Lois West, the senior Garda analyst who said she was penalised at work for testifying to the Oireachtas on errors in official homicide data nine years ago has settled her employment rights claims with the State.
Her lawyers confirmed the position when the case was opened again this morning at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) for what was to be the first of five days of hearings.
Addressing the hearing at Lansdowne House in Dublin, David Byrnes BL, appearing instructed by Felix McTiernan of Noble Law, said it would not be necessary to continue with the cross-examination of West’s former line manager, Andrew O’Sullivan.
“The parties have worked very hard together, especially this weekend, and have managed to reach a compromise and settlement of the WRC proceedings, and that now has been agreed in writing between the parties,” he said.
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“It’s obviously a confidential settlement with respect to the terms, my client is obviously happy with that,” he said.
Counsel for the State, Lorna Lynch BL, who was led by Joseph Dolan of the Chief State Solicitor’s Office, made an objection.
“Any comment in relation to people being happy, or not happy, it shouldn’t be reported that someone is happy or not happy,” Lynch said.
“I don’t believe she should be restricted in saying she’s happy with the outcome. We don’t have to spat over that,” Byrnes said.
He confirmed that statutory complaints under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 and the Safety, Health and Welfare and Work Act 2005 and the Payment of Wages Act 1991 against the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, the Government of Ireland, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform could all now be treated as “withdrawn”.
He said he was instructed to thank the adjudicator, Penelope McGrath. “I know at times it was quite robust,” Byrnes said.
“Testing,” McGrath said. The adjudicator told the parties she was “absolutely delighted” to be told the matter was settled.
“I hope you can walk away from this and get on with your life and career. You’ve been a lovely complainant,” she told West.
McGrath then excused the witness and closed the matter.
Hearings at the WRC inquiring into West’s complaints first began over 2½ years ago in December 2023.
The inquiry effectively collapsed a year later in December 2024 after West’s legal team said she had received an unfair hearing and called for the recusal of the original adjudicator. The case opened afresh before McGrath in November 2025.
West was joint deputy head of An Garda Síochána Analysis Service (GSAS) at assistant principal grade before taking extended sick leave.
She and a colleague, garda analyst Laura Galligan, went public on the misclassification of homicides in Garda records in testimony to the Oireachtas Justice Committee in March 2018, the tribunal has heard.
West’s case was that she suffered various detriments at work because she went public on the homicide data, amounting to a years-long continuum of whistleblower penalisation.
This included what her lawyers said was a failure to impose protective measures when she alleged she was harassed and sexually harassed by a superior; being effectively “demoted” while a colleague at the same grade was promoted, and the withdrawal of sick pay.
The allegations and statutory complaints were robustly denied by the State.
