I was a compere, yeah. What's the difference between Holston compere? I couldn't tell you, it's MC, whatever. So it was good, it was nice to be invited, you know, and I met so many families from Donnie Gall, and it was just a nice event. It was kind of corporate enough, there was kind of big high flyers up there, do you know, chair pair? I didn't know. When you fit well in there, you're a high flyer. No, I'm a bi, I could sit behind the mixing desk, handy-pandy, but it was on the table, but I met so many great families there. There was a family there, I was just saying to you off from Fintown, McGeehan is his name, right?  And he says, oh, he says I'm the head chef for the Irish rugby team. Nice gig. I travel around the world and stuff. And he says, his parents owned the Millwheel Pub in Fintown. And I says, I used to play the Millwheel all them years ago, when I was 12 and 13. That's the Goods Brothers. That's the Goods Brothers. We had the crack and all of that type of stuff. But it shows us how small the world is, isn't it? Yeah, and there was a family there for Cork that veiled off the house as well, and they have connections with Church Lane, Foley's, that had the bike shop, and all of this, and there was another. There's a guy then from Hearthstone Heights, who works for Zenith Media down in Dublin as well. He's down there, he came up to me and we're all having the crack. So it's had some more people from Donnie Gull, and they're from down there, which was great, you know? I felt quite at home, you know? Are you getting that whistle? Let me see, put these headphones on. No, there's a really noise, isn't there? I don't know, it might be these headphones. Camille, you're a good wicket. DV's ball and all that went well, great. DV's ball was brilliant Friday night. Yeah, fair play to Brendan, he's going to be in later on. Oh, great, well done. Looking back at the GEA, that was a great event, lovely, and... You probably watched The Boxing, did you? Watched The Boxing Saturday night. I didn't watch it, but it was great. I have to eat humble pie today. Why? Because I really, genuinely believe that Katie Taylor could not improve as much as she needed to improve at her age. You know, she's really young, but in boxing terms, to beat a big good fighter in Chantel Cameron, but she did. Yeah, it was that great on your home turf to do that. And it was legit, it was genuine, and even there was a knockdown in it, or another knockdown, even if it was Cantor's knockdown, she still won, and she's just unbelievable. And she talked about the doubters, and I was amongst them. She wasn't talking about me, of course, she doesn't even know I exist, but she proved people like me who think they know something wrong. She was unbelievable. Well, good honour. And she truly is, she's up there. Yeah, she's a great role model too, isn't she? Sportspeak we've ever produced here. There's just no doubt about it. And she is a genuinely good sports... Yeah, did you ever watch her documentary, did you? No. Yeah, it was good about her dad and stuff. He wasn't in the ring, was he? Mum came in at the end of the interview. I'm not sure what the relationship's like now. Yeah, it's not too... But did she take part in that documentary? She did, it was good. It was good, do you know on the back that she should watch it? But anyway... All right, have a good show now, right? Might as well just go for the 10 o'clock news now. Ah, half-eleven, be all right. Take care of yourself, all right then. It is a little after nine, but I wanted to catch up with Lee in a busy weekend. It's three minutes past over now to Donnery Daugherty for the latest news headlines. Thanks, Greg, good morning. PSNI and Oma have arrested a man on Friday night last in relation to the seizure of suspected class B-controlled drugs, though with an estimated street value of £20,000. Heather Laurie reports. Police were alerted to a vehicle acting suspiciously that was travelling on the Turquine Road shortly after 11pm on Friday evening. The car was stopped and officers conducted a search. A small quantity of suspected class B-controlled drugs were found. Police then searched a property where a larger quantity of suspected class B-controlled drugs were seized, as well as drug-related paraphernalia and other items. Everything seized is undergoing forensic examination. The driver of the vehicle, a 29-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of possession of a class B-controlled drug, possession of a class C-controlled drug with intent to supply, and possession of a class B-controlled drug with intent to supply. He has since been released on police bail to allow for further inquiries, as the investigation continues. Leading health campaigner and Donnie Gull says she sees nothing to settle her fears that Letter Kenny University Hospital is being downgraded. It comes after Minister Stephen Donnelly's visit to the county on Friday. Donnie Gull, Action for Cancer Care Chairperson, Betty Holmes, says the minister, while turning sod for the new community hospital in Letter Kenny and showed him the DA CC map, which shows the extent to which services are concentrated south of the Dublin-Gullway line. Betty Holmes says promises and announcements are all well and good, and acknowledges the importance of the new community hospital. However, she says she sees very little evidence of real commitment to providing what's needed in Letter Kenny. There's been great announcements of, I suppose, proposed developments for health care in Donnie Gull. I'd be cautious of some of them, because again, we're looking at time frames. We have seen nothing over all the years that we're here to tell us that there is interest or commitment, serious commitment, to Letter Kenny University Hospital at either local, regional or national level. Both announcements are great, but let's see. 400,000 public servants, including nurses, teachers, and Guardi will be watching with interest as new public sector pay talks get underway. Unions and government will meet at the WRC today to try and negotiate a successor to Building Momentum, which expires on December 31st. The talks are expected to take some time, and business editor Joe Lyonham says government will be keen to see a deal done. The big unions will go in now to talk to Pascal Donahooder, so it's the Public Services Committee, and it to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which will be haggling over the next months, potentially years, because these things take time. There'll be a short-term agreement possibly to come into force from January, and then there'll be a more longer-term deal, which will be important. And remember, you do not want 400,000 angry civil servants before a general election. For weather this morning, we'll be mostly cloudy and patchy with light, rain, drizzle, mist, and fog. It will become drier and brighter through the afternoon with just isolated showers, highest temperatures of six to nine degrees in a light to moderate north to northwest wind. That's all for now from Highland Radio News. The next news updates at 10 o'clock. In the meantime, keep up to date with the latest local news on our website, highlandradio.com. For myself and the news team, good morning. The Department of Social Protection is working to improve disability payments in Ireland. There is currently a consultation on how these payments might work better in the future. We want to hear your views on how the system might be improved. To find out more, please visit golf.ie forward slash disability payments reform. A government of Ireland initiative brought to you by the Department of Social Protection. The county's number one talk show, The Nine to Noon Show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, The Nine to Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, good morning to you. Seven minutes past nine Monday, the 27th of November, 2023. How are you all keeping? Thanks for joining us again for another week of The Nine to Noon Show. And what have we got coming up in this program? Not this massive fan of menus, but anyway, we've got important stuff coming up. We're gonna look back on Katie Taylor's win at the weekend. Jason Quigley's gonna join us, hopefully a little later on. We're gonna get reaction to the various meetings that took place with Ministers Anne Rabbit and Minister Stephen Donnelly on Friday and Thursday, respectively. Actually, it's not respectively, it's the other way around. But anyway, we're gonna have reaction to that. And there's so much more besides coming up between now and 12. So we want you on board, we want you commenting, getting involved in the conversation, sending your views, your opinions, and issues you wanna talk about or information you wanna pass on to 08 660 25,000 WhatsApps and texts that number. Don't forget you can WhatsApp your voice notes to us as well. We had a couple of days where we were really busy in that regard and then it died off a little. So if that's the way you prefer to communicate with us, please feel free to do so. If you wanna give us a call, it's 07 491 25,000. And then the emails come into us via email, of course, to comments at highlandradio.com. Right, so let's have a run through what's making the front and inside of some of today's newspapers. The Dairy People Donegal News, the Health Minister has vowed there will be greater focus on the recruitment of permanent consultants at Latter-Kinney University Hospital in a one-on-one interview with this newspaper on Friday, the minister admitted that the issues around the letting go of two locum consultants in Latter-Kinney University Hospital within months of one another after concerns arose about the standard of their work was something that shouldn't have had to happen. A locum consultant urologist was placed on leave in September after concerns came to light and is now no longer working at the hospital. The Quality and Patient Safety Service at the Seattle University Healthcare Group is now reviewing a number of cases where concerns about care of patients have been identified. Minister Donnelly was in Latter-Kinney on Friday to turn the sod on the new 110-bed Latter-Kinney Community Hospital. We're gonna hear from consultants and GPs who met with the minister. I'm not saying he was being deflective and I'm not talking behind his back, so to speak, but one of the big conversations he was trying to get across to me or one of the big points, this is that we're too negative. There's too much negative conversation and I will be interested to find out if he believes consultants are being too negative, if GPs are being too negative, or if he did actually drill down into the issues, which those health professionals have been talking about. The Dairy News this morning, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive has spent an excess of half a million pounds taxing clients to and from temporary or emergency accommodation across the North in the last three years. The exact figure of 522,000 was revealed in a Freedom of Information response from NHG to Aint Two Dairy Representative, Daryl Christie. Let's get onto the nationals now and the fallout continues and the conversation still continues following on from the riots in Dublin that followed on from that awful attack on children and their carers last week. At the front of the Irish Times, Senior Guardi of Promised Large scale arrests in the coming weeks of ringleaders and participants responsible for last week's violence in Dublin City Centre. Commissioner Drew Harris and his senior officers are under pressure from the government to make rapid progress in the investigation into the widespread rioting which followed the stabbing of three school children and a care worker on Parnell Square on Thursday afternoon. The 49-year-old suspect remains under armed guard in hospital. A five-year-old girl, more importantly, and a woman remain in a serious condition in hospital following the incident. The two other children that were injured, thankfully, have been released from hospital and I heard Minister Simon Harris interviewed on this this morning on national radio and it's remarkable the different approach there is to government representatives compared to opposition representatives. And I'm not going to lie, the toughest question that Simon Harris was asked was a question he asked of himself. I kid you not, no questions that I heard anyway unless it was after I switched over as it relates to, you know, confidence in the justice minister or speculation that some within Fianna Fall don't have confidence in her and so on and so forth. That wasn't teased out at all, but anyway, maybe happened after I tuned out. The Irish Independent this morning, competition has returned to the energy market, which is good news for you guys out there and me, with a new cut price electricity rate being announced by a supplier. New player, you know, energy is offering a new fixed rate that is 5% cheaper than its previous lowest rate. It said the new rate will mean its offering will be 430 euro below the standard rate offers with other suppliers. It's hoped that the move will spark a new round of reductions from its large arrivals which implemented price cuts of between 10% and 20% at the start of this month. So look it, I'm not promoting any particular energy supplier, but it's pretty easy to switch. It's not a big hassle. You're not without power for a week or anything. You know, consider it if you can save 430 euro. The new unit rate for electricity from you know was 31.55 cent per kilowatt hour. This is down from 33.35 cent. You note said this fixed rate is 5% cheaper than its previous lowest rate and makes it the cheapest supplier in the market. So as I say, hopefully now that will lead to a cascade. The only thing is you see the power companies know that many of us are not inclined to switch or we don't even know when we're out of contract. So unfortunately, so unfortunately, you know, the big companies will stick with them, brand loyal, but you can switch and save money. On to the Irish Daily Mail now. What do you think of this controversy surrounding Leo Radcar? Because a tweet by Leo Radcar referring to Hamas hostage Emily Handers having been lost has sparked a diplomatic spat with Israel. The Taoiseach welcomed the release of the nine-year-old Irish Israeli girl on Saturday as a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family. An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned and was, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief. Our prayers have been answered. He posted on social media platform X. However, Israeli's foreign minister, Ellie Cohen, accused Mr. Radcar of needing a reality check, saying Emily was not lost but kidnapped. Mr. Cohen said he has summoned the Irish ambassador to Tel Aviv for a reprimand following Mr. Radcar's statement. Now, it's really quite clear. I thought it was clear anyway. Maybe it's a clumsy choice of words, but I think it's explained more in the wider press release from Leo Radcar or the wider statement. At the beginning, Thomas Hand was of the view that his lovely young daughter had died. And I think he was even quoted at that time as any parent may well do so in their grief as saying it's almost better off that she has been killed rather than kidnapped because you don't know what might happen to her. And I think his comments at that time were understandable, but then it transpired that she wasn't amongst the dead in Israel and had in fact been kidnapped. And my understanding of the biblical reference was that she was lost and then found it was thought she was dead, but then it transpired that she was alive. And I don't think in any way, I think Leo Radcar and his government have been really quite strong in their criticism of Israel and of Hamas and the attacks. And I think it's been taken out of context to suit an agenda, particularly on X because X don't like censorship. A lot of people listening to this show don't like censorship either. And I think it's been amplified. And I think Elon Musk said Leo Radcar hates the Irish. I don't believe he does. Do you think he does? I don't think he does. You might not like him as a leader, but I don't think he hates the Irish. And I think his comments have, but they were messy, right? They were clumsy. He was ill advised perhaps, but it's clear that he was not sympathizing with Hamas and he or whoever wrote it for him was trying to make that biblical him reference. It's amazing grace, isn't it? Which obviously is relevant to this part of the world as well. But anyway, what do you think about that 08, 660, 25,000? You might not have to agree with Leo Radcar politically, but was he clumsy in his words? Was he wrong in his words? Should the Israelis be sanctioning Ireland over the back of that? What do you think, 08, 660, 25,000? The Irish Daily Star tells us that the suspect in the Dublin-Kreyshknife attack may have suffered serious brain injuries in the alleged instant. Sources have told the paper that detectives probing Thursday's attack on children and a worker at Gelsgol, Kalashja Mura on Parnell Square East fear the injuries may be permanent. And that has led to fears it could be a significant amount of time before he's fit to be questioned about the horror attack in which three children and a worker were attacked. The suspect in an Algerian-born male who is an Irish citizen is still in an unused coma in the city's Matter Hospital. The man who's in his 50s suffered serious head injuries allegedly connected to the instant guardie from the city's Mountie station are still waiting to question him but won't be allowed to until he's medically fit enough. But they said at the start that these may be permanent injuries, so he may never be in a position or in a condition to be questioned. On to the Irish Sun now. And there was a new poll over the weekend which showed that support for Sinn Féin has dropped by three points. A new poll has indicated, but Mary Lou MacDonald's party remains far ahead of rivals Finnegale and Finafore. The latest business post-Red Sea poll has support for Sinn Féin at 29%. This is down from 32% last month but well ahead of Finnegale on 20% and Finafore on 16%. And there is a degree of... And we know this from radio listenership figures. There is a plus and minus which that changes within really effectively. So statistically, it's actually unchanged right across the board. And finally, did you enjoy Katie Taylor? Katie Taylor's victory at the weekend as I said to Lee just before the news at nine. I have humble pie to eat. I thought I just genuinely, genuinely as much respect as I have for her. I just did not think that she could improve as much as needed to, to fight a bigger person. She's gone up a weight level. She is... She went up a weight level to become a two times undisputed champion at two weights at the same time. Really quite remarkable. But anyway, they are gonna have a third and I think Chantel Cameron deserves that. And hopefully, fingers crossed it's in Croke Park. Eddie Hearn, he's her promoter. He's pleaded with GEA bosses to cook costs to allow Ireland's greatest ever athlete, Katie Taylor, to fight at Croke Park. The Matrim promoter has called on, called on pressure to be put on the GEA to roll back on costs around hosting a fight at the association's headquarter. Her and previously claimed, it is three times more expensive than hiring Wembley Stadium. It's understood that an agreement had been made on the hiring of the stadium, but the stumbling block between the GEA and Matrim came to around half a million for the cost of security and other expenses. Now, I would not be surprised with everything that's going on if the government intervened on that. I would be, in fact, they could actually do themselves a big favour by spending that €500,000 it could come out of the sports budget. And I think, with how things went on Saturday and how things might go on Croke Park, it'd be really good PR for them for very, very little money. But anyway, okay, any views on that, by the way? Did you watch it? Have you anything you wish to say about it? 08 660, 25,000, 08 660, 25,000. Back with our first guest on Monday's Night Till Noon Show in a couple of minutes. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelley-Centra Mountaintop Letterkenny, the 2022 Seastore National Off-Licence of the Year. The Night Till 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. It's Black Friday. A little bird, he told me, very have some fab deals. Oh, yeah, like what? Like mega offers on big brands like Dyson and Calvin Klein. And massive deals on gifts for the kids at home. Wow, yeah. The online store for fashion, home and more. Plus ways to pay that work your way. Very. Let's make it sparkle. Event ends 30th of November 2023. The Hyundai Electric Family, designed for yours. The Ioniq 5 with a range of up to 507 kilometres. The all-new Kona with a range of up to 514 kilometres. And the Irish Car of the Year 2024, the Ioniq 6 with a range of up to 614 kilometres. Hyundai, our family, designed for yours. Your local dealer is Divers Hyundai Canal Road Letterkenny called 9-1-22-600. A public interest message from Donegal County Council and the Donegal Road Safety Working Group.  As a pedestrian, it's your responsibility to ensure you are fully visible to motorists. Be well lit up and wear appropriate high-vis clothing. Motorists must accept their responsibility and always be aware of vulnerable road users. Donegal County Council, making our roads safer for everyone. Highland radio time checks with Expressway. Travel Route 32 from Letterkenny to Dublin when you book online and travel for less. Expressway, bringing you the time, Matt. The time is just approaching 9-22. You're very welcome back to the programme. Now, as you know, the Minister for Health came up to Donegal on Friday. There was a number of reasons to do so. Turned the sod on the new community hospital in Letterkenny to meet with consultants who we'll hear from in a short while and also to meet with GPs amongst them. Dr Raghavan Paratyan. Good morning to you, doctor. Thank you so much for your time today. Good morning, Greg. Thank you for having me. No, it's our pleasure, doctor. And it's great to have you on the show. You were one of the initial 78 GPs who signed the letter that was forwarded to the hospital management, the altar management, and on, of course, to the health minister. Before we get to the meeting, what drove you to say, right, I'm going to put... Because it's pretty much unprecedented to get 78 GPs from right across the county to say, right, we need to let our views be known. What drove you, doctor? Well, what drove myself and I and my colleagues was really the stories we were getting, the feedback we were getting from our patients about the conditions in A&E and the fact that they weren't getting through A&E, how difficult it was and how actually quite scared some of our patients were going through A&E because of the difficulties. And that's just to highlight, this is not a reflection on the hardworking doctors and nurses and porters in A&E who are trying their very best in very, very difficult conditions. So we got a lot of feedback and I think the one thing that really made every one of us GPs take action was in the summer, there was an A&E was chopper blocked, there was 14 ambulances backed up. There were no ambulances available for let A&E, Sligo, Lytrum. And I think that when we realized that this was in the summer and winter coming through, we had to voice our concerns. And this has been going on for a while and we had to just step up. What I think the important thing for us now as GPs is that we've taken this action, it was a very difficult action, it was a very unprecedented action, but we really did it because this morning, all the GPs here in Donegal can actually look at their patients and said, we have now done the very best we can on your behalf. We are advocating for our patients for their safety and for their wellbeing. And now if things don't change, what we didn't want is patients turning around and say, well, doctor, you knew the story, why did you not do anything? We can now tell them we have actually spoken to one guy in this country, the one person who can actually move the dial and makes things happen. And that was Friday meeting with our minister on Friday. So that really was, I think out of desperation for the stories we heard that prompted all of us to do this. Was it, did you get the line from him about he needed to come here and dispel the negativity? And I hope he understood that none of us are being negative for the fun of it. We're not there to discourage people from attending in a hospital. We're not there to make the life of staff there difficult. We're actually standing together, I think, doctor. That's what I thought we were all doing, to say, look, we can improve things, but we have to recognize where the problems are. Like, no one's being negative for the sake of it. And certainly we're here, I think, supporting the hospital, not detracting from it. But you have to represent your patients' views as well. Yeah, no, I think, look, when this all kicked off, and then the minister got the letters from the GPs, and then, of course, there was a second letter, a very strong letter from the consultants in the hospital highlighting the issues here. The initial meeting was supposed to be in Dublin, but we very politely declined that. And with a bit of persuasion, managed him, we can come up here. The reason we wanted him here to come up to Johnny Goll is because he needed to see what was going on here locally. He needed to meet the people. He needed to meet us on home ground and understand our frustration, our desperation to try and change things for our patients. And I heard your interview with him before he met us, and he was a wee bit upset about us scaremongering. We're not scaremongering. Every day, every practice and general practice in Johnny Goll hears patients saying, please, doctor, don't send me in there. I can't go there anymore. It's chaotic. You know, I'm sitting in a chair for 40 hours. I'm in pain, et cetera, et cetera. This is not scaremongering. This is just reality and the truth. And now, all fairness to the minister. When he got the letter and he understood that we were coming to Dublin, and he was going to come up and turn the soda and meet us, he did send a preliminary team here for fact-finding when they came, and they did a very impressive team that came and had a look at A&E particularly and spoke to the people that they needed to speak to. And on Friday, minister Donald was here together with his full team to meet us. And we had a very frank and open and honest discussion about what was going on. We highlighted, you know, story after story of patients' concerns and their journey through A&E and through the hospital. And he did take it on board. He listened. He asked quite relevant questions about it. And I think the penny has probably dropped after the meeting with the general practitioners of how that we have to change things here in Donegal, that we need to have our hospital back up and running, properly funded, properly staffed, paulters, nurses, junior doctors, senior doctors, and some of the services that are being slowly eroded and being sent further down south on the west to Goal, we have to be brought back here, all slight of that matter, and that we have to have those services we were in stated. We had three missions. We had three really demands to the minister on the Friday meeting, and they were very straightforward. We wanted an external review of the hospital, and the reason we wanted an external review is because we didn't want the hospital or all the shelter management to correct their own homework. That never works. Now, whether it's going to be an external company that comes and does that, or whether it's an HSE team, that I'll leave that to the minister and his team to decide, but we have to have an external forensic review of what is going on in the hospital. We have to figure out why is it that highly trained, highly specialized, and highly motivated consultants come in through True Letter County, and then before you know, they go on. We have essentially a revolving door on the front door. We don't have a front door. It's a revolving door, and that has to be addressed. Why are consultants who are dedicated to do something suddenly find they can't work here anymore? And that is critical, because if you don't deal with that problem, you're not going to fix us. You need to deal with it. And so, and if you look at the numbers here, and I think you may have those numbers there, you may have those numbers about funding in the social group, it's glaringly obvious that we need proper funding for our hospitals. We have manpower issues, underfunding issues, et cetera. But our three demands are very straightforward. An external review, number one. Number two, the urgent and imminent opening of a medical assessment unit. We have a purpose-built unit here in Leicester County that was supposed to be open in February 23. The Royal College of Physicians came out and said this needs to be opened. It has to be properly manned. Consultants, junior doctors, office staff, and ring fence. The beds have to be ring fence. We had 10 to 12 beds there. There's only two beds left. It's not even functioning at the moment. But if we had this medical assessment unit with access to diagnostic, in other words, ultrasound x-rays, MRI, CT, et cetera, it would divert a lot of patients going to A&E and help us to sort out problems. That could be done. And I know there's a third strand to it, but it's also important how that unit is staffed. I presume that we're not taking resources from the hospital and it gets plugged up a different way. But the one thing I thought interesting is the minister off the back of the team the team that were up here said that I think it was half of people that were admitted through ED were discharged the next day. So that was a particular concern. I'm not sure if he was levelling that at the ED or at GPs and necessarily sending people. But that seemed to be a critical point he wanted to get across. What do you say to that? Well, not say to that is that that's actually an argument. That's exactly an argument for a medical assessment unit. What happens here, what happens is we don't have access. To urgent outpatient appointments. Some patients don't necessarily have to go into A&E, but when we've run out of options, we as GPL working will be on our remits looking after very sick patients. They're begging us not to send them in. But what we're doing is look, we have to get you in because then hopefully when they get in they can get access to further and further investigations. But those investors don't have to be done through A&E. They could be done through the medical assessment unit. We could have access straight to the outpatients. So I could say to a lady or a gentleman, we can get your appointment next week, sit tight. You're receiving outpatients and they will then further investigate you. But we don't have that access and that's the problem. Thanks, Doctor. I wanted you to make that connection because it is, it's so logical. Stay with me if you don't mind for a moment because Dr. Michael Sugru has a clinic shortly. He of course is consultant breast surgeon at Latter Kenny University Hospital and has joined us on a couple of occasions now to highlight these issues and ease with us. Good morning to you, Michael Sugru. Dr. Michael Sugru, how are you keeping this morning? Good, Greg. Thank you for asking me to come on and share what happened with the minister and his advisors. Your assessment of that meeting, Michael? I think it was an excellent opportunity to meet with the minister and his advisors. He was very keen to listen. He was well briefed by six representatives of the 29 consultants that signed a letter. He listened for almost an hour and a half. He's completely aware of the issues that we raised. And I think it was a very positive meeting. It was a very friendly meeting. And we were all impressed that he was willing to take on board all the items that we identified. So we had a very positive feel about, first of all, him coming and also taking on board that he interacted with the family doctors, the GPs. So positive feeling, Greg, that he has been well briefed and is fully aware of all the issues that we have raised. There were some rumblings around his visit that he wanted to talk to consultants about how the fact that there's new contracts there, that there are some more consultants in certain areas. But the amount of work consultants are doing, public work that they're doing wasn't increasing, as perhaps it should. Did that come up for conversation or was that, as I say, just rumblings from his team prior to that meeting? Yes. Data was presented to that effect. That was the data we've seen for the first time. And I think this data is important. It is important to look and review work activity. I know myself, I see approximately between two and a half and 3,000 outpatient appointees per year. And a figure of 900 was mentioned in the discussion. So I think that data is very, very important. And I know that the minister has been briefed by us relating to five key points that we put to him, along with 30 points in the letter. So he will go back now, and he has an opportunity, having been briefed so thoroughly, that he will now be in a position, I'm sure, to look at those and come up with some solutions. And those key issues that we addressed with the minister, these are the six representative consultants of the 29 that signed the letter. We talked about the emergency department, cubicles, the addition of staff. We talked about rapid bill beds. And he has offered 48 beds. We believe that that should be on a demand capacity modeling about 77. We've mentioned that the budget deficit for him, and he's going to look into that. We've talked about facilities for oncology, hematology, ICU, high dependency. And we spoke about the elective hospital that is going to be hopefully planned in the region. So he's well briefed on those, Greg. And I think it was a very positive meeting. From here, what are the KPIs or whatever you might call them? Like, how do we, going forward, gauge success? Because you talked off initially that we needed a plan in here in a, you know, nine week plan. And it was something we don't want to see, perhaps unlikely, but a threat to actual services at the hospital across the board, right? So how do we gauge over the next, well, what period of time and what are the indicators to suggest that this action has begun to deliver results that will make life better for the staff, that will make, you know, patients to be more confident about going in there and so on. So what do you see is how we judge that going forward? Well, I think the minister is in a unique position now, having been so clearly briefed to make a change. And he's there with his advisors from HSC, Department of Health, and in fact, Minister McConaughey was present for most of the meeting as well. So there were a significant number of important people in that room to hear and understand what the issues were. And he has at first hand, and that's been coupled with a very clear message from the family doctors. So I suppose the bowl is with the minister, he has made the effort to come and it's been very welcome to buy us. So that is fantastic. And I think he has a great opportunity now to make a difference.  I suppose we'd like to hear something back in four to six weeks. You know, things have to be balanced, I suppose, Greg. And but I suppose as consultants, we would like to hear something backward in four to six weeks. Okay. Listen, we're all, I know you're very busy as is our doctor, but I know you have an appointment very shortly. So Dr. Michael Sue grew consultant, breast surgeon at the Kennedy Hospital. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much, Greg. Take care. Dr. Paratyan, I think it's positive in that now we're having a grown up conversation out in the public now that the consultants have their voice. The family doctors have their voice. We have the year of the health minister for so long. Another minister said to me, you've been talking about that hospital for a very long time. Now we're having a conversation, hopefully, you know, a means to an end. Yeah. Look, I would agree with Mr. Mr. Super that our meeting was at the end of it very positive because we felt the minister had got the message loud and clear that he was prepared to do something about it. And I think genuinely he does care. And I think he's understood the complexity of the situation and what needs to be done. I mean, his team is going to come here. And as I said, do a forensic examination of what's happening in the hospital. I mean, our job as GPs was to highlight the concerns of our patients and advocate on behalf of our patients. And we've done that. And we have insisted that, like the consultants, that we need to have, for him to come back to our always team, I should say, him always team, to come back to us in the new year to let us know what's going on so that we keep the ball rolling. We have insisted that we have a medical assessment unit up and running as soon as possible. We have a meeting on the 8th of December, a Zoom meeting with the CEO of the Solter Group, Tony Canavan, with the GPs, to highlight what's going on and what is happening and where do we go with this. And so hopefully there's some positivity. I think that's going to be... Dr. Sarge, cut across here. I think that's going to be a really interesting meeting there because it'll be very interesting to gauge the approach to that meeting by Mr Canavan. In that beforehand, it was, look, it is what it is. We have a model of health. Letter Kenny is the same funding as Sligo. We need to look at things one way rather than another. I recognise the issues. We need to work towards them. That's grand, right? But it'll be very interesting to see if that meeting, it's a solution-focused meeting and if the tone has changed at all. I'll be very interested to find out. We had a previous meeting with Mr Canavan and with the local management earlier before this in November. I can say this certainly about us in Donegal. We are unique in Donegal in terms of our capacity, our complexity of cases that we have here, our geographic isolation, Greg, and also as Mr Sligo, on the persistent underfunding of this. And therefore we are supposed to be a Model 3. We are certainly working well above a Model 3. If you look at our capacity for our EED, our emergency department, we are on par with one of the leading teaching hospitals in Dublin, St James's, same numbers.  So there's no argument here, I think, for the minister, for his team to look at this and say, well, look, these guys are working well above their thing. They're under-funded. We have to do something about this. And I think in all fairness to the minister and his team, they have heard us loud and clear. And I think we will be seeing progress here. And we hope that this progress is going to be early 2024 and change is happening. Fingers crossed. And we will give that equal coverage of positivity, of improvements as we have this, of course, because it's our hospital, it's your hospital, it's mine hospital. We're all pulling in the one direction. And hopefully now we have an ore in the hands of the Minister for Health. Go ahead. And I'd like to just say one more thing. Just thank you to the radio stations and newspapers, et cetera, to keep this in the public domain and that we keep going with this. We are going to be working here. We're going to always be as GPs here and very well the advocates for our patients' concerns and safety. And we're going to keep doing that because that's part of our job. Dr. Raghavan Paratyan, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Take care of yourself. OK, let's take a break. Any views on that? 086, 6025,000. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at highlandradio.com. 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.  Perfect for my fairy-like life. I hope you enjoyed this video. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you in the next video. Christmas parties. But look, don't worry if you're a human being. You'll love them too. Because they're filled with irresistible Scottish shortbread, chocolate chip cookies, Swiss chocolate truffles, hot chocolate or luxury gold tea. These are not just tins. No, no, these are M&S light-up Christmas tins. Tremendous gifts for fairies and humans alike. Subject to availability, selected stores. 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Fair play, Dr Raghavan and his GP colleagues for highlighting the issues at letter Kenney University Hospital. Time it was sorted for everyone, patients and stuff in the hospital. We are really grateful for the stand you're taking. Good morning, Greg. Where were all these doctors and consultants during the lockdown? They were sat on their laurels? Well, they did as health professionals. What they bought was the right thing, whether you agree or not. Could you ask the doctor why there were only a few trolleys on trolleys when the minister was visiting, when at any other time there was a queue? Thanks, Greg. It was five, three... Do you know what I'll do? During the 10 o'clock break, I'll actually look at the last few Fridays to be fair, okay, because I did make a clip on Friday about there being few waiting. But what I'll do is I will have a look at consecutive Fridays so we get a trend. How's that? Thanks all those GPs who are working hard for the people of Donegal on our behalf to fix our hospital. Was there a Wednesday night with my young son? Painters flat out at 7.38pm in the evening. Workmen doing a lot of work to the children's ward. All in preparation for the minister's visit on Friday. Is this right? You saw it. What do you think? Was the hospital showcasing exactly what's going on in there? The people at the top obviously trying to shape the place up to make the place look good, especially that late at night. In my opinion, problems arise from who's at the top and perhaps it would do no harm and have more than one person at the very top of management. Well, you know, cosmetically, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bit of cosmetic work that went on. But the GPs and consultants weren't going to allow a smoke screen either. They were there, they had a meeting and a number of them and they made things very clean. So, clear, sorry. So, liquor paint might make things look a little bit better but make no mistake, the GPs and consultants had their say. We're going to get the views of perhaps slightly more nuanced given the fact that he's now retired. We're going to get the views of Dr Peter O'Rourke, consultant orthopedic surgeon. See what he thinks of it all after this break. The Ninetal Noon Show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union. Digital loans now available. Apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account. Wood flooring, stores nationwide. Sale ends Sunday. Step into autumn in style. Change is the only constant in business. So, whether you're starting or growing your business, our dedicated business teams will always be here to support you every step of the way because the best businesses never stop beginning. Search Bank of Ireland business. Bank of Ireland begin. Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. It was the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The quiet at home was blissful and calm. The quiet in Gaza was a deadly alarm. It followed a bang in a home raised to the ground. Through the rubble he dug until she was found. For hours she fought. She tried to be brave but without the right care she couldn't be saved.  Her dad holds her hand as they bid her goodbye. For children in Gaza, every minute is a battle of survival. Please visit unicef.ie to donate today and help save a child's life. Thank you. Highland Radio weather updates brought you by Grant from condensing oil and HVO biofuel boilers to heat pumps and underfloor heating. You can trust Grant to heat your home. Visit grant.ie Okay, it'll become drier and brighter through the afternoon with just isolated showers, highest temperatures of six to nine degrees in light to moderate north to northwest wind. Dr Peter O'Rourke, former consultant orthopedic surgeons with us on the show. Now good morning to you Peter, thanks for your time. Morning, Greg. I suppose I'm interested actually to get your views on some statistics that the minister furnished us. Obviously he wanted to come up with some positivity and it was as it relates to waiting lists dropping that we'd made remarkable progress by his account over the last few years. Just interested in your view, your assessment of how you believe those improvements were achieved? Well, I think it was a masterclass in obfuscation what the minister said. He gave figures of between 25 and 30 percent reduction in waiting lists and you did ask him was it the NTPF or was it in the hospital and he managed to fudge that one. It's all the NTPF. The NTPF were spending approximately a million euros a year for the last probably 10 to 15 years in Lefford County. Last year they spent 7.25 million outsourcing patients. The NTPF have spent probably between 1.5 and 2 billion in private hospitals since it was established I think in 2005. So any waiting list reductions are entirely due to the NTPF. But he makes no apologies for that Peter. He says we have to have a twin approach. He likes pumping money into private hospitals. We have to do it in his and we have to use that private capacity where it's available. He's unapologetic in the two pronged approach. But it is somewhat ironic that the amount spent in Lefford County has probably tripled in the last year to 18 months. It shows the necessity in Lefford County. So if they'd actually invested some of the money they invested in increasing private hospital services in a public hospital it wouldn't have been necessary. One of there's two aspects to the NTPF. One it's it's the only reason all the private hospitals in Ireland exist because they wouldn't have managed to survive without the NTPF. But the other thing is they're taking staff from public hospitals as well. And you wonder for instance when the Children's Hospital comes online will they be able to get enough nurses and other staff to work there because they're going to need a hell of a lot more than they have in the current Children's Hospital. So it's a two-edged sword. You may get short-term relief, short-term benefit, but in the long term it actually is detrimental. But is it an even worse thing? In Lefford County now the NTPF are taking patients who are on a public waiting list for two weeks and sending them to the NTPF. It's an absolute joke. It used to be six months or nine months which was reasonable. Now if a patient is on a waiting list for two weeks before the doctors can even schedule them, they've been sent to the NTPF. Why is that a problem? It's a problem because it's two aspects. One, it's money being taken out of the public health service to put into the private service. That's number one. And number two is if all these patients are treated privately and operated only by consultants, we will not have a next generation of trained doctors. I mean it was bad enough during COVID which people working in hospitals and predominantly surgeons in every discipline got nothing to do because there was no planned surgery for nearly three years or very little. There's all of these surgeons are going to be less trained than they should be and the next generation behind it is going to have a knock on effect. And if we basically farm out all our planned surgery to the private sector, how can we train the next generation of doctors? And also if the turnaround is that quick and I suppose if you're waiting for treatment you've gone to say, well, that's grand, but where is the motivation to sort of provide those services in-house if after two weeks a patient's removed to a private hospital? Well, I mean, recruitment is difficult at the best of times in letter Kenny. How would you recruit a surgeon? I mean every surgeon is very motivated to do as much surgery as they're allowed or can do. So if you don't allow them to do surgery why would a doctor take a job in letter Kenny? If you're a junior doctor in training and there's no training happening why would you go and work in a hospital? And if you cannot staff a hospital like letter Kenny with a good quality of junior doctors and consultants then the place will gradually grind to a halt. What about some of the commitments is made in terms of assessment units and what have you? I mean, that's outside of the, I don't know, it's outside of the area that you work, but do you think we will see improvements with some of the commitments that were given to the GPs and consultants? I think, yes, if you had a properly staffed medical assessment unit, but I mean, one of the things that struck me was the minister's lack of understanding of what happens. He was busily talking about appointing new emergency medicine consultants to have a senior presence in the emergency department to prevent admissions. Emergency consultants do not admit to hospitals. They do not have any admission privileges to hospitals. They assess people in the emergency department, but it is hospital consultants, not the emergency department consultants who actually admit people. So he could put 100 emergency medicine consultants in the emergency department. It wouldn't reduce the number of admissions by one. And having a medical assessment unit, as Raghavan Prathian said, would make a big difference if GPs could send patients in there to be medically assessed rather than letting them deteriorate till they need an emergency admission. But, as he rightly said, they can't get investigations. Nobody has actually explained why they can't get investigation. And there's two simple reasons. One is cardiac investigations need to be significantly expanded in Lefford, Kenny, because that's one area where people wait for tests. But the other is diagnostics. Patients are admitted for CT scans and MRI scans because they cannot have them done as in outpatients. But nobody has explained why. About 60% of the capacity for investigations like that are taken up by screening for cancer cases. And these are not patients who are going to be diagnosed with cancer. These are patients who have had cancer and they're having follow-up afterwards. And while that is necessary, it has never been provided for in diagnostics. You need to have, we almost need to have separate diagnostic centers for cancer-followed care. Because, I mean, I've had colleagues who've admitted patients for four and five days to get an MRI scan of a risk because they cannot get it otherwise. And the patient's care will be adversely affected if they have to wait six weeks to get a scan when it will actually be detrimental to the actual outcome of treatment. Yeah, you've said in the past you'd be concerned about getting older in this part of the world. What's happened over the last number of weeks? Would it make you any more optimistic? Not in the slightest. I think everybody's naive if they think the minister will actually do anything in any sort of a timeframe that would be beneficial to the hospital. I was involved in the management of the hospital at various committee levels for literally the entire time I worked there 23 years. I was on a phase three development plan 23 years ago. I was on ones where we were discussing a new ambulatory care facility to involve day surgery, endoscopy, and outpatients. That went by the wayside. I remember 10 years ago after the flood talking to the general manager and saying that I would never do another clinic on the campus site at the hospital.  Of course, we'll have a new outpatients. Now his view is we don't need one because we have this lovely facility which they're paying rent for an annual basis down in McGinley. I mean, nothing changes. And then in 2016 there were commitments to increase the ED capacity. That never happened either.  They have been around for 20 years. So why do they think suddenly? The only thing reason is the minister now has sort of in the crosshairs of everybody and he's publicly gone out and said he would have to deal with this. But there's an election next year. By the time there's an election he won't be minister of health and could be someone else's problem. So it'll be just kick down the town or the kick down the road. And I would not have any great expectation that there'd be any positive outcome of this. But this be as grace where there's a benefit, the hospital remains to be seen. And the other thing is this, you know, as I said, obfuscation. And the minister was sort of expelling the virtues of our gynecology service. But the problem was there wasn't major resources put in to increase that and resolve the problems there. A lot of the resources were moved sideways rather than new resources. New resources. And the minister was talking about the extra money that he's poured into Leher County. That money was poured into every hospital in the country. It wasn't over and above what was already needed. And the problem is Leher County needs a lot of money over and above what was already spent. But that ain't gonna happen very quickly. No, because that's the generations of underspending. Okay, listen, thanks for your views as always. Thanks for accepting our invite. Dr. Peter O'Rourke, retired consultant orthopedic surgeon. Of course, we want your views on this as well. 08, 660, 25,000. 08, 660, 25,000. Give us a call on 07491, 25,000. Emails also to comments at highlandradiote.com. It is the Ninety-Nine show. And again, sorry if it appears that we're back on this issue again. But obviously, it's important that we talk about it off the back of the events of Friday and Thursdays where we had another minister up here. And it is not to be negative. It's not to spin a negative narrative. That's not what we're here for. But we've heard from GPs, consultants, former consultants, with an understanding of something that's as important as anything I think to all of our well-being. And that's how well or otherwise our acute hospital functions. And we just had to give it the space that's required. With stores at Main Street Letter Kenny and the Letter Kenny Shopping Centre are online at armacolor.com. You can choose from their quality product range in a relaxed atmosphere. And their sales staff will be happy to help you make the right choice whatever the occasion. Armacolor Jewelers. Making moments magical for generations. Buy three bills, get two far logs free. Nationwide delivery available. Shop in store or online at homeland.ie. To help with the cost of heating your home during the winter months, the fuel allowance scheme is now available. This allowance is paid at a rate of €33 a week for 28 weeks. To find out more and check your eligibility, visit gov.ie forward slash fuel allowance. The quickest and easiest way to apply is online at mywelfare.ie. One payment per household. A Government of Ireland initiative brought to you by the Department of Social Protection. Cyber Monday has arrived at thecoupe.ie. Enjoy massive savings across all departments with mega deals on electronics. 50% of selected ladies dresses and jackets. 25% of all trainers in our sports department. And 20% of ladies wear and menswear in our clothing department. See the Coupe done low on Facebook for more. Our customers needs are evolving. So we're evolving too. By bringing the best of technology and people together. Every interaction. Every innovation. And every connection is built upon a better understanding of you. And it all comes together to create a banking experience that's all together more human. PTSD. All together more human. Permanence TSB, PLC trading as PTSD is regulated by the Central Bank Department. Live on air online and on the Highland Radio app. This is Highland Radio News. Good morning. It's Donna Marie Doherty with the news at 10 o'clock. A GP that met with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly last week rejects claims of scaremongering but says they're simply raising concerns of patients. Dr. Raghavan Parrashyan says he now feels that he's advocated for his patients in a meaningful way. Speaking to Greg Hughes on this morning's name to Linshu, Dr. Parrashyan says it was essential Foreign Minister Donnelly to see firsthand the problems faced by Letter Kenney University Hospital. He needed to see what was going on here locally. He needed to meet the people. He needed to meet us on home ground and understand our frustration, our desperation to try and change things for our patients. And I heard your interview with him before he met us and he was a wee bit upset about us scaremongering. We're not scaremongering. Every day, every practice, a general practice in Donegal hears patients saying, please doctor, don't send me in there. I can't go there anymore. P.S. and I in Oma arrested a man on Friday night last in relation to the seizure of suspected class B controlled drugs. They have an estimated street value of 20,000 pounds. Heather Laurie reports. Police were alerted to a vehicle acting suspiciously that was traveling on the Turkwin Road shortly after 11 p.m. on Friday evening. The car was stopped and officers conducted a search. A small quantity of suspected class B controlled drugs were found. Police then searched a property where a larger quantity of suspected class B controlled drugs were seized as well as drug-related paraphernalia and other items. Everything seized is undergoing forensic examination. The driver of the vehicle, a 29-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of possession of a class B controlled drug, possession of a class C controlled drug with intent to supply and possession of a class B controlled drug with intent to supply. He has since been released on police bail to allow for further inquiries as the investigation continues. EC2 is condemning the outrageous thuggery seen on Dublin City's Centre Streets last week. It's calling on workers to meet at the GPU at one o'clock this afternoon to denounce his rightist behaviour in a solemn and respectful way. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions also wants to show solidarity with the children and care worker attacked in Parnell Square last Thursday. It's sacral genitary. Owen Radies says they want to pay tribute to workers who came up on the riots that night. To pay our, I suppose, solidarity and our respects to the first responders, the transport workers, the retail workers and the hospitality workers who have all been affected by this. And it's also an opportunity for us to say that, you know, workers working in Dublin, wherever they're from, whether they're Irish-born or whether they're from the Four Corners of the Globe, that they are welcome and they are part of our community and to reject this violence. 400,000 public servants, including nurses, teachers and Gareth Dee, will be watching with interest as new public sector pay talks get underway. Unions and government will meet at the WRC today to try and negotiate a successor to Building Momentum, which expires on December 31st. The talks are expected to take some time, and business editor Joe Linham says the government will be keen to see a deal done. The big unions will go in now to talk to Pascal Dunnehu there, so it's the Public Services Committee, and it too, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which will be haggling over the next months, potentially years, because these things take time. There'll be a short-term agreement possibly to come into force from January, and then there'll be a more longer-term deal, which will be important. And remember, you do not want 400,000 angry civil servants before a general election. The Taoiseach's response to the release of Emily Hand has been described as deeply insensitive by the Israeli government. The nine-year-old Irish-Israeli girl was held captive in Gaza for 50 days after being kidnapped by her master in its October 7th attack. However, Leeuva Radker has been criticised for saying an innocent child who has lost has now been found. Israeli government spokesperson Ilan Lelevi says the statement caused a lot of hurt. If taken literally, this was, of course, absurd. Little Emily Hand was not hiding in a lost and found box. I think the explanation that this was an allusion to scripture does the Taoiseach no favours, because there can be no comparing between Emily Hand and the prodigal son. She was not some wayward sinner who went away and then came back for forgiveness. She was brutally abducted by Hamas, a terror organisation that the Taoiseach does not mention in that statement. Looking out to whether it will be mostly cloudy with patchy light rain, drizzle mist and fog, it will become drier and brighter through the afternoon with just isolated showers, highest temperatures of six to nine degrees and a light to moderate north to northwest wind. That's all for now from Highland Radio News, the next news updates at 11 o'clock. In the meantime, keep up to date with the latest local news on our website, highlandradio.com. For myself and the news team, good morning. London and surrounding areas for over 50 years, late husband of Paddy McClean-Rossbeg, County Donnie Goll. Her remains are reposed at Shovland's funeral home Sandfield on Tuesday evening from six o'clock until eight o'clock. Funeral from there on Wednesday morning at half past ten in St. Connell's Church Kill Clooney for 11am rakeway and mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Bridget's funeral mass can be viewed live on Shovland's funeral home Facebook page. The death has taken place of Kathleen Gilday in the Shovland Monargan, Ardra, Donnie Goll. Her remains are reposed at Shovland's funeral home Sandfield tomorrow evening from three p.m. until half past five, followed by removal to the Church of the Holy Family, Ardra, arriving at six p.m. funeral mass on Wednesday afternoon at one p.m. followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery. The death has taken place of Doveville Acute 27 Riverview Grand Sherwood, Bunkranna. Remains are reposing at McLaughlin and McLaughlin's funeral directors Main Street, Bunkranna today from six o'clock until nine o'clock. Funeral from there tomorrow at nine forty a.m. Going to St Mary's Oratory, Bunkranna for ten o'clock Requiem Mass with cremation afterwards in Lakeland's crematorium cavern at half past two. Funeral mass can be viewed online at churchservices.tv and cremations also at churchservices.tv. The death has taken place of John L. Brennan, Ate Dennett View, Burn Dennett. Remains are reposing at his home funeral leaving his home tomorrow at nine twenty a.m. for Requiem Mass in St Mary's Church Cloughar at ten a.m. Interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family time please from eleven p.m. to eleven a.m. The death has taken place of Miehul Sheamus O'Yalhor Michael James, Chemist House Bun Bag originally of Cotton Dairy Bag. His remains are reposing at his home. Rosary is nightly at eight p.m. House private after Rosary and before the funeral tomorrow. Funeral mass tomorrow in St Mary's Church Dairy Bag at eleven a.m. Interment afterwards in Mahregalan Cemetery. The funeral mass can be viewed live on Cure and Rotary Funeral Director Facebook page. The death has occurred of Gene Doherty Nee Doffee, Nocala Drive Bunkranna. Gene's remains are opposing at her sister Mary Kemi's residence, Les Fannin. Removal from there this morning at quarter past ten to St. Mary's Church Cough Hill for Requiem Mass at eleven a.m. Followed by interment in the adjoining graveyard. Family flowers only please. Donations in lieu if desired to the patient's comfort fund Bunkranna Community Hospital care of any family member or Murphy funeral directors. The death has taken place of Grace Gallagher, Gracie Dunmore Nee McFadden of Moirik Falcara. Her remains are opposing at her son Patrick's house in Moira. Funeral mass this morning in St Finan's Church Falcara at eleven a.m. Interment afterwards in the adjacent cemetery. Funeral mass can be viewed live on the Cure and Rotary Funeral Director Facebook page. For family information and more details regarding wakes and funerals, please go to highlandradio.com. If you're not with you know energy chances are you're paying more than you need to for your electricity. As Ireland's newest energy supplier, we offer Ireland's cheapest electricity rate saving our customers up to 355 euro a year. So if you want to pay less for energy, simply pay a visit to you knowenergy.ie and sign up for big savings with smaller bills. With you know energy, you just know. You know energy discount rate EAB 1665 euro. Suppliers pricing may change. For fees and season rates, see you knowenergy.ie. The county's number one talk show, The Nine Till Noon Show on Highland Radio. Okay, you're very welcome back to the program. Good morning if you are just joining us. Okay, let us get to some of your comments coming in so far this morning. Funny day, Minister for Health. There was only three waiting in ED. Well, do you know what? Facts matter. So I thought I'd run through the list for you. So you're quite correct. There were three on trolleys on the 24th, which is Friday, isn't it? Three waiting a bed. The Friday beforehand, it was 26. So it went from 26 to 3. But the Friday before that, it was 2. And the Friday before that, it was 4. And the Friday before that in October, it was 7. 6 the Friday before that, 7 the Friday before that, and 25 on the 6th of October. Okay, so in fairness, sometimes it can be very high on a Friday, but also, and as I say, we have to be fair, and it's about facts here. Quite often it seems on a Friday, 6, 7, 7, 4, 2, and 3. The figures can be quite low on a Friday morning as well. So as I say, facts are important and those are the facts. It's been quite high on a couple of Fridays, but ordinarily it seems it's in the single digits or low single digits. I listened to the interview with the minister on Friday. He definitely had all his homework done and was well briefed on what questions he might be asked. Unfortunately, despite your best efforts, he managed to skirt important issues with a plethora of statistics. Healthcare and medicine is a complex issue. I think it would be better if the minister was interviewed by you in the company of a consultant or doctor who wouldn't be blindsided by statistics. My job as an interviewer is not to land punches or to catch him out or whatever. The minister is entitled to his interpretation of statistics without them necessarily being argued by a consultant who would be not inclined to take part in that interview, as you said anyway. So as an interviewer, I get stuff on the record. He was meeting with GPs and consultants after the fact. There's basic questions that are important to us as it relates to funding, getting procedures, getting certain, being able to see certain consultants and all that type of stuff. So I take your point, but he was able to tease out with consultants and GPs after the fact. Minister of Visit, is it genuine? Is it speech play asks another listener? Is it pre-election preparation for upcoming funding announcements to keep seats in Donegal for Finnegale and Finafoul? Keep guessing, but the terrible situation where consultants must organise to feed back about the lack of management and resources is a testament to the mismanagement by HSE and government. Another is Dr O'Rourke suggesting that the excellent CT scan service for cancer service sufferers providing after-hours in LUH should be done away with.  Hospitals need to look at the process in ED to see where it can be improved because it is shocking. That's the one area I do expect to see a more positive experience. Going into ED is never easy. It's never going to be an in-and-out job unless you're lucky. But I think there's certain things that hopefully can be done now to improve that situation and to give people more confidence about going to the ED. Because it's a fine hospital in many, many areas when you get in the staff are amazing. They work so hard under such difficult circumstances. So if we can get that part of it right, get the ambulances in and out quick, you know, I think we're on a pathway maybe that might improve patients' confidence in the facility. Bring Dr O'Rourke back on. I never heard as much sense. He should be running that hospital, says a listener. Let me see. More coming in, of course. Hi, Greg. The doctor says Letter Kenny is a revolving door and people leave as soon as they come in. I'm curious why that would be. It seemed he was going to say but didn't. Well, I think he did say because what he was suggesting is that in the absence of certain diagnostic tools, so in other words, if I go to my GP and I'm suffering a severe headache, right, the GP may presume that maybe I've got, I don't know, maybe I've got eye strain or something or I've got a sore neck and the pain shooting open into my head and paracetamol is not really working for it. Now, the GP might believe that that is what it is, but he also needs to make sure that it's not something more sinister. He can't diagnose that there. He's not going to take a chance with my well-being, so he's going to send me into the ED just to be sure. So I might then be admitted, get a couple of scans, hopefully everything's okay, and then I'll go home the next day. And that's the revolving door, whereas if, you know, suspected ankle breaks or whatever were seen in a different facility other than ED, like a medical assessment unit, well, then I wouldn't be admitted to get my ankle checked and then released. I'm mixing up the examples, but that's from my understanding what the doctor meant by a revolving door, that for diagnostics, people are going in, everything's okay, thankfully, and then they're sent home, but they have to be admitted for some of those diagnostic services, whereas we could have a different facility that would relieve that. If I understand correctly, that's what he meant by the revolving door. If he's listening or someone close to him is listening and it's something else, I'm more than happy to correct the record as well. Just pick up on your comment there, Greg, about cosmetic work, as if it allowed before a minister to visit the hospital, don't agree with you there on that point. Where did the money come from to get these painters in? Should that work? Not have been done right in the first place, i.e., minister coming to visit to get the place, looks bad done before he comes. I get your point we're saying, I'm just saying, he doesn't surprise me, he doesn't shock me. I'm sure if we had someone important visiting here, you know, we'd tidy the place up a bit. That's, I think that's understandable, but we can agree to disagree. Why is it now all GPs are sending everyone to the ED even for stitches? Thanks to all those GPs who are working hard for the people of Donegal on our behalf to fix our hospital. Right, okay, I read that one. Hobbies saying he's switching over to ITV last week to watch a program beginning at 8 p.m. Coronation Street was still on and it was portraying a stabbing between students at a school and other students on their phones recording it. All this before the water shed, it's a dangerous situation that children tuned in believing this is the norm. Well, that's an ongoing storyline and it's quite a difficult storyline about bullying and peer pressure in schools. And those stories play out not in one episode but over multiple episodes. I don't, I don't I find an awful lot of those when they try and tackle and they shoot box ticking, you know, because they do it in consultation with various groups and they go through the obvious things that you see in the obvious outcomes. But if anyone who's watching it on a consistent basis, especially students, I think it might give younger people an opportunity to say, you know, that's happening to me. I'm being threatened at school and eventually the bully is going to get his comeuppance. So there's a message there as well. As I said, I'm just happened to be privy to that storyline. And if you switched in and out, maybe that's how you would see it. But I think it's trying to tackle young people who are being bullied, both in person and online, unable to speak to parents. And as I say, I presume it's going to play out in a positive way for the victim of that. And don't forget to mention the Late Show. Did Patrick do us proud? It was brilliant. Didn't get to see it yet. I'm actually proper delighted that Patrick Kilty knocked it out of the park. There would have been huge pressure on him. Everybody loved it. There was some fantastic characters. I did see clips of it, though I haven't seen it all. And I'm delighted. It brings joy to people. It would have been a tough one for him. And I think he did great by the testimonies that I'm reading. Oh my God, had to turn off RTU News. Simon Harris is all talk about rights in Dublin. And not one mention of the government allowing in unvetted people into attack and stab our children. We see the problem is, is the reason he's not going to say that. And I'm not here to defend anyone. But the person who is suspected of being responsible for that is an Irish national. You know, maybe weren't born here as many of us weren't. But he was not an unvetted immigrant. I'll come back to more of that comment in a moment. But we're going to take a quick break. And then we're going to hear more speculation as to, we were talking about this to John McAteer last week, that Charlie McConnelogue, maybe he's not going to be seeking your vote. Maybe he is the next EU commissioner. We'll tease all that out for you after we take this break. Stay right where you are. It's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio. It's Monday the 27th of November. You're playing on the green sheet. The reference number is S16. It's game number 48. The numbers are 64. 34. 23. 2. 55. 85. 17. 1. 79. And finally, 74. Phone your claim tonight. 104833 before 8 tonight. Leaving your name, contact number, and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day. Get all your NCBI Bingo information at highlandridio.com. Fizz or glass of beer. It's from the drinks retailer of the year. Aldi, share the love this Christmas. Get the facts, be drink aware of visit drinkaware.ie. Spoil someone with a beautiful fragrance this Christmas from McGee's Chemist Letter Kenny. Choose by designer, budget, or celebrity. Top names like Clarence, Burberry, Gucci, and Dolce & Gabbana. Also great prices on Calvin Klein, Flower Bomb, and so many more. The best fragrant gift sets available this year can also be found in McGee's Chemist Main Street Letter Kenny and online at McGee's.ie. McGee's were the best cost less. Giving the gift of football at Brian McCormick Sports, new Adidas Euro 24 replica ball out now. The number one football gift this Christmas. Precision grip socks. Match it up with a pair of precision footless socks. The perfect gift for any age. For the GAA star. Try the new V2 Murphy's gloves. Available in new colours. The perfect Christmas gift for all the family. Click BMC Sports.ie. The Ninetal Noon Show with Letter Kenny Credit Union. Now offering mortgages from 40,000 to 600,000 euro with no hidden fees or transaction charges. Letter Kenny Credit Union 9102127. You're welcome back to the programme. We're joined on out by John Lee, the executive editor of the Daily Mail Group in Ireland. John, good morning to you. Thank you so much for joining us. Good morning, Greg. How are you? I am doing good. Now, there has been some ongoing speculation linking agriculture minister Charlie McConnelly to an EU commissioner's job. And I think he was asked the question early this month, maybe around the 7th or 8th, if he was ruling himself out of it or if he saw it in his future or not. And he didn't rule himself out of it. So, can you give us a background to this speculation and how he could end up as a EU commissioner, John? Well, the speculation was certainly turbocharged when a man like Charlie McConnelly was not known for revealing his cards too often. Went away from the usual political tactic of saying, oh, I'm in a job now, I'm not going anywhere. So, by his acceptance that he's figuring in this, one would heighten the view that he is certainly probably, I would say he's the number one contender, that's for sure. It comes about with no disrespect to Mr. McConnelly, but by a process of elimination, the EU commissioner's job is one of the most sought after now in politics and not disconnected to the fact that it's a rather secure role financially. The package is extraordinary when you start adding well over 300 grand a year, you'll take in from tax allowances and everything else. And it does give a security of tenure also that you'll be there for five years, guarantee that if you do okay, you could be there for 10 years. There was an agreement at the outset of the government because Finnegale have held this role for a number of years in the coalition that Finnafall would be getting this role. And the discussion within government and without about who was to take it has gone in ebbs and flows much like political fortunes have in that time. So, if you rewind back say to mid 2022, when there was a lot of disquiet in Finnafall, probably about Bihar Martin's leadership, unjustified as it may seem now, that was certainly the case then, if you remember it was meetings and thenster house amongst his parliamentary party, about what should be done with me, all kind of stuff. It was felt that it was probably likely that he would take the EU commissioners position. But since then, his position has solidified with the increasing possibility that Finnafall could choose between Finnegale or Sinn Féin, rather varied selection there as coalition partners in the election. Mihael Martin is virtually guaranteed to be in a senior role. So he's gone as a potential candidate. It then moved on to Michael McGrath. We understand that Michael McGrath is not favored by the leadership, the leadership being holy in Mihael Martin, who would not want to lose his finance minister and also man is very much guaranteed on a feat in the next general election. And then he goes through the cabinet for various reasons, Norma Foley and Stephen Donnelly, Daryl Bryan are not, again, for electoral reasons as much as anything else, we can go into that if you want to, are not expected to be given the role. And that comes to Mr. McConnelogue then, who I think will be fair, I don't think he'd deny this himself, would not exactly be nailed on at the next general election. He was elected, he was the last person elected at the, at the general election in 2020. A good bit of, a good bit ahead of Pat to cope, got her, but nevertheless, it was tight for him. And next time out, there is a feeling that he could be in trouble electorally. There's also speculation, and this is not, this is not confirmed at all, are discussed by Mr. McConnelogue, he may not want to run, and that does an increasing tendency towards that in politics. And in politics generally, I mean, obviously as you quite rightly pointed out, particularly with the defective concrete block scandal, and a party being formed, particularly for that, and potentially to the likes of Councillor Martin McDermott might be a perfect fit to run instead of Charlie McConnelogue, but he is probably achieved, and I think this is not disrespectful, it's respectful, he's probably achieved everything he probably can achieve in domestic politics. So if you have an out, right, an option, where you can have another high-profile, very well-rewarded role, you could argue, why would you put yourself through what will be a very, very tough general election campaign up here? Absolutely, and you already have one recently, former government minister deciding that he's not going to put himself through that, or his family either, and that's, you know, which in feigns rise also, there is a possibility that two seats there, they're talking about three, as you say, the Micah Bricks people who have been so grievously let down by central government themselves are considering running candidates, properly will, and also, you know, yes, he's achieved a lot, but I think, again, Charlie McConnelogue is very well-gotten by Michal Martin, and he is almost spiritually close to him in the sense that if you remember way back in 2011, when the party was at a low as ebb, Charlie McConnelogue was one of those surprisingly who gave them a bit of a boost, and he has done, it is felt, well in agriculture, which is an important role in Ireland, but our associations in relationship with Europe in a way that some countries, Germany and France, for instance, aren't as reliant on our associations through agriculture with the EU are very high, so there will be a hope that he would then secure, if to go on the agriculture commissioner role, which would then add a very difficult time, when is there not a difficult time for Irish farming, but particularly now with talk of reduction of national herds and nitrates, legislation and everything else, that he would be very well positioned for that, so I also think beyond the personal considerations, beyond the electoral considerations, there is also an expectation and a hope that a very strong, efficient, loyal, politician, loyal, I mean to the Pee Hall Martin, that is, could do well for us in Europe. And John, what is the process and the timeline then? So for instance, is this a decision that Pee Hall Martin himself can make, and when, if he can, or what is the process, you can tell us more about that, what is the likely timeline, because if an election is looming, he doesn't necessarily have to wait because of the time you're allowed to hold a by-election, he doesn't necessarily have to wait for a right to the day of the collapse of the government or the dissolving of the government. So what is the procedure and the timelines there, John? Potentially. Well, we probably don't have enough time, as much as you and I might find it fascinating, the next year will be dominated by elections. In mid-2024, we have the local Europeans, that second stone, the date for that in June. And around then, the discussion, and it's a bit loose as a lot of things can happen in Europe, around then in the summer, we have the new commission appointed. So we're going to new, or perhaps Ursula van der Leyen, van der Leyen might remain as EU commission president. She then appoints a commission, and that's our cabinet essentially.  That process begins in the summer. So the government will need, our government will be needing to let the commission know, and things move slowly there, who our candidate is, by the latest really March of next year. So it'll have to be decided very much by then. The decision really is one man's, and that's Mihael Martins. Politics may be democratic in political parties, but it's decision like this, it's the leaders. But then it gets even more complicated because, as we say, we have the local Europeans, there's increasing belief that Mihael, that Leo Radker, who will ultimately have the decision, will want to go to the country as early as September next summer. Sorry, September after the summer. Sometime between September and November, I'm not 100% on that, but legally then they can roll round to March. If in that period, a cabinet minister, a TD is appointed, say December, and that could be after a general election, of course, but will have been nominated after that stage in ratified. But if in that period, there was a general election after that TD, say Charney McConnell, became EU commissioner, there wouldn't be a necessity for a by-election because there's a six-month law now, so really say he took up the role, resigned his seats in autumn before or after a general election, there wouldn't be then a need for a by-election. Would that be advantageous to John as well, because it depends on what they want to do. I really would not be surprised to see Pat the Colt Gallagher back in the frame again. He's removed somewhat from what's happening in the north of the county, though it's not exclusively there, but in terms of people's attitudes. But also too, if this six months would allow either a sweeper for Pat the Colt Gallagher or a main candidate to replace Charney McConnell to campaign, so that would be an advantage to go early with this announcement too, I presume. Absolutely, and still no matter how problematic a government's TV standing again in Donegal will be, there is a sizeable Finnafall vote there, and if you look at the numbers, Charney McConnell himself had over 8,000 first preference votes. I think Pat the Colt wasn't far behind that, about a thousand behind that, so that's an awful lot of votes still to play with. So yes, you could start looking in the new candidate, I think Martin McDermott, as far as I know, had one of the highest first preference votes in the last local elections in 2019, and he then would be one of those who would emerge from the local elections with an understanding of how popular that person is, and there are other councillors too, obviously who will come forward, but it is a pivotal election, we often say the general election is most important, we've had in the generation, but this is something, this general election, the course, our country's course for good or bad in the next 10 years, so every seat will matter, and every person who stands will matter, and I think then if you're selecting whatever that timeline is, I'd say Meehan Martin in his private time will say to themselves that he would like to see the general election go as far, days go all the way to March, and that again would be about what you pointed, that allow newer candidates, if they're needed, time to become known throughout the county or throughout the constituency, and that isn't always the case if they're throwing a ticket very late, and then the public, the electors will have to decide whether they want to put Sinn Féin in government for the first time ever, you will note that they have fallen back a bit in the national polls only this weekend, and I don't think that is nailed on as it can be, as people think it is, and then they have to decide, the electorate alternatively, do they want to stick with the coalition that is there now, and that will mean every candidate counts, more so than ever. Fascinating, John, it is fun, we're getting into that fascinating time all next year with various elections, and really interesting to get your insight. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Greg. Take care. John Lee, who's Executive Editor of the Daily Mail Group, Ireland, and if that were to transpire, things would stop making a little bit of sense in certain areas. Okay,<PHONE_NUMBER> is the WhatsApp and text number,<PHONE_NUMBER>, give us a call on 07491 25000. Back with more on this Ninetal Noon Show shortly. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook, and at highlandradio.com. The Ninetal Noon Show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union. Seasonal loans now available for Christmas. Apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account. Hi, Tommy Bow here. Get in store to check out my new 15 Kings clothing collection available in Premium Gents Outfitters nationwide and at 15kings.com. 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Great things come in threes at DMG Motor's Donegal Town and while I have three seconds, allow me to say that yes, terms and conditions apply. Make Christmas for everyone at Done's Doors. Terms and conditions apply. I'd like you to use the next grocery shop with 50 or more. OK, you're very welcome. Back to the 9 till noon show. 08 660 25000 is the WhatsApp and text number. 08 660 25000. Or give us a call on 07 491 25000. You tune to the 9 till noon show here on Highland Radio and it's been a busy one so far and still plenty to come over the next wee while. So stay tuned. OK, we are going to be joined shortly by Jason Quigley. We hope as we talk about the fight at the weekend but I just can't get through to him so we might just go through Trad phone lines if that's OK. And we'll get him up there trying to do it through WhatsApp but it's just not working for me at the moment. I think Charlie McConnell either should go as a commissioner or I'll step away from politics as his chances of getting re-elected to the next all are very slim, says a caller. Another, do you want to hear a good joke? Charlie McConnell is going to be the next new commissioner. I'm not a gambling man but I reckon the nearest he'll get to Brussels will be the Brussels Sprouts on his Christmas dinner.  Mary Coughlin was regarded as the best. I think there are others with different points of view. Good morning. The news about Charlie McConnell's potential EU role doesn't surprise me. It helps explain some of his apathy and lack of interest towards his constituents in regards to Micah for example but he needs to remember that when he eventually collects his big pension that he'll be living among the very people that he's let down so badly by not representing him. The message yet again is that an aptitude is often in or is often rewarded in our government. Some people will say it like that others obviously won't but we appreciate your input there. I wonder is Jason quickly with me now? Are you there Jason? No, he's not there with me just at the moment. There is a slight tech issue there but that's fine. It's fine. We'll get to it in the end. If Charlie McConnell, Oghfina full goes to Brussels or Luxembourg it's a reminder to what the EU is about. Some say it's politicians put out to grasp but still very much on a gravy train but it's quite a high profile job out there you know. It's certainly not one that is you just go away to disappear if you know what I mean. It has got a little full lot of credibility to it. Okay Jason quickly are you there? No the phone line just is not working. All right we'll have to come back to that in a second Caroline if you could put that through again. The wonders of technology sometimes it's just too wondrous. Good morning Greg, Leo, Drew and Helen have to go. They came out and called citizens who are against kids being stabbed as far right. The media would say that the media would say what nationality they were saying. It was a man the same as the government talk about covering up one million refugees not born in Ireland brought in in the last 10 years. That's no more Ireland the government and the Garde we know are the enemies of the state. Okay I'm not sure everyone sees it like that but I do appreciate your input there. Greg these politicians are bluffing the way. One second okay these politicians are bluffing their way now promising everything until the general election next year. We shall say Katie that's been done by the way. I know you were looking for me to do something. Jason quickly good morning to you. Sorry Jason for the tech issues there. I didn't know what was going on. Good morning. Thank you for those things. I'm doing good. Jason you like to predict the outcome of boxing matches. You know with Katie going up a weight taking on a much younger arguably stronger and somewhat might have thought this is in the first fight against Chantone Cameron and then seeing the outcome of it. Did you believe in your heart of hearts that Katie Taylor at 37 could up her game to the extent that she did and dominate that fight like she did. Did you believe she was capable of it? Yeah I did Greg and I can say this with confidence because I actually did a prediction online before the before the actual fight. Is we know the mindset that she has. We know how disciplined that she is and if there's anybody that could come back and overturn a defeat then it was Katie Taylor and I believe that Katie Taylor had that in her. But I knew it was going to be a very difficult task for her but I definitely knew that Katie Taylor had something special in her to pull out of the bag what she did. And she was able to dig so deep and dominate for so long and much has been made about the whether it was a knockdown or not. The reality is it would only have affected the draw side of it. She would have won even if that had have been counted a knockdown if my maths are correct. Yeah that's correct you know I wasn't very sure the the stream and the length that I had to fight wasn't great. And so I wasn't sure I had to take a wee look after it and I definitely think it was a legitimate knockdown. And as you say you know it wouldn't have really affected the scorecards as it had it been a 10-8 round and just depending whether the judges had Katie Taylor won in that round it would have been 10-9 her favour or it could have switched it around in a three-point difference if it was all the way around. It definitely could have been a bit of a turning point momentum wise maybe not in the score in that area in the fight but momentum wise if Katie Taylor had it went down it was it was called as a knockdown the enchanting camera and could have been could have got a lift out of that and that could have changed the fight momentum wise. And I mean obviously you can feel disappointed or some will feel disappointed for Chantel but her stock in every fight that she fights with Katie Taylor is rising you know to legendary status especially they have to do it for a third time and it has to be in Croke Park doesn't it Jason? Yeah I think that it should only be right for a trilogy fight and terms. I know that Katie Taylor could walk away now and be like well look she beat me I can back and beat her and tail off into the sunset that would be great and if Katie Taylor did that there'd be no there'd be no question about it either but I think as fans and as boxing people we would love to see it again I know Chantel Cameron would definitely love to see it again because there was a few instances in that fight as a citizen going to watch this fight but you know I thought Katie used her head a lot in that fight I thought that she did a lot of holding in that fight which she wasn't really warned for at all throughout the whole fight and that could have been a difference in momentum as well so it weighs off for a very intriguing trilogy fight but I definitely do think that that has to happen again and without it out you know imagine imagine that being in Croke Park and finally having it in Croke Park after all the talk about it and she was clever too wasn't she in her attacks and I know you're going to watch it back in more detail yourself but she was in and out she didn't get greedy she you know you know she didn't stand there and trade she's traded cleverly which I think really worked for and I think it caught Chantel out a little bit because she was being put on the back foot at times in that fight yeah I think you know Katie Taylor definitely did her homework her and her team you know she she threw her punches and she tried to get out of there when she couldn't get out of there she held Chantel Cameron up she you know she held she made it she got very close and hold on to Chantel so Chantel couldn't really you know let punches go or get into her rhythm and you could see that that was for straight in Chantel you know later on that the second half of the fight she started to you know look at the referee and started to talk to the referee and once you see a fighter doing that you know there are there are ways that are the sorts that are they're not thinking straight on the game plan on how to one fight they're starting to contain in their mind taking off the performance and and what is key to getting the performance so you know there was a lot of things that Katie Taylor did very well in that fight there's a lot of things Chantel Cameron did well in that fight as well and it was a very exciting fight you know to be for for two women to be headlining a show in Dublin and putting on a performance in a show like they did you know the atmosphere was electric which I've heard and you know it was it was a credit to both of them and of course for Katie Taylor as well after coming through which he came through in her last fight against Chantel you know everybody writing her off majority of people writing her off and to come back and do it it just shows how amazing she is and also don't want to put a downer on things but the way that the way that the Capitol has been over the last couple of days and the issues going on it's a great it's a great lift for Ireland and it's a great lift for the people seeing the performance like that from Katie there were other good performances on the night as well and someone I wasn't overly familiar familiar with but we'll be following closely now is Paddy Donovan yeah Paddy Donovan's a special talent you know Paddy's very close to me me and I'm trained together for for many years now with with Andy coaching us and you know I've done loads of rounds of Paddy we've trained together endless number of times now over the last couple of years and I've always said it and we've always known that that Paddy is going to be top top level you know he can go all the way can't he Jason sorry I thank you pardon this little guy Jason I'll say he looks like a guy that could go all the way he's got everything going for him a hundred percent Greg you know he can you know he can talk he's got the skills he's got the talent he's got the looks and most importantly Paddy can buy you know he has that knockout power he has that power that if the fight's maybe not going his way he can land that one shot and completely change the fight so he has all the qualities of being a world champion I believe that he can be a world champion Paddy just needs to stay very disciplined now you know inside and outside the ring and work hard and be disciplined and I believe that Paddy can go all the way and he can be Ireland's next world champion and just the word on Gary Cully as well he I suppose you would hope that he got rid of the demons of his last performance he took on a tough fight he's not a fighter I don't I don't enjoy watching him and I'll tell you the reason why it's not because he's a bad boxer whatever it's just so tall his head's in the air and now as a viewer you're waiting for him to get clipped thankfully it didn't happen for him on Saturday night but he also has great potential what would you see he's got a bit of work to do in his defense in his style maybe at that weight yeah you know it's going to be very tricky for Gary because you know a lot of people are saying should he move up a lot of people are saying that you know he's far too big for the weight what she looks like he is far too big for the weight and he does look drawn and then you know drained out at the weigh-ins but for any fighter to get in with a man at his weight and that size is going to be a very very difficult night for him and yes great what you were saying you know he had a lot of demons and this was a massive fight you know Gary was on a massive pedestal going into his last fight and he was the next big star coming out of Ireland and he got knocked out in the three arena on the KT Taylor undercarriage and he went back to the same arena to the same undercarriage and he went in there against another very good opponent in race mode you know he's been doing great things over in the UK and making a name for himself. He took a 50-55 which he didn't have to did he Jayce he didn't have to take a 50-50? Yeah 100% you know that was definitely I would have I would have gave Gary the edge in that before the fight but you know it definitely was a lot of people looking at it as a 50-50 fight but you know Gary showed and proved everybody else and himself most importantly that fight was all about showing himself and proving to himself that he still got it that he can get over those demons and it's all about now moving forward and having that confidence and just looking back at that as that fight that he got knocked out and as a learner. Yep all right okay listen though it was Katie Taylor's night she is just something else and she's up there with the the greats in Irish sport not just boxing because she transcends the support and a quick word on the Rumble in the Hills a huge success Jason for the first show you put on in letter Kenny you're happy with how it went and here's to more yeah we thought it out Greg you know it's been it was turned out fantastic you know you've always doubts and worries about these things and everything you're putting them on but as soon as the night started the fights were top quality the crowd was top quality atmosphere was brilliant and here's to many more Rumble in the Hills in the future all right listen Jason thanks so much for that great to chat to you that's Jason quickly there pro boxer of course promoter as well and organizer of great events all right listen brilliant stuff thanks very much Jason back after these the nine tone in 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 every year we donate millions of euros hundreds of hours and thousands of items to good causes the charity's regulator keeps a record of every charity in Ireland so if you want to give to a charitable cause go on our website and check so you know what you're giving will be put to good use click check give check you're giving to a registered charity at check a charity dot ie the charity's regulator please give confidently don't miss the incredible little dairy london dairy warehouse clearance sale with daily offers of up to 70% off on all your middle isle favorites this weekend find us at the old little dairy london dairy store on boncrona road this thursday the 30th of november to sunday the 3rd of december see you there from the 30th of november until the 31st of december book now your millennium form that code at uk and start practicing your silly faces sponsored by the richman center the department of social protection is working to improve disability payments in ireland there is currently a consultation on how these payments might work better in the future we want to hear your views on how the system might be improved to find out more please visit gulf dot ie forward slash disability payments reform a government of ireland initiative brought to you by the department of social protection would you like to win a bmw 330 em sport for just 25 euro enter the milford gaa club draw now for your chance to win with other great prizes draw takes place on the 30th of december tickets available at milford ga draw dot ie hi folks paul mcdevill here inviting to join myself and jimmy snapper this monday night for another edition of the monday night sessions on the show this week we welcome local singer songwriter and recording artist didry miglopeland and we're off through bernice gap to south donnie gall will be joined by folksy gerry and a group of his friends so that's the monday night sessions this monday night between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. right here on highland radio greg i was discharged at 10 past three in the morning got home at four got a phone call at 4 30 to tell me to go back a sap because i shouldn't have been discharged i'm sorry to hear that hope everything goes okay for you good morning greg charlie for the eu commissioner are we having a laugh this is a man who puts up so-called strong arguments for all and yet no one in europe listens to him the place for charlie is in a show and uh they believe he went on to fail i mean it's very very critical of uh deputy charlie mcdonnell and i don't want to read one after the other after the other but obviously someone who believes that uh he has a job to do in donnie gall uh maybe he's got more power as an eu commissioner if he gets that position to uh to to contribute to a means to an end okay greg i listened to your interview with steven donnelly it was angry at the way he tried to say you were making a big thing out of nothing he should have got the revolving door uh but thank god greg you were able for him thanks for that uh living here doesn't make you irish it's not a law of nature that one becomes irish by living in arland well that means that we're going back to what you have to be the seventh son of a seventh son of a seventh son um there's an awful lot of people uh here uh born in scotland born in england a lot of our parents had to move away for work we were born in hospitals outside the country and moved back are you saying uh none are irish okay uh regarding charlie mcdonnell in his future we must remember his community a devastated by the defective block crisis and he sat at the cabinet table which delivered so-called remediation options that do not restore our homes as fit for mortgage purposes that's a very senior senior sirio serious failure they say uh good morning great katie taylor the warrior one of arlands greatest sports people and yep she's up there certainly in terms of boxing i mean there's some brilliant nights with steve collins and barry mcguigan and a few others but uh i think even beyond that what she's done on a world stage that's women's boxing there used to be like uh you know like some Muhammad Ali's daughter and a couple of others that would get involved in you know the occasional fight and what have you it's more of a spectacle uh katie had to pretend she was a fella at times to even box at the amateur level you know to get into to boxing clubs if my memory serves me correct correctly and had to fight to even be able to compete at the olympics so in terms of what she's achieved just outside of saturday night is massive like you i didn't think katie taylor could win her fight on saturday night it was a great comeback however it appeared to me that she was lucky there was just 10 rounds she showed signs of tiring at the end and had nothing left in the tank another round could have produced a different result i'm not sure she can repeat this performance at 38 she's passed her fitness peak whether she realizes it or not huge respect to Cameron who fought bravely to the end even though her face looked like a butcher's apron we'll see a lot more of her indeed and a lot of that was down to her uh a clash of heads and that awful cut she uh suffered but katie taylor does look tired in fights and the way she she doesn't platter her like a lot of the other women boxers do and it kind of comes out and she's got this sort of style and i think it's uh it's almost deceiving that often she has more in the tank than it may to pick might appear at least that's what i'm i'm starting to think other than that she's just simply uh not human and now in rose 2023 best local original news program the voice of the northwest the nine till noon show with greg hughes okay as we head into the last hour of this monday morning show we get the news headlines now at 11 o'clock and say good morning donna marie darty thanks greg good morning a gp that met with health minister steven donnelly tonight's claims of scare mongering but says these were genuine patient concerns dr rana van parattian says he now feels that he has advocated for his patients in the most important way he added that it was essential for minister donnelly to see first hand the problems faced by letter kenny university hospital there's growing speculation that the minister for agriculture will not contest the upcoming elections in favor of an e u commissioner position the european role is highly sought after given its five-year minimum job security and sizable pay packet john lee is executive editor of the irish jillie mail group in ireland and he says it's a process of a malillumination between the finafall members that makes minister mcconnelly the most likely candidate a solidarity vigil will take place this afternoon in dublin city centre for those attacked last week and those who were affected by rioting the irish congress of trade unions is urging people to go and express gratitude for the gaurdi firefighters paramedics and others who earn harms away on thursday night one child remains in a critical condition in the hospital and a woman is in a serious but stable condition ps and i and oma arrested a man on friday night last in relation to the seizure of suspected class b controlled drugs with an estimated street value of 20 000 pound police were alerted to a vehicle acting suspiciously that was traveling on the twerequin road shortly after 11 p.m. on friday evening the car was stopped and officers conducted a search a small quantity of class b suspected drugs were found they then searched a property where a larger quantity of suspected class b controlled drugs were seized as well as drug related paraphernalia and other items everything seized is now going under forensic examination and finally residents and businesses in the areas of ballie shannon and bundoren are warned of an water outage due to a burst pipe works are scheduled to take place until six o'clock this evening it is recommended that an allowance of two to three hours after the estimated restoration time is made for supplies to fully return those are the latest headlines we back again at 12 o'clock until then good morning thanks donna marie part of of course the now award-winning show the root of all evil yes how exciting oh my god we're absolutely over the moon so we are right so what did you swim we have taken home three actress awards that was for durian mcmanaman and sean lavery director has gotten i believe two director awards we've gotten awards for the set we placed first three times and third uh twice against really stiff opposition here oh yes yes yes so there was 17 other players we were competing against top six get through we came forth and is there another show coming up there is a show tomorrow night in the baller so that's our last home show and then we are away to castle blaney on sunday for the finals we're hopefully we'll bring home some more silverware fantastic stuff and tickets available for tomorrow night still are they yes they are but they are going quickly so if you want hot cakes yes exactly so you get them on the ballerite centre all right okay well done donna marie and all the crew and also uh conom alone as well uh who he wrote that did he oh yeah yeah he wrote it very impressive okay uh so you can get your tickets by phone in the box office right now 9131840 or online baller arts dot centre dot com and it's your chance to see the last home show at least for the time being of the root of all evil and it's about it's about a village which operates on a bartering system and a stranger comes in and he introduces the idea of coin and money and it's the effects that has on the family and the surrounding community super stuff okay thanks donna marie she's back with you of course don marie's back with you of course with headlines at 12 we're going to be speaking to shawn gillen who is uh crowned arland and australia's strongest man i'll not be messing with him we'll keep it really polite back after this very short break quiltsha cares for arlands forest sustainably as our country seeks to combat climate change we'll do more our ambition is to create new forests manage our existing forests for greater carbon capture and provide more habitats to enhance biodiversity we'll support creating new homes by delivering sustainable irish wood products and we'll increase the number of beautiful forest recreation spaces for everyone to enjoy quiltsha forests for climate nature wood and people for a greener future for all all right so we have shawn gillen arland and australia's strongest man on with us good morning to you shawn how are you getting on good good morning gregg how are you fantastic congratulations originally from donnie gall you've been in australia now for as you've been in australia since 2012 yes that's correct yeah moved out here just ended 2012 so 11 years there the other day right so so you know someone who to become the strongest person like what were you like at five or 10 or 15 like is this something that you're there's a genetic gene that you have or is this something that you just say i want to do it and you build yourself up and bulk up how does that happen oh look uh from a young age like strong man for me is only something that kind of uh that i kind of started pretty much started and kind of took seriously from 2019 like previous to that growing up just to use your sports like played about a rugby through school um actually before i moved to australia i'd done a fair amount of cycling which is you know quite the opposite to what i'm doing now but yeah look just normal stuff kind of growing up and then in and out of training you know i've always kind of enjoyed training to some aspect and i've been in and out of it you know for years different styles of training different approaches and i think 2019 i just kind of got bored of general strengths and conditioning training and i signed up for a novice strongman comp and i've done that just enjoyed it and it's kind of yeah the rest is history what part have done the goal are you from uh sean uh called off all right no problems or now what did you have to do to win australia strongest man because there are different disciplines is in particular categories so what's the story yeah so australia is not not quite australia strongest man uh i'm a funny spot there are the strategies this year um yeah so i look there's different disciplines i think you know strongman is probably one of them sports that everybody kind of knows of but you know from it's usually aired word strongest man is usually on tv at christmas time and stuff so everybody's kind of familiar i suppose with the standard strongman things that you know that the stones the big round concrete balls that we're loading on the platforms um we got yoke carries farmers walks deadlifts uh blog press um yeah a lot of different disciplines there's quite a few you know and it depends on the competition and the promoter as to which which will come up from here so say for instance when in finishing fifth uh in as in the australia's strongest man competition which is a remarkable achievement is that sort of like that you've some work to do or is it how things go on the day do you know what that really elite level is it you know what i mean do you think right i need to go back to the drawing board and this is where i can improve or could have things gone a little bit different on the day that could have seen you come out on top uh sean yeah look there's there's always there's aspects of both you know you can always come away from from any comp any experience with things you can improve on and that'll make it better but like a lot of things come down to you know how things pan out on the day you know one little mistake i think with the lineup but australia's strongest this year was you know australia's strongest happens pretty early in the year it's usually our second second comp of the year it's usually around march um the lineup was just i think this year the lineup was the best that's been in a long time with a high level of competition so what was happening was one simple mistake one you know bad move and you would lose a lot of points and it will put you down the leaderboard so i came away from australia's strongest man with with things to fix in my performance different aspects to work on and luckily enough you know i was able to go away put my head down the next competition for me then was another uh it was a single event comp which was a log lift um australian championship i done that and that qualified me to go to the world log lift championships in south hampton there when i was back um that was the 28th of october so like yeah i came away from that with i won that obviously to qualify me spot to get to south hampton and then i was able to come back um go to south hampton and i was able to win in south hampton and set a new irish log press national record so so i currently hold the the national record at 200.4 kilos from slower overhead unbelievable stuff right we were talking boxing with jason quickly just before the 11 o'clock news and sort of with boxing say you fight at middle weight you sort of walk around maybe you know a stone over and then you drill down to it and you have to watch what you eat and i think people might see you 170 odd kg 10 000 calories a day that you can pretty much do what you want because of the you know the scare but at a at a at a much greater weight and size do you actually have to be really careful with what you consume how you consume it how that sort of works with your training and all that kind of stuff sean do you have to put in quite uh do you have to put in as much discipline as someone when it's easier for us to get our head around i think you know someone operating in an around 12 stone for an example yeah look it's easy i suppose for everybody to consider that to be a challenge you know if you're trying to maintain a weight and stay within a thing i think the other side of it the people don't get to understand is on this end of it you know anybody can probably consume 10 000 calories you know if you want to have mcdonald's for lunch kfc for dinner and you know throw on a couple of pizzas and about ice cream and there you are but whenever you've got to maintain that number over periods of time um obviously eating like that you got to take your health into consideration and that's that's just not feasible so like there is a lot of discipline there's a lot of rice pasta you know beef mints chicken veg oats a lot of carb heavy it's actually quite difficult to get that 10 000 of good calories into you then i mean you know i'd imagine very very much sure like in like the 10 000 there would have been running through the the latter end of of calm season there so pretty much what i've wrapped up on ireland and the uk and iceland there on that last trip through europe um that's the end of my competing for this year the next one for me is the end of j anglish well like coming through that that 10 000 calories there is cheat there is cheat meals in there per day you know there's you know half a cheesecake about ice cream stuff like that because once you split down like the macronutrients and stuff within the food which you know i've got a nutrition coach that looks after all that for me but there is an element of right we got to get to that 10 000 calories or you start to drop and body weight performance will drop strength will drop mood everything else because it does take quite a high baseline of calories just to maintain wow you know and then you throw in the shraniest training and competing and traveling and you just got to hit them number so although 10 000 calories sounds like a dream to most people uh you know yeah no that's what i was saying yeah to figure out what it is and you have to enjoy it too i mean you have to live so can you give us an idea of of what you might in in a day sure and i know you've probably been asked this a thousand times but there's a good reason why you have because it's bloody interesting so so what would you eat on an average day yeah so i at the moment there i've just uh we started a new a new uh day of plan rolling in now to this kind of prep for the next column so like every example this morning the morning starts at five in the morning that starts with about 150 grams of oats uh 50 60 grams of blueberries and then four whole eggs so you'll have that um get some water get some hydration tablets and stuff in in the morning and then second breakfast at seven o'clock which is a protein kind of mass gain or shake uh get that down um 10 o'clock then will be 300 grams three to 500 grams of rice and two 300 grams of beef months so that'll be 10 o'clock one o'clock um i have a snack at three o'clock which is a thousand calorie cookie um and then four or sorry five o'clock i will between five and five thirty i'll have a pre-workout meal which is usually 300 grams of protein yoghurt some blueberries apple banana some rice cakes peanut butter something like that then i had the gym usually through training i'll consume another kind of five to 800 calories and kind of inter-workout shakes straight after gym uh mass gain or protein shake again another kind of six seven hundred calories and then last meal of the day is usually because at the moment i've literally just just finished the training session i'm just in the recovery room at the gym here talking to you so like for me now it's pretty late so i'll get home usually this meal um will be cereal cereal the choice uh protein shakes some fruits look it's in there what a fascinating insight Sean because you know that's as you quite rightly pointed out and i think when you listed it it gives us the real that's work like because you say we have to do this i have to do that you know what i mean it's tough and there's someone who's you probably don't want to eat all of that stuff that you have to eat it's really really remarkable showing your commitment and what you're achieving and finally you know you're on the other side of the world in Australia do you want to move back is it better to be on this side of the uh the planet for competitions and your career because you're at your peak now at the moment you know early 30s uh you know you're winning but you want to win more can you do that based on Australia or do you have to have one eye and maybe coming on to the other side of the the world to achieve all you want to achieve in the sport yeah look very much sure that that would be that would be a plan for us um we do we do kind of intend to spend about a time in Ireland um just to be a bit closer to family uh probably towards the second half of next year and that'll definitely help like everything that i've worked towards and kind of getting into this position like coming home winning the world log lift championship setting a new Irish record one of Ireland's strongest man going to Iceland competing at the Magnus Classic like all of them opportunities you know i've qualified for them here in Australia but i think the next step for me now which will be Britain's strongest man um at the end of uh January 27th to January i think from memory that's that's the next big one for me so that's going to require me to fly back again that's definitely where i kind of position myself there and how the performance goes and what opens up from that um that'll probably sway me into you know making that call whether we just we pack up for a bit come back to Ireland spend about a time with family and i'll put me down in a better position you know a lot of a lot of the top level competition would suit me to be be back home in Ireland um it'll be a better base for me to kind of shoot back and forward to where i need to be obviously traveling from Australia takes this toll on the body it's quite a bit of a flight so yeah and do you have to boo