Children’s Minister Norma Foley has said there may be potential to develop a “check-in” system for children during key stages of their development, following the discovery of remains believed to be those of a boy missing for several years, reports Breaking News.
Her comments follow confirmation from An Garda Síochána that they had found what they suspect are the remains of Daniel Aruebose on Wednesday.
Daniel had not been seen in several years and would now be seven years old if he were still alive, reports Breaking News.
Concerns about the child’s welfare were first raised by the child and family agency, Tusla, on August 29th.
Gardaí began an intensive search on September 1st in a stretch of open land in the Donabate area of Dublin, which led to the discovery of human remains, reports Breaking News.
Minister Foley said she anticipated a “rapid review” of the case would be completed “very shortly,” and expected it would reach her Department before the end of the month.
Speaking to journalists at Government Buildings, Ms Foley expressed her sorrow at the child’s death, offering condolences to “everyone involved”.
She also acknowledged the efforts of Gardaí and the other services involved in managing the “heartbreaking situation”, reports Breaking News.
Tusla, which ended its involvement with Daniel’s family in 2020 after assisting with a short-term fostering arrangement, has faced criticism over its role in the case.
Ms Foley stated that “wellbeing checks” would be conducted on 42,000 cases that Tusla had closed while schools were shut during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the process being “independently managed”.
She confirmed that a chairperson for the review had been chosen and would be announced “early next week”, reports Breaking News.
In parallel, the independent National Review Panel is examining the State’s involvement with Daniel’s family before he went missing.
When asked for a timeline, Ms Foley said it wasn’t appropriate for her to specify a deadline and emphasized her desire for a comprehensive investigation.
She said she expected the review would take several months to complete, reports Breaking News.
Ms Foley affirmed her trust in both the review process and Tusla’s work.
She reiterated her expectation that Tusla’s internal “rapid review” of Daniel’s case would be submitted by the end of the month, reports Breaking News.
When asked if there should be a monitoring framework, Ms Foley responded: “I think there is scope for us to do more work in this space,” reports Breaking News.
She mentioned ongoing efforts to build a system based on the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme.
“Almost 96 per cent of all children attend the ECCE – those two years before going to school – and I would like to see that we might be able to use that information for those children that are registered, that there would be a sharing of that information. So that would become part of our, I suppose, ‘check in’ to ensure those children are doing okay,” reports Breaking News.
Ms Foley added that she may take further steps under a current legislative review and said: “I won’t limit it to that, I’ll look at all other examples as well,” reports Breaking News.
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