For what? No endorsements? No endorsements, no collabs. No carrots or nothing like that, no free t-shirts? Well no, I've got a free t-shirt that's mine. I forgot it was done a gold day tomorrow. It's an unfortunate coincidence, so I'll have another one, so I'll wear it tomorrow. Fresh one? Mm-hmm.  It's like you were at the gym this morning, were you? I'm going to the gym in quarter to ten, thank you very much. At least you got the smelling out of the way. I was showered and shaved last night because I was out at the relay for life thing, so I had to clean myself up, so there's no musty smell in me. All right, sorry, it must have been someone else My bad, sorry. See, it's bad when you smell yourself, Greg, you need a shower, right? Good luck. Bye-bye, Leo. OK, the night till noon show on the way to when it passed 9. Let's get a news update now, and it's over to Donald Kavanaugh. Thank you, Greg. Good morning, RTE station chiefs will face the Rockless Media Committee again this afternoon. Director-General Kevin Buckhurst will field questions from TDs and senators on governance, reform and financial operations at the state broadcaster. With more, here's political correspondent Sean Defoe. Committee members want to talk about this top 100 earners list that RTE is refusing to publish citing GDPR concerns. They also want to talk about financial future, the possibility of selling the Montrose site, for example, and RTE moving elsewhere, which could bring in very significant once-off revenue for the broadcaster. And also, they want to talk reform to see what has already happened and whether that is enough to address some of the governance concerns and to open that door on the budget bailout package that RTE is going to need when they could top more than €50,000. A significant number of job announcements are expected in the north over the next two days. A number of them are set to come to Derry and Tyrone. Over 100 businesses and investors have gathered for a major two-day conference hosted by the British Department for Business and Trade, the Northern Ireland office and the business support agency InvestNI. It's exploring the potential offered by the fact that Northern Ireland is both in the UK and in the EU for trade purposes. Business editor with the Irish News in Belfast, Gary McDonald says already today, 1,000 jobs have been confirmed. Just this morning, the conference opens up with a professional services firm, EY, which is the former Ernst & Young, and they have actually announced 1,000 new jobs between Belfast and Derry over the next five years, and that is the biggest jobs announcement made in the north this year by far. It was confirmed last night that really for life, Tony Gull raised just over €137,500 this year in support of the Irish Cancer Society. Last night, so long-time chair Roberto Conner stepped down with Seamus Devine taking the helm. He says while supporting research remains a very important part of Relay's work, the bulk of the money raised is spent within the county on services. In 2022 alone, there was over 250,000 spent by the Irish Cancer Society providing various services in Derry Gull. From the Daffodil Centre to the Knight Nursing to Volunteer for Drive, financial support the counselling services family. It's a fantastic achievement. At something, obviously, we're very proud of here in Derry Gull that we've raised so much. And that money then goes back into Derry Gull on an annual basis. Any overnight mist and fog patches, clearing, leaving a dry day to begin with, but cloud will thicken with outbreaks of rain and drizzle developing in western areas that will spread right through the region throughout the afternoon and evening, southerly winds freshening, windy in western north coasts and particular top temperatures today, 14 to 16 degrees Celsius. That's Highland Radio News. We're back with news again at 10 o'clock. Mum, do you have any money? Ten euro. Can I have some money, Dad? I need five euro. Starting to feel a bit like a bank? Start teaching your kids money skills with Unpulsed Money Mate, a debit card and app for kids. Set chores, teach saving habits and set spending limits. Plus, kids can save cash at their local post office. Say goodbye to feeling like a bank. Try it free. Download the Unpulsed Money app today. Teas and seas apply, available for children aged 7 to 15 years, after three months, a monthly fee of two euro price. Unpulsed is authorised by the Minister for Finance to provide payment services and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland in the provision of such services. 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. It's just heading towards five minutes past nine on this Wednesday the 13th of December. No, it's not. It's September 2023. How are you all keeping? I do hope you're very well indeed.  Anyway, we're here with you for sure. For the next three hours, you want you on board. 08, 660, 25,000 WhatsApps and texts. You've kept us really busy all week on our phone lines. Please keep that up. If you're outside the Republic, get involved in the conversation as well. 0035386, 6025,000. If you want to call us 074-9125,000 again from Dairy to Roan, wherever you're listening. 003537491, 25,000 again. We're inviting you to get involved in the conversation. And if email is your thing, comments at highlandradio.com. And you can also watch the show daily here with us. Go on to YouTube, Highland Radio Ireland. Like and subscribe there. Maybe even hit the bell.  And we're across Facebook pages as well. Right. Let's see what's happening on the front of the newspapers. Let's start with the English Times and Agriculture Minister and Donegal TD. Charlie McConnell has called for more urgency in the approval of applications to the new defective blocks remediation scheme. The minister has called for more urgency in the approval of applications to the new scheme, which opened in July and has called on Donegal County Council's Mike Redress Committee to meet and consider holding public meetings or seminars on the new scheme. Are they not already doing that? His call for public meetings comes after the first of... Oh, here we are. His calls for public meetings comes after the first of a series of public meetings around the county, hosted by the Micah Action Group. It was held in Mallonhead on Monday night. I look forward to councillors on a cross-party basis coming together through the Donegal County Council Micah Committee to ensure that the necessary steps are actioned by the county council so that all homeowners awaiting approval are urgently transitioned to the new scheme he said. That being said, in terms of moving people from the old scheme to the new scheme, the council themselves say with the staff that they have and the processes that are involved, they're going as quick as they can, but it does understandably take time. The Donegal Post this morning, there was a distinct... There was a distinction for Donegal last week with the introduction of the county's first postal e-trike by on Post and Bundoran. And the first man to put the pedal on the metal was Alan Patton from Bundoran, although letter Kenny will follow suit shortly as spokesperson for on Post also confirmed. It's part of a continued rollout that has taken place across the country since late 2019, but this has been its first appearance on Donegal's soil delayed no doubt by the COVID-19 pandemic that struck the following year. With the on-push bikes previously, you could argue in terms of green perspective that it's gone backwards if they were already on push bikes because obviously they are completely green, whereas an electric bike is not. Anyway, but anyway, be that as it may. On to the Irish Times now, Sinn Féin has branded Tarnished Amihaal Martin as desperate following his criticism of the party at the Fina Full Thinking on Monday. Mr. Martin told reporters on Monday that Sinn Féin's triumphalism around atrocities committed by the provisional IRA was infecting younger voters. Comments with Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson O'Neal Bryn totally dismissed as desperate. He said the remarks were ill-judged, patronising and insulting. I don't think he's anything positive to offer young people on housing and healthcare, on childcare and therefore increasingly so much of his commentary is negative. He said arguing Sinn Féin had positive alternatives. Mr. Martin said that Sinn Féin had been very slow to bring closure to victims of provisional IRA violence. They still try to triumphalise it. They still try to justify it. The problem with that is that you're reinfecting a new generation of young people that Tarnished has said, which I think is not really giving young people the credit they deserve for thinking for themselves and considering all options. All that being said, Sinn Féin is still open to a coalition with Fina Fulls. So obviously pre-election, they're towing and froing, backward and forthing, but what do you feel? Like say, for instance, you go to the ballot box and Sinn Féin may well enter a coalition with Fina Full. That's if the current government parties can't make up their own numbers. How would you feel if a vote for Sinn Féin ensured that Fina Full remained in government? Is that something that you'd be open to? Is that something you might consider when going to the ballot box? Let us know, because this conversation is going to be happening as the election edges closer, but the way proportional representation and coalition works, theoretically, if Sinn Féin aren't ruling out a coalition with Fina Full and arguably why would they? Your vote for Sinn Féin could mean returning Fina Full into government. As I say, text and let us know what you think about that proposition. The Irish Independent is amongst all the papers that have a lot of coverage about RTE. RTE is coming under mounting government pressure to look at selling off its Montrose campus in Dublin for as part of a radical cost-cutting measure. With the financial stricken broadcaster potentially needing a bailout of upwards of 50 million, senior coalition figures believe RTE bosses should now examine selling off part or all of its Donnie Brook home. A senior government source at RTE would now be asked about selling off Montrose in discussions around its future financing with Director General Kevin Bakhurst expected to produce a cost-cutting plan next month. The senior source questioned how many staff actually worked on site after COVID and noted the sale would raise substantial funds, potentially hundreds of millions of euro to address its financial crisis, but that would be a temporary fix. I think they could probably, if they sold all, raise 300 million. Then, of course, they'd have to invest tens of millions in terms of providing new accommodation. How much would they be left with? Would it really make a difference as to... Like, I don't think people aren't paying their TV licence because RTE aren't selling land at Montrose. And the Irish Daily Mail tells us that RTE has suffered its biggest fall in TV licence payments of just under one million in one week as its executives face more grillings by politicians in Lancer House today. And it'll be really interesting to see the tone of questioning from the committee because, you know, the public have spoken here. I don't think for a long time... I can't recall something similar whereby there has been this... Not organised. This is not an organised situation. There's no groups or parties or individuals or Facebook saying, don't pay your TV licence. Right across this country, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people saying, I don't like the way that place is run and I'm not supporting it with my hard-earned cash. It's happening naturally. And I really don't think it's... I don't really think it's an action that can be ignored. I think it's really important that the OROC, this committee and the government say, well, the people are speaking. The public who pay their wages are speaking really strongly here. And they're saying there's something seriously amiss that they're not going to pay their TV licence and support this organisation. And I don't really feel that that action by the public is being given the credit or the recognition that it deserves in terms of how things move forward. It really is huge. You know, in terms of value, almost a million euro in one week withheld by the public for that organisation. I mean, that's really, really significant. Well, licence fee sales dropped by 982,000 in the first week of September with the national broadcaster now left reeling from 11 weeks of controversy since the hidden payment scandal broke. RTE Director-General Kevin Backhurst will appear before the OCTUS media committed today for questions after the committee received 179 documents from Montrose for investigation. But in terms of, by the way, in case you're not aware, do you remember there's this big talk of, well, we want to know what the top 100 are earning? You're not going to find that out because GDPR. And what other information will also be withheld? Who is to say? On to the Irish Daily Star now. And it has been confirmed that the use of body-worn cameras by Garde has the potential to transform policing in Ireland a senior officer. As said Chief Superintendent Derek Smart was commenting on the Garde commenced a public procurement process for the cameras. Now, I would look quite detailed into this. And there's not an awful lot to suggest on an international scale that this would actually make the difference. And I also note too, in a few videos that have seen of American police people that if when things get controversial, they can actually turn them off when it doesn't suit them.  Did they get switched off on purpose? It's not perfect. And let's just say there's not an awful lot of international evidence. And I'm not opposed to them, by the way. There's not an awful international evidence to suggest that they can transform policing. But anyway, it's intended that a live operational pilot of the body worn cameras will start in mid-24 with a full rollout in 2025. Garde have confirmed the small lightweight cameras worn by Garde members will not record all the time and will still be turned on amid incidents. So what you would see internationally is the police are rolling around in the squad car.   So it would be interesting to see how that's covered to ensure that it doesn't disadvantage the public. Onto the Irish, onto the Irish Sun. Global outcast, Kim Jong-un arrived in neighbouring Russia. If the truth be told, would you have known that someone in North Korea could go on a train to Russia? I wouldn't have known that. But anyway, he did. And then his armoured train. Global outcast, Kim Jong-un arrived in neighbouring Russia for an arms deal yesterday as Vladimir Putin accused Britain of risking a nuclear conflict. The North Korean despot rumbled over the border on his armoured train for talks on trading tanks and shells for Russian rocket tech. But the Western general dismissed the meeting which could see Moscow provided with hardware for the war in Ukraine as a coalition of the desperate. And very finally, onto the Irish Daily Mirror. This morning, two Ukrainian refugees have appeared in court accused of operating an illegal cigarette business. The pair were caught with more than 8,000 counterfeit smokes and 505,395-year-old cash when swooped on by Guardian letter Kenny. Roman Nosenko and Mikhail Shrieka were selling the cheap cigarettes from the back of a Ukrainian registered vehicle. At Pierce Road, letter Kenny on August 22nd. Not the brightest spot, perhaps quite public there. The cigarettes had no valid tax stamps. A fixed guardie took possession of the cigarettes and the cash. Sergeant Jim Collins said both men were cooperative during interview and admitted their part in the scam. They were aided by an interpreter when appeared at Letter Kenny District Court before Judge Aiton Cunningham. Nosenko, a 42-year-old of Atlantic Way Apartments, Bundoran and 39-year-old Shrieka of the same address pleaded guilty. Judge Cunningham directed a probation and welfare report be prepared in the case of each man and adjourned the cases until December the 11th. OK, a very quick break, and then we're going to be getting an update on the new stadium at Finn Park. Stay right where you are. The Nine Till Noon Show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union, offering low-rate car loans with fast approval. Apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today. I've just had the Eclipse Cinema's experience. Wow, they truly have taken a night at the movies to a whole new level. Amazing recliner chairs, director's lounge VIP rooms, pizza and hot food served to your seat. Have a glass of wine and enjoy the film on the big screen. Try it for yourself at Eclipse Cinema's Bundoran and Lifford Sturban, where the stars shine brighter. By the way, the pizzas are amazing. You can book your seat any time at eclipsecinemas.ie. At Donnie Goll-Denture Clinic on 9-1-25-25-3, online at donniegoll-denture-clinic.ie. At Shannon Airport, we know what makes a dream holiday. It's not just a huge choice of destinations, like Lanzarote, Malaga, Edinburgh, Paris and Boston. It's the unique features that make getting through our airport a dream. Like affordable, easy access parking just steps away from your departure gate. So whatever dream holiday you're packing for, head for shannonairport.ie with more destinations than ever and a hassle-free airport experience, we'll get your holiday off to a dream start. Shannon Airport, making it easy. Are you building a new home? Building requirements state that you must install a Radon barrier. At FF Radon Systems, we supply and professionally install the fully certified barrier. For more information, call me at FF Radon Systems on<PHONE_NUMBER>. Highland Radio time checks with Expressway. Travel Route 32 from Leta Kennedy Dublin when you book online and travel for less. Expressway, bringing you the time, us? Well, the time now is 18 minutes past nine. You're very welcome back to the programme. A fundraising committee and a main fundraising initiative will be set up in the coming weeks as Finharp's looks to address a significant funding shortfall for the development of the Donegal Community Stadium in Stranawlar. As rising costs have taken, the cost is 7.3 million. Finharp's need to raise 700,000 for work to resume on their long-delayed new stadium, as I mentioned, in Stranawlar. Ian Harkin is president of Finharp's, and he's with us now. Good morning, Ian. Good morning, Greg. Thank you very much for having me on. Right, so what has happened to leave us in this position now, Ian? Well, so the saga of the stadium has been going on for a number of years, but we're reaching the endpoint right now, Greg, which is really good. Last year, we applied for funding to complete the stadium, and we received final confirmation of those government funds in June of this year, and that was to a costing of 5.7 million at the time. Now, inflationary costs have driven that up to 7.3, and we've been asked by the government to seek additional funds to cover that, which we've applied for 1.1 million from them. Now, the only caveat that they've given to us so far on that additional funding is that they need to see proof of us, of our own funds. And to date, in terms of those activities, we've secured half a million from the council, we've secured half a million from the FAI, and to cash flow, they're going to be paying that to us over the next 10 years, and to cash flow that, we've got a loan in place to cover that 1 million. And now, we also have gone and obtained a facility from our builder for half a million. It's one of the subcontractors, actually, but he's doing the vast majority of the work on the stadium. So, we've got a half a million facility in with him, which leaves us with 700,000 that we need to raise ourselves in the immediate term. So, we're in a really good place. The government has supported us, the local council has supported us, the FAI has supported us. We're going to be developing a stadium that is going to be an asset to the whole of Donegal, and it's going to, the match night entertainment, the quality of the product that we're going to be able to deliver on a Friday night is going to improve massively, like at the moment, there's only a cover on one side of our stadium at the moment in Thin Park. And this will deliver a night comparable to anything really that you can get in the UK or any other country for that matter. We'll have the full match night experience from food to music to the football itself. How do you insulate yourself from further rising costs? Because even just in terms of concrete, it's gone up significantly, not least because of a government levy, which is being applied to it now, which I'm sure is applicable to this project. So, what's the timeframe? Because this process has to work really quickly, does it not? Because otherwise, by the time you are ready to start, costs will have inflated again. Yeah, well, good point in that. And one of the main things that we're doing to address that is that the fact that we've actually chosen a model that is a modular build, so it's quite a rapid construction process. So, once we've sat down now and agreed costs with our suppliers, that the build timescale is very, very short. The vast majority of the physical build will be done in a very short period of time. And what I presume was a request made for the FAI or the council to dig a little deeper? Well, from the conversations that we've had with them, they've said that that's as much as they're going to give to us. I'm sure we'll continue to speak with them to see if they can match their proportionate share of the increases as well. But, you know, at this stage now, it's down to ourselves. We've got to start that fundraising process and get it kicked off. I think, you know, people throughout Donegal, both, you know, living in, people living in Donegal and living abroad, they see this. We've been, you know, this last year and communicating with people and groups. And they, you know, they appreciate what we're doing. They appreciate what we're building for the people of Donegal. It is a legacy project.  We're not, you know, you're not lining the pockets of some multimillionaire or whatever about building this asset. It's for the people of Donegal. And it will be here for a very long period of time. And so, we will be, I don't know, asking people to help us to support this project. You know, between the obviously the ever-present loyal fans, if this is bought into as a Donegal-wide project, which I know you're working very hard to do so, and of course the generosity of the diaspora can be tapped into many with strong connections to either the county or the club itself and maybe recognizing the work it does to in our schools and things like that. If you get enough of a buy in 700,000 euro as much as it is, it begins to seem quite achievable. It is, yeah. I mean, on an annual basis at the moment, if you worked at IIT, if we were to get... One of the things that we've applied for with this project as well is because we are building infrastructure, you're able to get tax benefits on donations, which hopefully, you know, the donors will donate those tax benefits back to the club. But which... So, say someone donates, I'll make it easy, but say someone donates 1,000 euros, we will be able to obtain another 400 euros back on that from the government on a tax rebate for the infrastructure. So, to anybody who donates over 250 euros, we can claim the tax back on that. There's just a small form that we need to fill out for that. No. It's a great incentive as well for people. Yeah, indeed, and people don't do that enough and an awful loss of money is lost to charities for that very reason, because there's not a huge awareness of that. So, Ian, what is the... I mean, obviously, there's going to be things being launched in the near future. Is there a marquee fundraising drive? This is a series of smaller ones? Or how much can you talk to us about that? Yeah, at the moment, we're just forming our committee. We have a number of different ideas. And all of them, you know, will... There will be one main project, which will be launched pre-Christmas. And it will be, you know, the main event to drive the vast majority of the funds for it. And we're trying to tie in this tax element to it as well, to, you know, further boost the fundraising efforts. But, you know, we've got a number of different things that we have run within the club. We're from our Lotto's and our 500 Club as well. So, we know that we have that base out there. But, you know, this project is not just for our fan base. It's for everybody in Donegal. You know, I've been in this role for just about a year and a half or so. And it's amazing to meet the amount of families, you know, right across the whole county of Donegal that have, in recent times, more so than anything else, had interactions with the club. And that's because of the work that our academy does. We've over 200 kids every year in our academy, which affects pretty much every family or every little village. Everybody will know somebody who has benefited from the club. But we just, we don't have, you know, our current stadium. We're getting pressure from the FAI. We're getting derogations every year in our current stadium because it's not fit for purpose. And we've been asked to raise our stadium up to a category three level. And it's just, it's physically not possible to do that with Finnaughton Park. Yeah, of course. And the stadium has to match the club's ambitions as well, doesn't it, going into the future. So you just, once again, timeline this for us. All that you're saying that all the funding is in place. So once, how much money is raised? Can we actually start seeing work start on this? So what do you see as a realistic time frame for this stadium beginning construction, if all goes well? Yeah, or continuing construction, as I should say. Yeah, I mean, we can actually start work right now. As long as the government see that we are starting our fundraising efforts, we can start the project right now. But as a club, there are, there's a couple of different legal processes that we're in the midst of doing. Our lease is run below 15 years. So it's currently in front of the council this year to extend that out to 30 years again. And once that's done, there has to be a legal charge put onto the new lease. So again, those things just take weeks, if not maybe a month or so to complete. But we have committed as a board to start work as soon as we reach the 500,000 mark in our fundraising efforts. And we believe that that's very achievable by the plans that we currently have. And is there like a rights, not that it might be worth 500,000 euro, but are things like sort of the naming of the stadium with long time tie-in, is that those options on the table or is it three or an hour or whatever it might be? Yeah, absolutely, yeah, we've reached out to a number of different agencies in Ireland who do that particular type of activity in terms of naming rights. If you look at other clubs in Ireland, Dráha da have done it, Longford Tyne have also done it. And on the occasion when Dráha da have done it, I believe the amount they have reached is somewhere in around the 100,000 euro mark per annum. So it's a significant one if we can get a partner to do it. Big, big players both in Donegal and with very strong Donegal connections that could have their, quite literally, their name all over this project. Okay, Ian, listen obviously between these channels and the sports team as well, I'm sure we'll hear much more about it as plans are finalised for this fundraising drive. But you see this as a good point, this is the project ready to go once this money begins to be raised and hopefully people will be generous. Is that the parting shot? That's it, Greg, yeah, I mean just keep an eye out. We will be announcing it very, very soon. So yeah, when the call comes out, I mean, it is, it's a fantastic, I mean, even what we have at the moment, it's a fantastic night out for families. We are building that towards a family night out, a family occasion to gather together and we hope to be able to deliver the asset to allow for that, yeah. Okay, thank you very much indeed, Ian Harkin. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at HighlandRadio.com. The 9 till noon show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union with monster loans available up to 60,000 euro for all occasions. Visit letterkennycu.ie. Every time you step outside your house, the choices you make count and every day you go to work, how you get there counts. By choosing to take public transport or to walk or cycle to work whenever you can, you're doing your bit to help reduce Ireland's transport emissions. 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OK, so as you would know, new rules were brought in recently as it relates to, you know, walking dogs on certain beaches when you can and, I suppose, more importantly, when you can't. And then we heard yesterday from on Goddess Shia Khanna, reminding people to keep your dogs on the leash or at least keep them under control. It's off the back of a couple of complaints of people being attacked, you could say, or at least jumped on by dogs, I believe, in the Milford area. Shanaid joins us on the programme now. Hi, Shanaid. Hi, Greg. It's an interesting one, this, because I remember sort of stating at the time when we were talking about dogs being banned from blue-black beaches and all that type of stuff.  What's your view? Well, look, I mean, it's all... Look, I don't want to make out as if, you know, there's no concern there for people who are genuinely scared of dogs. I mean, I have quite an irrational phobia about a certain eight-legged creature, so I completely get it. I just can't stand it. However, if we're calling for dogs to be on leash at all times, there needs to be a plan put in place where dogs can go to specific places, where they can be off leash. Dogs need to socialise. Dogs need to be able to... And my dog is a carcass fan. She needs to be able to run.  All of the energy out of her, basically. And I'm not saying that has to be done all day, but there has to be some thought put into what exactly is going to happen. We just can't keep banning this place and banning, you know, dogs off leash in another place.  Yeah, she sniffed. She sees people coming and she goes wagging her tail. She'll get sort of fairly close to them, but she's not a jumpy-oppy dog. Yeah, but do you get, Sinead? And listen, I'm with you to a certain extent, but you know yourself, the role and all that. But that's terrifying. If that was my wee Hudson, he would, and I don't know where he got it from, that would fill him with fear. He might not want to go back there again if the dog came up and started sniffing at him. Well, that was getting a wee bit better, right? By the way, can I say, I'd like you... It's something you can work on, which we are working on. I'm taking note of my wee dog, Greg. Yeah, but you... Either get over that note... Like, I'm not just taking it as a face-to-complete. It is something he's very much improving on, but I just... Just to use something that I find as relatable.  It approaching someone can make them scared, Sinead. Yeah, it can, and that's the reason why I'm saying, if there are specific spaces put in place for dogs to be off leash, then that's going to solve both issues. But there needs to be this thought put in place. I mean, dogs need to... If for nothing else, they need to have that energy run out of them. Because if... Like, I mean, I think the most popular dog in Ireland is the Labrador. Then you're looking at things like Golden Retrievers, Cockapoo's, which are... Oh, yeah, but anyway, and Cocker Spaniels and German Shepherds. But they all are really energetic dogs. A lot of them are working dogs. You know, anybody who has a calling knows that they need to be working an exercise irregularly. But, I mean, if I didn't do that, if none of us did that with our dogs, us responsible owners, we would have our neighbors knocking on the door and on top because it'd be excessive barking. They might be, when they're on leash, then become aggressive towards other dogs, which might then frighten people more. There has to be some thought put in place was my point. You can't keep calling for people just to, you know, put your dogs on the leash, put your dogs on the leash. I mean, at the moment, you don't... You have to have control of your dog. It doesn't have to be on a leash in public, OK? But, you know, the park, you need it on a leash for at least people. The beaches are the same now, and with so many beaches, I do feel for dog owners who might get dirty looks just by walking the dog on the beaches and then public roads and what have you. So where safely can you go or... Like, do you find that... Do you find that there's an attitude towards dog owners? By non-dog owners, if you know what I mean? By simply having a dog, people are almost judgmental of you. In public, if you know what I mean. I don't mean in private, Sinead. I have to be very... No, I have to be honest. I haven't found that. OK. But then again, you see, my dog will come to you as it has... I've really worked on it since I got her. I re-homed her, and I've really, really worked on it. And she had a fairly good recall before, you know, when she came to me. I understood, yeah. But I've worked on it to the point where she is, but as soon as I call her, she comes back to me. And if I saw someone who might look like there be...   But no, most people, to be perfectly honest, they're, oh, look at the doggy, isn't she lovely, you know? And actually, it's really, really good for socialising for people as well.  They have their own dogs and you get chatting to them. And, you know, it's a really good socialising thing for humans as well. But yeah, look, you know, put some thought into where these dogs are going to go because you can't just keep putting these bands in place. But what do you suggest? Like, what do you suggest? Well, the councillors who are calling for putting dogs on leashes elsewhere, they need to be the people proposing to put a specific dog park space in the areas that they're calling for this for, to be perfectly frank. You know, there has to be some joined up thinking here. We can't just keep saying, no, let's, let's band on, you know, it's going to be band dogs from this space and put them on a leash here. That can't keep happening because reasonably, not all of us. I don't know very many people who have acres and acres and acres so that we can even just, you know, throw a ball and let the dog, you know, have a good decent one out of all. That's not the case for most people, you know? And most of us are really responsible owners who really want the best for our animals.  What about dog-friendly hours in parks? Would that be a compromise? Possibly, but then that's not going to suit everybody, you know what I mean? Nothing suits everybody. Yeah, but if there was a specific space for dogs, the people know that this space is for dogs and dogs are going to be off leash and it's a secure area, then everybody going into that space knows exactly what they're going in for. Akala says I would have thought before you get a dog, especially a dog that needs a lot of exercise, that you would have considered having a large outdoor area in your home. It's the only responsibility. But if that were to follow through, there'd be no one in an urban area with the dog because I mean, obviously in rural areas, some people are blessed with a lot of space, but you don't have to go terribly urban before obviously that space drinks. So if you follow that logic through, there'd be no dogs in urban areas at all. I understand where the process is going from. Absolutely. And I mean, look, it's not to say I have a small garden. I don't have a particularly huge garden, but I don't have a particularly small one either. I have enough space to keep my dog safely and securely and where she can go out and have a sniff and all of those kinds of things. I can put her on a leash for if I was walking along a road or where there's going to be cars because she's no traffic sense. But that regardless, the dog needs to be off leash. And the vast majority of us do not have that. So unless you're talking about banning any dog that needs an excessive an hour and definitely need some off-leash for the people in Ireland, what are you going to do? Yeah, the sun breeds need an awful... I think those husky dogs, for example, you know, they kind of look like husky. They need a tonne of exercise to sun breed. And they were... There was a massive explosion of them a number of years ago. They need a tonne of exercise. Sinead asks the caller, would you worry about other dogs off the leash attacking your dog when she's so small? Not really, no, because the vast majority of people, if their dogs are... Now, if it was a dog loose and there was no visible owner around it, maybe, and honestly, it would depend on the size of the dog and the breed of the dog. But if there's an owner that's physically with that dog, not really, no. I wouldn't be worried about it. Callers, and the tone of a number of texts, if I were to sort of amalgamate them all, is that pretty much everywhere you can take your dog without putting it on the lead, because be it parks or public areas or beaches, that's overrun with dogs that aren't on leads, a lot of callers are saying, you know, I should say that's a mishmash of them all. So there's no problems at the moment then. There's no problems at the moment. And I mean, my dogs are loose, but again, my dog's under effectual control, so it's not illegal, you know? Of course. She has really good recall, but my problem was that everywhere is calling for leashes, leashes, leashes. That is not the only way to control a dog. It might make people feel secure, but it's not the only way to control a dog at all. But yeah, no. And I mean, as I said, look, mishes, sometimes what you tend to find is some dogs, when they're put on a leash, because they feed tracks, because they maybe feed like they're being held back and they don't have the full range to be able to protect themselves if something happens.  I'm not saying she's like that, she's not. There are dogs like that. So there needs to be, my hope, just my whole point was, look, if you're calling for places, all these places to have leashes, then make sure that there are places, public places where dogs can go to socialize. They can become acquainted with other dogs. They will become less scary for everybody, you know? If a dog's well socialized and it's not going to be barking, it's not going to cause a ton of problems for anybody else, including the dog owners themselves, you know? But yeah, that was my whole point. Yeah, and I think it's a good point. And it's a conversation. I thought it is a conversation we have to have because we could find ourselves being no-canty for old dogs, you know? So we have to be careful. All right, and I say too, I don't think it's fair, if dog owners then feel as if everyone's jumping on them, when we do know the majority are very responsible. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And look, you know, dog friendly is a good thing too to have for our tourism market as well. So you know, dog friendly is a great thing. So yeah, there's a lot of people and they want to take the dogs with them. If they're, you know, maybe coming from down the country somewhere and they want to come up to Donegal for a weekend or a week, they want to be taking the dogs with them. So we need to have these things thought through and put in place and not this half-assed, you know, just put dogs on leashes everywhere. Okay, so thanks for your time. And it's not necessarily not working. All right, thanks. Appreciate it, take care. Get involved in that conversation. No wait, 660, 25,000. Dog owners say to listen, must have responsibility for their dogs. There's no need to have dogs on blue flag beaches as times they're not supposed to be there. It's all about compromise and taking responsibility. Dog owners need to have respect for fellow walkers and children. There's a lake in Balabafé that people take their dogs to. They let them off the leash and the dogs run after farmer's sheep. They should be kept on a leash. Another dogs on Rathmullen Beach all summer. They're not allowed on the beach, says a listener there. And there are more dogs on the beach than ever. There is nobody to do patrols, which is a problem. So the tone of our texts coming in, as we're speaking to Sinead and keep them coming into us, are that, you know, actually, really, we need more enforcement of where we're at than less. But I think Sinead's is a good point in that. Well, where do you go to exercise your dogs? Maybe there should be some designated areas. What do you all think? 08, 660, 25,000? I'm just looking at cute images of dogs here while I'm listening to Sinead. Don't own a dog, I did. I used to, but anyway. 08, 660, 25,000. This is the WhatsApp and text number 08, 660, 25,000. Give us a call on 07491-25,000. The nine-tone intro 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. Don't miss the big baby event at Lidl. Mix and match multiplies across our award-winning Loopy Loop Premium Nappies range from two packs for two euro. Get dreamy prices on 100% cotton baby sleep suits two for six euro. And feed the little ones at little costs to Loopy Loop Food range 20% off on Lidl Plus. Go on. Shop without compromise. Go full Lidl today. Imagine a dream wedding on a lake, all day casual dining by a magical shore. Fine dining or glorious afternoon tea surrounded by beautiful mountains or a fabulous bar filled with music, laughter and song. Imagine No More. Harvey's Point Locke's Donegal<PHONE_NUMBER> or harvyspoint.com. Close by, but a different world. Curtains at Foy and Company Letter Kenny. Complete any room with our elegant and exquisite range of curtains designed to elevate your windows with sheer beauty. Whether you prefer classic patterns or contemporary designs, our curtain collection offers endless possibilities to complement your interior decor. Let our expert staff assist you in creating the living space you've always dreamed of. Call in and get a free interior design consultation this month at Foy and Company Letter Kenny. Donegal Denture Clinic, Letter Kenny. Denture problems, we can help. At Donegal Denture Clinic, we customize, personalize and tailor your dentures to suit you. Call us for a free consultation on 9-1-25-25-3. Find us at Balli Rain, Letter Kenny, beside Rossum College. Medical cards, welcome. For all your denture needs, call Donegal Denture Clinic on 9-1-25-25-3 online at DonegalDentureClinic.ie. Keep out the cold, cold, cold and ring Fleming for their full range of garage doors, agri doors, insulated doors, milking parlor doors. Fleming, 9-1-48-234. Right, okay. Continuing on coverage off the children's disability network teams across Donegal. And a bit of digging shows us that there are, because we knew there were some vacancies, but how many 36, 36 vacant positions within Donegal's three children's disability network teams? The areas with the most are speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and psychology. There are three teams in the county, by the way. Donegal North CDNT, which of course includes Inner Shown, Donegal Eastern Inner Shown CDNT, and then Donegal Southwest CDNT. Parents with children trying to access those services were told that there simply isn't the staff to do what they might want to do. Almost seven staff required in occupational therapy, just over five staff in physiotherapy. 7.4 staff, and it's whole job equivalence, all right? So 7.4 sounds strange, but hopefully you understand what that means. Speech and language therapy, 7.4 vacancies, psychology five vacancies, social work three vacancies, social care three vacancies, nursing one vacancy. And yesterday we were speaking to people who are from the county, but studies across the water are in Northern Ireland. And A, they are of the mind that they can't go through this Kourou system whereby it is a very, very convoluted, red tape-ridden system whereby people's qualifications, they're working away in Northern Ireland, in Dairy and Living in Bunkrana, for an example. But they can't come and work in Bunkrana because their qualification is not recognised. And we heard from one person yesterday that the hoops that you have to jump through the paperwork is enormous. And then you get a sense that no one's actually processing this application. Gemma is a family CDNT rep in, in a show, and joins us on the programme now. And thank you very much, Gemma, for joining us. Thank you. Right, okay. So, no, it's okay.  Yeah, yeah, no, I'm okay. So you are of the view that this Kourou is a really, really significant problem in filling these vacant posts. Yeah, for all the reasons you just said, you know, like, I live in Bunkrana myself. I trained as a nursing midwife in the north, and I ended up having to change my qualifications over to the NMBI down here. And that was a complicated process in itself. So I understand kind of why people aren't going that route, how long it can take. It's also, we're in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, and especially that young lady who was speaking to yesterday morning, there are four universities in Ireland that offer those OT and speech and language therapy courses of a degree. And they're in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and Limerick. So those cost-of-living crisis is really about here, and that's what you want to do. There are a lot of people who just simply couldn't afford that. You know, the cost of rent and everything else. And then there's one in Derry that you can drive to from here. So there's, you know, the problems like at any smaller, you know, it's not a, it's not a short, there's no short-term place here. It's going to take a, it's going to take a complete overview of qualification recognition, or at least a process for recognising those qualifications. And as well, too, in that response, the HSE sent out two links to show where the jobs were being advertised. One of them, there was one job, there's apparently 36 jobs, but on the HSE's own website, there was one single job advertised, and then there's a link to a Facebook page where many of the jobs are advertised. But if you aren't on that Facebook page, you simply don't know those jobs are there. The other thing is as well, and you know, there's, there is a requirement with Kauri, if you do your degree here for safe speech and language therapy, you graduate proficient in something called dysphagia. And they require that as something that you have to have in order to get on their register. What happens is the UK and elsewhere in the world that's a postgraduate specialist, and they don't do that as an undergraduate degree. So you're asking people as well, they've gone and done their degrees in Northern Ireland or in the UK, and they've worked in the NHS for years, and you're asking them to come back here, you're asking them to do a postgraduate qualification out of their own pocket, in their own time, which isn't relevant to their scope of practice, just so that they can get on the register so that they could maybe, you know, be able to apply. And some of that is very specialist stuff, isn't it? It's swallowing movements and stuff like that there, that people can specialize in that, but they're being asked to already have the qualification for that before they can be employed here, which is not required in Britain and Northern Ireland or elsewhere, which, again, is a further barrier to employment. Yep. So if you feel like you're really working, as you say, mostly people are working in the NHS and barrier or wherever, and they're coming home from work in the whole day week, and you're asking them to take time out of their own time to do a postgraduate qualification, it's not necessary for their practice. Like, I can guarantee you that I wouldn't do it either. Do you know? Yep. So we know now there's 36 vacancies in the Children's Disability Network teams. With the current setup, I can't see how we could even begin to make inroads in filling those positions and giving families the hope that their children will start getting the interventions they need. Until these barriers are overcome, there is really no short-term solution for it, to be honest, and I can't see it either.  There simply aren't people to fill them. There aren't people who the agency can employ, and until then, you know, our kids are really right on. The other aspect of that is we now have this situation where the services are so short in the NT network that private speech and language therapists, private OT therapists, they're actually closing their books because they have too many patients to be able to accommodate, even if you were in the position to avail of those services, you know, I can't because they can't take on anybody new. So even that one pathway, if you were lucky enough to beg, steal, and borrow to do it for the better of your child, if you can and many can't, even that's now becoming a problem. Yeah, because they have too many people. There's too many people trying to access to go down that route because there is no alternative. You know, my son is four and a half, so they talk about early intervention, and everyone's very familiar with Keith Dunlton, where Keith Dunlton's autism and his daughter is incredible. And, but that again is because she got the therapy at the right time from the right people. So, like, my son is running out of time. My son, we don't have, you know, that course in the G is great, but it's three years before we're going to get anybody out of that potentially. So my son hasn't got three years to wait for that to become available. And that's, there's so many other kids as well. The other side of it is, there are so many kids waiting to get in to that system. There are so many kids waiting to get in to get that initial assessment and get diagnosed. And they have no voice. And the whole point of it is we lose more staff in the interim. Are we going to have to stop doing diagnostic assessments? Are we going to have to stop, you know, is that process going to stop? Are we just going to get completely hemmed in? And when is it that somebody, the H.C. or government is actually going to take this into hand, you know? We all work through a pandemic. We all live through it. And money was found just to throw things. And it seemed to be a never-ending pot. Why can't, now, this isn't just a Donegal issue. It's not just an initial issue. It's not a Donegal East issue. It's not a Donegal North issue. This is a national issue. Yeah. But what we've done, what we've done with people like yourself, Gemma, and we're heading towards the news at 10, though, we've identified a very serious problem when we've spoken to an awful lot of people who are very heavily impacted by this. And the poor children who aren't getting the chances that they deserve, we've also identified the problems. And I think, to some extent, we're starting to identify solutions. As a group of people in the community, us and the likes of you, Gemma, and others who've been involved in this conversation, there's not an awful lot more we can do. We've got the problem. No. We've found the areas that need to be looked at. That's very important. Now what we need is someone to do something about this. Exactly. Okay. Gemma, thanks for your time. I appreciate it greatly. Okay. So as I say, we can't do much more. Can we as a collective here? I don't mean us at Highland.  We've got the problem. We've identified the problem. We've identified the people of its effect. And we've began to look at ways that it can be resolved. We just need someone to do this for our children. Looking for the best occasion ever? Well, you're in luck. We teamed up with Vulture Ireland and asked the public what their favourite daycation activities are in Donegal, and they didn't disappoint. Michelle said she had a great day at Glencolm Kill Folk Village and it is an amazing, fun, educational day out for the whole family. Brian said his two teenagers had such fun zipping around with e-bikes and downings. Highly recommend. And Victor texts saying that Donegal coastal tours do amazing day tours around Donegal. With very welcoming and knowledgeable staff, Sarah said her kids love the scenic Lofvoid ferry crossing such a fun day out. While Ben said he and his mates had the best time kayaking and biking with eco-atlantic adventures, a day they won't forget. Plan your best daycation ever at discoverireland.ie and experience the feeling of a holiday all in one day. Have you heard about Charlie's chips? They're made from potatoes that are carefully selected, then peeled, cut, and like everything else at Charlie's in Letter Kenny, cooked to water. That's why they taste so good. From 12, right through to 8 in the evening, Charlie's at Pierce Road, Letter Kenny offer an extensive menu that includes a great selection of gluten-free options, all available to sit in or take away. The next time the hunger hits, pull into Charlie's. We customize, personalize, and tailor your dentures to suit you. Call us for a free consultation on 9-1-25-25-3. Find us at Balli Rain, Letter Kenny, beside Rossum College. Medical cards, welcome. For all your denture needs, call Donegal Denture Clinic on 9-1-25-25-3, online at DonegalDentureClinic.ie. The 9 till 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, 9-1-02-127. Live on air online and on the Highland Radio app. This is Highland Radio News. Good morning. It's 10 o'clock. Donald Kavanaugh at the news desk. As RTE bosses prepare for a grilling from TDs and senators later today, some ministers are calling on the broadcaster to sell off its Donnie Brook land to pay its bills. Senior RTE managers will appear before the Arroxless Media Committee this lunchtime to face further questions over the broadcaster's finances and governance. RTE sold nine acres of land for housing in 2017 for 107 million euro. Minister of State Patrick O'Donoghoun says hard-pressed Irish taxpayers are fed up bailing out RTE when it seems to continually mismanage its own finances. No matter how many times we spend the wheel, no matter how many times we mess things up and run the thing into the ground and cause financial ruination, that the taxpayers will be there and the licensed payers will be there to bail them out. I don't genuinely think that there's an appetite amongst most people to do that. Finn Harms Football Club is launching a fresh fundraising drive to allow work recommence on the new community stadium in the Twin Towns, which the club will use in the future. The project's received backing from Donnie Gold County Council, the FAI and the government. But rising costs mean it now carries a price tag of 7.3 million euro. That leaves the club needing to raise another 700,000 euro. Club Chair Ian Harkin says he's confident that can be raised and while the release of government funding is contingent on the club, proving it has the funds to proceed, he says he doesn't believe that it's going to be a major problem on today's Naintl Nuncio. He told Greg that stadium naming rights may be one of the ways of raising some of that money. He confirmed that once they reach 500,000, they will recommence construction. We have committed as a board to start work as soon as we reach the 500,000 mark in our fundraising efforts. We believe that that's very achievable. We've reached out to a number of different agencies in Ireland who do that particular type of activity in terms of naming rights. The largest ever number of job announcements in the North is expected over the next two days. Over 100 companies are being represented at a major investment conference in Belfast. A thousand jobs are being announced this morning in financial services by the EY Corporation. Some of those jobs are going to dairy. Gary MacDonald, business editor with the Irish News in Belfast, says it's clear the Windsor framework is benefiting the North despite what the DUP are saying. The DUP continue to hold back but really the train is moving forward without the DUP at the moment and that's really, they will see themselves over the next day that the Windsor framework is being celebrated by these companies and we're moving forward without the DUP. The work done on the breakwater in Green Castle in recent months has been praised by Donegal County Council's Fisheries Committee. Members were told the project is coming in on time and within budget. Plena Campbell, a senior engineer with the Council's Peer and Harmer's office told members that 90% of what's been done is under water and will never be seen. The Green Castle project is part of a 27 million-year-old development under the Brexit Adjustment Reserve but Ms Campbell also confirmed that six projects in the county are stalled because of issues with foreshore licenses. With more, here's Donna Marie Daherty. At a cost of 17 million euro, the Green Castle breakwater is the largest of 28 projects being progressed under the local Authority Marine Infrastructure Scheme with work set to be completed in the coming weeks. Ms Campbell said there are 28 projects in total, 10 of which have already been completed with work continuing on 12 others ahead of the closing date for the scheme in November. However, six projects including the Rasmol and Peer Refurbishment and the Bunbeg Pontoon Development have not proceeded because of delays in securing foreshore licenses and leases. Even if they came through now, the meeting was told a three-month review period must be completed before they can be activated. Marine Minister Charlie McConnelog who attended the online meeting pledged he would do what he could to expedite the process and ensure the money is available for the projects next year. Looking at the weather forecast and material intelligence, it will stay dry to begin with but cloud will thicken. Outbreaks of rain and drizzle will develop in western fringes during the morning. They'll slowly spread right across the region over the course of the afternoon and evening. Some of the winds freshening along with the arrival of the rain, staying windy particularly along western north coasts in top temperatures of 14 to 16 degrees celsius. Tonight we'll see some patchy outbreaks of rain and drizzle to begin with. Some mist and fog in places later lowest overnight temperatures 9 to 12 degrees celsius in light to moderate southwest breezes. And that's Highland Radio News. We're back with news headlines again at 12 noon. Handled in from the news team. Have a very good morning. The obituary notices for this Wednesday morning the 13th of September. The death has occurred of Damien Blake, Caramone Balabafe, formerly of the Maples letter Kenny. Reposing at his late residence from 12 noon to 10 p.m. today and tomorrow with Rosary Knightley at 9. Funeral from there on Friday morning to the Church of Mary Immaculate's turn order for 11 o'clock Requiem Mass which can be viewed live on ChurchServices.tv followed by burial in Drumbow Cemetery. Family time please on the morning of the funeral. Family flowers only please donations if desired to the Donegal Hospice care of Pascal Blake funeral director. The death has taken place of Sister Patricia McHenry St. Joseph's Convent of Mercy Newton Kennedy Street Strabam and formerly of Kilray, Bunkrana, Derry and Dungiven. Reposing at St. Joseph's Convent of Mercy Strabam from 12 noon to day Funeral from there tomorrow evening at half past five going to St. Patrick's Church Dungiven arriving at approximately 7 o'clock. Requiem Mass on Friday at 12 noon followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery. The Requiem Mass can be viewed live on MCN Media.tv. The death has occurred of Richard Finney, Letter Kenny. Richard's remains are reposing at his in-laws the blackens in Lochnegeen, Letter Kenny from 12 noon until 10 o'clock today. Funeral Mass tomorrow in the Church of the Irish Martyrs, Letter Kenny at half past 10 followed by burial in Conwall Cemetery. Family flowers only please donations in lieu of desired to Pieta House care of any family member or con mac dade funeral director. The death has taken place of Patricia Pat Kerr Letter Kilmachranon remains reposing at her home funeral service tomorrow afternoon at one in Letter Presbyterian Church with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. The funeral service can be viewed on Patrick Sweeney funeral director's Facebook page. And the death has occurred of Sean Foodie 15 Main Street, Letter Kenny. Requiem Mass this morning instant units Cathedral, Letter Kenny at 11 o'clock with burial afterwards in Conwall Cemetery. The funeral mass can be viewed live on ChurchServices.tv. Donations in lieu of flowers to the Donegal Hospice house private please before the funeral. For more details regarding wakes and funerals please go to highlandradio.com. Right now in Ireland one in six adults struggle with reading and understanding information and can feel locked out of life in areas like careers, education and daily tasks. Add on post we are proud to support NALA the National Adult Literacy Agency's work to improve adults reading and writing skills to unlock opportunity for everyone. If you need some help call NALA on 1-800-2020-80. On Highland Radio Good morning. You're very welcome back to the 9 till noon show. Good morning. If you're just switching on how you're keeping this Wednesday morning and couldn't help but notice in the mornings it's darker in the evenings it's darker and would you believe and some people love the winter some people dislike it that by the end of this month it will be dark or sunset will be at seven sunrise at seven or after seven. So the very very shortly the next two weeks or so our days are going to get considerably shorter so enjoy it while it lasts. Okay some of your comments coming in over the course of this morning so far. Hi the lady on your show now has a good idea that's Sinead about a place for dogs off leads but she's typical of all the selfish dog owners who don't care about anyone else your dog won't bite you because you feed it. Another always children first so many scarred for life from bad experiences with dogs. Hi Greg I have a border collie a very calm and friendly dog in fact more friendly than some humans I meet. I take him to the beach twice a week in which we both enjoy a long walk with him off the lead. Lots of people and children ask if they can pet him. Okay Greg I think there is an entitlement among people who are scared of dogs why must we not bring our pets around for many who are like their babies on the off chance somebody will be afraid which is an interesting statement and it's kind of putting it up to those who are saying you know keep your dog on the lead they're saying Greg I think there's an entitlement among people who are scared of dogs. Why must we not bring why must we not bring our pets around for many who are like their babies on the off chance somebody will be afraid.  This is done in the UK because of fines and law enforcement but a caller says seemingly not here. Another caller says I was walking down Rathamallon beach and I met a couple with a child and they had a dog running off the lead. The dog came running up to me however I had my dog on the lead I own a large dog but he's harmless but the lady screamed at me for her dog approaching us saying that a dog like mine could easily attack hers. That makes sense.  Unfortunately my friend I can't make sense of that. Greg walking your dog on a lead should be made law and kept out of parks and the walks ways like Swan's Park an inch walk. The foul poop everywhere and they are a torture when you've wee wanes out walking and playing but that means really so if we're talking about beaches and parks and roads does that mean really there is no other than on your own private property there is nowhere really that you can run a dog and I think that was Sinead's point there which is is that also the route we want to go down. With all the problems in Donegal Finn Park is the least of our worries this proposal is a ridiculous waste of money the Finn Park grounds are on a flood plain and the River Finn don't these parks people watch the news climate change will wash it all away well it's not quite where the old one is I take your point but I also know there are competing priorities but for some who are like really stressed about things in life and lots of things are stressful going on to watch football on a Friday night with the kids can be the thing that sort of gets them out of that space and it's valuable in that regard as well you know it doesn't cost an awful lot you can go get behind your team you know see your heroes up close and switch off from everything you know I think really the argument for a really good Donegal community stadium is sort of maybe to help people who are struggling with all the stuff that we know they're struggling with delighted to see that Ian Finn Harps and I moving forward with the plan to finally get the new stadium started that comes in from Chancellor Patrick McGowan thanks for that Chancellor right there's someone messaged me and I want to give it a mention here I'll see it was came to me on Facebook it's just a mum who I'm sure someone out there can help and help her son so bear with me whilst I open this while it's still on my mind because I do commit as much as I can when people reach out to me to try and get a resolution to it right where is it my messenger is very very busy okay here we go hi Greg I wonder could you highlight this for me on your show my son is looking for a plumbing apprenticeship he's finding it very difficult to get an employer to take him on he's rung around but no look so far he's 18 years old he's just got his leaving cert results he doesn't want to go on to college and no tradesmen are busy and maybe don't have the time to spend teaching these young people maybe someone listening to your show could help we're in the in a shown area in and around Bunkrana so maybe out there there is a plumber who wants to take on as an apprentice a very keen 18 year old who wants to get into a trade and it's a really good idea to at this time but just can't find a plumber to work with in and around the Bunkrana area so we've got a mom who's obviously very keen to see the best for her son maybe you are a plumber in and around the Bunkrana area and you want to maybe have a meeting with this guy and see if he would suit your business get in touch with us 07491 25,000 we can put you in touch with them so it's a young lad just looking for a start he wants to be a plumber but is just needing that apprenticeship he's in and around the Bunkrana area so it might just so happen that that clicks with someone today and that's why I wanted to mention it there was a woman standing in the ditch on the bend part of the road between Lifford and letter Kenny beyond the dual carriage way she scared the life out of me I jerked the wheel even though I wasn't actually near her she just gave me such a fright I could have so easily caused an accident if there was oncoming traffic okay but she was off the road wasn't she standing in the ditch but anyway okay we take all comments here it's also important for the safety of the dog it's so sad when an overexcited dog needs to be put down or given away indeed and there's more talk of banning certain there's more talk of banning certain breeds of dogs as well isn't there there's that in Britain I can't remember which news channel I was watching at the time right okay Wednesdays now until noon show we'll continue after we take this quick break it's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio it's Wednesday the 13th of September you're playing on the blue sheet the reference number is S3 it's game number 37 the numbers are 85 24 33 18 3 81 54 60 83 and finally 42 phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 tonight leaving your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your 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sale is now on in easy living furniture present link retail park The 90 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 transfer directly to your current account A caller says how come the HSC don't recognize these qualifications from the north etc when they do from India and all these other countries well they all have to go through the Kauru process as far as I'm as far as I understand maybe it's more streamlined when the recruit and overseas I don't know Right Donal Healy is head of aviation business marketing and communications at Arland West Airport are you there Donal I am Greg how are you Good I'm good good morning to you Arland West Airport aka Knock Airport before we talk about the winter and beyond how was summer 2023 at the airport Summer 2023 Summer 2023 break was actually a record breaking summer at the airport we carried close to 600,000 passengers by the time the summer period ends which is about almost 10% higher than last year are you know an average of about 50,000 extra passengers so we've enjoyed really a record breaking summer I suppose highlighted by the fact that August was the busiest month in the airport's history where we carried 102,000 passengers and also enjoyed the actual single busiest day ever in the airport on the 29th of August when we carried over 4,300 passengers in the day so a very busy summer break I'm great to see after I suppose a couple of years of significant disruption due to the COVID period Yeah you must be pleased Donal with how quickly it has bounced back Yeah absolutely Greg I suppose I remember sitting in my office here in April 2020 looking out on the car park with about five cars in it and that's no no exaggeration of wondering where it ever returned you know to what it was and you know all the experts had forecast that would be 2025 at the earliest before aviation returned to pre-COVID level so you know to be reaching the numbers we're reaching this year which would be which will culminate at the end of the year in us having a record year of in the region of 830,000 passengers you know it's been well it's been surprising it's been very welcome and I suppose confounded all critics And what is that down to I mean obviously there's a huge appetite for people to travel but they they're not going to travel for the sake but you have to have the right routes open you have to have the right times the right availability so what has been the key to the success this year so far? Well last summer was extremely busy Greg and it rebounded off of strongly once the restrictions were lifted and the kind of freedom was then that people were you know eager to get away because they'd been effectively locked up for two years so we weren't sure it was that you know a one-off and that people were traveling maybe a couple of times last summer but this summer it appears again that people have decided they're having their holiday they're not going to give up the holiday despite I suppose pressures on cost to living and pressures with fuel and different things in the economy they've decided they're still going for example we've had record numbers on a number of our routes this year such as the likes of Alicante Malaga Cologne in Germany which you've been to of course Milan Well what's with them that's a long time since you took the only going to have to up your game here Sunshine Yeah so it's a culmination Greg of people have seem to have made the conscious decision that they're having their holiday regardless of what's what's happening in the economy but also as you said I suppose we've added a lot of new routes this year we've added routes to the likes of Lanzarote and Tenerife which people have been really really looking forward to having them back we've introduced of course a new heat throw service in March so we've added a lot of new routes and that combined with people as I said making the conscious decision that they're not going to give up the family holiday the short break with their friends has led to record numbers Yeah for sure and I am sure the majority of traffic is outbound but it is also with these routes a gateway into the west more affordable arguably more beautiful part of the country in terms of sort of inbound traffic Yeah and that's where I suppose the likes of the Cologne route are route from Milan are route from Gerona in Barcelona you know then routes would typically be about 60% inbound 40% outbound in terms of passenger profile particularly Cologne Cologne has actually had a record summer and I was actually talking to someone anecdotally there on Thursday who said they came back in from Cologne on Thursday and they said about 80% of the flight was full of Germans and that's in the middle of September so that's been very encouraging to see and that obviously has a spin-off for tourism in the region but I guess also the likes of the introduction of the new heat throw service the start in March you can now connect to 80 destinations both ways so if you think about it on the first flight that came in here on the 29th of March we had four people traveling from Sydney who connected through heat throw to knock we had people going out to New York coming in from New York so the connectivity that that has brought really has been a game changer for the region in the sense that you can travel now from anywhere in the world via heat throw a couple of hours layover and straight into the west and northwest of Ireland At this time do you use actively market knock to New York or knock to Sydney do you know what I mean like is it are people making their own connections or is there an opportunity to say effectively you know you load your luggage on at Ireland west and then next up New York albeit with a change down the line is that maybe that's already in place Donald it actually is Greg and if you open the Dernigal Democrat this week you'll see a double page spread there from watching that very fact that you can connect I'm good you can connect to 80 destinations across the world and you made a very good point there that's the education piece and if you take a bit of time is that you can actually today go on to where lingus.com or ba.com and book knock to New York for any dates in the next 12 months check your bag in here at the airport and collect it in New York or Boston or Sydney so it is a seamless check-in experience you're not having to get off and heat throw go back check in go to security come back out check in again you'll get your bag when you land in your inch destinations that is a big selling point particularly for business people as well connecting who may have had to travel to Dublin yet you know I mean there was a point I could almost have got my post delivered to to Arlen West airport I was through it quite a bit when when things were different but but it was normally like sort of from September on because it suited better and plus I love being here in the summer there's a different clientele but still plenty of options are there for right through the winter out of the airport there is yeah and it's probably when Greg was student July and August are always the peak months in terms of the number of passengers that go through September and October are actually very strong months at the airport and it's a different mix of passenger obviously a lot of families will go through in July and August but in September you see a lot of couples a lot of groups hins and stags football traffic comes back very strongly so it is a very very busy months in months of September and October but then as you look to the winter it does get quieter there's no question about that obviously the frequencies aren't as high as we'll be during the summer but this winter we're delighted to see the return of Lanzarote Chinareef so there'll be some much needed sun for all those miserable evenings in the western northwest of Ireland as much as we love it we have to admit the winter can be quite gloomy here so we have weekly flights to Lanzarote Chinareef and Malaga this year at Ryanair so we're hoping that they would prove undoubtedly popular with people in this region you know and finally success breeds success you know particularly the likes of your Ryanair's and others as well they will look at for their look at numbers their look at potential with broker record this year why can't another record be broken yet next year or the year beyond that it leaves the airport presumably in a very strong position in terms of you know maybe even attracting more stuff for next year and beyond yeah absolutely in your epitome on the head success breeds success when other airlines see good traffic numbers like we're reporting we're going to have a record this year they're seeing very strong load factors iak the number of people on the plane this obviously strengthens the business case when we go one meter to the airline and that's always the challenge Greg is trying to get in addition to new airlines we've had the likes of lockdown before we've had direct flights to the state before and as we bounce back stronger now and airlines are trying slowly getting back to their pre-pandemic balance sheet levels if you'd like it does open up new doors and we would hope yes this year has been a record year but we certainly see the magic number there of one million passengers annually that is really the you know that's the aspiration that hopefully the next two to three years we can reach that track and to do that we need more routes we need more growth and hopefully we've gone 50% this year next year again we can have some further growth yeah okay fair play donal and it is a local airport to Donagall certainly from the south of the county comfortably achievable in an hour and a half which is grand on the way but particularly pleasant on the way back as well you're back in your own house in not too distant a future so add an hour on to most of the parts of Donagall and it's very very accessible for people so donal listen thank you very much for your time i appreciate it thanks Greg and thanks to all your listeners as you said there we've had upwards of 35 000 passengers from Donagall using the airport this year so that's hugely appreciated by us all down here yeah for sure okay donal healy head of aviation business marketing and communications with island west and the airport aka of course knock airport right okay um we have a response from the sea altar group on our conversation with grande yesterday i just want to have a quick read through that Greg speaking of hospitals last sunday i had such a scare and had to go to sligo university hospital i couldn't get to the hospital myself so i had to avail of a taxi the lady who drove us was named grace and she was so unbelievably kind we hadn't a clue where to go but she parked up and got us all checked in and ensured i was safe grace if you're listening i'm so grateful for your kindness thank you right okay so that's a taxi driver called grace and when above and beyond took this person to sligo university hospital and actually brought them in through the front doors and got them settled okay that's fair play grace i hope you are listening or someone who knows grace can pass those kind words on to her thursday highland radio is hitting the road to celebrate love dunny gall day join the adventure with kevin fury as he explores the heart of dunny gall showcasing just some of its stunning locations like the dunlow river walk fan at lighthouse and fort dunry tune in all day for a journey you won't forget and follow us on social media love dunny gall day proudly brought to you by dunny gall county council together we can share what makes dunny gall special throughout the world by using hashtag love dunny gall and hashtag dun the nullaboo across social media the new autumn winter collection aviator jacket heavyweight oversized and lined with faux shearling feels like you wrapped yourself in a duvet that's way more fashionable to leave the house in f and f makes fashion sense available at tesco products subject to availability available in the majority of larger stores how we use electricity can be smarter cleaner and greener at electric arland we can help guide you there you see our new net zero hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans home ev charging solar panels and much more making your usage clearer your trips greener your home cosier and your world brighter find our net zero hub at electric arland tarahi join us for the highland radio hooli in the beautiful resort of sulu from the 14th to the 21st of september 2024 for a week of non-stop country music and craig join me david james alongside some of the biggest names in country music we've got the legendary margo the sensational john mcnickle the fabulous robert mazel claudia buckley alivia douglas yugo duncan jim divine sean cutty and many more your package includes seven nights of pure luxury at the four-star saul-costed gerrata hotel with dinner and breakfast included you'll have access to all the incredible shows poolside entertainment airport transfers and a delicious dinner every evening all lists for just 817 euro per person share it don't miss out on this unforgettable experience book your spot today by contacting country music tours on zero seven four nine one one nine nine five five or email info at country music tours dot ie the highland radio hooli in sulu 14th to the 21st of september it's the country music extravaganza you won't want to miss we'll see you there all right good morning to kathy sleven john lisa mayve devlin todd um also rosemary shivan uh jj hugh de laurus annie charlie aldry all watching the show you can watch the show every day here are the nightly noon show on our youtube highland radio island are you smart tv or your uh fire sticking across your mobile devices and we're also on facebook highland hope highland radio news and sport and joining us now is kate flinn and maybe if you're watching you'll see an image of kate flinn's property and you might be able to help to get it back to her hi kate how are you keeping uh yeah not so bad radio so uh we were uh left yesterday on uh community guard information an appeal was put out there for a caravan which was stolen from uh bon crana so tell us uh when uh and how as much as you know uh how it was taken uh kate uh yeah it's left um at the back of our house and it was stolen on thursday the seventh at about three a.m. um we had like a hitch lock on it but they've obviously just i don't know they've got that off somehow um we know it was seen in form at 3 13 a.m. and then it turned left at the footing um just after that and was seen then in burn fort as well but um that's as far as we've got so far and i'm correct in saying that we now know or suspect it was being told by a blue van we think it was blue we've had witnesses think it was blue um so we're just kind of going through in the guards going through the cctv because it was night it's hard to tell okay so don't distract don't don't don't put all your eggs in that basket listeners but don't disregard it either it may well have been told by a van okay yeah it was definitely definitely a van a larger van kate is it yeah mid medium side van kind of like a renal kind of panel van um it's a beautiful for those who are watching they'll see the image of it it's a beautiful clean caravan um it is distinctive in that it has a sort of a blue wave going across the side of it and some markings towards the front uh so as i say and it's got a narrow poking at the side of it which you don't see all of the time so it is it is quite distinctive where do you think it's been taken i don't know it's definitely gone over the border anyway so i'm not sure i'm just hoping it's not gone over to england or scotland yet but we've told all the ports and we've tried to get the word out as much as possible hoping that someone will see or even whoever's took it will just leave it then think it's not worth it like we love that van so much all the kids are devastated all the kids stuff were still in it because we'd been away to electric picnic and we hadn't emptied it so our coats and clothes and toys and we're just devastated and it's full of memories as much as anything else isn't it kate full of memories of sentimental things are we too fairy pillow on our little girl lost a tooth in electric picnic so we dropped the pillow and that all my kids have had that pillow it was nine when i was a little girl and just little dash things like that but mean the world to us but obviously whoever stole it don't care about things like that yeah and was it obvious where it was parked and you did all you could in terms of having a lock on it but do you feel that someone knew it was there or there's obviously seen apparently there was other things stolen that night there was a horse box and a few people have come forward saying there's been other things so i don't know whether there was a sort of gang of people going around doing the rounds in bunk runner but i mean we're not we're kind of at the back you know we're not there's not loads of cars that go past our place but obviously they've spotted it apparently our neighbors think they saw a black car earlier on on the Thursday seeing the caravan stops and pulled up beside it so maybe that was them checking if there was wheel locks and stuff and then they've come back later on with the van and you know with with drones nowadays and and they've got you know long range and great cameras on them i'm not i wouldn't be surprised if quite a bit of scouting goes on with the likes of them as well as the as well as the um um the sentimental value there is an i'm not asking just put a figure on it but this is obviously it's a very clean clean yoke i presume all the add all the extras were on it with it as well kate where are they yeah i mean we've got a loan we've got a credit you need a loan but we only got it last year so we still got four years to pay on the loan so it's not even paid off yet um and yeah we've been camping for years in tents so all our camping get at the camping tables camping chairs cookers all that's in there as well and that's you know things that we've been buying over the years and collecting when we were in the tent so yeah there's a lot of and plus the kids computers the switches within it and oh no right but yeah just devastated yeah right if anyone has any further information on where it is or uh maybe you have cct footage that might identify a number plate on the vehicle seen towing it anything like that as i say we're flat we have the image up here now but i know the majority of people are listening the images on the goddess you can't on facebook page as well it's quite a distinctive but not unique but it's quite a distinctive caravan and you can hear from from kate uh there's a lot of um sentimental and actual value in it as well um with all the extras that would have been loaded into it as well so kate listen we hope that people spot this adria a door of five three two and contact the guardie with any information that they may have especially if you saw a van medium size possibly blue in color towing it away three thirty a.m that's the early hours of friday morning is that right kate yeah okay uh Thursday night friday morning yeah all right and listen the suspects suspicion is perhaps uh it could be boarding a boat to go somewhere else or it could be just up the road don't rule anything in and out um listeners uh and you could help kate in in getting this back all right then i hope i do hope you get sorted thank you so much thanks for putting it out there as well we appreciate it that's all right so i'll play uh pleasure uh kate thanks very much kate flin there 08 660 25 000 whatsapp and text if you want to pass stuff on uh as well right um we are joined on the program now by marade marade good morning to you hi greg how are you i'm okay what's your recent experience marade and greg i just uh sent a text in because i was listening to the conversation around the dogs and people's fear of dogs and then some other people's opinions around us and i suppose it was the text that came in from the person who um i can't remember exactly what it was about the entitlement wasn't it yeah that there was entitlements and that people feel is that it's fine you know to bring their um babies everywhere but yet then they have this opinion about dogs and i think i suppose first of all i'd say everybody is very entitled to their opinion and i'm a firm believer in that but i think um people who you know in relation to dogs people really need to look at at this from the child's point of view not from the adult's point of view who's with the child when a bit of cuffle gets up in a park or on a puff pass or whatever because the dog is passing um and folks from my point of view i would be very conscious if we went to a restaurant or you don't want to go to anywhere in public if my child was crying or acting up or whatever i would remove that child both for their sake but also for the other customers in the restaurant um and i wouldn't let my child go over and crawl around somebody else's feet or crawl all over them or whatever to be honest with you uh marade because uh you know i i i think i suppose maybe it's as a parent myself i mean obviously you're not going to allow them uh to to run riot to such but i don't mind the noise of a baby crying or a toddler acting up a little bit or something like that there it's never ever bothered me but i do understand that you you you want to respect all others that are in that restaurant but i don't yeah and i think like i actually don't mind either but i'm conscious that other people would remember i'm very conscious as well like ourselves you know people who maybe don't have a huge much money and go out for a night and they go out for a break they don't really want to hear my child crying then in the restaurant so that's what i'm saying but um i suppose our situation is um during covid and i was just saying to don marie there i hope it don't end up now and bits talking about this it's a very stressful few years you know um but i during covid um my younger daughter developed a serious fear of dogs so much though that she came to the point where she couldn't actually leave the house and it was during covid you know lots and lots of people got dogs during lockdown um and it was you know a new novelty in the house and something for them to do to go out and walk their new dog but a lot of those people didn't actually know how to manage a dog in public um and was there a particular experience that triggered this in your daughter or did it just so happen that she didn't like this because it's probably okay you know it just developed during covid yeah and i'd say it was locked down with small children as well covid was out there you weren't really allowed to go out to us and maybe the only thing she could equate that to with the dog i don't know um nobody knows actually um but we got to the point where we couldn't leave the house we couldn't um couldn't even get from the house to the car for the fear that a dog might approach um while we were doing that um couldn't get her down to school um there was one day which is actually probably one of the most of seven days where we actually lost our childminder because our childminder told us that um that my child was so distressing that her own children were distraught by the time she got into school and i actually agree with her you know i have no problem with her telling me that and she actually did me a favour because then i thought actually we need serious help here as opposed to trying to do this ourselves so she would have a panic attack even at the thought of leaving the house for fear of encountering a dog so the house became an absolute safe space absolute safe space and so did school because the school were fabulous but also dogs not allowed through the school gates um but i just think you know that um when people i like it often hear this discussed on the radio and you often hear it discussed in groups of people or you know people say well you know you know you're allowed to bring your baby and i'm not allowed to bring my dog but i think people there are that's their opinion on how they feel about it they're not thinking about how the child feels about us and one thing to matter i feel it's my daughter yeah and one thing to marade that that some dog owners don't seem to get and it's not a pile on on dog owners because we all have to share this space is they contribute the size or the cuteness or the friendliness that they seem to know of that dog as to why other people shouldn't be afraid of it it doesn't it doesn't take into consideration or understand a irrational fear or a real fear that someone else might have it doesn't matter how we and fluffy and cute it is people with a fear of dogs and especially in acute fear like your daughter developed it doesn't matter how cute they are if they're uncontrolled or nearby or even i think in your daughter's case if she saw one it's incredibly triggering and it triggers a very very real response it's not just someone being fussy it there's a flight of fear triggering there as well look it's an actual reaction it absolutely is like we have people saying to us all the time oh she's harmless she won't touch you she's a lovely dog she's just a small thing her barks worse than her bite she only wants to play with you and like i've actually seen people now luckily not with my child that i've seen in our local park dogs actually jumping up on children children being hysterical and the owners with them saying but sure she's only lovely she only wants to play and you can see that the child is about to cough you know there was one time i think with i think with hudson what might have triggered it because i was thinking about it let's just say it's nothing like what you've experienced and it's something that we're working through at the moment but i remember we were sitting outside a place when he was in the pram during lockdown you know it was all outside and there was a group of people a lovely family you don't get me wrong but they had a big black dog with a bit of gray or brown on it and it was on one of those extendable leads and they would let the dog run at people and then it would get a jerk back and they thought it was hilarious and he was cute and he won't harm you and i just wonder are things like that where where these little uh these little concerns can come from now this is not like i mean obviously after and i think really after that experience with the child minder and i think you're very gracious in understanding that you thought right this is not something that can be allowed continued so it and it's not resolved yet but you as a family have had to go to great lengths to try and help your daughter in this regard so can you talk a little bit about that uh murrayed sure yes i suppose that remembering now that this is all during lockdown you're kind of limited in what you could do as well you know but um i think it's important for people to know who might be in the situation that the um cspca run courses for children who are anxious around dogs and and for their families so we did the online one um during cold fit and we're going to go back now because obviously you know time has moved on and thankfully we've progressed with this as well so we're going to go and do the in person one now as well um and that's a really good resource and it's free just if you if you wish to you just give a little donation then to the dspca and we also referred ourselves into the psychology services and whilst the wait list is very long and i'm very conscious of all the the conversations i've had over the last few days as well about services um the psychology service while you're on the wait list had an advice clinic um and that was just a saviour because you know we can do so much but then someone else coming in with fresh eyes might give you a few other ideas um so they never actually saw my daughter but the help still the support was still there by by helping us to kind of move forward a little bit with what we were doing and then going on to the next plan um and i think it's you know as i said my real reason for calling is to to ask people to think about it that it's the child it's not anybody else around it's not how the parent reacts because you know like i try would try not to give out i met somebody in a park say who had a dog that really was when i say out of control they wouldn't be out of control if you met them but they're they're too much out of control for my daughter to be there so i would go up and say you know your dog because i'm not afraid of dogs but say your dog's absolutely gorgeous but we're trying to work through something with her daughter at the minute so could you just you know keep it back a little bit more people are very good um but as i say um one thing that i think people really need to be aware of is unfortunately has moved from having a fear of dogs which she still has albeit it's not it's not the severity that it was but she has now moved on to have general generalized anxiety that she'll focus on something else um and the psychologist told us that where your child has a very very severe fear of something that is quite common then to happen afterwards they'll then focus their kind of obsession isn't the right word but they'll focus on something else it's not far off it i know exactly i know exactly what you what what she's going through i do understand that it it's not an obsession but it's that you have to something has to take up that energy so if it switched from dogs it doesn't go away it has to go uh to something else but hopefully this will be able to to work through that uh meredin and things are progressing in the right direction but then of course with everything you've been through uh and uh i suppose then when you hear these conversations you go and you want to not i was gonna say shake people but clearly you don't but sort of say please just try and understand a little bit more deeper than just being a very loving dog owner you have to think of the consequences for other people and the impact it has on a whole family it's not just your daughter because it's very clear that it permeates throughout the entire family as well and in terms of what you can do and what how you can plan things and stuff absolutely yeah like we would have to have a pre-plan no matter what we go to do now we we have to think about planets and she needs to know there's a plan and the school are very good at that as well like if they're going out for a little walk or you know they're going somewhere they have a plan she knows what the plan is she knows who she's going to stand beside you know who she goes to she's not feeling right and and yeah so um okay it'll improve for a great it would improve yeah as well let's get we're getting there exactly all right stay strong thanks so much more appreciate it and fair play it's not easy for you to talk about uh take care that is a mirage there any views the 9 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 my spelling always stopped me from doing things but thanks to my class with dunnigol education and training board i've learned how the computer can help it was hard to take the first step but now there was no holding me back literacy changes lives make a change in your life today by contacting dunnigol etb and find a class that suits you if you'd like to volunteer to help someone make that change call in to your local dunnigol education and training board further education and training center supported by adult literacy for life the government of ireland and the european union well grace how are you today i'm good i've just been down to the mid to measure fireplaces showroom in craisla they have an incredible selection of over 40 colors for kitchen workshops and guess what for a limited time they're offering a 40 percent discount on any electric fire when you purchase a worktop there 40 that's an amazing deal grace absolutely and trust me if the discount alone doesn't sway you there a huge selection of fireplaces stoves wood pellet burners beams and stone cladding certainly well contact made to measure fireplaces craislaw on<PHONE_NUMBER> on facebook instagram and on mtm fireplaces.ie it's the home of the vegan butchers the artisan bakers the freestyle lyricists and the trouser suits droiders it's the urban jungle where the every day meets the latest wave and you could see it all from your seat suv from the sharp lines and smart style of the arona to the bold and beautiful ateka and if size is your thing the terraco comes as a seven-seater see what's in store at seat.ie for our latest offers and visit dmg motors claw road dunnigol town because your new seat is just waiting to see what's next betty morgan talks about her son amen was one of life's givers when he had a sudden brain hemorrhage and sadly died his organ donation helped two people transform their lives it's consoled us so often amen was a giver in life and to now he's giver off life organ donors save lives make today the day you decide to be an organ donor and let your family know your wishes for more visit hse.ie forward slash organ donation from the hse okay uh lea megarrans journalist with silicone republic and lea megarrana beg your pardon and joins us on the program now lea good morning to you good morning greg how are you i'm delighted because iphone have come over to the dark side the iphone 15 has been launched and after years and years and years of pressure they are now going to be shipping them with a usb-c charging port this is a small deal but it's a big deal as well from a technical point of view i'd say so it's a it's a big change for apple apple would be one of the few sort of big tech companies particularly in the smartphone sector that has not been using or shifting to usb-c they've stuck with their own lightning connector so there's loads of different types of charges out there but lightning is specific to my knowledge to apple devices the EU has been pushing against that for years and they recently i believe last october the european parliament voted that all mobile phones tablets cameras whatever sold in the EU have to have a usb-c charging port by the end of next year so apple has a bit the bullet on this one which is good news for most people bad news if you're sticking with older iphone models obviously that'll be one problem how excited are people about this new iphone because we are at a point as and i love my technology but like say for instance with smart smart watches you know i can get them with ecgs and stuff and there's not an awful lot further i think they can go with maybe with design or whatever but from a tech point of view maybe i'm being naive in that but anyway but even with phones you know you get a good phone you get last year's good phone this year it seems the only thing they can really tinker with is the camera it's see i would sort of agree with that they can always make a tent apple tends to make incremental upgrades each model is a little bit sleek or a little bit neither slight increase of you know improvements from each one and maybe the occasional single big feature to my knowledge the biggest ones for these latest models would be that the cameras do seem very very strong and 48 megapixels front camera multiple zoom lenses so very very advanced it seems the stronger models the pro and pro max also have like triple zoom and up to one terabyte in storage space so that's pretty significant i would but i would agree i don't think they're too and they never really break the mold with these models but to be honest apple doesn't need to i mean they're at the very top in terms of market capitalization worldwide and they're also the top of these the premium smartphone market i believe last year apple phones represented 75 percent of all premium smartphones that smartphones are over let's say six hundred dollars sold in 2022 and they also have a very strong market share in the refurbished market so i'm sure many of your listeners might they don't buy the latest model but maybe one or two years down the lion they'll buy a refurbished iPhone 15 for far cheaper and it feels significantly powerful products so apple is in a very strong position they don't really need to do anything to groundbreaking so uh i'd say some people are definitely excited and they will from what i've seen before they're going to get their their sales in absolutely yeah and are they under any pressure because there are you know some strong contenders out there it is a very loyal base but it's like any business really you can't take that for granted either so you know they are dominant but as i say that you know you've got the flip phone now i think samsung have done a fantastic job actually in marketing that they've really gone to town in it i've never held one so i don't really know about that i suppose that's a huge uh innovation uh but but are iPhone in such comfortable position that they can just really tinker with the camera i would say they are in a very good position now obviously they still have to keep innovating keep upgrading you know tech is never um is never silent so they can never rest too easy on the throne i would agree that samsung flip phones are a very interesting one it's one day of um in sort of pulling in on over the last couple of years that would be a potential challenge and obviously samsung is still a big player samsung in my opinion you know has suffered in the last year we've seen the chip shortage and certain chip issues have affected lots of companies samsung in particular i believe in some of their latest um quarterly reports their profits have fallen significantly like you know gross profit like their income went down by more than 90 percent compared to last year so they're in a sort of uh looking their wounds phase right now whereas i think currently apple is in a good position to remain dominant i mean look i think there's lots of depth of alternative phones out there and i personally don't want to buy the absolute latest model for the latest price because i feel it will be half the price within one year but um both from our global standpoint i think apple is currently um in a good position and the iPhone has remained a very dominant phone but that's because they have a frustratingly loyal fan base like i am currently uh apoco 5g i think it was 280 euro i have to do video editing camera is not fantastic but anything that i need to do on it i can do it's edge to edge the camera is built into the screen it's got fingerprint obviously you know nfc it's got hyper charging uh and all for under 300 quid bang that on a 1499 contract do you know what i mean but i used to be that guy that i had to get the very latest because i was an android person still i'm of course the very latest samsung apple though have a really loyal i and i don't get it i mean having your entire app drawer on your on the screen i don't understand that what's wrong with people i would say they definitely do a very little brand i mean we have to remember the history of the iphone like when it first came out years ago now it was very much a groundbreaking design it looked so revolutionary it was you know the first non brick knockiest cell phone i would say of its time so it's kind of held up that sort of top brand mentality and there are definitely people out there who just believe like you know having the i having the latest iphone is the biggest sign-up prestige it's not something i would personally agree with but um they are still powerful phones i think there are very good alternatives out there personally but but they are they are still good ones i can respect the market loyalty they have developed over the years you know yeah though i would have issues with the fact that each model is only being slightly upgrade like i think uh i'm hoping for a contender to really shake things up like the i believe the the nutting phone is a small startup that's very much trying to shake up the market it looks very unique i'm not saying i'm exactly the big fan of that specifically but it's nice to see new products come in because i think the more groups come in to shake up an industry the more innovative products you're going to have rather than just constantly having you know if you want to download you know side load an app onto the iphone i mean maybe you can but for the most part you can't i just don't understand do they still not have an headphone socket they got rid of that they never came back that's one thing i am personally very unhappy but yeah that's i mean push it a wireless that's it it's all designed to i mean my view it's you know apple also makes us money from selling their accessory products in my opinion accessory products that have a very short shelf life and have to replace i don't think it's very um coincidental that apple was the first trillion dollar company in the world to my knowledge so they've definitely made a money on this i have issues with yeah new new products making older accessories completely obsolete and we saw that with the move to wireless headphones the next phone that brings back a jack for wired earphones will have my money all right okay listen leigh thanks as always lovely to chat to you for a pleasure leigh macarron there's journalists with silicone republic the night on noon show is brought to you by letterkenny credit union with monster loans available up to 60 000 euro for all occasions visit letterkennycu.ie how about you are you team breakfast pink lady or feeling package pink lady bedtime pink lady or after work pink lady dessert pink lady or snack time pink lady but why choose with pink lady apples it's always time for a treat meet pink lady apples at the plowing from the 19th to the 21st of september and try to win a trip to france don't miss the big baby event at ledle mix and match multi buys across our award-winning loopy loo 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all skin conditions hair and makeup packages also available janis's aesthetics and skincare clinic edore 07495 32575 milford tiles wood flooring and bathware milford retail park new wood flooring just arrived it malacy laminate 999 a square yard 10 mil 1250 a square yard 12 mil 1499 a square yard beautiful 8 mil ac4 glass laminate 1699 a square yard all in stock fitters available milford tiles wood flooring and bathware<PHONE_NUMBER> the county dunigal blackfish sheep breeders association annual female sale of cast use hoggards and yoh lambs will take place in balibufe and strannordermart on wednesday the 13th of september at 6 p.m. three yoh lambs will be sold on the day in aid of the dunigal hospice with all the stories that matter across the northwest it's greg hughes on the night and noon show on highland radio and it is 11 o'clock let's get a news update good morning donal kavanaugh thank you greg good morning as ortee bosses prepare for grilling from tds and senators later some ministers are calling for the broadcaster to sell off its donnie brookland to pay its bills senior ortee managers are appearing before the iraq this media committee this lunchtime to face further questions over its finances and government ortee sold nine acres of land for housing in 2017 raising 107 million euro finne harps are launching a fresh fundraising drive to allow work recommence on the new community stadium in strannordermart which the club will use in the future the project's received backing from dunigal county council the fai and government but rising costs mean it now carries a price tag of 7.3 million euro that leaves the club facing a 700 000 euro shortfall it must address club president in harkin told greg on the show this morning he's confident that money can be raised but in the meantime he said the release of government funding is contingent on the club provide proving that it has the funds to proceed the gra is expected to confirm shortly that the majority of its members have voted confident no confidence in the garden commissioner true harris has already said he won't resign regardless of the outcome of the vote it's believed over 80 responded to the poll sending their votes to the offices of an independent auditor they were announced counted yesterday they'll be announced just before midday works expect to begin shortly to open up liford common for development liford municipal district has been told plans to build 60 social houses in the area are progressing local councillor jerry crawford says he believes number of business people are looking at moving into the area and the planned new community hospital will also be located there in the future and the north korean leader kim young un has said his country stands with russia he was speaking during a meeting with vladimir putin he also appeared to call the war in ukraine a sacred fight for mosco's security and sovereignty and we're back with news headlines again at 12 noon donal thank you very much for that coming up in the next hour we have kirin or donal in with the business use and previewing business matters the podcast paddy cullivans back in donna gall with his latest show he's going to be joining us and wellness wednesday also on the way stay right where you are jack everyone asks me if you're teething when you cry but can you be teething all the time maybe you're hungry or you're sad and need a little cuddle or maybe it's something else at the hse is mychild.ie and in the free my child books you'll find the answers you need from doctors midwives public health nurses dietitians and lots of other experts mychild.ie expert advice for every step of pregnancy baby and toddler health from the hse right did you know uh well i'll i'll tell you about that in a moment to landmark study has found women with chronic fatigue or me tend to have more symptoms and co-occurring conditions than men 17 000 people took part in a world study of the syndrome led by experts from the university of adenborough Karen Quinn joins us to discuss me as a person suffering from it good morning Karen how are you keeping at the moment hi kreg i'm okay thank you all right okay so how do you describe before we talk about your uh experience we've heard it described as chronic fatigue and the medical name me how do you describe it um i just don't see people hear the name chronic fatigue syndrome and they just see as tiredness but there are so many other symptoms that goes along with that so it's very debilitating disease and it means you open for the worst effects of other things as well presumably you know that if you catch something else it's amplified by your me oh definitely your very um your immune system is very low so if you would get the the flu or a cold um you get really ill with it again but your m a symptoms just flare up as well so it can likely leave you very open to other things as well and for the most part it's one of those conditions that's invisible so uh to all intents and purposes uh Karen if someone saw you they might jump to another conclusion or uh whatever it might be which uh as well as everything else makes it very isolating it's a it's a hidden condition for the most part I think other than those that are close to you and those that know you uh Karen definitely um even when I was um really ill people would say to me but you look well you look all right even though I just was so ill and because you look okay because people can't see there's anything wrong um that can that's really hard to take as well because in fact people are saying well you look okay so you must be okay you don't look ill so I found that very hard take us back guess this is a condition that's taken so much from you and taken so much of of of the life you should have been able to enjoy ordinarily uh you were just 21 training as a nurse in London at that point were you free of it or was when were you diagnosed so take us through uh from from that age uh Karen well it was Christmas 1989 I got gastric flu and I was ill for two weeks um I got better from that and I carried on um doing my nursing but I kept getting things wrong with me um but I just put it to the side I didn't think anything about it I just got married um I had everything going for me a career that I always wanted um and it was March 1991 that I started that we thought at that time I was getting the flu um and the doctor said you're getting the flu um and then after that I just my health just started deteriorating every day every week I kept going back to the doctors and oh you know you've got the flu but over in in less than a month to two months I was getting this awful feeling in my legs um just above my knees I started unable to walk they were getting numb they were getting heavy I couldn't explain this um I was starting getting problems with my hands as well I started getting like a fog brain um my um glands were getting swollen I was getting stomach problems um again we didn't know what it was then but it just over and Karen speaking about this this condition on numerous occasions uh and similar conditions you get treated for absolutely everything except the thing that it is often were you lucky or was that at your experience that it was this it was that it was everything but me and and when did you actually get a diagnosis or a GP or especially sit down and say you have chronic uh you've got chronic fatigue well I was very lucky with the GP at the time and she said I think you've got something from post file fatigue from um the gastric flu um then I was referred to the London Hospital and lucky enough there was a specialist at the time and he was specializing in MA chronic fatigue which was rare at that particular time because we were just here and it was yuppie flu flu etc now he took me into hospital for over a month and he done every test every test was coming back negative negative negative um which I found fun straight because I just wanted something to be positive because I felt so ill but after all the tests are that that's when he diagnosed me with MA chronic fatigue syndrome and Karen can you is there anything in the body that can diagnose it or is it a case that you eliminate absolutely everything else and that's what you're left with in other words is there a blood test or a you know a tangible diagnosis for me no I'm not yet and that's the frustrating feeling um is that there is no test there yet um so it's a it's just getting rid of everything else when it all comes back negative um and then they were diagnosed that you've got MA chronic fatigue now it can affect everybody quite differently my case I cannot couldn't walk at all and I was bed bound for 10 years some people may not have it that severe um so it's really different for every every person so that makes it again quite difficult also I got mine from gastric flu but you can get it from other illnesses as well so this is not something necessarily that's hereditary or that you're prone to it's an infection and how the path of that infection and how it interacts with your body can trigger this so in other words any of us potentially or be rare but not not fully uncommon could end up with any definitely um it's not hereditary um but yeah I was healthy I was young I definitely think to live for and it was just whatever happens to your body um if the gastric flu there's still not 100% of knowing exactly what he's caused it but hopefully in time they will and has it does it have any I mean obviously bed bound for 10 years in a wheelchair still to this day you've got mobility issues and you'd have to pick and choose presumably how you use the the energy that you have but in terms of damage to vital organs your heart your brain your kidneys your liver does it have any progressive uh does have any any progressive impact on your your general health um a general health with the organs no it doesn't um but it does leave you a lot with brain fog um memory trouble um and things like that but not in any vital organs I haven't known it to affect mine now you have created a facebook page it's called donagall support for me um why did you decide to why did you decide to to to launch that page um obviously moving to bonnie goal as well I don't feel there's any support in donagall um I went on then um not so long ago to train to be a counselor to help people like myself because I don't feel having it in me my life just changed drastically and I just do not think there's enough support in dongall there's support for other areas of illnesses such as ms motor neurons etc but I don't feel there's a lot of support to do with m a chronic fatigue syndrome so I'd like to help others um and get a little community going to load that you're not alone with this illness and I think that's really valuable because uh I'm not sure what your case is and I'm not asking you either it is one of those conditions that even those around you and as loving and as supportive they are probably don't fully get it like someone else who has it might exactly I don't think with anything you don't know um you don't know until you actually have a certain thing whatever it's about so definitely I think if you've got someone else who's got m a they'll understand you a lot more your life is difficult but it was worse uh in terms of rehabilitation uh treatment uh what what what can be done or what worked for you Karen um when medication came from America um so I was given injections and that's slowly actually got me out of being a bed and being fully in a wheelchair full term so and like watching what you do how you pace yourself you know if you you know you're going to do a certain thing one day you have to make sure the next few days you've got nothing planned so it's really about um trial and error but also but if you've got so much support group going you know you could get understand from other people how it works for them as well but you see if I was going to go for out for the day um I would have to go back into the wheelchair because I can't physically walk for a long time um and then with me as well sometimes you can do things for one day and you manage to do it a day or so later you pay the price for it you have to be quite aware of that as well and your hopes and and and perhaps uh since progress can be dashed I can imagine all right Karen uh the Facebook page is uh Donagall support for ME it's about connecting people uh supports and information and what have you uh it's in it's infancy but hopefully um you know I'm sure there'll be a lot of people who are affected by this uh that can join I wish you the best of health that is possible for you Karen in your situ