Gardaí find remains of child in search for missing boy in Dublin

Daniel Aruebose

A rapid review into Tusla’s engagement with Daniel Aruebose and his family should be completed by the end of the month, children’s minister Norma Foley has said.

However, a separate independent review into interactions between the child and other State bodies will take several months for the National Review Panel to complete.

On Wednesday, Gardaí discovered human skeletal remains in Donabate, Co Dublin, which they believe to be those of missing three-year-old Daniel Aruebose.

Gardaí said the remains will be the subject of a careful and sensitive exhumation and formal identification, including DNA analysis, will now take place.

Daniel, who would now be seven and who lived at The Gallery Apartments in Donabate, had not been seen for four years.

Concerns about his welfare were first raised by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, on August 29.

Speaking at Government Buildings on Wednesday, Ms Foley said the death of a child is “always heartbreaking”.

However, she stated it is important that reviews are allowed to take place into the circumstances surrounding Daniel’s death.

“Of course, I am concerned when a child goes missing,” she said.

“I think it's a cause of concern, not just for me as minister, but I think for wider society also.

“But I do think that I need to give the time and space for this review to be done, the rapid review, in the first instance, by Tusla.

“But secondly, and importantly, the independent review that will take place under the National Review Panel.” She stated that she is expecting the rapid review by Tusla before the end of the month, but that the independent review by the National Review Panel will take “a number of months” to complete.

Ms Foley said the reviews will “allow us the opportunity to see where there should have been engagement, where something could have gone wrong, where it did go wrong, and that we would learn from it”.

She added: “I absolutely accept it is never acceptable that a child should go missing for any length of time.

“In this instance, I think it's very important that sooner rather than later, we get to the bottom of this instance and the other case, so that we will know exactly what happened.” She further acknowledged that there is “scope to do more work” to ensure children are progressing through the system and hitting milestones.

She said, for example, it may be possible to look at data and ensure children are attending their ECCE places.

Ms Foley said that the Government will work “assiduously” to “get to the bottom” of what happened to both Daniel and Kyran Durnin, the six-year-old from Louth who was last seen in June 2022.

The children’s minister expressed her condolences to those who knew and loved Daniel and asked people to refrain from commentary about the case on social media.

She said she has confidence in Tusla as she confirmed that the timeline of a review examining cases that were closed by the child and family agency will now be “extended to include all times when schools were shut or when schools were closed during Covid”.

A chairperson for this review will be confirmed in the next week.