Tusla probe to determine whether close to 24,000 children are safe and well

'The public has a right to know if there is another Kyran or Daniel,' said Tanya Ward, chief executive of the Children's Rights Alliance. File picture: Damien Eagers/Julien Behal Photography

A probe launched after the disappearance of Daniel Aruebose and Kyran Durnin is now trying to determine whether close to 24,000 children are safe and well.

“The public has a right to know if there is another Kyran or Daniel," said Tanya Ward, chief executive of the Children's Rights Alliance, who is chairing the independent steering group overseeing the probe.

Details of 23,594 children are being checked against school enrolment data as well as records on children who are being homeschooled.

Last September, children's minister Norma Foley tasked Tusla with carrying out welfare checks on children whose referrals to the Child and Family Agency were closed during the Covid pandemic.

Her instruction was issued within days of gardaí beginning their search for missing boy Daniel Aruebose. Daniel, who would have turned eight on December 12, had last been seen when he was aged just three at his home in Donabate in Dublin. 

His remains were found in September following a major search operation by gardaí.

It came a year after the disappearance of Louth boy Kyran Durnin was reported to gardaí. His whereabouts still remain unknown but he is also believed to be dead.

If any of the 23,594 children being checked are not known to the education system, further checks will be carried out to ensure their whereabouts can be established. If they cannot be, their cases will be referred to gardaí.

A statement from the Department of Children said: “Following this process, if the child is not known to the school system, further checks will be carried out with the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality, the HSE, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and others as required. These checks will assist Tusla in identifying the whereabouts of these children.” 

Ms Ward said: “A senior social worker has been appointed to start taking referrals from the team of any children they are concerned about. At this point, there is nothing to suggest there is a massive number.” 

She said that the period under the review was “a very exceptional period where we decided to have the longest school lockdowns”.

We need to be able to pinpoint any other Daniel or Kyran and hopefully there isn’t another one. We also need hopefully to have good recommendations that will strengthen the child protection system after it.

In total, 18,000 children who have reached the age of 18 since their referral to Tusla and whose cases were closed down during the pandemic have now “aged out” and so cannot be followed up for wellbeing checks.

However, the chief executive of Empowering People in Care Wayne Stanley has said he hopes a legislative amendment can be brought forward to address that cohort.

"That is something we would encourage the minister to look at," he said. "Perhaps it would have to be time-limited and population-limited to these young people but it is definitely something that should be considered.” 

Unfortunately for the over 18s, we have tried getting legal advice at different levels but everyone is saying that Tusla cannot share their data, nor can they do a direct follow up on them. We will be making a recommendation about the over 18s to see is there anything that can be done.

The steering group contains representatives from the Departments of Social Protection, Health, Education, and Justice as well as the HSE, CSO, and Barnardos.

It is expected to complete its work by June, after which its recommendations will be considered by Ms Foley.

The figures revealed on Thursday come after a man arrested after being deported from Brazil was released on Wednesday after being questioned on suspicion of Daniel Aruebose’s murder.

In December, a woman was released without charge after being questioned about the killing.