Mary Butler, Minister for Mental Health and Older People speaks to Maria McCann about the government's winter plan. The Government hopes an injection of €600m in funding for the health service will ease pressure on Covid and non-Covid care this winter. However, the success of the HSE’s winter plan will rely on recruiting 12,500 additional staff and ensuring Covid-19 does not overwhelm our hospitals.
Paul Cullen, Irish Times health correspondent, also gives an overview of the plan.
Sinead Ahern, from the WLR newsroom, has the most recent local stats/location breakdown for Covid cases in Waterford.
Karl Deeter, mortgage expert with Yes.ie, looks ahead to the banks being told on monday that they will have to extend the Covid-19 payment breaks which are due to be wound up at the end of this month.
Deirdre McSweeney, insomnia and sleep technologist of the Healing House in Dublin. She hones her skills in the Mater Private Hospital Sleep Disorders Lab and was speaking on the back of TV presenter Elaine Crowley describing the condition as a “nightmare” for her.
In the second half of the programme, Mary McHugh, psychotherapist, gives Maria her view on whether primary school children need to be doing homework. She's joined by Marc Ó Cathsaigh, formerly a primary teacher and current Waterford TD, who sees the value in reading and spelling but not loads of written homework.
Bernadette Ryan, relationships counsellor, with her fortnightly slot. This week's topic is around respecting your ex and how soon is too soon to publicly move on. It comes following reports this week that Ben Foden, ex husband of former Saturday's singer Una Healy, had married his second wife on the same day that his divorce from Healy was finalised! He did admit in recent days he was wrong to do this and that he disrespected his ex-wife.
Nigel Kelly, WLR Sports, previews the weekend's sporting action, and Sinead Brannigan, Waterford Area Partnership and Marion O'Mara from the Waterford Older Peoples’ Council’ regarding events happening locally over the coming week for ‘positive ageing week’ (runs from Sept 28 to October 2).
