The Chief Executive of the Child and Family Agency Tusla has said it received no referral in relation to any concerns about Kyran Durnin's attendance at school or his educational welfare between 2022 and 2024.
Kate Duggan said it was correct to say that because no referral had been received, the agency had no cause to go checking as to whether he was in school or not.
Tusla has completed a review into the case of the schoolboy, who is missing and presumed dead.
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A separate report into information held by Tusla’s Education Support Service has been sent to Minister for Education Norma Foley.
There is an ongoing murder investigation underway into Kyran Durnin’s disappearance when he was aged just six years old.
Gardaí believe the child is deceased, and that he may have died over two years ago.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, Kate Duggan said one of the Tusla family resource services had their last engagement with Kyran and his family in 2022.
She said during 2021 and 2022, "significant efforts would have been made by Tusla's child welfare services to provide further supports to Kyran and his family".
"Over the year of 2021 and 2022, and while Kyran was in junior infants, we received no referrals of concern either through our child protection welfare services or our educational support services."
"We also know that May 2022 was the last time that Kyran was present in school within junior infants in his local school," she added.
Ms Duggan said Tusla received no new information or no referral of concern in relation to Kyran Durnin between 2022 and 2024.
After the agency became aware of new information in April of this year, Tusla had engagement with the family, she confirmed.
"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."
Asked if there was any reason why Tusla staff didn't ask where Kyran was from 2022 to 2024, Ms Duggan said: "I don't want to go into the detail of that because that will all be in the review when the review comes out."
"In general, in wider circumstances where we would have a concern or if we couldn't locate a child, we would report that to An Garda Síochána.
"If we had a concern in relation to if a child was accessing other services, we would reach out, we would contact those other services. So I can't talk about the detail of that because of the live investigation, but obviously that would and will be in the review."
"What we know is that Kyran was in school in May 2022 and what we know is that we haven't received any referral of concern since then," she added.
The Tusla CEO also said the decision not to publish the reports at this time were made after consultation with An Garda Síochána.
"When our review is published, obviously there will be reference to any engagement that we had with Kyran, with his family or with other members of his family but at the moment, I can't confirm the details around that because of the live garda investigation."
Ms Duggan said she agreed with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris when he said he had never seen a case like this in 40 years.
Asked if there were any shortcomings on the part of Tusla in relation to how Kyran Durnin was dealt with by the agency, Ms Duggan said: "If there were any missed opportunities in this case or in any case that we review, we will take immediate action to make sure that those learnings and those recommendations are implemented."
She said for now "the absolute priority and the focus" is on understanding what happened to Kyran and fully supporting the gardai in relation to their investigation.
"It is devastating what has happened to Kyran and we, like everybody, want to understand what has happened in the days and weeks and months before his disappearance," she added.
She said she will meet with Roderic O’Gorman this week to review the report.
"Any recommendations or learnings that are in place for Tusla as an agency or for other services, we'll certainly work with all of our partners to make sure that they are implemented," she said.
Ms Duggan described the case as "very complex and challenging."
She said that will become known to the wider public once the garda investigation is completed and the full review across all state agencies is completed.
