Kyran Durnin: Garda Commissioner comments on missing boy case

Conor Lally, security and crime editor of The Irish Times, described it as “worrying” that Kyran’s last known school attendance was more than two and a half years ago.

“It does appear from speaking to gardaí sources that, at that stage, the family had floated the idea locally that they were going to relocate to Northern Ireland,” Mr Lally told Good Morning Ulster on Wednesday.

He said the fact that Kyran did not return to school for the start of the following academic year “wouldn’t have really raised any concern because people believed that the family were relocating out of that area”.

BBC News NI has asked Tusla if its staff had been led to believe that the family had moved to Northern Ireland, but the agency declined to answer that question.

Neither the gardaí nor the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) will confirm if any investigations have been carried out in Northern Ireland in relation to Kyran’s disappearance.

The PSNI referred all queries to the gardaí as it is the force leading the investigation, but a garda spokeswoman said she could not “comment on the specifics of any investigative actions”.