The heartbreaking last photo of missing eight-year-old Kyran Durnin has been revealed.
The image shows Kyran smiling alongside his two brothers almost two years before he was reported missing in August.
Officers have launched a murder investigation into Kyran’s death, even though no body has been found.
Kyran’s latest photo emerged when it was reported that cSocial benefits and benefits were being paid to him even when authorities suspected he had crossed the border into the North.
Gardaí are investigating how Kyran’s school, as well as representatives from the Children and Families Agency, Tusla, who interviewed the Durnin family, did not know he was missing.
The heartbreaking final photo of Kyran Durnin (pictured right) has been revealed. It shows the eight-year-old boy smiling alongside his two brothers before he was reported missing in August, and gardaí believe he may have been murdered two years ago.
Gardaí investigate whether another child was used to impersonate missing eight-year-old Kyran Durnin to mislead social services
And even though Tusla officials believed claims that the child had moved out of the jurisdiction, the Department of Social Protection continued to pay child and social benefits.
The last known photo of Kyran proving he was alive was posted on Facebook by Kyran’s mother, Dayla, 24, in April 2022. Kyran was photographed with his two brothers and the photo was captioned: “The three who they mean more.”
It was published around the same time the eight-year-old’s attendance at a primary school in Dundalk ended, a source claimed.
The source said: ‘Investigators are aware that there was a lot of activity on the page regarding Kyran and that it then stopped.
And it seems that the last image of him was published around the time he was last seen at school.
‘But from an investigation point of view, Gardaí have not set a definitive timetable.
‘The reason for this is that anything saying that Kyran was definitely missing as of 2022 could prevent people, with information about his possible movements after that time, from coming forward.
“But there is publicly available information up to a specific period of time and then it starts to disappear.”
A source told the Irish Mail on Sunday that the file on Kyran was “effectively closed” after Tusla was told his mother, Dayla Durnin, had moved to the North.
But gardaí now suspect Kyran was not with his mother when she disappeared after she was found in the UK without her son.
On Friday afternoon, Justice Minister Helen McEntee told RTÉ’s Six One programme: “We have a child who hasn’t been seen for two years. That’s not acceptable. Nobody can tolerate that. We need to know what happened here.
Dayla Durin, 24, was reported missing along with her son, but is now reported to have been found in the United Kingdom.
Last Wednesday, Gardaí upgraded the young man’s disappearance case to a murder case after receiving intelligence that he had died.
“Any agency or person who has not done their job should be held responsible.”
Concerns about the student’s welfare were raised more than two years ago after he was found to be living in squalor, but he was moved between schools and addresses, making it increasingly difficult to find his whereabouts.
A source said: ‘Tusla slipped up and panicked over the summer.
Their visits (to an address where Kyran lived) document the misery, but then the visits simply stopped and closed when they were told the boy was in Northern Ireland.
The social worker who was dealing with (the case) left at one point, and the person who was covering at the time believed… when he was told that Kyran had gone North.’
Kyran was taken out of school in Dundalk in the summer of 2022. At the time, Tusla and school authorities believed the missing boy had moved to a school in the north.
The school said it was under the impression that his family would move and that he would not return after June 2022.
This comes after a different child was presented to social workers and also a school over the summer.
Gardaí have since identified the other child. A source told the MoS: ‘Tusla was told that Kyran and Dayla went north, but local gardaí do not believe they ever did. He kept moving house and school and this frustrated his care.
“Kyran hadn’t been to school for a couple of years and the schools and Tusla were fooled.”
The source said “serious concerns” within Tusla about the case “finally reached Gardaí in late summer”.
But they added: “At that time it appeared that the child had died or had been murdered and buried secretly.”
“But child benefit and social benefits continued to be paid.”
Tusla said he could not comment on “this sensitive case” which is now being investigated by Gardaí.
“We will continue to work closely with Gardaí and other parties as necessary at this time,” he added.