Today is International Women's Day, which is rightly being celebrated all over the world, including in the House. There is some irony therefore in the fact that we listened yesterday to two courageous female civilian officers working with An Garda Síochána, Ms Lois West and Ms Laura Galligan, give evidence to the justice committee of how they had endured 15 months of torment because they were doing their jobs. They claim they were put under tremendous pressure by senior Garda management to agree with homicide statistics they knew were wrong. Instead of acting on the concerns of these women, senior Garda management belittled and dismissed them. Their reward for telling the truth was to have their integrity and professionalism attacked. There was a clear attempt to shut down their critical analysis. In remarkable evidence, they told the committee that the misclassification and inaccurate recording of crime by gardaí left some women at risk of domestic violence. This is not about bookkeeping; it is possible that people were actually put at risk. Women may well have been left in a dangerous domestic situation because of Garda errors.

One year ago and at the very time Ms West and Ms Galligan were being frozen out by management, Garda top brass went to the Policing Authority to say there was nothing to look at here and that everything was in order. Knowledge of the misclassification and inaccurate recording of homicides on PULSE is not a new thing. In fact, this has been known about for some time. A review of domestic homicides was initiated almost two years ago in July 2016, the scope of which has since been extended. The issue has been also under examination by the Policing Authority for the past year or so. Every time the issue is examined, further anomalies emerge. There seems to be no determination at any level to get to the bottom of this. We are not talking about petty crime here, but about the unlawful killing of human beings, often women and children in a domestic context, yet we cannot even record those heinous crimes correctly. We have reached a point where the CSO has refused to publish the last few sets of crime statistics reported by An Garda Síochána because of concerns about the accuracy of that information. That the CSO does not have sufficient confidence in the data being provided to proceed with publication is a sad and sorry state of affairs. That alone should have set off alarm bells for the Minister for Justice and Equality.

Last night, the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, issued a statement which would not fill anyone with confidence that the issue will be dealt with comprehensively and for once and for all. Having read that statement, it is not at all clear to me what is actually being done to resolve this very serious problem. It is too much to ask that there be some accountability for this issue? Does the Tánaiste believe these two staff members are owed an apology by Garda management for the way in which they were dismissed, belittled, sidelined and had their professional competence wrongly called into question? Can the Tánaiste tell the House when the debacle around the classification of crime will be corrected? When will the review of homicides, including domestic homicides, be completed and published? When will the public be able to have confidence in the ability of the State properly to record the most serious crimes committed in this country?

I acknowledge also that today is International Women's Day, which is significant in the context of the Government's commitment to gender equality and accelerating gender parity in a series of areas. That is one of the priorities of Government.

On the issues raised by Deputy Michael McGrath, I join the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Charles Flanagan, in noting my extreme concern at reports that unlawful deaths are not being properly investigated. Any substantiated allegation of this kind would be very serious and of grave public concern. The issue which has arisen in relation to homicide classification is complex and it is essential to establish the facts clearly. Neither the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, nor his Department has received any protected disclosure or allegation that unlawful killings have not been investigated fully and Garda management is adamant that they have. As of yet, the Government has not seen any evidence to the contrary but we are, of course, very open to receiving it.

The evidence provided to the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality by two Garda analysts yesterday did not indicate that unlawful killings were not being properly investigated. It should be noted that neither the Minister nor his Department have received the dossier referred to by them. Having said that, serious issues were raised yesterday. The Minister of the Department will, of course, investigate fully any allegations which have been made. I was concerned, as were my colleagues in government, to see this outlined in the way it was yesterday.

Deputy McGrath asked when we can get to the bottom of some of these issues. There is an ongoing review which, I am told, will take some time to complete. An Garda Síochána has indicated that it is prioritising the review. The Minister met with senior Garda management on 5 February and received further formal assurances in that regard. The Policing Authority raised the issue with An Garda Síochána at the most recent public meeting on 22 February and it continues to monitor the issue to ensure there is independent scrutiny of how An Garda Síochána records data. I welcome the authority's continued diligence on this matter.

If there is evidence that people have been intimidated or bullied in An Garda Síochána, it needs investigation and clarification. The Government, in particular through the Department, will provide that.

We do not have protected disclosures because these two women had the courage to come forward and speak before an Oireachtas committee in public session. While we may not have any evidence that crimes were improperly investigated, we have it on record from these two women that people may well have been put in danger, in particular women in a domestic context, due to the misclassification and inaccurate recording of crimes on PULSE. That is an extremely serious matter. When these women did their jobs, completed their reports and provided them up the line to management, the issues raised were denied, their efforts were blocked and they were stymied.

Counter-reports were prepared that questioned their competence. Even the Policing Authority is not satisfied with the pace of progress. I have not heard from the Tánaiste when this issue will be dealt with. The review of domestic homicides, to which he referred, started in July 2016. It is now nearly two years later. These are quite startling revelations and we do not yet have any indication as to when the review will be completed and when we will have the confirmed statistics that can give the public confidence that the crimes are being properly recorded and investigated.

The evidence that was given to the Oireachtas committee yesterday, while very concerning, was very welcome in that the witnesses felt they could come forward and give it. Of course, the Department of Justice and Equality now needs to follow up on that.

The point I was making in my initial answer is that we do not have any protected disclosures or correspondence in regard to the concerns. Therefore, the issues were really only raised directly yesterday with the Oireachtas committee. Of course, the Government and Department of Justice and Equality now need to follow up with the Garda to understand the basis for the concerns and complaints. It is totally unacceptable if people raising issues within the Garda concerning the misclassification of crime are being persuaded in some way not to expose them if there is a consequence in terms of domestic abuse or any other form of crime. The Government needs to deal with that issue comprehensively. We need to act on the basis of facts and evidence in regard to these issues.