I don't think so. No, I don't think so. You're modest enough. Sometimes. Most times are. You're right. All right. Come here. Enjoy your pie. Are you making pancakes? I made them last night. Okay. Do you have a quick recipe? No. Just usual stuff. You mean you get it in the plastic bottle, do you? No, I don't do that. Right, okay. Obviously, I'm gluten-free. I was in Don stores yesterday trying to buy a seat. No. I don't have a long shot. I make me all because I'm select. Okay. At least select. So what can't you eat? It's just wheat. It's just wheat. What's in that? Okay. Yeah. So, yeah. So, odd lumps don't do it anymore. Which is terrible. You know, odd lumps. Yeah. They don't do gluten-free flour anymore. Wow. And they were the best. So, are you looking for a gluten-free flour alternative? Yes. And there was one there that I tried. It was a bit reluctant to write because it can be chalky enough. I get you. But it was... Maybe we didn't have pancakes in a long, long time. But I used this flour and it was grand, you know. The boys liked it. You have to get them right. You have to get them right. You have to get them right. But it wasn't good. No, while the chocolate buttons melted on them.  You know, put on that was a pancake. Not to say nothing about that. Putting off chocolate on it is the same thing. Too late. Okay, to say. Good night, myself. All right. Take care, Lee. Back tomorrow morning, of course. It's nine o'clock. Just a little after now. Let's get a news update from Donal. Thank you, Greg. Good morning. A cross-party delegation of Donegal Councillors is en route to Dublin to join a public protest House demanding equality for defective block homeowners. The Micah Action Group says 20 councillors have responded to their call to send a strong message to government that ongoing delays in providing proper address are unacceptable. The former US President Bill Clinton says the inquiry into the Omo Bombing should not be established on British terms alone. The UK government announced a statutory inquiry earlier this month into the atrocity which resulted in the deaths of 29 people and unborn twins. The former US President made his comments on a new podcast as I remember it, Bertie Hearn and the Good Friday Agreement, which launches on Thursday of this week. Bill Clinton says there must be consultation with a range of people before the inquiry is established. There needs to be something just for Omo. I think it may not be throwing 30 people in prison for 30 years or may not. And I think the victims groups need to be consulted. The citizens need to be consulted. And I think the process should not be unilateral. That is, it can't just be what the British think should be done. Ministers are meeting this morning to sign off on a 1.2 billion euro package of living support measures. People receiving social welfare payments are to get a 200 euro lump sum. There will be a one off 100 euro extra child benefit payment and 100 euro extra on the back to school allowance. The 9% of that rate for the hospitality sector will be extended until September before returning to 13.5%. Louise Baylis from Spark, which represents single parents, is disappointed, however, that there aren't targeted supports for vulnerable families. You know, these general increases in social welfare rates and one off packages do not target where support is needed. And we were slightly hopeful because there were no real measures in the budget for our own parents last year. And we were really hoping that there would be some sort of adjustment to make up for that this year. And obviously that hasn't happened. A 34 year old man arrested in Derriott the weekend has been released, had been questioned in relation to an attempted hijacking in the Hollymount Park area of the city on Friday night and the subsequent discovery of a suspicious device in the Karate Road area on Saturday. And an observatory in County Roscommon has recorded 40 sightings of UFOs. Dr. Eamon Ansbrough says the sightings were picked up at the Kingsland Observatory in Boyle over a 22 year period. The US military recently shot down objects seen over US and Canadian airspace with officials admitting they didn't know what the objects were. And with a forecast, it'll be mostly cloudy with patches of light rain and drizzle this morning and into the early afternoon. More persistent rain will develop though in the late afternoon into the evening. Top temperatures today 10 to 11 degrees Celsius with moderate to fresh and gusty southerly winds. That's Highland Radio News back with news in full at 10 o'clock. I'll never forget the first time we arrived at our beautiful lodge, our cozy base for the next week of fun.  Dad couldn't even hit the board at archery and when the ducks wouldn't stop following our boat, we'd never giggled so much. It really was something special. And that's why we love to go back. Start your story today. Centre Parks Ireland, family forever. Book now at CentreParks.ie The County's number one talk show, the 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9 till noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello and a very good morning. Just about to turn five minutes past nine on this Tuesday, the 21st of February, 2023, Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday. We're looking for recipes here. If you've got any suggestions, 0866. Hey, if you any pancakes, drop them in. Mountain top letter, Kenny 0866, 25,000, honey, sugar, butter, all the stuff Caroline's giving up for Lent. Lash it on. Leave the Nutella in the fridge. Don't want that. Or maybe it goes in the cupboard. I don't know where Nutella goes. Anyway, 0866, 25,000. Share your pancake recipes if you wish. We might be giving you some suggestions a little later on as well. And the lines are open for everything else as well. Call us at 07491 25,000. WhatsApp and text I gave you that number and your email is comments at HighlandRadio.com. If you want to watch the show on your smart TV, your Firestick, open up the YouTube app or the Facebook Watch app and search Highland Radio. Watch us there or on your devices using the regular apps as well. All right, it's good to have you all on board wherever you are. And hopefully we're going to keep you entertained over the next three hours on the program. Let's start with a look at what's making the front pages and the insides of today's newspapers. We'll start with the Donegal Democrat. 22 businesses affected by the Chrysler explosion last October have received almost 100,000 euro in emergency humanitarian support as efforts by the community to return to normal continue. Local businesses are fighting to get back to where they were before the event that changed so much in their locality. Local Councillor Michael McClaffordy said he welcomed the cash boost, adding anything that helped the village start the journey back to normality. It was welcomed. I don't know how. I don't know who got what in terms of financial assistance, but everyone recognises all help is welcome after what happened in the village, he said. On to the Derry Journal today. A cross-party delegation of Donegal councillors is set to descend on Dublin to make a public protest outside Lenster House to demand a quality of 100% redress for the many thousands of victims of defective concrete homes. The deputation will consist of around 20 counter-councillors from Fina Gale, Fina Falsion, Fane Labour and other independent who've responded to the call of affected homeowners for their elected local reps to stand up, be counted and send a very public message to government that the ongoing anguish and lack of equality endured by families victims to defective concrete blocks comes, homes is utterly unacceptable. I do hope and I'm sure it's been the case that the national broadcasters have been notified of the event because it's pretty unique. You know, when can you think of the last time a cross-party delegation of local reps descended on the capital demanding something of government and, you know, government members within those ranks demanding same, but you know, you really need the cameras pointed at them for it to have as big an effect as is possible. So hopefully they've been notified and hopefully they do, they do turn out there. The Irish Independent tells us of the package being unveiled by government to address the cost of living crises, 200 bonus payment for all social welfare recipients, which will be welcome news, I'm sure. All social welfare recipients will receive a 200 euro bonus payment under a fresh round of cost of living supports agreed by the government, which is set to total 1.25 billion. The payment will be made to pensioners, carers, loan parents and people with disabilities, among others. The coalition leaders also agreed to give a 100 euro bonus for every child on the child benefit scheme. Additionally, there'll be 100 euro extra on the back to school clothing allowance to support families. Social Protection Minister Heather Humphries went into the meeting of government leaders proposing a 150 euro bonus for all welfare rates. However, she argued at the meeting that it could be increased to 200. Now, as well as that, the 9% VAT rate for hospitality and I presume hairdressers and other businesses that also qualified for it currently, it's going to be extended until the end of August. That's going to cost 300 million, which I don't know in terms of job support and support of the tourism industry doesn't sound incredibly expensive with the type of money we're talking of. The cost of diesel, though, there will be increases on excise duty. This is diesel and petrol, of course, an increase in excise duty from June 1st petrol goes up by 6 cent and diesel by 5 cent. On September 1st petrol will go up another 7 cent diesel will go up another 5 cent. The remaining 8 cent on petrol and 6 cent on diesel will increase on October 31st, which is going to see a liter of petrol and diesel go up quite significantly. You can only hope that maybe there might be a drop in the raw cost of these commodities, these fuels that might offset it somewhat, but still it's going to cost us an awful lot more to drive. The 9% rate on electricity and gas bills will be extended until the end of October. They are expecting those bills to come down over the course of the year, so hopefully there will be more money in our pockets come next winter. What do you think of that? 0860, 6025,000? I suppose any support is welcome. Does it go far enough? I'm not really quite sure. My focus, and it's beyond me, my focus would be to ensure that those who need the money get the money. I presume there are people who receive a pension or people who receive child benefit that aren't under pressure, but everyone's going to get it. I'm not sure if that's right or wrong. It's a universal payment. Maybe more could be given to those that genuinely need it, but how do you determine that? I don't know. The EU expects Sunak to push ahead with protocol deal. We were talking about this on the show yesterday, as everyone was I suppose. Senior figures in Dublin and Brussels expect UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to push ahead with a new deal with the EU on the Northern Ireland protocol, despite signs yesterday of a rebellion within his own party. He's OK, though, because he's got Labour's backing. They've signed him a blank check and he's got the backing of the senior members of his party. So you'll have a few junior ministers that will fall on the sword, a few others that will perhaps leave the party, but he has enough support to push through with this if he so wants to. Mr. Sunak is under intense domestic pressure from former Prime Minister Boris Johnston and the group of hardline euro skeptics in his party and with the DUP as yet undecided on whether to back a deal. The fate of the proposed agreement still hangs in the balance, though I would say it's quite heavily tipped towards a deal being announced. It would be good for Sunak if he can get that over the line. And it's good for him with everything that's going on to have a decent relationship with his European neighbours. On to the daily mail now. I had to pick something out because a lot of the stories have replicated across the papers, of course. I do know some of you out there have an interest in Enoch Burke and what he's continuing to do, and he is continuing to do it. He's jeopardised his chances of the appeal court ruling in his case. After a gain, he returned to his former school after the midterm break. Mr. Burke, who was dismissed last month from Wilson's Hospital School in County West Mead, insists the High Court order to stay away is invalid. Now, this despite the fact he's actually, he is sacked. His repeated breaches of the order led to a three-month stay in Mount Joi for contempt of court in the daily fine of 700 euro per day. He now owes over 17 and a half thousand euro. Court of Appeal President George Birmingham has instructed him that court orders are valid unless and until they're overturned by a higher court. Mr. Burke appealed the order, but George Birmingham warned the Court of Appeal could withhold its judgement if he continued to breach the order while the court is reaching his decision. So there's not really a very big out from there. An interesting story. I'm not sure if there's anything from it, but I'm sure you saw over the weekend a lady. Julia Wendell is her name and she released a video on social media. I think it was on TikTok or Instagram. It was on both. I'm not sure where it appeared first and she feels that she might be Madeleine McKenna. This is obviously a very vulnerable woman because she's not aware of her identity or her history. So regardless of whether or not it's perhaps unlikely she is Madeleine McKenna. This is a person that needs support, but a young woman who claims she is 100% convinced she's missing British girl Madeleine McKenna has posted a new video to Instagram. Julia Wendell, who's 21, shared a video of herself chatting to police psychic Dr. Fia Johansson, who previously claimed in 2020 that Madeleine was living in Germany. In her latest video, Polish woman Julia said her family have shunned her over her claims. She said police in the UK and Poland have been ignoring her, but she wants a DNA test to prove she is the little girl who went missing from her holiday apartment in Portugal 16 years ago, can you believe? She was just three at that time. It's understood the McCanns have agreed to the DNA test. Now she's 21, Madeleine McCann was three when she disappeared 16 years ago. So basic maths would dictate that either she has her age wrong or it's not her. Well Julia broke down in tears in the video and said her family have expressed their disapproval. In the clip she said my grandma called me. She said I'm a very bad person that she doesn't want to meet me anymore. She started to shout at me. I asked her for a DNA test with her or with my parents and she will not. She will not. That's and that's where it finishes. It just kind of ends there. So as I say at the very very least there's a vulnerable a vulnerable woman though that needs support and not exploitation I would suggest. We were talking about when energy prices might increase a great deal of speculation because no one knows it's in the gift of the energy suppliers but the smear it tells us today that families hopes for imminent energy cost savings have been dashed as providers say it could be over a year before bills come down. Pinergy which hiked its charges seven times in the last two years announced price cuts yesterday but bought gosh energy. Electric Ireland energy of flow gas and SSE electricity are not set to follow Pinergy they have confirmed. Pinergy CEO Ender Gunnell said we had committed to reducing prices when circumstances and market conditions allowed. Comparison firm bonkers dot e warned Pinergy's rivals will now face pressure to announce cuts. Their spokesperson said however a lot will depend on their hedging strategies and when they bought their gas and electricity firms urged customers who need assistance with bills to contact them but they're still quite expensive. And last but not least your old iPhone could be worth a fortune a first generation Apple iPhone in its original box is sold for a world record of wait for it 50 000 euro 16 years after its release the factory sealed handset which cost almost 560 euro when it went on sale in 207 still has its plastic wrapping. Karen Green was gifted the iPhone by colleagues in the summer of 2007 but as she already had a mobile she wrapped the handset in pajamas and placed it in the shelf lo and behold digs it out 16 years later and it's worth 50 000 euro so it's an original still in its box still with its wrapping on but hey the price of those phones it's not far off the cost of a new phone now people spend an absolute fortune i don't know where people get the money i see them walking around with these iPhones and i'm like what all right 08 660 25 000 what's up syntax that number or give us a call in 07 491 25 000 good morning good morning to Paul Annie Margaret and pseudoscientist watching us on our social media we'll be back with our first guest on the program after we take a quick break 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 9102127 change is happening in letter Kenny and for the better letter Kenny medics is a new private clinic opening soon offering private health care dr. mohammed and dr. repu welcome new patients to the clinic conveniently located on the port road open seven days per week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. offering full medical consultation and checkups including a full cardiac screening with eco assessments of minor injuries and the facility to complete minor surgeries without the long waiting times to register visit letter Kenny medics dot e or call 07 492 029 005 letter Kenny medics we listen if you want to talk forward emphasis international based in Mallonhead and Belfast are actively recruiting for customer service advisors and experienced motor claims handlers with both in office and hybrid opportunities available fully funded insurance and financial service qualifications delivering attractive career path opportunities are available please visit their website forward emphasis dot i e and apply via their careers page go full for a trolley full of savings we've got a flip and delicious meal deal for pancake Tuesday get your classic pancake mix lemon juice and indulgent hazelnut chocolate spread all for just three euro and get a sweet 28 percent off fresh blueberries to pop on top now just 19 go on shop without compromise go full needle today guess what what larkins of new mills are offering an early bird special for only 695 monday to friday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. a full menu is available seven days per week along with daily lunch specials call in any time to larkins of new mills or 4 0 7 4 9 1 2 double 6 9 7 and at our family look after yours okay now let's welcome on to the program David Fitzgerald who's CEO of the motor insurers bureau of Ireland how are you getting on David not too bad great thanks for having me on it's good to have you on the program right and this uh news emerged yesterday that 8.3 percent of all cars on irish roads did not have insurance coverage last year uh how are these uh how are these figures collated are we confident that these aren't cars that aren't parked around the side of the house or in four courts or something we we are Greg and they're shocking figures it means one in 12 vehicles are driving around without insurance breaking the law so what we do is we and we get the database of vehicles from the department transport those vehicles that are taxed so that appear to be in use and we compare them to a motor insurance database that our members the motor insurers have built so we're pretty confident that they're they're accurate figures I mean it really is a figure far higher than I would have guessed I don't know which looks worse 8.3 percent or one in every 12 vehicles that you see on the road is uninsured and there are there are consequences of that and we'll get into it but I mean do we have any idea where that stands sort of on an international sort of scale very high Greg so by by way of comparison with our nearest neighbors that would be that would be twice the level of of uninsured driving that they see in the UK and four times the level of uninsured driving that they see in France so you know we're calling for more enforcement on the back of those alarming figures we have a potential solution we have built an Irish Motor Insurance database that contains the the insurance details of all motor vehicles in Ireland and we can derive an uninsured list from that we want to get that information to Garde so that the mechanism to do that on a on a safe legal basis without reaching data protection regulations you sit out on the road traffic and roads bill 2021 which has been slowly working its way through the eruptus so we're calling in the eruptus to fast track that bill so we can get that information over to Garde and so they can use it for enforcement with their with their give it the devices they have in the in the car that will automatically detect uninsured vehicles we can get them that data yeah but i'd be curious as to say for instance how many and i presume are you talking about inputting this within the vehicle are you talking about sort of the number plate recognition cars because i if it's a latter i've talked i i've talked about both so they so they they have their most of the real policing cars now of automatic number plate recognition technology and they've they've already rolled this tech out as well to a couple of hundred mobile phones with plans to roll out to more to frontline policing so i think if it would so they can point their mobility devices at vehicles and and you know very quickly established whether or not to be at least be uninsured and likewise with with the guard of cars that happens pretty automatically so if we can get them this quality data we think that can make a real difference is this type of strategy has been successful in other jurisdictions the UK for example who you have have much lower levels on a sure driving than we have because it's it's costing a lot of the money so we're we're an upper profit we compensate their victims Greg you know the victims of uninsured accidents and we're paying out 70 to 75 million euros per annum to those victims and we're all paying for that on our policies so it's 30 to 35 euros goes on to everybody's motor policy in a levy to compensate yeah you know the victims of people that choose not to drive uninsured i mean there's a couple of groups of people listening to us this morning there will be a group that say it's not a bit wonder because of the cost of insurance and people have to do what they have to do to get to and from work and what have you cost the living and and and decisions that have made that are driving that up and then another group uh who will recognize that it's they that are paying for it or they've maybe been in a collision with someone without insurance and of course then there's going to be a group of people somewhere in between the reality is is though when you have this level of non-compliance clearly an awful lot of people know that they're not going to get caught that you can you know duplicate these the guardian routinely put them into a machine that they're shining a light or glancing an eye over it if the green stripes there in the number plate looks okay they'll wave you on the only problem is is if you're flagged uh you know if they decide to actually really scrutinize your vehicle and it's obviously generally known same as people know that they don't really necessarily have to land hand in their licenses if they receive uh you know receive a suspension there's a lot of information out there as to how you can get around this stuff seemingly very frustrating i mean you know i don't accept the price issue having insurances the law that and you know we we can pick and choose resource we follow it's it's a law that there's for good reason due to the serious injuries and death unfortunately because by motor vehicles to third parties and i suppose one of the reasons why we're calling for this bill you know and raising awareness of the level on the short drive is you know you know we have strongly believe that you know that the technology is a solution for some of the you know the issues you're raising there greg if people are duplicating insurance certificates for example and you know that won't wash with this technology as it's rolled out to the guard of forces so you know if people are thinking they can take a chance on that you know that those days are numbered greg and the reality is is the guards don't have to catch 187 000 uninsured drivers uh just 187 000 uninsured drivers have to feel there's a chance they might actually get caught exactly because the penalties are significant if you're called greg so the the guard he will see your vehicle on the spot it's an automatic court appearance it's five penalty points and a substantial fine of up to 5000 euros so it really isn't we're taking the chance there's a lot of stuff out there too about um yeah and it's a small amount of vehicles but uh vehicles that maybe have been brought into this country by people fleeing ukraine or wherever it might be as far as you're aware as far as mi bi is concerned all the same rules of the world apply they're all equally enforced or is there any leniency for vehicles that have been brought into the country by people fleeing war or or oppression well with the different solutions being put in place for it but not different but those things have been put in place to facilitate for example the ukraine and registered vehicles so there's a there's a system called green cards and that you can temporarily extend insurance from the ukraine to allow those drivers to drive legally in this in this country after after a certain period of time there'll be an obligation on those drivers to re-register those vehicles to to Irish registrations that they plan to stay for for the longer term but that is something that you know the department of transport have a closely asked and and insurance would be sympathetic so there's but are you are you you know but are you there is in from yeah I just want to ask are you uh how do you not you specifically use an industry or with your knowledge how do you ensure that the the insurance that's being provided in ukraine is actually underwritten that in other words in the event of a collision that um there will be a we have a we have reciprocal arrangements with a similar body in ukraine will stand you know we'll stand over ukraine and green cards if there are any ukraine and drivers listening and and they want some information if they go to our website mibi.ie we have some information up in english and ukraine and that would assist ukraine and drivers to ensure that they they remain compliant with local regulation and finally what is the the the block to uh guard you have an access to this database so that you know if there is a flag it includes a flag on insurance if say for instance uh if a number of places count scanned so the the data protection commissioners told us we need it we need a statutory legal basis to safely pass this information to the guard so that's contained within the road traffic and roads bill 2021 that's working for you to the iraq to so we're calling the iraq to surpass that as quickly as possible great so that we we we have a safe basis we're hoping that will happen soon and then we can start getting that information over to the guard and uh they can start cracking down on this uh frightening level of uninsured driving yeah all right listen thanks for your time david really appreciate it take care of yourself david if it's gerald ceo of the motor insurers bureau of arland 08 6 60 25 000 that's the whatsapp and text number some more of your comments here Greg when a child turns 18 do they still need godparents or can they change them as they never bother about them well that's an interesting question because godparenting and its importance kind of varies i think from family to family what is a godparents function after someone turns 18 hopefully to remember birthdays but it's more important than that but why would you change them then let us know what you think this might be an issue that i'm not really aware of 08 6 60 25 000 what role uh does uh an adult or what role does a godparent potentially have uh in the life of an adult what what is their actual role uh for children i mean what is what what is the whole notion of it i seem to remember it was that god forbid anything out to your parents that they would look after you but that's not really how it works the courts i'm not sure would recognize that was it and we were talking yesterday actually to jillian about wills there was no mention of godparents there so what is the current function of godparents my understanding is as i say i'm going back in time in my memory is that you know it was to do with religion and if your parents succumbed that they would be there to raise you in the religion you were born into so a what's the role in childhood and b is there any role after 18 can you divorce them as an adult and would you get other ones i'll read the message again greg when a child's eight turns 18 do they still need godparents or can they change them as they never bother about them it's an interesting one i've never thought about it we were talking yesterday about um progress hopeful progress in relation to a leisure center in boncran our call us as a leisure center doesn't bring tourism this new center will be handed over to a private business which like other centers will run at a last how does this make any sense we'll look at i don't know the ins and outs of the business model for leisure centers but there are areas much smaller than boncran i that have access to leisure centers the whole of in a show doesn't have one and you've got bus loads of children going into dairy or into letter candy or wherever they might have to go maybe there's hotels available in in a show that have swimming pools i don't think so i think the last time i talked about it we were being told they would have to go elsewhere um so it needs it even if it runs at a loss the people have in a show and deserve a leisure center people of the capital in inverted commas maybe boncran out uh jack you don't you can't get double government funds for pools uh hi where does my road tax that i pay and my two cars go goes into general taxation i can tell you that for a fact but this letter candy resident goes on to say i recently seen potholes being repeatedly filled with cold tar and flattened with a shovel uh is this a standard road building procedure from the roads authority i think not so where does my money get spent on if not the roads as i say it goes into just general taxation interesting comments from um one of the counselors and that are coming yesterday was it jerry mcmonagall talking about a new machine which can quite quickly and effectively repair potholes they're hiring it i believe uh but i think the council shall have a couple of those they can react more you know quickly to these problems uh for defective concrete block home owners where the owners are elderly in the event of death or of the second spouse on a mica home what happens to the mica claim does it automatically pass on to the next of kin that was a question for our will's expert i'm open to correction on this and i really should be because i think i cocked up the roundabout letter candy uh on wednesday just as the show was going off air and didn't come back on thursday and friday just shall i go back to that that road and letter candy by the way the road where you this is the test go roundabout if you're familiar with it at the bus station there someone was asking which lane do you go if you're going out the what port road what road is that caroline the station road over the pierce road and it's the right lane because it states that on the road okay so the scenario i was given was if it was a regular roundabout that didn't have any specific designation printed on it so it's the right lane for going over the road um i mentioned there as it relates to the claim i my understanding was that the claim um would would pass with the applicant but as i say please correct me on that i don't want to give any misinformation uh the books my daughter is doing at school a romio and juliet and the teacher won't do the bit where they kill themselves and the other is of mice and men which contains racist language which she won't allow them to use these are held as classics books yet they won't allow them to be read in the context they were intended right i mean listen i just i wonder like i have dedicated my life to as best as possible to ensure and my children are you know uh able to look after themselves that they can handle their emotions and stuff because they've been quick through quite a bit of the last nine or ten years but i don't think protecting them from words is going to help at all like i just wonder now eight seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen year old a lot of them not all of them but my word they're in for shock aren't they when they go to school and go to college and people use certain words or they have to cook for themselves or manage their own finances i just be fearful that we are raising a generation of children that will struggle to operate in a very very tough world because it is a tough world and it's tougher now i mean you know i'd say to that teacher read about Romeo and Juliet killing themselves and then give the children a space to ask a question if they so wish you know by not talking about it it doesn't help talk about it right and then allow them the opportunity to ask a question if need be that's education use the language in mice and men in context point out that it's in context explain to them why it's offensive now and i'm not sure if i'm correct with the if i'm correct with the book of mice and men you can use that to contextualize a bit of history on it you know educate people burying your head in the sand does not really achieve anything uh right uh comment re-increase in diesel it's time that the government were gone i swear to you lads if you think everything's going to change with the change of government you're in for some shock but anyway how come they can find the money to go away for paddy's day yet and all they are putting more cost on the general public now maybe when you put it like that comment re-learner drivers there was a law put in place that learner drivers are not permitted to drive on their own but it's never enforced what happened to the learner driver traveling alone hits the car if they're not insured the third party is no recourse as the learner driver is not insured well that's not quite true there's been quite a level of enforcement of that i'll get the stats for you because i remember reading them a wee while back and i was surprised at how high they are i'm not ready caroline you know look caroline saying move on move on go go go all right i'll do it now uh we'll take a quick break i'll dig up those stats for later because i i think it's quite a high level of uh people being um i'm not sure your insurance okay i want to be careful not to give mislead i'm not sure your insurance is invalidated if you're driving on on your own that's something we're going to have to get some clarity on watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com the 90 noon show with letter kenny credit union now offering mycu current account and debit mastercard bringing full banking features delivered with the same local trustworthy service of your credit union 60 seconds to plumper skin almost nine out of 10 women say they have dehydrated skin new generation hydro essential from clarence formulated for 24 hour hydration it helps skin naturally boost its hyaluronic power by day it hydrates and plumps at night replenishes moisture levels hydrated skin is 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highest of professional standards call 083 005 939 donnelly tree services donnie gall no job is too small no tree is too tall mcdades bathroom plumbing and tile showroom in boncran is your one stop solution for all your bathroom plumbing and tile needs we offer a wide range of top quality plumbing fixtures tiles and accessories all at the best possible price our experienced plumbing experts will help you choose the right products for your bathroom renovation new construction or remodeling project visit mcdades bathroom plumbing and tiles in boncran and see why we are the best choice for all your bathroom and plumbing and tile needs uh you're welcome back okay we were asked earlier on by a listener you know what function do your god parents serve when you hit 18 because i think one wanted to kind of devolve them and get new ones but this caller says i changed one of the godparents for one of my children because they completely ignored them and never told them as there's no contact the person i chose is much nicer and better all-round person who's involved in my child's life okay that's an interesting one any more on that 08 660 25 000 Mary T Sweeney is a representative for Aintu in Donagall Mary T good morning to you good morning Greg it's good to have you back on the show right we're talking about uh i mentioned your representative for Aintu i didn't deny we're talking about the residential zoned land tax it's a new tax that was introduced uh what's the issue here as far as you see it Mary T i have several major concerns about this in that this is a new land tax that people in Donagall need to be particularly aware of because i have communicated and sent out feelers around the county and a lot of people that i have have never actually met any ordinary householder that is aware of it and yet it's going to impact an enormous amount of house owners and it will impact them more seriously in the sense that they have to submit submit um uh information to their local revenue office if they have more than one acre of land around their property and furthermore if they have a garden a horticultural site where they grow potatoes or they grow that may not be included so that will actually be subject to this new three percent tax on their land annually unless they get an exclusion for us now the aim of this tax uh was to encourage uh the use of land for housing this is one of the government's responses to it so in other words you won't sit on it uh paying tax you will sort of make it available for development sell it maybe develop yourself i don't know but how difficult is it to sort of get yourself excluded from this or to appeal it or do we know anything about that well you can't because you've missed the closing date and what's more than this Greg i did send some of the research i've done over the weekend i've only become aware of this last thursday friday around that date that i saw an article in the Irish Times saying that all the big developers in Dublin have put in exemptions for their land so meaning the people that this was really designed to target the large developers sitting on large land banks with planning ready to roll but they won't build because the price at the moment the materials have become too expensive so this is not the way you cannot put what as a Dublin incentive tax to get development around the bigger cities the bigger areas of population what they've done is they've applied this to rural Donegal to 11 towns and villages around letter around Donegal and i think it's important for people to know it if i'm allowed i'll read out the 11 because i don't believe that people i phone people in mongrama that have a small eight or ten acres then you nothing about it in time multiple homeowners if your home has more than one acre you should have registered before the first of january 2023 okay now there's no tax implication if you registered before the first of january 2023 but most people did not that i have spoken to in the letter kenny area and in the bunkram area further concerns are that i think i'm going to be calling on the government to pause this for Donegal some of the other key concerns for me are the small farmers i've spoken to several small farmers around Donegal around letter kenny particularly and one in mongrana and they knew nothing about it and they thought but sure i'm not developing and i said yeah but that's the point they're trying to if the council has you on the map there's a new map and i implore for people to go on to the Donegal county council website and type in or z l t and that stands for residential zoned land tax and perhaps if you can put up a link on your show but i'm not sure the window has closed uh because there are three stages isn't there there's a draft map supplemental map and the final map and the final map won't be completed until the first of december so we have the draft map at the moment the supplemental map um allows people to have a look at it and see where the land is at and what have you public notices to announce the publication of the supplemental map must be placed in newspapers by no later than the first of may so there's still a window uh if i'm reading the legislation correctly i'm not reading it so what is so what's the supplemental map and the final map then we have the draft map currently yeah the draft maps the only map that you the public are in my reading of this and i've had extensive reading of it over the last three days in my reading of this the only time that you had the opportunity this and the time frame is one of the reasons i want this suspended for Donegal immediately the time this was advertised on the first of november 2022 greg and a window of seven to eight weeks less than eight weeks was given to the first of january 2023 to actually make your submission to this because there was officially map available in the Donegal county council offices around the county or you could have looked it up online that sort of information for public consultation is not wide enough and people the general public are not aware that only developers and builders are aware of that type of information when you see a zoning land tax most people don't know what size their garden is if you've an orchard at the side of your garden you think it's part of my family home you may be implicated in all of this and have a tax to pay if you do not become familiar with it look it up and the first thing you must do is if you are zoned and the red line in the map then you need to start asking questions if you're the small farmer if you're a small site a site you bought us an investment for your children when they grow up have it zoned in the red zone in the map for your bunkrana cardona and kelly bags donnie galltown there's 11 areas around the count dunlow donnie galltown balba faced in order balai shannon bundorn and i think i've gone muff down at muff there's several areas around muff there's a specific map for those areas and if your house or land or garden or feed that you grow potatoes on every year is in that map you're in you need to make yourself familiar with this because it's extremely serious implications and it's a lot of money because you know three percent of the market value of the land especially if it's alone especially if it's zoned as for development that's going to be quite a significant level annually all this land in this map is automatically now zoned development by our dunny gall county councillors and the council the local authority itself and the only chance you had to object to your land or to try and get it re-zoned was in that window of opportunity between the first of november and the first of january the christmas period which is the most the greatest period of keeping taking your eye off the ball in relation to public notices and events happening because of the christmas period and people getting ready for family and getting ready for for christmas and what have you so i have grave concerns that there wasn't an adequate consultation period given that this is really in a sense has missed the target of who was supposed to be listen there's a lot of there's a lot of different outlets a lot of different outlets and platforms in dunny gall by the way so i don't want anyone to think that i'm you know blowing up this program or the station or anything but i sit here for three hours a day five days a week and cover a lot of stuff i don't remember doing any public information piece on this you know too because we are you know we're a significant part of the whole voice to sort of let people know what what's happening how they can make submission how they can check their lands in advance you know there was a hundred and thirty two submissions received i believe by the council but you know that's only a drop in the ocean i wonder how much effort was actually made to get all this information out to the public so they could make you know they could make submissions were applicable well one of the greatest concerns i have from a dunny gold point of view is that it doesn't seem to be one message fit so it's very cumbersome and difficult to read the documents the easiest i would recommend people to read is the one your questions answered and it's difficult to find but if you scroll to the very very bottom of the page on the dunny gold county council website in small writing you will see your questions answered in red writing at the bottom that will give you an initial overview of what this is about and again if you don't pay your three percent because you didn't know and it's your duty to know it and it's your responsibility to assess it and send your assessment of your land in to the revenue and this is a three-hand approach that's local authority who are the mediators and they really have no say only providing the maps it's revenue will be actually dealing with one on that map all right just to back up what you're saying here making a submission on the draft mapping which was already done written submissions or observations and respective the draft map may be made to the planning authority in the following ways blah blah blah the deadline for submission is the first of January 2023 submission should include a name and address reasons for inclusion or exclusion of lands because it might be in the advantage of some to have them zoned really zoned if they choose to sell it okay along with the map at certain scale where the submission is made by landowner clearly identifying the area of land subject of the submission so as I say those submissions had to be in by the first of January now the council drafted this map having regard to land being serviced have access to services like roads pass public lighting surface water wastewater water supplies polls in an awful lot there and the land zones must allow for residential development so the colouring say it's red is it in other words land that's right the red the lean how extensive I haven't saw this map how extensive is it like is there a lot of land that's red now as far as you could see and going through the maps the whole town's red my great concern is that the house isn't added honour on it the house isn't in Glenwood Parker on it New Lane roads on it college road and I'm aware of different case scenarios that are very very disturbing an elderly lady living that had a small garden behind their family home they bought at a later stage and when the kids were small they grew vegetables in it but technically now it's in the red zone it is in the circumference of the town in letter Kenny so because it's in the red zone it's automatically a residential zone that property that was bought as a garden is now a site that could be worth any worth anything too for 300,000 we have this situation now right whereby landowners people who are trying to you know the gather assets may be for to leave to their family whatever or just happen to have it inherited to them are potentially being penalised to force them for this land to be developed so the public the general public have been penalised to make this so at the same time we've got developers going into cozy meetings with decision makers looking for breaks to say oh well we'll build some houses but we need this and we need that we need these breaks so the people build the odd it just feels like another situation where all the odds are stacked against regular Joe or Josephine and the poor farmer so the the Egypt's you're taxed into letting your land be used whilst those that are going to use it are incentivised because they won't build it and they can they've got this they've the developers' marities you know they've got this country by the back of the hair let's put it like that because if they if they say we're not going to build if we're not going to build your banjaxed government have set out targets that they have to meet and there's a group of individuals that they need to meet them so they have they have all the cards here we are if you're lucky enough to have a little bit of land in a certain area you're being compelled by way of a 3% tax per year on its market value to give up your land and if you don't pay it there are significant supplementary taxes on top of that to such an extent that if you fall behind the overall value of your land by a percentage then they can seize your land right well some if they want someone wanted to write a catchy headline they could call this they could call it and probably make a strong argument for it it's like a dev developers land grab I I don't want to alarm people I want to specifically reach out to people that have an uncle or an aunt that has a small farm you know anything under 10, 15, 20 acres that's sitting around the periphery of Lettercanny, Bunkrana, Cairndonna, Bondorn, Kelly Beggs, Donegal Town, Dunlowe, Moff, Balbufface, Snororla, or Balashannan you people please please if you're younger or you're older and your IT literate go on to the actual website that's very easy to use as this legal one and what I've found from the research which really disturbs me is there appears to be differences in the way the information is relayed in different sites okay well listen I mean we're going to reach out to the council just I'm not questioning I'm not doubting what you're saying for a moment but reach out to the council to see what they have to say on this and as you say you're not trying to alarm people there's an awful lot of people this doesn't apply to if you're in between towns or outside boundaries and what have you you're talking specifically about those named towns and it's almost within town boundaries I presume Merity so this is not covering the whole county but certain areas check out the map see if it applies to you and we're going to pursue the council to see what they have to say on this I have spoken initially to the IFA as well to this in relation to the farming and I know they're going to open up their own concerns as well and what really concerned me Greg if you look at some of the other the differences in the websites in different county councils I couldn't believe that there wasn't a general format for layout and procedures for councils around the country but in some council areas they have invited an expression of interest for residential zone development land and turnkey project and they don't have a closing date until the 16th of March 2023 why is it different and donny goal because why is there differences I don't know we'll we'll we'll try and get to the bottom of that Merity what about the people in the nursing home and their small holding sitting there at the moment they're either temporary in the nursing home and waiting to get out or they're in long term and the family have been managing the farm for that person they may not be aware of it three percent on a hundred thousand value of one site would be would be three thousand per year and you may not be aware of it and if a crude over a number of years then there's a significant deficit there that most people don't have cash you might have a small plot of ground a couple of fields and especially the smaller farmer they don't have that type of cash to pay out because your land has now been zoned residential instead of agriculture okay dog Merity thanks for your time it's it's it's interesting information have a have a good day thank you Greg take care of yourself bye bye Merity Sweeney there representative Frane to say she's not looking to alarm people but I think it's definitely an important topic that we need to get some clarification on what do you think are you affected by this maybe you've dug into this yourself four eight six sixty twenty five thousand WhatsApps and texts did I see a pancake arrive here at Caroline who from can you tell me no Kelly's across the road well there you go you see if you ask you if you don't ask you don't receive we've a fully loaded pancake how long is it till the 10 o'clock news seven minutes right okay thanks to Kelly's across the road great group of people over there of course we really do appreciate that it's a lovely gesture oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand WhatsApps and texts just to remind you on that stuff we've been talking about let me see I work as a motor recovery claims handler I would say that I have between 20 to 30 claims that involved uninsured drivers we never get the money back from them there you go another caller says I'm so sick of working and barely being able to meet my needs and pay my bills yet my neighbour next door who's on benefits is driving a jeep and with a family of two outs and four kids they're heading off to Spain in the April break someone tell me what I am doing wrong every situation is different I think I would personally I can't I'm not dictating to anyone but I know people who can't work for one reason or another and they are living you know day to day so I don't think we should group all people in the same but I get you you're out there slugging and you feel the people next door aren't and they're doing better than you a lot of people will share that for you I get that don't get me wrong but it's not the same for everyone either do you get me right we have to take take a quick break get the weather forecast more transaction charges letterkenny credit union 9102127 charlie mcclaffordy funeral directors serving letterkenny and the surrounding areas for over 100 years charlie mcclaffordy funeral directors then our family take care of your family and guide you through a difficult time hear that that's the sound of you saving when you drive an electric vehicle you're helping save our beautiful planet and you're saving yourself not having to pay ever-increasing fuel prices find out more about what you could save at fasterevcharge.com save today and tomorrow this project has been supported by the european union's interreg 5a program keep out the cold cold cold and ring Fleming for their full range of garage doors agri doors insulated doors milking parlor doors Fleming 91 48 234 check out the massive warehouse clearance sale now on at paco letterkenny up to 70% off printed dresses active wear jackets comfort leggings quilted gilets and regatta don't miss out on this one-off massive warehouse clearance sale now on at paco in letterkenny retail park highland radio weather updates with ireland west airport discover edinburgh this summer with reiner's three times weekly service stunning architecture endless winding streets and an awe-inspiring castle ireland west airport and don't just take off take it easy i'm not going to lie to you i had a pancake during the break i actually really did it's terrible and i ate it all and swallowed it in two and a half minutes uh the weather this morning and early afternoon will be mostly cloudy with patches of light rain or drizzle more persistent rain will develop in the late afternoon and evening highest temperatures of 10 or 11 degrees with moderate to fresh and gusty southerly winds but as we told you at the start of the week it's going to get a little bit um cooler as the week wears on let me see more of your comments here again another busy morning thank you so much insurance is very much on the rise since car insurance has went down through the government investigation into price fixing commercial premises church buildings and other organizations which have premises all got a hike in their insurance also my parents who were both over 70 recently renewed their insurance and both had to get medicals they need one every three years for a license but now require one every year for insurance first time this has happened that's not that's pretty significant an awful lot of people listen to this program and around the county over 70 years of age out in the roads all of the time all of them are going to require a medical every year for their insurance I think 70 seems a bit tight on that isn't it is that the case I'm sure it is as the listener said but give us more info 08 660 25000 we all know uninsured drivers the last time I called the Guardi to report it they were more interested in getting my details than taking the than taking his there needs to be a dedicated reporting line for uninsured drivers hi Greg did the fuel allowance get anything not that I'm aware of but that doesn't mean it didn't I just didn't see it I just didn't see it there that might be something that would happen heading into the winter later in the year what about workers keeping the show on the road do they receive support with diesel going up in September I'm not sure and it's not it's going up in increments to inform you does the working family payment get a bonus again I didn't see that it's all going to be announced what's happened this is the headlines have been leaked so I can't say because it wasn't in the leaks that it's not going to happen and I don't want to mislead anyone so we're going to have Charlie Weston coming on with us a little later on to go through it all just as soon as the cabinet sign off on it because then we're talking about pure facts rather than conjecture though an awful lot in the papers obviously is accurate but it doesn't give the full picture Okie doke it is time for us to take a break for the news stay right where you are the news and obituary notices are on the way and we'll be back with more on Tuesdays 9 till noon show afterwards ending price order will be deducted ends 27 February cdiy.ie green shoes at market square letter kenny are proud to announce that they're now stocking riker footwear riker blend fashionable styles with incredible comfort striking the perfect balance between fashion and practicality all riker shoes are made using unique anti stress and anti shock technology to provide the essential support and comfort the brand is known for try any of the new season riker shoes now at green shoes market square letter kenny don't just do okay in your career do great at all state don't settle soar don't procrastinate innovate don't do mediocre do magnificent at all state great work great life great people or great opportunities await search all state n i careers today the 9 till noon show with letter kenny credit union simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from letter kenny credit union call us on zero seven four nine one zero two one two six or apply online via our app or in office today lie on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning it's donna marie darty with the news at ten o'clock the finance minister says families on lower incomes will be supported through the government's cost of living package michael magrass says they will receive targeted support through the working family payment subject to cabinet approval this morning the package measures will include a 100 euro child benefit lump sum and 200 euro social welfare payment finance minister michael magrass says they're focused on keeping the cost and prices down we absolutely recognize that there will be people who are working who are on relatively low incomes who will feel that they too need more help and i think you will see in the social welfare measures today an attempt to target people who are working on relatively low incomes through the working family payment and i think you will see we have consciously tried to keep costs and prices down as far as we possibly can meanwhile cuts to excise on petrol and diesel are being retained until later in the year while the nine percent reduced rate on that on hospitality sector has been extended until august minister for trade enterprise and employment simon coveney says it will be costly to continue but the sector continues to face significant challenges the government's trying to get the balance right here by on the one hand recognizing that this was a temporary measure and at the same time there are continuing challenges in this sector that this isn't a scheme that doesn't have a significant amount of costs you know this is this is in the hundreds of millions of euros but look the government will will have a discussion on that and you know as you'd expect my job is to is to give the perspective from an enterprise perspective to make sure that we can protect businesses in the months ahead across party delegation of donnie gall counselors are traveling to double traveling to Dublin this morning to join a public protest outside lester house demanding equality for defective block home owners the mica action group says 20 counselors have responded to the call to send a strong message to government that the ongoing delays in providing proper redress are unacceptable citizen and victim groups need to be consulted in advance of the establishment of the oma bomb inquiry that's the view of former US president Bill Clinton who was speaking on a new podcast as I remember it Bertie Ahern and the Good Friday Agreement which launches on Thursday earlier this month the UK government announced the establishment of a statutory inquiry into the atrocities in 1998 which resulted in the deaths of 29 people Bill Clinton says any new inquiry should not be unilateral and reflect just what the British want done I don't think there'll be mass firing squads nobody thinks about that but you know there the trials that have occurred since Oma some of them have been vacated because of the appellate courts found errors in the way the trial was conducted this one of them fell apart because the principal witness changed his testimony these things have happened A 34 year old man arrested in Derry at the weekend has been released the man had been questioned in relation to attempted hijacking in the Hollymount Park area of the city at approximately 9.35 on Friday night and a subsequent delivery discovery of a suspicious device in the Karate area on Saturday the PSNI have reviewed their appeal for help and are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have captured dashcam footage or any other footage three other men arrested aged 54, 32 and 29 have already been released at least six people have died and 600 more injured after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Southern Turkey it came just weeks after a deadly quake devastated the region killing more than 40,000 people the extent of the latest damage is not yet known but witnesses have reported feeding the latest earthquake in Syria Lebanon and Egypt concerns Kieran Mcconville who's in Southern Turkey says it's a very worrying situation A good long time after the first quakes there had been some indication that you know the lack of aftershocks in the particular area that was hit tonight was an indicator that perhaps there may be the potential for another earthquake and now for weather this morning and early afternoon will be mostly cloudy with patches of light rain or drizzle more persistent rain will develop in the late afternoon and evening highest temperatures of 10 or 11 degrees with moderate to fresh and gusty south winds that's all for now we'll be back with more headlines at 11 o'clock the picture notices for this Tuesday morning the 21st of February the death has taken place of Seamus Sweeney Letcher Fad Terman removal from eternal light chapel of rest Karna Mughal Letcher Kenney tomorrow at 12 noon going to St Column Kills Church Dlandone arriving at one o'clock to repose overnight funeral mass on Thursday morning at 11 with cremation arrangements to be confirmed the funeral mass can be viewed live on churchservices.tv the death has taken place of Ivan Potts Mahara Kallahan Castle Finn reposing at his home funeral from there tomorrow morning at 20 past 11 for Requiem Mass in St Columbus Church Donnie Loop at 12 noon in term and afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family time please from 11 p.m to 11 a.m Requiem Mass can be viewed live via the parish webcam the death has occurred of Donald de Barra Middletown Derry Beg his remains will repose at his home from 11 o'clock this morning rosary nightly at 8 o'clock with house private after the rosary until 11 funeral mass in St. Mary's Chapel Derry Beg on Thursday morning at 11 with interment afterwards in Mahara Kallahan cemetery the funeral mass can be viewed live on Kiran Rorty funeral director's facebook page the death has taken place of Margarita Elizabeth Etta Hayes formerly of this noble Ruffaux funeral from her daughter Pamela and son-in-law Stanley Patterson's home at Clonarl Killigordon this afternoon at 1 o'clock for 2 o'clock funeral service in St. Union's Cathedral Ruffaux followed by burial in the family plot in the adjoining graveyard house private please before the funeral today family fires only please donations in lieu of desired to St. Union's Cathedral Church care of any family member or Terence Matlintuk funeral director the funeral service can be viewed live on krig's media facebook page the death has taken place of Patrick Logate McGee linear beg Derry Beg funeral mass this morning at 11 in St. Mary's Chapel Derry Beg with interment afterwards in Mahara Gallon's cemetery the funeral mass can be viewed live on Kieran Rorty funeral director's facebook page and the death has taken place of Dennis Doherty Crora Kuldaf funeral mass this morning at 11 in St. Mary's Church Bogan Kuldaf followed by burial in the adjoining graveyard mass can be viewed live on the parish website for more details including any family health guidelines for wakes and funerals please go to harlandradio.com Aldi every day amazing the county's number one talk show the 9 till noon show on Highland radio and you're very welcome back to the program good to have you on board for another hour welcome if you've just tuned in later on we'll be chanted charlie weston going through the changes not the changes but the soon to be announced officially government package to deal with the cost of living situation the crisis that we are living in so stay tuned for that my daughter is a full-time teacher working locally she is in a constant fight to get planning permission to build on our own land she had to redraw the house plans three times this morning she said enough of this dad forget about the planning we're just going to look at moving to australia this is the entire problem in donagol now that is particularly to me very worrying I don't like that maybe it's the fear that one of my boys would come and say that to me I don't know do you know what I mean maybe that's selfish as well some of you might feel but a daughter here full-time working as a teacher which is a very important job and because of her battles to get planning permission she's thinking to just stop and stick some moving to australia that's not good that is not good that's not spreading your wings to see the world to return home that's being forced out of your own country hi greg if I go into the bank and say I identify as a millionaire will they let me withdraw that money no and I understand what you're saying I'm not making jokes about that stuff because it's really really important to some people even if it's not to others but there's no point taking the hand of them I suppose but anyway look at that's your comment corna says I feel that rewrite this is roll dials books I'm not a big reader okay so I don't know the ins and outs but a number of the books are being rewritten or have been rewritten now they're not replacing the old books whether they do or not over time I don't know but offensive phrases like black is a word that's even in a context that got nothing to do with race fat describing as someone working as a in a shop has been replaced by a business working as a business owner that kind of stuff this listener says I feel that rewriting literature for any other purpose other than translation is wrong a work of literature should reflect its own time and place as PC as I've always endeavored to be lefty 80s kid here and always will be things are getting ridiculous the works reflected the morals and attitudes of the time editing for the sake of fear of causing offences ridiculous the context of the writing and the more of the time determine the meaning just leave them alone they are of their time and children should read them as they are they can compare historical writing with contemporary writing the PC is going too far awful absolutely awful can we not read a book now without adapting it beforehand our children are going to become more and more confused you see what another thing that's so ridiculous about this whole word we're living in here and I'm not saying anyone should be cancelled but have a listen to what listeners what listeners are listening not have a listen to what children listen to musically at the moment you know have a listen to the latest song from Sam Smith or Nicky Minaj I couldn't read the lyrics do you know what I might open up a song a modern song that's very popular on a Spotify at the moment that all the children are listening to and I might just sort of have a read through it I'm not sure if I could read it out loud we're at the moment everyone's listening to all manner of stuff on tv whatever whatever's going on in Love Island you know the stuff that goes on in Love Island all that's fine but a book from the 60s has to have certain words changed because it might offend some people do you get me it doesn't there's something in there that doesn't make a little bit of doesn't make a lot of sense but I'm always open to be convinced otherwise so if you have any views on that regardless of what they are 08 660 25000 where will this politically correctness stop will they have to go back and water down Shakespeare's work like Hamlet war world just gone mad from Rosaline another I cannot believe a single being would be delighted to hear Bertie Hurney's making a comeback are they living in La La Land to welcome him back to power beggars belief he has no power he's back in their party he's not looking to go back to elected politics I'm not like defending the person by the way I'm just making sure we have the conversation in the right context hi there I was just wondering if Highland Radio know if people on illness benefit qualify for the 200 euro bonus let me try and get to the bottom of that for you when we get the actual literature from the government businesses have sent letters regarding commercial rates and given 40 days to appeal surely the process should be the same to notify on to God parents God parents are two people chosen by parents of a baby being baptized to promise in front of the officiating priest that in the event of the parents through any reason neglecting to raise the child in the Catholic religion that they will take on the task okay that's what I thought it was it is no legal standing and it's not enforceable it is no more than an honorary title as many God parents nowadays are not practicing Catholics themselves their only function as far as I can see is another source of presence at birth this etc now I get you what you're saying about practicing right but it doesn't because you're not practicing your religion it doesn't make you a bad person and it doesn't mean you don't live your life with the guidance of that religion so but so really effectively you can't divorce your grandparents at 18 I thought it was really interesting that caller earlier on saying that they changed out a God parent if someone approached you and says look at Greg's two and a half now but he hasn't seen his God parent for two and a half years would you become a God parent now what would you say would you be honored and go yeah no problem or would you go wow second choice I don't know what do you think I know this is not the most important thing out there by the way but look at we have to have a bit of light and shade too call us as I agree about God parents we chose one of my husband's best friends to be the male God parent and from the day of the christening he never said his name either how was he could he help out by babysitting or give him a thing for his birthday or Christmas when it came to his confirmation I just asked his uncle to do it and cut him out my suggestion to parents would be choose your God parents more wisely okay and I think though that kind of that kind of depends on your family's group as to how important God parents are in a person's life goodness knows what the world's coming to having to ask about God parents why would you want to change God parents it's ridiculous because it's relative and to that person today it's important to them they might feel they're abandoned or left by their God parents I know where you're coming from it's with everything that's going on it's not but look we all have our own little worries as well because there's very serious things happening you know in real life it is the little things the little personal things that bother us you know we can come to terms with major national events and they sort of just become part of life but the little things that negle at you the little things that bother you the things that go round and round and you head to the individual incredibly incredibly important and I want this to also be a space where people feel that they can express those and maybe seek a little help from other listeners one of the worst aspects of parental alienation is when the custodial parent erases the father out of their child's life by changing their surname surname or by making their new partner their child's legal guardian believe it or not this does happen and of course it does happen it can't quite happen in reverse in terms of changing names though the name can be changed casually in reverse if not officially but look it's a very very tough situation when parents of young children particularly I think separate especially if there's acrimony there maybe they're leaving for another partner on either side of the relationship and the children are there in the middle and they're the thing that get you they're the thing that pull up the heart strings they're the thing you can't get over so I get you and I can imagine I can only imagine how tough that is right back with more after these it's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio it's Tuesday the 21st of February you're playing on the brown sheet the reference number is 17 it's game number eight the numbers are 26 24 60 27 43 41 33 12 70 and finally 62 phone your claim to 9104833 before eight tonight leaving your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your NCBI Bingo information at HighlandRidio.com Discover your dream Donegal wedding by choosing Jackson's or Villa Rose Hotel for your wedding day excluding elegance quality and a wealth of experience in executing the perfect wedding reception Jackson's or Villa Rose is the venue for you get in touch to arrange a private wedding viewing appointment with a member of our dedicated wedding team today visit VillaRose.ie or Jackson's Hotel.ie for more information or find us on Facebook and Instagram Change is happening in LetoKennie and for the better LetoKennie Medics is a new private clinic opening soon offering private health care Dr. Muhammad and Dr. Repu welcome new patients to the clinic conveniently located on the Port Road open seven days per week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. offering full medical consultation and check-ups including a full cardiac screening with eco assessments of minor injuries and the facility to complete minor surgeries without the long waiting times to register visit LetoKennie Medics or call 07492-029-05 LetoKennie Medics we listen if you want to talk Do you have a stoma? Coloplast Ireland's free stoma review clinic comes to the Radisson Blue Hotel in Etterkennie on Tuesday the 28th of February registered stoma nurse Eileen Lim June will review your stoma access your requirements and offer any training or ongoing support you may require for more information or to register for an appointment call Coloplast on 019-190-190 the 9 till noon show with LetoKennie Credit Union do you need to switch your current account or loan we are now offering mycu current account and debit mastercard bringing full banking features and competitive rate switcher loans information slot the community guarda information slot is brought to you by Sheridan security systems protecting what you value most call today and get your zero wire alarm system from 299 euro Sheridan security 91 26025 okay it is Tuesday the 21st of February 2023 and it's time for community guarda information with guarda granja daherty how are you getting on granja it's good to have you in with us thanks so much for joining us right okay i want to talk a little bit about the weekend but we'll do that at the end if that's all right 100% yeah it sounds like it was a great bit of fun and what have you but we'll start with the appeals and uh guardy looking for the help public's help in relation to a public order incident in letter kenny yeah this incident happened on Wednesday the 15th there in february just up in the glane car area at approximately 120 p.m so guardy received a report that there was a fight in progress at that location that a number of men were involved guardy patrolled the area but unfortunately there was no sign off the men in question a short while afterwards a video of what is believed have been the fight in question started to circulate online and on whatsapp and what have you so we're eager firstly to speak with the person who initially recorded the incident and we asked them to make contact with us and not to be afraid to do so to come in they can speak to us in confidence you know they can do so in a confidential manner we also wish to speak to anybody who witnessed this incident who was in the area and who may have captured it on their dashcam footage to make contact with us in letter kenny on 9167100 and as always for all our incidents the guard of confidential lane can be contacted on 1800 666111 okie doke now criminal damage in letter kenny this incident happened at ard lonan on the long lane letter kenny between Wednesday the 14th at 6pm and then 7am on Thursday the 15th so a car was parked up at a home owner's house at that location and they discovered that the drivers the top of the door of the drivers door was bent open between those hours so entry wasn't gained to the car if anybody observed any suspicious activity in that area the ard lonan or the long lane area between those dates we asked them to make contact with us in letter kenny on<PHONE_NUMBER> not nice to have happened but also even though nothing taken an expensive problem to fix so you want to get those responsible for that staying in letter kenny and we're going to the port road to criminal damage case there yeah this is quite an unusual one actually this happened on the port road so the lower port road down near the station roundabout so it happened in the early hours of Thursday the 15th and around 2 10am so a car was parked up on the lower port road a male he's been described as a male in dark clothing he was wearing a black jacket and black jeans and white high top trainers he approached the car he smashed the rear driver's side window and then he left on foot in the direction of the station roundabout or the remelton road so somebody was actually in the car at the time of the incident and no thankfully they weren't hurt we appealed to anybody who was in that area who may have witnessed what happened to contact us but also again as with nearly every appeal now we appeal also for dash cam footage from anybody who traveled in the area of the station roundabout or the lower port road on the 15th of February between 2am and 2 30am and actually a lot of taxi drivers park along there to that car park you know just across from the station roundabout and a lot of those drivers would have dash cam footage so if that's the case if they were there they had a dash cam we would ask them to leave the footage into the station to us yeah and just to clarify a couple of things in relation to that as we do regularly but because it's become such an important important part of the item is that you're not necessarily looking for the moment the person smashed the window you've got a good description of him you might get a uh or her but I presume to him you might get a good shot of his face or whatever so it's in and around that space and also you don't need the person to download the image to cut out the relevant piece to scan it themselves and forward it on you have people that do that exactly and as you say we could get a good image off this person's face you know perhaps they had a car parked up you know we might get the registration number of the car from dash cam footage and as you say also a lot of people too maybe they're not aware of how to go through the footage in the dash cam so no it's not an issue drop it into us and we will we'll spend the time then going through the footage um so letter kenny guardie you're dealing with this matter and again nine one six seven one hundred is not the number to call right let's go to uh bon crana now and alleged an assault guardie investigating yeah this assault happened on the doctor Dennis McLaughlin road in bon crana on sunday the 19th in around one twenty five p.m. so a man is believed to have been assaulted by another man at that location and injuries were sustained but they're not life threatening in nature thankfully so we appealed to anybody who traveled in that area who had a dash cam again to make the footage available to us or if anybody seen what happened if they witnessed this incident we asked them to contact guardie in bon crana on nine three two zero five four zero and you know it was lunchtime on a sunday so hopefully you're sure isn't it the middle of the day you know thankfully but you don't see this happen too often it's not it's not a regular current snow but given the time of day and a sunday you know perhaps there were families out and about for the day you know and people out for a spin and hopefully somebody saw something and if they did we would ask them to come forward yeah maybe on the on the way to go and watch the game somewhere or something okay right now theft in bonnigie what's going on here yeah this happened in bonnigie so sunday the 19th at bonnigie letterkenny so in around 10 20 p.m. a blue coloured feet was driven down the road there alongside the dry arch filling station you know the road down there's quite a number of businesses then on that road so this blue feet travelled down that road the driver proceeded to steal four Volkswagen alloy wheels from the back off a business premises so we appeal to anybody who had a dash cam again who was in and around that area the area off the dry arch filling station perhaps or down the road itself and who may even have you know observed this car to come forward and speak to us in letterkenny on nine one six seven one hundred all right that's 20 past 10 on sunday night right now sheep theft in st johnson yeah this is 24 sheep so five of the sheep were female they were black in colour and 19 male they were stolen from a farm at ballet bow st johnson so between five p.m. on wednesday the 15th and 11 a.m. on friday the 17th of february so 12 of the sheep we know had a red mark and spread on their back and four of them had a blue marking spread on their back we're unsure at present whether the other eight sheep had markings or not so if anybody has any information in relation to the current whereabouts of these sheep we ask them to contact garrity in letterkenny on nine one six seven one hundred or if anybody has any relevant information in relation to the theft we would like to speak to them too it may or may not happen overnight and and that presents two scenarios one obviously there isn't necessarily as much traffic but two if someone did spot this type of activity it probably looks a little bit out of place in the middle of the night if they did see so the quietness potentially could have happened five past five but let's just say did happen overnight that might actually help in jogging someone's memory out there and getting in touch with the garrity it's a significant amount of sheep to lose right okay now kayaks which are an expensive enough small thing stolen from letter mack award there yeah and this was actually it happened between january first and february 11th it was only just recently brought to our attention so the theft of two kayaks these had been stored in a trailer at a holiday home in the farragans area of letter mack award so they're believed to have been stolen between january first and february 11th so both of these kayaks are red in color the first is a six meter perception carolina and the other is a five meter perception akadia so look people who um you know deal with this the these type of boats and perhaps might know a bit more about them than me um you know if they hear anything if they hear any word in the street or here even if some of these types of kayaks for sale on a second hand basis could be innocent but we would appreciate hearing from them if they come across them for sale um a photo of a similar type of kayak will be posted to our facebook page this morning and we ask if anybody has any relevant information that may tell progress this matter to contact guardian melford on nine one five three zero six zero yeah the owners are looking at the minimum of twelve hundred out of pocket of course yeah there's massive items yeah plus someone coming around your house and taking your stuff and as you say they're quite distinctive uh and might be handy enough spotted on the secondary secondary market the second hand market okay uh any information on all of those you can contact any guard station of course and they will help you or that confidential line um and and the information will get to uh the the relevant guard but of course if you can ring the station directly all the better okay the um community engagement meetings are ongoing milford and bon crana next isn't yeah actually we had ours and that are kenny already and there were there were great success i have to say now it was great and it gives people an opportunity just to converse some people might not even you know back years ago everybody knew their local guard they knew them by their first name you know they knew i'm afraid of them all now i just don't know maybe it's just me you're afraid of i'm very afraid of you i'm very afraid of you so sure it's very scary he comes in don't let him scary he gives you the look charlene paul don't get me started terrified you are don't get him started no no don't get him started not not it'll be a long day so no but you know the letter kenny events um give you a chance to get to know the community you know beforehand maybe you were you were waiting for a while for the meeting to start you got to chat to people from the community get to know the master names they got to know your name um they got their chance just to voice their opinions the policing plan is discussed at all these meetings the policing plan for 2023 but people had a chance to maybe discuss other issues that are going on in their area that they wanted their voice heard in relation and i think it's worth pointing out to and i'm not expecting you to comment on this right but you know this is a meeting with your local guardie and you might turn up with concerns that the guardie themselves share do you know what i mean in that there's decisions different ways of doing things that maybe different people might want to do it but you're compelled to do things a certain way so in other words it's not always a them and us is it because i think there's a kind of a you know there's there'll be a lot of nodding between guards and the public because a lot of the stuff we're on the same page on if that makes sense and of course and look we welcome the feedback of the public and as you say it could be a common issue maybe something that we're concerned about they're also concerned about but they come up with fresh ideas maybe ideas that we haven't come up with before in order to resolve these matters so no i know milford guardie actually had one of these community engagement meetings last night and boncran also had one last night but there's a few more coming up just wanted to draw everybody's attention to them so the milford district guardie will hold another community engagement meeting in the falcara pcc tomorrow evening wednesday the 22nd that starts at 7 30 p.m. boncran a guardie will hold a community engagement meeting tomorrow evening also at 7 p.m. at the green castle centre and i know boncran a guardie have a further meeting that's due to take place on sorry tuesday the 28th of february at 7 p.m. in the colgan hall in carendona so everybody's welcome look more than welcome refreshments are served as well at these meetings and face to face information on the likes of cybercrime internet safety home security frauds you know stuff that goes on all the time that can't always be mentioned during this item or would be here for quite some time so that's just general information so as i say an opportunity to get that in person info as well right okay community engagement meetings just mentioned the guard of youth towards 2023 can't believe we're back launching these again it's hard to believe it but you know what every year don't they throw amazing stories of amazing people and particularly our young people because i hope regular listeners to the program understand that i i think we've got amazing young people i think the the the absolute majority are brilliant but the little errors at times get more pressed than perhaps they do and that's the nature of this but this is a good thing because this is all about highlighting the youth and and what they made what they've done yeah how definite then as you say we always see well we're more likely to hear about the negative things that young people get involved in and you know the negative side to that so we're delighted luck has been launched today the guard of youth awards for 2023 this is again this year in association with the jpc so the donnie gall joint policing committee so these awards celebrate outstanding young people between the ages of 13 and 21 years old from throughout the county of donnie gall so we recognize young people look they've been involved in good and positive endeavors locally and the youth awards just recognize young people who by their presence in their communities make it a better place to live in so the nomination process is now open we are inviting the public to nominate a young person and or a group of young people they know who was committed to making a difference in their community so last year during the year of 2022 and all nominees will receive recognition you know even they don't win an overall award they will all receive recognition in the coming so what that means is is if you don't mind growing so if there's someone a neighbor of yours is a great young fellow great young girl and you nominate them even if they don't go on they will receive a recognition to say you've been nominated so in other words anyone nominated gets recognition of that and it's a lovely we lift that and if itself will be enough for me I think to encourage me to nominate people around me of course yeah and look it's nice to receive recognition we all like receiving recognition you know exactly what you mean now I wish they do radio radio recognition radio presenters recognition awards that you didn't have to pay to enter that's why I don't win any award you see well there's no charge to enter this now but I think you're outside the age bracket might try one of these things but let's see what's the upper age 21 Greg yeah and also they do they all receive a certificate and then look it's nice to have that certificate too maybe for the future you know to use it you know in CVs and what have you no one that's good to see that's good to be nominated is a great thing and the shortlist was amazing last year what young people do and then Josh of course he went on and no pressure on this year's nominees he went on and received recognition at national level as well which is a brilliant thing for him his family the community in the county I think it is Josh Marley yeah and we also had Alan McCarron and Carmich Brady they won the community safety award last year in the national level but every year so far now so far so good fingers crossed we've had great success at national level so the pressure's on again this year we want to keep up the momentum now and we you know we hoped have more national winners this year but what categories do we have then yeah so the same as I look every other years its individual award so this is to somebody who makes a positive contribution to their community making it a better place to live group award two or more young people who make a positive contribution to their community again making it a better place to live special achievement award so this would be given to somebody who has overcome difficult circumstances to fight all the odds and whose commitment deserves recognition and fourth is community safety award so young people who through a crime prevention or safety initiative innovation have made their community a safer place to live and some of the even some of the suggestions are amazing that some of the things that come up with they can do it individually or through the schools sometimes there's some brilliant stuff who calls the shots here who makes who decides who wins yeah so the judging committee this year's adjudicators our judge etching Cunningham she will chair the committee and inspector Paul McGee this will be his first year now getting involved with the youth awards and I know he's looking forward to getting stuck in and councillor Jerry McMonegal also alright you can get the forms at garda www.garda.ee the county council now their facebook page and their website also given the JPCs involvement they always have the forms the link to download the forms there also look you can call to your garda station you can call to Bunkranna, Letter Kenny, Milford or Ballie Shannon I nearly forgot the fourth station as soon as you're done no Letter Kenny, Bunkranna, Ballie Shannon or Milford it's like at this stage the way they're doing everything with boundaries and all that kind of stuff yeah you get confused the station itself I'm not getting drawn into the new policing plan you know what I mean okay but do you call into any of those stations and look they can download the form for you so you send the form back then you can email it to Dunnegal garda youth awards at garda.ee you can post it to Letter Kenny station and just leave it maybe for my attention garda granja daugherty just stick that on the envelope that is for my attention so the nomination should be received by 12 p.m on Monday the 27th of March to be considered if I put sergeant granja daugherty would it get to you just in case I made that mistake that would give me an air of importance in a way it would be if you want to do that you were freezing for a reason at the weekend and wrath mullin I mean obviously at some point asking was the water cold was it good fun was it it was brilliant that was great crack now I have to say and you know it's funny somebody gave me a great tip the day before which it didn't do but I'll remember it now when the next one comes around but they said that you're meant to go in first and dip your feet in the water you know just to paddle in the water for a minute or two before you do the plunge it's cheating that is to be honest with you now it was an ought to call the polar plunge but mine was more of a polar plop because again I've seen some of them there and they were you know they took the legs under them and they took off and they rode out it was so impressive and I kind of stand as close as I can to the shore and it's more like a plop but I still got wet and I still got freezing cold but it was great crack and you you raised a load of money as did your colleagues and everyone else taking part for as we heard last as we heard last week for a brilliant cause that helps thousands and thousands of people in contributing to that so well done thank you and um it doesn't matter about the weather either you jumping into cold cold waters but I was there a previous one as you know the atmosphere was as good was it that must be raw yeah not brilliant atmosphere again and the navy vessel was there again last year and that added the whole you know the pizzazz of the whole thing but no definitely and look at it's you'd be delighted just to do your small bit and that that leads to the special olympics they're an inspiration you know they're inspirational and they have such courage so I mean really and truly when you're standing they're ready to jump you have to just you have to keep that at the forefront of your mind the courage these people have it'll be over in a few seconds and not a great day out great stuff well done Grania for all you do in promoting that and taking part and raising hundreds of euros well as everyone who got involved in that it sounds like it was great fun okay thank you very much God of Grania to hearty that was community God of information for this Tuesday the 21st of February 2023 we're back just after the 10 o'clock news next week we'll return on the program today after a quick break The Community Garda information slot is brought to you by Sheridan Security Systems protecting what you value most call today and get your zero-wire alarm system from 299 euro Sheridan Security 9126025 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 offering low-rate car loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today if you ask me the minimum wage and he's looking at if you ask me a gender pay gap still exists important questions need to be asked about work and pay that's why the Central Statistics Office is asking you and a sample of employees all over Ireland to take part in our structure of earnings survey with your help we'll inform debate and crucial decisions the CSO is independent and the survey is confidential your data won't be shared so if you receive a letter from the CSO take part in the structure of earnings survey and have your say at Hickey Clark and Langen insurance 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because life matters Nutrious milk replacer range which includes Nutristart and Nutristart Plus offers the best start for your calves this spring season with 23% and 25% crude proteins ideal for calf to beef and heifer rearing systems give your calves the best possible start available at your local homeland store visit nutrious.ie for full nutritional information okay well welcomed on the program now I'm delighted to say by Charlie Weston who's Irish independent personal finances editor thanks for your time this morning Charlie we do appreciate it you're welcome no no problem right so we got quite a strong indication in your paper today of what is in store government meeting currently is that correct to finalize this and do you expect any changes from what's been reported today or any additional measures for that matter no it looks like you know it did the proposal going to government is for all social welfare recipients to get a 200 euro bonus payment it's about a 1.25 billion euro package it's like a mini budget really and the payment will be made pensioners, carers, loan parents and people with disabilities there's also going to be 100 euro bonus for every child on the child benefit scheme you know child's child allowance some people could still call it back to school clothing and photo allowance there'll be an extra 100 euros on that now that's the good news the bad news is there's no no there doesn't seem to be any new credit at the moment for your electricity bill we'll do another one in March next month but there was expectations that there might be another one to get us through the you know the next couple of months and Charlie in relation to that would they be sort of looking at you know maybe heading into the spring I know it's a sort of a retrospective payment but would they be factoring in the fact that maybe people are under less pressure or maybe in the coming months there might be some reduction in the cost of electricity or are they looking at the numbers and saying at this time we can't afford that I do wonder what would be the factors that would bring them to that decision I think there's a number of things that you know you mentioned the cost and that's a factor it's probably about 400 million euros to give another 200 euro credit to your electricity bill but you know mild weather probably has played a part where it's relatively mild up to now and I turned off my heating yesterday when it came on because it was too hot so I worked them home at the moment and the other thing I suppose is that we have seen the first of the cuts energy although a very small player they have kind of put it up to the rest of the market by cutting their prices you know we know we hope that electric Ireland, board gosh, energy and SSC, electricity the big four that they'll respond with some cuts because they're benefiting from a fall in wholesale prices but is it not the case though the pinnagy are coming back to the field somewhat because they really are still even with their cuts they're more expensive than a lot of the big players already I'm not sure how much pressure the likes of SSC or Triste might feel from pinnagy's move no but it's the fact it's the fact that wholesale prices are way back I mean if I get a tweet once a day from somebody telling me wholesale prices are down where the energy company is cutting their prices you know as if I run an energy company I don't put so it's a reason for an argument and that's the reason that that pinnagy gave they said look at wholesale prices are back to pre-Ukrainian invasion levels so they're at a 17 month low now they're still high relative to where they were before Covid started but at least they've come right back you know the energy companies will say look we're locked into long-term contracts we bought gas which is used for half of the generation of electricity in the country and obviously it's used to supply gas into homes they say look we bought wholesale gas at these with these futures contracts we're locked into long-term pricing it'll take a while for those to unravel you know that that certainly is the case but some of those would be unraveling you know that there is an opportunity here for companies to cut prices so the hope I suppose is that we'll start to see some reductions what we've heard from Electric Ireland the biggest player in the market certainly for electricity supply is that they have will forgo any profits on their retail business this year they're giving their customers 50 euros back SSC or Tristea said they'll forgo profits as well we haven't heard that we haven't heard that from Borgosch which is owned by the British company Centrica which reported profits of weight for a 3.3 billion pounds down a bit though weren't they there were triples actually they had tripled in in the information they had tripled right okay 3.3 billion okay yeah now they're saying that they're losing money on the Borgosch retail side is losing money even though they're making money on their their power generation they've a massive power plant down in Whitegate but you know so the hope is that that the wholesale pricing will mean that we will see in the next couple of months some some relief for people because energy prices of countries that please some groups here double the electricity prices double to about two grand for a typical household that's another one that's priced in Greece and a lot of people we're living week to week not able to absorb that and the bad news keeps coming in terms of the excise on petrol and diesel and the funny thing about this is Charlie Chaplin to a few people I think the move by government kind of went over some people's heads in that this is probably going to feel like just a straight up increase in the cost of petrol and diesel rather than a return to previous levels if I've explained that correctly no you have you you have yeah you're absolutely right there was a cut last year of 15 cents on on the leader of diesel and 20 cents in petrol but they're going to phase it in it was due to that was that was that was put in place till the end of this month and they're going to phase that back now in those increases and look at is there any justification for that considering that there are so many levies and so much tax and levies on your your leader of fuel motor fuel you know your your your diesel and petrol are they're subject to carbon tax excise duty the Nora Levy you know the national oil reserves agency Levy and that at 23 percent so you know these were small reductions in the context of that about 49 percent of the leader of petrol goes in duties and taxes to the government 44 percent of your leader of diesel according to the aarland so you know I this will drive people insane particularly your listeners who are car dependent there aren't major public transport options so it just seems terribly terribly unfair given that the government has slapped about three different levies and taxes on on petrol and diesel and and takes enough often bleeds the motor is dry already so you know the could have left that in place those those those reductions in the excise duty so yeah I think once that's absorbed by people they'll be very annoyed by that and I think it's totally unjustified to potentially reintroduce those that higher excise duty in a phase basis yeah the temporary business energy support scheme is being retained a lot of businesses I spoke to thought it was too difficult to get into or to qualify or too much of a handling they've seemed to have recognised that it's being broadened out somewhat is it going to be easier for businesses to qualify and apply I wonder Charlie it should be it certainly should be because you know we you heard businesses saying they needed to get their accountant to do it now it shouldn't be and that's just adding a cost it shouldn't it shouldn't take that these things should be fairly plain you should be able to just say look here my bills my energy prices my business have gone through the roof here's the proof you know I need some help here there is a scheme you know I shouldn't need an accountant spending hours and hours filling out forms and putting the thing together so there is some recognition on that that it hasn't been very well designed we've come up with a lot of things in the last while like pup and forever pup for example in the last couple of years but this one this temporary business energy support scheme just looks like it was just too complicated sometimes you know and bureaucrats outdo themselves but by putting complications in it's to avoid being ripped off these checks are being ripped off of course that's important but it shouldn't be so complicated that businesses can't apply for it now I'm getting specific questions in here in terms of things like will people on illness benefit qualify for the bonus do we know an answer to that question yet because obviously we get the headlines leaked but maybe not every element of it would you be able to answer that question Charlie don't know the full details on that understood you know we'll have to see there'll be a big long piece of Excel probably program issued with all the different rate increases that I don't know exactly what's going on but it's certainly Heather Humphries the social protection minister has been looking for across the board increases for pensioners, carers, loan parents people with disabilities that's the list of people I have at the moment who are to benefit I didn't and I knew to ask you about specifics but I thought I'd put the question to you and I fully understand the answer and it seems relatively cheap to keep the hospitality industry and I presume hairdressers and others happy in extending the 9% VAT to the end of the tourism season though the season goes beyond the date you know 300 million in terms of you know supporting those businesses keeping people connected to the work people in jobs or maybe 300 millions a lot of money I don't know anymore with the amount of money that's been falling out of the money tree Charlie's I haven't a clue it seems like good value it well if the predictions were correct and it wasn't just lobbying and exaggeration and you know this is needed to avoid restaurants in particular going into you know haven't been forced to close down I mean they were saying that if they didn't have this large numbers of them would be forced to shut you know if we're coming out of the after the Christmas period it's always quiet for restaurants in particular so yeah I think Michael McGrath listened obviously to what he's been told by the likes of the Restaurants Association that this was needed to be kept in place as somebody who works for a newspaper I can't complain too much that the VAT on newspapers went to zero in January so you know we've benefited from that we have very high VAT rates in this country so you know I always have sympathy for arguments to keep them lower 23% the standard rate is very high high by international standards and it means that there's a huge cost then for people and for businesses involved in that so it looks like extending that 9% VAT exemption looks like a bit of business to keep people on and to keep businesses running basically all right Charlie listen thanks for your time this morning appreciate it take care Charlie Western Irish Independent Personal Finance Editor the government's ministers deciding or meeting cabinet meeting to sign off on that and we'll get more details as it relates to your specific questions for the show tomorrow so fear not we'll get those answers if you can't source them yourself between now and then The Nintle Noon Show is brought to you by Letter Kenny Credit Union Digital Loans now available apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account The Radisson Blue Hotel in Letter Kenny on Tuesday the 28th of February registered Stoma Nurse Eileen Lim June will review your Stoma access your requirements and offer any training or ongoing support you may require for more information or to register for an appointment call Coloplast on 019 190 190 Imagine a device so innovative your accept cookies there is a device so forward thinking accept cookies a device that is so modern you accept cookies now imagine a technology where cookies don't get in the way of your advertising welcome to radio advertising that's cookie free visit radiocenterarlin.ie to see what radio can do for your product or brand keep your car or van running smoothly with a service at Hagerty's Ford in Letter Kenny not only will it minimize the risk of a major repair expense but it will be logged in your vehicle's service handbook and help its resale value Hagerty's also offer everything from new and free owned car sales to parts and body repairs in their approved body shop book a service online this month and save 30 euro when you use the code Ford 30 you're always in good hands at Hagerty's Ford turn a mug a letter Kenny see Hagerty's.com Highland radio weather updates with Ireland west airport fancy a European city break this summer discovered the beautiful cities of Barcelona, Cologne and Milan with Ryanair six flights a week for summer 2023 Ireland west airport don't just take off take it easy okay uh as usual I don't have the weather forecast open in front of me but I shall open it just whilst I do that to remind you to keep us busy on those lines 08 660 25000 08 660 25000 or call 0749 125000 so morning and early afternoon will be mostly clouded with patches of light rain and drizzle more persistent rain will develop in the late afternoon and evening highest temperatures of 10 or 11 degrees with moderate to fresh and gusty southerly winds right definitely mark which sherry joins us now thanks for taking the call today good morning right okay now you've made your submission to the electoral commission ahead of uh uh expected electoral boundary changes what are you proposing uh mark well in my own uh commitments going back to the election in 2011 when they started the slice off parts of counties um I have been lobbying for the reunification of counties and while of course it's a privilege to represent the people of south donnie gall and do part of any county the fair way to do it is to respect county boundaries I'll miss you but I want back in donnie gall mark no harm to you you know what I mean of course yeah absolutely and that's uh exactly what I tried to do the last review and again in this one so we call for two three seats constituencies in donnie gall which was even at about 27,700 they're there about per TD in terms of population which is within the thresholds allowable under the constitution also slide one leatrum to to stay together as they the kind of traditionally been that would allow for a four-seater there and then the other part of the decision would be within what's common and again before they had been in with langford so all of first common and all of langford together also to form a four-seater that way we won't have this kind of patchwork constituency where it's as if the electoral commission leave us till last and they try and and make it work by slicing pieces of counties up yeah and it doesn't make a lot of sense on a number of levels because you'll have you'll have councillors in bondoren and ballie shannon who obviously sit in the council and lyford and then you know you'll have that say mary that they represent being represented by someone from size sliger or presumably from a party perspective of independence in terms of trying to get a platform and develop a career that's not very helpful but we have this strange thing in splitting up counties for media reasons and political reasons and there's no not a great deal of rhyme or reason to it no i'm totally opposed to it and i've set out how it can be achieved and i'm very hopeful that on this occasion they will monitor number one the wishes of the people and ensure that county boundaries are maintained i mean the constitution states that no less than 20 000 per per elect preferred td a member of the doll and no more than 30 000 and what i've what i have proposed to totally respect those guidelines one of the issues that has emerged with electoral reviews through the years is they've tried to ensure that the variance from constituency to constituency stays within around about five percent so that you know everybody has in or around 25 to 27 000 and there is nothing in law that that demands that it's just a practice that they have adopters now you know obviously we have an exponentially growing urban collaboration on the eastern seaboard and if they continue with that practice i mean in 20 or 30 or 40 years you'll end up put about 150 pds on the eastern seaboard you know around to to cork very little representation on the western seaboard and let me ask you one more time what's your proposal for donogall two constituencies what what what's your two three seats so 16 pds okay and that comes in at about 27 000 seven hundred yeah of population per tv right okay we shall see um i do wonder what do you think the public would think the people of balochal and bandorn think do you think they maybe they feel more connected to slygotan than they might letter kenny or in his own look not at all as i said it's a privilege to represent that area but the people of donogall whether it's you know on the border at tollehan on the southern side or whether it's more than a soul they want to be with donogall and one of the unwieldy parts of the constituency as it is is you know from a tv's perspective you're dealing with four county councils four planning authorities two community health organization areas two police divisions and if you take the representation in the end of the north center for example where geographically it's a minister area one of the key issues is in our area there's a very diverse number and type of of issues that your father not for people from the very world to the urban and so on and all the the variety of issues that need to be dealt with within that where the smaller of the constituency in Dublin might have one set of issues yeah and there's always a line but like I'm in one constituency and my next door neighbors literally my next door neighbors like next door are in a different constituency I know there's always going to be a line where it changes but it's it seems crazy Mark listen thanks for your time this morning I appreciate it but watch with interest to see what comes from that take care Wet and Wild Wet and Wild is celebrating 20 years in business with a massive 20% off absolutely every product in store in February choose any top outdoor brand product in store and we will deduct 20% of all prices at the tell by premium quality outdoor clothing footwear and equipment today and save 20% final call for entry to the Dutty E digital town awards celebrating the digital achievements of towns and communities across Ireland with a 100,000 euro prize fund enter by March 3rd at we are Dutty E keep your car or van running smoothly with the service at Hagerty's Ford in Iterkenny not only will it minimize the risk if a major repair expense but it will be logged in your vehicle's service handbook and help its resale value Hagerty's also offer everything from new and re-owned car sales to parts and body repairs in their approved body shop book a service online this month and save 30 euro when you use the code Ford30 you're always in good hands at Hagerty's Ford turn them up at letterkenny see Hagerty's.com 11 o'clock in fact just 50 seconds past it time for a news update it's over to Donald Kavanaugh thank you Greg good morning the finance minister says families on lower incomes will be supported through the government's cost of living package Michael McGrath says they'll receive targeted support through the working family payment subject to cabinet approval this morning the package of measures will include a 100 euro child benefit lump sum and a 200 euro social welfare payment appeals for information are being made into two incidents of violence in the county over the past week the first involved a group of men fighting on the dent car road in letterkenny while a man's been allegedly assaulted in Bunkranna meanwhile Gar thee in letterkenny are investigating three incidents involving cars over the past six days two of them involved criminal damage one while there was still a person in the car the other involved the theft of four alloy wheels from a business premises a cross party delegation of Donegal counselors is in Dublin this morning to join a public protest outside Lester house demanding equality for defective block homeowners have responded to the call to send a strong message to government Gar thee are investigating the theft of 24 sheep five female in black and color and 19 male taken from a farm at Balabos and Johnson sometime between five on Wednesday last and 11 on Friday morning 12 of the sheep have a red marking sprayed on their heads four have blue sprayed on their back citizens and victims groups need to be consulted in advance of the establishment of the Oma bomb inquiry that's the view of former US President Bill Clinton who was speaking on a new podcast as I remember it Bertie Herron and the Good Friday Agreement it launches on Thursday and Ireland will continue to provide non-lethal support to the people of Ukraine and training personnel is just one way we can help that's according to the Tonyshta and Defence Minister Mihal Martin who confirmed today that Irish soldiers will assist in an EU training mission for Ukraine there the headlines back with more at 12 noon okay Donald thank you very much indeed you have removed your helmet you are a Mandalorian no more all right kid you ready for an adventure miss this is the way the Mandalorian Season 3 streaming March 1st exclusively on Disney Plus 18 plus subscription required tees and seas apply all right I was actually remember I said earlier on in the program about comparing sort of the popular lyrics of songs that our young people are listening to not all of them of course but I can't because some of them are really grotesque but here's one which was number one for quite some time still top of the top of the streaming streaming charts charts B ITCH I'm a monster no good blood sucker fat MF now look who's in trouble everyone knows I'm a MF-ing monster I need to see your effing hands at the concert I can't read the rest profit profit N word I got it everybody know I'm an MF-er monster and on it goes now I am not approved right because I I'm a big fan of R&B hip hop music and going back over the years so I kind of listen to stuff with that and it's lyrics just for absolute transparency but to try and exclude the word fat from a book when you have that type of stuff MFN word and all that kind of stuff I don't know it it doesn't make any sense to me Greg for kids three of which have auntie and uncle as godparents few speak few don't so when having our fourth we decided we'd look outside the family best decision we made they are so good to our child takes her away days spends a lot of time with her shows are so much love there you go godparents are recorded on baptismal certification there's no form to the best of my knowledge on which to officially change those names as I said it's of no relevance of course but it might be of relevance to the individual that messaged us and I get you I get what you're saying totally agree this PC is going overboard it all started with bar bar black sheep now the latest version of Scooby-Doo features Thelma and Shaggy is black Ops African American cartoon characters are repeat my childhood memories indeed and if you watch if you watch Coca-Bella and it's bar bar blue sheep bar bar pink sheep bar bar every colored sheep Hi Greg if we change everything we'll have an old history it's good to look back and see where we've come from how we've changed hopefully for the good questionable at times also remember this year some radios weren't going to play an old Christmas song because of the words was it baby it's cold outside yes it was madness just thought just thought thanks Launa yeah and that was a perfect example of but the problem is as you see people get up to high doh on social media on twitter they threaten companies that they'll go to advertisers and then companies sort of you know give in because they choose the path of least resistance baby it's cold outside I don't see any domestic violence in that I mean it's two people back and forwarding it don't think that's how it was intended and you have to take it out of context to be offended that's the impression I get but as I say you know you can talk about the we live in this world whereby you can talk about say for instance the fairy tale of New York and one word in that right but you can't talk about an entire genre of music that is you know treats women like absolute dirt terrible language racial slurs no one can kind of talk about that but let's talk about fairy tale from New York every year I think most common sense people understand that it doesn't make sense if we're going to do it let's do it across the board and have a full conversation about books film music TV cherry picking it here and there I don't know okay right we're going to give you some tips on the pancakes now changing tack completely Sean boils a bakery gap cafe in bridge and Sean how are we getting on great great great how are you are you addition at the pancakes today we are we are going down a storm or treat it yep yep plenty of people packing them all fine okay so we're just looking for because we can sort out the toppings give us the perfect no mistakes pancake r