The Health Service Executive is to investigate claims that the private medical records of dozens of patients were found in a bin outside Roscommon County Hospital.
The files are reported to include the names and addresses of patients, as well as details of their medical conditions and their doctors.
In a statement this morning, the HSE says it has very clear policies for the disposal of confidential documents and takes breaches of these policies extremely seriously.
The Roscommon Hospital Action Committee says it will ask the Data Protection Commissioner to launch a separate investigation into the breach.