Mr. Michael Finn:

What the analysts were asked to do initially was to do some research in relation to homicides, domestic homicides and the causation link in relation to our crime prevention strategies and our new policy on domestic abuse. That was a specific piece of work, an analysis of data. From that piece of work they were doing, they highlighted a number of incidents and investigations where they saw a discrepancy. They brought that separate piece of work to the deputy commissioner and said that they had unearthed some issues in relation to the classification, separate from the main piece of work they were doing, and stated they needed to look at it. The deputy commissioner agreed that there were issues; that the Garda needed to sit down as the analysts had brought the information to them, but they needed operational people to interpret it and address whether what the analysts were highlighting was correct or whether there were other issues.