This all related to how deaths, including possible homicides, were repeatedly misclassified.

At the committee, Ms West and Ms Galligan said they were belittled and treated “very poorly” by sworn members of senior management. They continued to “come under pressure” after they raised concerns over how the deaths of people had been classified.

More alarmingly, they claimed that they made repeated attempts to contact the independent Policing Authority that but those overtures were ignored. Despite having reached out as many as six times to the authority, the pair say they are yet to meet with anyone to voice their concerns as to what went on.

Today it is the turn of the authority to defend itself.

Its chairwoman, the no-nonsense ex-head of Revenue, Josephine Feehily, will robustly defend the authority’s handling of the scandal. We have seen her opening statement and this is what she will say.

The ongoing review of domestic homicides has, in many ways, been the most frustrating and most troubling piece of work in which the authority has engaged, Ms Feehily will attest.

“We began to examine the matter in March of last year. We are still not finished and we are still not fully satisfied,” she will tell the committee.

From the outset, the authority has made it clear that its key concern is the risk that the wrong classification could have affected the quality of the Garda investigation, she will say.

“We have emphasised time and again the importance of good data for intelligence, for public policy, for risk assessment and crime prevention. This is not confined to domestic violence risks,” she will say.

The Policing Authority pressed An Garda Síochána for assurances that, in the 12 cases where they were reclassifying a death “upwards” into or within the homicide category, family liaison had been put in place and families were contacted.

She will say that, since late March 2017, the authority had intelligence in addition to the official Garda documentation.

Since then, there have been at least 20 formal authority meetings on the topic at either in plenary or committee, and as many or more engagements at official level.

“Several documents received from the gardaí were rejected as inadequate, beginning with the correspondence received for our meeting in public on 27 April 2017 where watchers would, I think, have been left in no doubt that the Authority was not best pleased,” Ms Feehily will say.

“The paperwork which we received did not merit the title of ‘Report’ and I believe I made that publicly very clear.

“Professional tensions within the Garda organisation regarding this matter were very clearly visible to us at the April 2017 public meeting.”

Ms Feehily will then turn to the evidence given by Ms West and Ms Galligan two weeks ago. She will say: “I would like to say that their evidence about how they were treated in their workplace sounded deplorable and is very concerning.”

She believes their experiences seem, in this instance, to have made this whole review more contentious than it needed to be.

Returning to the homicide review, the position is that the authority has many sources of intelligence and information regarding this homicide review — perhaps more than Ms West and Ms Gavigan realise — and has done a huge amount of work, she will say.

Defending their decision not to reach out and discuss with them directly, the concerns which they brought to the authority’s attention were already known to us before their contact, Ms Feehily will contend.

“At a point where the analysts seemed to be having difficulty getting access to certain information, authority members and staff were being offered opportunities to review investigation files [which we declined] and be briefed in detail on cases,” Ms Feehily will say.

“In fact, having reviewed their evidence to you, I can honestly say that there was very little of substance in it about the review which we didn’t know or have ground to believe since late March /early April of last year.”

Ms Feehily also rejects the suggestions that the authority allowed itself to be misled by senior officers over the homicide review at an April meeting last year.

“Far from being misled, the authority rejected the document submitted by the Garda Síochána to our 27 April 2017 meeting in very strong terms,” she will say.

In addition to expressing serious disappointment at the late arrival of the correspondence at 8.30 pm the night before, the authority wrote to the Garda Commissioner to express significant concerns “...about its tone, content, and accuracy...” she will say.

According to her script, Ms Feehily warns that the above sentence may be best discussed only in private. Feehily insists that the analysts’ professional concerns were widely known and the fact that they were in contact with the Policing Authority could not have been considered by the Authority to be confidential. She will say that while the Authority did not meet them, the analysts were advised by Authority staff that we had their letter of May 11.

“They were given an assurance that the authority was live to all of their concerns and would be following up,” Ms Feehily will say. “And we did follow up. That letter underlined further for the Authority the professional tensions around this whole matter, which were already visible to us.”

Ms Feehily will say that the Policing Authority received a report dated September 21.

“This differed so much from the April correspondence that initially we couldn’t accept that either,” she will say.

Following robust engagement over the period from October to January, the authority reached a position in very recent weeks where it accepts that a police investigation did take place in each of the 41 cases which are the subject of this review.

“However, we have not yet been reassured about the quality of those investigations,” Ms Feehily believes.

Regarding classification, An Garda Síochána have reclassified 12 of the 41 cases upwards either into the homicide group or between classifications within the homicide group. A further 16 cases had some change made to their classification, meaning only 13 are unchanged.

Authority staff have personally confirmed that the Pulse system has been appropriately updated in these cases which is important from the point of view of risk to any potential victims, Feehily will say. Gardaí have given assurances that, in those 12 reclassified cases, the families had been contacted.

Ms Feehily will also attest that she and the authority will meet with the two analysts in the coming weeks.

“The authority intends to meet the working group charged with the next phase, which I understand includes Ms Gavigan and Ms West, to ensure that it fully understands the authority’s concerns,” she will say. “It is important to us that this working group is managed in a way which allows all voices to be respectfully heard and considered.

“In the meantime, the homicide review remains a standing item on our agenda and given the time-lines outlined for this next phase, it will clearly be there for some time to come.”

A case of a little done, a lot more to do.