As it is International Women's Day, I genuinely welcome the diligence with which the Government is prioritising the referendum on repeal. I am sorry that it has not had the same diligence bringing forward mandatory inquests in relation to maternal deaths.

As it is International Women's Day and the Tánaiste did not answer Deputy Michael McGrath's points about the powerful, explosive testimony given at the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality yesterday by those two outstanding women, I will return to some of those points. The Tánaiste talks about evidence and facts if people were bullied. These are not points of dispute. The facts and the evidence are in the testimony of those women which should be compulsory reading for every Member in this House. Over a period of 15 months, these consummate professionals, analysts and forensic scientists, have found the workplace a very difficult place. Only their mutual support got them through it. Under severe pressure and their integrity undermined, they were belittled and treated poorly, and all this in our newly reformed An Garda Síochána where we are told we welcome our critical friends. I think not. What was the crime of these women? They had the audacity to refuse to sign off on a report presented to the Policing Authority regarding a review of domestic homicides which had been commissioned by them. This was a review which, contrary to what gardaí told the Policing Authority that it revealed minor misclassifications, actually uncovered significant inconsistencies of a grave nature with many ramifications regarding the ability of An Garda Síochána to protect and serve, for example, cases where the partner of a deceased person was in a new domestic violence relationship. Let us remember that this happened a couple of months ago against the backdrop where the majority of homicides in 2017 were domestic murders and where misclassification and a signal not followed could be the difference between life and death.

How many more Garda scandals will this Government take before it will hold someone to account? The Tánaiste waffles on about oversight bodies and the Policing Authority. We went to the last Policing Authority body. Is the Tánaiste unaware that it is now irrefutable that senior gardaí lied and misled the Policing Authority at its April and June meetings? Not only that but these women went to the Policing Authority with their queries, the Policing Authority knew there were problems and not alone did it not respond to them, but it went back to its bosses and ratted them out. Can the Tánaiste imagine the chilling effect on these two powerful women? They read in the media about a Policing Authority there for oversight, they went to it with their genuine problems and tried to make their case and not only were they not heard, but the people to whom they approached told their bosses. What is the Minister for Justice doing? Is he calling a meeting with the acting Garda Commissioner or the Policing Authority? Does the Tánaiste think that it is okay to lie, bully and isolate people? If he does not, who will he call to account?

Clearly, the Government does not think it is okay to lie, bully and intimidate people in any walk of life in Ireland, but particularly in An Garda Síochána. That is why the Government and the Minister are obviously concerned about the evidence that was given yesterday. We will act on that but we also need to recognise that the Minister for Justice and Equality only heard that evidence for the first time yesterday. We need to follow up on it and ensure that appropriate action is taken. To say that the Government is not committed to reform of An Garda Síochána and holding people to account is absolute nonsense. If one looks at the actions which the Government has repeatedly taken, responding to various scandals in An Garda Síochána, which has resulted in a tribunal today, the Government's whole approach is about a fundamental reform of both the culture in An Garda Síochána and the structures to ensure that we enforce and require a new culture in the future, to ensure that the type of allegations which we heard yesterday are dealt with in a much more comprehensive way than seems to have been the case.

I thank the two women concerned for the courage they have shown in raising these issues publicly yesterday. I assure them and everyone else that the Government will take that testimony very seriously in how we follow up on it. I reassure anybody who feels that they need or want to come forward to expose wrongdoing, inappropriate behaviour, intimidation or bullying in An Garda Síochána, or any other arm of the State, to come forward and do so, and that the Government will take it seriously and act on the evidence it gets while working with whistleblowers and others who are brave enough to come forward. I cannot be any clearer on that. What I cannot do is give the Deputy a comprehensive response on how the Government will act because that evidence was only given yesterday. To be fair to the Minister and his Department, he needs time to consider an appropriate response.

Evidence of senior gardaí misleading the Policing Authority on these matters was not first made known yesterday. What clearly entered the public domain yesterday was the evidence that the Policing Authority, which the Tánaiste just lauded, also had that information for over a year. The so-called oversight body which is supposed to call the gardaí to account had this information for over a year and it did nothing. It closed the door on these women, but more than that, it told tales about them to their bosses. This is the oversight body that the Tánaiste is proud of, which demonstrates the Government's actions on reform.

The Tánaiste talks about a change in culture but is he aware that the same Policing Authority recently promoted an individual who is the subject of an internal investigation into bullying and harassment against a whistleblower? It did not merely promote him but put him at the head of training in Templemore where on the one hand he has the code of ethics and, on the other, he is cursing and banging the table and interning-----

The Deputy has not used a name-----

No, I have not used any name.

-----but the Deputy has made a comment that would enable a person to be identified which is completely inappropriate in the House, as the Deputy knows well.

I can stand over every comment I have made here.

That may be the case but it is completely inappropriate to make such a statement here.

The point is that it is irrefutable that the culture in An Garda Síochána has not changed, that there is a systemic problem at the top with senior management and the pathetic measures which the Government has put in place in setting up a Policing Authority, which is now part of the problem, urgently need to be addressed. The women do not want a pat on the head or to be told how great they are; they want things to change.

No one is offering anyone a pat on the head. We are in the process of fundamental reform of An Garda Síochána. There are multiple examples of how this is happening, not least in the method by which a new Garda Commissioner will be chosen and appointed. The evidence given yesterday to the joint committee needs significant follow-up. I do not think that it is helpful for the Deputy to start pointing the finger at individuals who might be identified by the way in which she is speaking about them. There is an appropriate way in which we need to deal with this comprehensively which is what the Minister for Justice and Equality will do, acting on the evidence given yesterday and following up on it to ensure that we can expose any wrongdoing and ensuring that we put structures in place to fix it.