The Dáil heard on Wednesday that the case of Kyran, who is believed to have been missing for two years and likely killed, has "shocked the country to the core" and is a "tragic and dark case that asks serious questions from the State".
Searches of the back garden of Kyran’s former home in Dundalk, Co Louth, were coming to a close last night but specialist officers widened the search area to wasteland just outside the property.
Kyran, who would be eight years old now but is believed to have been murdered two years ago, had lived at the property on Emer Terrace with his mother Dayla and his two younger sisters. It has been occupied by other residents not connected with this investigation since May.
Kyran Durnin, missing presumed dead, would be eight-years-old now.
Both Kyran and Dayla were reported missing on August 30 last but after extensive investigations, gardaí upgraded their probe to murder after Dayla, 24, was recently found alive and well in the UK. But there has been no sighting of her eldest child, whom gardaí said was last in school towards the end of the 2021/22 school year. It is understood that a school he had been attending in Dundalk was told that the family were moving from the area.
The property on Emer Terrace remained the primary center of their search on Wednesday, with a large excavator brought to dig the back garden.
While the search of the back garden is nearly complete, security sources have said that the forensic sweep of the house itself will continue later into the week.
Several other locations have also been earmarked for searches, including properties in Drogheda, Dundalk and across the border in Newry.
Dayla Durnin, Kyran's mother.
The findings from the Emer Terrace search will inform how gardaí proceed with any additional searches, sources stressed.
"There are multiple people of interest in this case as well as locations of interest. You’re going back two years so there is a lot of ground to cover.
"There are homes gardaí want to search as well as other locations north of the border so the PSNI will have to be involved as well. One of the most frustrating aspects for detectives on this case is that they know there are people who know exactly where Kyran is and they won’t tell them."
Investigations into how a child who was missing for two years could go unnoticed by the State are continuing. Tusla, the child and family agency, said it has launched its own investigation into its handling of the case and confirmed that it been in contact with Kyran’s family prior to him being reported missing.
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said the "saddest and most painful thing" about the case is that nobody asked where he was for two years.
Technical teams at the property on Emer Terrace on Tuesday.
"I don’t think there’s a person on any side of this House, or a person in Ireland who isn’t both utterly horrified and utterly heartbroken at what is emerging in relation to the case of young Kyran Durnin," Mr Harris said.
"This is just to do with basic humanity. An eight-year-old boy, effectively went missing for two years, and the saddest and most painful thing is that nobody asked why or where was he for that period of time.
"I think any one of us thinking that that could happen to any child is deeply upsetting, and it is going to require – and maybe I should say this at the outset – it is absolutely going to require a structure to get to the exact bottom of this.
"But right now, we have to be very conscious of the fact that the gardaí are very actively investigating this."
The Taoiseach urged anyone with information to contact gardaí.
Chief Superintendent Alan McGovern makings a plea to the public for information.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said that the case has "shocked the country to the core."
"This is a tragic and dark case that asks serious questions from the State. How can a vulnerable child go missing for two years? ‘How can a vulnerable child just disappear for two years? How broken is the State care system that we’re not talking about an intervention here, that we’re actually talking about the potential murder of a child?
"The political establishment has expressed shock and disbelief over what has happened to Kyran, but the truth is that Kyran is only one of 227 children who have died in State care or known to State care just in the last 10 years. Of that 227, we know that 11 were murdered. Another child died as a result of a suspected non-accidental injury, and a further child lost his life due to a suspected homicide.
"Forty children died because of suicide, eight because of drug overdose, 16 because of road traffic accidents, and 18 by other accidents," Mr Tóibín said.
Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman confirmed he has asked Tusla to send its files on Kyran to a panel that looks into the death of any youngster with links to State care. He said this would not usually happen until an investigation has been completed but that he has asked the agency to disclose any case files to the National Review Panel.
Speaking in Drogheda on Wednesday, Education Minister Norma Foley said: "We have requested a report from Tusla in relation to what exactly has happened here, but there is a Garda investigation underway and it’s important that be allowed to proceed.
Education Minister Norma Foley.
"The most important thing here is to find out what did happen, how it happened, why it happened. And at the center of this, obviously, is Kyran and for all of us our ambition in life is that every child would have a happy and safe experience of life."
She went on: "So we very much need to find out with urgency what has happened here.
"I think across the entire country, we are shell-shocked to learn that a child would be missing for so long and that it would be unnoticed that a child, I think, as the Taoiseach himself has said, that a child has been missing for so long. So it is really, really important that we do find out the facts, that we do get the information, and that the investigation by An Garda Síochána is allowed to continue, and that we do get witness to all of the facts in relation to the story."
Significant Garda resources have been allocated to the investigation with dozens of officers appointed to it.
The force has appealed to anyone with any information to contact gardaí.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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