postal system and quick contact tracing to get them out to you quickly and and i'm not totally confident that that's going to happen as quick as people say so five days it's possibly going to turn into seven or eight days and and then as we as you said there it depends on people using the antigen tests and and doing them well my concern about it probably would be in terms of the health care system and and the workforce you know you know if you've got most health care workers with vaccines and boosters and now you're going to ask them to restrict their movements for at least five days if there's a household close contact that's going to have a significant knock on effect in the workforce and what about public perception then Kieran because to be honest with you when i heard that you know people with three booster shots still having to restrict their movements and the you know the booster program rolling out but not at a hugely enormous pace just yet it didn't it hasn't instilled my confidence or strengthened my confidence in the vaccine program and its effectiveness well i i think in terms of the booster program they announced yesterday that it's coming down to the over fifties as gps we've seen the urgency that they put on that we got an email last night advising us that uh we can get going on that pretty quickly and in my own practice we spoke last night we spoke again this morning so we're we're planning to get that going as fast as possible um i suppose if we look at the objectives of everything we're doing it's to keep people from getting very sick and from dying and to try and prevent the hospital system from being overrun we've seen in icu that most people either are unvaccinated or have underlying medical conditions if we can get boosters out to those with underlying medical conditions that should hopefully have a significant knock on effect on the hospitalization so i think the booster program needs to get going needs to get going really quickly um this thing about household contacts having to restrict their movements and i suppose the other changes about midnight it's all about reducing social contacts i suppose keeping people at home a bit more uh trying to stop spread and whether it's going to have the desired effect or not i'm not so sure yeah but i think the point you made and and i made it a little earlier on the show as well because it seemed a glaring one to me is the we're trying to take the pressure off the hospital system and and rightly so we've all got a vested interest in that but taking more staff out of that potentially healthy staff that could be a very worrying sort of byproduct of this announcement absolutely and uh you know we've seen in the past when there was restrictions on household contacts they had to give exemptions to to healthcare workers that tended to come about when it was clear that the health system was under pressure and couldn't cope with the amounts of absenteeism uh you know if my kids you know when my kids had had covid earlier in the year myself and my wife because we were fully vaccinated we're able to continue to work you know we're under huge pressure at work and having to take five or seven days out having a household contact positive if i'm vaccinated and boosted is going to have a significant impact and i think that's probably something that they are going to have to look at yeah okay um so so really what we should actually we'll come back to that what i wanted to ask you about the the vaccine program because as you can imagine you know a lot of uh i would a lot of people would contact us you know and the sense is now that you know we have one of the highest vaccination rates in uh in the world here in ireland a lot of people looking on with a great deal of envy and yet here we are you know we're still seeing a lot of cases we're still seeing a lot of people in in icu we're still seeing a lot of people and not in icu but in hospital getting really quite you know strong medical intervention to keep them well um can you explain to me with all of that being there how the how the vaccine is actually working in other words why people should go for their booster shot or go for the vaccine if they haven't because a lot of people are looking on and saying well it doesn't seem to be working yeah i suppose if you put it in context and you look at the massive high numbers of cases we're having and flip back to at the start of the pandemic or even last january when we didn't have vaccinations with the same level of case numbers at that stage our hospital systems were over on we were fully locked down uh you know it so it was a total different scenario so you know i think over 50 percent of those in icu are unvaccinated the majority of the rest are underlying medical conditions 98 percent of people in icu have uh are um weakened immune systems yeah exactly so unvaccinated you know so you know this is a new vaccine when it came out first we were absolutely delighted by how effective it was preventing severe disease and death and what we've seen now over time is that there is a waning of that immunity particularly as you said and those with weakened immune systems so you know it's evolving we're continuing to adapt but it's still for the majority of people is extremely effective at stopping severe disease and death and we now know that there's a cohort out there that need more of it to help boost their immune system and we're getting on and getting them vaccinated yeah i seen an image being circulated which compares you know yesterday to last november something along those lines i can't remember it off the top of my head but what it showed was there was about 360 daily cases mid november last year and um you know about 70 or 80 people in icu i can't remember these act figures uh and they're arguing the argument being now look at this november thousands of cases and and more people in icu that image if people were critically thinking because everyone tells everyone to wake up that proves that if we didn't have the vaccine and does it not we would be looking at thousands of people in hospital and many hundreds in icu absolutely there's no doubt about that and we've also managed to open up our society people are going to school going to work uh socializing uh you know last uh on a new year's eve last year myself and my wife were working in the um covid assessment hub here in letter kenny you know we had huge numbers that time we saw i think between 1340 covid positive patients that day who are extremely sick with a lot of them having to go on to to hospital you know in my practice at the minute i'm seeing i suppose a trickle of patients with covid and a small number needing hospitalization and if you look at donny gall over the last six months we've probably had a relatively static amount of inpatients and an icu admission so that hasn't changed dramatically and that's all down to the vaccine so although it's disappointing that it's not putting an end to this pandemic and limiting transmission it's still extremely effective at preventing most people from getting very sick but you're a gp and people trust you with their lives quite literally and you've been a gp for a very long time um and i'm asking this question really maybe to talk to those who are wobbling a little bit at the moment you wouldn't mislead people on this would you i mean you know that this is a a virus that's spreading you know the consequences of it and you know how it affects certain uh of your patients i mean that is all very clear to you you have no doubts about this this isn't a flu this isn't simply just seasonal no it's not like if you know this has been going on now for you know nearly two years so there's obviously a seasonal element to to it in terms of that we come inside that there's an increase in transmission and respiratory illnesses in the winter but the effects of this are far more severe than any flu you know you know the the the the death rate is is closer to one percent that's much much higher than the flu it's really picking out the vulnerable you know we cope with flu every year hospital handles that most people deal with it this this is a different kettle of fish altogether and you know it's important that we try to speak to that cohort out there that haven't got the vaccine some of them just i i suppose feel that they don't need the vaccine but i suppose the important point there is that it's not just about about you that cohort of people out there who are unvaccinated are taking up a huge amount of healthcare resources which is then having a knock-on effect on other people with cancer and other conditions who aren't getting to access care because the health system has to divert to to look after the small number of people who are getting extremely sick so in your professional opinion if we didn't have the vaccine and we were carrying on life as normal what would the consequences be on the hospital system if we didn't have the vaccine and we were carrying out life as normal we'd be looking at scenes like we saw in Italy at the start of this pandemic we just wouldn't there's no way that we would be carrying out life as normal we would be locked down you know i i can't even imagine the consequences if we were where we are now without this vaccine and i suppose that's one of the marvels of how quickly we've managed to get such a large number of people vaccinated but obviously it's a pandemic you know things are evolving people obviously hate to hear that the science isn't as clear as we'd like it to be and you know we came out at the start hoping that this vaccine was going to be the silver bullet it hasn't been as effective at putting an end to this as we like but it's still in my mind in the in the short to medium term the way that we're going to cope with this over this winter anyway and are you seeing many people with vaccine injuries as they described no very very few obviously having vaccinated so many people we've seen people with sore arms some people with reactions yes that's happened but i'm reading really small minority of patients okay let's just asking those questions so they're out there anyway doctor so while i had access to you i just wanted to put the questions that people are putting to me to you do you understand absolutely and i think you know it's important if people are hesitant about the vaccine that they talk about it that they get reasonable truthful answers you know there's nothing to hide you know of course there's potential side effects with vaccines we have to be open and honest with people about that and and every vaccine is always about balancing the benefits with the risks okay doctor kiran oh fairy thank you very much for joining us i really appreciate it now we're joined on the program by fina fall deputy nala collins good morning to your deputy thanks for taking the call this morning good morning minister of state sorry i should say at the department of further and higher education minister Collins the a lot of people trying to get the head around these new rules and i'm not just put the first one to you that we've just heard from a gp a well-known gp here in donna gall town he donna gall sorry he's concerned that the new rules as it relates to people restricting their movements household contacts and the three antigen tests he's really worried the impact this is going to have on our health service that we have triple jabbed health workers effectively being forced to sit at home and then perfectly well yeah well i i suppose we we just have to take stock of where we're at um we're at a very i suppose tricky critical juncture the um the vaccination campaign which was rolled out nationally was a huge success and it provided so much of our population 91 or 2 percent with that wall of vaccination to withstand the effects of the virus and that's beginning to wane and and the evidence now is that we have to now engage and and roll out a booster campaign because the international data which is available to us shows that when people receive the booster jab that it really reinforces the the impact and the the usefulness of the vaccine in terms of fighting the fighting off the disease and fighting off the pandemic so where we're at right now is um the numbers have been increasing obviously and the chief medical officer has been saying for a number of weeks i think it's fair to say that we that we should look to reduce our social contacts and the decision which was taken by government yesterday um is about all of that is about encouraging people to work from home and uh is about trying to reduce the number of our social contacts just in relation and into the social contact tax what's happening is night clubs late late venues are now running their nights from seven eight nine o'clock until midnight so theoretically we've got the same amount of people in the same environment with the same risks and and what's going to happen as well as as as you would know it's inevitable we are going despite appeals we're going to see house parties people are going to say right come on round to mine and we're going to have uh large numbers of people in sheds or or in household settings perfectly legal perfectly within the law again did you not think on that did it did it not seem obvious that that's exactly what was going to happen so if it was about decisive action this is actually really only delaying that divisive action or decisive action no i wouldn't i wouldn't agree and we've been very clear from from government from the outset that the government isn't going to beat this virus it's not that it's not the government versus the virus it's everybody it's the people versus the virus and it's it's our human behavior it's our personal responsibility and it's the choices that that we make as individuals and as communities and um we we've been you know very cognizant all the way true of this that we have to balance the public health advice with the um wider demands of society understand that and we've been listening to that for a long time so are you saying that we will not see packed night clubs and bars between nine and twelve instead of between twelve and half two now we're not going to see that and you don't think we're going to see loads of house parties after twelve well look what what i would say to people is this look that that remains to be seen but we people can still go to bars people can still go to restaurants people can still socialize um we're not into lockdown we're far from that but what we're saying to people is we we need to try and protect our health services at the moment as of yesterday evening i give you a very interesting statistic there's 114 people in icu with covid half of the people half of that 114 which is 57 came from the eight percent of our population who are unvaccinated the other half came from the vaccinated cohort of our population which is 90 about 92 percent so the the the eight percent of our population are contributing to half of people with covid in icu and my my advice and my appeal to people out there is to to get yourself vaccinated it does work you're protecting yourself you're you're protecting people around you and you're protecting your community and to engage in the booster campaign yeah of course a very important message that we need to get out it is very important and also 98 percent of those in icu have weakened immune systems as well which is i think an all another important element of a statistic yeah who are being targeted by this booster vaccine but theoretically all of the people who were in the nightclubs and and and late bars with licenses that you've closed now were vaccinated um that that may be the case and what i would say is the decision which was taken by government yesterday is to just reduce the the i suppose the the opportunity and the availability of socialization just to reduce the amount of time that's available we're asking people just to think do you need to do this uh is there another way of of doing uh are of are of achieving uh a night out our recreation are a past time okay just think before your act i get that but we're trying to avoid obviously a situation uh where you would have to consider further restrictions and that that is something which we all want to avoid but people are finding it struggling to see the logic of of the action that was taken and i don't know no people are people are really i i so you don't think people are looking at 50 000 people uh in a in a rugby stadium no masks sitting on top of each other um you don't think that people are looking at that and then going yeah but why are you closing a bar with 300 people in it well first of all the people who go to sporting venues it's it's primarily outdoors but they still should be wearing masks in in a in a crowded outdoor setting that is the advice with the last number of days that is the advice that was communicated prior to the rugby match at the weekend which we saw Ireland versus um New Zealand and i would encourage people and i would appeal to people to heed the public health well none of them had masks including um a member of government absolutely and they should have had masks well is that person going is that person going to face sanction that that that's very very clear um look what i would say to you is this we are trying to give the message that we are at a critical juncture and that everybody needs to act responsibly to avoid a situation where you would have other restrictions imposed we've done really really well as a nation and as a people in getting ourselves to this point and we don't want to lose it or blow okay you say it's about us then right we're being encouraged to take these antigen tests we will how are we supposed to afford these antigen tests how are people on low income so you're asking people to choose between uh fuel for their home and eight euro for an antigen test no no government government will make a decision very shortly in relation to to the subsidisation of antigen testing why only now why wasn't this done a month ago six months ago because the jury has been out in relation to antigen testing as you know and there's been a number of trials pilot projects been undertaken and a number of working groups have sat to discuss it there are hundreds of thousands of antigen tests being dispatched today and tomorrow to families right across Ireland free of charge by the HSE okay in terms of the wider rollout of antigen testing government the availability of antigen testing the government will take a decision quite shortly in relation to the subset a subsidisation of that but antigen testing has been piloted in our third level institutions it's been used in our nursing homes and it's been used in some settings and it's now going to be rolled out it's now going to become a more prominent feature in you said a lot of studies were ongoing but you I mean you've also just said in the same breath that we've already been using it for quite some time in certain settings we lean very much on international international information sometimes when it suits us this government should it not have had all of this research done worked out the subsidy worked out the benefits of antigen testing and rolled this out long long ago and then you would be doing your bit while the rest of the population as you mentioned earlier have been doing their bit well the government the government has very successfully rolled out a vaccination program which received international acclaim we have a huge uptake on that we have the infrastructure which is ready to go to be ramped up now to roll out the booster campaign with 35 mass vaccination clinics and that's included on top of that we will obviously our GPs and our pharmacies government has supported business government has taken a lot of right decisions in terms of bringing us to a situation where our economy is functioning almost at full tilt we have brought in some minor rowbacks in relation to the hospitality sector yesterday and that was based on public health advice and my own judgment is that the vast vast majority of the public get it and understand it and are prepared to support it and work with it all right minister now colin's thank you very much for joining us he is the minister of state at the department of further and higher education back after the news and obituary notices actually i might be back just before the news with a weather forecast chat to you in a minute today's nine till noon show is brought to you in association with ulster tires are your tires ready for winter call into ulster tires in letter kenny and ballet buffet today buy a ticket buy a ticket in highland radios mega draw to win a car win a car get your ticket by november 30th and automatically enter an extra draw before the big draw one lucky winner will walk away with two thousand euro 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on oral b electric toothbrushes now better than half price and selected morphe richard's kitchen appliances like kettles toasters and hand blenders are now half price plus with our 10 or 50 grocery voucher you save even more done stores make christmas for everyone terms and conditions apply voucher can be used on next grocery shop of 50 euro or more businesses for your 2022 calendar order now from bizprint in edirkenny promote your business 365 days a year with a personalized calendar designed to suit from bizprint the printers portrait letter kenny see bizprint.ie it's flu season so if you're 65 or over it's time to get your free annual flu vaccine while anyone can catch the flu you're more at risk of getting seriously ill or needing hospital treatment and the new flu vaccine is the best way to protect yourself from the flu so make an appointment with your gp or pharmacist today visit hse.ie forward slash flu for more from the hse highland radio weather updates with national fuels pierce road letter kenny for all your solid fuel needs at the keenest prices 91 37 400 or national fuels.ie okay today starting mainly dry with a few showers and bright spells during the morning cloud will increase during the day with patchy like rain or drizzle through the afternoon and evening temperatures 11 to 13 degrees it's going to turn very chilly this day week we're being told okay time for a break for the news we'll be right back after line on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news thanks Greg morning adony gall doctor says he has reservations about whether the new covid restrictions will have the desired effect a curfew for the hospitality sector is being introduced along with changes to self-isolation rules for households ministers have been given a stark warning about the impact of covid and hospitals and icu admissions over the coming weeks speaking on today's nine till noon show dr kieran oafari says the booster program needs to be rolled out quickly to reduce pressure on the hospital system if we can get boosters out to those with underlying medical conditions that should hopefully have a significant knock on effect on the hospitalization so i think the booster program needs to get going needs to get going really quickly and this thing about household contacts having to restrict their movements and i suppose the other changes about midnight it's all about reducing social contacts i suppose keeping people at home a bit more trying to stop spread and whether it's going to have the desired effect or not i'm not so sure well the health minister says cheaper antigen tests will be made available very shortly but hasn't been able to give an exact date as part of the new restrictions everyone will be asked to work from home from this friday and plans are being finalized for cheaper tests minister donley says they will be available soon it could for example cost several hundred million euro to roll these out at a subsidized level nonetheless i believe it's important government believes it's important and therefore that's what we're going to do we're not talking weeks or months at all what i can say at this point is that it will be very shortly well the i nto is calling for clarity on the roll out of antigen testing for primary school children rapid tests will be sent to the homes of close contacts of confirmed cases the teachers at union wants to know if this means contact tracing will be reinstated in schools a meeting between the primary teachers union and department of education is due to take place later i nto general secretary john boyle says they have a number of questions for officials we still don't know how they're going to identify the close contacts because all of the close contact regime was taken out of school so does this mean that our demands for close contacting to be reinstated are going to be happening so with one clarity on that health officials in the north are warning more severe restrictions may have to be considered next month to stop hospitals becoming overwhelmed it comes as the storm and executive prepares to meet later to discuss cova passports for entry to pubs restaurants and other venues the health ministers recommending they're made mandatory from mid december but dan mcgee hinge general manager of the Bentley bar and dairy says he has concerns i thought of someone coming up and us trying to obey the law and being challenged by people is something that i would make out of our staff to have to face the health minister says a huge increase in emergency calls since february has contributed to delays in ambulance response times to 999 calls as part of a shin fein motion on the national ambulance service that all heard last night of the case that a patient was brought to letter canny university hospital in a gar the car last month because no ambulance was available it's understood that the donnie gall ambulance was tasked to tipperary another and another task to bell mullet in county mayow and therefore none were available locally for dispatch donnie gall deputy thomas pringle says there are serious issues with the service in the county with fears also escalating about the future of the base in recently at a meeting we had the manager of the of letter canny university hospital made a big play in mass display of showing the members that 80 percent of the ambulances at the hospital were freed up within two hours at a time but that's precisely the point he didn't mention that the 20 percent of the ambulance were there for longer than two hours and that's what leads the whole problem all over the county and more recently there have been fears over the future of our livered ambulance base and i can't stress enough that donnie gall cannot afford to lose any further ambulance patients and this year's be winter ready campaign will focus on farm safety the campaign which will be launched later today by foreign affairs minister simon coveney encourages households to prepare for severe weather events head of forecasting at midair in eveline q sec outlines some of the tasks homeowners can do ahead of possible cold snaps make sure everything is secure and even for ourselves now in our gardens i think it's really nearly time to put away the garden furniture at this stage and to make sure that everything is tied down and all the outside lights are working etc you know and that the roof there's no loose slates now today we'll start mainly dry with a few showers and bright spells during the morning cloud will increase during the day with patchy light rain or drizzle throughout the afternoon and evening temperatures 11 to 13 degrees that's it for now we're back with the headlines for you at 11 o'clock until then good morning the obituary notices for wednesday morning the 17th of november the death has occurred of john keeney fintra road killy bags congee donnie gall his remains are opposing at his late residence with removal this morning at half past 10 to st mary of the visitation church killy bags for 11 o'clock funeral mass burial afterwards in glenty cemetery the mass will be streamed live on mcnmedia.tv family flowers only please donations and lou have desired to the donnie gall hospice care of any family member or mcberti funeral directors the house is strictly private please the death has occurred of martin holmes sandy roe castle finn his remains are opposing at his late residence funeral from there this morning at half past 10 going to st mary's church castle finn for 11 o'clock requiem mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family flowers only please donations if desired to friends of letter kenny hospital care of any family member or kennedy's funeral directors and the death has occurred of margaret coy 30 white house park dairy and formerly of condi for mana her remains are opposing at her late residence requiem mass this morning at 11 o'clock in st murray's church fawn followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery margaret's requiem mass can be viewed on church services dot tv family flowers only donations and lou have desired to the foil hospice care of any family member or murphy funeral directors for more details including any family health guidelines for wakes and funerals please go to highland radio dot com with all the stories that matter across the northwest it's greg hughes on the nine to noon show on highland radio okay you're very welcome back to the program right some of your comments here the reason a and e's are so busy is that people could cannot cannot get through to their gps what's going on why are they not answering the phones or seeing patients well they are and and and we investigated this because we got so many calls they're inundated themselves so the gps are the first sort of port of call for a lot of people and they are flat out far busier than they normally are at this time of year so it's not that they're twiddling their thumbs and divert in traffic to the emergency department they themselves are flat out and that's what we're told another gp have had a very easy throughout the lockdown only dealing with patients over the phone at this time they should be supporting the hospital and taking more patients when the hospitals are under so much pressure again we're told that they are seeing a lot of patients and dealing with a lot of calls that's going to annoy people at me saying that because some people the gps at the moment are almost like the enemy but as they say we've done a lot of ringarounds and they are almost overwhelmed with calls a call that says don't know about over 50s getting a booster on over 70 and haven't got a call for mine another to deal with COVID we have to look at the israel model their daily figures are down from several thousand to double digits after the booster vaccine was rolled out indeed because they vaccinated early waning immunity and then they had a massive peak and then they went for their booster vaccine other people think it's it's not a matter of a dot after a amen ryan's escapade and his determination to attend cup 26 party in glasgow how many people will also ignore testing and although the government should be supplying free test kits that is if the government is this worried about it and why are they still are there still people with both vaccines still in hospital at the moment it's 50 50 because it doesn't offer absolute protection it offers protection against severe illness and as was said earlier and I'm not going to keep saying this because then I get end up getting the abuse but 50 percent of the population sorry eight percent of the population are accounting for 50 percent of hospitalizations serious hospitalizations ICU eight percent of the entire population okay so eight people out of a hundred okay so say you've got eight people and there's a hundred people and there's four chairs there out of the eight people they get two chairs and out of the 92 people they get two chairs and that's what's happening in in ICU we're told that's the disproportionate representation of of both cohorts in the hospital that's what they're saying and the fairy godfather waved his magic wand and said if you're not home by the time the clock strikes 12 you'll turn into the covid virus well you know at the end of the day they're trying to keep people at home one way or other i'm waiting on the booster do I contact my GP or register online i'm 69 i'm not sure because you're under that age group there what happens could you ask the minister why children under the age of six months are being discriminated against in the redress scheme for the survivors of the mother and baby homes yep indeed it's not under six months as if they spend less than six months in those institutions has the social distancing rule been abolished being outdoors means nothing if you're sitting in a stadium beside an infected person social distancing and mask wearing has to be the way forward believes that caller another why were these tests not used in nursing homes instead of transferring positive patients from hospitals to nursing homes and infecting everyone else that's going back a bit that's right at the very beginning and I'll put that question to a number of politicians and experts that man is talking through his behind blaming the few who are not vaccinated every man woman and child was vaccinated in Ireland would still have covid and still have to take a vaccine shop plus the booster I think at this stage we know the vaccines only working at 20 plus it wears off after five they've come to their own conclusion the doctors and nurses and consultants and GPs say otherwise but perhaps maybe your medical your medical background is superior to those hi Greg can you ask him is this not a punishment against the vaccinated are the only ones allowed into these social places I think we know that that's perhaps not strictly the case isn't there he goes again it's the people's fault not the government's same old record so why was left with any hospital in a disastrous state for the last 10 years I think as he was saying that people listening would be drawing the wrong conclusions if I get the test today does all in the household after isolate till I get my results that's not clear to me actually it's a good question it was stated it was stated it was when it was stated once a positive PCR result has been returned the minister is talking rubbish not one of their lockdowns have worked not one of them they don't have a clue full stop say is that clearly frustrated with the government situation listener right okay time for a break we're going to get some reaction to these latest developments from the music industry next today's nine-toned show is brought to you in association with ulster tires are your tires ready for winter call into ulster tires in letter Kenny and ballet buffet today auctioneers estate agents letting agents and property 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menu okay you welcome back to the program right okay continuing on coverage of last night's announcements matt and mcgrana and spokesperson for the music and entertainment association of arland this is just really bad news for your members matt yeah greg the the announcements um you know have just compounded the the negative impact that's that's been having recently uh on the industry in the past few weeks um you know the government aren't putting the strict restrictions in on music and entertainment but you know their messaging and the narrative you know advice given by the minister steven donnelly last week the minister for health and uh i'm previous to that you know the cmo coming out and advising people really to to stay at home basically they're telling them you know they're advising people to cut down on their socializing and things like that and we haven't seen the proof of spikes within the hospitality industry or within settings of live entertainment either but matt i mean in fairness though we've seen the videos you know um we know anyone that goes into a lot of these venues we know the the the covid cert uh enforcements a bit laxie daisy and you have seemingly hundreds of people jumping up and down together and it's wonderful to see and i don't want anyone to think that i'm criticizing it a lot of these people are young people that for some it's the first night's out uh in their adult life but when you look at that you can probably see where this was that we were going down this road maybe well i don't think you have hundreds of people jumping up and down necessarily cause covid no i'm not suggesting but you know you know what i'm saying yeah but i've seen they haven't shown the proof yet there has been no uh proof shown through headshots here any of the put out of the spikes within hospitality i mean just on the week prior to the 22nd of october uh i remember looking through one of the tables and there had been one outbreak one one to three outbreaks and hospitality in the week previous whereas there had been 29 in retail so do you think the t-shock owed the entertainment industry last night to give the evidence uh that this was a move that was required that that would have shown at least some respect for members of your association and others in the industry outside of it no i think what would show the real respect is that whenever you're putting messaging out or restrictions out that are having a negative impact on someone's ability to carry out their livelihood then you support them you have a duty to support them that's how this government reacted from the very first day when covid arrived in march 2020 and that hasn't changed for this industry and it hasn't changed for a lot of hospitality either so you have a duty of care when you're inhibiting someone's ability to carry out their work to support them and to protect them i heard uh steven donnelly questioned about these decisions earlier today and uh i almost fell off my chair he said that actually you know this was doing the industry a favor because they're struggling to hire staff to work after 12 and he also suggested too that you know there's been very little resistance from people even welcoming in at this is almost the news they've been waiting for no reference though uh to people like yourself musicians and and others i thought it was quite a remarkable uh intervention from the minister to be honest with you well i think it's quite remarkable that i heard the minister for state shown flaming last night saying that really the industry had no one to blame but themselves for this uh now at a meeting last week held between hospitality and the government the hospitality uh were willing and actually put forward proposals that anyone flout in these rooms or not enforce them should be closed out and and appropriate steps taken uh the government didn't want to do that they said no they didn't want to go down that road and and they had a very jovial meeting really rather than read the riot act out over what where the situation is going so i think really the government have you know ignored this problem and allowed it to grow and they have allowed you know they've seen the trajectory of case numbers rising and this industry and the hospitality industry as well are being used again as a scapegoat now i mean another thing that i still can't get my head around and you're the third person i've put this through i understand why uh late bars night clubs are bringing their entertainment forward they'll just run the night clubs from nine to twelve why wouldn't they i'm not sure the public will adapt to that that remains to be seen but that's what they'll try in the short term i've canvassed a few young people they're up for that they don't care but you know what they're doing at twelve don't you yeah they're going to a house party as well correct well they're going out down to the street and you're going to have that so i mean i mean this is the the thinking of this and the logic behind it uh i've i've been able to kind of rationalize a lot of things that government have brought in over the past 20 months i can't with this because all you're effectively doing is having the same amount of people and the same room for the same amount of time only earlier at night how does that stop the spread or curb the spread of COVID-19 well i suspect my strong suspicion is that this paves the way for a circuit breaker lockdown to be announced in two weeks time this is the you've put this out there your massage people a little bit with it and then you hit them with what tony hooligan actually wants and it almost has been let's slip a few times if figures do not change we're going into a circuit breaker or some sort of a lockdown and i just feel that this is actually not really thinking through all the issues you've raised this is the this is the opening shot just to prepare people for the inevitable yeah and i think what we have here is the way of t-shirt me hallmark and the government leading by following public opinion and what they're trying to do is they're trying to manipulate public opinion and the weeks leading up to this this is what has happened you know only only weeks ago they were no we're not returning to lockdown we will not be enforcing any restrictions to the next week you can't rule this out and you can't rule that out i mean it's amazing that they can't rule anything out but what they can rule out is reintroducing pup or any other type of financial supports for businesses who have been struggling through no fault of their own through government messaging and restrictions that being said they did set aside i think five billion in the budget for what seems inevitable almost at this stage so perhaps we should have saw the writing also two little things like um cancelling guard overtime in the room up to christmas little things if you look through you can sort of almost see what the direction of traffic listen thanks for now matt thank you very much thank you keep your letters to say all right thanks very much indeed right uh counselor martin harley's the treasurer of the donagall vintners uh association i mean some of your members martin are going to use late licenses so there's not i mean if use can stay open the majority would be okay with this obviously you know you think on other businesses but just in terms of the bottom line in business it's not going to affect the majority of your members is it it's not no but at the same time it's it's going to be a difficult time for for nightclubs who are just getting getting their doors open and uh not alone just for nightclubs i feel uh i feel it's tough on the young people greg and because young people as you said earlier that started started their lives going out tonight and it's all part of your growing up and meeting people and making friends this is not just about the industry making money it's about the whole the bigger picture of all this here and it's going to be and i think matt they're touched on it it's the fact that um you're gonna have you're gonna have people maybe 34 going to a house party at 12 o'clock where there's going to be no track and trace whatsoever and that's that's going to be how do you how do you get the numbers there then so there is um and the thing is is you know those house parties and again this is why i'm not sure why it's thought through are going to be predominantly involving the age cohort with the lowest uptake of the vaccine as well like that's you know so what you have is so if you have the strict enforcement of vaccine certs let's say and i know a lot of people aren't happy with that you know the majority of people in these venues are going to be vaccinated because i know some younger people who don't want the vaccine and they're not going out because they don't feel welcome they don't want the hassle at the door now at 12 o'clock they will all mix together and some people say yeah that's fantastic but it's going to be the unvaccinated the cohort with the lowest vaccination it's inevitable where we're going and i mean if they didn't if they didn't see that coming yeah it is it is a worry and i know what you said there it is a worry that we may have a full lockdown we hope not and we hope that um i would kind of toward people to to try and get the vaccine to try and and save and save lives as well as everything else because um the next next four five weeks are the biggest period of the year for for the hospitality industry the what the revenue to bring in that tim the year probably pays their bills and keeps them going during the first couple of months of the next of january february next year so this is so important um it's it's so important that the music industry there you talk music industry as well the air being hit hard um because even the licensed premises that are open have um have not gone back doing music to the same capacity of the warding so there's not the same amount of gigs that are going on so there's a lot of musicians losing out there as well it's it's with the case numbers rising and up on five thousand there a day it is very difficult and it's it's not an easy decision to make and we look at our icu numbers and that is the worrying point there it's on over the hundred now and that's the worrying point it is it's certainly worrying okay and we don't want to see anyone in icu martin but we are a population of five million plus okay and 100 people uh in icu leading to businesses closures and potential lockdowns it's a terrible indictment of the health service that we don't have uh capacity to accommodate care for and make better more people that we have to lock a country down effectively or we're certainly it feels like we could be heading in that direction we hope not but you know like 100 people as I say they're peoples uh the they're individuals and the people's family but that's surely in a population of over five million plus shouldn't be enough should it to to no we're only just talking about the covid icu patients uh I think there's 300 beds nationally icu beds in Ireland so 100 over 100 of them are uh covid patients at the moment so we look at the other patients of with cancer and on all other other issues that are in icu as well thank god we haven't got to a situation where we had in craig avan hospital there the weekend where they turned ambulances away and they wouldn't take them to other hospitals we haven't got to that state jet here thank god but we don't want to get to that state either and I'm fairly supposed to there'll be 22 billion there's 22 billion in the budget for next year for the health service um how that's used that's that's that's that's a big issue as well well it's it's just something if you're going to bring in government policy that there could be 22 billion euro of a budget and a plan for an extra 20 icu beds it's not a great it's not a great spend of that money is it no that's to me like where is where is where is all the money going and that that is an issue that's supposed to that um at the end of the day we came on with the hospitality industry but that that is not it's not all down to hospitality industry that that um is causing the outbreaks of the covid either so there's there's a lot of worrying issues out there we've probably got to look at the antigen testing that that is going on in other european countries maybe we should roll that out quicker well we can't because there's been very little propriety work done by government and people are going to people who are being let go from entertainment industry so they're going to be unemployed right are going to be expected to pay at moment 80 euro for an antigen test yeah well that is yeah if you want to dairy go into boots and dairy you can walk out with a pack of them for free yeah no we have that has to be that has to be um more independent to that and we need to look at that as even for for to keep our schools open as well and our colleges as well so we have to look at the bigger picture um nationally and we need to um address it um we need to address now it should have been probably addressed before now in fact but okay we need we need to keep rolling we need to roll down very quickly all right can to save yeah to save jobs as well yeah okay councillor martin harley treasurer of the donagall vintners federation thank you very much for that um as i kind of said at the start of the program obviously uh vaccine passes are going to be required in theaters and cinemas mark daugherty's director of uh sentry cinema i'm not sure this is is is uh going to have a huge impact across your sector um is it mark i think a lot of cinema chains were already doing so i think you could avoid it if you had a capacity or numbers less than 50 in spaced but but your reaction to it mark you're the professional awesome that's what we have to do to stay open that's what we have to do to stay open you know we have to look for the for the covid passes so we'll look for the covid passes um do we like doing it no we don't do we don't but that's what the government has laid down we have to do to stay open so that's what we'll do uh when you do enforce it or as when cinemas do enforce it what's the reaction from the public is it one of those sort of uh most people are fine we've experienced in the in the restaurant on the play center most people are fine most people seem to be quite open to it and um some people welcome it they're glad to see that been checked all the people just go with it because that's what they have to do to get into a restaurant for the play center so they go with it a small minority are are quite vocal in their opposition to it and i think they're being quite unsure at the moment because they're putting some of our staff under or something uh an awkward position which i don't think is fair on them what kind of stuff what kind of stuff is being said to your staff they get quite variable about it uh and quite straightened in their opinion about you know why should they have to purchase a covid set to get into our restaurant or a play center that's not our decision we have to work within the rules so you know go easy on the staff who stand in there most of them are fairly young most of them are you know they're all being told what to do they're all being explained the guidelines and that's what they have to work on which was not it's not fair taking your frustration or your annoyance or your disagreement out on them yeah okay uh but i mean obviously we don't want to see any further um restrictions uh but this is not one do you think we'll have necessarily a devastating impact on the the cinema theater business i don't think so not at the moment anyway because we were doing random checks you know you did have to have a covid set to gain admission and then they were randomly check difference for us as we now have to check every single coming through the front door so that's the only difference for us all right listen thanks for your time mark as always all right thank you all right that is uh mark the hearty director of century cinemas so uh looking across the all sectors there uh none of us are happy about it none of us want to be talking about it none of us want to be speculating about it none of us want our lives restricted none of us want our doctors and nurses and consultants and others under so much pressure in in our um hospital system we'd wish it all would go away and we could talk about other stuff but unfortunately it is there again dominant in our lives today's nine tone in show is brought to you in association with ulster tires get your tires ready for winter call in to ulster tires in letter kenny and ballet buffet today for great fuel deals contact goreley sales and hire large sacks and trailer loads of logs also briquettes coal kindling and gas with free delivery locally contact goreley sales and hire in letter kenny on nine one two six two seven six christmas is here it's your turn to host you want the best for the ones you love most aldi quality at prices so small help make this christmas the most memorable of all roadworks award-winning ipa craft beer 500 mills just 199 tato party boxes 395 in store 21st of november celebrations quality street cabri's heroes and roses chocolate tubs only 399 a victoria biscuits just 495 aldi make christmas amazing for everyone enjoy alcohol responsibly most people say that dunig all is the coolest place in the planet but up here we know that sometimes it can be the coldest charles boner and sons ballet buffet is the one-stop shop for all your heating needs we have a huge range of multi-fuel and wood pellet stoves and ranges spare parts for all major stove and range brands plumbing and bathroom wear all at exceptional prices so visit our showrooms where our friendly and experienced team will be ready to help you charles boner and sons ballet buffet and the stove store dot e where you can always do a good deal better the big christmas light switch on in letter kenny is this friday the 19th from 6 30 there's entertainment on the stage at market square treats from businesses along main street the big switch on and then the arrival of santa on his sleigh it's a great evening for all the family this friday at the letter kenny christmas light switch on see the shop lk socials for details here at century complex the christmas countdown has begun we are now taking bookings for christmas parties dining vip cinema experience school tours and more get in touch with our team on 07491 21976 or check out our website century cinemas dot e for more information on century complex northern irons premier christmas event the enchanted winter garden returns to the award-winning antrim castle gardens from saturday 27th of november until tuesday the 21st of december this outdoor christmas extravaganza has a dazzling array of festive attractions to capture the magic of christmas be enchanted by the stunning illuminations the spectacular wonderland wood live music festive fair and the big wheel why not make your visit extra special with a staycation or dinner check out our special offers and book your tickets at enchantedwintergarden.com sponsored by belfast international airport christmas is well underway at letter kenny shopping center park for free and get everything you need thank you for shopping with us this christmas letter kenny shopping center bringing you the time at the time is 10 35 you welcome back to the nine till noon show and of course you know an awful lot going on our hospitals you hear it on the news the latest figures from the irish nurses and midwives organization show the amount of people waiting on trolleys in letter kenny 24 are waiting on a trolley in the emergency department these are people deemed sick enough to need admitting to the hospital 37 on wards or elsewhere a total of 61 again the second highest in the country relatively speaking relative to doblin hospitals the the number of covid patients in letter kenny's under 20 as i believe if you double that god knows what kind of an impact that might have on anyone whether they're vaccinated or not whether they believe in covid or not might have if they had to attend that hospital and i can only imagine what it must be like to to to work down there really difficult for staff right okay let's take a break from all of that for a moment and take a piece of music here is eddie grant okay that is the sound of eddie grant i don't want to dance okay my apologies i had a slip of the finger and i didn't play your bingo numbers this morning my apologies here they are back after the break it's time for ncbi bingo on highland radio it's wednesday the 17th of november you're playing on the blue sheet the reference number is s8 it's game number 46 the numbers are 54 89 68 7 15 37 82 34 26 and finally 64 phone your claim to 9104833 before it tonight leave in your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your ncbi bingo information at highlandradio.com today's nine-toned show is brought to you in association with ulster tires winter is coming get your tires winter ready call in to ulster tires in letter candy and ballet buffet today buy a ticket buy a ticket in highland radios mega draw to win a car get your ticket by november 30th and automatically enter an extra draw before the big draw big draw one lucky winner will walk away with 2000 euro imagine that's christmas all wrapped up christmas the draw will take place on wednesday december first on the nine-toned show nine-toned new and you're still in with a chance to win the keya exceed worth over 28 000 euro it's that simple to win that car to get your ticket log on to highland radio dot go highland radio exceeding your expectations farmers know all about running a busy operation they 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and christmas eve tesco every little helps drop in to your local library we're open again for books computers events classes study or just a bit of space one more thing make sure you enter through the front door a healthy island initiative supporting health and well-being from the government of Ireland it's the right-priced tiles and wood flooring 70% off sale get up to 70% off on all your purchases up to 70% off all tiles all wood flooring all bathware everything's reduced in store the 70% off sale at right-priced tiles and wood flooring stores nationwide sale now on with tonight's lotto jackpot still a guaranteed 19 million euro it means that there's more in the pot for other lotto prizes sure last saturday two winners took home over half a million euro each the national lottery it could be you play responsibly play for fun all your hopes all your dreams all your ambition all your hard work all your goals and determination all your late nights and coffee breaks all lead you to one place all state where career opportunities are endless have it all at all state search allstateni.com today and you welcome back the public consultation process on the letterkenny 2040 draft master plan letterkenny 2040 is a process to prepare a regeneration strategy for letterkenny tan centre to identify ambitious priorities for it as an attractive accessible and thriving place we are joined now by a number of guests to discuss this shenate mccally we'll start with you executive planner regeneration team donningall candid council this is ambitious this is big and it's it's going to happen shenate um yeah great thanks thanks very much for having us on um it's brilliant just to get an opportunity to connect with the public in this project again because this is our second phase of consultation it is ambitious there's no doubt about that we are in this project setting our master plan and setting out our stock for the next 20 years and beyond for how we really want letterkenny tan centre to grow to be to be you know to be a great place to experience and and that is as opposed to whether or not projects are funded or or not at this stage and indeed there are a number of projects that are funded there's some seed funding that is already in place that will help us to get off the ground so yeah ambitious um blue sky thinking um innovative creative um real new space for letterkenny to really position itself as a really great regional centre where is the town centre well suppose i mean it depends on who you talk to as to who the where the town centre is um the study area for the town centre is um from station roundabout right up along the whole spine of main street down to lower main street um also then down to pierce row taken in your retail parks um and right down to um the port roundabout at um at at the pse um but there's no doubt that you know if you take some time to look through the ideas and in the strategy that there's a real emphasis on our main street on our historic spine on making really great connections between it and our retail parks so that they can really work as one entity and be really accessible for people and i suppose um you know really legible as as that is our town centre our coaching centre all right so and i mean obviously because it's public consultation we don't necessarily want to steer anything in any particular direction but how does this process work like are there a set of ideas there are there goals is there sort of an overall and you want people to feed into it uh or or can people sort of you know get into it in more you know nuanced ways or whatever so explain to us what's already there how the public interact with it and how their views are taken on board okay so we well we've already done a first phase of consultation back in February when we launched and that was essentially going out to people and and saying you know what what do you like about your town centre what do you not like what are your ideas for the future so that that was your scope and exercise we're a little bit further on now we now have a draft master plan with a set of of ideas in there so it's centered around four key things and they are main street and i suppose breaking more life into main street through a series of interventions like the redevelopment of market square the redevelopment of the courthouse um you know reuse of buildings on lower main streets that's one area um on on main street the second area relates to our key routes into the town centre petash road and port road creating new gateways into the town centre boulevard the third area relates to green and blue infrastructure the development of cycling and walking infrastructure throughout the town the potential for an urban wetland really embracing the natural environmental state of our of our town centre and of course the the swilly way um and and valley a project there and then the fourth key area is around um a a town square and a regional transport hub the ambition there to have one regional transport hub um that services are our public and our private um bus um services are integrates our taxis walking and cycling but do we like do we know where that like in other words as part of this consultation people suggesting where that might be or is that already uh you know penciled in or earmarked for a location well there's there's a certain level of work that has been done greg in relation to that to try to integrate it into the overall strategy but what we now have in the strategy is four um potential locations or areas and we really want people to come forward to look at those um and to give us their opinion as to which they think would would be best uh james hennessey's director of the paul hogarth company and lead consultant on the project james uh in terms of scale how big a project is this hi there oh it's a big one for sure um this is a great project and it's on the back of a lot of work that's already um proceeded um us from donningall county council so it's a great opportunity and the the good thing is with the urban regeneration and development fund um this it's um real prospect to to deliver transformative change for for light of kenny so we're very excited to be involved in this one how does it work say for instance something as simple as our relationship with transport you know cars okay so uh whether it happens or not very ambitious uh very ambitious targets for change uh for 2030 who is to say what the next uh the next raft of changes might be for 2040 how do we design something in future proof something taken into consideration something is sort of pivotal as to how we get around i don't know charging points will we even charge cars with cables will we be in cars do we want a monorail i don't know uh james but how do you plan for for what might be in 19 years yeah no you're absolutely right and and the the first survey that we did at the beginning of the year um we had over 800 responses it's fantastic a lot of people were talking about this issue that they recognize the the climate crisis that we're in with they recognize that the the town centre is often car dominated um but also people need to still be able to get around leta kenny is uh uh geographically very spread across a large area and up the hills so we have to be realistic about how we can transition leta kenny um over time towards public transport but towards active travel walking and cycling but there's no quick fix to that that's going to have to happen over um um a number of years really so the the draft master plan has a lot of proposals in there around public transport around a better quality pedestrian cycle experience um in the town centre um but we're under no illusion that it's going to take time to transition leta kenny like all our big towns and cities away from being so car dependent so that's what you have to go ahead and sort of bite sizes is that it you know you don't try and look at really i mean obviously you always have those sort of the endgame there but it's it's you you take it in stages then and it's a it's a journey that's right yeah i mean some people have said to us and we're we're really interested to hear people's further ideas some people would love to see uh main street completely um pedestrianized um but we think we need to be careful uh we need to stage a process to transform the town centre and because we have to change that the whole operation and how the town works and it has to be age friendly it has to be uh uh accessible for people uh with with a disability or mobility issues often when an area is pedestrianized it becomes a no-go area for big swathes of the population they simply avoid it they go elsewhere that's right that that can happen it has to be accessible so we have to look a whole series of projects and i think it's about making the town centre far more um a far better experience for everyone who's on foot and by cycle particularly when you get down to to the pierce road around there walking around there it's very car dominated so there are a lot of um proposals to to look at how we can transform that environment for the better and the one of the benefits of that is also to attract more investment to attract more people living and working in the centre of leta kenny as well uh in terms of the scale of this such nade and you know how people might engage with it it can seem quite overwhelming uh what can they talk about what can they suggest because and i get it right this caller saying can you ask chenade uh would they not be better off um fixing the buildings on the main street first it looks like it's disgusting with actual trees going out growing out of some uh some of them it makes the town look awful so before i suppose and i'm not i i hope i'm not over presuming here before they can sort of contribute something like this and see the bigger picture they're concerned with the immediate problems you know something uh that's a now next month in the month after type of a problem how do people get past that in their minds or should they yeah yeah and that that that callers or that that email that has come in is is really understandable Greg um we know there are problems there today um we we we know um that there are immediate um issues that we have to tackle so essentially what we're trying to do is um chip away those those problems by two streams of work one relates to the regeneration strategy so putting in place that bigger picture that bigger plan that um you know tells us and guides us over the next 20 years as to how we want to make letter county town centre change but alongside that we also have a number of initiatives where we've already secured funding to start to tackle those immediate problems so take for example on lower main street we've been successful in securing funding to actually acquire a number vacant and derelict buildings we're going through due diligence in relation to um the the funding protocols on that at the moment but but um you know that's that's really important for us to try to bring some key sites on lower main street and to local authority ownership through the regeneration strategy the next process we will drill down into some design concepts for those sites and then that allows the council to actually lead on activating change um a change on lower main street that's the kind of work we're chipping away at alongside the strategy all right and Councillor Jimmie Covenant will be joining us very shortly but one more question to you James you know again about uh what kind of a future we will live in how do you factor in or how do we factor in um say for instance you know um the the mix between retail and residential we don't know really how people might shop into the future you know uh how many people will actually work on site versus sort of that blending work experience again you know how do we plan for that into the into the future I wonder you're absolutely right and it's an interesting time for times at the moment things are changing very rapidly uh as you say retail a lot of retailers moving online uh people are working from from home um but we need to just make our town centre's places where people want to be um and I think uh looking at the residential population of the centre of Leta Kenny is a very important one what would it take to make people want to live in the town centre in townhouses or apartments um etc and where could that happen within within the centre what kind of retail um can thrive in those conditions um we want people to spend time to enjoy spending time in Leta Kenny they want to come in um so we need to create the environment that's conducive to that but of course we don't have a crystal ball and and we are obviously keeping an eye on the the the trends um in terms of retail set presumably set I don't know parameters or whatever it might be that can help generate whatever the town wants it to be whatever that blend is that's part of a good plan isn't it that it is it's open enough to accommodate any shifts over a decade or so yeah and I think you know working on behalf of the the the county council we can focus on the public realm that the public infrastructure and invest in that um which then in turn will stimulate investment by the private sector on the various vacant sites and properties that are in the town centre I mentioned the Kierlock of Leta Kenny Milford Municipal District Councillor Jimmy Kavana good morning Councillor thanks for joining us good morning Greg how are you good morning James yeah we've talked about this a few times it is you know we are already seeing you know uh some tentative steps you know we talked about the market square earlier on that that's ongoing uh you know presumably in the the the the wider scheme of things this other um money been allocated for further up the town and what have you but this is all a bigger plan setting the town up for where we want it to be or why you guys want it to be I'm not from Leta Kenny in the 10, 20, 30 years time well it's a public consultation Greg so hopefully it's the way that the people wanted to be and that's what hasn't formed where we're at now with the staff master plan because we have uh we've had a previous consultation early on in the year and I think there was over 800 responses to that which was excellent and uh we're going back to those people now I suppose and saying well uh you know this is what we come up with based on what you told us previously so what's your opinion now and uh hopefully there'll be as equally as good a response this time Greg if not more yeah you'd emphasise the importance of that isn't there's no points sort of looking well people can if they want to uh look at the the project from afar and go and that no uh didn't you know get involved with it how have you say now getting at the start trying to form it shape it for you for your children for your grandchildren absolutely Greg and you know yourself there's plenty of opinion out there there's always plenty on social media and so on so it's a chance now for people to log on to that website and to give their opinions and you know it's it's based on the four areas that Sinead and James have outlined but there's also uh chances there to give your own uh input into into things as well at the end of each section and uh you know I never devised people to to to give their small ideas as well as their big ideas because small things can make a big difference and uh as you've been talking about as well this is a moving thing that's not set in stone it's it's to 2040 and there's going to be many changes along the way I'm sure uh one thing Greg that is supposed would be a particular interest to people that you mentioned earlier but a very good question where where is the town centre and uh you know if you look at it as I see it now there seems to be a you know a bit of a disconnect between the retail park and the main street and how we develop those linkages I think is very important and how how we see the whole thing as one rather than as two but I suppose if it keeps scaling up the way it's going the town centre by default will be anything that's sort of there now and and and maybe the town grows grows beyond that and that sort of old town versus new town uh you know through development and and planning will just will just fade away but who's to say interesting Jimmy as always Sinead McCauley tell us where people can view what's there already and how they can get involved yeah um key key place for people to look is the project website www.letterkenny2040.ie if you log on there um you'll be able to see a video a four minute video won't take long to watch um with a cup of coffee I could watch that four minute video in two minutes I guarantee you you're not a magician Greg I'm only joking so so there's there's a video there that'll give you that that gives a lovely summary for people and if someone wants to look in a wee bit more detail to the consultation panels and you go to the get involved tab on the website and you can actually download the consultation panels and there's then an online survey we would encourage everybody everybody whether you look at the the video or you look at the consultation panels please do the survey because that's your way to feed back to us in terms of your ideas the consultation period is open until Thursday the 9th of December and next Thursday we plan to be in the AWARE former AWARE shop unit on Main Street there close to Market Square um the team will be available all day will be there from about 11 until 6 30 um it is a drop-in event um we would ask people to be um very cautious in terms of the public health environment that we're working in and we will manage that in terms of um mask wearing and social distancing and so on so come in to see the team um you'll see the consultation panels there and have a chat about it but the project website www.letterkenny2040.ie that's the goal too please um for the public Councillor Jimmy Kavanaugh thank you thanks very much Greg good to see you as always uh James Hennessy director of the Paul Hogarth company lead consultant on the project thanks to you and as you've just heard Schneid thanks very much all three of you thanks Greg okay bye bye have a good one we'll chat during the next stage I'm sure okay what time is it it's news time you're tuned to Ireland's number one local radio station it's Highland Radio with me Greg Hughes on the 9th of Noon show uh another busy hour to come on the program including business news with Kieran but at the top of the hour it's time to take a break for news update and it's uh am I boring you Catherine no not at all never it's time for news update and it's good morning to Catherine Gaffney thank you Greg good morning at Donegal doctor says he has reservations about whether the new COVID restrictions will have the desired effect a curfew for the hospitality sectors being introduced along with changes to self-isolation rules for households ministers have been given a stark warning about the impact of COVID on hospitals well the health minister says he doesn't believe the pandemic unemployment payment should return despite new COVID restrictions the hospitality sector is warned of job losses and believes many venues will be forced to close there are 61 patients awaiting admission to letter Kenny university hospital this morning 24 people were on trolleys in its emergency department while a further 37 were waiting onwards it is the second most overcrowded hospital in Ireland today health officials in northern Ireland are warning COVID passports might not be enough to curb infection rates and that more severe restrictions may need to be brought in a modeling paper says positive cases have risen by 23 percent in a week and an increase in hospital admissions is inevitable the INTO is calling for clarity on the rollout of antigen testing for primary school children rapid tests will be sent to the homes of close contacts of confirmed COVID cases the teachers at union wants to know if this means contact tracing will be reinstated in schools the health minister says a huge increase in emergency calls since February has contributed to delays in ambulance response times as part of a Sinn Fein motion on the national ambulance service the dollars heard last night of a case that a patient was brought to letter Kenny university hospital in a guard the car last month because no ambulance was available and the British Braggs minister believes a deal can be done with the EU over the northern Ireland protocol it follows comments by foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney yesterday that a deal could happen before Christmas that's it for now we're back with an update for you at 12 noon Catherine thank you very much indeed it's okay we'll be back with more on the programme after the break we're going to be talking about it's national take a hike down and normally when someone says to me take a hike uh really they're asking me to do one you know get out of their face uh but did you know that there are lots of organised hikes organized walks so we're going to be talking to Miles Sweeney who's coordinator of the sports partnership uh about it and the opportunities for you to get out and take a hike uh stay tuned for that today's nine to noon show is brought to you in association with Ulster tyres are your tyres ready for winter call into Ulster tyres in letter Kenny and volleyball today make Christmas and get ready for guests this festive season at Dunstores enjoy favorites like 20 bottle boxes of Heineken and Budweiser only 14 euro each crowd-pleasing Coca-Cola 10 or 12 pack cans now just 6 euro each and be ready when guests drop in with Jacobs biscuit tins including USA and afternoon tea just 8 euro each plus with our 10 or 50 grocery voucher you save even more Dunstores make Christmas for everyone terms and conditions apply voucher can be used on x grocery shop of 50 euro or more voucher excludes alcohol please drink sensibly new this week in home store and more all our Christmas tree lights are half price time to get Christmas ready with over 100 different types and colors to choose from but better hurry because when all our half price Christmas tree lights are gone they're gone also all cookware sets and all bath mats are still half price but when all our half price cookware sets and bath mats are gone they're gone too so order online before 2 p.m today for next day delivery or drop by your local home store and more home store and more a happy home candles lanterns Christmas trees decorations and all types of lights everything you need for Christmas experience the magic of Christmas at Cuny's our biggest and best Christmas shop has outstanding value on lights and trees there really is something for everyone at Cuny's letter candy retail park this winter be ready visit winter ready dot ie from flooding storms snow and freeze to fallen trees winter is hard to predict find out how to protect yourself your home farm business and the elderly on the office of emergency planning website winter ready dot ie or follow us on twitter at emergency ie an initiative of the government of ireland as more sectors across ireland are reopening the covid 19 pandemic unemployment payment is changing if you're currently receiving this payment the amount you receive will change from the 16th of november to find out more about how these changes will affect you visit gov dot ie forward slash pup changes a government of ireland initiative brought to you by the department of social protection finn harps host longford town this friday night for the final game of the premier division campaign harps now will win at finn park will secure their place in the top flight for next season and avoid the relegation playoff join derma da holly and deckland boil for full match commentary from 745 kickoff in bala buffet finn harps on highland in association bns credit union bala buffet whose big car draw entry is now open being with a chance to win one of two cars and thousands in cash prizes visit bnscu dot ie or free phone 1800 290 390 bns credit union limited is regulated by the central bank of ireland highland radio weather updates with national fuels letter candy for a keen prize on your home heating oil called national fuels on 9137 400 yes so as i said my tearing up predicting from tuesday or wednesday next week a real cold spell of weather uh which could be somewhat prolonged so let's enjoy supposed to relatively mild weather while we can temperature today 11 to 13 degrees a few showers around bright spells this morning cloud will increase during the day with patchy light rain or drizzle through the afternoon and evening i think maybe the temperature are paying much attention to but in winter time water winter time i'll really pay a great deal of attention to the the weather the variables between drawing wet uh but anyway that's just me right okay how many public toilets are included in an accessibly accessible plan well that's has to be fixed but that's an immediate problem i would suggest we need uh letter kenny needs public toilets doesn't it always believe the tourist office should have been situated at market square rather than the edge of town sometimes you'd need a helicopter to get around letter kenny yeah how many people if you need a specific shop main street have you done the loop looping around blowing out exhaust fumes i think we've all done it at some stage of the other please ask schnade if dcc includes plans for flood defences in this master plan with all the predictions of flooding climate change consequences uh care should be taken to only spend money in safe places that's a really good point now which a question i should have put to the master planner there because he would probably know obviously there are those that feel development has exacerbated flood risk i'm not saying that's the case but that's what some people feel you'd want to make sure wouldn't you and i'm sure and hope they would uh that any future development mitigates against that improves the situation and certainly does not reverse it okay uh let's see where are we we are going to take a break i'm a little bit behind in the breaks my apologies they'll stay where you are you'll want to stay tuned it's going to be interesting conversation re-hiking and also uh plenty of uh businesses coming with cairn and uh a load of your comments if you text in i'm going to get to them today's nine told nuncho is brought to you in association with ulster tires winter is coming get your tires winter ready call in to ulster tires in letter kenny and valley buffet today don't miss the crazy black friday deals right now at watson hire in letter kenny up to 70 percent off the recommended retail price on hand and power tools paint homeware clothing and much 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and subject to lending criteria terms and conditions apply visit scota.ie for further information your local scota dealer is dmg motors klar road donnie gall town telephone 074 97 21 396 cinclombas college denorler are accepting applications for first year enrollment for the 2022 2023 academic year from monday november 8th until monday november 29th application forms are available on their website cinclombascollege.ie or from the school office on 074 91 31246 hi guys it's Derek Ryan here and i'm really looking forward to our first shows in donnie gall for nearly two years when we return for a weekend of dancing at the clonrey hotel letter kenny this weekend on friday the 19th of november i'll be joined by david james and patrick feeney and his band on saturday night we have a g in ryan and robert basel and his band tickets for boat nights are available from my website directrye music dot com looking forward to seeing everybody this weekend at the clonrey with tonight's lalo jackpot still a guaranteed 19 million euro it means that there's more in the pot for other lotto prizes sure last saturday two winners took home over half a million euro each the national lottery it could be you play responsibly play for fun black tag sale now on a curry's pc world with amazing savings like save a massive 500 euro on the lg american style fridge freezer with water dispenser now only 999 save 470 euro on the sony 65 inch smart 4k ultra hd tv now just 1679 and save 80 euro on the hb 15.6 inch laptop with amd rise in three processor now 449 get in store our online at curry's dot ie all right you're very welcome back to the program now did you know that today is national take hike day well you would have because i said it just before the outbreak but anyway miles sweeney is coordinator of the sports partnership he joins us on the show now how are you miles reg how are you great it's good to have you with us right hiking what's the difference between hiking and walking or hiking and running or hiking and whatever well it's both difference hiking is supposed to you're looking more at a dogland and looking more at mountains and looking more at trails and that sort of structure is supposed in terms of you know the activity is such you know so it's more looking at that that side of stuff rather than just your general walking great for your physical health more so perhaps than walking because maybe it's slightly more challenging terrain though there are all options there available great for your mental health as well i mean that's pretty much broadly accepted now isn't it miles it is it is and it's a real challenge at the minute health and well-being is a huge challenge with all ages across the across society and i suppose sport and physical activity can play its part in terms of that as well Greg you know it's and and something as simple and it's as accessible as walking and hiking are obviously a way to go to to to supporting mental health in our communities and sometimes that can be and it's really hard to escape it because you know uh where where it's the trials and tribulations of the day are in our newspapers they're on our radio stations they're switch on the tv even some of your favorite your soap opera next thing you know someone's walking around with a mask on so you can't escape it on your soaps and then you might take your phone out and people are talking about all the trials and tribulations of the day and then you go to bed and you're sitting there and it's going over and over and you had it's about finding ways for us at miles and maybe i should take my own advice here in giving yourself some headspace you know something as simple as that that's positive for your mental health break away from it or look at what nature has provided for us breathe in the air we do we have to try and disengage in some way from from from media social media especially and and and all of the views and it's most of done it all we are we are challenged really you know up here as well with even with the mica story that's going on around yeah as well as another one you know with brexit across the road here in terms of the barters you know i'm trying to get away from it all it is so true what you're saying you know it is and some people have so much more yeah it's a really great point you make miles now during the summer uh we were all doing a wee bit of exploring and stuff and there was a few points of interest that i wanted to see to try and get out and there was signs up on gates saying private property you can't go here and that's fine and and i'm n