An order preventing RTE from using or publishing information which National Irish Bank Ltd (NIB) claims is confidential was continued by the High Court yesterday.
Mr Kevin Feeney SC, for RTE, said his clients believed there was a fundamental principle involved: freedom of the media. RTE wanted the order lifted and the matter decided as soon as possible.
Mr Justice Budd put the case back for mention on Thursday and continued the restraining order against RTE.
NIB claims that "ill-informed" reports broadcast by RTE about the bank were defamatory of it and damaging to it and its customers.
In an affidavit read to an earlier hearing on January 30th, Mr Grahame Savage, chief executive of NIB, said the essence of the claim being made by RTE was that NIB had knowingly been involved in tax evasion by its customers and had intentionally acted to facilitate such tax evasion.
Mr Savage said the bank had made it clear that it never had been its policy to act in such a manner. But it was anxious to conclude an investigation into the circumstances which gave rise to the allegations.
He told the court that an investigation into the matters raised by RTE was being conducted by the bank's parent company, National Australia Group Europe Ltd. This had already uncovered certain shortcomings in a limited number of internal procedures, he said.