THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of Tusla has said her agency had “no child protection concerns” around Daniel Aruebose.

Daniel had not been seen for several years, and would have been seven if he had lived.

Concerns for the boy were raised by the child and family agency, Tusla, on 29 August.

The gardaí uncovered human skeleton remains last month after an extensive search of an area of open ground in the Donabate area.

Speaking about the case today before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Tusla boss, Kate Duggan, said Daniel’s case is “absolutely harrowing”.

“I have confirmed that we had no concerns around child protection with Daniel. He was not open to a child protection service,” she said. 

The findings of Tusla’s internal review is complete and has been shared with the Department of Children today, she confirmed.

Duggan said she would support the publication of the reports when the gardaí indicate it is the right time and it does not impede the investigation.

“I have come out publicly from the beginning to say we had contact with Daniel and his family. We are prevented from giving too much detail of the case because it is subject to a live Garda investigation.

“I assure the committee that the agency went to An Garda Síochána with information on the concerns about Daniel’s well-being and safety. We have fully engaged with An Garda Síochána and shared all information,” she said. 

Duggan said when Tusla is mentioned in a case people “immediately think of our child protection and welfare services in terms of safety of children and working with social work”.

However, she went on to state that a significant part – almost 60% – of Tusla services is on a voluntary, consensual basis, where they work on family support and working with parents.

While Duggan said she was not referencing Daniel’s case in particular, she noted that they work with young parents every day or families in homelessness that may be struggling.

Wellbeing check on 42,000 children

On the back of recent controversies surrounding children that have come to the attention Tusla, the agency announced it is carrying out a well-being check around 42,000 children whose cases were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Duggan said the overall cost for the wellbeing check will cost between €2.5 and €3 million. 

She stated that the draft terms of reference from the department have been received, and an independent chair has been appointed to carry out the review.

“We have now prioritised those children in terms of children who were in care at the time, children who were on the child protection system, maybe at one time, children who were in child protection welfare services,” she said. 

She said Tusla is fortunate to have a digital management system for all cases. The next step is to link their system with the Department of Education to crossmatch children on their list that are registered with certain schools.

“Once we’ve all of the children identified, the school they’re in, the state service they’re in, then it will be a contact with that state agency, so not with parents, where we get an assurance from a teacher, a public health nurse,” she said. 

For example, if a child on the list is identified as attending a certain school, that school will be contacted and visited to determine that the child attends there and it will be ascertained if they have any concerns.

There will be a direct line with Tusla in terms of managing and responding to any concerns, but where there’s no concerns, no further action will be required, said Duggan.