But just tell us, and it was through a massive public and political campaign, what has been secured and what are we working towards and what impact is it expected to have?

Yeah, look, I suppose most of your listeners will remember, not least because of the coverage that Highland gave it at the time.

Last year, we had got wind that the HSE had recommended for a surgical hub for the North West to be located at Sligo University Hospital.

That brought about a campaign by GPs and hospital doctors, as well as public representatives and community advocates.

to push for a surgical hub in Letterkenny University Hospital.

That campaign was ultimately successful.

You might remember it was the day after the All-Ireland final when it was announced by the Minister for Health in Letterkenny.

This time, there's a bit of proactive activity in terms of beach access, but also to try and stop, because the festival, like many festivals, is on Downing's Main Street, to stop the village, the town, coming to a standstill.

Uh, I suppose-

Good morning, Greg

Is this specifically in relation to social housing? Is it affordable housing in general? What are we looking at this morning?

All those figures relate to social housing projects led by the County Council across the county.

So from our Housing SPC Committee meeting, which was held earlier this week, we were provided figures that show that there's 3,260 families and individuals on the current housing waiting list.

And 1,272 of those are in the Leonard County Milford Municipal District.

And we have 656 units either on site or under construction.

So that represents about 20% of the need across Donegal.

So obviously what that shows is that we need to ramp this up.

There is a lot of derelict housing in Donegal and we're seeing the schemes that are in place to try and help people get on the property ladder that way but for an awful lot of these cases you have to have the money up front to do it and I could say I'm speaking from experience here because I am one of them who talk about young people who are trying to find a house to buy I'm in that market my friends are in it and a lot of the time we're sitting chatting looking and we're like I don't think it's going to happen

And you asked about Letterkenny University Hospital and Sligo University Hospital, Declan.

Yeah, look, I suppose what I want to do, like others, is keep the pressure on and keep people informed about the surgical hub.

It was July last year when the announcement was made that both Letterkenny University Hospital and Sligo University Hospital would be getting surgical hubs in the after, as we know, a protracted and a very hard one campaign.

We're a year on, so I suppose it's timely just to look and see where we are with it.

The update that was given at yesterday's Regional Health Forum meeting shows that it's a developed design stage and that that will progress after the summer.

And by the end of quarter three, so kind of by the time we get to the autumn, we should have more of an idea of the timelines for delivery.

And the reason I was kind of asking this question was related to another question I was asking, you know, the reasons that we were pushing so hard for the surgical hub are still there, mainly that surgical lists are cancelled regularly, particularly in the months between October and April.

What were you trying to get an answer to? Was this about, you know, the screening programme that we believe is there, Declan, but doesn't seem to be working?

We need to get to the bottom of it, don't we?

Absolutely, Greg.

This is a critical women's health issue and BreastCheck provides an excellent service, but it's very much dependent on people attending and people knowing when and where they should attend for their BreastCheck appointment.

It's also very dependent on them being called within the timeframes that they're supposed to be.

So BreastCheck is designed as a screening program for women between the ages of 50 and 69.

But even on BreastCheck's website, You can see that the information provided from the HSE says that you might be called when you're 50 or you might be called when you're 53.

But the reality is by the time you're 53, you should have been called twice, never mind for your initial appointment.

Whatever it is, we need to get to the bottom of that because, unfortunately, some of these services, dependent where they are, and we've seen it in the past, are use it or lose it.