As the search for young Daniel Aruebose continued over the past few weeks, culminating in the discovery of remains yesterday, the slow, painful unravelling of another Irish tragedy has begun to expose far more than the grim possibility of a child lost — it is unearthing, once again, the stark failures of a child protection system stretched too thin, and too often blind to the quiet disappearances of vulnerable children.
The discovery of human remains on a site along Portrane Road, outside Donabate, has cast a pall not only over a community desperate for hope but over a country asking itself an increasingly urgent question: how could this have happened?
At a recent child protection event organised by the Children’s Rights Alliance, a school principal spoke candidly about the very gaps that may have led to such disappearances going unnoticed for far too long. Recounting her experience at a school in Dublin’s inner city, she described enrolling a child who, despite their age, lacked even the most basic literacy and numeracy skills. When she attempted to trace the child’s educational history, she was met with confusion and dead ends — different schools believed the child had moved elsewhere. No one was sure where he had gone. No one had been checking.
This is not a new story. It is the same tale retold each time a child disappears into the cracks between agencies, databases, and responsibilities. The principal’s suggestion — to utilise the Department of Education’s Primary Online Database (POD ) more proactively — is not revolutionary. It is common sense. The POD tracks the enrolment of primary school pupils nationwide, but currently, it does not trigger alerts when a child vanishes from the system. No flags, no follow-up, no alarm bells. To that principal’s mind, no one is looking to children on the POD that aren’t turning up.
And so we are left asking: how many children are slipping through, unnoticed? How many Daniels?
Ombudsman for Children Niall Muldoon has once again called for a statutory body to investigate child deaths, arguing that the current patchwork of reviews and panels is insufficient. It is a call echoed by others in the child protection sphere — and long overdue.
What the disappearance of Daniel Aruebose reveals is not only a family in unimaginable grief, or a community haunted by what might have been done — it lays bare the fact that in a country as developed as Ireland, children can still vanish without a trace and without the system noticing in time.
As we await the findings of reviews and reports, one truth must remain front and centre: no child should ever be lost to bureaucracy. Daniel’s story, heartbreaking as it is, should be a turning point. Not a moment to simply mourn, but a mandate to act — with urgency, with honesty, and with the unwavering belief that every child matters, even when no one is watching.
Let this be the last time we say: we didn’t know.
