The Neil Prendeville Show | Cork's RedFM

00:00 Morning. 00:01 It's time to talk. How much of your son's life have you been in? I always have been advocating mushy peas and garden peas. Do as much cool stuff as possible. 00:11 The Neil Prenderville Show on Red FM. The last 22 months has been an uphill battle. The Voice of Cork. 00:18 Be part of the conversation. The Neil Prentiff will show with Elevate Credit Union. Morning all. Text 0868 104 106. Well, as we heard yesterday, Russell Brand goes to jail for 10 and a half years. Now, straight away, you take a third off that for good behavior. All right. So you're. Looking at a third off that, something in the region of six and a half to seven years. But shamed star jailed makes the red tops today. Judge hails victims bravery as the comic is caged for rape and sexual assaults. Now, very interesting. They say that he's still showing no remorse. 00:51 His wife, Laura, crumpled in her seat as he as he was led away and taken away by. members of the British police force, obviously, to get processed for jail. There was some speculation last night online and what have you, and different security experts being asked questions like, will he be in any way in danger in jail? And the answer to that would appear yes. And some were suggesting that it's only a matter of time before he gets attacked. And on that basis, of course, he would be a very highly guarded prisoner, I would think. 01:25 So the papers this morning talk of it in quite some detail. He got 10 years and six months jailed for raping one woman, sexually assaulting three others at the height of his fame. He's 51 years old, described as a sexual predator and accused of displaying staggering arrogance in the attacks. And there could well be more cases incidentally being processed at the moment. But these attacks for which he was in court and some of the ones that he was found guilty of were between 2004 and 2009. And I see the judge in a very powerful statement, a paragraph of it, which I've highlighted this morning. 01:59 He said, the judge said, whatever women wear... Wherever they go, indeed, whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no and to demand justice from the criminal courts when sexual predators like you, Russell Brand, act without their consent. Very powerful. And then down came the hammer for ten and a half years. So that's dominating quite a lot of the red tops and indeed the broadsheets. Very much so in the UK, but a lot in the Irish papers and online as well. Meanwhile, the clock ticks down to Thursday. 02:30 Now, as far as now is concerned, unions are saying that this 24-hour strike will go ahead. 02:37 But they have the government on the back foot. They have them on the ropes because when they're rejected, the 7.75% pay increase... 02:44 which is over two and a half years. The government then came back and increased it and sweetened the pot possibly as high as 11%. And what would be good news, we often talk about civil servants and the different rates and the grades of pay. And those that are senior civil servants and in the job for a considerable length of time, they do very well. Thank you very much. But often on this here programme, we often hear from the lower paid workers in the public sector. People at starting level. I'll give you a typical example of that. Say, for instance, a special needs assistant. 03:16 So those increases could be as high as 18 percent, 18 percent. And I'm quite sure they'd agree that would make a huge difference with regards to their take home pay. Now, we'll have to see what happens. So today we'll tell a lot, Wester, whether that part of it, that strike is on or off. But one thing's for sure. Anyway, there'll be no jib from Angarda Shaqana on Thursday. We got all of these world leaders, 50 or 60 of them, coming into Dublin because the GRA has stood down their planned industrial action this week. And it's an interesting one that makes this morning's independent where they say, if you look at that pay deal, how much will it cost the exchequer and by and large the private sector as well as the public sector taxpayers? 03:58 But it will cost well in excess of €4 billion a year. And that's year in, year out once it's in full effect. So if that deal is done, say, for instance, for the amounts I already mentioned, that would be €4 billion extra a year would have to be found. Meanwhile, you talk of money and stories like that. It's just the chaos and the mismanagement and the lack of attention to detail and people trying it on with regards to trying to get state contracts and getting money from the state and misappropriating things and claiming too much where there are no real checks and balances. 04:34 There's another example of it this morning. The 13 and a half million that had to be given back because some of the funding came from the European Union for IPAS centres and what have you. They talk about errors. It's easy, isn't it? No price to be ever paid for these calamitous, enormous financial errors. But it's 13 and a half million because of a spate of what they call contractual failures for the International Protection Accommodation Service. And it involved the use of public funds And giving it to people who had different buildings of all sorts of shapes and sizes for asylum, housing services for asylum, you know, the IPAS centres and stuff like that. 05:10 You had 100 of them overcharged the state in 2024 alone. 05:16 One character decides to trouser an extra 180 grand a year for three unused rooms, which were never contracted. I don't know what kind of rooms they were, but they were never part of the deal. They were never used to put beds in or whatever. And yet they were thrown into the mix with regards to the money that people could get from the state. When you total that up with regards to over 100 of these overcharged private iPass providers, it came in at 13 and a half million. As the fella says, you couldn't make it up, lads. And a big worry, actually, and there are a couple of different stories that I drew together this morning on this one, vape shops. 05:50 We spoke in the past with regards to the amount and the proliferation of vape shops, nail salons, barber shops. There are so many. They're everywhere. How, in the name of God, are they all doing business? I have no idea. On Guarda Shecona are keeping a close eye on that section of trade and retail because they think, in some cases, there could be some dodgy deals going on. Why do I mention that? Well, this morning, we have heard that the HSE granted more than 15 vape shop licences a week. 06:23 to people in Cork this year. So, in fact, it's fair to say that no licence was refused from anybody that wanted to open a vape shop in Cork. None. They were all granted. When you look at the number then, between February and October, there was 5,500 licences granted across Ireland. And the breakdown then makes the papers this morning saying that 772 licences were for selling vapes were granted in Cork and Kerry so far this year alone. None of them were refused. 06:55 Just... 06:56 like a blank checkbook. Now, it's interesting because one of these stories that makes the papers is The Examiner Online, where they say this morning that one school in Cork is surrounded by 21 vape shops, right? And that school is the Educate Together School on Grattan Street, right in the middle of the city, the old city, the original area, with all of those streets around it. North Main Street, South Main Street, Castle Street, Just you name it. It's just completely surrounded by retail. 07:28 So 21 vape shops around one school alone. I mean, my God, lads, that is just absolutely alarming. And then, of course, I was telling you recently of the characters up the country where the guards were targeting Vast wealth, and I mean vast wealth, earned by a gang operating what was known as a nationwide wholesale trade in suspected illegal vapes and cannabis products. Some of these are gummies, the cannabis products that you can chew like gums. Others are vape products that will get you into the A&E with chest pains thinking you're having a bloody heart attack. 08:03 But apparently it was two brothers with dual Irish-Pakistani citizenship, suspected leaders of this outfit, this gang. Their network was hit in the last week or 10 days by Angarda Shekhana, and the network expanded to five counties and involved the Garda hitting all of them, over 100 members of Angarda Shekhana. They seized stuff there, a lot of it illegal, worth about €3 million. So it certainly is an area where there has to be much closer attention put, particularly when you hear that anybody who actually applies for a vape shop is granted it by the HSE. 08:39 None were rejected. Your thoughts on that are welcome, text 0868-104-106. You may well be a parent of children in primary or secondary school, more probably secondary school, I would think. but maybe not exclusively because some kids in sixth class can look as if they're a lot older than they look. And I wonder, are you bothered by the amount of vape shops, particularly around schools? And then... 09:02 You'd think that the season of goodwill would have had these guys maybe in better form. But these are allegations between two men who, by all accounts, traded punches and threw each other into the shelves of Smith's Toy Store at the retail park in Kinsell Road. It happened 4pm. I'm going to call it Christmas week. It was December 18th, 2023. Now, these are allegations. It's before the court. It involves Brian McDonough and Patrick McCarthy. Smith's Toys in the retail park in Kinsale Road sounded to me like one of those cowboy western standoffs where there's going to be a shootout. 09:43 But apparently the CCTV footage, it's alleged from Smith's Toys, shows the two men walking with purpose towards each other from either end of the aisle. Right? You've got the picture in your mind's eye, don't you? 09:58 One speaks to the other. 10:00 for a couple of seconds and then McDonough punches McCarthy causing him to fall onto the toys on the shelves there's a woman actually standing nearby with a child in her arms and she legs it totally frightened by it all and anyway the two characters allegedly McDonough and McCarthy continue fighting each other security guards attempt to separate them they throw each other into the shelving at either side of the aisle and then they take on the boxing stance you know you know the boxing stance The old shuffle, the old shimmy. And they trade punches. All of these are allegations before the court. 10:32 We'll have to allow the court to take its course regarding McDonough from Formoy and McCarthy from the Spring Lane halting site in Ballyvalan. That's an interesting one. I'd love to see what kind of a... What's very interesting about this is they were due back in court yesterday. 10:47 But McDonough wasn't in the body of the court, right? He's from Formoy. He didn't show up. And his defence solicitor said that family members of McDonough and his wife treated them to a surprise trip abroad. 11:03 So a solicitor asked for an adjournment. He said, they flew out on Sunday and they're back on Wednesday. And he, McDonough, had no act or part in booking the holiday at all at all. That it was a surprise trip. And the judge agreed. You would think in other cases there'd be a warrant out for somebody not turning up for a case. But this one was all right because they got surprised with a bit of a holiday overseas and they went. And why wouldn't you, I suppose, forgoing the price of a holiday and missing out on a bit of sun? But anyway, there you have it. And with all that's happening, of course, the Echo this morning are leading with a story with regards to the North Main Street. 11:39 You know the buildings I'm talking about, 62, 63, 64 and 65. 11:45 Seven years after their partial collapse, demolition work has commenced on those four derelict back-to-back. You might recall the partial collapse in 2019. So 2019, parts of it all started to fall apart. So in they went with the emergency services. The Echo this morning says that they put in structures and temporary steel systems to stabilise it. They're corroded now and rotting and rusting. So there's a chance that the whole place will come down. So they're being forced now to act quickly. And of course, you should have done this years ago. It's a bloody eyesore for the last five or six years. 12:17 Seven years, actually. So demolition begins today. As to what they're going to do with it, I don't know. Tell you one thing that they have done something with. Speed limits. Keep an eye on this now. Keep a close eye on this one, a watchful eye. And maybe it's a good thing. I don't know if you've ever tried to drive at 30 kilometres an hour. Sometimes you feel as if a... Sometimes you would feel as if a hearse with a coffin in it would pass you by going faster. But then again, we are talking about housing estates adjacent to roads and people just need to slow the hell down. So maybe we need to take this on the chin. 12:48 So it started now with BlackRock... Ballantemple, Beaumont, Church Roads, areas like that. Cork City Council have approved the extension now of the 30-kilometre speed limit around those areas. And that will make it better for pedestrians, make life a bit better for cyclists and hopefully keep people safe around the roads. But this will be rolled out even further because I'm reading from both the Echo and the Examiner this morning. I don't know how they'll police this. I have absolutely no idea. But this 30-kilometre speed limit... 13:18 will then be rolled out to places like Sunday's Well, College Road, Wellington Road, Glanmire, Pope's Road and Ballantemple. And when we all get used to it, 30 kilometres an hour will be the norm. Your thoughts on that? Text 0868 104 106. 13:34 And while all that's happening with regards to our welfare and our health and looking after each other, there's a report out now that supposedly knocks it on the head that fluoride in water leads to brain damage and cognitive decline. They're saying this morning in the mail, there's a report out saying there's no link between adding fluoride to the public water supply and people's mental capacity in later life with regards to dementia, Alzheimer's and things like that. There are people amongst us who believe that fluoride is added to the water. to keep us dull and docile and do what we're told. 14:06 But apparently the scientists are saying, we can't see any connection there. And of course, why was it in there in the first place? Well, they put it in, by all accounts, to prevent tooth decay. Tooth decay, you would have thought, maybe that brushing twice a day or after meals would have done the job there quite nicely, thank you. And you know what? I'm absolutely bewildered as to what's truthful, what's fact, what's a story, what's a parable and what's a myth. in the Bible, which is a fine book. I must get around to reading it someday. I'm looking forward to it. I mean that seriously. 14:37 But you know, Noah's Ark, I always thought that was a story. I really didn't think that God flooded the entire earth and gave a belleroo to Noah and said, get a couple of every species onto an ark, keep them safe, and you'll float away in the flood. I I always thought that was a story, you know, that we could learn from or what have you. But in the last 10 or 20 years, I keep seeing all these stories of Noah's Ark being discovered. And always it's in and around places like Turkey, Eastern Turkey. And they've only gone and found another one now. 15:08 The charred wooden remains of what looks like a 515 foot long boat. 15:16 up the side of a mountain in eastern Turkey. 15:20 It's about 30 feet underground and they figure that it is Noah's Ark. We'll have to watch the space for details, but there you have it nonetheless. But amazing the things you learn that they believe. historically, that that actually happened. And as you reminisce about things of old, you might be interested to hear a bit of good news for you this morning, that pennies have brought back their classic jingle for their new Christmas ad campaign. Now, I suppose there's a lot of pressure on pennies these days, and I was wondering this morning whether they thought that maybe they'd tap into nostalgia to because everybody loves nostalgia. 15:55 And the research says that nostalgia plays a massive role for women in particular. Nearly 70% of women say that their best part of the festive experience has to do with memories, obviously the festivities, but the nostalgia of Christmas's past and growing up and stuff like that. So that's very interesting because they're going back to the iconic tune. of the 80s and 90s, which they parked, it certainly won't do their sales any harm because it's a cracking, cracking ad. That's for sure. I'll give it a spin in a few minutes' time. 16:26 If you can think of any other nostalgic ads that you'd like brought back for Christmas, I mean, obviously, Barry's tea. He'll get what he wants. This one's from me. And there's others like it. So, text away to your heart's content. Text 0868-104-106. Be part of the conversation. Conversations. 16:45 Text 0868 104 106. We'll catch up on lots of calls and also many, many emails on different topics over the last few days. So I was talking about those Christmassy ads that are coming back. This is the one I was talking about when it came to good old pennies, right? 16:57 That's back. 17:08 Whatever you have in yourself. 17:14 Five Christmas underpantsers for a pound. 17:17 Back in the day. 17:20 That's enough of that. And then the other one, of course, that's very nostalgic is this one. We never get fed up with this fella. 17:25 Well, doesn't that be Banner? A train set, no less. 17:30 Isn't Santa the smart fella? Turn the moment gold with Barry's Goldblend tea. 17:36 So last night, when I came home with the train set, Mary couldn't believe it. 17:39 Not much. 17:42 she said Santa'll bring them what they want I said this is from me put the kettle on we'll have a cup of tea and then there was the gin it had Shandon Probably more visual. I'm fucking around with snowballs there. 18:09 Don't forget to turn the lights off. 18:11 Even at the home of the black stuff, they dream of a white one. 18:15 Happy Christmas. 18:18 Never go wrong with a touch of nostalgia because it just pulls at the heartstrings and sells more stout or more underpants or indeed more cups of tea. Let's drag out some more lads. Text 0868 104 106. Nostalgic ads of yesteryear that should be brung back again. The ESB ad was another one. Wasn't that the Dusty Springfield song? Remember that one? I might get that one and give it an old spin-a-rooney. Can I also say, I ran out of time yesterday, but Seamus went up to the stew competition up in Henshey's on the weekend. There was a massive crowd of people. 18:49 I mean, it was standing room only and everybody got to eat all of the different stews, a dozen of them. So we got a report from that as well and I'll be announcing the winner of this year's annual stew competition at Henshey's, of which, by all accounts... 19:04 I'm the judge of next year. I'll go along very hungry, I can tell you, because I do love a good stew. That's a fact. Anyway, to the phone lines we go. Jim, good morning. Jim O'Hearn. Now, we stay in touch, right, to keep people abreast of work that you and other tradespeople have to go in after cowboys have ripped people off. And you have another tranche of them for me this morning. What have you got from last week? 19:29 Actually, listen, I suppose every couple of weeks we're getting them there. Some lady there got caught for... They done work for 90,000 on her roof, and the roof was wrecked. 19:38 There's another lady, 35,000, just bad work again, and the contractor threatened her. I mean, like, pay or else, you know? 19:47 Pay or else they'd get what? Violent, is it? 19:50 They'd get violent. That's exactly what it is. And the guards respond to them when they're calling the guards. Pay them. You've contracted them. It's a civil matter. They don't want to know. And they're probably right because there's no law there to prevent this. The government haven't put any regulation in place. 20:07 Can I just roll back there to it is the Wild West with cowboys in the Wild West. So 90 grand. Can you give us more detail on that, Jim? 20:16 Well, as much as I know about it, Neil, it's just bad workmanship more than anything else. The roof is leaking now. It's coming into our property and they won't come back to fix it. As a case, they're gone. They're gone with the money. And all this money went through the bank as well. There's a contract and everything with this. But these guys will just change their name tomorrow morning and start up again, you know? 20:36 And do you know whether there was these characters that were just driving around housing estates in vans or were they found on Facebook Marketplace or what? 20:46 Facebook Marketplace is the big place that people are finding them. I had another one in Carragher line down there where they took 18,000 to do a roof for the woman. We went down to do a repair on it. Like there wasn't 4,000 euros worth to work there. She didn't know it was 18 grand and so the whole thing has to come off. The house is leaking. 21:04 So there's loads and loads. But it's just that there is absolutely no regulation whatsoever to protect anyone. And nobody's interested. The government aren't interested. 21:13 The guards aren't interested. And people are really out of pocket. 21:17 Is it a civil matter? It probably is, isn't it? 21:21 It is, but then by the time you get to civil matter, it needs to be stopped before it gets that fair because these characters will just shut up shop and do another one, you know. I hope someone listening will ring you up and tell them their story because when I'm asking people, they're very nervous to come on, you know. 21:34 Well, I'd be nervous if the 90 grand, was that an elderly couple or what? 21:39 No, no, these are young people. These are very intelligent people, to be honest, you know. They've got good jobs. I'm shocked that they're falling into it. 21:46 And is it the case that we're told, if you don't pay up, we and all of our mates will come and visit you in a vertical. 21:54 That was on one of them. That was on one of them. That was on one of them. That was the threat that was there. 21:58 And were they all roofing jobs? 90 grand, 35 grand, 18 grand? 22:02 Yeah, or buildings. Most of them are roofing jobs. No, they've kind of moved on to that. But it can be anything, really. It can be in your drives or anything. But the bottom line is it shouldn't happen. A lot of this, to me, is like process of crime and cabs should be involved. But there's no regulation. Unless the government... Pull their socks up. We're not going to cure this. 22:21 Okay, you're giving me four examples. 90 grand, 35 grand, 18 grand and 1,500. Three of them were women and one a young couple. 22:30 Yeah. 22:30 Okay. 22:32 You say that in the case of the work done, it's appalling work and even the proper job that needs doing would have been nowhere near that kind of money anyway. 22:42 That's right. That's correct. That's correct. 22:44 Okay. So if every single person, unless every single person who is involved in the trades or any kind of work like that is registered by some kind of a central, is there no registration at all? 23:00 No, not for work like this. There is, I think the construction industry registration is starting next year, but that's only going to bring in the good guys. It's only going to bring in the good chairs. 23:10 How do you catch the bad guys then? 23:12 Well, you make it illegal to do certain work and you make it that they have to register. And then if they're bad, they won't be able to. We're not trying to stop guys out there that are doing good work. We're trying to stop guys that are doing bad work and catching people. So it would be signed up with the tax office. It would be signed up with... hopefully the CRI would get involved and then CAB would get involved. So if these characters are doing this, CAB can come in and just take it all back, you know. And there should be a fund refund as well somewhere that people can get help, you know, financially. 23:46 So all that can do can happen. It happens in Australia. It's there. We just got to copy the bloody thing. 23:51 But 90 grand is a huge amount of money. Possibly it was either life savings or a bank loan or a credit union loan. 24:01 People are broke from this and people are scared from this. So unless we change the law and get it right. I mean, even if there's some politician out there that wants to get involved that has the bottle to drive on with this. I've sent this to 174 of them, right, and then getting no response. They're great at election time. But when it comes to this, it's just automated. Or we got your email and go on the way and don't be annoying us. 24:22 So we need to do something stronger. Okay, so if somebody, say for instance, needed work on a roof or wanted an extension built or a renovation job done, where should they go if it's not searching online? 24:37 I suppose the first thing people need to do now is employ an engineer and pay that thousand euros to the engineer to certify the workers as going forward. No payments go out unless that engineer certifies it. But where do they find the contractor? 24:51 Well, it doesn't matter. Most good contractors have no problem working with engineers. Absolutely none. We think it's safe because we all get paid and there's no messing. 25:00 But where would you find the contractor? Is it word of mouth? 25:05 Well, an engineer would have a list of contractors, Neil, that they work with all the time. So, I mean, if you want to be safe, go down that road. Okay, yeah. 25:13 So don't deal with people who call to the door. I'm working down the road and I saw your roof and all that kind of nonsense, right? 25:19 And stay away from the internet, for God's sake. The first 20 of them are in trouble. But we need to change the law, Neil. It needs to be changed now. We need to get regulation in. We need to get a good regulator body in to protect everyone and the trades as well. 25:36 But I have to tell you, in the past, I deal with a lot of people who have gone to what would deem to have been reputable tradespeople. Some of these characters claim to have more than one trade. And I always find that quite suspicious. 25:49 But they would be known as, say, for instance, registered companies that have all of the bits and pieces. I don't know what their relationship would be like with the revenue, but they do runners and they do crap work. And then when I when I challenge them, then they've got gambling addictions. They've got drug addictions. They were in hospital. They've got issues in the family. They've all sorts of excuses. What about them, fellas? 26:11 Well, they're all guilty of it as well. And this is why we need this regulated group to come in. It needs to be sorted out with proper regulation. And they can be crying all they want about their addictions. They will be losing something at the end of the day because of this. Accountability is what we need. Like in the last couple of weeks, everybody around the city have noticed leaflets coming in their door again for roofs or repairs and all that. Throw them into the bloody fire. 26:34 Get rid of them. Don't. Just don't even read them. 26:36 You're not doing a disservice to reputable businesses, for instance, who are also... Well, I haven't got any reputable one in my door in the last 12 months. All right, you'd know, you'd know. Maybe you did. No, you'd know. No, I wouldn't touch them with a 40-foot pole. Not a chance. 26:50 No, I mean, I've an article in the winter edition of the... the self-built Extended Revenue magazine. And it deals with this. It's a two-page item on this. I'm hoping the government will read it or the politicians will read it or the CIF will read it. But we get this up and running to stop the messing that's going on in our industry. 27:09 So the flyers straight into recycling. Don't give them the time of day. 27:14 God, you're very kind, Eddie Burnham. All right, we'll give you that. 27:16 But you know what I mean? Because no matter how much people talk about it, and I'm blue in the face telling these stories, people continue to get caught. 27:25 Yeah, well, I'd hope someone would pick up the phone now and ring you and just go through a story and just tell. And I hope that some politicians out there that would be interested in grabbing this and taking it forward and putting their head on the block to get this over the line. Or if most isn't ready to go, I just need political backing. 27:43 I hear you. Let's get those stories. Stay in touch. Thank you, Jim. 90 grand, 35 grand, 18 grand and 1500 euro. Just four stories from last week on Leaside alone. Perhaps you have a story to share. Please do. Text 0868 104 106. Pick up the phone on 0818 104 106. After the break. 28:02 Get on to Prenderville now. 28:04 0818 104 106. The Neil Prenderville. 28:09 So what's it like in reverse then when somebody's done work and can't get paid? Sarah, good morning. 28:14 Good morning, Neil. Now, your son has a trade, is that right? What does he do? 28:19 He's a plumber. 28:19 Okay. And tell us about this story where he can't get money for the work that he did. 28:25 Well, there was a lady, she's over 90. I don't want to give away too much now about her. And she had no heating in the house. So she applied for a grant. He gave her the quotes and cost of materials because they asked for a bit of a breakdown. He'd done all of that. She got approved. He'd done the work. The council sent out somebody to inspect it. They passed it. She got paid and my son still didn't get paid. 28:53 Just move around a little bit there, if you don't mind. But how much was the job? 28:56 I think it was between £12,000 and £15,000. 29:05 15 grand. Okay. You did all of the work. 29:08 It was signed off as being... All right. 29:12 Just a second. We'll see if we can try and fix that phone line. My apologies. I have to be absolutely honest with you. I don't have any phone lines today. I didn't have any phone lines yesterday. So I'm just operating off a WhatsApp line. So you'll have to bear with me if it comes across as tardy or unprofessional. That's the reason behind it. It's out of our control. We're doing the best that we can. 29:30 Is that any better there, Sarah? Can you hear me now? 29:32 Okay, well, she's gone now for this time, but we'll see if we can get her back. So that was a job where he was paid out the money, 15 grand. And this was a grant, of course, a grant job. You know, you can get all sorts of different grants, actually, for different things. It could be insulation. It could have the walls filled. You know, put all that foam in the walls and insulate the house properly. There's all sorts of different things you can get. And you get a grant as well for... for a heat pump and lots more besides underground heating there's lots of different grants bear in mind though you still pay the lion's share of the work it's a grant towards the work but I think in the case of her son he did it all got signed off everybody was fine she got the grant which was given to her into her bank account and is now refusing by all accounts to, is by all accounts refusing to give it to her son. 30:20 I was just trying to just surmise as to what happened, Sarah. So she got the money into her account. She was approved for the grant. 30:27 Yes. What happened then? Well, this is it. He'd have to probably bring her to court to get the money, which is shocking. He thought he was helping her out. She's zero eating in the house. She's elderly. He bought the materials as well. It's not just his labour he got caught for, you know. 30:45 And what did she say when he said, listen, it's time to pay up? You got the grant. It was lodged in your bank account. 30:52 She's saying the job's not done and the job's not up to this and that. But look, the job is the heating work and the council engineer has signed off. They come out and they inspect it, you know. 31:02 I mean, that's a horrid thing to do to somebody. I mean, the boiler is working. The heating system is working. The rads are hot and she won't pay. 31:10 Yeah, yeah. 31:12 So, like, something needs to properly change with the grant system as for guys doing work. Now, I know a lot of my son's work buddies said to him that, by right, you should have made her go and get a loan while she was waiting on the grant. But look, she was elderly. He didn't want to do that to her, you know? 31:29 Well, he was well reared in the sense that he felt sorry for her and wanted to sort her out for the winter. And now she's given him the two fingers and won't pay, even though she's got the money. She's got a new heating system and a gift of 15 grand. 31:42 Yeah, exactly. 31:45 OK. So that's not a criminal offence then? It's a civil action, is it? 31:49 It's probably civil, yeah, you know. 31:52 What's he going to do? 31:54 I have no idea, like, because I've spoken to him and I've tried to get him to make a move on it and he's not inclined to, like, you know. 32:04 And did he say to her, well, tell me what's wrong, tell me what you're unhappy with, show me the problems? 32:10 He did and he's arranged to go back to her and she won't answer the door and she had something that she wanted checked electrical. He got an electrician that he works with. He went back three times I think and she wouldn't answer the door to him either. 32:25 She's just trying it on. 32:27 From the limited amount of information I have from you, she's just bad news. I mean, that's a dreadful thing to do. 32:33 Yeah, it's shocking. Yeah. And look, she needs more work done and she'll probably get other tradesmen and then they might not get paid either, which is... 32:42 And like the government is giving a grant for all this work, you know. 32:46 So how does it work? So you decide that you need work done. In her case, she wanted a new heating system put in, blah, blah, 15 grand's worth was the grant. So she applies for the grant. 32:58 Do you have to get the grant and the money before the work starts or what? 33:02 No, the work has to be done. And then an engineer from the council comes out and signs off only if the work, because look, you know, look, that woman could have got a plumber who didn't do the work correctly. And then if the engineer doesn't give the money, he'd have to fix it, which is a great scheme. 33:20 But your son is on an approved list of contractors. 33:24 Yes, and his job has been passed, you know. 33:27 So an engineer came out and passed it as 100% hunky-dory payoff. So if, say for instance, somebody does get work done, is it always a case that the builder does the work before the grant is actually given? 33:43 Yes, but a lot of builders now will ask people to take a letter to the credit union to say that they're getting a grant. I understand. And to get the money. Because look, you know, you can't blame them when this happens. And you could be waiting because seemingly a lot of people now are applying for the grant and there aren't enough engineers to go out. So you're left waiting to get past, to get the money, you know. 34:05 And is there anyone else in the house that he could talk to besides the woman? 34:10 No, she lives on her own. 34:11 That's bad news. She's taken advantage of the young man and his business. That's wrong on a load of different levels. It's shocking. It's really bad. She should be ashamed of herself. She's got 15 grand now that she won't give for work that was done 100%. 34:23 I think she got a grant of nearly 11,000. She had to pay some money. I think it's 10,600 you get for the grant, you know? 34:33 I know. Well, listen, the work was done. She agreed it. Oh, I know. Is he going to take a civil action against her? 34:39 I don't know what he's going to do. I would hope he would, even though it's horrible to have to. He should. But, yeah, hopefully he will, you know. 34:46 He should not let it go. 34:47 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 34:49 Oh, I know, I know. Regardless of age, and we would have compassion from people who are senior citizens, but you can't do that. That's wrong. It's wrong. 34:57 Yeah, I know. Let me know if there's any updates. Most people are honest and most people pay because I'd be saying to him take deposits and he won't. But, you know, this is kind of a force now, really. 35:10 It might change the way he does business in future. Maybe he won't. One, spit and twice shy. Thanks, Sarah. Thank you. Text 0868 104 106. Pick up the phone on 0818 104 106. We did a poll at the weekend, incidentally, of those that get off their ass and go to work, or as Simon Harris would say, the long-term unemployed who couldn't be bothered doing it. And we asked people as to whether they agree or disagree with Simon Harris's comments. 91% of people who responded, and that's over 2,000 people, agreed with what Simon Harris had to say. 35:42 9% disagreed. A matter of hundreds disagreed. And a matter of 2,000 or so people who responded agreed with what he had to say. Interestingly, there was a broad sweep of comments then. He's saying that, you know, being on the door long term, is not a life choice. If there's work there, you should do it. And other people were saying, if a person is genuinely searching for a job, no issue. But if a person is scrounging and they are in the self-entitled brigade, just cut them off. Another one, what about the generations of single mums that never work? 36:15 Many of them are on many types of welfare payments, many in council houses all their lives with every single benefit that they can lay their hands on. Indeed, there are even folks Facebook pages to advise people with regards to the amount of benefits that they can get. I'm not so sure you'd be equating single mums who get a bit of a bashing, to be quite honest with you. Do you remember the days when they were called unmarried mothers? Weren't they awful days using terms like that? Yes, I agree. I hope this includes all the non-nationals who were receiving job seekers. 36:46 I've known a few people who have been on the dole for 10 years plus. Nothing has ever happened to them, living the life of Riley. For once, I agree with Simon Harris. Let's be honest. It's a way of life for some people. They just don't want to work. They need to be targeted. Low-income families need help. End of. And a low-income family would be just that. Somebody who has an income because they go out to work. Keep them coming. Text 0868-104-106. Pick up the phone on 0818-104-106 after the break. 37:24 One way around this, of course, and somebody says it by text here. I don't have a name for it, but the texter says the grant money should be paid into the contractor's account when the work is done, signed off by an engineer, and everybody is happy with it. So you don't get any jip from the punter who refuses to pay you. It's gone directly into your account. I'm just wondering how prevalent is it where people just refuse to pay up? Now, so there's two sides to this story, the cowboys and the yeehaws, and also the people who refuse to pay for good work. Charles Glavin is with Blarney Window Systems. I'd say they do a fortune of work for councils. 37:56 Let's find out. Charles, good morning. 37:58 Good morning. 37:59 How are you? Okay. What have you got to share with us this morning with regards to all of this? 38:03 Yes, we do an immense work for the county council and the corporation. But there's a form you can actually get. You just print it out for all the other forms that the customer has to have. And the customer signs this at the end of the works. When we finish a job, the customer signs this paperwork to say that the work has been completed. We submit that to the County Council then that all the work is completed. They go out and inspect the works and then you get paid from the County Council. You have to wait and get paid for the county council, but it doesn't go to the customer. It goes directly into my company's account. 38:34 Okay. 38:34 So that cuts out this situation of a woman not paying a man that amount of money for... 38:39 Okay, but hers had to do with the grant. Are you talking about grants? 38:44 No, no. Yeah, this is all grant work. Windows, doors. 38:48 Anybody that does grant work, there's a form that you can just download from the county council's website. The customer signs, it's a declaration basically saying that we've commenced all the works, all the works have been dealt with, and the money is paid directly to her. She signs at the end of the job when I finish the job. We submit that to the county council. They go and do their inspection, their corporation, and then they pay the money directly into my account. 39:11 And that's for all of the home heating grounds, blabbity-blah, everything else, the attic, the walls. 39:16 I've been in this business a long time and we have people that do roofing, we have people that do plumbing, all the above. And it's the same system with all of them. Because if you put yourself in that situation where... 39:26 You know, somebody didn't have the money to pay for the heat in the first place themselves, and then they're getting a grand talk, and then the money ends up in their accounts. That's Russian roulette-like. 39:34 You're saying that the temptation is there not to pay the tradesperson, then? Of course it would be like. 39:39 Of course it would be like. Again, not being disrespectful to anybody out there, but let's say tomorrow morning you don't have money, you get $15,000 worth of grand talk done in your house from a plumber, and suddenly $15,000 inside your account? 39:55 So what's the course of action after that? Is it a civil action then for... 39:59 It is a civil matter. 40:01 But look, I'm in business a long time and a civil matter is... 40:06 as much use as a blank bit of paper, because I have a good friend of mine a solicitor. He said, winning a case is no issue whatsoever when you have all, you know, the paperwork. Getting money off someone is the problem. So winning a case, if you want to go through down that road, generally it's not an issue as long as you have a contract for employment and all of the above. 40:26 You know, getting money. 40:26 Yeah, that's true. I mean, a judge can find in your favour, right? And say, absolutely, you're owed the money. And I now rule that the defendant has to pay you the 15 grand. Bangs the gavel and it's over. But they don't help you to get the money. 40:41 Not necessarily. Because if the defendant turns around and says, well, look, I'm unemployed and yes, I spent the money and... When I'm unemployed, I don't have any money. Then the judge can't take 15,000 out of someone that allegedly doesn't have it. So the judge might say 25 euro a week, 50 euro a week, depending on the personal circumstances. They could pay the first one or two payments and then stop. And you know what you have to do then? Bring it back into court again. 41:05 So that's why a lot of trades maybe just walk away from the debt and say it's not worth the hassle. 41:10 If any of my customers tell me, oh, well, look, no, I want the money paid into my account and I don't want to sign the declaration of works, blah, blah, blah. And I say, drive on, get somebody else to do it. Get somebody else. 41:19 They're not going to do it. I hear you. 41:21 So if they won't sign it, you know you're in trouble. But you have the work done at that stage. 41:27 Well, I have no interest. I have enough of stress in my life. I have no interest in, you know, carrying on that. I have 19 employees. You know what I mean? There's a lot to deal with in business now at the moment. So there's no way in this wide world am I drawing any more stress on myself. So if I do plan trucks, the customer side of the farm. Again, as I said, sometimes I have an issue with the grant workers. There was one stage there, $178,000. I was all from the County Council. They pay eventually, but you still have to be able to carry it because obviously all the workers done, all my staff are paid, all the The product is paid first, so you have to be able to carry it because sometimes I presume it's just on budget, that they run out of money or whatever. 42:03 But yeah, you'll get it. 42:05 I'd say they're all historically slow to pay, anything like that. So this declaration form, right? You get the customer to sign it when the work is done. What if they refuse to sign it when the work is done? 42:18 I've all clarified before and it's in my contract. I have all that clarified before I even start working. 42:29 So all my details are on the farm and all of the above, you know? 42:32 Yeah, but some character might say, agree to all of that. But when the work is done, they could just easily say to you or a plumber, I'm not paying, I'm not signing. 42:41 I get that. But look, you still have a better chance of getting paid with that than without it. Because it is Russian roulette if you do 10 jobs and you will owe all of these customers for the money to end up in their account. 42:52 Yeah. 42:53 That's nuts. That's absolutely nuts. 42:54 So it shouldn't go to their account. It should go to the contractor. 42:58 Well, in my opinion, if we say cooperation or county council are instructing me to carry out work for Mary in number 17, my contract is yes. I agree. You know, my work has been done Mary. But the county council should be going to send this work off and say, pay Blarney Windows or pay John the Plumber. Whatever, yeah. Because at the end of the day, technically they're instructing us to do the work in our house. 43:19 Good stuff, good stuff. Well said. Thanks, Charles. Charles Glavin has Blarney Window Systems. Text 0868 104 106. Lots more after 10. 43:36 We talk about waste, don't we? Peter says you spoke earlier on about waste. 4 billion euro, which is what it would cost per year to pay the extra money to public sector workers if they get an increase. They will get an increase, and if it's 11%, that's... 43:51 He says that's less than half of one year's allocation to all of the unaudited, unaccounted for money given to NGOs, non-government organisations. 44:04 That's a wake up call when you look at it like that. Incidentally, Paz says if the public servants who are currently looking for a substantial pay rise... 44:12 It's they are wasting public money, not private sector workers who pay for all of it at the end of the day. Do bear in mind, incidentally, that public sector workers also pay tax, PRSI, and all sorts of different contributions, including the USA. That's rich. With regards to Simon Harris, why doesn't he get off his ass and do his job full stop? If the dole was so great, says John, why aren't more people on it? An interesting point. Neil, you need to get Tess back on the air from yesterday. 44:43 I didn't agree with everything she said, but I admired her conviction and she scared me into sitting up straight in the chair, says Martina. 44:51 Bear in mind that Tess was a schoolteacher all her life. There was a huge response to Tess, actually. Let me just find some of them from overnight that came in. I was chatting with Tess on the air yesterday. It all started with her giving out about members of Un Garda Chicana who need to buck up and do their job. I'll be going around lounging around on street corners or scrolling on their phones or chewing gum. That's what she was saying. And it followed on an email that said likewise. I was listening to Tess giving out about the Gardaí chewing gum and about young people having no discipline. Just want to say that the idea of discipline when she was teaching was cruelty. 45:26 And I'm glad that she isn't teaching anymore because the young people of today could do without that negativity. Mind you, as I went out and about yesterday, on more than one occasion, people said to me, come here, you should put Tess on the air when you go on holidays. You should give Tess her own programme or a weekly slot. 45:43 I agree with your callers, including Tess, critical of our police. I observed two policemen walking down a street, passing two places that have regular problems, which they completely ignored. I also agree on the woman's view about tattoos. So Tess also had a poke. on people who have tattoos. It's teachers like Tess that make young people want to leave school early. I had some teachers like that, and if I hadn't the kind, supportive teachers supporting me at the same time, I wouldn't have gone into getting my two degrees in nursery and midwifery. 46:14 You can tell she wasn't a teacher in a dash school. Very judgmental. Those nuns cause so much hurt and pain to so many families with the abuse supported by the Catholic Church. And a few, then, is Tess for real? Get her off the air. God, what a snob. What on earth is that woman on air talking about the guards like that for? I'm a mother of two Gardaí, and I'm very cross over her attitude. She's insane. How dare she think she's above everyone else? I am also glad that she was not teaching me. Thanks, Neil. 46:45 Love the show. Morning. I would lean to the left a bit, but then you hear Tess. I laughed it off. She sounds to me that she is full of trauma. 46:55 And I hope that Tess won't mind me reading out some other ones. Who gave her the wig and gown? A judgmental woman. Get her off the air. She has neither a clue nor any respect. 47:06 The nuns, Neil, did what they had to do, she said. Oh, for God's sake, do I have to listen to that? 47:13 That woman speaks about the Gardaí. She's in the past. not to mention a very judgmental individual about so many people. And then there was a lot of people probably who are tattoo lovers themselves saying there's absolutely nothing wrong with tattoos, full stop. I often wonder on the subject of tattoos, because there's got to be people out there because it was a bit of a, I think there's a handy business in removing tattoos, right? And it's got cheaper, I think. And imagine that the technology involved and laser or whatever is involved has become much more advanced and it's cheaper now. 47:45 But I can recall on the air talking with people who got tattoos at a younger age that they actually regretted. But they were looking at eight or ten grand back in the day to get them taken off again. Might be interesting to talk to a tattoo remover to see what kind of tattoos they're asked to remove. Maybe it was just something that somebody... 48:09 Your fashion sense change, doesn't it? You never stay the same. So, your dress sense changes, the seasons change, the dress styles, men and women all change. And I'm wondering if the same could be said about a tattoo. It might be something you loved in your teens or your 20s. But when you're 40, you might say... 48:31 Well, it's funny, we were only talking about it at the weekend because they say that if you get your name, a name of someone on you, like a partner, that the relationship is doomed, supposedly, because I have a family member who's removing two tattoos, which are names of their previous partners. 48:49 And supposedly, yeah, so I'm in trouble because I have my husband on my foot. 48:54 But that'll be, he'll always be in your life and the tattoo will be all. But like that's, I mean, statistically, if there's 100 people out there with tattoos of a partner, not all of those will ever kind of survive. So maybe 20% or 30%. But could they be doctored like, no? 49:11 Yeah, exactly. 49:12 Could you get a tattoo over a name? 49:13 Yes, absolutely. That's what my family member did, actually. She got Gougon, because obviously mum was buried in Gougon, so she got a guy down in Middleton to do it. I think it was Middleton, anyway. And it was really gorgeous. The church in Gougon. Oh, lovely. 49:30 Those that regret tattoos in younger life live to pay the price in later life. 49:35 I'd say it's the biggest one that people get removed, really, is the... But as you say trends change as well. Actually there was someone was on to me recently as well and she took major umbrage to an ad that's going at the moment and they're talking about the lower back tattoo which has been named the tramp stamp. 49:53 Oh it runs along your lower back doesn't it? 49:55 Yeah but it is a terrible name for like an awful lot of women do get 49:59 So why did it, where did the Tramp Stamp name come from? 50:02 I have no idea I need to do some research on it because it's shocking like, you know, so, but there's a crowd who remove tattoos and they have an ad running at the moment. 50:12 And it says Tramp Stamp? It says Tramp Stamp, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Do people by and large say, oh my God, that's pretty cheap looking or are they attractive? Like, 50:21 was a time probably about 10 or 15 years ago where every other woman was getting them as tattoos, you know. What are they? What would it typically be? It's just the lower back tattoo. It could be anything. It could be, you know, a name or Celtic designs, anything like that, you know, or Ome or anything. They were very popular. But I'll get a tattoo artist on for you and we'll see. 50:40 Appreciate the fact. Thank you. Text 0868 104 106. Your ladies are correct. I'm in town and on Anglesey Street every day. 50:50 I'm conflicted about these texts, to be honest with you, because I think we should always support and respect law and order and those that are trying to police it. But maybe there might be a lesson learned with regards to, if anybody's listening with regards to the Gardaí, I don't know. So I'm in town on Anglicy Street every day and the Gardaí simply aren't present in any meaningful sense. Yes, they're technically out on the beat, but they're often scrolling on their phones, standing in twos and threes, chatting. and barely looking around them. I saw two Garda on Dawn Square the other day. One was bent over his phone, scrolling. 51:21 When a man approached them, they obviously knew each other as they exchanged fist bumps. It was incredulous that the Garda on his phone never even lifted his head. Maybe my spidey senses are working overtime, but something doesn't look right. The lady has a point. Garda numbers on the street seem tiny now, but the Spanish police... are small in stature too, but they're switched on. They seem to be alert and vigilant. It's not about the size or the numbers alone. It's about presence, awareness, and being engaged with what's happening around you. 51:54 Thank you for that. Your one is as mad as a brush, but she's making me laugh though. That can't be a bad thing. Sharon says, thank God Tess didn't teach me. Neil, you'd have some loonies on your show before, but your one takes the biscuit. 52:08 All are welcome. All are welcome. We're a broad church. God help if a doctor came along full of tattoos and had to save her life, she probably wouldn't let the doctor. Oh, for God's sake, get her off the air. She's been living in the past. I have tattoos. She's a sad woman, says Helen. So your tattoos you have never regretted. Good for you. Keep them coming. Text 0868 104 106. Can I just get back to a story from earlier on this morning? He's been a very busy beaver over the past few days, the Labour Party Councillor Peter Horgan. If it hasn't to do with the 30km speed limits, it has to do with the alarming news this morning, right? 52:43 And I believe that it is alarming that not one single application of the HSE for a vape shop has ever been rejected. If you look at this year alone, and certainly here in Cork, it's absolutely mental, the amount of them we have. One in particular story regarding this is... 53:03 A Cork school surrounded by 21 vape shops. I mean, that's serious temptation. Peter Horgan, good morning. 53:11 Good morning, Neil. I've never been called a beaver before, but thanks. 53:14 Well, you're a busy politician, you're a busy councillor, and that's the way people like it. So fair play on this one. I named the school. Am I right in saying it was the Educate Together on Grattan Street? 53:23 Yes, that's the one. And I suppose as well, if you have to take into effect that it's in the city centre, so that's where there's going to be a conglomeration of retailers that would sell any host of products. But this is the school that was identified in a survey by the Sunday Times. 53:38 But it does lead into the idea that in 2024, I was given a report by Public Health that showed about 77% of our schools in Cork City are within a couple of metres from a retailer selling vapes as well. So it's not just, I don't want to single out that one school, but it is an issue around all our schools where there's vapes for sale easily for people. 53:59 Are you saying that there should be legislation to put a restriction on how close vape shops should be to schools then? Like, say, 100 metres, 500 metres. 54:09 100%, yeah. Like, we do this now with fast food. Like, you can't open a fast food outlet near a school and we're trying to retrospectively apply planning is difficult. What I want to see is geomapping of the licences that are given out. So in Cork... 54:22 Last year or in 2025, there was 573 nicotine inhaling products and tobacco licenses granted. There's no geomapping of that. And you've talked on your show before the amount of vape shops, for example, in Oliver Plunkett Street. Mad. So we don't have any site or it seems the HSE don't have any site on where... So on that basis, if somebody has a vape shop and I decide to open another one and it happens to be right next door to an existing vape shop, they will grant that license. 55:00 Well, they haven't reviewed any so far and we see the licences that have been granted and there's nothing in the planning laws at the moment to stop that. And that's what I'm trying to change in Cork City at the very least. Next year we'll be looking at the development plan and if you look at our current development plan, we do have a restriction on new off-licences opening within a certain amount of a distance where there's already an existing off-licence. So I think we need to have that in the development plan. But even at that, I'm told by planners that the laws are too restrictive for us to really go for that sort of aspect. 55:34 So the planning laws naturally need to change and we need to give councils more latitude in how they address their planning applications in this. 55:42 But I suppose if you look at it from the point of view, if I have a fashion shop and somebody wants to open a similar fashion shop next to me, or if I have a restaurant and someone wants to open another restaurant next to me, I can't. I mean, that wouldn't be refused, would it? Or could I object? 55:56 But to be fair, like having two shirt shops next to each other isn't a public health issue. I don't know anyone who's gotten sick from too much fashion. I'm not being flippant, but this is a public health thing. I mean, if these were just tobacco, if you take away vaping for a second, if these were tobacconist shops selling pouches of tobacco and cigarettes, there would be uproar. If there was eight tobacconist shops on Oliver Plunker Street, there would be absolute uproar every day. We'd be saying, no, this can't happen. And it's the same if it was alcohol. If it was specific alcohol shops on it, we'd be saying the same thing. 56:27 I don't know why we give this free pass to vapes because everything that public health is telling me for the last two years in the health forum is that this is the public health issue of our generation. These are the Don Drapers of the 21st century. It's big tobacco pushing vapes. There's no doubt in my mind about it. Personally, I think we should go down the pharmacy route like Australia did, where you can only buy them in pharmacies and they can be used as a smoking cessation tool. They're no longer a smoking cessation tool. 56:52 What usually happens in that regard is it just goes to the black market and smuggles. 56:56 But even in the black market, even in the black market in Australia, the prices have gone up so much, it has put them out of reach of young people in Australia. And the data shows that. 57:04 So what we do know is 772 licences for selling vapes were granted in Cork and Kerry this year. Of the 772 applications, they were all granted and none were refused. That's why we have a proliferation of vape shops added to that, nail salons, and some of those are questionable, and barbers. There are too many, literally. 57:27 Yeah, 100%. And the fact is, it's €800 for a vape and nicotine inhaling licence and it's €1,000 for a tobacco licence. What I call for in the forum, I think we need an upward only review of that by the Minister now on vapes. Because if you're someone who's going to sell vapes and you're saying €800 for a licence, I'll make that back in a week. 57:44 But are they though? I mean, there are so many of them. Surely be to God, they can't all be making money. 57:50 I would struggle to understand how there's so many in so many areas. I took a walk down the other day and I was specifically looking at these shops. A lot of them doing two for one offers. 58:00 on Lost Mary or Mary Jane or whatever they're called. Do you know, I don't know how they're... I never see anyone in them, you know? So I don't understand why, how they're making their money. But the fact that they're present, they're cluttering the street. I've had motions about the signage displays. I've had motions about, you know, the aesthetic of a street. Do you know, we want Cork City Centre... And look, there's a lot of problems in Cork City Centre, but there's a lot of good things happening too. 58:24 But we don't want the city centre to turn into a city centre of vape shops altogether. Or barbershops, for that matter. Or nail salons. 58:32 Well, there has to be an offering in our city centre. We're moving away from, say, a food-only, you know, the traditional way of my grandmother going into the English market to get her weekly shop and all that. You know, it's now becoming more of a retail hospitality kind of city centre. And that's what progress and change is. But we have to show people a reason to come into the city centre to encourage football. And I don't think you're going to encourage football by having eight vape shops on one street alone. 58:56 OK, there's an added issue to this is a lot of these vape shops also sell mobile phones. So somebody might go in looking for a mobile phone or something or whatever the case may be, and then might see all of the coloured beautiful boxes with all these different vapes and say, I'm going to try one of those as well. So you should do one or the other, but clearly not both. 59:14 I've come in, not in Cork City Centre, but in Waterford, there was a tyre shop and they were selling vapes. I mean, it's everywhere in society these days. And if the licences are so cheap for them in the longer term of a year, of course retailers are going to go, well, everyone's talking about vapes, I'm going to try it out. But we shouldn't be doing that. As a society, I think we should be restricting the vape and especially towards young children. 59:35 I think it's extraordinary that not one single application was refused. It's like just a blank check, whatever you have in yourself. Before I let you go, can I just touch very briefly on the 30km speed limits? What we're seeing now, because you're very much in the papers with regards to this morning, Black Rock, Church Road, Ballant Temple, Beaumont, Linville... 59:56 is this 30-kilometre rollout going to become the norm right across the city and the suburbs? I mean, forgive me, but I thought that many of those areas would previously have been 50 kilometres. 60:07 Yeah, so obviously this morning the Blackrock page is an area that I represent. I was hailing the work that we got, Ballant Temple included into a 30km speed limit. And an interesting point, Neil, is that Dublin really pushed against this because I was told by engineers that Ballant Temple village didn't meet the criteria Dublin had set for a village, which was like red rag to a bull to me because... in all my life growing up near Ballant Temple. Like, it's a village. But yeah, I know. So what we agreed last night was a city-wide rollout. So all residential areas now will be 30 kilometres. 60:38 So any residential estates. You still will have the 50 kilometres on a lot of roads. For example, Douglas Road. 60:45 you know, the main arteries of the city. 60:48 But the villages and residential areas are coming down to 30 kilometres. It's not a silver bullet. Like a big thing that we talked about last night in our shortened council meeting was the issue of enforcement. And, you know, we need to have more enforcement. I'm saying this all the time. We need to have more Gardaí in our road policing. 61:06 Why do you need physical guards? For God's sake, like with all the tech that's available, what's wrong with cameras? 61:12 No, exactly. And we had that motion last night. And what we've done is actually from a motion of my own at the Transport Committee, we've identified now 21 junctions across the city where automatic camera enforcement could be rolled out. 61:23 But again, we're waiting on Dublin. 61:25 We're waiting on Dublin again. This is the problem with government in this country. Everything is so centralised. Sean Canney has to give legislation. The NTA have told me that they need brand new legislation to allow these cameras... to be rolled out. And when I asked ahead the CEO of the NT in the summer, well, is there a heads of a bill of that? And her answer was no. And we haven't seen any at all. 61:44 We'll have to watch the space for that one. But at the moment, did you say it's been rolled? Because I saw on the Examiner online, they were talking about places like Sunday's World, College Road, Wellington Road, Glanmire, Popes Road, Ballantemple. 61:57 Is this the new norm now? Is it 30 kilometres now or is this just a rollout that started in the Greater Ballant Temple Black Rock area? 62:04 No, no, it's a rollout across the entire city. 62:06 And how will people know what's 30 and what's 50? 62:09 So we approved them last night. What will happen is that they'll come into effect next March. And there's a whole host of signs coming out. There's a new interactive map being launched by the council today, I'm told, where people will be able to zoom in and see what the speed limit will be in their area. And there'll be new signage rolled out. And especially there'll be new periodic signage outside schools and not the usual standalone signage. They'll be flashing It's over a thousand signs coming down as part of this rollout. 62:36 Let me give you an example of that. If you're saying the Blackrock Road is 30, but the Douglas Road remains 50, can you not see the confusion there? 62:46 Yeah, no, there is. But not all the Blackrock Road is going to be 30. That makes it even worse. 62:51 Well, you know, I advocate for people to slow down in their speeds and especially when you're coming into tightened areas like Ballant Temple Village where we've had significant crashes recently. You know, people do need to slow down. It also needs to be buttressed with more pedestrian crossings and traffic calming and speed ramps. And we're doing that. We're hopefully getting more funding to do that. So, as I said, it's not a silver bullet, but it is an idea to say... Because I live in an estate, like many of us do, and I see the driving that happens in the estate, and it's way out of control. I cycle quite a lot in the city. The driving is out of control. 63:21 People are driving angrily. They're driving too fast. They're trying to nip in and gain that extra 20 seconds. And it ends up causing collisions, which ends up gnarling up the congestion of traffic around the place. So, ironically... people will feel that, like, especially in areas like Douglas, or go down to 30, we're already at, you know, crawling because of the congestion. But if you are properly doing a 30, it actually allows traffic flows to work better. It's slow, though. 63:43 You'd expect a horse to pass you by. I mean, it's slow. 63:47 Well, I challenge you to come out with me, Neil. I can go 30 kilometres on the bike and you see how fast I'm going. I'm sure there'll be plenty of people ringing in if someone's circled by at 30 kilometres on the bike. 63:56 OK, so this kicks in next March. 63:59 Next March. Okay. 64:00 All right. Watch this space. Thanks again, Peter. Much obliged. Thank you. Labour Party Councillor Peter Horgan on Vape Shops. And what are your thoughts on the 30 kilometre speed limit across loads of locations? There would be some main arteries that remain 50, but by and large you see massive changes where everything would move. Well, not everything. I mean, there would be main arteries, obviously, that wouldn't, but everything else down to 30 kilometres. Good or bad? Text 0868 104 106. 64:27 Get on to Prenderville. 64:28 Text or WhatsApp Neil now. 0868-104-106. The Neil Prenderville Show. 64:36 Cowboy Builders, John asks, Neil, is there any common denominator with regards to most of these cowboy builders? What's the common denominator? Yes, and I hope you know what the common denominator is. My hands are somewhat tied on that because there's always a price to pay whenever I go into different aspects of Irish society and those that live in the country and how some people seem to be outside of the law in different regards. So I think you know what I'm saying there. But yeah, there is a lot of the time. a common denominator. 65:07 Listen, if you can't jump on air, you can always send a voice note. It's the same text line, but on WhatsApp, 0868 104 106. 65:13 Hi Neil, good morning. 65:17 I ride my motorcycle most days to work for the past three and a half years and I have to play defence every single day. I have drivers nearly killing me, beeping at me, horn going. 65:34 It's all my fault. 65:36 I'm on a bike. They're in a box, a protected box. 65:41 It's not fair what drivers do to motorcyclists. There's too many people after dying now on the Cork to Middleton in the past 12 months. 65:51 It's ridiculous. 65:53 I remember drivers locally from Middleton and elsewhere around Cork City, and they don't realize I'll see them again. It's ridiculous. 66:07 My people that care about me worry about me on the road every day. But I'm fine because I expect them to try and kill me every day. 66:16 Expect them to try and kill me every day. That from a motor cyclist. I mean, the converse to that is, and I'm not being disrespectful to the lad who left that voice, I'm quite sure that he's a very responsible person. motorbike driver but not all of them are unfortunately and I saw it all across the summer with some people like as if they have a death wish up on a big bike big powerful bikes and not following the correct rules of the road with regards to overtaking it's absolutely insane the speed that some of them pass you at and I just don't know whether or not they realize how dangerous that is for them and for others and sometimes the evasion or the avoidance that has to be done by a car to get out of their way when they're on the wrong side of the road, literally doing 150, 160 kilometres, overtaking a line of traffic as an example. 67:05 And I'm just giving the one example. To the phone lines we go, Maurice, good morning. 67:09 Morning, Neil. How are things, mate? All right. I think you're being a bit tongue-in-cheek, are you? But go ahead all the same. 67:15 I just wanted to say fair play to Peter Horgan and to the boys and girls below in City Hall because they're going to make loads of money now for Go Safe vans, and for Irish insurance companies with these new 30-kilometre speed zones. 67:31 Because that is where the vans are going to go, and they're going to be issuing points. Somebody's going to drive through their 35 kilometres, 40 kilometres. 67:39 Bing, bang, photograph taken. Letter in the door, €160, fine, three points on your licence. 67:44 But that's the new world, man. That is the new world. You go to the UK, major cities all over America and Europe. It's all speed cameras shooting fish in a barrel. You just get the fine in the post and you pay it. 67:57 Yeah, that's a great system we have, isn't it? We're in a town with an adequate public transport deal, right? Yeah. 68:06 People go out of their way to buy a car. Not that they want to have a car, because they probably needed to get to work. I'm one of these people, right? 68:14 And my commute every day is 20 kilometres. 68:18 I mean, absolutely. We need our cars. I mean, how in the hell am I going to get from Douglas to Correhean Business Park? 68:26 It supports my livelihood and my taxpaying activities, right? 68:30 Yeah, but what's wrong with keeping people safe? 68:36 You have no problem at all with safety, Neil. You show me the case now for safety, right? You show me now the data that says the man travelling at 50 kilometres an hour on this particular stretch of road is killing all around him. 68:49 No, no, but there is data which I don't have to hand at the moment, but I've seen it in the past. I've seen videos to back it up saying the speed of which there's a collision matters. It matters a lot. 68:58 A collision with a pedestrian. Yeah, I've seen those videos myself, Neil. Collision with a pedestrian. If you're doing 30... The chances of survival, if you connect with a kid or whatever, is much greater than if you're travelling at 50 kilometres. 69:10 So have a speed limit of 30 so the kid has a better chance. 69:12 That's fine around the school or someplace where there are kids inside in a park and in an estate. Neil, let me just give you an example now here. I'm coming home from work every night from the Little Island area. I come up to Tivoli. Right. You're on a dual carriageway first. You're doing 100 kilometres. Then you get up by the circle key. It drops to 60. You go over the skew. It's 60 all the way. You come around the corner by the railway station by... 69:38 That DIY place there, the builder's purse. I can't take the name of them. You come around that corner and you go around the next corner. You're in a 50 zone then. And the van is down the end waiting for you. Waiting for you. There are no pedestrians. So you're going from 100 to 60 to 80 to... To 50. No, there's no 80. 100, 60 and 50 then from the stretch between Water Street. That's the name of the place. Between Water Street and the back of the railway station, you're down to 50 there. But the van is down at the corner. 70:05 I actually... I know that. I know that stretch because I didn't get caught because there wasn't a van there. But I found out way too late that it was a 50 where I actually thought that it was an 80. Forgive me. 70:17 You would think it's a much higher speed limit. There's not one sign along that. Not one of those flashing warning signs. You know, little smiley face guy. Nothing like that. You're driving up there, tipping along at 60. You're after forgetting all about it. Bang. You're a bull by then for your insurance company. You're driving around dangerously. 70:34 They do position them to catch people. I agree with you. I'm a motorist. I know it. They're usually in a blind place where you don't see them before it's too late. But if we weren't speeding and we read the signs and saw them and didn't ignore them, we would have nothing to worry about. But like this 30 from March, it's going to be primarily, I'm told, but you give someone a piece of string, you don't know whether to go with it, but it would be in residential areas. 71:04 Okay, and if they asked the residents of the area, would they be happy to be driving around stupidly? 71:08 That's interesting, because they did poll the people and ask the people in Ballant Temple, and they're all mad keen to have 30 through Ballant Temple. I'd say the same, I'd say the same. 71:16 But you can cycle at that speed, Neil. I can cycle a bike at that speed. 71:20 So now I've been told... You must drive your car that you're paying tax insurance, NCT, etc, etc. You must drive that now at the speed that you can cycle at. 71:31 I tell you one thing. I tell you one thing next year. There'll be an awful lot of frustration as people try and get used to the change. 71:39 But there's going to be an awful lot of tickets, Neil. There's going to be an awful lot of penalty points. 71:44 Do you know what I mean? It's over penalisation. The worst thing you can be in this country is a motorist. 71:50 Because every day you go around the road, you're half terrified of making a journey. You have to think, do you know what I do a lot now, Neil? 71:56 I'd open Google Maps. If I can go on for a spin somewhere, I'd open Google Maps. 72:00 And I'd get the directions to where I'm going, even though I know where I'm going. Just so I can get the warnings along the route. There's police ahead. There's speed van ahead. Do you know? Just those warnings along the route. Because I could be going through someplace that's 80, and my mind could be somewhere else, and I could be doing 85, Neil. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm a truck driver, Neil, right? I don't go much faster than 85. Do you get me? Right? 72:23 Yeah. 72:23 But the point is... 72:25 They put me off the road. They put me out of work. Have you got any fines or have you got any penalty points? None. None. Not one, Neil, since I came in. 72:32 OK. 72:33 Right. But that's over being Uber alert. 72:35 Yeah. 72:36 Driving around the place. Right. And it's crazy. I can picture now a girl going down the road with two or three kids and they're fighting in the back now as you're trying to get them down to some after school thing or something like that. Particularly now we say like the boring manor road or something like that driving down there. And there's the van down by the petrol station zapping her. Do you know? That's black garden. That's what that is. Totally not a black garden. And I don't understand why we accept it as a society because nobody ever asks us about these things. They just introduce them. 73:03 It's called public safety, I suppose, keeping people safe. 73:07 I have no problem with there being speed restrictions, Neil, on main trunk roads where there's dangerous accidents and people are killed. 73:12 Well, you know, I'm not so sure about that. I mean, like the McCroom bypass is 100. It should be 120. We all know that. Agreed. Agreed on that, yeah. 73:21 No problem. But we just say, for instance, the Mallor Road there, Neil, 100 kilometres an hour is fast enough for anybody on that road. If you need to be doing 110 or 120 there, you're a complete and utter idiot. 73:31 Okay. All right. Let me get some more calls on the air. Appreciate it as always. Thank you, Morris. Text 0868 104 106. Voice notes too. I think the next one is on vapes. 73:40 Happy tantalizing Tuesday there, guys. How you doing? So with regards to these vape shops, they do not care who they sell to. They do not care about age limits, age restrictions, anything like that. Just recently, there were a few kids caught over at my daughter's school vaping. Now we're talking not... senior school we talk in sixth class so kids that are around 11 years old 12 years old gaining access to these vapes buying them getting all the brothers all the siblings to buy them i don't know how they're getting their hands on these but these kids are getting access to the vapes and we talking kids Not young teenagers, not 16, 17-year-olds. 74:22 These are kids anywhere between 11 and 13 years old getting access to these vapes. Something has to give way where there needs to be major restrictions put on place or even major fines put on stores that are selling vapes to underage kids. It is absolutely disgusting that these kids can get their hands on it. 74:44 Listen to The Neil Prendiville Show wherever you go. Download the Go Loud app, the new home of Red FM. 74:50 The Neil Prendiville Show. 74:53 Get involved. Text 0868104106. Elle, good morning. 74:58 Good morning, Neil. How are you? 74:59 We were talking about the nostalgic ads at Christmas time. And the reason I mention it is because it was telling people earlier this morning that pennies are rolling out the pennies got a whole lot of things for Christmas. And they're using that ad again. And I think it's just one of those wonderful nostalgic. Then we started playing other ones. You have a particular one, is it? I think you were overseas at the time. Tell us the story. 75:20 Yeah, so I moved over to New York. Well, I moved for three months and I ended up staying on. I suppose I wasn't really supposed to be staying on, but I did. So then I couldn't come home. 75:30 But yeah, I was having a great time over there and I'd always been off doing charity work. So I just thought, I'll go to New York, you know, and just have a good time working in an Irish bar and have lots of fun. And I did that. And, you know, I started to feel homesick, but I was making a life there and happy out. And then one night I came back from working. 75:48 In the bar. And I put on the ESB ad. Going home. 75:53 And literally that was the end of me. I just cried all night. And I just took out my laptop. Booked a flight home. And moved back to Cork. So yeah. If you're trying to make it overseas. Do not play that ad. 76:07 So. 76:10 That's the ESB ad isn't it? 76:12 Yeah. Going home. 76:14 The mum is running around the house. getting everything ready for her son coming home. And yeah, it just got to me. 76:21 Does he arrive? 76:23 Yeah, so the dad goes to the train station to pick up their son and the mom is at home and she's putting on the electric blanket and she's putting on the dinner and she's heating up the house and putting on all the lights and the hot press everything you know getting ready for her son coming home and it's just a really kind of a sad like it's just basically mom your mom and your dad that's alan hughes isn't he the guy from the telly yeah he's out the window of the cars he's traveling home kind of thing Yeah, it's a real like home, you know, it's just the heart of the home. 76:56 Like I suppose your mum and dad and the way mum looks after you, making your dinners and making sure everything is right. And when you're living abroad and you can't come home, I think listening to that or watching that in the middle of the night is, oh, gets you. 77:09 So when you saw that ad, you booked a flight there and then, packed up and left America. 77:16 Yeah, and I knew I couldn't go back. So it wasn't like I could change my mind and go back again because, you know, I overstayed. 77:23 Do you blame the ad now? I mean, are you happy to be back home? 77:28 I mean, I took a big risk, but I mean, even as I was like 26, 27, at the end of the day, I just wanted my mom. Like I just started crying. I was like, I want my mom. I want my dad. I want to go home. I miss Bellevornia. I miss my family. And yeah, I packed up and just flew out like a few days later home because of that ad. And luckily enough, I met my husband shortly afterwards in Cork and we have two boys and a home. So Yeah, it changed my life for the better, but it definitely did change my life. 77:56 You know what? That was the path you were probably on all along that you knew nothing about. You know, life is a way of doing that, doesn't it? The turns of the road, you know. But it's quite interesting because if, for instance, you were there legally and you got leave to remain and a green card and everything, you could have come home for a holiday. 78:15 Yeah, yeah. I mean, in a way, even though I loved it over there, I felt trapped because you miss home so much, but yet you have a different life for yourself and you're loving it. But at the end of the day, there are times when you just need your mom and dad and your family. 78:28 So when you were in the airport, did you not kind of say, oh my God, what am I doing? Or on the plane, oh my God, I've made a mistake. 78:36 So many times. I nearly left the airport so many times. I was like, no, what are you doing? Like it was one ad, cock yourself on and, you know, walk up and go back to work. But I just, I needed to see them. 78:49 And it was, yeah, it was that ad that set it and that song and just the mum fussing over, you know, and dad picking you up. Dad would always drop you to the train, pick you up. 78:58 It's the things we miss about mums or mams, as I would say, and dads as well when they pass away. You know, nostalgia, it's a seriously strong emotion. 79:09 Yeah. I mean, when I sat up in bed and I was, I don't know why I turned that on. I just, I mean, I was really missing home, but I just fell apart. I cried the whole night. But yeah, I mean, music does something to you. It just brings back memories. Like you can smell things or, You know, I don't know, when you hear a certain song, it can do a lot. 79:31 Yeah, for sure. 79:32 I think the ESB should be giving you a lifetime's worth of free electricity on the basis of it. 79:40 I said it to my husband a few days ago, actually. I said, God, imagine if I never heard that ad. Like, would I ever have met you? 79:46 No, if you hadn't played that ad or knew of that ad, you wouldn't have come home. You wouldn't have met him. You wouldn't have two beautiful children. You'd still be trapped in America. 79:56 Yeah. 79:57 Yeah, life is funny. It's sliding doors, isn't it? It's the passion take. It can change in a second. 80:02 Lovely chatting with you, Al. Listen, if I don't talk to this side of Christmas, have a lovely one. 80:06 Okay, bye. Thank you. Bye, bye, bye, bye. 80:09 Lovely, lovely stories. Keep them coming. Text 0868 104 106. While we're on the, forgive me, Dusty, thank you. While we're on the subject of Christmas commercials of yesteryear. Oh my God, the lads have been working very hard this morning, lining them up for me. There are many of them. What's this next one there? I see somebody talking about the cornflakes. Oh yeah, this one. Okay, because I'm hearing stuff that I don't need. You said Diane says, Neil, please, I just love the Kellogg's Cornflex ad. And it's great for me, Diane, because I haven't a notion of what you're talking about. 80:37 I don't know. This seems very unorthodox. Look, this guy's been working all night and he's looking forward to a good breakfast. 80:49 He's going to remember us. 80:52 That's got to be visual. 81:13 Help! Help! At Kellogg's, we take great pride in the quality food products we make and work hard all year to bring our best to you each morning. 81:25 You must have liked them. 81:29 Don't worry, maybe you'll see him next year. 81:34 Ho, ho, ho. Ah, ho, ho, ho. You remember it, Shirley. I do not. I mean, no disrespect to Kellogg's, but that's just stupid. 81:40 Ah, it was gorgeous. That's one of my favourites, actually. She's gorgeous, little thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 81:46 I see, I don't do cute very well, to be honest, unfortunately. 81:48 Well, you would have had small kids at the time, like, so surely you would. 81:52 No, that kind of part of my brain was always, it switched off for some reason, the whole cutie pie thing. But I tell you what, if it was Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes, well, every Christmas and only at Christmas, I get a box of Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes. 82:04 Oh my God, I loved them. 82:05 And I just love devouring the entire box in a matter of four or five days. Okay, so that's that one. There are more. On post, Coca-Cola, the Budweiser. Is that holidays are coming? 82:16 Yeah, that's a really good one. 82:18 all that and lots more besides after 11 lads text 0868 104 106 The Neil Prenderville Show on Red FM conversation that matters 82:28 part of the conversation the Neil Prendival Show at the Elevate Credit Union and for the week that's in it with the kicking off and the start of the Cork International Film Festival on Thursday and it runs for 10 days we have tickets to give away every day this week it's the 71st Cork International Film Festival it goes right back there'll be over 200 films Irish international titles. There'll be special guests on Leeside. Lots of different screenings and lots to do over the course of the film festival. So today we have tickets to give away to Paper Tiger at the Everyman on the 21st of November. 83:04 And this is the story of two brothers building a new life in Queens, New York in the 1980s. One's a former cop and the other is an opportunist trying to make money and trying to, you know, I suppose trying to navigate through life in the in the 80s. So that's the film. It's called Paper Tiger. It runs at the Everyman on the 21st of November. We have double passes to give away just before midday today. Text 0868 104 106. With regards to traders, the good, the bad and the ugly, don't people get at least, well, somebody's suggesting five to six different quotes from Before I get anything done, I'd get five, perhaps six different companies out to quote. 83:41 That seems like a lot of quotes. Two to three, I would have thought. I certainly would get at least one other quote. But I did start to see, I don't know whether I read it or did I see it online or what, that some companies now are charging to quote... to get rid of time wasters. They're charging. Some of the trades are saying, well, we will quote, but it's going to cost you. I don't know how much they charge. It could be depending on the call. It could be €100. It could be €200. I don't know. 84:07 My one advice is don't ever let anyone inside your door unless they are recommended by someone they have done work for in the past. And they won't recommend them if they were bad now, will they? That's the answer. All of the flyers into the bin or into the fire, says Marie from Clon. The stuff that comes through the letterbox should be binned. The advice to hire an engineer who will have a list of contractors is surely wide open to collusion between the contractor and the engineer. There would definitely be a conflict of interest there. 84:38 That's an interesting point. That really is. I fitted a heating part in a high-end apartment on the south side. 84:45 Back in the day, we'd say a posh apartment. Following the owner's email asking me for a specific part, I got it, sourced it and fitted it. She set out what she wanted in detail in the email and I did it to a T. When I fitted it and invoiced her, she said she wasn't paying the bill and she said it by email. Email me back, not paying you. 85:10 She masquerades as a supporter of small, medium enterprises and small businesses in her own professional life. It's disgraceful, it's disgusting behaviour and it's utter hypocrisy. Trades, for some people, are seen as the bottom of the barrel. She basically cost my week's wages that week and I went home to the family hundreds of euro out of pocket as a consequence. At work, can't go on air. It's not as if you can go into the house and take out the part. Sure is not that you want to put into the heating system. 85:41 And yeah, some people are just absolute hypocrites. They really say one thing and they live their lives completely differently. That's society, I suppose. That's human nature for some people. It's very interesting, though, because I have heard and again, I've seen videos of fellas who built a wall. Or they tarmacadamed a house and didn't get paid for it and they cangoed it all up. Or they demolished the wall. I've even seen people posting online where they went in and put in wooden flooring and went in and ripped up all of the wooden flooring. 86:12 Others went in with a hammer and smashed up a kitchen that they had installed because the owners would not pay. By the time the plumber would bring a case against that 90-year-old woman, she'll be six feet under. Yeah, but it's a nasty thing to do at any age. Fifteen grand out of pocket. Mrs. Woman got the grant into her bank account and she won't pay the trade. I wonder, is that woman not well? Perhaps, you know, I went through something like this with my own mother. Turns out she was in the early stages of dementia. My mother got very bold and cunning. 86:43 That can be part of dementia. She would be accusing people of all sorts of things. It might be the case. I don't know. I can't talk to that. It could be dementia. It could be a touch of Alzheimer's or she just could be a cruel person who just doesn't feel she has to pay. Take your pick. 86:58 finding a trustworthy contractor on the Rebel Rebuild list of tradespeople. They were all honest, caring tradesmen. You're absolutely right. And I have a long list of all of the trades involved in the Rebel Rebuild right across the trade spectrum. And, you know, perhaps we might chat a little later on about sharing that list online because every single one of those that did work on the House of Balancholic was where we're 100% kosher, pucker, not a bother with them. They did the work, they did a free of charge, and they did top-class work. 87:29 I'm a roofing contractor. Something similar happened to me before. There's a part on the application forms where the client can opt for the contractor to get paid directly from the council for your information. So this is to do with people who get grants. And for some extraordinary reason, the money is paid into the punter's bank account, not the contractors, but there's a form where you can get the client to sign it and the contractor gets the money as opposed to the client. There's loads of texts on different topics, which I'll come back to throughout the course of the morning. 87:59 God knows, take your pick with the different topics of the conversation we have on air. But this morning, it all started with pennies. 88:06 And we got talking about the nostalgia of Christmas. And a lot of it has to do with the sense of smell, the sense of occasion, you know, the homecoming, the presents. It can be Santa Claus. It can be loved ones. It can be the food. 88:19 It can be all sorts of different things, meeting friends and what have you. But a lot of it also had to feature on iconic, nostalgic ads of yesteryear. So there are others. And thank you, guys. Text 0868 104 106. Many people are suggesting other ones that they love, like... Holiday greetings from Budweiser. 88:43 The people who bring you Budweiser wish you and yours the very best of everything this holiday season. 88:49 All right. That's not what I have in mind. I think it was the holidays. Oh, that was Coca-Cola. That was the Bud one. So back to more beverages. This is the Coke one. That's the one. That's the one I'm talking about. Bring it on. 89:02 Always Coca-Cola. 89:16 Is this the way it is, lads, isn't it? Happy holidays, they say. I hope that never catches on here. That would be bad news, you know. Some changes aren't just worth making. And happy holidays ain't one of them. But a great ad nonetheless. And then one more for now. Keep them coming. The stuff ought to be coming in the post. 89:32 We're walking in the air. 89:37 We're floating in the moon. It's cold. 89:41 Buy a book of Christmas stamps now, and Untost will give you one stamp free. 89:46 Well, it is Christmas. 89:51 I think a name has gone for me, a man's name. I think he's a Welsh fella. He was a fabulous, fabulous crooner. I can't remember. Maybe it's not him, though. Wasn't he, you know, the guy who grew up? Alan Jones? No, it's not Alan Jones. Perhaps not. Anyway, great ad nonetheless. Keep them coming. Anyone's I'm missing, do let me know. Text 0868 104 106. We'll pick it up after the break. Thank you. 90:11 Get on to Prenderville. 90:13 Text or WhatsApp Neil now. 0868 104 106. The Neil Prenderville Show. 90:21 Big response to Simon Harris's Dole comments. It's about time the people on the Dole were checked on. One example of it in our town, there are a number of brothers, and I mean a number of them, who are using the Dole just as a way of life. They wonder why people like you and me get up early and travel to work two or three trips abroad to sunny spots. Not a bother on them, says Timmy. I wonder, are they claiming the Dole and working? Do you know what I mean? Is there a lot going on and they're topping her up with the dole? That's simply Simon Harris attacking people on the dole. Next, he'll be attacking people on disability, says John. 90:54 I don't know about that, but I know that in the UK there is a big issue with disability fraud. And they're trying to get a handle on it because disability payments have gone through the roof in the United Kingdom. And the categories that are being accepted now for disability payments... are just widening all of the time and they're wondering how legitimate all of it is. I'm not suggesting it's the same here, but I would be curious as to whether possibly no disrespect to those who are legitimately and genuinely living with a disability and are getting a proper disability payment for it. 91:24 But I'm wondering, is that perhaps an area that might well be abused a little bit more than the tiny amount of people? I mean, you're only talking thousands and thousands. I mean, there's about 155,000 people on the dole right now. When you look at those that are on the dole for a year or longer or two years or longer or three years or longer, it just drops down to a number of thousands. But, you know, that's my understanding of the stats anyway. Somebody said it might be deemed to be low hanging fruit. And it's another issue if you're on the dole and you're working on the side. That's a major no-no, isn't it? Anyway, long term unemployment can involve undiagnosed health conditions, mental health difficulties and disabilities. 92:02 Instead of punishing people, invest in proper support and social housing. Nia, you're right in that regard, but we are not talking about and in the context of what Simon Harris had to say. 92:12 about people on disability payments, it would be unemployment benefit. It's easy where they would be capable of working, but won't work. And, you know, some people suggest that maybe they're the smart ones. You know, you look at everything that you can get and all of the add-ons with regards to a dole payment and everything else that comes with it. It would be much better off not doing anything at all. Your mental health, of course, would be probably in tatters with nothing to do all day. and all day to do it, but you'd be probably better off not working if you were in a low-paid job. If the government funded public jobs and supported struggling people, instead of allowing shops to close, perhaps fewer people would be unemployed or forced to emigrate. 92:51 And one final one then, it's easy for politicians to judge people on social welfare when they've never experienced the humiliation, the stress, the struggle of living on a limited income. Well said, Nora. Excellent point. Again, everything comes with a kind of a health warning. Politician moving lips. Beware. Keep them coming. Text 0868 104 106. Pick up the phone on 0818 104 106. I agree with Simon Harris about those people on the door long term, but he should also be doing something about the amount of money being spent on housing. 93:22 and feeding illegal immigrants and Ukrainians, not to mention the medical cards the Ukrainians got without any means testing whatsoever, while Irish people seem to have to beg for everything that they should be entitled to. All right, text 0868-104-106. We had a good laugh on Friday doing lots of different things. If it wasn't pineapple on pizza, it had to do with Cork's best stew. I never knew, year in, year out, that henchies do an annual stew competition regularly. ran out of time yesterday, had wanted to play this. But Saturday evening, Saturday night, was the annual stew competition. 93:56 And this year was the 20th year where people literally make all their stews at home, bring them in, and they're judged in henchies. And there was a packed henchies on Saturday night. People, I'm assuming, came hungry because they got to eat all of the different entries. All of the different stews were eaten by the various customers. But let's have a listen because Seamus went on spoon in hand and he went along Saturday night to Hinchy's in St Luke's. 94:20 There's usually 20-something stews. Okay. And yeah, this is a Mongolian beef stew here and now the Simon's entering. 94:26 Tell me a bit about your own stew there. Oh, slow cooked for about three hours. I put a, probably like oyster sauce, plum sauce, Dijon mustard, Chinese cooking wine, red wine. 94:37 So it's just my own concoction. Are there potatoes in this as well? Yeah, potatoes, celery, onions, garlic, chilies. Any secret ingredient there? No, I don't think so. 94:48 Well, maybe the Chinese cooking one, but not many people use that in cooking in general. Last year I did a rendang, which won, but not my rendang. Someone else put in rendang and that won. Do you have any entries... 95:03 No, I'm the only one who knows whose stews are... What? 95:08 Ah, so they're all numbered individually. 95:10 Yes, the judge will just pick it by a number and I'll have a name then to coordinate that chip. So it's a blind taste. Blind taste, oh absolutely, all day long. And what are the rules? The rules, virtually, they are none. Anything goes. We've had a fish stew in it, we've had a sausage stew in it, we've had lots of unusual stuff. So anything at all goes. 95:31 So 20th year this year. Is this? Yep, started in 2006. 95:34 How are you going to judge this now, Tara? 95:37 Okay, I think we're going to have to go for a top three. That's going to be the main thing. 95:42 Okay. 95:42 And then when we get to the top three, it'll be probably a tough one. I can already see there's so many there already. 95:49 You have an aversion to lamb, you were saying. So does that rule out the lamb stews? 95:53 See, I prefer an Irish stew with beaches. 95:56 You know, that's just my thing. But I'm not ruling out the lamb. I'm just going to, you know. 96:00 You could be persuaded. 96:01 I could be persuaded. 96:03 As a judge, you're looking for a kind of a kick sauce, a watery sauce, crow sauce in it, potatoes in it, potatoes not in it. 96:12 All the veg in it. It's a one past you. Like, that's the way we're looking. Okay. 96:16 So more carrot than potatoes are an average? 96:19 They mix the ratio. I mean, it should be good, you know. 96:23 Do you want me to bring in and show you the trophy? 96:26 Who carved that then for you? 96:27 Paul Hogan. He's a sculptor. 96:30 He used to live around here and he did it for us 20 years ago. 96:35 Do you have a stew in this competition? I do, yes. So do you have a number? 96:39 Number eight. 96:40 And what stew is it? It is a Georgian beef and tomato stew. That's interesting. Yeah, I decided to go Eastern European this year. 96:50 We're talking to our only ever three-time winner. 96:54 You're a three-time winner. 96:56 That is correct, yeah. A number of years ago now, I don't think I've won it in the last ten years, but a few times the first ten years. And what did you win it for previously? I did a Californian fish stew one year, and I did a roast pork stew another year. Do you know, for the life of me, I can't actually remember what the third one was. 97:21 I try to do something different every single year. I've never made the same stew twice. So 20 years, there's been 20 different stews. There's a lot of cookbooks in the house. So you're a wizard chefing, so are you? Stews cook themselves. Mine went into the slow cooker at midnight last night, and I got up at 6 o'clock this morning to make sure it was okay and that it was done. 97:45 And do you have a secret ingredient for all your stews we know? Nanny Nora up on Blarney's Greece, she had brown sauce in her stews, HB Brown Sauce. 97:57 Brown sauce, right, yeah. No single secret ingredient, but there's always a bit of spice and maybe a few herbs in them. This year there's a Georgian spice blend called Cameli Sinelli, which I had to go to the Polish shop to find. which has got all sorts of flavours in it. So that's what will make it taste tonight. And is it spicy or...? There's a bit of chilli, there's a bit of harissa in it, so there's a little bit of a kick to it, but it's not like a curry. 98:28 It's not going to blow your head off. It's still definitely a stew. Well, let's hope it will, I suppose, lend to Tara's palate. I hope that when the chef comes to judge them all, that she takes a liking to it. 98:42 What's in this... 98:44 It's a secret recipe. It's a little bit of alchemy. 98:48 Is that good stew? Oh, it is. It's a really good one. So what did you have there? This is more like an afrotata. Like a Spanish. Okay. This is the one, but this one's gone. This is delicious. This is more the Irish stew. Okay. And then there's another one. This is our 99:04 oh yeah this is oh that's your mom's tooth you want to get a spoon and taste this she's gonna need to get me one obviously you're biased so that's going to be the best but what's the next best one I'd say the africana the africana is really good at all 99:21 I like this one, this one, and then that one and stuff. 99:25 And are you going to taste all 26? 99:27 Hopefully. 99:29 That'll be a lot of skew tonight. 99:32 Your dad will have to roll you home. 99:35 We've got the chariot waiting and the wheelbarrow. 99:38 It's going to be very hard to pick, isn't it? 99:41 Yeah. 99:41 It's a tough competition, isn't it? So what's in this now? You're saying dumplings. There's bay leaf, is it? 99:50 Yeah. I'm not telling you everything. 99:53 It's a secret. 99:58 We'll try it anyway. We'll see. It looks nice. 100:01 I want to feed you. Oh, you got the beef there. You got dumpling. 100:06 It's very rich. 100:08 Not too salty, is it? 100:10 That is nice. 100:11 That's way better than that. 100:14 You want my best? 100:17 I'm not judging, though. 100:19 Doesn't matter. 100:20 What are you sampling there now? 100:21 I'm not sure which number. I'll tell you what, our table over there, there's 11 of us, and we've tried to get a sample of each of the 25 stews, because we're doing a proper tasting. And we've got two of the entrants on our table as well, and they're a married couple. 100:33 You're not going through the meat sweats now after 25 of them? 100:37 Oh yeah, I say so. It's getting quite hot. It's hot in here anyway in the meat. 100:40 You're not competing, are you? No, I'm not. We've got a couple of friends who have been competing for years. This is our local pub growing up. 100:49 So we've seen it going from a small thing to what it is now. We were here last year and there's 34 shoes. It's mental. So those guys were chatting to the organisers. They said there's a few fewer this year. But it was almost unmanageable last year. There were so many. You might enter for the 21st next year, yeah? I'd say I would. I'd say I would. I'm getting the itch now. 101:08 Mine is a Lebanese beef stew with cannellini beans. 101:12 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And how long did that take? 101:15 Well, I actually was a last-minute entry. So last night at 8, I had to run to the Stephen Market. 101:21 And I started cooking at 7.30 this morning. But it has been on the hob all day. 101:27 Yeah. 101:28 But my husband is also entered. 101:30 And is it a thick sauce or a runny sauce? 101:34 I think it's in the middle, because I don't want it too runny, but you don't want it too thick. 101:38 Okay. 101:39 Yes. It is my first time entering, but my husband's a two-time winner, and his dad darted it many years ago, so I just want my name on the trophy. 101:49 And is your husband competing this year? 101:50 He is competing this year. 101:52 So that could be difficult if you win. 101:53 Yeah. He did say that he would be happy if the trophy was just in the house. 101:57 I reckon there might need to be a bit of counselling afterwards. 102:00 Yeah, yeah, but it would be great, wouldn't it? 102:02 Cragging rights. 102:04 And a last minute entry. 102:05 How do you not have the meat sweats after all that? 102:08 Because I didn't eat all day. 102:11 Is there one that actually stands out? 102:14 There is. There's actually two or three that have stood out. 102:18 Two or three. 102:20 And I'm going to go sit down on my own and then go taste them again. 102:25 The winner of the stew competition, 2026, is number eight... 102:33 Steve, this is number four now. 102:43 This is number four, and I'm really surprised. Didn't think it was going to be number four, but absolutely delighted. But should you be banned now because you've won it so often? 102:55 You know, I was just saying to Mara the organiser, I think a great idea would be that the person who wins it becomes the judge for the next year. And they're not allowed to enter. And that way it would have to pass on to somebody else. 103:09 Congratulations. Well, thank you very much. 103:12 And everybody tucked into every single one of those stews. I don't know if there was any fresh, crusty white bread and butter to mop up all the gravy or not, but it sounded like a great night. Steve Plunkett won it for the fourth time on Saturday night with his Georgian beef and tomato stew. I mean, some might suggest a bit like, I don't know, does it happen with the World Cup anymore, Seamus? You win it three times, you get to keep the trophy. He's won it four times now. But listen, Steve, if you want to be the judge next year, you make a very good case. This is I trying to reverse this. 103:43 What do you think? This is I trying to reverse out of it. 103:45 No, why don't you both do it? 103:48 As they be fisticuffs, I'd say. 103:50 No, no, no. You're booked in already. We've it all sorted with air on. 103:53 Do you know, I know I'm happy to be part of it, but isn't it just an amazing thing? First of all, the importance of the slow cookers. And maybe that's because people are time poor. They put something on in the morning and it's ready and it's gorgeous when they get home at night. But look at, look at, and I wonder, are some of those more curries than stews? 104:09 It sounds like it. I didn't know there were, like, or casseroles and, you know. 104:13 Yeah, like, and then you have Moroccan, a Georgian, a Californian, a Lebanese. Is there any Northside stew or a West Cork stew? 104:23 I mean... We'll have to check next year now. 104:25 They're very complicated, aren't they? 104:27 Well, they're 26 entries in the end, so I'm sure there were some good honest-to-goodness cork. 104:32 Oh, I'm sure there was, but not a mention of Yorkshire relish or Worcester sauce and a bit of HP thrown in there, chef sauce for good. I mean, that's what we would grow up on, a big dollop of... Brown sauce. Brown sauce. 104:42 I know. I love brown sauce on ours. Julie, now, that's coming on next, is going to enter next year. Oh, brilliant. So she'll have a good north, it's true. 104:49 That's fabulous, isn't it? Long may it continue. And next year is the 21st anniversary of the shoe competition in Henchies. I'll give you plenty notice. So well done. Congratulations to Steve Plunkett and also well done to Tara Buckley from St Luke's Tavern, who was the judge. Go for it. 105:03 What about Viv mentioning yesterday that, is it your mum or yourself does a white stew? White stew, yeah. That's so weird. Yeah, gorgeous though. 105:11 I think that's the original Irish stew my mum was saying at the weekend. Yeah. 105:15 The original one would have been lamb, wouldn't it, Viv? 105:17 Maybe it was a lamb white stew. Yeah, probably. 105:21 OK, let me just do some text on them. Many years ago, while working as a relief chef for all of the major catering companies, I was working for Kylemore Catering in the offices of the National Statistics in Cork. On one particular day, Irish stew was on the menu. We were expected to follow the company's recipe book. Now, their recipe for Irish stew included garlic, rosemary, thyme and parsnips. None of these ingredients belong in a traditional Irish stew. What? 105:48 Desi, I know you're a chef, but don't tell me that parsnips don't belong in an Irish stew or time for that matter. Anyway, he says, I pointed this out to the unit manager and told her the recipe was wrong and that I would not be using it. She insisted that I had to follow the company recipe to the letter. I told her I would make her a lovely Irish stew the proper way. She said I couldn't. So I said I was going home. 106:11 I wasn't going to insult my country or its national dish by serving something that wasn't proper Irish stew. Thankfully, she eventually relented and agreed to let me make it my way. It turned out lovely, went down a treat with everyone. Funny enough, though, that was the last time I ever worked for the NSO. 106:29 I often wonder, Neil, if it was because of the stew. If you're going to serve a country's national dish, at least get the recipe right. 106:37 The recipe book was obviously developed in England, says he. 106:44 I don't know, man. I'm not with you on that when it comes to the likes of thyme or parsnips or rosemary. Garlic, I'd give you that. You could leave the garlic out of it. And P.S. Even Irish stew today across the country isn't right. It wasn't diced lamb they used originally, Neil, as you said. It was the scrag end of mutton. The meat that was scraped off the sheep's bones, it was stringy meat. And then the bones were used to make the soup the next day, says Desi. Well, fair play to you, boy, tracing it all the way back. 107:12 Neil, I have to tell you, unfortunately, that a chicken stew is not a stew. It's actually a casserole. Thank you for correcting me. You'd fall over if you tasted my stew, says somebody. I'm not quite sure would I fall over in absolute delight of the taste of it or fall over from food poisoning. Oh, you're so right. The slow cooker is the only job for a good stew. And one more for now. Check out Kevin Dundon's beef stew recipe on the Super Value website. It's a great recipe and it's easy to do. I just leave the mushrooms out. 107:45 I love mushrooms myself. There was a lot of nostalgia as well. We were talking with the three barmen in studio last week who worked in the bar trade for decades all over Cork. Lovely texts on that. One of them actually sprung out to mind when I'm talking about, you know, reminiscing and nostalgia. I loved all the talk about the old pubs on air, Neil, in Cork. My mother's family had a few in Cork City. My grandfather had the old Mardyke Bar or Reardon's. in the Marsh and on Shear Street. My aunt had the Vicarstown Bar on the North Main Street. My uncle had Tim Reardon's on Merchant's Quay. 108:17 And a second uncle had a bar down in Middleton. Well, you certainly were steeped. The family were steeped in a lot more than whiskey. They were steeped in the bar trade as well. So keep those coming. Text 0868 104 106. Anyway, everybody's got their own best version of the best stew possible. Now, there's a big difference between a stew. Julie Payton, would you agree that there's a big difference between a stew and an Irish stew? 108:43 Oh, definitely. There is, yeah. 108:45 It's all very well to be doing your Lebanese and your Moroccan and your Georgians and all that kind of caper. But an Irish stew, you tell me, how would you do it? 108:54 So what I would do is I would always get the round steak and I'd get round steak minced as well. 109:01 So I would cook it slow for around three hours. I'd add carrots, onion. I'd also do, I'd add Salt, pepper, parsley, thyme and mixed herbs. 109:13 Oh, I love it. I love it. 109:14 And when it's cooked slow, then as you know, the meat would fall apart then. And when it's cooked, I'd actually make a family size oxtail soup pack. 109:25 I am salivating at the thought. 109:29 I'd add in at the end then and it really tickens it off. And of course, then you'd have to have fresh skull and a dairy bowl butter with that. 109:37 Nah, I'd go for the Kerrygold or one of the knock-offs from Aldi. I don't like the Spready fellas at all. 109:43 No. 109:43 Nah, nah. 109:47 So yeah, that's how I'd make it. And as I said, any time I leave my family know that I'm making the stew, they're all down around my house for a bowl of it. 109:56 Oh, it's fabulous. So that's an amazing thing. You add oxtail soup, others would add brown sauce and stuff like that. But I suppose in a competition like that, unless the entries were really, really varied, wouldn't you agree it would kind of get repetitive and boring? 110:12 Yeah, I suppose, yeah. But I just wanted to find out, would there be many people out there that would add the oxtail soup? Because anyone I've mentioned it to, there's not many people heard of it. 110:25 Well, I'd love to ask my man, but I can't. She's up in heaven as to whether she ever did or not. But I know that she made a great stew, a great Irish stew. Now, I know for a fact, because my dad didn't like lamb, it would always have been a beef stew. 110:40 Oh, definitely a beef stew. Yeah, yeah. 110:43 So we're into your stew season now, are we? Have you started for the winter? 110:47 I did. I did. Yeah. Actually, sometimes I would make a stew in the summer too because the kids love it. 110:54 Why not? And it's bloody good for him too, I can tell you that for nothing. 110:58 It is. And it's always nicer the next day then as well. 111:01 Yeah, well, you see, the next day you could deliver out a bowl of it to me, not a bother. I've got a microwave here, so don't be a stranger. 111:09 I will, of course. There's no problem. 111:10 I'm only joking, yeah. I'm only joking. Enjoy it. Nice one. Thanks, Julie. Take care. 111:17 Thank you. Bye. 111:18 My missus. 111:20 I like that. My missus has a Guinness stew in the slow cooker here right now for today. Yum, says Owen. Where do you live? Just in case I'm passing. Might be on my way home. Stew is just the way it's cooked, as in stewed for hours. Every culture on the planet has their own version of a stew. Curry is a word that the Brits called Indian food. And I suppose perhaps in India or in Pakistan or countries like that, their curries are the equivalent to our stews. 111:52 Parsnips and celery are English vegetables. Carrots and turnips are Irish vegetables, says Desi. 111:59 And on what basis do you make that statement that a parsnip is English and a turnip is Irish, Desmond? Do come back and explain that. Parsnips and celery are English vegetables. 112:11 Desi's a northerner, right? And he is a proud Republican northerner. And so on that basis, I think he'd never put a parsnip or a celery anywhere near a stew because they're English. 112:24 Are they native to England, though? I mean, we don't grow anything anymore in Ireland, but there was a time when we did, right? It's the potatoes. Oh, that one is gone. I just lost one there on spuds, actually. Thank you. It's the potatoes on top of the stew that turns it white as the potatoes are cooking, says John and Cove. Not sure about that. I think it's more of a clear broth for the white stew. But anybody make white stew, let us know exactly how you do it. I've me stew sorted for two days. Slow cooker job, says Frick. Absolutely. 112:54 And there's a lot to be said for food the next day. Isn't it true? There's a lot taste better the next day. And Stu was right up there on that one. 113:02 Eamer tells me that parsnips are native to Eurasia, including parts of Europe and temperate Asia, and were used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Okay, so page up there because Desi said that parsnips were English. You're wrong, lads. You're wrong, lad. They're much further east than that. So it's safe for you to eat them, Desi. Bang them into the stew. You'll love them all day long. 113:24 Get on to Prendiville now. 0818 104 106. The Neil Prendiville 113:32 Julie Payton, don't you worry at all, not for a single second. There's lots of people texting who also add oxtail soup to a stew. Now, here's the thing, right? This competition was a stew competition in Henchy's. If you've never been to Henchy's Bar, and I haven't been there for years and years and years, I used to work for a radio station above it called South Coast. 113:49 when the henchies had it themselves and we had the studios upstairs. So we were kind of sitting tenants in the bar downstairs. You know the way it is back in the day. What a beautiful pub. Oh, my God. Back in the day, there was the bar on the left-hand side and there was a shop on the other side that sold all sorts of things that local shops would have done back in the day. And I think there's something really beautiful about St. Luke's. Don't get me started about it. I love that whole area. But it's all in the name. It's a stew competition. So the winner was a Georgian stew. If it was an Irish stew competition, of course, a lot of the ingredients would have been disqualified. 114:23 But being a stew, I mean, Pa was making the point that if it was a Georgian dish that won it, then it's not a stew, it's a goulash. But maybe they use different words for the type of food that we're talking about that we commonly call stew. So it's a broad church, right? And rightly so. But anyway, just one or two more calls before quitting time. Caroline, good morning. 114:43 Good morning, Neil. How are you doing? 114:44 How are you doing with stews? Because you learned it from an elderly, elderly lady. 114:50 I did, Mrs Kinyufik. Years and years ago, we used to have classes and her stew to us was like... two scoops of tomato soup, one very big level spoon of, do you remember the Bisto, the old big Bisto? 115:09 Yeah, the Bisto powder, yeah. 115:10 Yeah, we'd have a big spoon of that. Two spoons of tomato soup, a Noxso, And we'd have a heap of small spoon of curry powder. And then we'd have the half pack of oxtail soup all mixed. And I've never tasted anything like it. It's absolutely beautiful. 115:33 Is it really? You kind of lost me with the curry powder there, girl. 115:38 No, it wouldn't be a big. 115:40 It always had to be. Like a teaspoon Okay Okay But that had to be blended into All the mixture Just to give it that Kind of the taste You know You wouldn't be putting a big scoop Or anything And we used to find it strange But really when we did Have to get to taste it It was like Oh my god So it wouldn't be too curry It wouldn't be too You know So in the Irish stews Or at least the Cork versions of them A lot of people are texting And say they add oxtail soup Why not? Why not? 116:11 Well, yesterday I did. I went home, I had my stew prepared and I had everything done. And I got a large pack of the oxtail soup because it's, I don't know what it is. It has to be the oxtail. It's just like, it's like, it's just like the brown ketchup. Oxtail is a major thing, you know. 116:28 Well, if you were taught that by a very elderly lady, what was she doing before there was granulated oxtail soup in a packet? 116:35 Well, then again, Neil, we always wanted a very kind of classy dessert. But no, we always had the bread and butter pudding with her because it was the bread we didn't eat. She made the bread and butter pudding. So it was all, you know, lovely food. And I look back, I'm like, oh, my God. 116:50 I love it. 116:52 It's lovely. It's lovely. And it was lovely to be taught it because even... to this present day, you know, the way we don't knock it to lose weight. 117:01 True enough. Well said. Thanks for that, Caroline. Last bit of business. This was from Friday when it was announced on air, of course, and everybody heard that Garth Brooks is playing Cork. He's all over the country. There's a whole lash of concerts all over. And interestingly, I'm keeping a close eye on hotel prices with regards to that as well for the gigs in Cork. But I had a couple of pairs of tickets to give away from the promoters. And we had a good laugh as to who deserved the most amongst the cause. And I've been practicing her name diligently all weekend. 117:31 And I think I've nailed it. Adriana. 117:35 Yes, correct. 117:37 Did I get it right? You did. Oh my God, I've had sleepless nights over that one. So anyway, beautiful name, beautiful name, incidentally. But it's not about you. It's about the baby that's due in May, right? 117:49 Yes, the start of May. 117:50 Okay. And you have checked with Martin because it's 50% his responsibility as well. You wouldn't be having the baby without your good husband. 117:59 Yes. He's okay. Remind me again of what you'll do for people that didn't hear it. 118:05 I texted in last week and I said that I will name the baby Garth if it's a boy or I'll name the baby Trisha after his wife if it's a girl. 118:14 And he was going out the door the other day. Is he there with you? 118:17 He was. Yeah, one second there now. 118:19 Quick chat with him. 118:21 He was going out the door and she says, are you all right with that? And apparently says, yeah, whatever you want. 118:26 Yeah. He texted me saying I'm on board. So I was going to pass you over there. 118:30 OK. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 118:32 Oh, yeah. Martin, you're right. No, we're not too bad. Did you think that it was Garth as the middle name or a Christian name? 118:44 Well, I was under the impression it was going to be a middle name at the start. 118:48 Right. OK. OK. So when you went away then, I got chatting with Adrena and that's changed now to the Christian name. So are you still OK with that? 118:58 We can compromise, I suppose. Well, it's not a compromise. It's a win. 119:03 It's an absolute victory. Yeah, we can go after that. Garth is a nice name. 119:10 It is. OK. And are you a Garth Brooks fan? 119:15 I am. I was raised listening to him. 119:18 So I was brought up listening to everything since I was as long as I could remember. 119:22 OK, so if it's a boy, it's Garth. And the suggestion at the time was if it's a girl, it would be Tricia, as in Tricia Yearwood, Garth Brooks' wife. 119:32 Yes. OK with that. 119:35 Yeah, they're still fairly good names. 119:39 You're a very compliant husband, I have to say. Put me back onto Adrian or so and we'll seal the deal, all right? No worries at all. Thank you. Have a good one. Fair play to you. All right. 119:50 Hi, how are you? 119:51 I changed my mind again. 119:53 Okay, what have you changed it to? 119:56 I was just knocking around on Friday afternoon and I came up with what I thought was an absolutely incredible idea, right? Run it by a few people and they looked at me as if I'm mad. But here's what I'm thinking. 120:08 Two tickets for the Garth Brooks gig, yours. Not a bother. 120:13 Oh, thank you. Hang on a second. You ain't agreed to this yet. If the baby is a boy, you will call him Garth. 120:22 If the baby is a girl, you will call her Brooke. 120:27 Deal. 120:29 Yeah, I'm in. Check with him. Brooke Dunn sounds fabulous. Check with him. I'm in. Check. 120:35 Okay. Martin, if it's a boy, Gareth. If it's a girl, Brooke. 120:43 Yeah, he said, we can do that too. He's in. 120:45 He's easygoing. 120:46 He is easygoing. 120:47 He's chill. He's like, yeah, we can do that. He's laid back. He's good. 120:51 The only upside to this, no disrespect to Trishas. I know a number of them in my life. They're all lovely women. 120:57 I do too, yeah. 120:58 There's something beautiful about a girl's name, Brooke. 121:02 I like it. Now, do we do with the E at the end? Yeah. B-double-R-K-E. Perfect. Yeah. 121:08 Goes with done. I would think so. You know, you don't want her to grow up and... 121:12 have issues in life saying, why did you misspell my name, Mammy? 121:16 Exactly. 121:16 But you're going to have one hell of a story to tell if it's a girl, though. 121:20 Oh, my God. I think the nurses up in the CUMH even Friday morning because I was telling them and they were like, we're in. They can't wait. They're like, what's this baby going to be? And I was like, we'll find out in a few months because I'm not finding out the gender. 121:34 OK, you said that in fairness. You don't want to. So the baby will be born in May. If it's a boy, he'll be Garth. If it's a girl, he'll be, she'll be Brooke. Right. 121:43 You actually announced on air on Friday morning that you were pregnant and many people who knew you weren't aware. Is that right? 121:50 That's correct. Yeah, my phone was hopping all weekend, even I was at work. And they're all like, can we go instead? Don't mind your husband. He can stay home and babysit. We'll go. And I was like, ah, come on now. So it's been great excitement the last few days. 122:06 I know, he's part of the commitment as well. 122:07 It's been absolute excitement. 122:09 Oh, he's part of it, I said. And we seriously can't wait. No, it's good to have good news. 122:15 OK, so because I have another pair of tickets and I'm contemplating somebody with a tattoo of my face and I really have to, I have a duty of care to people to kind of constantly say, are you sure? 122:28 So are you sure? 122:30 Yeah, I can not bother running to Red FM tomorrow and I'll sign off. I am very sure. And like I said, the next thing you'll see is the birth cert with the proof. 122:38 But when they grow up and ask you, how do you think they relax? I'm named after a country and western singer. How did that happen? Well, I was on the air and I was desperate to get tickets. 122:48 So I gave away my child's birthright. 122:54 You know what now? Everyone, like all of our kids have got like a bit of a family name intertwined in their names. And I think my father-in-law, now he's passed, God rest his soul. He would love this. He said that's how Martin got to know all the country music and the country era. And he is such like he turned up at our wedding in the cowboy boots and the cowboy hat. It was fantastic. 123:16 I think this was destined to be then, wasn't it? 123:19 It was. So, yeah, I think it's destined to be. And, you know, I'm happy because it's our fourth child and I was like, what are we going to name the baby? 123:27 And now it's done. 123:28 Problem solved. Garth, if it's a boy, Brooke, if it's a girl. Two tickets for the gig for you. Signs sealed and delivered. Oh, thank you. We have a deal. All right. 123:37 We have a deal. And like I said, you have my word and I can sign anything you want. Your word is good enough for me. 123:42 Your word is good enough for me. You won't let me down. We'll be talking again in May, please God, that I'm here and that everything goes well. 123:50 You might get a surprise. You might have twins unbeknownst to you. One might be hiding behind the other. You might have a Garth and a Brooke. 123:56 We confirmed that a few weeks ago because, oh my God, I'm doing another public service announcement. They thought it was twins... 124:04 But they've confirmed it's just one in there. 124:07 So we're doing good. It's just one. 124:09 How do you make it? Is it easy to make a mistake like that or what? 124:14 Because it was early. It was like six weeks and I went to the hospital and they thought it was. And then they sent me home then all week and going, are we having twins? 124:22 It's a four and five. What are we doing? 124:24 And then on the Tuesday, then they go, oh, no, it's just one. It's OK. And I was like, Now, twins would be lovely, but yeah, one is an off right now. 124:31 Okay, so we're not going to know till May because you're not revealing the birth. You don't want to know yourself. You don't want to know the sex. Okay, deal done. Two tickets for Gart Brooks. We will talk again, Adrena. We certainly will. All right, congratulations. 124:42 We will. Thank you very much. Delight of you. Take care. Take care. 124:46 Sinead Allen is insisting she wants a tattoo of my face for the two Garth Brooks tickets. We've called her. We've asked her. We asked her for friends and relations or parents, whomever, we're all OK with it. We asked her if she wanted to change her mind. No way. She's old enough to make up her own mind. So hopefully we'll have a chat with her tomorrow, see if we go with this. And then, of course, that tattoo actually will be done here at Cork's Red FM. I would do anything to talk her out of a tattoo of my face, but a lot of people seem to think that's a good idea. And Ross from The Holy Cow Tattoo will be looking after. 125:38 Nothing compares to this. This is the life on Shopify. Come free to shopify.com