Chair of National Review Panel recommends extending pupil tracking system across entire island

It comes as a report published by the Panel yesterday concluded that the disappearance of six-year-old Co Louth schoolboy Kyran Durnin “could not have been anticipated from knowledge that was available” to child and family agency Tusla.

Kyran was reported missing in August of 2024 when Tusla raised a “significant” concern about him. Gardaí suspect he may have died in 2022.

The Panel investigates serious incidents relating to deaths of children in care who were known to the agency.

Dr Helen Buckley, Panel chair, said recommendations have been made for the “streamlining” of processes within Tusla.

Dr Helen Buckley chair of the National Review Panel. Photo: Steve Humphreys

“All of those [recommendations] are designed to try and help them deal with unprecedented situations like this, which we’ve had 12 months to reflect on now,” Ms Buckley told RTÉ Radio 1.

Contained in the Panel’s report, which will not be published in its full form, is the recommendation of a “manageable” trans-jurisdictional tracking system which could ensure that children from the South be traceable across the whole island, particularly if they cross into Northern Ireland, despite the Department of Education’s reservations about its “complicated” nature.

“We understand that there are discussions and that there are a lot of informal arrangements and that the Department of Education is actually working on this matter because they would have been aware of it for the past year,” she said.

Minister for Children Normal Foley had expressed her wish for the report to be published in full, but said that the Attorney General advised that doing so “may prejudice any potential or future prosecutions that might take place”.

Norma Foley. PA

Ms Buckley agreed with the Attorney General’s reasoning.

“There would be a Garda investigation in parallel. We have to be very careful not to cross that investigation in any way so that no witness is, if you like, interfered with or that any evidence that we come up with is later used to prejudice a trial,” she said.

Ms Buckley also welcomed the imminent signing of the Child Care Amendment Bill containing measures to establish the extent to which private information can be shared with bodies in the interests of child protection, which she said is “very important” in Kyran’s case.

Speaking on the functionality of Tusla in light of the two cases involving Kyran and three-year-old Daniel Aruebose this past year, Ms Buckley said she believes Tusla is under-resourced.

Daniel Aruebose Photo: PA

“Tusla would benefit from a lot more support, I think, both in terms of public attitudes and in terms of resourcing and in terms of cooperation,” she said, highlighting the challenges it faces while operating across a diverse set of complex cases.

She believes that the agency is “very negatively viewed” by the public which, she said, is “discouraging for people who want to join and become social workers”.

“Support needs to be enhanced as well. I think generally resourcing is a huge problem and we acknowledge that in almost every review that we do, where we do see practice failings and we do see policy failings, they’re nearly always associated with lack of staff, lack of resources, lack of placements for very difficult children, which is a very complex cohort of children that we encounter quite a lot.”