Joe Queenan

RTÉ Investigates programme Queenan was one of three politicians secretly filmed for Standards in Public Office, which aired on RTÉ One straight after the Nine O'Clock News on 8 December 2015. For the purposes of its programme, RTÉ established an imaginary company it named Vinst Opportunities, with imaginary investors searching for ways to set up wind farms without having to deal with any problems that might arise if the imaginary company and its imaginary investors sought planning permission. Discovering that his public declaration of financial interests did not include a farm, several businesses and a (just recently submitted) application for planning permission, RTÉ contacted Queenan.

Queenan responded to RTÉ's airing of its programme on radio, saying the operation had been a "sting" and that everything the programme claimed to have uncovered had been hypothetical.

In April 2018, the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) announced that Queenan would face an ethics hearing that September as part of its response to the programme; he was the first of the three councillors called before the hearing. In March 2019, the Commission announced it had found partially against Queenan, stating that he had not sought money in exchange for political work but that he had "agreed to help the fictitious company" in exchange for payment, that he had been careless in declaring his financial interests and that he had overlooked the Code of Conduct during his "dealings with the undercover reporter".