Hmm. What's the finger up for? Do you want me to wait? I can't remember which button to press this one. Had them all. Just do what I do. Just... Well, has it changed, no? No. He got you good. Ah, here we are. Ah, I see. Which ward confused you? Dunno. I haven't looked at them for a week. So you've been away for three months? We missed you. It's a week. Community to have a good week off. I did. I can't wait now to get back and charge my batteries up again. Yeah, this is... A week running after a toddler, you know? I know. You need to get back and sort of... You need to go to work sometimes. Yeah, I know. I'm glad to see you. Greatly good to be back. Thanks very much. See you tomorrow morning. It's the 9th of the noon show just around the corner. But first, at 9, let's get a news update, and it's over to Donna Marie Daugherty. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. Police in Sturban have closed Church Street up until the Glen Road Junction. The public have been asked to avoid the area. It comes as police and fire service deal with an incident that was reported last night. There's calls for signage to be installed on routes to popular visitor attractions in Enishowen. Councillor Albert Daugherty says with the increased tourists to the peninsula, its important signage is a record warning of farming activities on roads, particularly for those unfamiliar with the area. He also believes certain areas should be designated to residents only. Many of our states and many of the people living in these states would just ask for that little bit of respect and understanding as regards them being eligible to park safely outside their own house. You again want to welcome your visitors, but you're just cautioning, please be wary that this is a residential area and these parking spaces will be used by the residents. A driver was arrested yesterday after they had driven almost double the speed limit earlier in the week. Gardy from Von Kranow Road's policing unit detected the vehicle being driven at 195 kilometres per hour on the N13 a few days ago. The speed limit in that area is 100 kilometres per hour and the road was reported to have been very busy at the time, Gardy say the driver was charged to appear in court. A new app allows people with bleeding disorders to access key parts of their healthcare records. The National Coagulation Centre at St James's Hospital in Dublin has launched the patient portal to mark World Hemophilia Day today. It will enable patients to communicate on non-urgent matters with their healthcare team. Irish Hemophilia Society Chief Executive Brian O'Mahney says the app has lots of information. The society and patients have been involved in the development and testing, but frankly it's quite simple to use. The person on their phone can have access to their diagnosis, their treatment, the vaccination record, their list of appointments. They can also send messages for non-urgent medical queries and they'll have copies of any letter sent to their GP or other specialists about their health. Inpatient charges for visits to public hospitals will cease from today. The charge of 80 euro per day or 800 euro per year ended at midnight under measures signalled in the budget 2023. The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly says the ending of day charges removes the burden on financially stretched individuals requiring hospital treatment. And now for this morning's weather forecast. Low cloud, mist and fog will break up through the morning leaving another pleasant day of sunny spells and a scattering of showers. Highest temperatures of 15 to 17 degrees in light to moderate southeast breezes. That's all for now. We'll be back again with the news and full and obituary notices at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. There's something special about Clayton Hotels. It's me. The way they treat me, wherever I stay, whatever I need because their focus is always on me. And you know what? When you visit a Clayton Hotel their focus will be on you too. Unless I'm there, of course. Save on every room every night when you click on Clayton at ClaytonHotels.com. Clayton Hotels. Our focus is always you. The county's number one talk show The Nine Till Noon Show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest The Nine Till Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello. Good morning to you. Three minutes past nine on this Monday, the 17th of April. I do hope you're very well indeed. And you're very welcome along to The Nine Till Noon Show. And it's good to be back after a wee week off last week, thanks to Donald Kavana as always, looking after things expertly. We have another busy one for you today. But we want you involved by WhatsApp and texting 086625000 086625000 Give us a call in 07491 25000 or if you want to email it's comments at HighlandRadio.com now. Those of you who wish to watch the show can do so by logging on to YouTube or Facebook. Search at Highland Radio. You'll see us live there. Give us a like and a subscribe. It does help, you know. And you can also watch directly on our website. Good morning to Charlie. Thank you for welcoming us back and rightly recognizing Donald doing an excellent job. Good morning to you, Ann and Michael all joining us as we watch the stream. Okay, let's have a look at the newspapers for this Monday morning bit milder today. And yesterday wasn't really quite pleasant. The Donegal news third lead story people of Creasler presented with Donegal person of the year. The Bonnington Hotel in Dublin hosted up to 400 people on Saturday night for the annual Donegal person of the year presentation event where the people of Creasler were honored as the 2022 recipients of the award. And we were very lucky to be down there for it. And it was obviously going to be incredibly difficult to strike a balance, but they think they did so perfectly. And it was a wonderful honor to the people of Creasler and everyone affected by that awful tragedy. Many highlights Matt McGranhan performed a unique piece written specifically for the event and for the people, which was really something else. And we hope to have him in live performing that at some time in the not too distant future. We know 10 people were killed and several injured following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creasler on Friday, October 7th last year. The community was left numbed by the tragedy and families, residents, first responders and countless others are still coming to terms with what happened on that Friday afternoon. And it was a very poignant night where family members of some of those killed with people first on the scene of the tragedy came together at the Donegal event in the capital. Many Donegal people travelled to Dublin for the occasion while Donegal folk living in the city turned out in big numbers to honor Creasler and the courage of community spirit of its people. The Derry News this morning tells us that Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of America will deliver the keynote address at Derry's Guild Hall on Tuesday afternoon. That's tomorrow. The event has been organized by the John and Pat Hume Foundation to present a posthumous tribute to John Hume and David Trimble at 1998 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. On to the nationals now. The Irish Times this morning tells us that a report into the secondment of former chief medical officer Dr Tony Hulhan to Trinity College Dublin concludes that he should not have been involved in aspects of the move. It's understood that the long-awaited report due to be published as soon as this week does not contain any adverse findings against Dr Hulhan but does identify issues with the structure of the process. According to multiple sources with knowledge of the report it states that the former CMO should not have been exclusively personally involved in negotiation of research funding linked to the appointment. That's not surprising is it that that was found to be not appropriate? It didn't feel appropriate at the time and it still isn't. On to the independent now and Hillary Clinton has called on Northern Ireland's political parties to get back into business as she praised the Windsor framework as an opportunity during an event in Belfast. Speaking at a Washington Ireland programme event yesterday Mrs Clinton who is the current Chancellor of Queens University praised the deal between the UK and the EU to address the Northern Ireland protocol. Given the Windsor framework this is an opportunity unlike any for growth investment and business expansion because Northern Ireland now has a unique and privileged positions he said Mrs Clinton and her husband former US President Bill Clinton are in Belfast to attend events marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. That runs all week. I think it's a three day conference isn't there which will be well attended I'm sure and you can watch it online too. We'll tell you more about that maybe a little later in the week. On to the Irish Daily Mail now and T-Shock Leal for Radcar is just two bad opinion polls away from being axed by his own party after barely 100 days back as T-Shock members of Finigale have warned though I don't believe that for a second to be honest with you but anyway that's what this article says. On ease is rife within the party after a recent poll put Finigale at 15% to result that could see the party drop to 20 seats or fewer and be consigned to the margins of political life in a politically embarrassing move the dissident wing of the party plans to grill Mr Radcar at Finigale's notoriously leaky parliamentary party meeting this week. One Repsall said the 15% won't be magicked away. Some of the so-called usual suspects will raise it at next week's parliamentary party meeting. Another respected Finigale TD said of Mr Radcar won't be sacked on the basis of one opinion poll but if there are two more he is gone and he said about Ender nothing as he said about Ender, nothing personal just business. That poll was the talk of the party on 15% it's not just a few country TDs that are gone, they're all gone. Pascal Donahue Neil Richmond, Pika Burke even Leo himself, he carved out a seat brilliantly when he was young but at 15% he's gone they warned. So that's coming apparently from within the party though I don't fight for a second and also it's difficult but those figures don't always translate do they into how many seats one might win or lose but anyway it's still there's a lot of work to do to bounce back from that. The Irish daily star this morning the bill for housing Ukrainian refugees in Ireland will hit 1 billion within weeks figures revealed the status so far paid at 840 million of which 350 was spent since the beginning of this year the department for children equality disability integration and youth which is responsible for looking after Ukrainians who came here to flee the war confirm most of the money was used to provide accommodation it's understood that millions old to housing providers across the country in as many cases three to five months in arrears were paid up to date last week obviously they're paying the expensive ones the hotels the sort of people that have made a little business out of it and not so little at all I wonder if any of you contacted offering accommodation to the council during but they said it would all be sorted within two weeks have they taken up any of those offers or any Ukrainian refugees being moved to that cheaper accommodation I wonder a department spokesperson said this year the department has paid out almost 350 million this has been paid out on a weekly basis rising steadily over time this week and last week the department paid out a somewhat larger volume of payments than in previous weeks including a number of very overdue invoices in line with our commitment to prioritise these and that's something this government whatever government is going to have to continue to provide for the foreseeable future I would imagine the Irish sun this morning some American media outlets have blasted Joe Biden for taking a taxpayer funded family reunion to Ireland the US president's day Irish trip was toasted as a success here but many critics stateside said it had no political purpose now the problem with American media and it's getting that way here is you have a camp that's pro-Biden and a camp that's anti-Biden and never the twain shall meet so I really try to gauge what it all means looking at the American media it doesn't make much sense it depends where it was broadcast of course but we know Biden flew first to the north to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement he then spent three days meeting Irish dignitaries and visiting his ancestral homes in Laos and Mayo so what did you think of it all I know we've kind of talked about this a bit but we haven't been on air since he addressed the crowds in Mayo and what have you I think the bill for the Republic here for us effectively was 50 million now I'm not sure if I dreamt that I'll read it I'm sure I read it which is a big amount of money but given the connection between the countries given the amount of American companies here and so on and so forth do you believe that was money well spent the forwarding from the media very regrettable from my perspective to be honest with you not a single critical question or point made it's as if many of the journalists were all just part of the party which I just don't think is very helpful but anyway that's just me as a consumer not necessarily as someone who works in radio in the Irish daily mirror today it's one of these stories that's important to talk about but I know if you've got a young one in the house that's not feeling well at the moment or you're just a bit of a warrior and I think we all worry about our children these types of stories too are very distressing but that maybe they are not maybe sorry they are important in terms of making us aware and trusting our instincts I think even if we go to a GP or an out of our out of our service with the children I think you have to trust your instincts and I've talked about this before I was away but I just feel it's really important the parents of a 10 year old girl who died after contracting strepe urged other parents to make themselves aware of the seriousness of the condition in 2019 the Murphy's from Mill Street in County Cork watched little Vivian deteriorate rapidly after she complained of a sore throat and had a rash she told RTE the nightmare began on Valentine's Day Dermot Murphy collected his daughter from school and told how she was more subdued than usual and had less energy but within hours she was seriously ill despite being told by three different doctors that their daughter's illness was viral the Murphy still had their doubts mom Lilly said that after five days the rash was really angry looking and Vivian had pain and swelling in her leg they panicked parents rushed their daughter to university hospital where a black mark was found on her leg it was growing rapidly and the parents were told that their girl had a bacterial infection that had led to sepsis and she was going into shock Dermot said the black mark was moving up her body and she would have to be taken to temple street in Dublin for amputation after surgery Vivian went into cardiac arrest causing brain damage the parents made the difficult decision to take her off life support and she died on March 1st of 2019 and god help them and fair play to them for speaking out though it's just really important to say I understand that there's a reluctance to give out antibiotics because you give out too many or you take too many and they lose their effectiveness but I think sometimes you kind of have to say well do you we really need these just to be on the safe side I don't know it's hard to know what the right thing is 08 660 25000 is the whatsapp and text number as you know don't you 08 660 25000 get involved in the conversation have your say you can give us a call to on 07 4 9 1 25000 we're taking your calls on that number as well also another way things are spotted in the paper which I thought was the Irish independent I thought was a remarkable statistic that sun tan sun starved Irish shoppers now account for more than 60% of global sales of self tan by pennies with our often grey skies making our plantion for tanned limbs a bit tricky it's hardly surprising Irish shoppers account for the vast bulk of the retailers fake tan sales out buying shoppers across Europe and as far as way of far as far away as the US but I don't think it's all about the sun either I think people now more so than ever are recognising the dangers of too much exposure to the sun and I think maybe that's part of it as well so 60% of the global sales in Ireland about 5% of that at least are on the knuckles and the knees but anyway we'll be back with more of the Ninetyl Noon Show after these The Newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra Mountaintop Letterkenny the C Store National Large Four Court of the Year for 2022 The Ninetyl Noon Show is brought to you by Letterkenny Credit Union offering low rate car loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today The CFC Interior's Dairy Stock Disposal Sale is now on Due to overstock an incredible £1.5 million worth of stock must go Don't miss our highest ever discount on selected ranges across all departments The Stock Disposal Sale at CFC Interior's Dairy Cookstown & 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Call Ursula 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 Don't know if you know Alice and Pat late 40's couple of kids been together 17 years never married of course, but that's not a problem until something happens and suddenly words like unmarried, inheritance and substantial tax bill enter the equation You never need proper estate planning until you do That's why the experience team at McElhenney & Associates are here to help You can find us online or call 0749175 989 McElhenney & Associates solicitors Stranaller Highland Radio time checks with Expressway Travel Route 32 from Letterkenny to Dublin Expressway, bringing you the time at Okay, the time is 18 minutes past 9, Councillor Albert Doherty joins us on the programme and it's Day Javu, it's Groundhog Day and that's no offence to you, Albert because we're talking again about poor road signage in the Innishown area as we approach into another tourist season that arguably perhaps has even begun already Is it the same problems? We just can't get the basics right sometimes I think Albert Well, as you're saying we've had a bumper week or ten days there with many many activities many many visitors and I think congratulations to all involved but with that as well has come a number of incidents where local residents would have highlighted maybe their service roads being blocked by a visitor's car or local residents saying their own local areas where they were unavailable to park their cars and indeed in rural parts the farming community saying we have to carry on our farm or business we love people visiting our resorts, people visiting our local headlands and walks however we need some signage or need some alertness for our visitors to say slow down, take care or be sensitive to the needs of families or residents who are here all the time in the community Right, so is there a particular problem area are you talking a peninsula wide approach and listen, we're talking about any shown at the moment but I'm sure there are people listening in other high traffic volume areas of the county that will relate to this are we talking maybe a countywide audit or some sort of consultation Yeah, I think it's a countywide I mean, Fouch Ireland launch publicity there something we're all very proud of highlighting the county highlighting the wild Atlantic way highlighting the initial 100 the drives, the resorts the visiting in our own Mullen head and I'll pack away however the visitors, I'm saying that the council should be able to alert visitors where they can and when they can that we're in a rural area please be wary and sensitive to the needs of residents and there are parking facilities and there are opportunities to park but just be sensitive to the needs of locals and the needs of the farming community So what is actually happening here I know you've had some contact from people but just to cut to the chase are people accessing people's land parking in the land blocking entrance to fields in rural areas all the farming community and people that have contacted me would be saying can we alert and direct signage which indicates please take care animals crossing the basic stuff and we're heading into silage season as well silage season as well so we're going to see even more agricultural vehicles on the roads see this is the type of stuff needs almost immediate action but we can't really wait until September October or the concerns of people are being addressed this isn't just something I'd be asking council to respond to in the last week in previous years we've done it as well and I think the council are also hindered by they're adhering to a national signage policy really isn't it and there are items that we might want in our locality that aren't on that national plan of signs that are advertised and the council locally feel we may be unable to help you there and then after I think there should be support and encouragement for if example in the farming that they can erect their own signage and maybe any guidelines and assistance there would be welcome and then back to it also came up in the week or two past is to be sensitive to the locals who live there and I would have been given incidents where perhaps someone has gone on their school run and when they come back into their local estate their parking place is occupied and maybe occupied for significant number of hours or for the day and that's where I also mentioned maybe residents only or residents parking it's about being sensitive to the needs of all and maybe what's happening in the real part as well I think we do have to be a wee bit careful though and that's perhaps why there are policies in terms of signage because very quickly things can get very very messy and I'm sure you've got tidy towns groups in the area that you represent that might have a say on how much signage goes up and where as well like it can't be ad hoc either I'd be wary of that we certainly do have very very active tidy town groupings here who and throughout the peninsula in the county who'd like to look at and analyse what results come back after an annual tidy town assessment and be it signage or whatever they can be very wary as to what is appropriate but really what I'm asking is for the council to respond where they can to assist with parking to respond where they can to safety to adhere to or to invite motorists to adhere to please keep service roads clear and be wary that emergency vehicles may be called to these estates and all in all it's just good citizenship OK, well we've put it out there now we'll see what we get back on that thank you very much indeed that is Councillor Albert Doherty there he's calling for as you heard on routes to popular visitor attractions in and shown warning of farming activities and residents only areas have you got a real life story of how that might affect you as I say not exclusively in and shown I presume it is something that happens right around the region 08 660 25,000 whatsapp and text to that number 08 6 08 660 25,000 is I haven't read that number in a week also well done to Stremont national school students who will represent Ireland at the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas, Texas from April 25 to May 4 you know the talented team of students we had a couple of their representatives on this show they had created a robot that had to fulfil certain functions and did so well and they were doing a bit of a fundraiser to try and get the students out there well obviously they were successful because they're heading out safe journeys to them and we wish them great success the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas are huge and a real prestigious event and it's great to see them in attendance right okay Peter Madden is committee member of Solid Fuel Merchants Ireland and he joins us on the programme now good morning to you Peter how are you keeping good morning Greg thanks for having me I would say we're talking now about coal smuggling I think that's what it calls it sounds a bit dramatic but I suppose that's what it is it's illegally brought into Ireland from Northern Ireland 56 million Euro it's costing the industry I would say a big portion of that is around the border counties Peter it would be I suppose concentration around the border counties but it has gone further down it has been an issue down further in the Republic down to the years and it's been greatly exacerbated since the smokey band back in October of last year where the smokey coal was banned in the Republic through the air quality action and Peter when we talk about this just to break it down into a pie chart for me how much of this is businesses buying this coal to try and please their customers I'm sure buying this coal and bringing it across the border in a flatbed in bulk and how much of this is people going back and forwards for three or four bags like what makes up the 56 million we would we're actually trying to break that down at the moment through due to the lack of enforcement it's very hard to track those figures are based on a study that was done what we're trying to investigate back in October 21 so we at the moment are asking for better enforcement analysis and process where if you are a fuel merchant in the Republic of Ireland that you register and have a license so the inspections can take place so if you don't have a license questions are asked why and where you're getting your stuff from where you're getting your supplies from and we'd be able to take from there but as I said since October of last year our members have seen a serious downturn in their business due to the issue that they cannot sell the smokey products anymore and then as well too though how can you make sure that that's not because that people are being taxed out of and legislated out of burning coal or maybe they're switching to turf or wood or something else or maybe they're getting rid of the open fire altogether is it possible to sort of break down the impacts that might have versus the illegally importation of coal this type of coal say that again I'm sorry how do we know because of vat increases or tax increases that people aren't moving away from coal rather than buying illegal coal do you know what I mean well it's it seems to be seen as our doors that you know our customers haven't changed but they're coming back to us where a person was buying tin bags they're now only buying three bags and that's down to the market increase in the price of coal and the carbon tax difference between the north and the south you're looking at the moment for your 90 price difference per bag in a bag of coal and that's going to increase to five five year 80 come the end of this month so it's pretty easy to see your customers using something else yes what are they using we don't know I mean there hasn't been a major influx of retrofitting or anything in the town that we see the feedback we're getting from our members on the door is people are buying less or just stop buying at all and we see it on the door steps we see the different bags on the door steps we see the different products on the door steps we see these guys going around and they are if you're doing your rounds on a particular day and you go around the following day and you miss a customer but there's a different bag at the door well they bought it off somebody else and also to how much of it do you think is and oh this is anecdotal Peter I'm not trying to put you on the spot but you know it's the type of coal you can get as well I would know people that prefer the old dirty coal they find that the coal available in the Republic doesn't burn quite as well so is that a factor as well as the cost do you think yes I mean okay the new products in smoky coal they're very good but they don't perform that well in an open fire there is a demand for the smoky coal it does perform better in an open fire especially with a back boiler it is a traditional thing I suppose people like the flame and the homeliness of it and there is a case there that maybe people need to adapt to maybe fire doors or inserts or whatever for the open fires for the smoky coal to perform better but there is a demand out there for us there is a demand and you have two different laws in two different jurisdictions on the one island you're going to have this anomaly but PTAs would have saw this coming you're not the first industry to be affected by sort of decisions made in Dublin that don't really recognise the fact that whether people like it or not there is another jurisdiction on this island you know I'm thinking of minimum pricing of alcohol for an example do you know what I mean if you're going to run a business in Donegal you are going to see more people cross the border to get it cheaper and as I say PTA you would have seen this coming that you haven't just woken up and thought where are all our customers going we knew this was going to happen in advance yes we did see a comment and we were told the only communication we got was regards to the implementation of the new regulations was from our suppliers given a date at which smokey coal would not be available anymore if we had overbought our smokey coal products we were stuck with them after the 31st of August we weren't allowed to return them we weren't allowed to sell it so you made the comparison there alcohol is a licensed product and you can be checked there is an enforcement process there there has been absolutely zero enforcement in this new law in the Republic since it began and none of our members have been inspectors we were told we would be inspectors if we were found in breach the product would be confiscated and we would be fined none of them have been inspectors we have an open door policy we're trying to comply and we've been left dying divine and ironically you and the government at this point now the decision has been made you're on the same side of the argument in that I presume Aiman, Ryan and others don't want particularly dirty coal being burnt in the Republic now I'm not saying it's all that there's a price differential across the board but I mean what I'm saying is you're on the same side of the argument now in that you want enforcement and presumably the Green Party and others also want enforcement indeed I mean we're not trying to change deniers by any means we are the people on the ground and we want to work with the authorities work hand in hand with the authorities to try to implement this cleaner policy and make the changes going forward I mean we are not ready for the Green process as such yet I mean there's still over half a million homes using solid fuels many of them relying on solid fuels all of the time and while there is that demand there there's going to be a market for coal so if if you have that many houses in the Republic using solid fuels there's going to be a demand for this illicit product so that's why we need enforcement and does it feel a bit though in terms of coal that maybe it's a sunset industry in that you know you've got the factors we've been talking about now you have got also a certain amount of people quite a lot of people I imagine that are cutting back on the burning of coal because of the the cost implications of it is there a sense within the industry that it is in an irreversible decline yes and we will be looking for funding and support for any of our members for all of our members that are in that situation where any of those new legislation that's coming in that's going to affect our business we're going to be looking for support and funding for us okay thanks for your time this morning Peter I appreciate it alright that's Peter Madden committee member of Solid Fuel Merchants Ireland 08 660 25000 if you have a view on that or give us a call and 07 491 25000 a listener says please make parents aware my son goes to college at McGee in northern Ireland we opted for this so we wouldn't be faced with the accommodation crisis and he could travel each day we got approved by the Susie Grant but this was not transferable to a college in northern Ireland and we didn't know this until after he started we are paying huge fees which we really can't afford we wish you had stayed in southern Ireland okay so made that decision it's a great college as well don't get me wrong but obviously with the cost of accommodation it seemed like a better option but they say that the Susie Grant is not transferable to a college in northern Ireland 08 660 25000 some comment here on the school system Donna says I'm having to fight all year for my son and daughter to get the correct funds for the resource classes for junior and leaving so not enough teachers in the correct subject and taking on other stuff like LCA and extra TY classes and the ones with resources to left suffering that's already in the school and other nationalities can come in and not have this issue and again 07 491 25000 if you 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open seven days per week, offering the very best value on all pet foods, accessories, grooming and care products. Call in and let our staff help you spoil your pet today. You will be amazed by the range of product for all pets with exceptional value on all leading brands. Alternatively, you can browse and buy online at petworld.ie and we will deliver to your home. Irish National Opera presents the French classic romantic opera Verter, a masterly portrayal of hopeless love between the passionate poet Verter and a married woman. An opera full of sweeping melodies, including one of the world's most famous tenor arias. At Angrenan Theatre Letter Kenny on Saturday the 22nd of April. Tickets from €27 see angrenan.ie, funded by the Arts Council. Raymond emailed to say I'm not a Joe Biden fan by any means but on a personal level you have to give him the space and the credit given how he emotionally responded to meeting the priest who had given last rites to his son Bo on his visit to Nock. Joe Biden is a human being just like the rest of us. The US press should have left him alone. I think they were just envious not to mention being still anti-Irish he believes. Has Councillor Doherty made any representations to the council requesting they buy the four hectares sighting current on it that would be ideal for social housing? Another what about the sewage flowing into the sea and rivers in Donegal, not great for tourism what's the environmental team in Donegal doing about this? Another fantastic to see Joe Biden welcomed with open arms by Ireland's clergy to knock Shrine and Balana or Balana as he called it. Is this a sign that the church is relaxing its opposition to abortion and possibly same sex marriage in the future? I don't see any sign in that regard. Right, yeah, like the people going into Derry with tanks to bring out oil earning their money in the south and not even getting the local oil meant to deliver greedy greedy people disgraceful. Some people though are compelled to purchase things when they're cheaper because of the money that they have available to them. I'm not in any way I'm not in any way excusing it. It's not for me to judge, but I understand perhaps sometimes. We have a stove, the smokeless duck eggs. The smokeless duck eggs give up give off absolutely no heat at all. We've just stopped buying cold and are buying more oil to heat the radiators. We've gone from lighting the fire every day to maybe one day or one day a week or two weeks. I find it's hit and miss sometimes they light up and they're great.  A caller says I will use my so called dirty coal regulations or none. It's not a fossil fuel nor is turf. They are plant fuels, which is not cold as a plant fuel. I understand where you're coming from, but I think you might be just sort of trying to justify your decision, which is fine. It's up to you what you do is to say I'm not here to judge another. So I think smokeless coal providers should be doing more to educate people on why it's better than high sulfur alternatives. Maybe that will encourage more people to buy the smokeless coal they provide. Another I didn't hear one comment on the health impacts of burning coal indoors during that conversation, and that's a missed opportunity indeed. I get where you're coming from and it's something we talk about regularly on this program.  Unfortunately we have a very high rate of people's issues with breathing and what have you in this county. There's no doubt about that because we've spoken to the professionals in that area.  You can burn smoky coal in Straban, but you can't in Lifford. We're all living under the one sky. Another Greg, that smokeless coal has awful fumes offered and tons of ashes and waste far more than ordinary coal, but I suppose it's the damaging stuff that it emits. Right, OK. Pat Griffin is senior inspector with the Health and Safety Authority. We are beginning a two-week national inspection campaign with a focus on the safe use of tractors and quad bikes. ATVs they're called as well on farms. As I say, Pat Griffin, senior inspector with Health and Safety, the Health and Safety Authority. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Good morning, Greg. Right, so give us the background stats really that make this type of initiative warranted and important. Yeah, I suppose agriculture has probably the worst rate of fatal accidents in the workplace. So over the last 10 years, we've 190 deaths on farms, which is a shocking number. And we send our sympathies to anyone that's affected by these fatalities. And over that 10-year period, 86 people have been killed with tractors and other vehicles. So we're trying to focus the attention of farmers on the safe use of their tractors and other vehicles like quads and loaders. And we're coming out now and having this campaign because slightly servicing season is coming up soon. And tractors and vehicles will be out in the roads again, out in fields. And there's going to be a huge amount of work done to gather the amount of feed that's needed for the population of animals, you know? Yeah. And we talk about deaths and people losing their lives. And of course, that is the important headline figure. But I presume there are many multiples of that number of people who are out of action can't work, even maybe life changing injuries. Yeah, there's many, many very serious injuries on farms. And like we don't get reports from farmers of their injuries, we get probably 80 reported per year. But when we rely on the National Farm Survey, we've actually got four and a half thousand serious farm injuries every year. So fatalities is only the top of the iceberg. It's actually the most horrendous thing for a farm family to have a farm fatality on their farm. So we need to stop the fatalities and we need to stop these very serious accidents. And a lot of them come down to the operation of tractors and plugs. And we're trying to come out with this two week campaign to ask farmers and contractors, indeed, to start to do some preparation for decided season. And while many farmers will use the same contractors every year, sometimes the drivers change and sometimes the conditions on the ground change. So, you know, the farmer and the contractor need to be working together. They need to make sure that the drivers and the operators of the tractors and vehicles are going to be competent. That the machinery is checked, like checking the brakes, checking the hitching systems, making sure that there's a good combination of equipment there. You know, and even looking at the system of work that they're going to use in the traffic management, giving a few sort of hints to the drivers about making sure that yard safety can be kept safe, having one way systems priority to certain drivers and certain loaders. And then, you know, maybe putting up a mirror at a blind spot on the farm so that, you know, the yard safety can be done a lot better this year. So there's a lot of work that can be done. And we've prepared a new quarter of practice a number of years ago, and there's a particular risk assessment checklist within that. And they've asked farmers and contractors to go into the new quarter practice and look into the harvesting checklist. If to go down through those and answer all those questions and put things right, we can have a safer and less injurious campaign this year. So what way will the campaign work then? Because, I mean, obviously there's an inspection element to it. But then you look at maybe some of the demographics of those that have lost their lives. And is it maybe to an important element, informing people how to use equipment safely and what to check before you use the equipment, if you know what I mean. So how will you balance all that over the course of the next two weeks? And how do you actually engage? Are you calling out to farms or what's happening? Yeah, we're doing routine inspection. So, you know, I hope to, I hope to have about 15 to 20 inspectors out over the next couple of weeks. They will do routine inspections on farm yards. They look to find the larger farmer, there'll be a lot more action. They'll talk to the farmer and ask him a few questions about how they're going to deal with silage harvesting this year. They'll give him a few pointers and give him some ideas on how to improve things. I must say that, you know, farmers generally do a great job. But the amount of silage cotton, the amount of work done on farms is incredible. They do a very good job. But I think we can even do better. We can actually stop some of these other fatalities. The other thing the inspector would be bringing to their attention when they do visit the farm is to the new quality of the new quad safety regulations. These regulations require training, it's mandatory training and the mandatory mandatory wearing of helmets from the 20th of November this year. So we're trying to encourage farmers to get out there now and try to get this training done and put it on the long thing. In terms of just a quick one on the the ATVs there. Is it the case that if after it's mandated, if you don't wear a helmet on a quad, your insurance might not be valid? I would think so. I would think so. And but that is down to the insurance companies that covered it. Understood, I get you. Yeah. And then this third party in first part, you know, that kind of stuff. And someone says why don't we have something as simple as roll bar and quads? Why aren't they mandated? Well, roll bars and quads are available. They are considered a safety accessory, and they can be fitted to to a quad bike. But there has to be CE mark. So there's a there's a few CE mark quad quad overturn devices in this country. They're not mandatory in that there hasn't been enough research done to absolutely rule out the possibility of these roll over devices actually doing damage to the operator. Exactly. Well, in a way, unless you are contained within the vehicle, like by a seatbelt or something, you could actually be injured by the roll bar if you happen to be thrown from from the quads, presumably. So yeah, that makes sense. Some of the manufacturers of quads are saying that now. But there's research going on in Australia and New Zealand that we're tracking that closely. In terms of this campaign, right? Like, can your people sort of say, you know, we see problems here, you know, in force is the level of enforcement here? Is this about advice and guidance part? Oh, it's about enforcement as well. Yeah, inspectors can, you know, inspectors will generally try to work with the farmer and farmers are generally very cooperative and very compliant once these issues are pointed out to them. So normally, when an inspector will point out a few things, the farmer say, Yeah, you're right. I should have had that right. I'll get it done. But if the farmer if the inspector forms the opinion that, you know, there's a bit of resistance there, but farmer doesn't really see the point of it. You know, the inspector can make a decision on the ground to say, Well, I'm going to actually issue a legal notice, a legal document that will require you to do this. And that's got an improvement notice. And if a machine is in such a bad order, that the inspector forms the opinion data could be dangerous to actually operators, the inspector can issue a prohibition notice to prohibit the use of that machine. So we have our legal powers. But normally, we get full cooperation from farmers once they get things that are pointed out to them. You know, they're generally very compliant in that way. Okay. And it's all about reducing and limiting as much as we possibly can deaths on in and around farms. Yeah, and I would appeal to farmers and contractors when this work is going on to make sure that our safety looked at very, very closely. There's no place for children or elderly people that might might have the speed of movement. These people should be kept out of the yard out of these busy, busy times. And children shouldn't be carried in these tractors and large machines. That practice has to stop. We have to protect them. They are vulnerable. All right, thanks for your time this morning. That's Pat Griffin, senior inspector with the Health and Safety Authority 08 660 25,000. The 9 till noon show with letter Kenny credit union. Simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from letter Kenny credit union. Call us on<PHONE_NUMBER> or apply online via our app or in office today. In 2003, the Special Olympics changed Ireland forever. 20 years later, we continue to transform the lives of children and adults with an intellectual disability. Some athletes will represent their country. Some will learn to run, jump or even speak for the first time at a Special Olympics Club. But all will laugh, compete and belong together. Please support them by donating today at Special Olympics dot ie or give what you can to our bucket collectors on Friday, April 21st. Thank you. April is a time for wellness. So why not treat yourself at the award one in V spa set within the confines of the four star Villa Rose Hotel Ballet Buffet. As a sanctuary of relaxation, the V spa specializes in advanced skin care and facials together with chemical pills and micro needling. This April the V spa have created a collection of spa packages that will leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. View the spring spa packages and overnight escapes online today on Villa Rose dot ie. Farmers know when it's time to get moving. Like when the alarm goes off first thing in the morning, they know it's time to move the herd in for milking. And when it comes to insurance, farmers are discovering why it's time for another move. With access smart farm insurance, switching couldn't be easier. You don't have to fill out any long documents to join. So the process is as pain free as possible. So if you're paying more than you should be, ask yourself, is it time for a move? For a quote, search AXA dot ie forward slash farm. AXA. No, you can terms and conditions apply. AXA insurance stack is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Highland radio weather updates with Ireland West Airport. Land's a Roddy is back. Check out our new weekly flights to Land's a Roddy with Ryanair Ireland West Airport.  Take it easy. Okay, let's have a look at that weather forecast for what's left off today, which is most of it. Thankfully, low cloud mist and fog will break up through the morning, leaving another pleasant day of sunny spells and a scattering of showers, highest temperatures 15 to 17 degrees in light to moderate southeast breezes. Lots of you interested in the conversation about coal. Greg just last month, my carbon monoxide alarm went off for the first time, never done so before. Only thing I had changed was that I was burning smokeless coal. There has to be more fumes in this than the ordinary coal. I'm not really quite sure about that, but just be really careful, please, because it could be a number of things that could be triggering that alarm. Make sure it's not out of date and so on and so forth and stay safe. A call says if our government stopped ripping people off, then the people could afford to heat their homes. They are the cause of all this with the wages they claim it doesn't affect them. Another why has coal smokeless not come down in price in line with home heating oil and petrol and diesel. A lot of it's carbon taxes, isn't it?  I really don't know. I know someone that mixes coal, his bags are open. That nix coal, mix coal, mix his coal, I don't know. Maybe, oh, they provide it mixed? Do they mix of smokeless and non? I don't know. If it's smokeless coal, why is there still smoke coming out of my chimney? Well, I think it's what's in the smoke, maybe, rather than not smoking at all. But again, this is not my area of expertise. Maybe we need to get someone on that is an expert. A call says, probably some of the people doing this are getting the fuel allowance then heading into the north for cheaper stuff. That's why all these allowances should be paid out in vouchers form. I just can't understand that lots of people are unaware that if you are approved for a Susie grant in the Republic of Ireland, you can't get it in Northern Ireland. This is very unacceptable for people living in Donegal in close proximity to Northern Ireland, but fees are huge in there. And another one we should be doing all we can to stop people burning coal in homes. It's highly carcinogenic. And the fact that we have companies still profiting off of this and marketing coal at home is really disappointing. Now, I want to mention, tea with the Maggie Maggies is taking place on Saturday, the 22nd of April at 7.30pm in the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith. Trina and Raidne Donegal and Raidne Mooney, Moia Brennan are all involved. On Saturday, doors open at 7.30pm on stage at 8. Sunday, doors open at 7.30pm on stage at 7.30pm. With experiences born of years in the music industry and an eagerness to reveal unexplored and untold possibilities, tea with the Maggie's are Trina, Raidne Mooney and Moia Brennan, as I mentioned. These true Celtic women have plowed their talents internationally for decades, achieving respect from their peers while picking up awards and commercial success along the way. Not to mention the adoration of fans from all walks of life around the world. So that's going to be a great night. If you're anywhere near the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith and also on Saturday evening in Dublin, we did have a performance there from Moia Brennan and Raidne Mooney and they were excellent as always and struck a perfect tone. 08, 6, 60, 25,000 is the WhatsApp and text number. Mary Coyle joins us now of that Donegal Cancer Flights and Services and again more flights carrying cancer patients from Donegal to Dublin are cancelled. Mary, how often are these flights being cancelled now? Well, I suppose this past week, if they haven't been cancelled, some of them have been run in late, maybe two hours late, maybe three hours late. So we've kind of had a week of it and we thought it was settling down as we had a couple of months ago, we had a really where we had 12 days no roll that flights were cancelled but it seems to me that it's kind of happening now again and it's impacting very much on the service that we provide. And also too, it can be difficult to secure an appointment and I'm sure those that are given their time to meet patients aren't happy if they don't turn up. Well, that's it. As you say, it's very difficult to get appointments in Dublin and people are waiting for appointments. People are going up for treatments and they're going up for operations that are scheduled and then, you know, if the flight doesn't go, they're going to have to wait another couple of weeks for their appointment again. And I think, you know, what we're afraid of as well is that people will not think that this service is reliable and at the moment it's not reliable and I can only praise the staff that are in Donegal Airport. They are doing their very best and I spoke to Elish, the manager there this morning and all they have really is that it's an operational problem that that's all they know at the moment and it's very difficult for them as well because they're down there with the patients, with not just the patients, people that are flying up for business and everything else, they can't have but, you know, it's just it's a very difficult one. It's got to the stage too or we're very close to it. People aren't going to risk it. They're going to put alternative more difficult arrangements in place because the frequency is too often. So is the company saying anything? Yeah, of course, and I get it, Mary. Is the airline saying anything? No, the airline, I think, you know, it's difficult to know for Donegal Airport to get in touch with the airline. Never mind us trying to get in touch. The last thing that this happened, we tried several times to get in touch with the airline. We spoke to them. We told them that we weren't happy with the service, but it wasn't reliable. It wasn't good for patients. And to be quite honest with you, we didn't really hear back from them at all. Right, that's disappointing, Mary. We're going to try and make contact with them and see what they have to say because it's like the boy that cried, Wolf, isn't it? You're just going to try and endure the journey the other way. If you aren't sure or you don't feel sure, you're going to get to see your consultant or your doctor. Okay, Mary, listen, thank you for that brief update on that. Let's just say we're going to make our inquiries as well to try and get to the bottom of it and we appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Mary Coil of Donegal Cancer Flights and Services. We're going to be going to the news now, which will be just a minute late. Join our via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account. The groom goes free. The groom goes free. Yes, you heard it. The groom's room. Evolve clothing, Larry Kenny Retail Park. The groom goes free. Call in today. Terms and conditions apply. Donegal County Council would like to invite the residents of the Strunauer and Kavan lower local areas and other interested parties to participate in the first public consultation for the N15 Car Cam Benz Road Scheme. The aim of the consultation is to receive feedback on the preliminary options prior to the deciding on the emerging preferred option. A public display of the study area constraints and route options will take place in Keys Hotel Strunauer on Thursday 20th of April between 2pm and 7pm. County Council staff and their design consultants will be present on the day to listen to and to register your views. For additional project information, please contact the Donegal National Roads Office on 074 97 24 500 or design at dnrdo.ie. The financial literacy skills that will help them get a right in later life because your financial well-being is our priority. Register your school today, search Bank of Ireland's schools. Bank of Ireland, begin. Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Centre of Bank of Ireland. Live on air online and on the Highland Radio app, this is Highland Radio News. Good morning, it's Donna Marie Daughey with the news just after 10 o'clock. Donegal citizens need to be seen as equals to the rest of Ireland. That's the opinion of councillor Micheal Cullen McGilliasburg. He has called on the government to take action following yet another flight cancellation from Donegal Airport to Dublin. He says the lack of service is simply not good enough. It's been a couple of weeks there that there wasn't any cancellation, but now here we have last week yet again today and it's not good enough and the minister and the government needs to step up this attitude that Donegal doesn't really exist isn't good enough. It's not just in relation to our public transport and in all other aspects and we need to be listened. People in Donegal are as important as anywhere else in the country and we deserve a service equal to anywhere else. More high-profile visitors are in Northern Ireland this week as events continue to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. A major conference is taking place at Queen's University and will feature keynote speeches from former US President Bill Clinton and former Taoiseach Berthia Herron. James Good looks forward to today. Hillary Clinton, Mary McElise, Jonathan Poyle and Pistean negotiator, former US Senator George Mitchell are just some of the famous names taking part in today's event, with Tony Blair and Bill Clinton speaking over the week as well. The conference will cover four different themes of the Good Friday Agreement, with today's titled Reflect. There's a heavy police presence across the city, especially in the university area, with the campus on an effective lockdown until Wednesday. A driver was arrested yesterday after they had driven almost double the speed limit earlier in the week. Gardie from Bruncranah Road's policing unit detected the vehicle being driven at 195 kilometers per hour on the end 13 a few days ago. The speed limit in that area is 100 kilometers per hour and the road was reported to be very busy at the time. Gardie say the driver was charged to appear in court. The special criminal court is expected to return a verdict in the trial of Jerry the Monk Hutch this morning. Mr Hutch and two other men pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel in Dublin in February 2016. Former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall was also due to stand trial for the murder, but charges were dropped after he agreed to testify against Mr Hutch. He alleges the Monk confessed to him that he was one of the gunmen involved in the attack. Irish Times crime journalist Paul Williams has been speaking with Mr Hutch associates. He was very supremely confident apparently through people I'm talking to who know him that he's going to walk today and if he does walk I believe the plan is that number one he would celebrate his birthday that he had last week is 60th birthday probably in style and he'd probably leave the country. Police in Sturban have closed Church Street up until the Glen Road Junction. The public have been asked to avoid the area. It comes as police and fire service deal with an incident that was reported last night in the area. Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has announced today public inpatient charges have been abolished in all public hospitals. With more here's Jade McLafferty. The Health Amendment Act 2023 which was signed into law on April 4th removes the 80 euro public inpatient charge per day for people accessing care as a public patient in all public hospitals. Following the enactment of the legislation the Minister for Health signed the commencement order providing for the removal of charges from today. Funding was provided in budget 2023 to abolish these acute charges. And now for this morning's weather forecast. Low cloud mist and fog will break up through the morning leaving another pleasant day of sunny spells and a scattering of showers highest temperatures of 15 to 17 degrees in light to moderate southeast breezes. That's all for now we'll be back again with headlines at 11 o'clock and until then good morning. The obituary notices this Monday morning April 17th. The death has taken place of Francis O'Donnell 173 Ard Connell Ardra. His remains were posed at Shubland's funeral home this evening from 6 30 p.m. to 8 30 p.m. and tomorrow evening from 5 p.m. followed by removal at 6 30 p.m. to the Church of the Holy Family Ardra arriving at 7 p.m. Funeral mass on Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. The death has taken place of Teresa Tessie McBride, Umla Carigart. Her remains are reposing at her late residence. Funeral from there tomorrow going to the Church of St John the Baptist for Requiem mass at 11 o'clock which can be viewed live on the Meeva parish Facebook page interment immediately afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Family time please from 10 p.m. to 11 a.m. and on the morning of the funeral. Family flowers only please. Donations in lieu of Desired to the Friends of Letter Kenny University Hospital care of any family member. The death has taken place of John McGinley, John Daniel, Falgaro Cloughan. John is reposing at the residence of his late brother Frank in Falgaro and Cloughan. Requiem mass at 2 p.m. tomorrow in the Church of our Lady Perpetual Soccer Glen Finn with burial afterwards in Kilty Vogue Cemetery. Funeral mass can be viewed on MCN Media.tv. Rosary nightly at 8 p.m. with family time from 9 p.m. until 12 noon each day. The death has taken place of Anne Gibson, four-watered Harris Miltown convoy. Anne's remains will be reposing at her late residence today from 12 noon until 10 p.m. with Rosary both evenings at 9 p.m. Funeral from there tomorrow at 10 30 a.m. going to St Mary's Church convoy from 11 a.m. Requiem mass with interment afterwards in the new cemetery convoy. House private on the morning of the funeral please. Family flowers only please. Donations in lieu of flowers if desired to the Donegal Hospice care of any family member. The death has taken place of Sarah McHugh, Ahnish Remelton. Her remains are reposing at the residence of her brother Mickey McHugh back Lane Remelton. Funeral mass tomorrow at 11 a.m. in St Mary's Church Remelton burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Funeral mass can be viewed on ChurchServices.tv. Family time please from 10 p.m. until 11 a.m. The death has occurred of Rose Lynch, niece Sweeney, 21 Drum Quinn Road, Castle Derg, reposing at the family home. Funeral from there today at 10 15 a.m. for Requiem mass at 11 a.m. in St Patrick's Church Castle Derg and interment afterwards in the adjoining churchyard. Family flowers only please. Donations in lieu of desired to Knock Shrine care of Charles Lynch, funeral director. The death has taken place of Evie Lynch, 71 Cockhill Park, Bunkrana. Evie is reposing at her late residence. Funeral from there today at 10 30 going to St Mary's Church Cockhill for 11 a.m. Requiem mass with burial in the adjoining graveyard. The death has taken place of William Bill Slater, 30 Kilmore Point and formerly of Ledamore Moff County, Donegal. Funeral leaving his late home today, funeral leaving his home 30 Kilmore Point, Kilmore today at 1 30 p.m. followed by service of Thanksgiving for his life in Moff Parish Church at 2 o'clock. Private cremation will take place in Lakeland's crematorium cavern tomorrow. Family flowers only. Donations in lieu of desired to Moff Parish Church care of Angela Dobbins. The death has taken place of Anne Dowdes, Carawan Burt. Funeral from her late residence today at 11 30 a.m. going to St Angus's Church Burt for 11 a.m. Requiem mass with interment afterwards in Burt's Cemetery. House private this morning before the funeral please. Family flowers only please. Donations in lieu of flowers if desired to ICU letter Kenny University Hospital care of any family member. For more details including any family health guidelines for wakes and funerals please go to highlandradio.com. There was a monster who lived in the trees in the house that was rattled and shaken in the breeze.  She needed it fixed and all in one batch because she had an egg that was ready to hatch. So she went to the credit union for a renovation loan and got new windows insulation and extended her home. Monster loans from the credit union. Imagine loan to subject to approval terms and conditions apply. If you do not meet the repayments on your loan your account will go into arrears. This may affect your credit rating which may limit your ability to access credit in the future. Credit unions in the Republic of Ireland are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Okay, you're very welcome back to the 9 till noon show here on Highland Radio. We're into the second hour this Monday. Some of your comments coming in. I'm very upset to hear that the Susie grant is not accepted in colleges in the north. I have an autistic child who has her heart set on a particular course that is not available in letter Kenny was hoping to go to a college in Derry next year. I'd be driving her there and back every day. She wouldn't be capable of catching buses and moving away from home on her own is not an option either. There's no way I'd be able to afford the fees so it looks like my child won't be able to go on to third level education. I don't know how I'm going to tell her it's very unfair. Okay, it is. And that's a very difficult story indeed. All these people taking part in Good Friday Agreement are just talking shop. Jeffrey will never go back into government. Miho Martin is wasting his time talking about it. The DEP don't want to go into government again with Catholics. They are wasting their time talking waffle. That comes in from John. I'd be slightly more optimistic than you, John. I think after the dust settles, after the local elections, I think they'll have to come up with some sort of an agreement that allows power sharing to resume. Why not compulsory? We know this would save lives. The Quad would not roll over on top of the person just like a tractor. It's a nonbrainer. This is in relation to roll cages. I can understand that. I think if you were strapped into the seat of the Quad, now I don't really think most people have had a go in the Quad at some point or other. I'm just wondering if you fall out of the Quad, if the roll bar could end up doing more damage than good. I think if you were strapped into the Quad, perhaps, but I have to say, there's people out there that use them. Let me know. This caller, very sure that a roll bar, compulsory roll bars on Quad's would save lives. But what do you think? 08, 6, 60, 25,000. The caller says no heat off the smokeless coal. If you had a back boiler, it would take ages to heat the radiators. There is a bit of a practicality element to it. I do hear that quite a lot. We watched the Grand National on Saturday. It was delayed for a few minutes as people were protesting at it. I've watched it all my life. But last week, and I haven't been reading up any last Saturday, sorry, I haven't been reading up anything on it or my mind doesn't been convinced by, you know, people opposed to it or for it. But I'll tell you it, maybe it's my age. I don't know. I was watching it. And for the first time, I really thought that I'm not actually enjoying this. It's horrendous, really. Well, horrendous is too strong. Just in terms of seeing the riderless horses crashing into fences and jockies being flipped in the air and horses having to be put downhill 16 died. It was the first time I've kind of thought, I'm not really probably going to watch this again. Now, as I say, I'm not all woke and my views haven't been changed. I haven't been convinced in any way shape or form that I'm aware of. But it just was there was a turning point for me at the weekend. I thought, I'm not really interested in this. Did you find that 086625,000, 086625,000? And listening to some of the commentary, obviously, I think the trainers and commentators and journalists and those that make money from it, obviously very keen to keep it going and talking about how, you know, it's actually brilliant for the animals and all that type stuff. And maybe it is, I'm only speaking personally, I'm not trying to change anyone's point of view, but I'm just curious if anyone out there kind of felt the same this year as I did 086625,000, or not actually, by the way, I'm not looking to sort of invite people on only with just one certain point of view. That's not the motivation at all. But just in case other people felt that at the same time, you can call us to 07491 25,000, of course, or email comments at highlandradio.com later on. Brendan Devaney will be in studio with us, or he might not be, we don't know yet. He'll tell us about 30 seconds before he's due to be here, whether he's going to be in studio or on Zoom. But anyway, be that as it may. Great game of football yesterday, wasn't it? I really enjoyed that. Hopefully next week, the two games featuring Ulster teams will be as exciting. I wouldn't hold my breath. We'll see what Brendan thinks about that. But if you have any points or questions or comments put to Brendan as well, listen, he's in plug in his podcast. We'll also get some mileage out of him, too, if you want to have any questions answered or hear his opinion on anything. That and so much more besides, it's all coming up for you on your Ninetal Noon Show. The county's number one talk show, the Ninetal Noon Show on Highland Radio. It's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio. It's Monday, the 17th of April, your plane on the green sheet. The reference number is S16. It's game number 16. 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A new campaign, Get Rare Aware, has been launched by Rare Diseases Ireland to bring together politicians, medical experts and people living with rare diseases, including of course here in County Donegal, to take action on under-resourced genetic services at the Department of Clinical Genetics at Children's Health Ireland at Cromland. Vicky McGraw is CEO of Rare Diseases Ireland and joins us on the programme now. Thanks for your time this morning. Vicky, it's appreciated. No problem, Greg, thank you. Now I suppose when you, in terms of rare diseases, the name gives it away, doesn't it? Individually, there might be small groups of people suffering from rare diseases, but when taken in totality, it's like 50,000 people living with rare diseases in Ireland. So they're not as rare as a collective, if that makes sense? Well, actually, yeah, that 50,000 figure is that in fact the people living in the regional health area that Donegal is part of. Oh, get you, right, that's not contrary to what I'm saying. There's about 300,000 in Ireland. Oh, okay, that's even more significant, isn't it? And one of the challenges, I beg your pardon, Vicky, what are the issues then that need to be addressed? I know I referenced it there in the preamble, but why is this so important? So, I mean, I guess a rare disease, as you say, is only a handful of patients for each individual rare disease. There's about 6 to 8,000 different rare diseases, and about 70% of those are genetic and origin. So clearly, if you can have a genetic diagnosis, you'll identify what particular rare disease somebody's living with. And that allows proper care, treatment, access to medicine, access to clinical trials, all of those things, once you have a genetic diagnosis. But what we find here in Ireland is that our clinical services, our clinical genetic services based out of Chrome, and that's the main centre for the country, is incredibly under force to the extent that people are about two years on a waiting list.  This isn't, you know, two years for a procedure or something like that. This is just the simple step of a diagnosis. And so what we're calling on is for the government to deliver the government in their last programme for government when they loaded up in 2020. So almost three years ago now, they said that they would provide support to the clinical genetic service at Chrome, and it's specifically written in the programme for government. But three years later, nothing has happened. And so what we're saying is, guys, you've got to deliver on this. We can't have people, you know, waiting, you know, unsure of what exactly is causing the symptoms that they have. We need to speed up this process and looking to somewhere like Northern Ireland, where that wait is about three months. Wow, that's a big difference. And presumably, yeah, presumably two people then find themselves, you know, without a proper diagnosis going from one expert or one consultant to another. It's not, you know, in other words, a tired, you know, an endless process of elimination when genetic testing presumably could get the correct treatment where available and the correct care in place as soon as possible. Precisely, precisely. So we did some research last year and about 37% are waiting over five years for diagnosis. Some of that is because the research hasn't been done to identify the gene that's causing the symptoms that somebody might be living with. But in many cases, it is because of the delays and getting access to genetics to begin with, and then the delays with the genetic service as well on top of that. And you're absolutely right. People are sitting on multiple waiting lists and being re-referred into different consultants. And it's only adding to the problem that we have waiting lists from the country. And so if we could actually do something like this and get that root cause diagnosis, and people will be on the right path from the get go, they wouldn't be going from consultant to consultant and been given incorrect treatments, been given the wrong treatment and potentially even harmful treatments. So, you know, there's a lot to be said. And we look at it, you know, you look at other areas and diagnosis is key to the clinical care period. It's everything. You know, consultants are all crying out for, I need to know what it is to in order to be sure that I'm doing the right thing. Yeah. And do you think everyone that needs to be on that list or be facing long delays delays gets on that list? Like is there a, I don't know if the right word is a culture, but is there a proper policy in that, you know, someone that ends up visiting multiple consultants, we still can't get to the root of the problem, right? We better refer you for genetic testing. Does that happen routinely and correctly? Yeah, I would say it's happened a bit haphazardly. You might be lucky enough to visit somebody that thinks, you know what, let's try this. And we would like to be in a position, so there is a new, kind of like, I guess, genetics and genomic strategy for the country, which was published just towards the end of last year. And that's the five, 10 year vision of where we will be and what will be happening and stuff like that. And there's a need to, I guess, firstly, they call it mainstreaming genetics. So that not everything is centralized in one location, but the different consultants are using genetic services on an ongoing basis. And also to bring genetics into the GP kind of scenario. And, you know, that we all have a better understanding of what genetics means. And when you're, you know, being faced with genetic tests, what does it actually mean? And this is to enable, as you say, that's diagnostically, because what we find is that people are going from consultant to consultant. And then there's kind of, oh, we don't know what it is, but surely you're the grand or, you know, it's, don't worry about it or whatever. I kind of, no, no, no, that's not really the right answer. I spoke with somebody the other day. And she was talking about her 38 year old husband having hip replacement. And they couldn't say, this is the reason why. And her child was diagnosed with something. And they went back to the husband and said, now we know why you had to have a hip replacement at the age of 38.  And I said, no, no, no, there is a root cause. And with that information, now they can keep an eye on other things for the husband and for the family family. And that's, that's what it's about, you know, it's about even informing, I guess, providing people with the information and the power to say, I'm going to stay healthy. I'm going to keep an eye on this. I don't need to worry about that type of stuff. The thing is, it's still too vacant. And unfortunately, we see it all too often. This is, this policy is costing the state more. I mean, obviously primarily we're focused on patients and their outcomes and their quality of life. And if you're sitting in pain or with something that's undiagnosed for many, many years, you can only imagine the toll that takes on the individual and those around them. But we're having consultants seeing people that they don't really need to be seeing, you know, where perhaps other problems that are emerging that perhaps could have been avoided with proper treatment in a timely manner, again, resources and time within the health service that if they invested a little bit money in a different area, they would make it back. Exactly. Back, back. You're so right. You're so right. And we see loads and loads of families, you know, just like, we need psychological support now. This has been so traumatic, this process. You know, I, I'm speaking with consultants and the genetic counselors in Cromeland, and they speak about families coming into them and mothers and fathers, parents who are blaming themselves and have been for the previous three years. What did I do wrong? You know, is it my fault? What have I done? And it's going to, no, it's absolutely, it's just, it's just a blind coincidence.  And yet they have been, you know, hauling themselves over the cones. And, and, you know, it's very traumatic experience, you know, thinking that I called this and then discovering actually, you know, what, even before I was born, this was going to happen. You know, that this is absolutely unrelenting. There's nothing I could have done to change my life to make this a different outcome and kind of thing for, for, for my child or whatever. So yeah, so it's incredibly important. So we're really, I guess, calling on people now to, to get involved in our Get Rare Aware campaign that, you know, we need to raise the level of awareness around rare diseases. And our first stop is around this Cromeland Genetics piece and getting the politicians on board to press the government to deliver on their promises. Yeah, just in relation to the low number of people employed in core clinical genetic services, are the posts available but can't be filled or as the funding not being made available to advertise those posts? Is that clear, Vicky? Well, well, actually, and there have been posts advertised and clinical geneticists and counsellors, genetic counsellors are like hen's teeth everywhere in the world is trying to up, up, up skill or up, you know, up their level of genetic service. So, so they are difficult to find. But what we have found is that, in fact, we could probably, or we should be getting in people that are at a lower kind of like maybe in an administration, but like with some genetics background, but not necessarily, obviously, you know, a clinical geneticist type background that can help to ease the process and ease the burden. So essentially, when somebody gets referred in, in order to, for the consultant to provide a proper consultation, they need to get the family history, they need to understand all of the symptoms. And somebody is being referred in with maybe a little bit of information from, from my GP or a consultant, but they don't have the full picture. They don't have, in fact, you've already seen three or four different consultants and get the, you know, the, the work up from all of the different people. And so what we're asking for now is with each of these new regional health areas that's coming with slant or care that are, I think, being launched on January 1 next year, can we embed in each of these what we're going to call a, a genomic resource associated. And that could be somebody that when some, when, when the person gets referred in, this person will be in their area and we'll phone them and say, right, we need your family history. We need to know what, who you've been to. We need to know what other family members there are. We need to understand all of this, get the consent process and things like that all underway. So it says, firstly, it'll reassure the people living with these conditions that actually something is happening and that there is well being undertaken. Secondly, it'll relieve all of the time of our consultants who are currently writing letters to different consultants and waiting for responses and things like that at such a, you know, an inappropriate use of their skills and the time and expertise and things. And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to say, right, we have a contact point now so people living with these diseases understand that the work being done. And also then for the people working in the area that they can apply their expertise in the best way possible rather than chasing letters and signing pieces of paper and stuff like that. But there must be a better way of managing this while we see this new strategy being rolled out. Now, it's not too late actually for people, I think, because there might be an online element to this if I'm correct. There is a conference at noon today. Is it being streamed online, Vicky? It is, absolutely. If people go to our website, rti.ie, so that's the Rare Diseases Ireland website. Right on the homepage, there is a link to the webinar today. So the webinar today is on at midday and it's, you know, somebody living with that rare disease, the diagnostic journey, and then actually one of the consultants from Chrome Internet is just speaking about their experience and what could be done and things like that. And so we'll have those who want to start at midday today and won't be too long, but will hopefully be interesting. And then the other thing that we are asking people to do is our Get Rare Aware, you know, the whole campaign, the idea of the campaign is to apply pressure on our elected representatives to get them to transmit that pressure on to the government to start to deliver. So we have a website, getrareaware.ie, and we're asking people to take action on that website and simply write a letter to their TVs or email a letter to their TVs. And it's very simple and very easy. All they need to do is put in their first and last name and their email address and that a letter or form letter will then get sent to all of their elected representatives in that regional health area. And that really does help to apply pressure. We see it in other areas of life, I guess, where this happens. And it does help to apply pressure and say, listen, we're done. We're tired of waiting. There's 300,000 of us around the country. We need more support when we need it now. All right. And listen, not everyone, people often want to help out in things, but not everyone has the money or the time to do it. But this is neither is required really here. You can just go on to that website and back this campaign. rdi.ie for those who want to attend virtually that conference at noon. Thanks for your time, Vicky. It's been very interesting and enlightening. I appreciate it. Okay. Vicky McGraw, CEO of Rare Diseases Ireland. A caller says, I was disgusted to watch Angela Scanlon ask me anything show and RT last Saturday. Joining Angela on the show was Majella O'Donnell and Keith Duffy. I was shocked at the amount of profanity used and Majella talking about the use of cannabis. I don't know whether they are just trying to stay current with the young people, but it certainly didn't impress me. Someone in the older demographic, okay, I get where you're coming from. I mean, you have to talk about things as well. I don't think not talking about them isn't helpful in terms of the language. I get where you're coming from there as well. I live in a residential area and a business recently opened beside us. The business is particularly the business in particular has a car park, but people seem to just refuse to use it. Three times last week, someone blocked the parking space I use outside my house. One person blocked me out for over two hours. Can we as residents in a private cul-de-sac do anything about this? I don't know what the, I don't know what the rules are there actually. But the business has opened. The people aren't using the car park. Maybe a sign, a sign, please, private parking or reserve for residents. It seems to happen a lot around the county. Why shouldn't you do it? Morning, Greg. The listener whose son is in McGee can claim tax relief on the fees paid over and above the registration fee in Ireland. It's currently 3,000. It's probably not a huge amount, but help may help a little. Okay, thank you for that, by the way. Caller says, if horse racing was banned tomorrow, every racehorse would be put down. It costs an absolute fortune to train, keep and feed racehorses. Nobody's going to keep them just as a pet or they could live out their natural lives. You know, I mean, there's a lot of animals that wouldn't be around if they weren't for our entertainment. There wouldn't be as many greyhands. There wouldn't be as many dairy cows. We breed them for our purposes. We create them for our needs, don't we? Okay, but as I say, I'm not anti it. I'm just saying from a personal perspective, I watched it and it was a turn off for me. Not quite sure whether I'll take an interest in it again. Greg, I burned smokeless coal in a stove in the heat. Off it would put you out of the house. You see, I think there are those nuggets. There are some that are more targeted towards stoves than open fires, if I'm correct. Hi, Greg. Depending on the age of that listeners' child, they might be able to fund, do funded calls, tell us the tech options with the tech. Okay, so that is the person whose student's going to college next year. Right, we will look into that. Maybe we need to do a little bit of a special in that regard to answer people's questions and help. I want to say happy sixth birthday to Fia Daugherty from Glen Finn. Happy birthday from Mummy, Daddy, Oren and Tiernan. And there was another request there to bring it with me. No, I didn't. Anyway, if you want to, it's fine. I'll get it in a bit. If you want to send in your requests, feel free to do so. I call it says, Joe Biden's visit to Ireland has inspired me to go to the USA and see my second cousin, 16 times removed to a track down on social media. It'll be such a surprise when I turn up at their door as they don't know me yet. Okay, sounds a bit stalky. I appreciate the tone of your text there. But, you know, we might not have a big want to feel American, but there are an awful lot of Americans because it is a young, it is a young country, you know, with, I mean, obviously, we know that the native history of that country, but in terms of what it is now and what they describe as American now. So they are always looking at people often are looking for, you know, where they're from, and many of them are originally your second or third generation from Ireland. So there is a big love. I don't think there's a lot of people are mad to claim connections to the USA. But certainly it does happen in reverse for no particular reason, just saying, All right, let us take a break. And we're going to be talking actually, and this is by coincidence, Caroline, isn't it? It is just actually by coincidence. I didn't know this was coming up. We are going to be talking to someone from animal rising. They are the group that attempted to disrupt the Grand National. But as I say, it's, there's not an agenda here. It just so happened that Caroline had this lined up and I was given my views on it. Stay where you are. It should be interesting. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com. The 90 noon show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit union offering low rate holiday loans with fast approval. Apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today. by choosing Donnie Gold Creamer's milk. for your free delivery. Sheridan security now introducing zero wire smart alarm systems, zero wire, zero mess and a real peace of mind with a simple press of a button. Your alarm can be set or on set or download the free app and control it from your phone. Call us today on zero seven four nine one two six zero two five and get your alarm from two hundred and ninety nine euro. Stay local, stay safe and protect what you value most with Sheridan security systems. With everyone looking to shrink their bill these days, dump stores gives you more ways to save with double savers. First you'll save in the aisles when you fill your trolley with fantastic low prices across thousands of great products. Then you'll save again at the till with our 10 or 50 grocery vouchers.  Double savers from done stores. Always better value. Terms and conditions apply. Voucher abuse to next grocery shop with 50 or more. Okay, so more than 40 animal rights activists have been de-arrested after a large number of protesters attempted to gain entry to the entry race course track delaying the start of the Grand National. Marysha Tsai police arrested 118 people on Saturday after scores of activists climbed fences with at least two fixing themselves to a jump using glue and lock on devices according to the animal rights group. That group is animal rising. A spokesperson for it is Sarah McCafferty. She joins us now. Hi Sarah. Hi, thank you so much for having me on. Good to have you with us. As I say, I'm not coming at this for any particular angle just so you wouldn't have been listening. But what I just felt, I've just watching it on Saturday. I kind of tuned out of it. I just, it felt a bit, I think things have changed a little bit, but I'm not forward or against it. That's just where I'm at. If you know what I'm on about, I just thought it just wasn't very pleasant to watch. But why did animal rising target this event in the manner in which it did, Sarah? Well, firstly, we were all there because we care about the horses. And we were there to prevent direct harm coming to these animals during the races. But we were also there because this is the first of many campaigns that we have not only this summer, but for the next, you know, years to come. This is just the beginning of, of protecting animals. The comments already coming in this morning saying that, you know, a lot of these horses wouldn't even be in existence if we didn't have, you know, organized racing, that that's why they're there. They're bred. They wouldn't be there at all. So how does that sit with you in that, you know, maybe you're, you're trying to save the current crop of horses. But if you were successful in it, many, many more would not be born because there'd be no advantage in breeding them. Well, I think this really highlights the disconnect that we have with these horses, that the only way we can imagine that they are existing is if we're using them for, for fun or, you know, for food as well. And so actually, if, you know, in Ireland, 92% of agriculture land is dedicated to animal farming. And if we rewilded so much of this land, then we could actually reintroduce horses, but as wild horses. And so we would still have horses in Ireland, which were native to our country. Yeah. Different types of horses, though, because these, these are, you know, whether limbs are particularly vulnerable to break and all that type of stuff, but it'd be a different type of horse. And like when you say this is the start of it, right? Is it horse racing now, agriculture next, like cows, dairy cows, cows rare for meat? Is that also a target on the horizon? Yeah, so, you know, animal rising, we're here to not only, you know, highlight and put, you know, animal, the way we treat animals in the forefront of the discussion, but actually to show the connection between our relationship to animals, how we use them for fun and for food, and how this is one of the driving causes of the climate crisis. Yeah. What has been the public reaction to the action on Saturday? We've had mixed responses. But as we know already before, you know, this race even began that 80% of people under the age of 40 don't participate in racing for ethical reasons. So I think we already had quite a lot of public opinion on our side.  Well, would you say to the trainer or owner of Hill 16, who perished on Saturday, he was off the view, I didn't get to read the full article, I just skimmed it if you know what I mean, but he seemed to be of the view that his horse died or had to be destroyed because of your actions, the actions of animal rising, that it distressed the horse and how he behaved and it is for that reason that it perished. You know, I really want to acknowledge right now, you know, how devastating that death was, that's why we were there to prevent these horses from dying, as well as the other two horses, you know, one at the race before and one on Thursday. So, you know, we were there to prevent these deaths from happening, but we weren't there, you know, the race before and on Thursday and yet three horses still died, not to mention the 2,601 horses that have died since 2007. We weren't at any of those events. Do you recognize that these animals are very well cared for? I mean, there are people of a similar age to you and perhaps even of a similar attitude that are involved in the caring and training of these horses in the stables, you know, you can see the love that these young men and women have for these horses. I mean, do you recognize that other than perhaps the jumping that they are generally well cared for? You know, I think everyone within the racing industry deeply cares for these animals. I'm not disputing that, but the fact is that one in two horses that end up in slaughter have a racing passport, which means that they've raced at some point in their life. So, you know, is this love, is this caring for these animals?  That's not love. That's not caring for animals. I don't want you to incriminate yourself. I don't know what the situation is, but as much as you can, what did you do Saturday? Like, can you talk us, talk us a little bit about how you did you get managed yourself to gain access? What did you do? What was it like? Yeah, absolutely.  So, I was there and I did get arrested for trying to get onto the track. And, you know, unfortunately, we didn't make it, but some people, you know, made it onto the track, but unfortunately, we weren't able to stop the race, but we will next time and we will keep trying because this issue is too important, not too. How far are you prepared to go personally? Now, I don't mean in terms of inflicting any pain or injury on other people, but in terms of the sacrifice you're prepared to make, because if that race had a big gun, if you had managed to break free, you probably would have ran out onto the course. Would you have or what?  So, I would like to, you know, remind everyone that we are a nonviolent organisation, which means we don't cause any harm to animals or to people. As for how far I'm willing to go, if I wanted to make it onto that track, and I would have, if, you know, I hadn't been stopped and I hadn't been arrested, you know, this issue isn't about me. This isn't about... But you're prepared to risk your own life for this cause? Life, as I said, you know, we're a nonviolent movement. You're over, though. Yeah, I know. I know that. You wouldn't be doing that. But if that were a consequence of it, that's how passionately you feel about this. I am willing to risk my freedom for these animals, because this isn't just the freedom of the animals, but actually all the people that the climate crisis will affect. The IPCC report, which is the most comprehensive climate study ever conducted, said by 2050, we will have one to three billion climate refugees. This issue isn't about my freedom. This is about, you know, the freedom of all animals, you know, particularly wild animals as well, whose habitat is being destroyed, but also about all of these people that are living in countries that are being directly affected by the climate crisis. Now, 33 million people lost their homes in Pakistan due to climate-induced flooding. What is next, then? I mean, this sounds like I think you are enthused by the success, as you might see it, of Saturday, right? It deferred it. It all played out. It all played out on the TV. So I think an awful lot of what you wanted to achieve other than the actual goal was achieved, right? So where does it go from here, then? Well, as I said, this is the first of many actions. But is it more horse racing? Is it greyhounds next? Is it farms? What's the plan of action? Yes, so we will be continuing to demonstrate at horse races, at dog races. We'll also be openly freeing animals from factory farms, as well as also continuing to do this public demonstration, you know, to really bring this conversation to the forefront of our minds and, you know, in our homes, in media and everything, and also to keep on pushing our governments to make these life-saving changes, not only to all the animals but to the people. How's all this being funded? I mean, who's backing us? I mean, there's a great deal of organisation and what have you, has to go into this. I mean, is there an individual or an organisation that is funding this action? Yeah, so, well, loads of people that were there, you know, I'm a volunteer, I don't get to do this. So, loads of it is just by people showing up and, you know, really caring about it.  Right, okay. Like get arrested, but we have all sorts of roles and responsibilities that everyone can take part in. Are you facing charges or are you de-arrested? I will probably be facing charges. I don't know what they are at the moment, but I was released of yesterday, the afternoon, under investigation, so yeah. And would you be part of the same group or is there an umbrella group of those that sort of, you know, were involved in and still continue to be the protest that disrupt traffic, you know, gluing themselves to the road and what have you? Is that the same group or under the same umbrella? So, I think you might be talking about Insulate Britain, just stop oil.  We're looking at climate, the climate crisis and how to solve that, but through animal agriculture, because animal agriculture is the leading cause of the climate crisis. And if we were to rewild our lands that are being used for animal agriculture, the UK and Ireland would become carbon neutral, negative, actually, before even giving up oil and gas. So, this really is the key solution to the climate crisis. Yeah, but you know, the incredible. High of actions, but you know. That has incredible implication on people. So, you don't, it's obvious, I try and avoid obvious questions, but sometimes you can't. You don't wear leather, you don't eat meat, you don't drink milk, you don't fly, presumably you don't use airplanes, you don't use a car. So, I'm vegan. So, I don't, you know, use any animal products in any form. But you didn't cycle to entry either, did you? I mean, like, so you used presumably, you know, internal combustion engine vehicle to get there. I mean, is that not a little bit hypocritical? No, it's not hypocritical at all. You know, being vegan is about causing the least amount of harm possible. You know, we're not about trying to like limit people's options here. We're not saying, you know, don't drive. But what we are saying is that animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of the climate crisis. And if we were to transition to, you know, a safe and stable food system, which is plant-based, we would, you know, become carbon negative, which means we're drawing down more carbon than we're emitting, before giving up oil and gas, before giving up driving. So, this really is the key solution here. Yeah, but if you were, yeah, but some might listen to that and say, well, if you were a farmer and you were making living out of that, you might be saying, well, we need to get the cars off the road and the airplanes out of the sky, and then we'll focus on farming. Like it sounds like some people might feel it sounds like you're an ala-cart environmentalist in that it suits you to be driven around or to fly around the place. But you're okay with that. You know, maybe it's a means to an end, but you want to disrupt something else that's quite damaging to the environment. That some people might see that as a bit hypocritical, Sarah. I think if we look at how, you know, the difference between, you know, eating an animal and driving, I think they're very different. And I think most of your listeners will be able to understand that, you know.  But actually, we're taking away the choices of animals every single day. You know, they're not our lives to take. We're not giving up anything. We're just not taking something that isn't ours. And, you know, I think if we were to choose between, you know, eating a healthy plant-based diet and driving, I think they're very different. And I think the public understands that. Yeah. And finally, what do you think can be achieved by this?  Or can you? Absolutely. Yeah, I wouldn't be taking part in the actions that I do if I didn't believe that we can put a complete stop to these, you know, these cruel sports. But I would like to, you know, remind people that we also, at one point in history, thought dog fighting was okay and that bull sports were okay. And when we looked at them from a compassionate point of view, we decided as society that this was not acceptable anymore. And we moved away from these sports. We are absolutely able to move away from horse racing and from, you know, animal farming, animal agriculture, etc. All right. So what is the next? I don't really follow horse racing. What's the next big meet?  Or is it, you know, some horse race meet in 7.30 on a Tuesday evening? Like, have you got a plan of action that you can make public at this point? Yeah. So we'll be there at the bigger events and the smaller ones as well. And we will be at, as I said, before dog racing. But I would like to remind everyone here that this isn't just about horse racing. This is about the much wider conversation about the way that we treat animals for fun and for food. You know, 99% of animals that are in existence right now are in the food industry. Okay. Well, we'll see what the listeners think. Thanks for your time this morning. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on.  I appreciate your time, Sarah. Take care of yourself. Thank you. Okay. Bye-bye. Sarah McCafferty there, who's a spokesperson for animal rights. And what do you think? 08, 6, 60, 25,000, maybe, you know, there's not a massive amount of engagement in horse racing, for example, amongst the public in younger people. Or is there, Sarah seems to think there isn't. Maybe it's naturally going to ebb away. I don't know. I am here learning and forming my opinions on the hoof, so to speak. No pun intended, but sure look it. We'll be back with more after these. Your comments coming in. Keep them coming. 17th and Tuesday, 18th of April. And donors from Carndona should attend the clinic in the Carndona Community School on Wednesday, 19th and Thursday, 20th. Making an appointment is recommended, so call 1-800-731-137 to book your time. Visit giveblood.ie to see eligibility and clinic details. Whether it's in the cupboard, under the bed, or down the side of the couch, if you can find your smartphone, you can trade it in for an average of 130 euros at Vodafone. We'll recycle and repurpose it. Good for your pocket and the planet. Search Vodafone Trade-In or visit your local Vodafone store to find out more. So where's yours? Vodafone. Together we can. Trade-In is subject to trading in an eligible device. Average trade-in value is 130 euros. For a full term, see Vodafone.ie for its last terms. Donegal Denture Clinic. Letter Kenny. Denture problems? We can help. At Donegal Denture Clinic, we customize, personalize, and tailor your dentures to suit you. Call us for a free consultation on 9-1-25-25-3. Find us at Balli Rain, Letter Kenny, beside Rossum College. Medical cards, welcome. For all your denture needs, call Donegal Denture Clinic on 9-1-25-25-3 online at DonegalDentureClinic.ie. 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Highest temperatures, 15 to 17 degrees in light to moderate southeast breezes, though some of the long-range forecasts, and I don't want to be negative, some of the long-range forecasts are predicting the weather getting cold again, colder again. All right, some of your comments here. A caller wants to know who is funding Animal Rising. I asked that question actually, so hopefully you heard the answer. Greg, those horses are cared for for a reason, to make millions for the owners and trainers. By the way, I haven't watched horse racing in almost 40 years. And although the caller says horse racing is a multi-billion industry to Ireland, these horses get more care than humans. Horses are more at risk out in fields from falls and getting hit by other horses. I saw an interesting statistic as it relates to the actual benefit to Ireland of horse racing. I don't want to misquote the figures, might try and dig them out again. By the way, I want to be really clear here, this is a platform where we all talk about things and have opinions and exchange the views. I'm not in any way sort of trying to campaign or joining a campaign to ban horse racing or farming or anything for that matter. It's just to have the conversation. An owner had a horse who was winning everything at Cheltenham. The horse was found dead in the field the next morning after the race, after he was hit by another horse. Okay, they're coming into us thick and fast. Keep them coming into us. Quick break to catch up on because then we want to bring the news to you from Donna Marine. The night on noon show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union with monster loans available up to 60,000 euro for all occasions. Visit letterkennycu.ie. In 2003, the Special Olympics changed Ireland forever. 20 years later, we continue to transform the lives of children and adults with an intellectual disability. Some athletes will represent their country. Some will learn to run, jump, or even speak for the first time at a Special Olympics club. But all will laugh, compete and belong together. Please support them by donating today at specialolympics.ie or give what you can to our bucket collectors on Friday, April 21st. Thank you. Preparing for a special occasion, Sorrento Shoes has the finishing touch. Shoes and bags in pastel shades, bling, or classic neutrals. Sorrento Shoes, available in all leading shoe stores. Get the moss problems in your lawn sorted with mobacter, the natural product to remove moss from your lawn. Apply mobacter now and forget, no raking necessary. And mobacter will not stay in your patio areas. Mobacter is the only moss remover approved by the Royal Horticultural Society. Mobacter Lawn Fertiliser. For beautiful green, moss-free lawns. From local co-ops and garden stores, check out mobacter.ie for all Viano products or find us on Facebook. 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 McGee's 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 in by 10 and ready by 5. See McGee's.ie for more details. Hold your memories in your hand with McGee's Chemist, letter Kenny. The one and only Tom Jones is back and we're going to be there. Join us as Highland Radio head the road to see the timeless legend as he headlines Bell Zonic 2023 Friday 16th of June. Your trip includes luxury transfers, bed and breakfast in the four-star Clayton Hotel, Belfast and your standing ticket to the outdoor event. Contact us today on 074 9125,000 to see Tom Jones at Ormo Park Belfast Friday 16th of June. With all the stories that matter across the Northwest, it's Greg Hughes on the 90 noon show on Highland Radio. Okay loads to come up in the next hour stay right where you are but first let's get a news update and we welcome into studio Donna Marie Doherty. Thanks Greg. Good morning. Donegal cancer flights and services have been experiencing delays of up to three hours in flight services to Dublin this week as well as a cancellation. Mary Coyle who runs the service says patients wait a long time for appointments in Dublin and when the appointment is missed they are left waiting another couple of weeks.  A third party broke through a security system and accessed information from data managing company, Avid. The dairy-based business manages the data for a number of charities including one in four which supports adult to experienced childhood sexual abuse. The PSNI cyber crime investigation team is continuing its inquiries into the incident. Donegal County Council with the support of Transport Infrastructure Ireland are hosting two non-statutory public consultations for the Bancrana to Cairndonna Greenway Project in Inish Owen and Cairndonna. The public consultations aim to inform the public of the project, invite feedback and highlight any other features that the design team should consider. The first is on Tuesday April 25th from 2pm until 8pm in the Inish Owen Gateway Hotel and the second on Wednesday the 26th from 2pm until 8pm in Cairndonna Public Service Centre. A driver was arrested yesterday after they had driven almost double the speed limit earlier in the week. Gardy from Bancrana Road's policing unit detected the vehicle being driven at 195km on the N13 a few days ago. The speed limit in that area is 100km per hour and the road was reported to be very busy at the time. Gardy say the driver was charged to appear in court. And finally despite being under more financial pressure shoppers are still looking for bargains and deals to treat themselves. A new pulse of the nation index launched by pennies found 95% of people are engaging in saving hacks to deal with the cost of living crisis. It includes wearing warmer clothes to reduce heating costs and scaling back on entertainment subscriptions. That's all for now. We'll be back again with more news headlines at 12 o'clock. Until then good afternoon. Alright Donna you were doing so well. I know. Signing off is one of the most difficult things to do you know. Data or data? I probably say data. What did I say? I don't know. I think I've been corrected for saying one of them but I don't know which is right and which is wrong. I don't think there is a right or wrong anyway. Alright come here you'll be back at 12 with headlines isn't that right? Okay Donna Marie Daugherty there back after a really short break. Hello I'm Quiva de Barre from Throcra urging you to return your Throcra box donation. Your support will bring emergency food baskets, urgent medical care and fresh safe water to families in Somalia. Families who have lost everything in the worst drought in the country's history. Your help can make all the difference. Visit Throcra.org or call 1800 408 408. You see it's not just a box it's a lifeline. Throcra together for the just world. Right okay some of your comments coming in just as we wait to welcome Brendan Daveney on to the show. God made the animals to feed the people who are on the earth. I do understand what you're saying and as I say just to have the full wide range of conversation a lot of the animals that are alive for us to eat we rare them do you know they're not random like it's not like we go into the forests and kill pigs for bacon and try and catch a cow for beef they're rare for that function they're only functioning a lot of them. Fair play to that lady animal rights groups you have my full support such brave people another animals are treated badly but most of these race horses are treated like gold and there is no will treatment does she consider catching and eating fish cruel I would suggest yes I applaud that girl for what she stands for and I personally never watch or bet on any sport that involves animals if I was off there I'd have a joke there but I wouldn't risk it whilst I'm on air that girl is a typical city girl it's city people telling country people how to live do away with farmers but don't touch our cars or oil and gas yeah indeed I think if you're all if you're in you're all in and to drive in a car to a protest to save animals and the environment seems a bit ironic to me just to say I agree with Greg I don't watch the Grand National it's so cruel to the horses from a daily listener great to have you on board great to have all of you on board right okay it was an interesting weekend of sport and we're going to focus on the GAA side of things now with the one and only Brendan Daveney presenter of the DL debate good morning Brent good morning Greg good to have you with us right where should we start I suppose we have to start with and we should start with uh Donagall uh doing for mana in the Nikki record cup what that went into some context for us Brendan yeah it's uh I suppose it's a competition Donagall of eyes on the prize of one that for mana of course first relegation themselves Donagall were in a in a league final we were at home so a lot of people was thinking it would be a Donagall game that we would control but for mana really came they were unlucky in the league they lost a few games by a point Greg so it was probably a bit of a false impression of them because they had a couple of crack and hurlings uh hurlings in their ranks Greg and I just funny from watching um GAA this last wee while I'm watching like football obviously I'm watching soccer the game was just absolutely brilliant it was breathtaking uh Greg end to end I said in the first update if you're anywhere near a Donagall park come on and watch this I mean for mana really put it up Donagall some of the scores were absolutely phenomenal Greg and from a time where normally you have so much time to assess points and write down you literally looked down mark the point it was a scored the other end of the pitch you know was that kind of that kind of game now for mana did lose a man uh towards the end of the first half which might have had a bit of a bearing on it's great but that said the Donagall really stuck to it and Liam McKinney's goal uh in the second half was probably a big turning point because for mana had a four point advantage at halftime and the second half started off a bit techy and it looked like it was going to be difficult to end that league but McKinney's goal was kind of the launchpad for for Donagall to go on and control the game and towards the end then whether it was the spare man or whether it was just Donagall's bit of class coming through and particularly in Declan Coulter of course a legend of Donagall Hurlin and he had the last four or five points there and just as experienced in the seed Donagall across the line Greg but in terms of a game of sports you know uh because we see so many games now getting entrenched in tactics and and possession of course Hurlin isn't like that and really can't be like that so there's just to see two teams going at it once when they want to 18 points or that come through so you've got we've got a couple of way games now uh against uh Ross Common and Armas it was important to get off the victory in that Nikki record so you have uh you have them uh Louth and Wicklow then at home after that so what happens then you it's just that one group that's playing for this competition that the the top two teams go straight into the Nikki record final so that's where Donagall on a personal level have you always had the the sort of level of interest and admiration in hurling or is your own footballing career and soccer career and everything else you're involved in now you have a bit more time like this has always been or what I'm trying to say is that are you maybe starting to appreciate it a little bit more as you can watch it in a different way now well would you believe that's great my first five times in Crow Park was all Hurlin right moments from Galway you see she had to go to school with the legend that is Brendan Linsky so all our family grew up with this massive bit of uh Hurlin side is because at the time when Donagall didn't get to Crow Park too often uh Galway were often there and used to be pushed over the turnstiles it's hard to believe Greg that's even someone of my young age has them type of memories uh I even hopped out on the Crow Park pitch and inhaled the the Liam McCarthy when nobody a family could find me I was away off to get a grab this trophy not that even get it that that much about the whole history of it now that Dad stays Greg I was only a wheeler but no my sisters would all play Camo Vici I guess yeah I guess so we had been talking about in the garden and I was lucky enough to play for Burt uh when I was a kid I was at your house grand thanks took me down to play a bit of Hurlin with the Burt boys and also a way smaller understanding Greg yeah no I don't know I don't doubt that it's just you know sometimes when there's so much going on in life you don't have the space maybe but of course with your history uh that that's clear no I that that comes across brand uh in in football yesterday uh again I don't know enough but I believe uh I watched it and I believe that your own versus one-on-one game was a brilliant game of football really really exciting right down to the end I'm not sure what the purest in yourself thought of it but for a couch fan to me it was a cracking game of football and two games next weekend have a lot to live up to yeah yeah well as you said there I was thinking this was going to be terribly cagey and and we weren't going to get the spectacle we did I mean one eighteen to two seventeen I would never have envisaged that scoreline and a lot of that I think came down to how to roam played the game um very very strange performance from them now I missed the start of it coming up from the Hurlin I was getting a wee bit of aftermath in that but when I came up to roam we're in complete control of the game and then the second half we just had this brilliance from monohan this revival and between the experience they have and the young the young fresh blood that they've been they just took the game to to roam them I couldn't believe drones defense um right when they they couldn't withstand any monohan attack you know at the other end of the pitch and monohan were very well drilled we look at Derry and the way they're drilled and that's where we kind of want Donegal to get back to you again in terms of being a defense that has some ability to shut it out now monohans when to roam get inside their 40 30 yard line 20 yard line those modern people snapping they were two and threes at the other end of the pitch every monohan attack literally the whole of that last 20 minutes of monohan just kept the ball and ran it to roam was either a foul or a score and they got their just rewards and of course you know um otul going in like as I say everybody's thinking fasted over the bar I mean to to to won the game and the manner he did what a moment for goalkeepers not going to want to watch that one back too often I don't think no no but the game where was monohans to where was towards the fence Greg you know you're you're you're a point up you know it's time to sit in and at least make a definitely shoot from an awkward I was like I would say I was a lot of people waiting for that to be saved to scream at just fisted over the bar but I made the right decision in the end but then listen what kind of moment for him you got it you got to go for it and he certainly does and you have to go for it so how do we follow that against down I mean it's gonna be what what kind of a game do you expect against down don't Greg it's nearly impossible to tell at this point I mean we the only thing you have to go on is your your league performances which were particularly the last two Greg we're really power and you know we basically have you know I was talking to people over the weekend there from players that are missing and injured you nearly have another team out there that could be in the mix we're done at all but they're not so listen we still have a good bit of experience we've plenty of also championship winners in the ranks in that it's just Greg going from particularly at Ross common game the way we were defensively and an attack everything was was not happening there was no fluidity there was no defensive shape man for man we were in trouble as a team we were in trouble but listen there's time now the lads were away at training camp and that they pulled things together down our division three team they were close to coming up now but they didn't make it so we got to say it's a game that we have to go on in one but more than the victory we got to go I suppose and have some shape their team then we have a load of young lads and there I mean that team that finished against Ross common there was five lads basically there was a few who had made their debuts and those five or six lads in there that are basically this is their first season in there so I suppose as a county Greg as much as you don't want to be over critical I'm thinking these lads are putting in a huge effort to play for our county you know we got to get behind them now yeah and and well I'll be up and down and as many donny golf fans as we can because when times is hard you know Greg that's sometimes when we got to get behind 100% and you know what what your view is and and what all the people's views is all that but I thought it was a really there's a really interesting interview was it after the rest common game that you an interview had with Patrick McBrurty and I can't remember the exact line of question or his exact response but my takeaway from it wasn't I must listen back that you know they are they'll be ready you know that they are ready that that they can up their game that they can perform better so it'll be interesting to see how that obviously he'll be relaying that attitude in the dressing room and what have you it'll be interesting to see how that relates to on the pitch against Dan next week do you know how you get little things that make you more interested in the game I'm really interested off the back of that interview to see how this team performs against Dan in the championship yeah see it was hard asking him them questions because I knew how low we were we just got relegated and it was a terrible performance and as I said you can come in and be critical and highlight this and that but then they're done it all side me and the fan that I am now I'm watching these boys you know but they're putting in as well as all these new boys and they're going to do championships the first time there's been all this stuff in the background after we were after I asked them questions and Patrick would be quite bollysets his nature and I respect that I could say I had not some stomach leaving that because I hated asking them but she wasn't there but do you know what the reason the reason why those interviews are good and maybe because I do interviews I get it you had to ask those questions to get that response and I'm quoting his response if you hadn't asked those questions we wouldn't have that interview to talk about so I get where you're coming from but I think it was really valuable because it's given me a new sort of insight and interest as we head into next week now if all that wasn't good enough uh the life stories which is a new feature that Brendan introduced into the podcast has an amazing guest uh this week in Colin McFadden uh I mean you're going to chat to him this evening but where do you start what I like to ask you sometimes like what are you looking forward to getting into with him in the conversation do you know what excuse me on top of everything else he's he's a top lad I obviously played with him for years uh I've great time for him um so you know what I'm I'm going to let it roll I know his career and set out because I've either played with him or watched him and uh I just want to get to talk to him about his experiences and those moments not just the big moments the obvious ones you know the bolsters all the other ones but he had he had a thought I suppose in an initial camp when Donny got hadn't got the professionalism that Jim brought him and then when Jim did but um I think of all the players in there he excelled the most you know he his his abilities would be all new was in him and his his class and hi