The Garda Commissioner says she has never regarded the whistle-blower Maurice McCabe as "malicious".
Noirín O'Sullivan has been under pressure after it emerged that some of her private evidence to the O'Higgins Commission suggested Sergeant McCabe was motivated by "malice".
In public, the Commissioner had said she fully supported the whistle-blower.
The O'Higgins Commission was set up to investigate Sergeant McCabe's claims of wrong-doing in the Cavan-Monaghan Garda division.
Commissioner O'Sullivan says she's legally barred from commenting further about her evidence to the inquiry.
The Garda Commissioner said: "Our immediate concern, arising out of the O’Higgins Commission, must be with victims who believe - with justification, they were not dealt with properly by An Garda Síochána. We are sorry the victims did not get the service they were entitled to, and we will seek to work with them."
