𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐲𝐫𝐚𝐧 𝐃𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞: 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐓𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐚’𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐍𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞 𝐈𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝 This week marks the third anniversary of the last confirmed sighting of Kyran Durnin, a young boy from Dundalk who was known to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. Yet it took over two years for anyone in the agency to raise the alarm that he was missing and likely dead. Two years. That is not a delay. That is a systemic collapse. The Gardaí, who continue their investigation have publicly confirmed they believe there was a cover-up. Their message is resolute: those responsible for Kyran’s fate will not get away with it. But what about those in the state system whose failure to act, to notice, to care, allowed this tragedy to unfold? This is not simply a criminal matter. It is a child protection scandal of the highest order. Incredibly, Tusla officials were attending case meetings where another child was being presented as Kyran. This detail alone should trigger national outrage. How could professionals trained in child welfare people responsible for his safety be so completely misled? How could there be no checks, no alerts, no real-time understanding of who Kyran was or whether he was even alive? This wasn’t a child lost in a crowd. This was a child lost in plain sight, obscured by paperwork, protocol, and what now appears to be staggering institutional negligence. Senator Alison Comyn raised the case in the Seanad this week. “There are still serious questions to be answered about who knew what and, given Tusla engaged with the family in the months before he disappeared, I ask the Minister, Deputy Foley, to come to the Chamber to discuss what further information she has received since her most recent statement on the matter last year,” she said. It would be hypocritical of the minister if she dishes out the usual bland assurances that “lessons have been learned.” Because clearly, they haven’t. We are long past the point where vague references to internal reviews will suffice. The public needs to know the scope of Tusla’s failure. Who was responsible for oversight? Why did no red flags emerge sooner? And perhaps most disturbing of all — how many other children are at risk of being similarly forgotten? Let us not forget that Kyran was known to Tusla in the months before his disappearance. This was not a child entirely off the radar. The agency had engaged with his family. Somewhere in those files are case notes, visit logs, and decisions or omissions that allowed this boy to fall between the cracks . We cannot speak of child protection in Ireland with integrity until we are willing to confront what went wrong in Kyran’s case and hold people accountable. A child’s life was extinguished, and for over two years the system designed to protect him did not even know he was gone. If that does not shake us to our core, what will?

Posted by Fred Bassett