(issued under section 7(7) of the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961,
inserted by paragraph (a)(iv) of section 44 of the Court of Appeal Act 2014)

Recording and Broadcasting of Supreme Court Proceedings

1. The purpose of the Practice Direction is to provide information to members of the public, parties, legal practitioners and other court users in relation to a pilot project under which proceedings of the Supreme Court will be recorded and broadcast.

Purpose of broadcasting

2. The decision of the Supreme Court to broadcast its proceedings is part of the Court’s commitment to open justice and is consistent with the constitutional requirement that justice be administered in public, with such exceptions as are prescribed by law. It aims to enhance access to court proceedings and to inform and educate the public in relation to cases heard before the Supreme Court, which are cases of general public importance or cases where the interests of justice warrant an appeal to the Court.
    
3. An additional purpose of the broadcasting is to assist media who are unable to personally attend judicial proceedings to fairly and accurately report on the proceedings. It also aims to allow universities and legal professional training bodies to access recordings of Supreme Court proceedings for educational purposes.

Proceedings to be broadcast

4. The Supreme Court has selected and recorded a small number of cases to test the IT equipment and recording process without broadcasting.  The Court now intends to commence a pilot project which will involve the broadcasting of selected cases. 
    
5. Subject to satisfactory testing of the recording and broadcasting process, the Supreme Court will aim to routinely record and broadcast oral argument in substantive appeal hearings and the delivery of Supreme Court judgments.
    
6. The decision as to whether particular proceedings will be recorded and broadcast rests with the members of the Supreme Court. The presiding judge may decide, in consultation with the case management judge, if necessary,  and panel of judges hearing a case, that in any particular case the recording of proceedings would not be appropriate.
    
7. The following, notwithstanding the process outlined in paragraph 6, will not be recorded or broadcast:

1. Proceedings which, under any provision of statute must be heard otherwise than in public;
2. Proceedings where the broadcast of which would, in the opinion of the presiding judge, result in a significant risk of the identification of parties or persons involved in proceedings in which such identification is prohibited, or in the disclosure of sensitive personal information which is likely to cause harm;
3. Procedural hearings, such as case management hearings and cases listed for mention.

Location of broadcasts

8. The recorded footage will be made available, at the discretion of the Court,  on the Supreme Court website.

Editing of Broadcasts

9. Broadcasts will routinely be edited to remove any delays from the beginning and ending of recordings.
    
10. The Presiding Judge, in consultation with the case management judge, may direct that the recording be further edited prior to its uploading, if required.

Timing of broadcasting

11. In general, recorded footage from proceedings on a particular day and recordings of delivery of judgments will be broadcast the following day.  Network constraints in the Four Courts complex do not currently allow for the livestreaming of the proceeding in real time.

Use of footage

12. It is necessary to consent to the Terms of Use on the Supreme Court website in order to view recordings. 
     
13. The unauthorised downloading, capturing, re-editing, mining, processing or redistribution of the footage from the recordings is strictly prohibited.  Any such use may give rise to liability for breach of copyright and/or may constitute contempt of court.
     
14. Notwithstanding the prohibition in paragraph 11, the footage may be used for the purpose of reporting on proceedings before the Supreme Court. Bona fide members of the news media profession may request access to the edited recordings for such purposes. Such requests should be directed to the media relations advisor at gerry.curran@courts.ie.  The footage may not be used for advertisements, party political broadcasts, or satirical purposes.
     
15. This practice direction should be read in conjunction with Practice Direction SC18 Use of cameras and electronic devices in court. 

Status of recordings

16. The audiovisual recordings relate to the business and are under the control of the Court.

Data Protection

17. The broadcasting of Supreme Court proceedings will involve the processing of personal data by the Courts Service on behalf of the Supreme Court acting in its judicial capacity.   The processing of personal data will be limited to the purpose outlined in paragraphs 2 and 3 and appropriate safeguards will be put in place to protect the rights of data subjects.

Dated this 7^th day of October, 2025.
Donal O’Donnell
Chief Justice