Gardaí have stood down a Child Rescue Ireland Alert after a missing two-year-old girl was found.
The force said Aoife Haynes Murphy was taken from Swinford Health Centre in Co Mayo at 10.10am on Tuesday.
It on Tuesday night said Aoife had been found “safe and well” in the Dublin area and that two people, a man and a woman in their 30s, had been arrested in connection with the matter. They are being detained at a Garda station in Dublin.
The Child Rescue Ireland Alert system was introduced in May 2012 and has been used on nine occasions in that time.
The alert, modelled on similar systems in other European countries, is designed to enable An Garda Síochána to seek the assistance of the public when it believes a child has been abducted and there is a reasonable belief that there is an immediate and serious risk to the health or welfare of the child. When an alert is issued, it is broadcast via radio, television, internet and electronic road signs.
According to the Garda policy document on the alert system, it can only be issued when four criteria are met. First, the child is under the age of 18 years; second, there is a reasonable belief that the child has been abducted; third, there is a reasonable belief that there is an immediate and serious risk to the health or welfare of the child and finally, there is sufficient information available to enable the public to assist gardaí in locating the child.