As investigations continue into the disappearance and possible murder of the young boy, Minister Foley said she expects to receive a report from the state’s child agency Tusla in the coming days.
Speaking at government buildings on Wednesday, the minister said there were questions to be answered in relation to the case.
“Certainly, this child has been lost in the system, I absolutely want to say that.
“This should never have happened. Our core belief in education, and I would like to think in Irish society, is that we protect, we mind and we guide children right throughout their lives. Clearly, there are questions to be answered here,” she added.
The last positive sighting of young Kyran was at the end of the school year in 2022, when he was in senior infants in Dundalk.
It is understood the school was under the impression he was moving away and would not return to the school for the next academic year.
Ms Foley said while schools accept the bona fides of parents when they inform schools that their child will be moving to another jurisdiction, she said she wanted to see a “tightening up” of things between here and Northern Ireland.
She added it would be something she would engage with Northern Ireland’s Education Minister Paul Givan on.
“Certainly, it’s an area that I’m very keen and I absolutely have no doubt that Minister Givan would be very happy to have engaged with me in terms of maybe tighening up things moving from one jurisdiction to another, and I certainly would be pursuing that absolutely,” Minster Foley said.
The minister said she has asked Tusla for a report on what has happened up until this point in relation to Kyran Durnin.
“We need to get to the bottom of it. We need to know what happens if a child moves from one jurisdiction to another, from one country to another, or whatever the case might be,” Minister Foley said.
“But the bottom line is that there is a child at the centre of this. I think there isn’t a family, there isn’t an individual in the country that isn’t heart broken by the revelations of the last number of weeks in relation to this young child.
“And no one would envisage that this should be the outcome for any child in this country,” the minister added.
Ms Foley said it was important to ensure that what happened to Kyran Durnin “would never be a reality into the future”.
