A missing schoolboy Kyran Durnin (8) was “lost in the system” and the situation “should never have happened,” the education minister said. Norma Foley said.

Ms Foley said she would seek to “tighten things up” with her Northern Ireland counterpart when it comes to a child moving from one school to another.

The Fianna Fáil TD added that there were “clearly questions that needed to be answered” and that she was awaiting a report from Tusla on the matter in the coming days.

Gardaí are currently investigating the disappearance and suspected murder of Kyran Durnin.

Kyran’s last positive sighting was at the end of the 2022 school year, when he was six years old. It emerged earlier this month that the boy had been removed from school at that time, with authorities assuming he had been transferred to a school in Northern Ireland. This meant that Kyran’s prolonged absence from school went unnoticed by the Irish authorities.

( Kyran Durnin case: How can a child disappear for two years?Opens in a new window )

Speaking to reporters at government buildings on Wednesday, Ms Foley said she had asked Tusla’s Children and Families Agency for a report on “what has happened so far”.

“We need to get to the bottom of this. We need to know what happens if a child moves from one jurisdiction to another, from one country to another, or whatever the case may be,” she said.

“But the bottom line is there’s a child at the center of all of this, I don’t think there’s a family, there’s not an individual in the country who isn’t heartbroken by the revelations of the last few weeks relationship with this young child and no one would imagine that this should be the outcome for a child in this country… We want to know what happened and we want to ensure that this never becomes a reality. a reality in the future.

Ms Foley said that currently, schools accept the “good faith” of parents and guardians when informing them that they are moving their child to another jurisdiction or country.

She said she had had “good exchanges” with Northern Ireland’s education minister, Paul Givan, over recent weeks and both could learn what “best practice was one of the other.”

“It’s certainly an area that I’m very keen (to pursue) and I have absolutely no doubt that Minister Givan will be very happy to engage with me to perhaps tighten things up, when (children) move from one jurisdiction to another and I would absolutely pursue that,” she added.

Separately, the minister said the terms of reference for the inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in schools would be published in March 2025.