TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has said “a structure” to get to the bottom of what happened to Kyran Durnin will “absolutely” need to take place.
Harris told the Dáil this afternoon:
“Let me say at the outset that this is absolutely going to require a structure to get to the exact bottom of this; of that there is no doubt.”
His comments come as Education Minister Norma Foley has confirmed that she has requested a report from Tusla on the case.
“It’s so important that we find out what happened here. I have requested a report from Tusla to better understand what has happened. And of course, there is a garda investigation underway as well, and it’s important that we allow it to proceed,” said the minister.
She added that the entire country is “shaken to the very core” over what has transpired.
The minister said the most important thing now is to “find out what did happen, how it happened, why it happened. And at the centre of this, obviously, is Kyran”.
“For all of us, our ambition in life is that every child would have a happy, safe experience of life. So we need very much to find out urgently what has happened here,” said Foley.
She said the entire country is “shell shocked” to learn that a child could go missing for so long and that that would go unnoticed.
If something fell through the cracks, then that needs to be found out, said the minister who said that it is very important that all the facts and information is uncovered.
She agreed that if state services are found to be lacking in their responsibilities, that there needs to be appropriate consequences.
“We need to ensure that this would never happen again. We need to ensure that everything is as it should be, and the only way we will know that is when we have complete access to all of the facts and get a clear and better understanding of what happened and how it happened,” said Foley.
The Taoiseach told the Dáil that he expects the Oireachtas Children’s Committee will also want to play a role in terms of speaking to state agencies.
Tusla confirmed in a statement today that it raised “a significant concern” over Kyran with gardaí in August of this year.
Kyran, who would now be eight years old, was initially reported missing in August.
However, gardaí announced last week that after extensive inquiries, they had been unable to find any evidence that he is alive.
A murder investigation was subsequently launched.
Searches are today continuing at the young boy’s former family home in Dundalk as part of the investigation into his disappearance.
In a statement, Tusla said that while Kyran was not in residential care, their services had engaged with both him and his family.
The Taoiseach said in the Dáil that he is very conscious of the fact that An Garda Síochána is “very actively investigating this”.
“I do not think there is a person on any side of this House, or in Ireland, who is not both utterly horrified and heartbroken at what is emerging in relation to the case of young Kyran Durnin.
“This is just to do with basic humanity. An eight-year-old boy effectively went missing for two years and the saddest and most painful thing is that nobody asked why or where he was for that period of time. Any one of us thinking that this could happen to any child is deeply upsetting,” said the Taoiseach.
He went on to state that vigils have been held in both Drogheda and Dundalk over the weekend and it is clear the whole community in county Louth has been deeply affected.
Aóntú TD Peadar Tóibín told the Taoiseach today that Kyran’s case has shocked the country to its core, stating that the “tragic and dark case” raises questions for the state.
“How can a vulnerable child go missing for two years? How can a vulnerable child just disappear for two years? How broken is the State care system that we are not talking about an intervention here but we are talking about the potential murder of a child,” he asked.
While he said the political establishment has expressed shock and disbelief over what has happened to Kyran, there are other children who were engaged with state care agencies who have died.
He said 227 children have died in state care, or known to state care, just in the last ten years.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say