Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 7 March 2018
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality
Garda Homicide Statistics: Discussion (Resumed)
9:00 am
Ms Lois West:
It was in mid-September we felt there was a dramatic U-turn. Until that point, there was pressure on us to agree on the 41, but on the basis there was little wrong with them. We are not quite sure ourselves what happened between 13 and 14 September 2017. However, on the morning of 14 September 2017, I became aware 41 Excel spreadsheets had been disseminated down, albeit not to us. When the person who brought these to my attention opened the first one, I was shocked to discover that it was actually now noted as one that needed to be reclassified and that continued. As each one was opened, we were surprised because up to that point there had been no agreement that there was anything wrong.