Back in the 1980s and earlier, there was concern about the fact that people on the east coast could use aerials to pick up British television signals coming from Northern Ireland or Wales, while people further inland and to the west were stuck with "just" RTE.
When cable companies came into existence and began supplying good strong multi-channel signals to homes in urban areas, it only served to make the problem more pronounced.
The Department thought the same quality service should be available to everyone, and began to consider what system should be used to deliver the multichannel signals. Meanwhile, since the late 1970s, unauthorised operators had begun erecting deflector masts on hill and mountain tops which captured the British TV signals and rebeamed them down into nearby areas.
A report drafted in 1984 recommended that such deflector operations be closed down, but nothing was done in what had become a politically sensitive issue. In the mid-1970s, the then minister for communications, Mr Jim Mitchell, broached the idea of introducing MMDS systems. MMDS is a microwave system for distributing television signals. In the US it is called wireless cable.
Nothing was done until Mr Ray Burke became minister for communications. He first held the portfolio in March 1987, and he held on to it up to 1991, even at one stage sharing the Justice and Communications portfolios.
Some time in 1988 an Independent Newspapers executive, Mr Ray Doyle, met Mr Burke in Leinster House. The Independent group was interested in getting involved in the radio industry but was worried about provisions which would limit the shareholding a newspaper company could hold in any station. During their discussion, Mr Burke suggested that the MMDS business would be an attractive one for Independent.
Mr Doyle brought the idea back to Abbey Street, and intense discussion ensued. Some executives were against the idea, for a number of reasons, including their lack of faith in politicians. Politicians, they argued, would never be able to take on the illegal deflector groups.
In the event, the argument in favour of getting involved won out. When, in September 1989, Mr Burke announced who was getting 29 licences or cells (areas in which the MMDS licence would operate), the Independent group, through its company Independent Wireless Cable Ltd, won seven licences. They were in two clusters, one in the north-east and one in the south-east. They were "fag-end licences", being for areas where people could already pick up British signals.
Two companies, Westward Cable, based in Limerick, and Cork Communications, won seven and four licences respectively. The Independent group had a minority interest in both.
The applications for tenders for the licences had said they would give the holders exclusive rights in the areas they covered. Independent began setting up its operation, but the equipment was expensive and heavy investment was required.
Senior figures in the group were still not convinced of the capacity of politicians to deal with the deflector groups. Mr Doyle began to make representations to the Department.
Contact by letter and telephone ensued. According to one source, the Department eventually sent a copy of a letter it was going to have Mr Burke sign to the Independent group for its information. Officials then sent the letter to the Attorney General's office, which recommended some changes. These had the effect of "lessening its conviction", according to the source. A final draft was then written up, and signed by Mr Burke.
The letter, to the Independent executives, stated: "Immediately MMDS service is available in any of your franchise regions, my department will apply the full rigours of the law to illegal operations affecting the franchise region".
The letter from Mr Burke was used by the Independent executives to reassure the banks. It was also used in negotiations conducted with two US companies, UIH and TCI. These then bought 50 per cent of the Independent holding company, Princes Holdings, which in turn owns Independent Wireless Cable. £11 million which came from the US companies was used to buy up the rest of Westward Cable and Cork Communications.
These purchases, and building up their network, has to date cost Princes Holdings around £70 million. The company now has 140,000 subscribers, but says that Government inaction on illegal operators is crippling the operation. A spokesman for Princes said the company has lost more than £25 million to date. It has initiated a case for damages against the State, and Mr Burke's 1991 letter will be used to support the company's case.
The fact that Mr Burke issued licences to the Independent company, and that he wrote them the 1991 letter, is now being investigated because of the revelation that Fitzwilton, the industrial holdings group whose chairman is Dr Tony O'Reilly, handed a cheque for £30,000, made out to cash, to Mr Burke in June 1989. At the time, Mr Burke was still considering the licence applications. Four months later he issued some of the licences to the Independent company.
In the 1997 general election Mr Thomas Gildea was elected in the three-seat Donegal South West constituency on a pro-deflector, anti-MMDS ticket. MMDS licence-holders continue to complain that the State is not enforcing the exclusivity of their licences. The sceptics in the Independent group should have argued more strongly against getting involved in MMDS.