The Ombudsman for Children Dr Niall Muldoon has said he is "extremely concerned" over the State's response to a boy who is missing in north county Dublin and presumed dead.
Dr Muldoon expressed concern that the response from the Government and Tusla to the disappearance is a referral to the National Review Panel (NRP).
In a statement issued tonight, Dr Niall Muldoon described as "shocking", that a child, who at one point was known to Tusla, could have disappeared four years ago and is now presumed dead.
He said the NRP is a structure with no statutory power or no independent authority to publish reports.
Speaking on RTÉ's Prime Time, Dr Muldoon said "it is horrible to see this case happening".
Mr Muldoon referenced the Kyran Durnin case, who was reported missing from his home in Drogheda, Co Louth, a year ago, and said "we now have two children disappear off the face of the earth".
Dr Muldoon said a way needs to be found to publish reports around these cases that do not impede ongoing garda investigations.
"Learnings shouldn’t compromise an investigation. Engage with the gardaí and ask what can we say here," he said.
"Wouldn’t you love it if we had learned from Kyran in November, we might have found this situation quicker and that's what we need to get to so this does not happen again.
"It takes all agencies working together to try to figure out these things," he added.
Dr Muldoon said it was "luck" the Department of Social Protection was able to "stumble across this situation".
Part of the perimeter of a field adjacent to the original site in the search was also cordoned off by gardaí.
It has concluded for the day and will resume tomorrow.
Dr Muldoon pointed out that Kyran Durnin's case had been referred to the NRP over a year ago and no report had yet been published.
He added that Tusla and the Department of Children had previously agreed that the NRP was not fit for purpose.
"We know that this child had contact with Tusla up until 2020 but after that, very little is known as it appears he just silently disappeared, the same as Kyran Durnin did little over a year ago.
"And yet, we still have no answers or insights into the role of services with Kyran and what, if anything, could have been done to have prevented his disappearance," he said.
Dr Muldoon noted that in April of this year, his office published the Child Death Review report which outlined serious concerns about the effectiveness of the NRP and the urgent need for an independent, timely, child-centred statutory review mechanism to learn from the deaths of any child in Ireland.
"A child rarely exists only within one service and no doubt this child, like Kyran, may have been known to a range of other services, hence the need for a broad ranging review to learn and hopefully try to prevent other deaths.
"That is beyond the scope of the National Review Panel, and it is disrespectful to the families involved that this is the limited response by the State, to find out what happened, and what could have been done better," he said.
Failure to establish the NRP on a statutory basis was "a fundamental flaw" according to the Children's Ombudsman, which had greatly impacted its ability to undertake its work effectively with limitations in accessing information, engaging with other agencies and fundamental governance.
The Ombudsman for Children's Office Child Death Review, recommended that the Department of Children, Disability and Equality engage with the Ombudsman for Children's Office to find a resolution pending the establishment of the new statutory child death review mechanism.
"We also recommended the establishment of a statutory Child Death Review mechanism. This has been accepted by Government and included in the Programme for Government but the Department of An Taoiseach has not yet appointed the relevant Department to lead on this," he said.
The Children's Ombudsman confirmed that he has written to Taoiseach Micheál Martin requesting "an urgent update" on the matter.
"It is not good enough that Tusla’s answer to a serious incident like the disappearance and possible death of a child is a referral to a review process that reports back into the Board of Management of Tusla. It is not accurate to say this is a powerful vehicle that can provide the answers needed in these serious cases," he said.
Dr Muldoon said his office would be engaging with Minister for Children Norma Foley, as well as senior officials in Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, to consider how to exercise statutory powers in examining the systemic issues relating to children who disappear.
