TELEVISION cable and MMDS companies have legal arguments prepared and are ready to bring the government to court over its decision to grant licences to deflector groups.

However, the companies are not going to proceed with their actions until they have seen the draft regulations which are being prepared by the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Dukes.

Those regulations are not likely to be produced until June or July. Licences are to be granted so as to introduce competition in non-cable areas.

The cable and MMDS companies are angry with the Government for promising licences to deflect or groups. They say their licences guarantee them exclusivity.

"The companies will wait to see what the Government puts down in draft regulations," said Mr Ray Doyle, of CMI Ireland. "The legal advice is there and ready and the legal actions are ready and primed."

Mr Doyle, who is honorary secretary of the Cable Communications Association of Ireland (CCAI), was speaking to the media during a European Cable Communications Association (ECCA) seminar in Dublin.

Mr Doyle said he had some sympathy with the position in which Mr Dukes found himself. "He is not the devil incarnate as far as we are concerned."

The CCAI, which includes Cablelink. Casey Cablevision, CMI, Princes Holdings and Suir Nore, says the existence of the illegal operators is damaging to the sector as a whole.

The arrival of digital television during the next ten years will lead to a huge increase in the number of channels available in the average home and will bring massive changes to the sector.

"All Europe is concerned about digital TV and interactive services but Ireland is focused on the small deflector systems," said Mr Doyle. The controversy was having a negative effect on investment.

The Government should be more focused on the wave of change which is about to come with the arrival of the digital age.

Mr Kevin Windle, president of the ECCA, said that during the transition to digital television, the two systems, digital and analog, would have to be broadcast for a number of years. Pressure on the system would mean that deflector systems "would be in the way." "It's like having small planes flying in a valuable air corridor."

However, a spokesman for Mr Dukes said licences to deflector groups will not go beyond 1999 because of the coming developments in digital television. The licences will introduce short term competition in non-cable areas.

Mr Dukes has addressed the issue of policy for digital television in recent speeches in the Dail, the spokesman said. It is understood Mr Dukes received extensive legal advice prior to announcing his intention to grant licences to deflector groups.