THE response by Alan Dukes to deflector operators wasn't the kind of abject, pre election, roll over response they had anticipated when they threatened the Government parties with 150,000 angry television viewers.

But the initiative drove the licensed MMDS operators into paroxysms of "zero tolerance". The Government, they declared, had "offered solace and even encouragement to illegal UHF deflectors to continue their unlawful, operations".

Mr Dukes hardly bothered to contest the allegation. Asked why he was allowing the illegal deflector systems to operate until the autumn, when they would be required to apply for short term licences or finally go out of business, he replied:" It would be pretty damn stupid to put them off the air at this stage".

There was not pretence. It was purely an election issue. The deflector groups, which had been withdrawing multi channel services from rural homes in their campaign for licences, had to be mollified. And the State had to defend itself against huge compensation costs.

The result was a complicated mess. Existing illegal systems, Mr Dukes said, could apply for short term licences to December 1999, in non cable areas, if they met with all, legal and planning requirements. But MMDS companies would be free to compete and apply for UHF deflector rights in those same areas.

As a means of buying time, while weeding out and regularising the deflector systems, it was straight out of Ray Burke's answer to pirate radio stations in the late 1980s.

Mr Dukes commented sweetly that he had taken the deflector operators at their word when they told him they wished to go "legit" and he was now offering them the opportunity to be licensed in a legal framework, and pay tax and royalties.

But this was little comfort for the deflector operators. By the time they secured planning permission, a licence and had paid taxes, copyright and royalties, they would still only be able to re broadcast a maximum of four channels on UHF, compared to 11 on cable and, MMDS. And the quality of their pictures would deteriorate with time, as the government allocated UHF frequencies.

But the new deal dad just, meet with the commitment in the programme for government - inserted at John Bruton's behest - to "seek to allow competition between community television deflector systems and existing MMDS franchise holders".

And, behind the limited opportunities being offered to local deflector operations stood the political imperative: keep multi channel television going in rural areas until after the general election.

Last night, the MMDS companies with exclusive licences described the Government's initiative as "incredible" because it reneged on legally binding contracts. And they sought legal advice on how they might extract compensation from the Government. The deflector operators expressed concern and spoke of the need to examine the details of the offer.

Fianna Fail was delighted. From a position where the party - and Ray Burke - were being ostracised for granting exclusive licences to six MMDS companies in 1989, it was now free to accuse the Government of failing to respond adequately to the current situation. There was finally something to attack.

Seamus Brennan put the boot in. The Fianna Fail man described the Minister's efforts as a "sticking plaster solution designed to squeeze out deflector operators over three years". First he worried about MMDS operators and their lost exclusivity. Then he worried about deflector operators and the immediate and massive economic costs to be piled on them for a three year licence with no guarantee of renewal.

The more he thought about it, the more Mr Brennan felt the Dukes solution "is not, and should not be, acceptable to deflector groups around the country".

Bobby Molloy was much more circumspect. First he put the record straight for the voters. Although the Progressive Democrats had been in government with Fianna Fail in 1989, he said, the party had not favoured granting exclusive MMDS licences. It just had not been possible to reverse commitments given by Mr Burke.

THEN he accused Mr Dukes of engaging in "a pathetic effort to get the deflector issue off the political agenda". He said there was great anger at Fine Gael throughout the country because of John Bruton's rash commitment" to licence deflectors during the 1992 election campaign and his failure to deliver.

Last night, Government politicians were anxiously waiting to see how rural Ireland would respond to the overture. They had already got negative vibrations from MMDS, but were largely unconcerned. The fact that Independent Newspapers owns 50 per cent of the second largest MMDS company and that hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation may be at stake, did not seem to bother them.

The issue may only be bolting up.