THE destruction of television equipment in Donegal last week was a further indication, if such was needed, that the long running TV deflect or saga is set to become a burning election issue.
Gardai are investigating the arson attack during which MMDS transmission equipment, thought to be worth £70,000, was burned out at Altnagapple, near Ardara in south Donegal. The equipment was ready to be erected on a Telecom Eireann communications mast by Cable Management Ireland Ltd.
In a separate and unrelated development earlier in the week, the company was granted a High Court order restraining a number of people from blocking access to the site, following several pro tests there in recent weeks. There is no suggestion that any of these people have any knowledge about the destruction of the equipment, and a spokesman for the group says it is "totally opposed" to such action.
The row in Donegal is between the cable company, which has the franchise to rebroadcast British television stations on the MMDS microwave system, and community groups which have been transmitting the signals for years without a licence via the low cost deflector system. It is mirrored in dozens of communities along the western seaboard and in the south, where a Carrigaline community group won an important court battle last year over the Government's refusal to grant it a licence.
More court battles may take place in the coming months, as MMDS franchise holders have recently threatened legal action against almost all of the deflector groups in the country. Some of those involved see the move as a pre emptive strike by the cable companies to strengthen their case for compensation, if the Government decides to go ahead and license their opponents.
This is because, as Mr Justice Keane found in the Carrigaline case, the MMDS licences were originally granted in a way which excluded considering the granting of licences for other transmission systems - in effect giving the MMDS operators a monopoly.
That decision was made by the minister then in charge of communications, Mr Ray Burke. It was, on the face of it, a rather unusual decision, given that MMDS systems operate on a line of sight basis and are unsuitable for hilly counties such as Donegal or Mayo.
In Mayo, the deflectors" capture the signal near Enniskillen and bounce it around the county and down into Galway. Up to 20,000 households in rural areas are thought to get their BBC, UTV and Channel 4 pictures this way, at an average cost of £20 or £30 a year.
Together with other rural householders elsewhere in the country, they represent a powerful sleeping lobby which would quickly awaken if the deflectors - loosely organised in a national association - carry out their threat to switch off their equipment a month before the election.
Another threat to the political establishment is the talk of putting forward a deflector candidate in Mayo, and the declared intention of the Donegal Community Television Support Group of doing the same in Donegal South West. If that happens, you can expect much play to be made of the voting records of individual TDs in the Dail last week, when the Government rushed through the Bill providing for the part privatisation of Telecom.
Under the Telecommunications (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, a new independent office of Director of Telecommunications Regulation will be set up. The director will be given some of the functions of the Minister for Communications relating to the licensing of apparatus for wireless telegraphy, broadcasting stations, telecommunications services and television retransmission services, and the enforcement of these licensing provisions".
The Bill was put to a vote under a guillotine motion which led to a shortened debate, during which there was no time to discuss a number of amendments. These included one by the Fianna Fail communications spokesman, Mr Seamus Brennan, which sought to oblige the Minister to license the deflector systems before he transfers his powers to the new director. The amendment was defeated.
According to the secretary Of the National Community Television Association, Mr Eric Curtis, the transfer of powers to a new director represents an attempt by the Government to "pass the buck" on the hottest of political hot potatoes in advance of the election.
He says it will not succeed in this unless the deflector issue is resolved before the election is called. He points out that Mr Liam Hurley, an independent candidate standing on a deflector ticket in Cork South Central, polled a respectable 2,239 first preferences in 1992 and stayed in the race long enough to unseat a sitting Fianna Fail TD, Mr John Dennehy.
Mr Hurley's campaign was organised late in the day and without resources. Next time it will be a different story, says Mr Curtis.
All the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications will say is that a troika of outside experts from the European Broadcasting Union is currently examining the issue. The consultants are expected to report back to the Minister before Christmas.
South Coast Community Broadcasting Service, which won the right in the Carrigaline case last year to apply for a licence, has made a detailed submission to the consultants, and has been promised a copy of their report. It should make interesting reading over Christmas in Cork.
Of course, some of the complicated and technical arguments about MMDS and deflector systems will become redundant in a year or two, as new technological developments in digital television make it possible to broadcast several channels on the UHF wavelength previously taken up by one channel.
This will mean more channels and greater choice, not only in what you see on your television screens but also in the way you receive the television signals.
Increasing deregulation will spell an end to monopolies of all kinds - including the cable monopolies in urban areas.