Garda figures for the number of homicides in Ireland were incorrect, and understated the actual number by 89 cases over 14 years.

The Policing Authority has been told the official statistics were incorrect because of a series of data errors on Garda records.

The Authority also heard that 85 homicides were missed from official figures because the name of the 'injured party' was not recorded in the force's Pulse computer system.

Dr Gurchand Singh is the head of the Garda analysis service.

He explained: "There is a mechanism on Pulse to say that 'this is the injured party, and the injured process is deceased'. The flagging process didn't occur - it's as simple as that.

"This occurred in about 85 homicides - so that's about 6% of the incidents that we had a look at."

Yesterday, The Irish Times reported that the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has suspended the publication of crime figures until a review of homicide data is carried out.

Earlier this year, Gardaí discovered a massive discrepancy in their recorded number of breath tests, with almost a million extra tests recorded.