Ms Lois West:

As was noted during the justice committee meeting a couple of weeks ago, if there is a cavalier attitude to data and data quality, it perhaps has a much more significant impact on the ability to police than the ordinary Garda member on the street might realise. It spans very many different areas, from being able to ascertain our crime levels to the deployment of resources, for example. In this particular work, we were concerned whether, if the incidents were not being captured correctly on the PULSE system as homicide, there were other issues. Certainly with regard to some incidents, we did begin to raise some concerns that the investigations perhaps needed to be reviewed, just to be on the safe side.

As I said to Deputy Chambers, there is a very significant issue when complete and accurate data are not entered on the PULSE system. We, as analysts trying to use the data at the other end, cannot give a robust and complete analysis if we do not have accurate and complete data. It becomes very concerning for me in regard to areas such as domestic abuse. Deputy Clare Daly raised this a couple of weeks ago. Any research done on domestic abuse points to there being an escalation in incidents in the types of scenarios in question. Therefore, it is essential to capture even the smallest of incidents where gardaí are called out to a property and where there may be nothing to see there at the time. It may, however, be the beginning of a pattern or escalation. In order to be able to protect vulnerable citizens in their own homes across this country, we need to be able to identify where there is an escalation with regard to this type of incident.