To add to the sentiments expressed earlier, there is, no doubt, serious sadness, shock and disbelief at the discovery of the remains in Donabate yesterday of the young boy, Daniel Aruebose. I think we all send our deepest condolences to everybody who loved Daniel. The community is grieving and everybody right across the island is horrified at what happened, and heartbroken. It is a very sensitive matter, as the Tánaiste mentioned, but we cannot ignore the issues it raises in the form of serious questions about child protection, Tusla and the Minister.

We still do not have an independent chair to oversee the checks of children involved in Tusla cases that were closed during the pandemic. That has to be done urgently. These 42,000 case reviews need to be done without any more delay. However, it simply does not go far enough and our spokesperson, Claire Kerrane, has been calling for this for quite a period of time now. She has asked that these checks should be a normal part of its work. We should not have a situation where in the space of a year, two children who had been in touch with Tusla are missing, presumed dead, and gone for years. Beyond the 42,000 case reviews, which just relate to cases closed during the pandemic, does the Tánaiste now accept that as a matter of course there has to be a lookback and check for those children who have been in contact with Tusla? What action will the Government take to make sure that this never happens again?

Those are all very fair questions. My understanding is that the independent chair for the lookback on the cases that were closed during the Covid pandemic is due to be appointed very shortly. We will certainly keep everybody across the House updated on that. The Deputy is right that this case raises very significant issues. In the first case we need to try to establish as many facts as we possibly can. We then need to work collaboratively across this House to make sure that our legislative basis is right. There will be a couple of opportunities to do this: the commitment in relation to the Child Care Act to increase the powers of Tusla and provide for interagency co-operation; and also the commitment to put the national review panel on a statutory footing.

I do not want to overcommit until the facts are established. The point the Deputy made about the need for those checks to just become somewhat automatic is not unfair. We live in a world and a country that are much more transient. While I am not talking about this specific case, I am not sure we could just take the word of somebody that someone was just in one school and presume that they moved to another. How we close those loops is a legitimate policy question and we would be happy to work constructively with the Deputy on it.