TUSLA CEO KATE Duggan is to meet with Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman to review the state agency’s report on its engagement with missing boy Kyran Durnin.

Education Minister Norma Foley has received a separate report on Kyran’s former school’s engagement with Tusla’s Education Support Service, which falls within the jurisdiction of the Department of Education.

That report addresses the interaction between Kyran and school authorities.

Kyran Durnin, who would now be eight-years-old, has not been seen in two years and is presumed dead by gardaí. 

A murder investigation is underway. Gardaí suspect that the young boy was killed up to two years ago.

Kyran had contact with at least one Tusla social worker before he disappeared.

Tusla has come under fire as it was revealed that the agency had previously engaged with Kyran before his disappearance, but had not noticed or reported that he had gone missing. 

Last week, O’Gorman said that there were “clearly failings” and “very clearly something went wrong” in state agency Tulsa’s engagement with Kyran.

Speaking today on RTÉ’s This Week, Duggan said that she was limited in what she could say, due to the ongoing murder investigation, and that the reports remain confidential for the time being as a result.

Duggan said that while Tusla had previously engaged with Kyran, the state agency received no further referrals of concern from 2021 to 2022. 

“What did happen, earlier in 2024, we were engaging in relation to another case, and as part of that engagement, our staff became aware of new information that caused concern to us in relation to Kyran’s whereabouts,” she said, adding at that point they alerted the gardaí.

It was previously reported that Kyran’s school was informed that Kyran had moved to Northern Ireland, hence why he had stopped attending school.

Asked about whether there should’ve been more engagement with the education services to confirm this, Duggan said that she couldn’t comment on the procedures between schools.

“What I can say is that, where we have a referral within our educational welfare service, if we have any concern that there is a link to Northern Ireland, we would reach out we have a good working relationship with our colleagues in Northern Ireland, and we would discuss that area of concern or that referral of concern with them.”

The Tusla CEO said that the agency would be happy to appear before the Oireachtas Children’s Committee to answer questions on a number of cases of children who died while known to Tusla, a suggestion put forward by Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín. 

Tóibín said that 208 children known to Tusla have died in the previous 10 years.

Responding to a question on the matter, Duggan said: “We would often appear before the Oireachtas committee. But as I said, I do think it’s important to say that when we talk about children known to Tusla, the 208, they are children that are living with their families and communities right across the country.

“They may be known to us in terms of a family support service, in terms of an educational support service, and of those, unfortunately, 136 died of natural causes or road traffic accidents.

“Our focus is on the 34 that died by suicide, and the fact that those vulnerable children and communities right across this country need access to better mental health services.”