Gardaí in Swords are continuing their search for a missing boy feared dead in North County Dublin, with one TD claiming that the case shows that protection services are failing.
Aontú Leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has called for a complete review of child protection services in Ireland in terms of resources and effectiveness.
The case was originally reported in the Irish Mirror on Monday, with the publication saying that a property in Donabate had been sealed off after a woman told detectives that her ex-partner had killed the child. The boy, who would now be seven years old, has not been seen for at least three years, when he was aged around three and a half years old, the newspaper reports.
It is understood that Tusla, the child and family agency, alerted the gardaí to the case last Friday, after the Department of Social Protection raised concerns with Tusla about an application for social welfare for the child. The application for child benefit, made in the name of the child, was examined but the department discovered that there were no records of the child ever having attended school. Subsequent searches and a technical examination at the apartment in Dublin were carried out over the weekend,
Sources told the Mirror that a woman who sought social welfare payments for the child made the claim the child had been killed and secretly buried when Gardai from Swords Station in north Dublin interviewed her on Sunday. The sources have said that Gardai are treating the woman’s claims as credible. The paper reports that the child’s mother is believed to be from Africa.
NO ARRESTS MADE
In a statement on Tuesday, the Gardaí said: “Gardaí in Swords are continuing to investigate all of the circumstances of the disappearance and current whereabouts of a 7-year-old boy. Concerns for the boy were raised by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) and reported to An Garda Síochána on Friday 29th August 2025.
“The boy is last known to have resided at The Gallery Apartments, Donabate, Co. Dublin. It has been a number of years since there has been any confirmed sighting of the boy, who would now be 7 years of age.
“Following enquiries carried out by and information available to investigating Gardaí to date, An Garda Síochána has been unable to either locate the boy, identify any information on his current whereabouts or any evidence that he is currently alive. Investigating Gardaí believe that the boy is missing, presumed dead.
“Yesterday evening, 1st September 2025, investigating Gardaí took control of an area of open ground in Donabate, Co. Dublin which will be the subject of a search in the coming days. The Garda investigation is being led by a Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) based out of an incident room established at Swords Garda Station.
“Gardaí are appealing to anyone who has any information in connection with this investigation to contact Swords Garda Station on 01 666 4700, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
“No arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing.”
Tulsa has described the case as “sensitive,” whilst Deputy Peadar Tóibín said there were serious questions to be asked of the State regarding “how children can just vanish.” The referral around the case was made by Tusla to Gardai on 29th August – the anniversary of Louth schoolboy Kyran Durnin being reported missing. Gardai suspect that Kyran was killed up to two years earlier, when he was six years old. The two cases are not understood to be connected.
“It’s a shockingly dark aspect of modern Irish life that the Gardaí are now searching for the remains of two young children who may have been missing for years,” Deputy Tóibín said.
“There is no doubt that family breakdown, the housing crisis and the transient nature of some families are making it more difficult for the state services to protect children, but there are serious questions to be asked of the state as to how children can just vanish and potentially lose their lives.
“It has been suggested that this poor boy may have fallen through the cracks due to Covid. The Irish government closed down schools here for longer than any other country in Europe. “We warned at the time, that children in need would fare disastrously without the supports and oversight of teachers and schools in their lives.
“There was a massive spike of children being referred to Tusla just after Covid. It’s deeply frustrating that the Irish government are still refusing to have a full public inquiry into the decisions they made during Covid that caused so much harm.
“Our child protection services are at breaking point now. Last year there were 96,000 children referred to Tusla. Tusla is struggling so much that they are becoming dependent on special accommodation arrangements that have used unregulated and sometimes unvetted accommodation providers. Children are going missing every month and some are being exposed to criminal gangs and exploitation.
“The pressure is such that staff are becoming burnt out. Tusla needs hundreds more staff and €400m more in investment. 220 social workers will qualify this year in Ireland but over three times that is needed in the sector. Simon Harris stated that he wanted Ireland to be the best country in Europe to be a child. For some children the very opposite is happening.”
‘DID THIS CHILD SLIP THROUGH THE NET?’
It comes as the head of the Children’s Rights Alliance questioned if the Covid crisis allowed the missing child to “slip through the net.”
Tanya Ward, speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland today, asked: “Did this child slip through the net because public services did not have the level of contact that they normally would in the ordinary course of events? These are all the questions I think we’re all asking ourselves and that need to be answered.”
“There’s public health nurses, there are GPs, there’s services they may have been in contact with. And I’m thinking did anyone see anything? Did anyone intervene? Is there something that could have been done to help this child early in his life?”
“It’s very disturbing that something like this could have happened to a small child and that’s why when the time is right, when the Gardaí have done the job, what’s really important is that this case is independently reviewed to establish what happened this child, to understand was there some opportunity to intervene in this child’s life earlier and is there any learning for this child. So anything like this does not happen again,” Ms Ward added.
She also said that Covid had resulted in a reduction in the number of referrals that went to Tusla, pointing out that Tusla ran a public education programme to try and encourage other people and other services to make referrals of children to their services.
“So yes, I think everyone will be asking the question, is this because of the lockdowns?” Ms Ward added.
Meanwhile, Minister for Children Norma Foley has said she is “deeply concerned” about the case.