A GOVERNMENT Minister was jeered at a meeting when he suggested that the loss of multi channel TV in the west of Ireland had revived the art of conversation in Irish households.
About 30,000 households in Mayo alone have been unable to receive British TV channels since alleged Government inaction forced the closure of defector systems two weeks ago.
The Minister for Tourism and Trade, Mr Kenny, was heckled at a protest rally against MMDS and cable television systems in West port on Friday evening after stating that he had logged 247 calls on the issue and that 50 of them were from women "who said that for the first time in a long time there was more talk in the household than there had been for years".
His declaration was greeted with stunned silence, followed by jeers from the 700 protesters some of whom had travelled from as far away as Donegal, Waterford and Cork to register their support for the anti MMDS campaign, which already has one candidate nominated for the general election.
The Fianna Fail general election candidate in Mayo, Mrs Beverley Cooper Flynn meanwhile has told the Minister that she could communicate with her family just as well with six channels as with two.
Requesting people not to make political speeches at Friday's rally, the chairman of Mayo Community TV, Mr Padraig Cunnane, said the objective was to convince the Government that community deflector groups were responsible entities quite capable of continuing to provide a consistently good service.
"We want a licence to provide our services, we don't want anything else," he said. "We expect the Government to make a political decision on this, and if our service is good enough for President Mary Robinson, who has a deflector on her roof, it is good enough for us, too," he said.
Mr John Hurley, chairman of South Coast TV in Cork, declaring their solidarity with the campaign, urged the Mayo Deflector Group to persevere with their challenge to the Government on the issue.
"In Mayo you have a cable company and an MMDS company which want to get rid of your community TV service and have a monopoly for themselves," he said. "All they are interested in here is money.
"Since MMDS was granted the licence by Ray Burke 10 years ago they have not fulfilled the condition to provide a universal service in your area. They are in breach of their licence, so they have no case against you, and it is their licence that should be revoked," he said.
Mr Jim Higgins TD said the best legal brains in the country were working to see if the MMDS licences granted were exclusive. "The State could be exposed for millions of pounds if the risk is taken to license deflectors," he said.
Mr Kenny reiterated that the issue was problematic. "If it was as simple as appointing a Mr or Mrs Deflector, then this would have been solved a long time ago. If it is possible for progress to be made then you are looking at somebody who sits around the table where this legal maze will be hammered out," he said.
The other four sitting Mayo TDs, Mr Seamus Hughes, Mr Michael Ring, Dr Tom Moffat, and Mr P.J. Morley, expressed support for the campaign, and urged that no political candidates be put forward on the issue.
The Donegal deflector candidate, Mr Tom Kildea, replied that Government inaction left them no option but to enter the political arena.
A second protest rally was supported by several hundred people in Castlebar yesterday.
The deputy leader of Fianna Fail, Mrs Mary O'Rourke, conceded in Ballina at the weekend that a candidate on the combined group water schemes and the TV deflector issue would affect the poll in a general election.
At a Fianna Fail function, she described the handling of water rates and the dismantling of the group schemes by the Minister, Mr Howlin, as "abysmal".
"Without any clamour, he took away the urban water rates simply because Joan Burton's seat in Dublin West had to be protected because of Joe Higgins," she said.
On the TV deflector issue, she called on the Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Dukes, to release a report in the Dail this week.