However, it is not yet clear when it will be published or whether it will be published in full.
The inquiry, which focused on a major data breach and other matters at the country’s biggest media group, was launched in 2018 following protected disclosures by former INM chief executive Robert Pitt to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).
In court today, Mr Justice Garrett Simons said he was expecting to receive the report on Thursday and that a copy would automatically be furnished to the Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA), the successor organisation to the ODCE.
The matter was briefly mentioned before the judge so that various parties could seek permission to issue motions at short notice so they too could be provided with copies of the report.
Applications for copies of the report are to be made by Mediahuis, the Belgian/Dutch-owned media group that bought INM in 2019, former INM chairman Leslie Buckley, former INM shareholder Denis O’Brien, seven former non-executive directors of INM and Mr Pitt.
Sean Guerin SC, for Mr Buckley, said that if drafts of the report were an indication, the final report would be several hundred pages long.
The judge gave Mr Buckley liberty to issue a motion seeking access to the report.
“I would envisage that parties such as your client would automatically or semi-automatically receive the report, unless I am told otherwise,” he said.
Mr Justice Simons went on to say he would have to consider whether he would publish the report or publish it in redacted form. He asked lawyers for the various parties to consider what might be a realistic timetable for publication and to address him on it on Thursday.
The judge said the only circumstances in which he would be minded to restrict publication would be if there were parallel connected legal proceedings.
Denis O’Brien. Photo: Damien Eagers
But he noted that Mr Justice Peter Kelly, the former President of the High Court, had ordered the inspection “because of the public interest”.
Mr Guerin said Mr Buckley’s position is that he is supportive of publication.
“I am in a position to say that now in advance of sight of the report,” said Mr Guerin.
The inspectors, senior counsel Sean Gillane and UK-based solicitor Richard Fleck, were appointed in September 2018.
This followed an application by the ODCE, which had carried out its own investigation into various matters.
In a judgment at the time, Mr Justice Kelly said their appointment was justified and in the public interest.
Mr Justice Kelly also said circumstances surrounding two proposed business transactions were “suggestive of an unlawful purpose” directed to the benefit of INM’s then biggest shareholder, Denis O’Brien.
Mr Pitt alleged he was put under pressure by then INM chairman Leslie Buckley to pay an inflated price for Newstalk, a radio station owned by Mr O’Brien. The deal was ultimately abandoned.
He also raised concerns about a proposal, later dropped, for the payment of a €1m “success fee” to a firm owned by Mr O’Brien in relation to the sale of INM’s shares in media group APN.
A further protected disclosure by Mr Pitt prompted the ODCE to investigate a major data “interrogation”, directed by Mr Buckley, where large amounts of data were removed from INM’s premises in 2014 and given to outside companies.
The High Court heard the data tapes were said to have been taken to the premises of another company outside the jurisdiction and interrogated over a period of months.
ODCE inquiries subsequently uncovered a list of 19 people, including journalists, whose names are believed to have been used during searches of the data.
At the time the inspectors were appointed, Mr Justice Kelly said the “actual purpose” of the data interrogation “remains unclear but is certainly suggestive of the company’s affairs being conducted for a purpose that is unlawful”.
There has been no indication yet what conclusions the inspectors have reached on these matters.
Mr Buckley stood down as INM chairman in March 2018. The company issued proceedings against him shortly afterwards.
The High Court has previously heard the media group would be seeking to recover from Mr Buckley the cost of any damage caused by alleged wrongdoing on his part.
Mr Buckley has denied wrongdoing and has claimed he was engaged in a cost-cutting exercise.
In 2021, he made an unsuccessful bid to have the appointment of the inspectors revoked by the court.
Last year, a lawsuit taken by two former senior executives at INM, over the alleged breach of their electronic data, was settled.
The case was taken by former chief executive Gavin O’Reilly and former director of corporate affairs Karl Brophy, both of whose names were on the list of 19.
