A NEWS team from Teilifis na Gaeilge went to the school previously attended by Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn's son on the day the Fianna Fail TD announced her retirement from public life, The Irish Times has learned.
A journalist and a camera operative went to the school intending to shoot some footage for the station's news coverage of the announcement. They were asked to leave by a staff member at the school. No such footage was broadcast.
The incident was raised by the veteran broadcast journalist, Ms Poilin Ni Chiarain, at the Merriman Winter School in Westport.
She said it raised questions about media intrusion and the news values adopted by the new station.
A spokesman for TnaG told the weekend school the incident would be investigated. "If it happened it is not something we would be prepared to defend," he said.
Ironically, TnaG secured a news "scoop" last week when Mrs Geoghegan Quinn agreed to give it her first interview since her decision was announced. The interview was broadcast on a current affairs programme made by RTE.
TnaG's ceannasai, Mr Cathal Goan, said he was "full of respect and pride" for the news team at the station, which was mostly made up of young journalists who had learned complex news gathering and editing skills since last July.
This learning period had been described as a "learning precipice" rather than a learning curve. It was possible that in their anxiety to master the technical skills other considerations had been neglected.
"There is no doubt but that we can improve and it is something we are looking at on a weekly basis," Mr Goan said in Irish.
The lecturer and film maker, Mr Muiris Mac Conghail, told the school that TnaG's news service was an example to other journalists in moving away from a Dublin bias.
He said the high standard of its programming had shown that TnaG's slogan - suil eile, another eye - was not an empty boast.
With a successful comedy series, C. U. Burn, and a series of documentaries, the station had created "something mysterious", he said, speaking in Irish.
"It has broadened the programming agenda in Ireland, and discovered new formulae and talents which will benefit citizens and broadcasting.
"It took a risk with hope and a new eye, something remarkable in these times when so many have retreated from the fundamental principles of public service broadcasting for the sake of chaff."