THE Government will consider proposals next week to provide for licences to operate the deflector system, thus breaking the MMDS monopoly.
In a move to placate the MMDS/deflector controversy affecting 150,000 rural households, the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Dukes, announced yesterday that proposals he would bring to Government next Tuesday would allow for competition between deflector systems and other transmission systems in areas without a cable system.
Government sources later indicated that the proposals could be implemented without new legislation.
Within hours of his announcement, however, the Cable Communications Association of Ireland, representing the licensed cable and MMDS operators, threatened to sue for compensation for the companies that had invested "many millions of pounds" on foot of the licences they were invited to take up.
"The State issued exclusive transmission licences through the public tendering process and any new Government proposals that would alter the status of these exclusive licences would amount to breach of contract," the CCAI said. It said Mr Dukes's announcement came without any discussion or consultation.
With proposals ready to introduce competition between deflector and other transmission systems, Mr Dukes said yesterday that their preparation had been complex and lengthy because of the nature of legislation put in place by a previous Fianna Fail government.
Meanwhile, the Fianna Fail spokesman, Mr Seamus Brennan, accused Mr Dukes of panic in the face of Fianna Fail's carefully worked out proposals to resolve the MMDS/deflector crisis. He said the Government and Mr Dukes were "making it up as they go along".
