"Newly released confidential cabinet documents said some of the most at-risk children in Ireland had disappeared from the view of social services. The papers said lockdowns meant key safety measures to protect children in danger were no longer in place. The 2020 records were released under Freedom of Information Act laws, which allows for cabinet records to be made public, but only after five years have passed."
"One document sent between State officials laid it out in stark terms, saying: "Children who are vulnerable have been invisible during the closure period." It said the needs of children living in poverty or in "violent homes" added to the urgency of getting services back open as soon as possible. The fears about the risk for vulnerable children turned out to be remarkably prescient."
Confidential 2020 cabinet records reveal that pandemic lockdowns suspended essential child-protection measures and made many vulnerable children effectively invisible to social services. The records note that children living in poverty or in violent homes faced heightened urgency for services to reopen. Subsequent cases bore out those warnings: two at-risk children known to social services went missing and were later found dead. Kyran Durnin was last seen in June 2022 and remains missing; authorities believe he was killed. Daniel Aruebose’s case was upgraded to homicide after his remains were found in a shallow grave. The Government ordered welfare checks on 42,000 pandemic-closed cases.
Read at Irish Independent
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