Child and family agency Tusla said it alerted the Garda “to a significant concern” last August about Kyran Durnin (8) who was missing and now presumed dead.
The child, and his mother, were then reported missing, although the investigation into what happened to Kyran has been upgraded to a murder investigation and his mother has been located in the UK.
“We have also commenced an internal review, to look at our engagements and interactions with Kyran and his family,” said Tusla.
Though Tusla had dealings with the family, Kyran was not in State care and sources said it was not suspected he was being abused.
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A search at the former Durnin family home on Emer Terrace, Dundalk, Co Louth, began on Monday and was expected to continue for several days. Garda sources said the garden to the rear of the property was being excavated, in what is now a search for the remains of Kyran.
The house was the Durnin home until last May and since then renovation work and a deep clean have been carried out to prepare it for new tenants. That work may frustrate the search for forensic evidence inside the property. Gardaí stressed the current tenants had no connection to Kyran or anyone in the Durnin family.
Gardaí are investigating if Kyran was killed violently. However, sources said the murder investigation team at Dundalk Garda station had not fully ruled out the possibility he died in another way, with a plan then put in place to conceal his death and his remains.
The child was in national school in Dundalk until about the end of the academic year in mid-2022. Though he and his mother were reported missing at the end of August, the Garda investigation has found no evidence he was alive then. They suspect he may have died in 2022, when aged six.
[ Missing Drogheda boy Kyran Durnin was taken out of his school two years agoOpens in new window ]
Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman has taken the unusual step of requesting Tusla to send its files on Kyran to a specialist panel that looks into the death of any child with links to State care. Such a review is not usually undertaken until after a Garda inquiry is completed.
Tusla has confirmed a “notification has been sent” to that National Review Panel, which is responsible for independently reviewing cases of “serious incidents involving children in care or known to Tusla”.
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