Ms Lois West:

There certainly were misleading comments made. I would not like to comment on whether that was intentional or accidental. There certainly were robust debates. One of the ongoing debates was over whether it was acceptable to record something as a sudden death in the first instance until the Garda had conducted some kind of investigation to determine whether there were suspicious circumstances. To our mind there were clear instances where that simply could not be justified. There was a difference of opinion. I suggest that some of it may come down to a legacy issue - the way that people traditionally did something. That does not make it right. From our point of view it certainly would not be in adherence to the crime-counting rules.

The Deputy makes a very important about education and communication within the organisation. I have always expressed concern over headquarters directives, for example, where a new policy is pushed out through a headquarters directive or a particular instruction because it is not clear to me that there is enough support to ensure that every member or person who needs to be aware of that has read it, interpreted it correctly understood it and is then adhering to and applying it in the course of their duties.

I certainly would have a concern regarding the education piece.