Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The word "homicide" is used by An Garda Síochána to identify on PULSE cases in which there may have been an unlawful killing. As the Minister said, not all of those cases will result in a conviction or indeed a prosecution in the first instance. There is a serious problem with the classification of homicides on the PULSE system and my understanding is that a complete homicide review for the years 2003 to 2017 is required. To date, such a review has not been completed. What must occur is a full and accurate examination of the paper files in the State Pathologist's office on suspicious deaths for the years 2003 to 2017. The information on those paper files must then be compared with the data on the Garda PULSE system and a review of the investigation files themselves must take place.

I am not stating, as the Minister asserted earlier, that there have been cases of unlawful killing that have not been investigated. My point is that we have had only a partial review to date. The Minister talks about 41 homicide incidents for the years 2013 to 2015 but I understand that a quarter of such cases have been misclassified because they are referred to on PULSE as the result of sudden death with a failure to refer to the possibility they may have been caused by a violent act of another individual who is suspected. PULSE may also fail to record that an assault resulted in a subsequent death. Those are the factors which need to be investigated but no investigation has been properly completed to date. I have continuing concerns that the review, which was started in 2016, has not been completed and I ask the Minister to take steps to ensure its completion because I do not believe the necessary urgency is there on the part of either the Garda or the Policing Authority.

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