RTE 1: 'Today' with Claire Byrne

kerosene has a lower btu value to diesel but burns much cleaner so you end up using more. we were well warned beforehand. unfortunately hard to find boilers that will run on diesel anymore.

also I think the insulation we put in 20 odd years ago needed upgrading so we ripped out 2 ceilings to the rafters in the old part of our house and re insulated which obviously helped.

Don't worry condensing boiler will save you money because they are more efficient.

You can't get the old ones now anyway.

I was thought for a minute there that Nathan was coming on to make an "announcement".

"Minister can you reassure us that schools will reopen in January?"

Why does Claire ask questions like this? She knows Norma can't give her an absolute guarantee.

Some current affairs presenters seem to have a Paxman-type attack dog in their minds as a model of how do their job. To me it has the opposite effect to that intended, as it drives interviewees to be obfuscatory hyper-careful about their words even when they're being asked a constructive question.

At least the schools reopening question only came up at the end of the interview, so Claire only got to ask it twice. Otherwise she would have put it at least four times in slightly different words.

I remember years ago an Islamic extremist guy was being interviewed on Newsnight or somewhere, and the interview inevitably degenerated into a litany of "Do you condemn x, y, z?" questions. And I was thinking "What's the point of this?" Surely if you're having that guy on at all, you have to accept there will be ambivalence toward some aspects of Jihad and try and steer the interview in a more constructive direction.

Fully agree. They're all at it now. Donal Fallon is especially bad.

The Weekly "Vote #1 Kate O'Connell - She's a great woman" slot.

I hope RTE will give her constituency rivals similar airtime.

€9 for an antigen test in pharmacies?

I saw them on sale for €3.99 in Dunnes at the weekend. You can get them for €6.99 in filling stations and those are usually the rip-off merchants. Some pharmacists are profiteering just like they did with single use mask and hand sanitizer at the start of the pandemic.

It's such a waste of good questioning time too. They can never answer accurately, so instead they give a long rambling answer to a different question. Puts the subject on the defensive and gives the listener a bad experience. Should really be Interview Technique 101 to not ask a question the subject could never answer, all just in the hopes of a slip up they can hang them with further down the line.

Far better to lead the subject towards the water, than to force them to drink!

Poor Claire can't get an even break.

When she does a serious issue people get depressed and when she does a lighthearted piece they get depressed too.

And the chinless wonder leading the charge!

I recall the Hype started over on Virgin Media News over a month ago, the excitable Reporter Paul Quinn brought us the exciting 'Breaking News, Live" of the initial application for the Brooks concert, they followed the story for days, its awful stuff to watch. You'd have to wonder was Quinn thinking this shyte was the highlight of his journalistic career.

Then yesterday the sight of Irish Journalists fawning over this deeply unpalatable individual was just appalling, Claire Byrne started the frenzy, followed by a quite extraordinary amount of air time dedicated to this nonsense, Cathriona Perry's almost 15 minute interview on the main evening News was just vomit enducing stuff, not to be outdone by Paul Quinn over on Virgin Media, handing a video call from a clearly troubled fanatical fan, over to Brooks, a bizzare moment, I'm sure even Brooks was squirming.

An extraordinary shameful or should I say shameless day in Irish Journalism, fawning over an utter and clueless idiot who'd probably struggle to actually find Ireland on a Map. Just a truely bizzare and troubling day.

Did I mention, I can't abide Brooks 😁

The promoter seems to have a vice like grip on Montrose,Dee.

I don’t know anything about Mr.Brooks personality myself, but I’m sure the promoter whispered in his ear that all he

has to do is show up and everyone will be on the pigs back and the ‘eeevent’ will, thanks to ‘Pat’ send a fine fat wedge

into their coffers.