The chairperson of the Policing Authority has strongly defended its handling of the review of garda homicide figures and its dealings with two civilian employees who expressed serious concerns to it about the issue.
Josephine Feehily told the Oireachtas Justice Committee that the issues that the Deputy Head of the Garda's Analysis Service, Lois West, and a Senior Crime and Policing Analyst, Laura Galligan, had raised were already known to the authority.
She also said the way the two analysts said they were treated in the workplace sounded deplorable and was concerning and spoke to issues of culture in and speaking out, but she stressed it was an employment issue.
Ms Feehily also said there was very little of substance in their evidence to the committee earlier this month that the authority did not already know or believe almost a year ago.
She said that much of its detailed work has been carried out in private because the authority says it is concerned not to prematurely or unnecessarily alarm families.
She said the authority now accepts a garda investigation took place in each of the 41 cases under review but it has not yet been reassured about the quality of those investigations.
The committee heard 12 of those have been reclassified upwards and the families have been contacted, 16 more had some change made to their classification and 13 remain unchanged. The PULSE system has also been updated.
Ms Feehily also said the authority is mindful that it must strike a careful balance between challenging and undermining An Garda Síochána, and between transparency and concern for victims and families.
Ms Feehily also stressed that the analysts' contact with the authority could not have been considered by the authority to be confidential because it was widely known.
Their names and the fact and detail of their disquiet, she said, was a matter of record and in no way confidential.
