The Minister for Children must establish a statutory review mechanism for children, known to Tusla, who disappear and die, according to Social Democrats children spokesperson Aidan Farrelly TD.
Deputy Farrelly said:
“Yesterday, after a long search, the remains of Daniel Aruebose were found in Donabate – Daniel had been missing for four years before anyone noticed he was gone.
“While we don’t yet know what happened, it’s clear that something has gone very wrong here – a child disappeared and nobody noticed.
“Sadly, this is not the only time this has happened. Kyran Durnin disappeared in 2022 and is presumed dead. Nobody noticed he was missing until late last year.
“Tusla is conducting a ‘rapid review’ of its interactions with Daniel’s family and has referred the case to a National Review Panel, but that’s not good enough.
“An independent statutory review mechanism should be triggered in every case when a child, who’s known to Tusla, disappears and dies – that is the bare minimum these children deserve.
“The Social Democrats today called for the establishment of this mechanism, urging the state to not fail these children in death as it has in life.”
“Yesterday evening, it was reported that Tusla is to conduct welfare checks for 42,000 closed cases – the Minister for Children must clarify the details of such an undertaking.
“Who will be conducting these checks? We already have a severe shortage of social workers in day-to-day rotation without this mammoth task – I urge the Minister to explain where these staff are going to come from.
“There’s no capacity for everyday services to be disrupted any further without vulnerable children suffering as a result – this is not permissible under any circumstances.
“The Minister must guarantee that those who are deployed to conduct these checks are fully qualified, that the checks are conducted in person and are reported correctly.
“Additionally, what will the checks entail? Will lessons be learned from prior cases in which checks were not deemed to be thorough enough to identify risk factors?
“Across the political spectrum, one thing we all agree on is that Tusla is chronically under-resourced and under-staffed. The government must now outline plans to remedy that.”
September 18th, 2025