Recording raises key questions in Kyran Durnin investigation

Ireland’s special rapporteur on child protection, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, is calling for a full public inquiry to establish how Kyran disappeared for two years without anyone noticing.

“The case is absolutely horrific. This is a child who has completely disappeared from the planet,” she told Spotlight.

Ms Gallagher said the case should be a “watershed moment” for child protection in Ireland.

“(It) seems to me that there needs to be a robust independent inquiry, a public inquiry, that looks at the wider non-criminal issues and looks at how this could have happened, and looks fundamentally at what needs to change in Ireland’s systems of child protection to ensure this never happens again.”

She added: “It seems to me that although we don’t know the details yet, we do know that this is a child who has fundamentally failed, and it seems likely that he has been abandoned by multiple agencies and potentially by several individuals.”