A High Court judge will rule today on an application by an MMDS company to be removed as a party to an action being taken against the Minister for Communications and others. Cork Communications Ltd told Mr Justice Carney yesterday it should not have been joined as a party to judicial review proceedings taken by the Carrigalinebased company, South Coast Community Television Broadcasting Service.
South Coast has taken proceedings against the Minister for Communications; the Director of Telecommunications Regulation; the Attorney General and Cork Communications Ltd in relation to the refusal to the Carrigaline company of a licence to re-broadcast British TV channels in Co Cork and west Waterford.
Yesterday, Mr John Gordon SC, for South Coast, said his client's fundamental case was that the purported decision of then Minister for Communications, Mr Dukes, of April 15th last, refusing a licence to South Coast, was not made on the merits of the company's application. As a result, the Minister's obligation to consider South Coast's application impartially, and on its merits, remains undischarged, counsel said.
If the court agreed with that submission, his clients contended the resolution of their licence application lay with the Director of Telecommunications Regulation.
Even if the court held that the Minister was entitled to refuse the licence application in light of a promised national scheme to licence deflector operators, then the court should order that the scheme must be completed, counsel added.
Mr Eoghan Fitzsimons SC, for Cork Communications Ltd, which is licensed to relay British TV channels in certain "cells" in Munster, said it was the company's contention it should not have been joined to the proceedings.
He said the primary relief sought by South Coast was an order quashing the Ministerial decision refusing the company a licence. His clients were not the decision-makers in relation to that and were not involved in the decision making process, counsel said.
Ms Mary Finlay SC, for South Coast, said Cork Communications Ltd had a clear interest in the outcome of the proceedings and must be regarded as an interested party. She said CCL says it has exclusive rights to be licensed for the purpose of re-transmitting TV signals within certain MMDS "cells". If her clients won the present action, the Minister would be under an obligation to consider their right to a licence.
She claimed CCL had sought to influence the Minister's decision in relation to South Coast's entitlement to a licence. CCL and the Minister have denied that claim.
Ms Finlay said CCL was seeking an injunction which would effectively close down the South Coast service. The injunction application was listed after the present proceedings, counsel said.