The Child and Family Agency Tusla received no referrals of concern about missing schoolboy Kyran Durnin’s welfare or attendance at school between 2022 and 2024, its chief executive has said.
Gardaí launched a murder investigation last month after the disappearance of the Co Louth child who was potentially missing for two years, unknown to authorities.
Officers suspect he might have died in 2022, when he was six.
Tusla has said it raised a “significant” concern about Kyran to gardaí earlier this year.
In late October, investigators searched a former family home in Dundalk and adjoining land.
On Friday, Tusla sent two reports on the case to Government ministers.
Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman was sent a report on Tusla’s engagement with Kyran and his family, while a separate report was issued to Education Minister Norma Foley in relation to Tusla’s Education Support Service about Kyran’s interactions with school authorities.
The reports are not being made public due to Garda investigations.
On Sunday, Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan said because no referral had been received between 2022 and 2024, the agency had no reason to check whether Kyran was attending school.
In an interview with RTÉ Radio One’s This Week programme, Ms Duggan said one of the Tusla family resource services had its last engagement with Kyran and his family in 2022.
She said in 2021 and 2022 “significant efforts” were made by Tusla’s child welfare services to provide “further supports” to Kyran and his family.
Ms Duggan said there were no referrals of concern for the child over those years.
She said it was known that May 2022 was the last time Kyran was present in junior infants at his local school.
Ms Duggan said Tusla had engagement with the family in April this year when it became aware of “new information”.
She said Tusla received no new information or referral of concern in relation to Kyran between 2022 and 2024.
“What did happen earlier in 2024, we were engaging in relation to another case and, as part of that engagement, our staff became aware of new information that caused concern to us in relation to Kyran’s whereabouts and at that point then we would have linked to An Garda Síochána with that information,” she said.
