Posted by Updated / Tuesday, 24 Feb 2026 14:41
Legal Affairs Correspondent
The High Court will decide whether or not RTÉ must hand over all its undercover footage filmed in two nursing homes to the body responsible for regulating services for older people.
HIQA has asked the court to order RTÉ to hand over the footage, some of which was used in an RTÉ Investigates programme broadcast in June last year.
The programme highlighted incidents at two nursing homes – Beneavin Manor in Dublin and The Residence in Portlaoise, Co Laois.
Lawyers for the Chief Inspector of Social Services at HIQA told the High Court today that the programme showed examples of what appeared to be serious misconduct at the nursing homes.
Finbarr Colfer has statutory powers to inspect nursing homes and take proceedings if there are contraventions of regulations.
Senior Counsel Jonathan Newman said it was necessary for Mr Colfer to review the footage in order to decide on the appropriate and proportionate steps he should take.
He said Mr Colfer’s role was very serious and he could not perform it fully and properly in the context of what was disclosed in the programme without access to the information.
Mr Newman said the footage would be used by Mr Colfer only for the purposes of carrying out his statutory functions and the privacy rights of the residents of the homes would be interfered with only to that limited extent.
The court was told that RTÉ was neither consenting nor objecting to the order being made. The court heard that there had been engagement between HIQA and RTÉ and a draft order had been agreed.
But RTÉ’s position was that a court order was necessary if any footage was to be handed over and it was entirely a matter for the court to decide if the order was appropriate.
Senior Counsel Joe Jeffers said HIQA’s request had to be balanced with other matters.
He said the footage was taken during the course of a journalistic investigation, and given that the footage captured images of third parties, including vulnerable residents and members of staff, a court order was always going to be necessary before RTÉ would hand it over.
Mr Jeffers said the fact that HIQA was seeking the footage, not to initiate proceedings but to decide whether regulatory action was appropriate, broadened the scope of the established case law in this area.
Mr Jeffers said there was uncertainty in this jurisdiction about the scope and purpose of such disclosure of material. And the court would have to balance the rights of patients, families and members of staff with HIQA’s obligation to investigate matters of concern.
However, he said RTÉ was anxious to work with the regulator in the interests of patient safety.
He said the footage in question was gathered by RTÉ in its role as a public service broadcaster, exercising its public function to investigate matters in the public interest.
Ms Justice Emily Egan said she would reserve her decision on the matter.
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