Community Matters 3sept2024

Connemara Community Radio is sponsoring the News and Matters segment. The main topics covered include the upcoming AGM of Connemara Community Radio, the ongoing issues with the Clegane-Cataduff water supply, and the new traffic watch online reporting system by the Galway-Gorda Division. The Atlantic Technological University campus in Connemara is involved in a partnership called the Cities for Forests Partner Forest Program. This program promotes the use of sustainably sourced tropical hardwoods. The university is working with the Galway County Council on a project to design and make street furniture using these hardwoods. The project aims to promote sustainable procurement policies. The students' furniture designs have an expected outdoor life expectancy of 60 years. The top three students and two staff members will have the opportunity to visit a rainforest concession in South America. The trip took place in May and was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Sustainable sourcing of tropica News and Matters is kindly sponsored by Connemara Credit Union Ltd, incorporating Tipton, Teletras and Tarrinda branches. Connemara Credit Union is here to serve the people of the Connemara area. Main office, Tipton and Teletras branch, 195 31141. Good evening and welcome to Community Matters. With me, Ronan Tierney and Tommy Rowe on the sound desk here in Leatherfrock. I hope you're enjoying the fine evening as the weather is pretty good about it. It's great to get a little bit of good weather in September. It's often the case, isn't it? September is often better than June, July, August. So it's great to have a little bit of dry weather as the evening is kind of cold in us. We have a big new program tonight. A night later, we'll be speaking with Janet O'Toole from here, a chair of Connemara Community Radio about her own forthcoming AGM. One of the big items that we want to cover tonight relates to the Clegane-Cataduff water supply and the ongoing issues that have been experienced by users of that water supply in recent times. A number of residents have contacted us here in the radio station to cover the item and we have Eoghan Hughes from Ishgeirin on to discuss the issues arising there. We'll also speak with Inspector Adrian McQueenie from the Galway-Gorda Division in relation to a new traffic watch online reporting system that they have there in relation to at gorda.ie. So we're a busy program and we'd like to hear from you as always here at Connemara Community Radio. Again, the email is info at connemarafm.com and it's in relation to any item that you'd like to be covered on community matters or you can always call us here during the week on 0954 1616 or you can also contact us via our social media platforms on Facebook. So we'd love to hear from you. But first up this evening on the program, I'd like to welcome Paul Leamy who's the head of CENTRE here at the Atlantic Technological University campus in Connemara in Letterfrack. Paul, you're very welcome to the program. Thank you very much, Ronan. It's nice to be here. Yeah, I actually thought I was chatting to you this time last year when you were just starting back. Wow. Yeah. Was it a year ago already? Good Lord. I think it is, to be honest. I think you were kicking off the year and I suppose that's where you're at now. You're about to kick off that year again. We certainly are. So we're just getting ready for another intake of approximately 81st years and as well as that another 24 apprentices on top of that. So our undergrad students are starting on the 16th and then the apprentices, they start their term on the 30th of September. So yeah, it's all getting ready to start off again. Very good. Everything's ramping up for us. That's great. It's amazing how quick the years roll over, isn't it? For sure. Now, what I'm interested in particularly talking about tonight, Paul, is about a unique partnership that you're involved in. It's an international partnership called the Cities for Forests Partner Forest Program, if I got the name correctly. Perfect. Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about this partnership and what's involved? Certainly. So I'll just go back to the very start. So two years ago, this September, so exactly two years ago, we were contacted by Cities for Forests and their parent organization, Partner Forests, and they explained that they had worked with a number of cities and educational establishments around the world to promote the use of sustainably sourced tropical hardwoods. Now, up until that point, we had a policy in the college of not purchasing tropical hardwoods because they come from rainforests and there's lots of issues with illegal logging and all the rest. So as the conversations developed, we were trying to look at a way we could explore running this as a project with students. So part of their remit is that they also want to work with a county council when they take on a project and it's just to promote sustainable procurement policies with an emphasis on using sustainably sourced tropical hardwoods. So I contacted the council and, to cut a long story short, there was a number of meetings set up between ourselves in ATU and Connemara between the Gallaudet County Council, mostly the environmental and green team, and then the Cities for Forests. So we were scoping out what a project might look like and we were working with Tina Ryan and Brent Mozart inside the Gallaudet County Council and they're working on the Clifton Regeneration Project. So the idea came up that the students would be given a brief to design and make furniture as part of the Clifton Regeneration Project, but it would be street furniture, so outdoor furniture, and four specific site locations in Clifton were chosen. So as that was going on, Cities for Forests were also working with Gallaudet County Council and they gave them a grant of €25,000 to engage with consultants to write a green procurement policy for Gallaudet County Council. That has been completed and is available for other councils as well, so that's a really positive thing. So as the furniture design project was being developed, then Partner Forests paid for and sourced about €15,000 worth of tropical hardwoods for the project, and the specific types of timber that the use of the brief was, it must be timber that will survive Connemara conditions on the west coast of Ireland, and so the species of timber that were procured all met after the furniture, and jumping forward a little bit, the furniture that was produced with the species that were used would have an expected outdoor life expectancy of 60 years, so it's a lot more than the garden bench that were used in Connemara that rots after three or four years. So back to the project then, our Furniture Design and Manufacture lecturer in second year, Gavin Larkin, scoped out a really, really fascinating project for the students to undertake called Connecting Communities. So the timber that we used came from a tropical rainforest in Brazil, came from a rainforest concession. Now the difference between buying just from a timber vendor and buying from a rainforest concession is that you're actually directly supporting the forest communities, and they have signed up to guard the forest, to sustainably manage the timber that's being extracted from it and to do it in a very ethical and very positive way. So the Connecting Communities project was launched and the students were tasked with designing, they could choose one of four sites in Clifton to design their piece specifically for it. The project was launched in the campus in Letterfrac and we had people joining us online from Montreal in Canada, from the UK, from some in Europe and obviously ourselves as well. So the students initially had to come up with three concepts and then they were presented again online with all the different partners joining in to give their opinions, and the works then were narrowed down that the students had their final design and they proceeded to make them. They were meant to have approximately 50 hours in the workshop to make their pieces, they ended up doing about 150 hours coming in Saturdays, Sundays and everything, but they were very dedicated to it. So the reason they were so dedicated was that the Cities for Forest said that they would pay for the top three students to visit a rainforest concession in South America as well as two staff. So at the end of January, a team of international experts, two came from Canada, we had people from Scotland, from Switzerland, from Belgium and from the UK, sorry I said that already, and a number from Ireland and the Council as well came out and all of the students' furniture was set up in Ellis Hall and there was a full day of presentations and the students had to go through their concept, their ideas and the way they came up with their designs and then how they made it and where it was to be placed and all the rest. And then a whole team of everyone discussed each one and awarded points for different categories and everything and what happened was we had it narrowed down to the final four and we couldn't choose three so they crunched a few numbers and said we can take four. So at a lovely reception that night, four students were told that they won the amazing prize of a trip to a rainforest concession in Guatemala in South America. Fantastic. So that went ahead in May and Davin who was the lecturer who led out on it went and myself, I volunteered to take one for the team and joined them on the, on Tough Gig, yeah, you know, so the four students and Davin and myself went and it was an extraordinary experience, absolutely a trip of a lifetime. There's so much I want to ask you Paul about this, so just going back a little bit and maybe you could answer this in the context of the trip to Guatemala, so you mentioned that, you know, so this partnership is really about the sustainable sourcing of tropical hardwoods and the sustainable sourcing of all, of any type of woods really, there's wider lessons of course here in terms of how, you know, you mentioned about the procurement and how Galway County Council or any public body or even our private enterprises procure their products that, you know, introducing an ethical element into that and ensuring that, you know, that the public procurement is done in a way or any procurement is done in a way that, you know, is sustainable or as sustainable as possible, so what does, you know, when you're talking about sustainably sourcing tropical hardwoods, what does that kind of look like, you know, what are the elements you're looking for there when, you know, when it meets that criterion? So the two key things for us would be that the only timber we buy must be SSC or PEFEC certified and they're the two main timber certification bodies worldwide and if timber is certified by them, that means it is coming from a sustainably managed source, but the issue with tropical hardwoods is that there still tends to be a lot of illegal logging, so a rainforest concession then is kind of bringing this to another level because it tends to be less about large commercial companies profiting from this and it's much more about anything they make from the timber that they sell from the forest is put back into the families that are running the forests and the concessions and they're fully licensed by government and, you know, there's a lot of positive things and I'd like fully have to admit that, you know, we have become so much more educated from this, you know, I would very happily purchase timber now from a rainforest concession knowing how they manage them, how they operate and how we plant them and we generate and everything, so there's a lot of things. So to answer your question, the two key things are there must be certified timber and then the added benefit is if they're coming from a concession, you know that they are being, you know, that there's another layer of responsibility in relation to the sustainability of the timber. And is it, you know, how challenging is it to source, you know, sustainably source timber? So part of the Cities for Forest program is that rather than them buying the timber for us was that they would give us the money and we had to purchase the timber from the suppliers. So that was a little bit, you know, more bureaucratic but it was actually a brilliant exercise because we ended up buying that timber from a supplier in Europe and we had, you know, things to figure out from our end on the procurement to make that happen and we did and it worked out and now we have that system operable for any repeat orders. So there are kind of agents in Europe who work specifically with rainforest concessions, you know, they're very ethical and they're very, you know, loyal to those concessions that they work with. From the responsibility point of view, the rainforest concession that we went to and they brought us to an area where they were harvesting, you know, so they have 88,000 hectares of natural rainforest and, you know, we really needed to get an understanding of how that's managed on the ground because there's lots of stories about, you know, when they fell a tree that loads of other trees fall and damage and things like that. But to get to see it on the ground was brilliant and to get a good understanding. So they divide their 88,000 hectares into 40 segments and they harvest in one small segment this year and then next year they move on to the next one and they won't come back to the same square for another 40 years. So they do build access roads and they do build turning areas but they regenerate completely within five years but after two years you almost wouldn't see where the roads are. So, you know, those things give us a lot of peace, you know, from an ethical point of view to know that these are really, really being managed well and, you know, to kind of give a context what does a rainforest community look like. So we flew into a city called Flores and then we got a bus from there to the concession. The first hour was on a road, the second hour was, the second two hours was through the forest on a gravel track and then we came to this opening which is an old disused runway and there's 960 people living there, 240 families, and there's no electricity, there's no running water, they're just real authentic forest community and they live off the forest and we were lucky enough to be brought to two schools, to their primary school and their secondary school. We had some wonderful projects there, we were designing some furniture for the schools and everything but they showed us how the kids are taught from a very, very young age to respect the forest, to treat the forest, to work in the forest and they have a number of streams of income from it as well and, you know, it was an amazing experience to see that first hand and as I mentioned, you know, I'd have absolute peace ordering from a rainforest concession because you just know that they're treating the forest with absolute respect but also you're helping the people in the community as well. Well, it sounds like a really incredible experience, definitely, to visit a community of that nature and to see their relationship and how their interaction with the forest in their setting sounds pretty amazing. It really was. Yeah. For the first time in a lifetime, very fortunate. Yeah, and Paul, I like the fact that this partnership that you're a part of with a range of other international partners but also obviously locally with Galway County Council, that tie back then of this overall initiative back into Clifton and the street furniture and the design of the street furniture there, it's a really nice kind of loop there, closed loop that's in relation to the, when will that furniture be sort of, when are we likely to see it on the street? Very soon. So two pieces, and just to that point, like the idea of calling the project Connecting Communities is really relevant because you have the community in the rainforest concession that are benefiting from the timber, you have the community of Clifton who will benefit from having the pieces to use and then also obviously the community, the college community and the council and everything, so there's so many communities that are connected just by timber. So the two pieces are actually on display in County Hall in Galway at the moment, two of the students' pieces, and then the remaining number of pieces that are going to be installed will happen within the next few weeks. The plan was that some of them are on display in the college for the exhibition for the summer, and the plan was then in early September that they would be taken and installed, so quite soon those pieces should be installed. Well I think, I'm sure all our listeners will look forward to seeing them and enjoying those when they're in place. Paul, thanks a million for joining us, I think, I was going to suggest next time you go on one of those trips that really you should have a rep from Kilnnamara Community Rail with you to try and document it all, I'll let you know, I'll let you know. I think that, I'm looking, I know, I presume you're volunteering for that, look, I would step up, I'd step up in that area, thank you for the team as well, I like it, I like it, yeah. Okay Paul, listen, thanks a million for joining us. Lovely to talk to you Ronan, thanks very much, bye-bye. All the best, bye-bye, that was Paul Leaney, fascinating initiative that the ATU here, campus and Letterfrac are involved in, and a very important issue around the sustainable procurement of timber and of wood and the products, in all aspects of life that we all need to think about those things when we're even buying our own furniture etc. at home. That's pretty much it until we have an ad break now, coming up, and we'll be back with Inspector Adrian Queenie. Connemara Golf Club are looking to strengthen their greenkeeping team by hiring a trainee greenkeeper. If you're a person who loves the outdoors, have a general interest in horticulture and like being part of a team, then this is your opportunity to apply. For further information, please contact the Pro Shop on 095 23502, that's 095 23502 or e-mail proshop at connemaragolflinks.net Job Spot, on Connemara Community Radio. 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For the best value home heating oil in Galway, call Sweeney Oil today on 1-800-555-999. Or visit Sweeney Oil.com. Sweeney Oil, the warmer ways to heat your home. And welcome back to the programme. Now I'm joined on the line by Inspector Adrian Queenie, who is Inspector in Charge of Roads Policing in the Galway-Gorda Division. Adrian, you're very welcome to the programme. Hi everybody, thanks for having me. Not at all, delighted to have you on. And in particular we wanted to talk to you about a new Traffic Watch online reporting form that has been launched by An Gorda Csíchána for non-emergency traffic-related incidents. And this is, I think, replacing a phone number that used to be in place, I suppose, since the early 2000s in relation to Traffic Watch. Can you give us a little bit of background, Adrian, and tell us what the purpose of this online reporting form is? Yes, Roman. Well, as part of our ongoing commitment to road safety, a new online Traffic Watch reporting form is now available on our website at garda.ie. This form replaces the Traffic Watch number which was first set up in 2001 in the southern region and it extended nationwide in 2004. So Traffic Watch is a partnership approach with all road users to improve driver behaviour in the hope of reducing the number of road traffic collisions and preventing fatalities. Now this form was introduced on the 8th of August 2024 this year, so it's about three weeks up and running now. And this is where members of the public can report what we call non-emergency traffic-related incidents using the online reporting form on the Garda webpage. And we still encourage the public and the Galway community in an emergency situation to always ring 999 or 112 if you see something that you consider an emergency and we respond to it. And the online reporting form, it's maybe when people know something's happening in an area, maybe there's an area that is prone to speeding, maybe pedestrians walking, maybe not lit up, cyclists not lit up, those safety concerns can be reported on this online form at any time by a member of the public. So essentially any emergency where there's an accident, I was asking myself this question, how do we define non-emergency? So you mentioned speeding, things of that nature. Is there any other guidance there? Like you say if there's a minor accident, how does that get processed? If there's a minor collision, you'll be ringing 999 to report it and you'll be looking for the Garda to attend. Obviously in the case that it might be material damage, there could be injury involved, that would be a call for service for a Garda patrol car to come out and deal with the situation. But I suppose you may witness something when you're driving home from work this evening, you may not have your phone on you, and you may think about it over the course of the evening and consider, you know what, I need to report this because we're trying to change driver behaviour, we're trying to reduce the amount of collisions and ultimately address the road fatalities, that's the route we're going. But we all know there's certain areas within the county and country that may have local issues that the Garda may not observe on an everyday patrol that may need to be brought to our attention. Okay, so you could witness... If, as an example, it could be poor parking outside a school at 9am in the morning or 3pm in the evening, where there is a hazard to road users, whether it's pedestrians or children crossing the road, and that's an area that we would give attention to then. Okay, and could it be things like where you've observed speeding? Absolutely, speeding, dangerous overtaking, use of mobile phones, anything that distracts driver behaviour that impinges upon the safety of the public. Okay, and then what type of follow-up takes place with each of those? So, say if I completed one of those, your template, your online form, what can I expect to happen then after that? Okay, so what will happen is when you complete the form, it will be logged by a Garda staff member at the Garda Information Services Centre. That's commonly known as GISC within our organisation. And once it's logged, it will be forwarded to the superintendent for the relevant community engagement area. So, for the area of Cullamara, it will be forwarded to the superintendent for responsibility for the west. And that superintendent will then appoint a member of a Garda Siocona to investigate that traffic complaint. So, on the form, you're given fairly basic information. You give your details, give a brief description of what you observed, what your complaint is, and the location. And for months, the Garda member receives this information. They will establish the complainant's version of events. You will be contacted. You will be asked to recount what happened or what you observed. We will also establish if there are any witnesses to this alleged incident. We discuss the possible actions available. We could, I suppose, the possible actions available, we could investigate it. We could bring the matter to court and wait for prosecution. That would be in the extreme scenario. Or it could be as minor as an area, a stretch road, needs a Garda patrol, a high visibility attention for a period. So, a written statement of complaint may be taken off you. And look at where this is investigated. And if an offence is disclosed, a file will be submitted to the local superintendent to decide on the best course of action. OK. So, Adrian, as you say, it's launched now just over three weeks ago. And I suppose it's a new reporting form. It's online. So, you know, most people have access to it. Will the old traffic watch phone number still exist for a period of time? It can exist for a short period of time and then this will ultimately replace it. But for members of the public that have a complaint, we'd still encourage them to contact even their own local Garda station. But this form gives you the opportunity if you're sitting down in the evening, in the morning, and you want to report something. It's an easier way of doing it. It requires very little effort. I think, you know, a matter of logging on, inputting the information. I suppose in the last ten years with traffic watch, we would be generally receiving about four, four and a half thousand calls on average per year. And when we look at 2023, those calls increased to five and a half thousand. So this is just another media forum that you can, or contact forum that you can report your complaints, concerns to Garda Street. Yeah, and hopefully more, you know, be more accessible. And so much is done now online. It's almost, you know, it reflects the way so much is done. And it's interesting, Adrian. I know that, you know, yesterday from 7 a.m. yesterday to on Monday to 7 a.m. this morning was National Slowdown Day. So I know that the, and I was reading online myself just in terms of some of the data associated with that, where there was over 157,000 vehicle checks conducted by Garda Street in that period. But also interesting, just some of the individual scenarios that were highlighted. And one, you know, close to an uptose here in the Galway region was someone who was observed doing 162 kilometers per hour in a 100 kilometer zone. And was also drunk driving or alleged to have been drunk driving. And that's, it just underlines some of the madness that happens out there, doesn't it, in terms of the road. At a time when we saw a 19 percent increase in 2023 on the road deaths on the 2022 figures. Look around, I suppose, an instance or a statistic like that from yesterday. It's well publicized, it's a National Day of Action in relation to speeding, publicized across all media channels. Our roads policing units were dedicated to this operation for the 24-hour period. And just, we don't speak about specific incidents, but that one incident that you speak about there occurred at approximately 7 o'clock yesterday evening. So we have a person that's traveling at what could only be described as an outrageous speed. They could have very little control of the car. And unfortunately for them, driving while intoxicated. So it's that driver behavior we seek to address. We encourage responsible driving and our ultimate aim is to make our roads safer for everybody. We're not out there to, you know, we're not out there to catch people, to enforce the legislation all the time. We like to prevent road fatalities, prevent road collisions. We would much rather see people obeyed by the speed limits, but unfortunately there is a certain cohort that don't observe the limits. And I suppose that the online reporting form that we talked about, the traffic watch, it has to be looked at in the context of trying to make our roads safer and trying to make it more, you know, the public safety element of road transport and road travel is so important. So I think hopefully this form will be more accessible and helpful for members of the public to report such matters. Absolutely Ron, that is the ultimate aim. We're there to allow the public to make their complaints. We'd like to educate drivers, educate motorists, pedestrians in relation to safer roads. And this is just another arm of the approach in relation to reducing collisions and deaths on the roads. Excellent. Adrian, thank you so much for joining us. I think you can access the form, the traffic watch online reporting form, through the Gorda.ie website. Or you can just Google traffic watch online reporting form and it will come up maybe straight away for you. So thank you very much Adrian for joining us this evening and informing us in relation to that new traffic watch reporting template. Thanks very much Ron and take care of the roads for the public. Thank you. Thank you. Adrian Queenie there from the Galway Gorda division. Now since we've come on air, there's a bit of good news from the Paralympics. Ireland has won two medals, two additional medals on the Paralympics. Orla Cunningford has won a bronze medal in the 100 metres, the T13 Cascades. And Roisin Nguyen has also won a bronze medal in the 200 metre individual medley, that's in the SM13 Heat. And actually there's a connection to Roisin Nguyen. Her grandfather, Marcus Conroy, comes from Maham originally. So great news for the Conroys and great news for Marcus and Anne who live in Cairnmoor. And great news, that's Roisin's second medal of the Paralympics. She won silver earlier in the week and I think she has one more event to compete in as well. So fingers crossed she'll have continued success there. So it's always good to celebrate our medals and celebrate the local connections as well. So that is great news. Now, I'm just turning our attention to a matter that is of very much interest to our listeners. And that is, and our listeners particularly in the Cfeg and Caddo Duff area in relation to their public water supply. Now, there have been issues which have been reported by users of that water supply in relation to the taste and the odour in that supply in recent times. And I'm delighted to be joined by Eoghan Hughes, who is the Water Process Optimisation Technical Manager, if I got that correct Eoghan, with Iska Eireann to talk to us in relation to this matter. Eoghan, you're very welcome to the programme. Thank you, Ronan. Much appreciated the opportunity just to talk to yourself and give, I suppose, put some context on the issues that have been ongoing in Cfeg and Caddo Duff for the last number of weeks, since I suppose the end of June at this stage, Ronan, yeah. Okay, so can you give us a little bit of backdrop to, as of what, we'll just get straight into it about the cause of this problem and the risks that it might pose. Well, I suppose to put some context on it, first of all, I suppose I want to acknowledge the inconvenience that has caused across the Cfeg and Caddo Duff area. Iska Eireann were very appreciative of the support and patience of all the customers on this supply and I suppose as we continue to fast track removing the objectionable taste and odour from the water supply, I suppose one point I want to get across is that the public water supply is safe to drink now and it has been throughout the occurrence of these tastes and odour issues. We've completed a number of specialist tests since the onset of the complaints and this test has identified that there is algae in the water, however, there is no threat to human health. It poses no risk to human health. It will give taste and odour issues, but they are not harmful to human health. But we can hardly expect the public to consume the water. It may be safe, but if there's taste and odour issues, nobody's going to drink it. And that's very true and I myself have visited a number of properties on the scheme and there is an apparent taste and odour issue throughout a number of supplies. However, I suppose to put some context on it from a national point of view, in 2023 alone we completed nearly 27,000 tests throughout the country of various chemical and biological parameters and of those 27,000 tests we demonstrated over 97, 98% compliance. So the supply is very much compliant. This is an event that has taken place and we're just waiting to, I suppose, progress the remediation of it and we can see in recent weeks that that has resolved to a level that is now, I suppose, suitable for water to be consumed with no objection to taste or odour from it. So you're saying that these issues have been resolved from your perspective? The issue as we currently see it has been resolved out on the network in recent weeks. We've seen no further complaints come into the call centre since the middle of August and from that we have completed a lot of remediation work out on the network to absolve, I suppose, the taste and odour complaints and that will continue, I suppose, in the intervening weeks. But as of now we're happy that the taste and odour that has occurred in the supply since late June that it's very much remediated and that the supply is stable once more on. And have you satisfied yourself on site that that is the case as opposed to, I know you're saying you're not receiving any complaints, but have you satisfied yourself on site that that is the case? Yeah, very much so. Since the onset of this taste and odour issue we've completed regular sampling and all those samples have demonstrated compliance with the legislative requirements and that's a very important point to make here in the context of the overall issue that the water has been safe to drink throughout this. I know you've made that point and I understand that but I suppose there's one distinction to be made between I suppose it's technically been safe to drink versus really the reality of whether people will want to drink it. And in that context I suppose people have spent a lot of money on bottled water and I suppose there was a question of why water tankers couldn't be provided in the short term until this had passed. Yes, and rightly so. I suppose there are events where we would supply bottled water or tankered water, particularly bottled water we would supply them to vulnerable customers if there was restrictive notices on the supply such as boil water notices or do not consume notices. And similarly those notices would also require for tankered water to be put out on the network. However, during the course of this event our sampling has demonstrated compliance and for that reason there wasn't additional water supplies or bottled water supplied. But in the event that future events do incur maybe incompliance that would most definitely be a process we would undertake where bottled water would be supplied and additional tankers would be supplied at various locations throughout the network. I think it is something maybe Ishgeirin should consider because if the taste and odour, if there's a taste and odour issue even though it's technically safe to drink, it's still, people are not going to drink it. So I think that really it is a major interruption to the water supply. So I think it's something you should seriously consider making bottled water available because I have absolutely no doubt that the residents who are on the scheme or who access that water supply are out of pocket without a doubt. Yeah, and look nationally we have seen an increase in taste and odour in the last maybe 12 to 18 months and it's something that has been, it's been apparent that it may be a more frequent issue that we'll have to address and from that we have looked at the problematic sites that this has occurred and this is on a national level and we'll be looking to put plans in place maybe to design appropriate solutions to deal with this in the event of it reoccurring. But that's at a very much early stage. I would like to point it out that it's not isolated to Galway. It's not isolated to Claddagh, it has occurred in other regions but also it hasn't occurred in Clegan Claddagh Duff in many, many years from my recollection. Yeah, and do we know why it is happening now or why it has happened in recent months? Well, I suppose that the raw water source in Clegan Claddagh Duff and like many other raw water sources throughout the country, they are large lakes, large, medium, small lakes, rivers, a lot of those are susceptible to environmental factors that may disturb the lake body for a period of time. As you know, this summer in particular we've had incessant rain which can, I suppose, we've had incessant rain followed by periods of warm weather. This can escalate the formation of algae in the raw water supply and that alone can cause the formation of non-toxic contaminants which in this case we're talking about jasmine as one of the parameters and also another parameter called MIB. They are formed when the conditions prevail for them to, I suppose, generate odour and taste in the supply and most definitely the environmental factors, sedimentation in lake sources, among other factors that can be wind-induced by prevailing winds in the lake, fluctuation in raw water levels. I suppose it's a complex process, Ronan, without going into it, that allows for those to form and there's definitely environmental factors at play that are driving this and they're the catalyst for this in the Tlegan-Sladduf supply and in other supplies as well, more so than we've seen in previous years. Okay, and the type of remedial action, you're in a position to take some remedial action to address this? Yes, so the remedial actions initially would have been, like any complaint that comes in to our call centre, we would investigate it as a priority and we investigated the raw water source at the time There was no evidence of algae growth. The event had passed when this event occurred. We investigated the treatment plant and it completely demonstrated compliance and we also looked at various areas of the network and they demonstrated compliance. However, we did implement, I suppose, an extensive flushing programme within the network and that took quite a while to, I suppose, remediate the levels of taste and odour that were in the supply. However, they have proved effective. Now, separate to that, it's not the only remediation measure. There are processes that can be put in place to eliminate or at least reduce taste and odour and mal-odours on your supply and we're currently exploring those options there. Some of them, both small scale in the context of the Tlegan-Sladduf supply, there's a cost implication for them and we want to ensure that they're the most appropriate solution to deal with this should it occur again across Tlegan-Sladduf and Tlegan and also other sites nationally run. Okay. Finally, Owen, would you accept that it has taken Ishgeir in quite a long time to respond to this and to get to the bottom of it? Well, from the onset of the issue, we have provided regular press releases to inform the public of the most recent happenings on site and we've engaged with the public frequently. We've responded to them via our call centre. We've opened 90, pretty much 100 complaints. We have responded to all those complaints. Seventy of those complaints have been closed and resolved and other ones remain in 27 that are in progress for a variety of reasons. But I think we have dealt with it. We've dealt with it to the best of our ability, acknowledging the fact that the parameters that we are looking to detect that are generating taste and order, there is a 21-day period to have those analysed by a very specialist laboratory company. So there is a time lag there in getting information and providing updates to the public and we want to be very clear on the information we give to the public before we send out press releases. So I think, Ronan, we have delivered on that, although it's been incremental. I think we have reached out to them. We've had presence on the ground and I think we've dealt with it reasonably well, considering it has been a challenging issue for us. Okay. Okay. We will, and indeed challenging for the residents locally in terms of trying to operate and get on with their lives in the context of not having a reliable supply that while it was technically safe, certainly could not be used because of the taste and order that was in the water supply. But I do appreciate, Owen, your time this evening. Thank you for joining us and for engaging with us on that particular, that water supply issue in Cleggan and Closet. Thank you, Ronan. Thank you, Ronan. Okay. That was Owen Hughes there from Ischgarin. Be interested in hearing from our listeners in the Cleggan and Closet area. Any feedback on that? I'm sure they're happy now that, based on the checks that Ischgarin are saying, they've carried out that the matter is resolved. So do let us know here your views on that at the station. Yeah. So look, it's really such an inconvenience, I suppose, for anyone that has a water supply interrupted. But I do think that Ischgarin do need to look at the scenarios in which they make bottled water available because definitely it would seem to me that there's a case in this instance for doing so. Okay. Look, we're joined by our final guest now on tonight's programme is Janet Atul here from Chairperson of Connemara Community Radio. Janet, you're very welcome to the programme. Thank you very much, Ronan. Thank you, Margaret. Absolutely. Delighted to have you, as always. And I think I recall this time last year I had you on as well. I was talking to you about the AGM. I can't believe it's come around so quick. I know. I know. It's quicker than it's fast. Yeah. No, no, it's good. It's all good. It's all good. Janet, before we talk about the AGM itself, of course the AGM has a particular role to play within any organisation. But I suppose if we look behind that a little bit and maybe just share with our listeners, many of whom I know will be familiar with this, but give a little bit of insight in relation to the radio and how it's managed and the importance of, I suppose, voluntary members within the radio. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's supposed to be community radio itself. The whole principle of it is that programmes are made by people and for people in their own community. So, I mean, it's true anyone in the community that would like to become a volunteer can become a volunteer and then volunteers have many roles within the radio. Some of them are making programmes like this themselves or Tommy is literally there on the desk, research, phones. There's a whole load, a range of jobs. And then, of course, there's the board of directors as well. And the board are made up of ordinary people. A lot of them actually are programme makers as well and they look after, I suppose, making sure their finances are in order and also, you know, obviously for your licence and stuff like that, all that sort of legal stuff. And I think the most important thing is supporting the manager and, therefore, supporting the staff who support the volunteers. It's like a circle, really, of interdependencies, a circle of inter. But I suppose then the board itself are elected by the members but there are also those volunteer reps on the board as well. And the members then are the people who pay their €25 a year to become members of Kilmarnock Community Radio. Okay, and it's important, sorry to cut you off, Jennifer, it's important that you can, you know, I know we're chatting about volunteers, but you can become a member of the radio station. You don't have to volunteer to do anything. You can just, you know, if you wanted to be, just be a part of the community radio station, support that service in your community, you can become a member. But then some members then also, obviously, go on to volunteer in different roles. Exactly. And, you know, volunteers are members as well. But, in general, members would be people who support the radio or who enjoy listening to the radio and who feel that the radio is doing good work and would like to, kind of, in some way be part of that. Another reason that the members are so vitally important is that the members themselves, if you go, like, for grant applications or for, you know, reporting back to what used to be the BAI, but it's commissioned them all now, that's the licensing agency, the government licensing agency that gives us our license. If they, like, get a report and they hear about all the volunteers and the programming and they make sure everything is very even and everything, but one thing they do like to hear about is the members because, obviously, then that means that there are actually people in this community who support what Claremont Community Radio does. I mean, I know people might be listening now, so try and listen. I listen all the time and that is brilliant. I mean, we're no listeners. You know, we're no good to no one if we don't have someone listening. But the members, the people who become members are people who actually, you know, make that little second effort there to support the work of the radio and that's really vitally important. Yeah, and it's really important to sustain the radio station and a lot of work goes into, from the volunteers like yourself to the other board members and the wider membership along, obviously, with staff who are employed directly by the station to keep the show on the road. Yeah, exactly. And, I mean, I suppose that people would be, and I don't want to be making this beat the doom and gloom, but, like, broadcasting is an expensive business. I mean, it's not, you just don't switch on the computer and away you go. I mean, all the, obviously, equipment and continuous capital investment, that's very expensive. But the day-to-day, the running, I mean, everyone knows about insurance and everyone raises their head, but, like, we have, we pay OCE to be up for the masks in Craig, for example, and so we have to pay for that and we have to pay for maintenance and stuff like that. Then we have our own mask in Tony Mountain and we receive some money towards that. So one kind of balances out the other. But, like, you wouldn't be short, like, 30 grand in doing your various bits and pieces with your broadcasting costs. That's before you ever turn on a mic. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It is, but it's a fantastic service and it's something that we just want to maintain and continue to build in the community. Oh, absolutely. And keep it there for people, A, to listen to, and then people, because there'll be new listeners emerging all the time. Yeah. You know, and people get born and people, you know, and then, of course, on top of that, there's a lot of people, I think, to the area that move and come to live with us and they often love the radio and often love a great way of getting to know us when I'm in the area and some of them even go on and become volunteers and then they bring their style of music as well or, you know, we've had some marvellous broadcasters over the years that people still talk about, you know. So, it's all the richness of life, really. Exactly. Yeah. And I think as well, we live in an era where misinformation, you know, is rampant through social media, etc. and having those kind of trusted sources of information in your community, I firmly believe that community radio and, you know, in general across the country, but also, you know, in particular for our community radio here is a trusted source of information. You know, that's really important these days, isn't it? When there's so much misinformation going around. Oh, absolutely. I was going to, you know, when I knew I was coming on the show this evening, that was one of the things that I kind of was thinking about in the back of my own head and I suppose in a way, community radio gives you a chance to look beyond the social media, look beyond that and look to something that is purer or that is more, just what you said there, it can be more trusted. Like, in a way, if you were fed up of community radio, sorry, of social media and fed up of disinformation and everything, then, you know, not that I'm going to do this myself, I'm not going to trickle away at their phone, but, you know, it really is, like, you know, it really is a trusted source and I think it's come up for debate, but the other wonderful thing somebody said to us a few years ago at a training, a radio, a community radio training event, was like, never say on air anything you don't want anyone to say about you. You know, and that's your libel there for you, straight away, because she did a thing on libel and then she just said never say anything about anyone but you wouldn't want someone to hear a thing about yourself. Exactly. So the AGM then, the AGM is the 25th AGM, so it's a significant milestone for the radio station and that's taking place on Wednesday the 11th of September at 7pm. So do you want to tell us a little bit about the AGM itself? Yeah, well, the AGM, I mean, look, I've been to more AGMs now than I can shake a hat, but in fairness, in some ways, they're a bit staged because there's a thing to run through, secretary's report, the financial report, but it is, if you have to look at it in another way, it's like the rec thing. Otherwise, when does the board ever say, yes, we are striving always to do a good job or, you know, the council presented for the previous year, you know, people can propose and second new members and so I think it's like, to me, it's like the report card at the end of the year or something like that. But also, people are, members come to the AGM and they bring a lot of curiosity and suggestions and last year, I think actually, Roland, I'm going to give myself this, I'm sort of afraid of that, somebody said that they had listened to our interview prior to the AGM and they thought it was really good and it should be put up on the radio to explain to people the value of membership. So, you know, some people come up with ideas and it's a bit of a get together as well. Yeah, it's a good chance for the board members to want to connect with the members and hear what their feedback is and to raise, you know, to make suggestions or et cetera. So it's a really good way to connect to them and I know there's a different opportunity during the year but this is a really important one. Well, this is one that you definitely, you know, it's an invitation too. It's not like, you know, I hope to catch you outside the shop but an actual platform, I suppose. Yeah, one of the benefits is that it's also, there's a member's raffle every year. Oh, it's for a new owner. Nice job with that. Yeah, with some fabulous prize. I'm still waiting every year now and hopefully get the call that I've managed to win something but there's a fabulous member's raffle as well and it gets announced on the night of the AGM so as well as the business there's that benefit as well for becoming a member. Yeah, but you can actually make your membership back. Exactly, yeah. Not that that's why but there's, no, it's a bit of it. Look at it, we have a bit of a laugh at that, a bit of a, you know, like it's a bit of an excitement, yeah. Yeah, so the AGM itself is very much just focused for members but isn't that right because they do need to become a member to attend, isn't that right? They would but I can tell you something, no one is up to go checking in. People are more than welcome. If anyone's curious, you can email us here on Wednesday the 11th and it's also possible to attend by Zoom and if you'd like to do so you can email breej at connemarafn.com and breej will send you a link to the, we'll organise it all, yes. And it's on Wednesday the 11th September at 7pm. So Janet, listen, best of luck with that and hope it goes well again this year. Thank you so much, Ron, thanks for having me on. Not at all. Thank you. That's it, from tonight's programme I'd like to thank Tommy here on the Sound Desk in Letterfract. I'd like to thank Breej O'Malley who produced tonight's programme. That's pretty much it from this week in Community Management. Next up is Cash & News with Bernard Lee. Until the next time, goodnight. This has been a production of the Cross Branch, 1952141.