Tusla has received no reports of Kyran Durnin missing school in the two years since the child disappeared, its chief executive Kate Duggan said.
She was speaking following the completion of a review by the child and family agency of its dealings with Kyran before he went missing in 2022.
On Friday, Tusla sent two reports on the case to Government ministers.
On Saturday, the Department of Children confirmed receipt of Tusla’s internal review of the “concerning case”, and said it would be engaging with the child and family agency on its findings.
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Speaking to RTÉ’s This Week programme, Ms Duggan said a decision not to make the report public was made in consultation with An Garda Síochána in light of the ongoing investigation.
Gardaí believe Kyran, who would be aged eight years if still alive, is deceased and that he may have died over two years ago. Though he was initially treated as a missing person gardaí have found no evidence he is still alive, and have since upgrade their inquiries to a murder investigation.
Kyran was last recorded as present in his school in Dundalk in May 2022, when he was in Junior Infants.
Sources have said the school was informed at the time he was transferring to a school in Northern Ireland.
Ms Duggan said it is the responsibility of schools to keep their registers up to date. Twice a year they provide an “absence report” to Tusla’s educational welfare service, he said.
During 2022/2023 school year 146,000 children were reported to the agency as absent for more than 20 days.
Schools can also provide individual reports on children who have been absent from school and who are of particularly concern.
Ms Duggan said Tusla received no absence or welfare reports regarding Kyran between 2022 and 2024.
She said if there was any concern regarding Northern Ireland, Tusla would contact child protection officers there. “We have a good relationship with our colleagues in Northern Ireland. We would discuss referrals of concern with them.”
Ms Duggan welcomed a commitment by Minister for Education Norma Foley to strengthen information sharing systems between north and south in light of the case.
In 2021 and 2022, Tusla officials made “significant efforts” to provide supports to Kyran and his family. However, during that time, they “received no referrals of concern either through child protection welfare services or our educational support services,” she said.
She said during 2024, Tusla was “engaging in relation to another case” when staff became aware of new information which caused concern about Kyran’s whereabouts, she said.
“At that point we would have linked with An Garda Síochána with that information.”
She said she could not comment at this time on reports another child was presented to Tusla as Kyran earlier this year.
Ms Duggan said she would have no issue with appearing before an Oireachtas Committee regarding the case.
“If there were any missed opportunities in this case or in any case that we review, we will take immediate action to make sure that those learnings and those recommendations are implemented,” she said.
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