Ms Kate Duggan:

I also think that, when we think about two children going missing, the immediate jump is to Tusla and child protection services even though there were also other services that were not able to engage with children and families like they normally would. There are 1.2 million children in Ireland. When it comes to child protection, we as an agency depend on all of the agencies of the State and on the public to help us protect children. That means that where there is a child and an issue relating to child protection, we have to intervene and there is social work and an open response under the jurisdiction of the courts. Where there are other children who are living with their families and are not coping well or have any type of difficulty arising, we are also reliant on other State services to flag any change in circumstance to us.

As I said in my opening statement, this is about society having an open discussion around child protection and the role we all have to play. It is difficult for any of us to understand when a child goes missing from one of our own communities, if it happens, how that could happen and what we can all do differently across State agencies and the wider public to try to prevent that from happening again.