services, he should email his question instead. Councillor Miguel Aspog says that is simply not an option for him. It's reminded yet again by Yaskering that there was no translation service, which puts me at a huge disadvantage as a Geltar speaker and as a Geltar counsellor. And it's my right and in our community to conduct a bus through the meeting with Gaelic. So on that basis, I just said on protest I had to leave the meeting. Yaskering keeps saying that I had the opportunity to email my questions in Gaelic to them and they will respond in Gaelic, but Yaskering is more than aware after telling them time and time again that I don't have that luxury due to the fact that I'm dyslexic. In response, Ishka Erin says it looks to support both customers and elected representatives with access to supports in Irish. The utility adds that unfortunately they cannot guarantee the availability of an Irish speaker to support their meetings and should elected representatives wish to raise queries in Irish on behalf of themselves or their constituents, they encourage them to submit in Irish by email. Rossopena Golf Resort has been named the top 50 golf locations across the world. The Downing's golf spot ranked number 41 globally and 14th in Great Britain in Ireland according to World's Top 100, an American golf magazine. World Top 100 is said to be the world's largest community of travelling golfers. Three teenagers are due in court in connection with an attack on a 14-year-old boy. It happened in Sligo on Halloween night, Tara Duggan reports. This attack happened just after 7 o'clock on Tuesday evening close to the Apple Green service station on Sligo's male coach road. The 14-year-old was initially taken to Sligo University Hospital following the assault, but his injuries were so severe he was transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin later that night. He's still receiving treatment there. Garthi initially detained one teenage boy in connection with the attack on Wednesday morning. Two more were arrested yesterday afternoon. Garthi now say all three are to be charged before sitting of Sligo District Court this morning. A new student ambassador's scholarship scheme has been launched to promote Ireland as a destination for English language students from South Korea. Nine social media and content creators will be given the opportunity to travel here next year to show off what Ireland has to offer to language students. During their trip, the ambassadors will also help English language schools to develop a social media strategy targeting the Korean market. The cultural ambassadors will spend a month in Ireland next March to coincide with St Patrick's Day celebrations. Looking now to whether any frost and fog will clear to spells of hazy sunshine and just the odd light shower. Highs of 9 to 11 degrees in light variable winds, sitting in and around 3 degrees at the moment. That's all for now. The next news update is at half past 10. Until then, good morning. Are you a small business owner or a start-up having issues getting finance? Micro Finance Ireland can help. We are a government funded lender who provide business loans from €2,000 to €25,000. From bike shops to boxing clubs, cafes to creches, we've provided people all over Ireland with the funds they need to set up or grow their business. Find out how we can help you today, visit microfinanceireland.ie to apply or talk to your local enterprise office. Micro Finance Ireland helping small businesses with big ideas. The county's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. Hello, good morning to you. This is the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio with Donald Cavanaugh here until 12 noon today. Lots of interesting guests to welcome onto the show over the course of the next three hours. But as we always say, the most important part of this program is your views, your perspectives on the issues of the day and the issues that you would like to see raised and discussed. You can let us know what those issues are by texting us on 086 60 25000. That number good for what that message is as well. You can call us on 07491 25000, carline or taking your calls and producing the show this morning as well. You can use the code 003537491 25000 if you're outside of the dining area. If you wish to use social media, you can contact us via X at Highland Radio. We're Highland Hub on Facebook and we're live, of course, across our Facebook pages and also our YouTube channel, Highland Radio Ireland. You can watch the show unfold live and when we have Zoom guests and studio guests, you can see them as they interact with us. Also, of course, you can use email comments at HighlandRadio.com. It's Thursday morning. It's November the second and always a busy day for the papers. So let's get straight to those before we do anything else. The Thursday edition of the Donegal News this morning, main headline, crunch meeting of radiologist scandal. So the CEO Tony Canavan will be quizzed at a meeting with regional health forum members tomorrow, following the termination of radiologists contract at letter Kenney University Hospital. After just 10 days, Mr. Canavan called the meeting with members of the health forum and a rock this members after serious concerns were raised about patient safety. Now, so this clinical director, Professor Pat Nash, was on the show with us yesterday. You can listen back to what he had to say on our website, highlandradio.com. As you've been hearing all through the week, the main radiologist was employed on a locum basis in September, but the contract was terminated after it emerged that there were errors in more than a third of the scans that this person processed. Front of the chair, Connell Tribune, the main headline you've been hearing it on the news with Donna Marie this morning as well, the St. Patrick's links at Rossapenna is now one of the 50 best golf courses in the world according to Worlds Golf 100 for 2023. Also, answers sought on LUH radiologist status. That's the same story that we heard there from the Donegal news and flood relief funds increased sixfold since the National Development Plan 2017 was launched. Funding for a substantial number of works has increased more than sixfold in Donegal to a current level of 81.7 million. However, the lack of progress is obvious because not a single one of the top eight priorities in the county will commence before the autumn of 2025. That's an issue we discussed earlier this week, actually, with the Irish independence environmental correspondent, you may recall. Front of the Derry News this morning, nobody does it better, thousands flock to Derry for Europe's biggest Halloween celebrations and much coverage and pictorial commemoration inside the paper as well. Also, PSNI opened new waterside custody suite and Grace Steele massacre victims remembered 30 years on. And as well as that, last order is called at Grand Central Bar. There's a story there, the Grand Central closing in Derry and that's a bar that has a huge history. And a lot of people sad to see that bar go. Let's move to the nationals. Irish Times this morning, Gaza crossing opens for injured and foreign passport holders. Diplomats urgently seeking to have Irish people in Gaza evacuated Hamas forces and Israeli forces in fierce fighting on outskirts of Gaza City, foreign nationals and injured Palestinians have been leaving Gaza for the first time since Israel launched its offensive against the coastal enclave in the wake of Hamas's attack on October 7th, the first group of almost 80 Gaza residents entered Egypt yesterday via ambulance. Now that is just obviously a trickle of the numbers that need treatment and with a number of hospitals attacked and damaged over the past number of weeks, we do know that there are very serious situations within Gaza in terms of availability of medicines, availability of doctors, availability of proper space. And when you hear stories of operating theaters being established in the ruined corridors of damaged buildings, I mean, the first thing you've got to ask is how sterile is that and the answer is not at all. How hygienic is it? And the answer to that I suspect is not anywhere near as hygienic as the doctors would like it to be. And, you know, the situation there is, as we've been seeing, absolutely terrible. Also a story here, defective apartment remediation scheme delayed a 2.5 billion scheme to fix defective Celtic Tiger Area apartment blocks may not come on stream during the lifetime of the government with the timeline for new laws slipping until the middle of next year, at least Housing Minister Darroh O'Brien, who secured cabinet approval for the long awaited scheme in January, indicated in March he wanted the legislation to pass this year. But that's now been pushed back. All this came as a result of parliamentary questions from Sinn Féin, housing spokesperson, O'Brien and campaigners in Donegal, Mayo and areas affected by mica and prioritize and other defective blocks. We'll be looking at this latest story and thinking, yeah, there is a very, very familiar with about this one. Housing Minister promises to get the legislation implemented as quickly as possible and then it gets delayed for months and months and months. I think we've all heard that one before. Irish independent this morning, 317,000 workers are owed an average tax refund of 700 euro. Taxpayers are being urged to seek refunds they're owed from revenue after it emerged that thousands have overpaid. New figures indicate as many as 317,054 taxpayers gave revenue too much money last year. That's on top of almost 260,000 who overpaid in 2021. That's according to a dull reply given to Labour's Ged Nash by Finance Minister Michael McGraw. Mr Nash urged all PAYE workers to submit a tax return so they get the credits and reliefs to which they are entitled. And I suppose it's one of the truisms of life. If you owe them money, they will let you know very, very quickly indeed.  But yeah, absolutely something that we should all be thinking of looking into. Irish Daily Mail.  Explosive evidence that Martin's sentencing hearing over violent death, that sentencing hearing continuing in the US. Main headline on the Irish Daily Mail this morning. We cannot have mass every week. Bishop admits that not every church will have celebrations every weekend. Live streaming to replace services. Churches may have to combine. And Sunday mass in every church in the parish will no longer be set in stone clerics have warned. The warning came from the bishop of Kilmore, Martin Hayes. He said the reality means we cannot continue with the existing number of masses in our parishes. And that's an echoed by Father Jimet Hogan, who's a parish priest in Orenmore in Galway. He says there's now a possibility of churches near each other combining to form what he called a vibrant and substantial congregation. And we can be fairly sure, I think, that that's an issue that's going to hit parishes right across the country. Looking at the Irish Sun this morning, the main headline, Touch of Today. Delighted TV star Dahi Yoshe shows off his thick, new head of hair after getting a robotic transplant. The RTE Today show host 47 said having his locks restored through the AI assisted treatment was the best decision I've made in my life. Fair play. If that's the way Dahi feels, I have to say my hair would come very, very low in my list of priorities as anyone who knows me can see. But I wouldn't be worrying too much about that. But that's Dahi's new hair. That's the main headline in the Irish Sun. Toon Spank, Sorry United. Man United, Nail Newcastle 3. That's the caribou cup. And Jason Kidd's told how he abused Molly. Dad made mum weep. Jason Corbett's kid said he physically and verbally hurt Molly Martins and made her cry in recanted interviews at US Court her gesturing. These were interviews recorded very shortly after their dad's death. And they later we understand through their team, the legal teams recanted that evidence. And so what's been listened to yesterday was recordings of evidence given some time ago, very shortly after their father's death when the children presumably were very upset. And we understand there's talks about calling the children themselves onto the stand at some point during the sentencing hearing over the coming days. But we'll see how that unpans that. Irish Daily Mirror this morning. We know more about here Dahis. Yeah, you really love when the puns start to come out, don't you? So that's the banner across the top. Main story, Middle East in crisis. Escape from hell. Injured among few allowed to flee Gaza amid reports of Irish hostage and few being the operative word there. And Fergal Blaney writes, exclusively he says the government will not comment on reports on Irish citizen is being held by Hamas. Secret negotiations are believed to be ongoing to secure the hostages released. It's been claimed by Iranian media. So that's the Irish Daily Mirror this morning. Irish Daily Star, Dahis Quiff Fix. Yeah, so the main story of the day is Dahi O'Shea's hair. So his hair's got a Quiff fix. Yeah, as I said, the headlines start coming out. Team beaten with nails studded baseball. Bassist story you'll have heard on the news with Donna Marie. Boy 14, critical as three are held over brutal attack. That's the 14 year old boy who was attacked in Sligo on Halloween night. Also a sidebar, 35 Irish bid to escape from hell in Gaza. Again, Fergal Blaney writing, 35 Irish people are hopeful of fleeing Gaza after Egypt opened a border crossing following a deal agreed between Israel and Hamas to allow citizens out. Again, it came as it was reported the government asked Iran to mediate with Hamas over an Irish citizen being held hostage. Now, finally, it's a Thursday, which means we have the Irish Farmers Journal this morning. New weight and age limits to sell calves. New minimum weight and age restrictions for selling calves are being considered by the Department of Agriculture. The Irish Farmers Journal can reveal more stringent controls on the movement, sale and export of young stock were tabled by the department officials at a recent meeting of the CAF stakeholder forum. Also on the front, 183 million in eco-scheme payments begin. That's the Irish Farmers Journal. And of course, don't forget, if you're interested in matters agricultural, Chris Ashmore will be here this evening directly after the many news at five o'clock with farming news and views. And that's certainly worth listening to if it's something that you have an interest in. It's 60 minutes past nine, time for a short break, back after these. Exciting news. Kia at iMotors are thrilled to introduce our stellar offers for 2024. Enjoy peace of mind with a complimentary service for the first two years. Plus an additional one year if you're a Kia customer already. 1.9% finance on EV cars, 3.9% PCP, providing flexible and affordable payment options and receive a 500 euro super value voucher when you purchase a Kia. These offers are designed with you in mind. Don't miss out, visit iMotors today in letter Kenny and Mallon. This is an emergency appeal from UNICEF for children affected by the crisis in Gaza. Right now, hundreds of thousands of children are in extreme danger. They need medical supplies, shelter and clean water. UNICEF is on the ground in Gaza. Please donate now at unicef.ie. Thank you.   But it's only Tuesday. Well, there's no need to feel guilty about stopping off at Kelly's Diner because the menu is packed with tasty choices and great value. With fast friendly service and loads of parking, you can treat yourself any day of the week at the award-winning Kelly's Diner and on top, Letter Kenny. Join us at Connelly's Volkswagen Letter Kenny for a demo and X management vehicle sales event taking place from the 31st of October until the 4th of November with stock available for immediate delivery. Discover amazing offers on Artigo, T-Rock and fully electric ID range, offering a blend of discounts, low-interest financing and exclusive trade-in bonuses. So why not visit our dealership at Canal Road Letter Kenny, talk to a member of our team, test drive her demo range and drive away in your new Volkswagen with Connelly Motor Group. Contact us on<PHONE_NUMBER> or see our full range at connellys.ie. Highland radio time checks with Expressway. Travel Route 32 from Letter Kenny to Dublin when you book online and travel for less. Expressway, bringing you the time, Matt. It's 18 minutes past nine o'clock. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra Mountaintop Letter Kenny, the 2022 Seastore National Off-Licence of the Year. Got a call from a resident of the Newton-Conningham area yesterday saying traffic was blocked for road resurfacing yesterday, no access to any of three points which were closed. No notice was given according to the caller. Eight businesses had no access, including the medical centre. Some houses also blocked off. Caller says, I appreciate the work has to be done, but what happened yesterday was unacceptable. There was no notice given to the public, so it is claimed. Now joined online by councillor Paul Conning. Paul, good morning to you. Good morning, Donald. How are you? Very well indeed. Paul, we know there's very important work going on in Newton at the moment and a lot of urban renewal work, a lot of development work in Newton. It's work that you and others have welcomed, obviously, over the past while. But has there been an issue this week with the notice given about road works and the extent to which areas are being blocked off in the village? Before we get into that, Donald, the first thing I need to do because of the situation, I would like to offer my condolences to Kevin Lake and his family who is spurring their brother today. He's the load engineer on the project, so I'd like to just say that at this point in time. I'd like to give condolences to him because he's the engineer on the job in relation to the village of Newton, Cunningham. As you know, we are doing a lot of work in relation to everything that's happening there. We have, and everybody is aware that there is disturbances happening. As we speak, my parents both live in the village and I visited them yesterday, and there was a situation where it was difficult to get it into the estates and to get it into premises. Now, the situation with the whole project, we are doing Newton, Cunningham, as you are well aware, is along Strait, and there is, there will be traffic disturbances. The situation with it is, whenever the council do a project, they offer that out to tender. The contractor, the tenders for them, they have, they offer out the traffic management to another outlet for the purpose of doing the project. So there's three or four different people that are different companies nearly involved in all that. And it's the working together, and sometimes you do have situations where it doesn't run smoothly. Yesterday, apparently, because I got a few phone calls in relation to it, yesterday, apparently, there was slow movement and traffic, and there was people that were unable to get out, but all of that seems to have solved itself. And also, I came through the village today, and I had no problem going through the village today, don't know if it seemed to be working. And what we are doing is, we are putting in a base course at the minute, and the contractors will be finished, come probably Monday evening, Tuesday morning, they will be finished the base course. And then what happens is then we have all the, basically some of the ducting to do in the footpath, we have curb install to do and all of that, and then they will be coming back, maybe May of next year to do the finished course. That's the plan, that can change, as you well know. Again, they say forearmed is forewarned. And to a large extent, if you get to the situation where we've had in letter, Kenny, a lot of work obviously over the past couple of years with regards to water and sewage pipes and so on. Now, we will very often get notification that the road at High Road or the road at Ardo Donald or the road on wherever is going to be closed, and it'll be closed between these times, and there'll be diversions in place, and this is going to happen, and we'll get the notification a couple of days in advance when we can broadcast it, and people can then know. Is it the situation that people didn't know things were going to be so busy yesterday, or is it that somewhere along the line there was a communication didn't happen and the word didn't get out? Because if people know what the situation is, they can work around it, but if people aren't forewarned, then that's when you get problems like this. Yeah, the situation, we timed the roadworks to suit the primary school and the closing time and that because there would have been a lot of activity. The road never was planned to be closed, nor it never was closed.  So at time there is 15 minutes or 20 minutes where you could be sitting closed on for a better word. The problem being, as I said to you, with the length of your main street, there would be a situation where a person might have felt that they were closed on for 20, 15, 20 minutes, but whenever you add that to about five or six different premises that are having different 20 minutes for a better word, all of a sudden people say, oh, we've been closed on this last two hours, but the Newton-Conningham, as you well know, is a town that is bypassed and a lot of access can get into Newton-Conningham from different places. And the signage was, I know people said they were all signage, but the signage is a male and the letter Kenny side of the main road telling people not to turn in at the bottom of Newton and the same on the opposite side. So there's a lot of signage, there's a lot, but as I said, there's always, you're always going to have issues when you are doing a lot of work. And we have to welcome the work that is being done because there's last four or five years, we have had probably one of the worst main streets in the county. So we have to get it done and dusted. So this is the base course, as I said, and we are widening the footpath for the slavery of the children. We're trying to do it the way that the school is closed. And on behalf of the council, we're doing our best. The reality, and you did say that Newton is bypassed and indeed it is, the main dairy road passes by Newton. But the reality too is if anyone is heading, say, toward Foilsight or toward Craig-Avon Bridge or toward the Calais side of Derry, I would find myself, as often as not if I'm traveling into Derry, I'm going to go through Newton and go that way via Calais rather than use the main dairy road. So a lot of people will still use Newton as the road into Derry. So what you're saying first and foremost, maybe while these works are going on, pay attention to the signage that's telling people, look, don't turn into Newton at the normal turnoff where you would go, go further up and take the turnoff that's sort of beyond Kernans on the main dairy road. Yeah, or even further afield, go on to your completely past Newton and turn on there. And as I said, the signage has been up telling people to go in that direction, you know? Yeah. Okay, certainly that would be good advice and I suppose if we can minimise the amount of traffic going through Newton Village at the moment where these works are going on, that would serve everybody's purposes. Paul Cunning, thanks indeed for speaking to you. So basically what you're saying is that there was no road closure per se, but the reality of the situation is while this machine is on the road, there can be 10, 15 minute periods here and there where a particular area can find itself being blocked off. Yeah, and as I say, they'll be gone on Tuesday up next week, you know? So they only arrived there Monday this week, you know? So for the sake of, you know, it's a weekend. As I said, we tried to time it with the children been up school, you know? And that's fair enough because certainly if all the school traffic were in the village at the same time, it could be very problematic indeed. Paul, thanks very much indeed for clarifying that for us. That's Councillor Paul Cunning there speaking to us from Newton Cunningham. And as Paul said there, the situation is this work will be going on over the course of this week and we potentially will have times when there'll be blockages. There is no road closure per se, but there will at times potentially be blockages as work is done on the road. Now we're going to change tack completely because it's been suggested that graphic warning labels could reduce people's meat consumption. Someone handing a plate of food, including a burger and salad to a customer, a new study from a Department of Psychology has found cigarette-style graphic warning labels could reduce that consumption. We're going to go on to Zoom and speak to Jack Hughes who is a PhD student and co-author of this particular study. Jack, good morning to you. Jack, this is an interesting one because there's been a lot of talk about meat consumption for people's health, but also more and more it's become an environmental issue and the argument is that meat consumption globally as it stands at the moment is utterly unsustainable. Yeah, I would say that is the case. I mean really when you think about the reasons why you might want to reduce meat consumption globally is there's kind of three primary issues. Well, I suppose four. There's the animal welfare issue which has been one that's been known about for a long time. There's the health issues around having too high a level of meat intake. There's the environmental issues around the way that we currently farm and also there's this risk that the way that we farm and the way that we deforest land increases the risk of these kind of pandemics that we've had obviously like the zoonotic disease pandemic of Covid. So yeah, there's a lot of reasons to be thinking about reduction. Can I put it to you and I know that a lot of our listeners will be farmers and this county of Donegal is very well known as a beef farming county and the cattle are raised in open fields and they're raised in a very sustainable way and local farmers will argue that they're the most environmentally friendly and sustainable farmers that you'll get and I'm sure the exact same argument is going to be made by beef farmers in the UK which will have very similar situations. Cattle out on open fields eating grass maybe taking silage and hay in pens during the winter but by and large the cattle are eating grass in open fields. It's in stark contracts we're told to say the situation in Argentina, Brazil, countries in South America where you've got really intensive farming practices where they're much more enclosed and much less environmentally friendly. Is that an argument that maybe says that it's going to make it more difficult for you to get an argument like yours across in this part of the world because what people see is they see cattle in an open field and they see utterly nothing environmentally dangerous about that. I mean firstly I would say this you know I'm not really trying to make an argument here and I totally appreciate and agree with everything that you've just said there as well. Well I think you know all I'm doing is trying to do the research to build an evidence base so that then when the policymakers and the people who make the decisions and you know the people who do have to weigh up well do we kind of discourage the kind of more sustainable agriculture that happens locally or do we just try and discourage the agriculture that's happening in other countries or how do we how do we do that? I think they I'm just trying to provide do some research that provides them the information so that they can understand the potential effectiveness of putting these kind of labels and things and you know they might come to the decision that okay warning labels are effective but actually we don't want to discourage people from eating locally grown meats we just want to discourage them from eating these other types of meats so maybe we'll just put the labels on that but yeah that's not for me I'm just here to try and build the evidence base. So your study then is more a psychological study on the impact warning labels will have on people's way of thinking more so than necessarily a study of the environmental impacts of beef farming. Exactly yeah I mean obviously we have to kind of outline what the environmental impacts on a broad sense are in the study but essentially what we were looking at is yeah if you put a warning label on to meat products do people choose less meat options and then obviously the people who make the decisions can do with that information whatever they like. Obviously the the immediate point of comparison inevitably is going to be cigarettes and where warning labels started appearing I would imagine the first warning labels were probably appearing 40 50 years ago even longer perhaps and first of all it started as a small little box that said these might not be the best things for you then the label got a bit bigger then the label got a bit bigger now a cigarette packet is just one big huge warning label with perhaps a brand name written in small lettering along the side thankfully it's been a long time since I've actually actually held and seen one um but you know you've now got to the point where a cigarette packet is effectively a big picture of a black lung have you been able to to do an assessment of the impact it would have had on smoking patterns over the years as the warning labels got bigger and bigger and bigger and more intense and more intense and graphic yeah a really good question I haven't personally done any research into kind of the the increasing progression but there is research out there and there's lots of evidence that suggests that these new the the latest warning labels the ones that in the UK kind of came in around 2008 where you had the graphic image alongside the text they had a really significant impact on people's intentions to quit how many times they tried to quit it reduced the amount of cigarettes that they smoked and also in a few trials has been shown to actually literally reduce like the stop people from smoking did you look at how a warning label on meat would be constructed how it would be presented and how it would be phrased and what size it would be did they form factors of your own study yeah a little bit so we ran a brief pilot study before we did the main study where we asked people to kind of we gave them a few options of the text and the images that they might want to see and we asked them to rate them on we have this this phrase we use which is negative emotional arousal which is essentially how discomforting does it make you feel how anxious how worried does it make you feel and what we find a lot of the time with these graphic warning labels is that the higher you know the more discomforting the label is the more likely it is to be effective so that's certainly something we took into account but all the kind of additional steps of kind of size and specific design beyond just that one metric I think that's future stuff that's things that people will do to try and hone the labels so that they're both palatable to people so people don't get upset by them but also effective at the same time is the focus of the warning labels that you the focus you used in terms of how it's going to be presented is the focus on the potential health impacts of too much red meat or is the focus on the potential environmental impacts of intensive farming that's a really good question so yeah if people go and read the study we actually tried three different warning labels so we tried a health warning label which essentially just said eating meat contributes to poor health we had a environmental warning label which said eating meat contributes to climate change and then we had this pandemic's warning label that asked people eating meat contributes to pandemics basically and so what we found is that they were all equally effective which we thought was really interesting you might have anticipated that one would be more effective than the other but then when we asked people to choose which one they kind of thought would be they would be most likely to support if it was brought in as a policy the pandemic label was the least supported and the environmental label was the most supported so you know all equally effective but if we're trying to do something effective without angering people maybe the environmental label would be the way for policymakers to go and perhaps the reason for that is the fact that we've been talking about maybe the comparison between labels on cigarettes versus labels on meat now the big difference is that it is now impossible to make any positive claim whatsoever about smoking be it related to health or well-being in any way shape or form you cannot make a positive argument that says smoking is good for you because that's just a blank page whereas obviously the argument is going to be meat is good for protein meat is good for iron meat contributes to your health in terms of your nutrition in terms of giving you a balanced diet so that the health one is going to be slightly different it's a lot more difficult to tease out the health one because you can equally make arguments to say meat is very good because it has these nutritional benefits you can that's true and it is a more nuanced debate but I think the thing that gets lost is that a lot of the medical research does identify that kind of the more meat that you intake the more likely you are the more at risk you are of cardiovascular disease and diabetes and obesity and stroke and all these things even one study looking at Alzheimer's and how potentially specifically red meat in that example can increase your risk of Alzheimer's so there isn't evidence based there but as you say there's also counter evidence which is fairly legitimate as well so I think as you were kind of suggesting any policymaker or government that wanted to look at the research that we've done needs to have a very nuanced opinion around what dietary choices people can make and what dietary choices are good for people because you also have to remember for some people for specific medical conditions or people who have extremely low iron due to some particular issue like they really do need something that is injecting large amounts of iron into their body so yeah as you say there's a lot of nuance to it this was done by yourself as part of your PhD and your thesis for that and all the best with that I mean have you now completed a PhD or are you still going through the completion of it I'm still in the process hoping to be done by the end of this year if I can be but yeah not there yet and will this be published widely do you reckon or is it just going to be an academic paper do you see a potential for this actually to be published as a book in inverted commas the mainstream is that we're rather than just being an academic paper it's a good idea and not something that I've actually thought about at all but if I do write a book based on my thesis I'll give you an acknowledgement for giving me that but I mean it's certainly something that's interesting and it's a very important part of what's going to be an ongoing and widening debate and I think there is no doubt that the debate on the consumption of meat both locally and globally is going to intensify certainly from the environmental point of view but it's a very interesting element of that debate and maybe one we don't think of very often the psychology of it and the psychology of warning labels and certainly that's given us food for thought Jack Hughes thanks very much indeed for speaking to us this morning thank you that's Jack that's a pleasure speaking to you that's Jack there who is working on his thesis at the moment he's in the psychology department of Durham University in the UK actually cousin of my new speed lecturer there many many years ago and Jack's looking at the psychology of warning labels on meat and what impact it's going to have on consumption we await with interest to see where that one goes but it is going to be a huge debate as we said in the months and years to come time for a break back after these watch the show live now on YouTube Facebook and at highlandradio.com the opal open road event is now on discover the incredible opal range including continental tires iris compact car of the year 2023 the opal astra and if you order before december 15th get a 500 euro aldi voucher with your new astra corsa mocha or grandland all available with flexible payment 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networks energizing your everything it's important to take care of yourself when you're feeling unwell and if you have symptoms of a virus flu or COVID-19 the best thing to do is to rest up and stay at home because you won't just be taking care of yourself you'll be helping to protect other people too people close to you like family and friends and people you've never even met who might be at higher risk than you and don't forget to visit hsc.ie for advice on getting better from the HSC of meeting not all that long ago because they made a presentation to the letter kennie milford municipal district in the public services center here in letter kennie and I had the pleasure of being present for that and speaking to some of them afterwards I'm joined and if you're watching us online on our facebook or youtube channels you can see these people in all their glory I'm joined by Stephen Sheridan who is the mayor of the dunnegal youth council also joined by Joanne Evidence and Rowan Buchanan who are also members of council and all three of you are very welcome indeed good morning well thanks very much good morning and okay as I said Stephen and Joanne I had the pleasure of meeting both of you quite recently in the public services center in letter kennie it's just coincidence I happened to be doing this show this morning when you come in which is nice next thursday Stephen as mayor you'll be hosting the annual youth conference at the raddison hotel in letter kennie that's going to be a big one for you it's going to be a big one here at the honle especially after last year we had 100 nits last year so we're hoping at the minute for at least 110 so we're going bigger this year last year obviously it was the AGM and we've undergone a bit of rebranding into the youth conference so look we're hoping for a big day after last year we've got a lot of work done and to have this it's such a great opportunity even to run such an event because you never get over 100 young people from dunnegal in the one room to talk about the issues affecting them Joanne from your own point of view I'm sure you're looking forward to conference what do you think are going to be the big points that come up at a conference this year? we're not voting this year again in terms of the issues being being discussed at the at the conference though I think the issues that will be discussed is what has come up since we voted last year same with the vaping still a big issue still trying to tackle that mental health will be creeping in as well with our social media page up and running now and Rowan from your point of view what do you think are going to be the big issues? so we're carrying over the three issues that were voted on last year but we're actually hoping to get to talk to people in each of the MDs about issues that they want their their youth councillors to work on locally so we're hoping to get the five municipal districts and be able to talk to people about their local issues as well as the ones that are affecting the whole of dunnegal and Joanne you presumably have been speaking to people in your own schools in your own areas and you'll be bringing their views forward to conference yourself as well as hopefully some of them coming as well yep definitely we have five from my school going with another youth council member who'll be going as well so it will be great to see what they come up with as well because it's not just doing council so we get more views and Stephen from obviously from what we're saying this is a continuation of the work that was done last year and certainly issues of vaping issues of social media body image were ones that were discussed last year they were voted on that the council has a very clear policy on them you know when you look at last year versus this year there's going to have been some movement there's going to have been some success there's also I'm sure because this is local politics and initially there's going to have been some frustration as well so first of all talk about the successes of dunnegal youth council since last year well sorry this term anyway we've made we've done a lot of research especially on vaping on all of our topics so we've made a lot of that research available to young people of dunnegal some were delighted to do it's what we're here to do is to more or less educate the education has been our main strategy of going about these topics of sharing information and so we've been designing and when it comes to the vaping anyway we've been designing programs with with froiga there around you you're better off in the vaping now you've done all the research so I was one of the hosts of the podcast that we've recently done so I've done a lot of a lot of research on these topics so we've worked with froiga to make a workshop that will be able to be used in schools and with other youth organizations we had a consultation with the HSE where we got to talk to them about all the facts and myths and different stuff that they're working on and then we were able to do our own research for our podcast which is meant to be spreading the word and information to young people about the legislation that's coming in as well as we wrote a letter to the Minister for Health about the legislation and Joanne I know because this was discussed a few weeks back at the public services centre in in letter to Kenny as well but in terms of the legislation what happened is the youth council had been preparing a policy document and the Minister actually pretty much all the things that were in that policy document more or less the Minister has actually announced in legislation already yeah so one of the things was to ban advertising so that kind of you want to take control on that because you help sorry but basically the we wrote to Minister for Health commending the legislation that is coming into effect which is great to see honestly and the government taking action on that but there was issues that weren't addressed in legislation so advertisement the flavourings the packaging as well as when you walk into most corner stores unlike cigarettes it's the first thing you see they're up on the counter they're where you pay where we think that they need to be you know they're the same as cigarettes in a in a perspective so they should be behind the counter and not pushed forward not advertised towards young people Steven we've been speaking about these successes and certainly vaping is one that you know that the youth council was pushing these issues before we got word of this legislation even from the Minister what have been the frustrations well the frustrations well obviously we were earlier on in the year we were all set we had we had letter drafted to the to the Minister for Health and we were all ready to go and on the day that it was meant to be sent out we had arranged to have it hand-lovered even to the Minister at an event he was speaking at on the day and as that letter was about to be handed to him he got up on and announced this legislation that was coming in so it was that was really frustrating for us obviously but we've come back we've we've talked some time we've redrafted we've consulted with all our all our all our partners the HSC, the Freugea and even today we're going to be speaking to Jigsaw obviously mental health is going to be a big topic in today's meeting but we're also going to look at the mental health aspect of the weapon you know what that can do to your mental health but it's a testament to the work of yourself and Raun and Joanne and others in the Council that the Minister stood up and pretty much announced exactly what it was you were going to ask him to do so you were really really on the right track when it comes to that so I mean at least it shows that you were very much on the right track when it came to that Joanne I want to ask you about another issue that's going to be discussed and was discussed last year as well and that's the issue of body image and that's a really really important one isn't it yeah body image is big it ties in with mental health as well ties back into vaping as well body image with like ties in with social media because what you see is what you want to be it's kind of a monkey see monkey do kind of situation and obviously you'll be encouraging people to try and look beyond you know cliches and and and look beyond things like that and maybe the way people use social media the way people speak on social media the way people describe others on social media can be very vital in in terms of of that you're trying to portray a like more positive body image stop spreading fake news all that trying to we're not we haven't like touched base on body image yet because we're still working with vaping and now social media so we'll get back to that in the and around the podcast which you've been involved in actually presenting that's going to be a very important thing I suspect going forward because many many people are now listening to podcasts on a regular basis and potentially the work of Donegal Youth Council you know can go well beyond Donegal as a result of this podcast because it's going to be available worldwide yeah so there's obviously a rising number in young people using podcasts as their main source of information on different topics so we find that there was sort of a lack of youth voice in different news media and in different things like podcasts for young people so we came up with this to be able to spread awareness and spread information and like you said it'll hopefully go beyond Donegal and it's open to everybody and it's the youth voice and youth research on said topics and when can when and where can people hear the podcast so the podcast is on Spotify and it is now available because I know we were talking about it actually two weeks back and I think it was just on the verge of being finished so it is actually available now on Spotify so people can search Donegal Youth Council yeah we released last Friday excellent well it's really good to know that and I will certainly make sure that we'll push that as well ourselves here on our own social media any final thoughts Stephen ahead of conference obviously a planning meeting taking place today with the HSC and others a lot of work to be done over the coming days before this day weekend and conference itself there's there's so much to be done going live I'd nearly say we're going after the last minute but obviously today is going to be huge we've got a stacked agenda so coming on to it we're really hoping to get back numbers hoping to have a lot of people there because the more the merrier obviously and obviously we're encouraging youth groups schools even to contact us and send forward a delegation on Thursday and so coming on to it I'm excited for it obviously because it's the culmination of a year's worth of work now and we get to showcase that now to our constituents to the people who elected us and who we represent so I hope they're all content and happy with what we've done and we'll obviously keep working now into the new year until our term finishes this time next year and presumably some of the members of Donegal County Council itself some of the local politicians hopefully even some of the TDs will be there as well so that they can actually see what you're doing and then they can get a bit of inspiration from you as well as the other way around well we've we have extended an invitation now to the Cahirla mountain harley we hope to have speaking on the day it's great always to have the Cahirla last year we had we had the Cahirla and so where was it going now it's obviously it's a huge honor it's recognition from the Donegal County Council that we do exist and that the work that we do is so important and it's great to hear that they and it's always even when we were speaking to you last at the at the municipal district meeting and it's it's great to have them even inviting us into their meetings so it's great to have them come in to our meetings now and might be so Joanne you too will have a lot of work to do over the next coming days are you looking forward now to the preparation and to conference next week yeah we're looking forward to seeing the new ideas that come within on the day excellent and Rowan yourself obviously you've done a lot of work on the vaping issue and you know that that's something that you you know are still in the middle of in terms of preparing the final presentation to the minister but it must be exciting for you now to be looking ahead to conference with with a lot of work done but if we can borrow an old phrase from an old politically campaign from years ago a lot done more to do definitely we do have a lot to do today we'll be big in planning I know that Michael is a bit stressed but hopefully he'll be he'll be better after it but um yeah I know we're very excited to get the youth voice and like I said to talk about local issues because we've obviously tackled the big ones that were voted on last year but to get done and talk about each each area of Donegal that'll be that'll be great to do Mike Michael is the the adult who sit the people can't see one comrade is there good morning Michael Hey how's it going? Very well indeed are you looking forward to working with these three guys and the others on council? Definitely look and the guys have put in a lot of work this last year and I suppose this is a chance to kind of showcase that but as well as that it's a chance to reach out to the young people that haven't maybe been successful in their elections to come forward and tell us you know maybe things we must do it on or what these guys can improve on going forward as well so yeah looking forward to it Michael thanks a million um Stephen Sheridan mayor of Donegal Youth Council Joanne Evans and Rowan Buchanan all three of you all four of you indeed thanks very much indeed for coming in today it's been great to see you and uh may you have a great couple of days preparation and have a really good conference next week thank you thank you so much take care bye now are the signs of aging creeping up on you are you not happy with the way you look or feel at letter kenny medics private clinic we're here to help you offering botox anti-wrinkle injections derma fillers skin bio injections botox treatment for grinding and clenching teeth hyper hydroses that aids excessive sweating let our doctors help bring back your confidence and look after what is important to you to see what real results really look like book your immediate appointment with no waiting times at letterkennymedics.ie letterkennymedics we listen if you want to talk looks like we're in for a cold spell perfect weather to chill out in a steaming seaweed bath on sly ghost shores talk with scattered showers too perfect weather for sea swimming off the coast of water for sure you're already wet it's fierce windy out there perfect weather to be swept off your feet in a romantic weekend in cork city whatever the weather it's always perfect weather to keep discovering with great short breaks forecast right across Ireland plan your next one now at discoverisland.ie finding a new car takes time searching researching comparing test driving short listing it doesn't happen overnight but 12 days should do it between november 1st and 12th the 12 days of ford sales event can save you up to a whopping 5000 euro on the ford kuga with further offers for 2024 available on puma and focus when you finance with ford options no rush but do get a move on ford bring on tomorrow teas and sees apply at participating dealers until november 12 visit ford.ie for details come along and join the team at homeland letterkenny for a festive evening in store on thursday the second of november from six till eight p.m. enjoy festive music and save 20 percent of christmas lights and artificial christmas trees on the evening meant spies and refreshments for all visit homeland.ie for more information highland radio weather updates brought to you by grant from condensing oil and hfio biofuel boilers to heat pumps and underfloor heating you can trust grant to heat your home visit grant.ie and looking at the weather forecast for this thursday morning and met air and tell us that we can expect any lingering rain to clear from the east this morning it'll stay dry for many for the rest of the day with sunny spells and well-scattered showers following the showers more frequent and occasionally heavy in the west and southwest later top temperatures nine to 12 degrees celsius and light to moderate westerly winds fresher in the west and northwest tonight it'll be dry for most areas with long clear spells however scattered showers will continue to feed into northern western and southwestern coastal counties a few patches of mist and fog will develop a touch of frost forming with top temperatures overnight of one to five milder in coastal areas light to moderate northwesterly winds tomorrow bright and dry for many with sunny spells and scattered showers more most frequent in the southwest of the region quite breezy with moderate to fresh west and northwest winds top temperatures tomorrow 10 to 13 degrees celsius now let's just look at a few of your comments before we go to news which is a creeping up on us it's been a really fast hour actually korea says i have to say i find it ridiculous that our agriculture minister is out in south korea signing a deal on irish beef while at the same time discussing climate change kind of ridiculous to be honest norter collar says eating too much meat is bad for carnivorous diet what nonsense imagine telling a lion he's eating too much meat i don't think these people actually stop and think what they're saying sometimes has a common sense gone out the window that's a throwback to our conversation with jack from durham university i get where that councillor is coming from however what's more important being able to speak irish or your constituents clean drinking water that's a reference to councillor michael colin mcgillow spoke there and his issues with ish garen being discussed on the news today what they're doing in newton street is a joke they're making the street narrower newton is a rural town and heavy vehicles need to get to businesses in the town all that was needed was to resurface the road another caller says the last 28 days have proven one thing we have moved past condemning israel's apartheid supremacy regime collectively we must go about dismantling it permanently that's from frahues who's the director of palestine aid in belfast we have now i'm going to leave that to one side because it's a hsc response to a question raised yesterday and i i don't want to flick over i don't want to give that the attention it deserves um what's the point of reducing the unit price of electricity when the charges and hidden fees are killing us if you can look into the prices paid for standing charges line rental vast pso etc etc we are over a barrel so says a caller and finally with regards to a caller that says my daughter was at a disco um and the next day she noticed a small prick mark on her arm i immediately rang and made an appointment at her local gp to get her bloods done as we were concerned someone had tried to inject her at the disco upon going to her appointment she was made to look like a fool and basically told there's nothing they can do and if there is anything there it will be a while before they pick that up they never even took her bloods and did nothing basically said go to the emergency department she left in tears and said is it any wonder girls fear that they're not listened to or heard when they're being treated like that that is a very disturbing story um it you know that someone they an appointment was made to get bloods done and that appointment was made out of a sense of concern and they feel that they were not listened to and that they were um sent on on their way um concerning indeed it's a minute and a half to 10 o'clock we're going to take a short break and after the break of course we will have the news and the obituary notices with Donna Marie um but for now we will take that break and i'll see you in the second hour step into autumn with green shoes latest arrivals treat your feet with green's newest range of boots and shoes from brands like Unahili, Kate Appleby, Bugatti and Wonders there's also Echo, Riker, Dubari and many more shop and store in Aberkennie and Polkara or online at greenshoes.com shop lk and one for all gift cards accepted in store green shoes step into autumn in style is booking dental appointments slip in your mind during your busy week the new patient portal at blue poppy dentistry and orthodontics makes it so easy you can book appointments out of ours even on a sunday see for yourself by visiting blue poppy dental dot com blue poppy dental and orthodontics Etter Kenny and Donagall town medical card patients welcome and our Donagall town practice are you building a new home building requirements state that you must install a radon barrier at ff radon systems we supply and professionally install the fully certified barrier for more information call him at ff radon systems on zero eight six eight double three two seven four nine test drive the Suzuki s cross at barry brown cars milford at their test drive weekend on saturday fourth and sunday fifth of november and avail of the zero percent finance offer that's right secure your two four one Suzuki s cross at zero percent interest on november fourth and fifth at barry brown cars milford your main Suzuki dealer in dunny gore finance subject to status terms and conditions apply foyer and companies black friday sale is running for the entire month of november the one-off sale you don't want to miss all this week there's up to 50 off selected scatterbox cushions plus lots more discounts including 20 off julox moda paint and 50 off revoli dining sets there's also great discounts off Italian leather sulfas irish made mattresses and so much more a month of black friday sales not to be missed at foyer and company in letter kenny and ballet buffet live on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning it's donna mary darty with the news at ten o'clock thicky here look of glantis municipal district left yesterday's meeting with ishka erin feeling disappointed councillor michael mcclaffrey says the lack of progress is what has annoyed him when discussing the slow progress of work at the foyer treatment plant councillor mcclaffrey was told that the four-shore license is the issue he says he's been waiting around 18 months for the license to be granted i will not move forward onto the four-shore relations to scott now we're sitting here at the minute donna mary maybe 18 months or so after this situation of applying for a four-shore license so this cost greater than i just delivered a couple of us and um i asked then for it to get a breakdown then off of four-shore relations then what actually was the process or example why was it taking up to two years or or possibly more because we're mentioning some places two and a half years and slightly longer to get a four-shore license and i think this is like living hell like what is the holdup on getting a four-shore license ross pennagolf resort has been named in the top 50 golf locations across the world the darning's golf spot ranked number 41 globally and 14th in great britain and ardent according to world's top 100 an american golf magazine world's top 100 is said to be the world's largest community of traveling golfers three teenagers are due in court in connection with an attack on a 14-year-old boy it happened in slago on halloween night tara duggan reports this attack happened just after seven o'clock on tuesday evening close to the apple green service station on slago's male coach road the 14-year-old was initially taken to slago university hospital following the assault but his injuries were so severe he was transferred to bowmont hospital in dublin later that night he's still receiving treatment there gar thee initially detained one teenage boy in connection with the attack on wednesday morning two more were arrested yesterday afternoon gar thee now say all three are to be charged before sitting of slago district court this morning it said we're treating young adults like children when it comes to the minimum wage here some workers under the age of 19 are only earning a fraction of the national minimum wage it's set to rise from 11 year 30 an hour to 12 70 in january sparking fears that ours will be cut for employees senator mary sherlock labor's spokesperson on employment says paying younger people less is discriminatory you know there are 30 000 young workers out there under the age of 19 who are being paid below the minimum wage in this country that the minimum wage that applies to all other workers above the age of 20 and over and the principal remains that we're treating adults age 19 18 and 19 in this country like children with regards to the minimum wage laws and i think that goes against the principle of equal pay for equal work it's it's discriminatory field supplies in two of gaza's main hospitals are critically low leaving emergency services on the brink of darkness thousands of lives including those of newborn babies and incubators are hanging in the balance an immediate ceasefire is being called for by action at our land who are surrounding an alarm for last minute fuel to be allowed in before healthcare facilities have to close ceo carl belf says it's clear international law is being violated in gaza what we really need the most urgent thing that governments unfortunately are the only ones that can do at this point in time but really put pressure on for an immediate ceasefire the situation right now in gaza is unimaginable the level of pain that people are experiencing and we're seeing such huge violations of international law happening before our eyes a new student ambassador scholarship scheme has been launched to promote ireland as a destination for english language students from south korea nine social media and content creators will be given the opportunity to travel here next year to show off what ireland has to offer to language students during their trip the ambassadors will also help english language schools to develop a social media strategy targeting the korean market cultural ambassadors will spend a month in ireland next march to coincide with the saint patrick state celebrations looking now to the weather hazy spells of sunshine and the odd light shower highs of 11 to 9 degrees in variable winds sitting at around three or four degrees at the moment that's all for now i'll be back again with the next news update at around 11 o'clock until then good morning the obituary notices this thursday morning november second the death has occurred of billy scott mcbride street refoe billy will be reposing at kelly's funeral home oakfield today from 2 p.m until 4 p.m and from 6 p.m until 9 p.m funeral leaving kelly's funeral home oakfield refoe tomorrow at half past one going to saint unan's cathedral refoe for two o'clock funeral service followed by interment in the family plot at the adjoining graveyard family flowers only please donations in lieu if desired to cathedral fabric fund care of any family member or kelly's funeral directors refoe the death has taken place of fran ward knee blee 57 dairy roadstriban and formerly of al-tashayn donna manna remains reposing at her home funeral leaving her home tomorrow afternoon at half past 12 for rakeway and mass and the sacred heart church dairy road at one o'clock interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery donations in lieu of flowers please to sma fathers drumentine care of quickly funeral directors family time please from 11 p.m tonight the rakeway and mass can be viewed by via the parish webcam the death has occurred of bridget harold neat owner glenn swilley new mills reposing at her son column and daughter-in-law she lives residents glenn swilley new mills today funeral mass tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock in saint columbus church glenn swilley with burial afterwards in the family plot and kill peak cemetery funeral mass can be viewed live on the parish webcam for family information and more details regarding wakes and funerals please go to highland radio dot com why is it so hard to get a good deal on simple car home insurance well getting a quote from on pust insurance is never this hard for car and home insurance that's a little more human call 08 1 8 2 2 2 2 2 2 or visit on pust insurance that i you feel me on the potholes jules yeah acceptance criteria terms conditions apply one direct island limited trading is on pust insurance is regulated by the central bank of ireland one direct ireland limited is a holy owned subsidiary of on pust home insurance underwritten by aviv insurance ireland dak best price is online the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio and you welcome back to the second hour of the program don't look having with you until 12 noon today don't forget if you want to make contact with us you can text us on 08 6 60 25 000 that number good for what's that messages as well you can call us on 07 4 9 1 25 000 003 5 3 7 4 9 1 25 000 if you're outside of the dialing area now we got a response from the hsc to a query that we put in yesterday you may recall if you heard yesterday show a caller made contact and this is what they said um i wonder have you any additional information on the fact that letter kenny hospitals crisis is now impacting on elderly residents waiting to go into respite at st joseph's community hospital in stern order poor elderly people who are used to st joseph's now are being farmed out to private nursing homes when it's their week for respite this is ridiculous and unfair just because management at letter kenny hospital can't get their act together doesn't mean that poor elderly people should be farmed out to places they're not used to going to many of them have built relationships with the staff in st joseph's and know what to expect consistency is important for them st joseph's is now accepting over 65 year olds from the overflow at letter kenny hospital this isn't safe for current residents exactly what happened in new york during covid when ill patients were brought into nursing homes there are many contagious illnesses apart from covid that can be dangerous to elderly people now we put that to the hsc yesterday the comment was made yesterday on the program the hsc's response is as follows all efforts are being made by the older person's service to support older people evading of respite in donnie gall at the same time the service must also offer post acute hospital care to those older people who need a continued level of support in order to facilitate the demand for both respite and post acute care some respite services are now provided in private nursing homes within the area all of which are registered facilities with hikwa and have the ability to provide required care level this will be kept under review on an ongoing basis so that's the response we've had to that issue from the hse we've also had a caller who's just asking are there any hedges being cut in the ardra area particularly down around the maharah road it's november now and still nothing has been done and that's the question asked by a caller want to remind you that we have our home for christmas campaign here on highland radio no matter where you are in the world we're on a mission to make christmas extra special for one lucky family we want to bring a family home for christmas so they can see their loved ones and experience the magic of this season if you'd love to come home for christmas uh are you being prohibited by the rising cost of inflation and travel prohibiting you from doing so we can make it happy for happen for one lucky family this christmas all you need to do is tell us who you wish to nominate and why whether it be yourself or a family member who's living away from home simply email us the information and the details of the person you're nominating tell us a bit about them or you and why they're deserving of this great prize and include contact details of the person you can then go to highlandradio.com fill out your details on the home for christmas section or email all information including all relevant contact telephone numbers to home for christmas at highlandradio.com alternatively you can send your nomination by post to home for christmas highland radio mountaintop letter kenny county donnie gall right and if you're a highland radio ncbi bingo player it's time to play today's game so without further ado grab your pens grab your books and i will hand you over to kevin it's time for ncbi bingo on highland radio it's thursday november second jackpot day today's jackpot is 5400 euro today's jackpot number is the number six you are playing on a pink colored sheet the reference numbers s19 it's game number 44 the numbers are 31 58 47 16 39 62 57 75 89 and 24 phone your claim to 91048 double three before 8 p.m. tonight leave in your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book get all your ncbi radio bingo information at highlandradio.com the move to electric is on with kea powering ahead in electric vehicle technology take the stylish kea nero ev the multi award-winning ev6 or the all-new ev9 with space for up to seven people order your two four one model now to avail a flexible finance options a free home charger and a 500 euro super value gift card t-z and c supply visit her and auto dunigal town for your two four one kea are you tired of waiting for treatment or surgery did you know you can receive immediate treatment across the border under the new n.i planned healthcare scheme at potentially no cost dunigal patients are still being treated with us at king's bridge private hospital northwest post brexit the process is easy and our dedicated team will help guide you through it so why wait contact us today to find out how you can skip the written lists and receive treatment in northern ireland visit king's bridge private hospital dot com because life matters at connect hearing our audiologist is available monday to friday for hearing tests and wax removal services at our letter kenny clinic in the courtyard shopping center from now until the end of november we're offering a free wax removal service for all those over 60 years of age our hearing is our social sense are you finding hearing more of a challenge call urshula today on 07491 13296 to make an appointment good hearing helps us to connect to our family friends and loved ones connect hearing connecting you to life this is the mental noon show on highland radio joined in studio by a dr. joseph oniel of letter kenny palestine also involved in interfaith for palestine joseph a very good morning to you thank you very much donal um i know you were in with greg last week as well joseph and obviously we're all watching with horror at what's unfolding in gaza some perhaps chink of light with the opening of the border at raffa between gaza and egypt and we've seen some people get out particularly some injured children but those that are getting out it's just a mere drop in the ocean it's a trickle compared to the numbers that are actually seriously ill in need of urgent care and treatment in conditions within gaza which are intolerable that's correct that's very good very good summary thank you very much um the keyword here is genocide and that's a word that is being increasingly used about this situation genocide is the systematic attempt to destroy people not necessarily to kill them all but to destroy their lives their physical habitations their schools their religious life mosques churches etc and just to make the life totally intolerable and that's what we're seeing an increasing numbers of genocide experts are speaking out now something which they should have done a very long time ago the israeli claim that they are retaliating and responding in kind to what hamas started on october 7th you believe we've gone way beyond that if we were ever there in the first place well that's an interesting comment and i think the con the other word keyword here is context and the context is 1948 now our interface group has been watching this situation with horror and speaking as a genocide for over 10 years the context is 1948 1948 the um the israelis uh terrified with any number of massacres terrified three-quarters of a million palestinians out of their homes and then they did this again in 1967 when they terrified another 300 000 palestinians out of their homes and there's millions of palestinian refugees both within israel within palestine within surrounding countries of lebanon syria and jordan in terms of of what we're seeing at at the moment the the irish government is working at a un level it says to try and resolve the situation it's working at EU level as well and now i know i well i don't know but i i suspect you're not happy at all with what Ursula van der Leyen is saying and the approach being taken by i think it's fairly clear to say you aren't happy with that and that's probably putting it mind i suspect is the irish government doing enough of course not i have to say it's very important to accentuate the positive not to be negative and michael d higgins has uh been fantastic he's spoken up very clearly about the issue and he may be smaller stature but he's great in moral stature and i think the irish people greatly love him for speaking up about this issue um and he's been viciously attacked by the israeli embassy here in dublin who should really apologize and many people are talking about expelling the israeli embassy both for their behavior with respect to the irish government and with with of course with their supporting of the genocide in terms of michael martin is foreign affairs minister um i won't ask you if mark said a 10 but in terms of what he's doing at the moment he's probably trying to he would claim he's trying to to walk a very thin diplomatic line at this point in time is he doing enough um i'll start by saying we are an interfaith group we are apolitical so we focus on the religious spiritual and sectarian aspects of the issue not and we take into account the cultural economic social and political aspects politics is a very difficult business i i couldn't be a politician we can speak out very clearly about the moral issues the moral issue here is of genocide and it is great to see irish politicians speaking out but they need to take action and we there's a number of actions very simple ones they could take we heard a call this morning on on the program indeed a caller saying that what we should now be looking at doing in this country is breaking off diplomatic relations with israel now we've heard it was a bolivia did so yesterday yeah um is there an argument to be made that it's time that if a country like ireland as part of the e u were to break off diplomatic relations with israel that that would send a very strong statement realistically speaking is that going to happen we're we're again i say we're apolitical and we believe in big politics the politics of of common good um so they've got difficult decisions politicians i i don't envy them i think uh one thing you could do is you could suspend the um the israeli uh embassy for a length of time i think once when the war when this genocide is over it's not a war it's not a conflict it's a genocide when this genocide is over or this particular aspect of it we need to start talking and you know just as a principle in our group dialogue is very very important and you know we would say that's that's what they should do there are a number of other very simple measures they can take are you disappointed um and i i don't want to dwell on political figures but but i mean even in terms of there being public figures or slivander lane a lot's been said um at the difference in approach that she took when russia invaded ukraine absolutely that she was absolutely black and white with regards to the russian invasion of ukraine and she is now presenting herself as being very diplomatically nuanced when it comes to israel gaza but she was she was quite blunt when it came to to russia ukraine um a whiff perhaps there of hypocrisy that's a very good point um we were delighted we have a we have a witness at the test go around about every midday saturday for the last three weeks and this week we had a number of ukrainians we were delighted about that and many palestinians talk about palestine before ukraine and after ukraine before ukraine palestine has been undergoing genocide under military occupation for 75 years ukraine has been militarily occupied for less than two years when we compare and contrast the support for white christian european ukrainians and the support we give to more or less brown mostly muslim but also christian uh uh palestinians there is obviously double standards in hypocrisy absolutely facing us and this unfortunate last three weeks that's very unfortunate the silver lining in this cloud is it gives us an opportunity to look at the true facts of what's happening to the palestinians for the last 75 years and that is genocide there is a strong support within dunigal for for palestine and and for gaza but we have seen attacks on palestinians in in in recent weeks in in in the west of the county and that's something i'm sure that you're you're you'll be very concerned about this is very sad i haven't heard of any attacks on ukrainians and i'm delighted that ireland has taken in so many ukrainians i've done a very charitable thing that's wonderful but i haven't heard of any attacks on ukrainians and it's it's kind of troubling it's troubling that these two palestinians have been attacked the other thing i would mention is context is our group we've now decided to be proactive about islamophobia and we've actually taken a we've recorded a hate incident with the local police here in letter kenny and the police have been extremely helpful and understanding and are supportive of that action and is that going well you can't say too much i presume at this point in time because it's going through those channels well i would say our job is to get the ball rolling and this whole organization's paid anti-racist organizations and it's their job to carry that ball forward in terms of what people can do uh because a lot of people will say look this this is a huge international political event there's governments there's the un there's there's it's too big for me i i feel that i want to do something but i don't know what to do okay thank you for asking that question um there's personal initiatives and there's community initiatives we have a three point plan in our group now we're an interfaith group so we talk about prayer so our three three point plan is very simple it's pray talk act so either pray or be mindful if you're not a believer uh about the Palestinians and their persecutors um talk talk about Palestine and talk about the genocide and act act in whatever way is appropriate for your situation and for most people it will be praying and talking and that's good then there's community actions and the community action is very straightforward um over 70 percent of countries in the world formally recognize Palestine over 10 European countries formally recognize Palestine including the Vatican which doesn't do things in a hurry and Ireland it's a very simple cost-free exercise it's just to join the the majority of the world and formally recognize the state of Palestine now that's a symbolic gesture but it's an extremely important one if you talk about Europe to Palestinians they say there's one country in Europe that is wholehearted in support of Palestine and their human rights and respectful of the people who are attacking them and that is Ireland so if Ireland did that that might pave the way forward for a lot of other European countries around the brink perhaps Spain perhaps Italy perhaps Luxembourg to move forward on that so that's formally recognized in Palestine and that's up for the politicians to do the the second thing is there's a thing called the Occupied Territories Bill I don't know what you're familiar with this yes that's a bill that was started off by Senator Francis Black who's also a great singer um and that is the promise if it went through that we wouldn't buy products from any militarily occupying zone now that has been stalled in the parliament and everybody knows it's the right thing to do and I'm not going to mention any politicians here but there are political groups who clearly have stalled that and there's not the political will there must be the political will to push that forward the third thing we can do either as a state or individually boycott boycott is a fantastic Irish tradition that's been running peacefully since 1880 when it was brought in against Captain Boycott and Mayo and we can boycott one of the things I'm a retired doctor we suggest is boycotting Tiva Pharmaceuticals Tiva Pharmaceuticals is an Israeli company and the profits go from it go towards the genocide it produces generic medications so if you go into your GP as I did and he was giving me this medication I bought a Tiva on the bottle I say look I hope you don't mind but I'd rather have that medication for another company straightforward and then of course there's loads of other companies I won't name any names but there's a fast food joint in letter Kenny and somebody has told me recently from one of the independent fast food joint that he's doing great business because his international fast food joint has been giving free hamburgers to Israeli soldiers and he said that has had an amazing effect on the youth and increased his business so it's a great example where being moral is also good for business so that's it that's my simple note here I want to talk to you about anti-Semitism versus anti-Zionism because one of the things and we saw a lot of debate in the UK with Jeremy Corbyn in recent years as well and basically a situation developed where effectively opposition to the state of Israel became conflated with anti-Semitism now as you've said you are a predominantly a religious group and zero tolerance for sectarianism and for sectarian defamation and you you would not in any way present yourself or your colleagues as anti-Semites but I would imagine you would be relatively comfortable with the phrase anti-Zionist but yes our group is which has been running for about 10 years now as a group of moderate Jews and Gentiles and every week we have a discussion on zoom about the situation in Palestine and our stock phrase is we are against any form of sectarianism and what is more important in the current context or against any form of sectarian defamation either open what is more common nowadays insinuated and we are very happy to help anybody who is having problems in respect to come to us because we have received many lawyers in our group and we've received a number of apologies from people who are using that tactic against our members and people have apologized to us so I mean it does need and I think it's an interesting one because I mean what what happened in the UK probably didn't help in terms of that debate that was going there because I mean effectively the conflation of opposition to the actions of a state with anti-Semitism basically I suspect a lot of people are thinking oh if I speak out against what Israel is doing am I laying myself open to the charge of being anti-Semitic and that is something that people would worry about because obviously there is behind the history of Judaism obviously we have the Holocaust and so much goes back to that and you know so so much debate gets wrapped up in these issues of am I being anti-Semitic and if I'm being anti-Semitic am I in some way negating what happened during the Holocaust then others will say look I mean given the experience of the Jewish people surely more than anyone they should understand issues of genocide absolutely one of the you know I listened to a lot of comments and there was a very good comment this morning on social media Jewish woman saying never again which is a slogan used with respect to that event this means never again for anyone including Palestinians so that's that's the phrase that that Jewish lady said and I'm very pleased that when the Jewish speaker came to our event this weekend she spoke out quite clearly and said it is a genocide what's happening to the Palestinians so that was that was good news I call it I just read the Saudi color says waiting on you both to mention the genocide that took place in Israel by the rulers of Palestine that started this whole disaster I hate war but when your people are brutalized you don't stand by I think the first question I asked was about the actions of Hamas on the 7th of October and again I'll put the question to you again in case our caller didn't hear it I mean what Israel is arguing at this point in time is that it is responding to the actions of Hamas who went into Israel killed in excess of a thousand people and took over 200 hostages the context of this issue is the 75 year long genocide known as the Nakba of the Palestinians massive amounts of Palestinians are killed every year quite often young men children so that's the context and genocide is wrong and we just need to identify that's what's happening our group has been saying it's a genocide for years at this unfortunate event in the last three weeks you couldn't you can view it in a number of ways you can view it as a prison break you can view it as very similar to the reaction in the Warsaw ghetto when people broke out in the Warsaw ghetto World War two they knew was probably going to be unsuccessful but they had to do it so you know we we believe that destroying the government of the Palestinian people is a terrible thing to do and if they have a government the government needs to be talked with and they need to discuss how to make the world a better place both for the 2.3 million Palestinians whose country has been absolutely carpet bombed like Dresden like Hiroshima the pictures are absolutely horrific and the pictures of the children who've been murdered in gas there's no need to continue this genocide they just need to stop and talk another corner says genocide is what Palestine wants to do to Israel that Palestine effectively wants to drive the state of Israel and all Jews into the sea no no anybody there is a lot of malicious nuanced and very sophisticated propaganda from the genocidalists the Palestinians are a forgiving people and they want all they want is the freedom that you and I have to walk around letter Kenny town to do our shopping something as simple as that the freedom to go to school without having to go through a checkpoint every day the freedom not to have a jackboots breaking down their door in the middle of the night terrorizing them and their children and the freedom not to be interned there's massive we had internment and also there's massive internment and torture in the for the Palestinians it's an absolutely long standing it's actually been going on for so long it's become normalized it's a sort of a bureaucratic genocide the good news is all of this the UN for all its faults and its failures has documented this genocide very very carefully they we have got plenty of evidence for the international criminal court the other thing to remember is Israel has got a massive army a massive air force a massive navy the Palestinians have nothing compared to that nothing and and finally I'll put this to you a caller is asking does your speaker condemn Hamas and in particular does your speaker condemn the use of hospitals by Hamas which is leading to the activities of the Israeli army effectively what they're saying is Israel is attacking hospitals not because they're hospitals in which Palestinian people are being treated but because they're buildings in which Hamas have bases and buildings which Hamas are using for military purposes he's speaking nonsense we our group is a political we are one of our mottoes is founded on love focused on truth and there's been a lot of mistruth about the genocide of the Palestinians um and just a thought experiment is can you imagine if letter Kenny hospital was blown to bits because somebody said uh oh there might be some bad people in there no it's no excuse to murder men women and children lying in incubators pregnant women's there's no there's no excuse whatsoever for that type of behavior Dr. Joseph O'Neill thank you very much indeed for thank you very much thank you that's uh Dr. Joseph O'Neill there from the letter Kenny Palestine group and also Interfaith for Palestine and as he said there are demonstrations at 12 noon every Saturday in letter Kenny they will continue my ticket this weekend and into the future uh Joseph thank you very much indeed watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com clamp down on calf rules for more in your farmer's journal here's paul mooney we reveal the new proposals which could keep calves and farms for longer and abandon jersey genetics new 2000 euro a week scheme payments hit farmers accounts lump sum payment for farmers who join new organic scheme support package for Shannon Kellow's farmers imminent all the latest from the ifa election debates and where to cast your vote plus your definitive guide to chainsaws all inside this week's irish farmers journal you can't afford to miss it stay warm for less this autumn with homeland five pack wood logs buy three for 13 euro hardwood log crate for 150 kg only 329 euro nationwide delivery available shop in store or online at homeland dot ie mns christmas food to order is here with all range of succulent irish turkeys and a whole lot more spend 50 euro online with sparks now and get 10 euro off your next food shop this is not just food this is mns christmas food see marx and spencer dot ie for details attention all home and business owners are you looking for the best value for money when it comes to plumbing and tile solutions at mcdade's bathroom plumbing and tiles our experienced staff are ready to provide top quality services and products that meet your needs and exceed your expectations our focus is on providing expert advice and top quality products mcdade's bathroom plumbing and tile showroom in bunkrana is dedicated to delivering great value for your money visit our showroom today why leave all the magic moments or great scenes you've captured on your phone sitting there or in the cloud when you can have them printed at big east chemist using the mcgee's app or one of the in-store kiosks you can upload your photos from your phone google photos facebook or instagram and have them printed instantly within an hour or n by 10 and ready by five see mcgee's dot ie for more details hold your memories in your hand with mcgee's chemist letter kenny test drive the susuki ignis at barry brown cars millford at their test drive weekend on saturday fourth and sunday fifth of november you could secure your brand new 241 susuki ignis on november fourth and fifth at barry brown cars millford your main susuki dealer in dunny gall finances subject to status terms and conditions apply this is the mental new show on highlander radio and you're very welcome back to the program just a few year commons before we go to our next call caller says this war has me totally confused how do they get rid of chamas so asks a caller there also just want to mention that if you want to get in touch with the program you can do so oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand for your text or whatsapp messages oh seven four nine one twenty five thousand if you want to give us a call now there has been a lot of discussion in recent months and years indeed about the four lane road and access into letter kenny lights on the pole star and the traffic congestion they're causing and difficulties getting in and out particularly on that sort of four lane dual carriageway side of the town and for many many years the widespread belief has been that what letter kenny ultimately needs is a second bridge over the swilly the bonagy link as it has become known joined on the line by porick who has taken action and started a petition porick good morning good morning donal porick tell tell us about this petition that you you've started so I started the petition probably about a week ago I wasn't expecting that they take off the way it did but it's brought me here today because daily commutes on out of the town has become on a nightmare we find ourselves stuck in traffic and wasting prices errors doing so and the primary access route on out of the town and the recent works which involved quite a substantial investment we see were of little benefit one such comment since I kind of took some images and posted them online and that's what kind of kicked us off was we started off with four lanes we spent millions and ended up with four lanes in a cell of traffic lights so I'm not here to take away from the work that's been done to date or but we need to look forward and it's evident that in a town with a population of 22 and a half thousand people based on that use since this was their 2022 sorry people that it's not working so it takes me to the point of why we need to want to keep my friends to ensure the smooth flow of traffic which is essential for a number of reasons and I've kind of categorized it under four based on the feedback and research on the issue and if we can touch on each stall please absolutely please do so we have the emergency response and the safety concerns so what's concerned on this effect on the emergency services so the quick access for emergency services being our guardian fire and medical personnel that can be a matter of life and death in critical situations and the congestion just puts people's lives at risk and we need to be seen to be removing barriers for an already underpriced sector not putting them in place as well as public or public attempt in the hospital appointments doctors appointments dropping kids to school all that stuff it's very important so smooth the smooth traffic why it produced congestion which means less time wasted and traffic jam so from a safety aspect lower in stress levels for commuters which is a safety concern in terms of the the because it's a higher likelihood of accidents if people are stressed out people end up russian and promotes road rage people that lean hoppin all that good stuff and then not necessarily accidents on the spot but people russian may be trying to catch uh make up the five months they've lost and that kind of thing so we need to be making a road safer for everyone by creating a more harmonious driving environment the second point would be on the economic viability so efficient traffic flow encourages our business activities and investments so we need to be making it easier for our customers and our employees to be reaching their destinations so we can ensure essential services such as their shops and schools and their new atu and their facilities are accessible for all which will boost our local economy like our local businesses i'm sure are suffering and have suffered and will continue to suffer in this area and especially in the run-up to christmas and everything else like it's it's really shocking that i mean all aspects of another town is it's just bumper to bumper i mean if we spend less time on traffic that means you've bigger benefits for for the businesses and the economy so if we're not something in traffic then we're more likely to be productive elsewhere so it's maybe spent time with family shopping attend the events dropping kids off at activities um these things all keep our premises open and our employees and jobs and keep our economy going we need to be promoting that that brings me on to like our community and tourism and encouraging stronger community connections so we've all been i suppose locked down for long enough at this point i mean it's we need to be encouraging strong community connections and encouraging people to interact and socialize and participate in events and which would give our public basically a better quality of life than making our town more attractive to live and work on and attract more tourism and travel and boost our local industry you know and then our local events our local you know hotels and restaurants like they're newly forced our hotel and stuff and is right in the middle of it there i mean they employ a lot of people as to all the businesses around the town and have a lot of overheads and there's balls to be paid and i mean we need to be encouraging um doing whatever we can to help that from the environmental sorry yeah i was going to say from the point of view of the economic argument um has the economic argument been made sufficiently to government by local politicians because certainly what you were saying there and what the widespread belief in that the wider area would be is that the new bridge would improve the local economy by improving access by making the area more efficient in terms of transport and by improving traffic flow do you think that economic argument is being articulated strongly enough and that there is a sufficient understanding that there would be a very when you look at sort of cost benefit analysis that it would come out very positive on the plus side well i'm sure they've i'm sure they're doing their very best and i'm sure they're pushing as hard as they can but i i think this is a bigger issue than than a than a local issue this is going on since i mean i have it on good authority like the soil samples taken for this in the eighties you know what i mean for for the for the bonagy link bridge so i think this is a bigger issue yes they can push it and they can bring it to the scmt of the council and the council can go to the tii and stuff and and they can they can push it as hard as they can i'm not sure if there were surveys carried out on on the benefits off or the or the the pluses and minuses off it but i'm sure they've done their due diligence and and they're they're pushing it as hard as they can you know and from an environmental and like the planning perspective so the the big the congestion and the increase in fuel consumption with the current prices and fuel and everything else so that would help us save fuel and reduce their caravan emissions like in our um improving our air quality and making us more efficient so we could reduce our overall environmental footprint of transportation like which is a as a big as a big thing with climate change and everything else back in the in the mid 1990s and and even the early 90s the big discussion at that time when there was various studies of transport done within letter kenney was that 70 of the traffic at station roundabout didn't need to be there it was people that were going elsewhere but they had no choice but to travel through the station roundabout and that was large a lot of the justification for building the new table any road the patty heart road and the poll star roundabout and a lot of that was done because the argument was there was people using station roundabout that had no need to be there has the poll star become the new roundabout where 70 percent of people using it don't need to be there and the bonnigieg link would ensure that people from the remelton side of letter kenney from the remelton road and really from that whole area that can go down business park road and then if they could use the bridge which would be somewhere in the vicinity of the thorn there are thereabouts i mean i know i've seen one drawing that suggested it be just behind arena seven there um where the the new kenning or brewery is that it would be there a road would go down through there other suggestions no councillor blaney wants to see slightly further out nearer to remelton closer maybe to the silver tassie there's been various discussions as to where it would be and and that's going to become obviously a live discussion in the years to come but it seems to me that station roundabout now is going to be replaced by the poll star after roundabout people are using that don't need to be there and if we could get less people on the poll star on it but that's going to do an awful lot to relieve the congestion we have there 100 percent i mean you've that whole that whole coastal area of uh once you go over that direction in terms of edinford athmore um up the mountaintop i mean you see the you see the traffic coming on there during the summer and it's a bumper to bumper away towing caravans and everything else people coming on they go on holidays or weekends away and heading to the coastal areas but everybody has to come through has to come through them them two lanes coming on the letter can i you know before they can go in any direction um and then if the other traffic then that's trying to avoid that and they're going the alternative routes be it up collin road or up lake and i mean them roads aren't fit for the traffic it's on them and the lower drum or the same you know people are cutting on off the jill carriageway coming over lower drum or and it's bumper to bumper you know and it's it's a wingbird a wingbird let's say you know as as traffic try and pass each other up past all there now and stuff like that you know yeah absolutely um you've been getting some good reaction to the petition online uh several hundred signatures already i mean in the last week like we're kicked off and sent out a few photos online and then again i thought to myself well i mean rather than raising it with the politicians because it's as i say it's going on 30 plus years um try and do something something ourselves and and uh obviously have them have them back in us as well but i mean it's trying to push it as hard as we can and and try and try and get it resolved as quickly as possible i know it's not going to happen before christmas but perhaps on the on term we can look at some alternative arrangements um around the area for for traffic in and out of town because people just aren't going to come the come the letter kennedy shop they're going to go to stirbanner they're going to go to they're going to go to dare so i mean we need to find them maybe a facility somewhere outside the town where we can do like a park and ride or something as an alternative um in the meantime maybe for for around the christmas period um maybe facilitated by the the SMT in the council you to um to ensure that way the businesses continue to rip their awards no that that is an issue that has been under active discussion at municipal district level certainly but uh now whether they would have something in place for christmas this year at this point i'm not sure um there's certainly a number of sites being talked about as potential park and ride sites now we would be cutting it very fine to try and get something in place i suspect for christmas 2024 christmas 2025 might be um you know an attainable idea in terms of planning because we spoke there basically about route selection and you know there's there's been some discussion about where this road would go and there's a lot of studies being done now we're not seeing the the details we're not seeing the information last report we had from dunagore county council was that you know a lot of environmental studies and environmental impacts are going on and they're looking at route selection and they're looking at potential plans is there enough talk at the moment locally about where that road might go and and what the the the look of the bonagie link and the roads either side of it might be now we're not hearing it we're not hearing it to be honest if it is going on the background it's not it's not it's not in public view it should be i mean if we're we're looking at a a communication a monthly communication or a quarterly communication or something where we can uh where we can see what what progress has been made because i mean i've looked through in the last number weeks looked through over the um the history on from google searches and stuff and and it's i mean this is going on there's a lot of uh let's say well there's positives and then there's like yes we're making good progress here and making good progress and then it just seems to fall again and it seems to be where we've been drip fed kind of bits of information and then yes this is positive and it hits the headlines for a couple of weeks and then it dies away again and it's forgotten about until such times as we're in a position like we are now where we're struggling and uh i suppose one of the big concerns was uh as i say about the emergency services like and if there was a um a serious collision or something on the manor road there how how is the emergency services what what plan is put in place there for if we're sitting in four lanes of of traffic for for getting a emergency vehicles out out the road where it's now um we have a simple reserve there of concrete where we can't pull into anymore to to allow traffic vehicles to to pass emergency vehicles to pass you know it's really a shock and like the the thought process behind us like no but pork will be watching with interest what happens with the petition and uh several hundred signatories already as we've said and i'm sure that number is going to increase it's on a change.org yeah it's on uh change.org forward slash bonnigie link bridge or it can be got on another social media platforms on uh hashtag bonnigie link bridge yeah so if you go and search bonnigie link bridge you're going to find that fairly quickly uh pork we watch this with interest uh in the meantime um thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning perfect thanks for the invite oh you look pork it's it's our pleasure that's pork there who has started the petition on the bonnigie link bridge and you know yet we have been speaking about the bonnigie link so much for the past i mean i would say 20 years at least um i mean i the the the the the new bridge over the swilly certainly 20 years and probably longer i just can't remember when we first had the discussions but i mean you know it certainly was not yesterday or the day before yesterday that these discussions started uh whether we're going to see progress uh dunagul county council saying yeah there is progress being made and there is a lot of work being done behind the scenes and asporic says we're not hearing necessarily what's happening behind the scenes it might be no harm uh to to get to hear that in the coming year i want to say very good morning to all those who are watching us uh on our facebook pages and on youtube as well good morning to maggi and also to paul to audrey and to marie as well and to everyone who's listening uh have a very good day it's uh eight minutes to uh 11 almost we're going to take a short break back after these new season of fabrics have arrived in store at fabric world's maydown on trend and in stock we have all the fabrics you need thousands of curtains upholstery and craft fabrics and incredible stock prices calling for your free curtain design and quotation at fabric world dairy great your rates for all our euro customers hi folks gavin here from diverse hyunday and letter kenny to tell you about two grand tuesday our one-off used car sale event this tuesday november 7th all used cars at diverse will have 2000 euro off the listed prices online yes that's two grand off every car for one day only no gimmicks no games no joke that's two grand tuesday this coming tuesday at diverse hyunday canal road letter kenny we're open 8 a.m to 8 p.m on the day for details see diverse garage dot i oh thanks robert mezell's nashville songbook is coming to angrean and theater on november 8th let robert take you on a musical and visual journey spanning 50 years of country music history tickets available from venue box office or on greenon dot com midterm sale now at evolved clothing letter kenny retail park big brand discounts up to 30 percent off mid-season sale now on in store and online at evolved clothing dot com rest text beds and furniture special offer for this month only they're giving a free pack of hotel grade pillows for every customer when you buy a bed or mattress tease them see supply wine stocks last call into their showroom at rest text beds mountaintop letter kenny this autumn centra's cutting prices on hundreds of branded favorites across the store like strings and thanks cheese strings original a pack was 355 now 349 and goodfellas don't bake thin chicken pizza was 499 now 419 whether you're topping up or stocking up this autumn shop smart feel good centra live every day highland radio weather updates brought to you by grant from condensing oil and hate for your biofuel boilers to heat pumps and underfloor heating you can trust grant to heat your home visit grant dot ie and met air and are telling us on the weather forecast this morning that it'll stay dry for much of the day with sunny spells a few well-scattered showers will follow they'll become more frequent and occasionally heavy later on in the afternoon and early evening top temperatures this afternoon 9 to 12 degrees celsius like to moderate westerly winds fresher the further west you go tonight mostly dry with long clear spells but some scattered showers particularly in northern and western coastal areas a few patches of mist and fog will develop with a touch of frost forming those tovernite temperatures 1 to 5 milder in the coast in light to moderate northerly winds and then tomorrow bright and dry for many with sunny spells and scattered showers again most frequent in southwestern areas quite breezy with moderate to fresh west and northwest winds easing tomorrow evening top temperatures on friday 10 to 13 degrees celsius now we know that a delegation of four irish and international for international mepes were in donnie goll this week to see first hand the devastation caused by defective building materials and the impact it's had on householders a complete report will then be compiled for the e u commission one of those who was on that visit was a fenigale mep column marky column good morning good morning column looking back over the past number of days the e u group arrived on monday and was in donnie goll for a few days also visiting other areas mayo and others how did the visit go and what will this visit achieve the visit went well we met with the action group that submitted the petition in the first place then we also met with very few like technical people that had been supporting the the families and well the most important i think we we got to see the houses themselves to see the impact it was having on people's lives and i think the need to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible was very much driven home in terms of the experience that people got we met with the representatives from the council engineers we then went on to meet a with the minister in Dublin on wednesday morning so i suppose at two levels one was we we saw clearly the issues and the challenges people were having to take advantage of the scheme some of the concerns there was around let's say the the administrative board and their access to supports and to representatives for the council or through the department of various locations in terms of people being able to access the different different and then those concerns i suppose around things like say houses that were in floodplains happened to be built in the same place or having to build a 2008 standard of regulations and there was a number of things raised that really i think we would probably include in the report that will ultimately go to the petitions committee and then on to the commission but hopefully it will feed back here in Ireland too there's some of the concerns that were expressed i suppose forced things forced it was about the houses and the families and trying to get them resolved as quickly as possible the second thing then was very much around making sure that this never happened again and what can we do to ensure it doesn't happen again and then finally i suppose we were looking at things like let's say where is it possible to a let's say provide zero-waste finance for families who who can't raise finance probably because the houses have very little asset value to leverage finance again and on top of that like a zero-waste but they wouldn't they could if you like draw get bridging finances at no cost and to be able to access to grants so it's things like that and one of the big area i think is the idea of the shortage of skills to to actually do the level the scale of the work that's involved and what have we done that ultimately people are talking about if you like the fact that there's a hundred percent food dress grant to four hundred and twenty thousand people through that may not be enough i think one of the problems with that is the lack of skills and if we can if you like increase the capacity to do the works because we ultimately don't have the capacity to do the works no matter what size of grant you put there that the price is going to continue to rise these issues are issues that have been well documented by campaigners and have been for quite some time can i put to you a comment by luke ming flanagan mep who said he expected well he didn't expect but he wants the two for the gael mepes to apologize because he says the frustration that you and the other european mepes that were present in donnie gallin elsewhere over the past number of days the frustrations that you will have encountered the problems you'll have seen and the frustrations of the people living in those houses are frustrations born of the fact that your party in government over several years has utterly failed to address the situation i think the luke ming gaelin government has passed forward originally the 1920 to 90 10 scheme and now it's 100 percent up to only up to 420 000 so like they have put that in place it's it's a package of well not of 2.2 billion so to say the government hasn't done anything in relation this is just not fair i think it's not enough we need to do more we need to address some of the issues that we've just talked about and we need to address the concerns that people have the like of whether our foundations need to be addressed whether or not or whether we get greater flexibilities and less bureaucracy in the system it's clear people don't have the confidence in it to take up the scheme at the moment and we digress some of the issues around that and the roadblocks around finance and that's what we're about here we're not about starting the starting point and fingers of a dame they might fully accept that we would like to have this dealt with years ago but really the complex situation the finance has been put on the table the finance isn't enough it needs more than it needs more like a month the grants have put them to a response but it needs more than that it needs skills it needs the availability of finance so people can access those grants it needs it and it's not just like at the end of the the various stakeholders like the government the county councils the the the banking sector all the stakeholders that they have to come together to get this solution i fully accept the reason that sarah honors would like you to be at this stage but the only way we'll move around for that is to deal with the issues and not looking to try and get a political score and make a political football ever we want to get the issue resolved and that's where my concern is so if we can at european level identify elected through dcb where we can get the finance all indeed look how we can build capacity in terms of availability of skills that's what we need to do not start a political football that just tries to take it for more and more years can the EU commission give directions can the EU commission give directions or the parliament give directions to the irish government to speed up because certainly we've been speaking about defective blocks first of all mica then obviously other defective and andeleterious materials came into the discussion but i mean this discussion has been going on for well over 10 years and it's not a new discussion it's not news as it were to people in donnie gall that defective blocks is an issue we know that and have known that for ages i mean can the EU do something to speed up the process because the political progress in dublin certainly it seems has been to to be charitable about it moving at a snail's pace that's where we want to focus we want to focus on a number of key areas to like of availability finance i think europe can take contribution in terms of that and in terms of let's say the the administration of borden that to ensure that it's a streamlined system all we can do ultimately is write a report that's a port coast submission and hopefully that report will be taken on board at national level as well we want to highlight the issue at european level that brings us to like create a pressure at national level to act as well but there are probably certain elements of it that we can have an impact on but ultimately it's also about a highlighting the issue at european level to make sure it doesn't happen again and put the pressure back on its national to try and a if you like reduce to roadblocks and i certainly intend to engage further with the families and with the interest groups so that we can put into a report the things that will make a difference and the like of for instance concerns about instead they should like elements of this game that we either allow those concerns or address those concerns it's one or the other and i think those sort of actions are something that we can push to make sure it happened and one thing that i would like to see on top of that is when a similar scenario happened with priority hall in dublin there was a whole a project put together of all the stakeholders to drive to drive forward the solution that was proposed for here but it hasn't even meant that and we want to put that sort of pressure the same as the pressure that was put on the department of housing yesterday when we met them in dublin about the different issues we want to highlight the issues that haven't moved forward and put pressure on to try and move them forward if we can. Collin Markey MEP thank you very much indeed for speaking to us this morning that's Collin Markey there if in a goal MEP speaking about that delegation from the EU that visited dunnygold over the past number of days two minutes past 11 time for the headlines and we say good morning and sincere apologies to Donemary Doherty. Thanks Donal good morning a midlands northwest MEP has called for an apology to homeowners affected by defective blocks from his government party counterparts it comes following a visit from european politicians to the county to witness first-hand the impact that defective blocks have had on such families MEP look mcflanagan says he feels people should apologize when they've done something wrong and this was failed to be achieved by the finnegale MEPs who visited dunnygold over the last 48 hours meanwhile finnegale MEP Collin Markey says it's unfair to say the government has done nothing but acknowledges that he would have liked to have the situation dealt with years ago the cahir look of glanty's municipal district left yesterday's meeting with ishka air and feeling disappointed councillor michael mcclaffordy says the lack of progress was what has annoyed him the most when discussing the slow progress of the work at filcara treatment plant councillor mcclaffordy was told that a four-shore license was the issue he says he's been waiting around 18 months for the license to be granted three teenagers arrested in connection with an assault in slago ardu and court this morning it happened on male coach road in the town on halloween night the 14-year-old victim remains in hospital local councillor jeno aboyl says the community is horrified by what has happened nearly 40 percent of workers have potentially overpaid their taxes over the past two years the figures released to labor td nash shows 38 and 39 percent of people failed to file a tax return in 2021 and 2022 respectively its estimated 180 million euro in tax refunds are due for last year alone and finally we're treating young adults like children when it comes to the minimum wage here some workers under the age of 19 only earned a fraction of the national minimum wage it's set to rise from 11 euro 30 an hour to 12 euro 70 in january sparking fears that ours will be cut for employees senator mary sherlock labor spokesperson unemployment says paying younger people less is discriminatory those are the latest headlines we'll be back again with the next news update at 12 o'clock until then good morning return refund recycled arland's deposit return scheme is coming from the first of february 2024 when you buy a drink in a bottle or can with the return logo you'll pay a small deposit once you're refreshed return your empty undamaged bottle or can to any shop or supermarket and get your deposit back the results less litter less waste and better recycling for arland for more visit return dot i brian mccormick sports and leisure supporting you with the right footwear suffering from joint pain shin splints or foot injuries we can help you with our range of footwear and experience we select the best options from all the major brands brooks asics new balance hoka and on footwear step into our safe size experience we will update your gait analysis measure your feet and recommend what will support 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cycle lanes far too narrow now joined on the line by senator nyle belaney who wants to stress that the bonagy bridge is an absolute priority and now good morning good morning don't hurry very well indeed thank you and i really i remember at the last election campaign there was a photograph taken of me hall martin along with charlie mcconnellogan pat the cope galler standing in front of a big sign in letter can he close to post around about that said finna fallen government will deliver the bonagy bridge yeah we're working very hard at that uh don't tell you what happened since that that project is now going on with the ten t project is now part of the ten t project it's quite a large project which encompasses the bonagy bridge the belba feast in our bypass and they're all out to uh from from letter kenny out to um leford uh joining up with a five and um a lot of work has been done on that since uh from the point of view of all the the ground survey which takes quite a lot of time um they've looked at the different road selection options they've negotiated with all the land owners uh and now a case study has been sent to government which the department of transport has been looking through over the last month and that'll be going to cablet uh for approval um i would expect maybe in the next three or four months or less um and what that'll mean uh if approval has got there um it will then head to for planning how close are we to route selection do you believe well as i understand that that encompasses the route selection um i haven't seen what's gone to government and they'll they will approve it first but as i understand that that's what's gone to government the route selection um that will then go to planning the planning will also enc