(CPS) Counter Productive Services - Tusla

According to official records, Daniel Michael Aruebose was born on December 12, 2017, at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. His mother, Maria, had lived in Ireland since 2003, when her parents moved from Nigeria. They were a religious family, going to church every Sunday. Maria, by contrast, was described as a 'gamer' who spent a lot of time online. When she turned 18, Maria decided to leave her family home in the south of the country to move to Dublin, becoming estranged from her parents and only having a handful of phone calls with her five siblings. At the time Daniel was born, his parents were living in shared accommodation in Portmarnock in the north of the city and, reportedly believing it would be inappropriate to raise a child there, gave him up for adoption. (Eleanor Dye, Daily Mail, 2025)

For the next 18 months, Daniel was placed into state care with Tusla, Ireland's family and child agency, and lived with a foster family, who have disclosed how the 'sweet' little boy quickly became 'a part of the family'. In 2019, however, Maria had a 'change of heart' and wanted her son back, having now moved into an apartment in the Gallery in Donabate. In a bid to reunify Daniel with his birth family, the request was granted.
The parents have 'unequivocally maintained' their story about what happened to their son. According to the account given by his mother, Maria, Daniel was found 'ice cold' in his bed in mid-July 2021 when she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. The parents said they attempted to revive their dead son in bath water; however, after realising he was dead, they became 'panicked' and decided to conceal this horrifying situation from the authorities, placing his body in a bag and burying him in a shallow grave in the Portrane Road wasteland.

Skeletal remains of the missing toddler Daniel Aruebose were found on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, in Donabate, County Dublin. A specialist forensic paediatric pathologist conducted a post-mortem examination on the child’s remains to try to establish the cause of death. The cause of death could not be determined as autopsy results will not show asphyxiation or smothering, for example, if the decomposition goes into its final stage of skeletonisation. It is believed he has been missing for several years and would have been seven years old this year.

The child has not been seen for over four years and was only discovered missing after the Department of Social Protection alerted Tusla to irregularities in an application for child support payments. The call was simply a routine check-up from Ireland's Department of Social Protection (DSP) over suspicions of fraud - merely following up on unclaimed allowances from Daniel's mother, Maria, along with a lack of registered details, including his school and GP.

What began as a simple allowance check quickly raised alarm bells, as authorities had wondered whether Daniel, who would now be almost eight, was living with her parents. Tusla contacted gardaí, who commenced an investigation and search of the lands at Donabate, where they had been told the child was buried after he had died from natural causes. Daniel's parents, Maria Aruebose and Ciaran Dirrane, have told Gardaí their son died in his sleep in July 2021 when he was just three years old, and, 'panicking', they buried him in a shallow grave nearby, concealing his death from authorities. But this story does not add up in the slightest. Any forensic profiler would see through these people and what really happened to Daniel on that night more than four years ago; what type of people would claim child benefits from their own deceased baby?

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Another example of the deep-seated flaws in Ireland's child protection system is the story of Kyran Durnin. Tusla did state that it received no referrals or concerns about Kyran's attendance or educational welfare between 2022 and 2024. The agency confirmed that its last engagement with Kyran and his family was in 2022, but no follow-up was included. As of this date, An Garda Síochána have been unable to locate Kyran or determine what has happened to Kyran. Speaking of the Daniel Aruebose case, The Guardian mentioned "The case shares eerie parallels with that of Kyran Durnin, who was last seen in May 2022 when he was six at a primary school in Dundalk, County Louth, but whose disappearance was only confirmed last year. If still alive, he would be nine." ( The Guardian, R Carroll 2025 )

A 10-year-old girl with possible autism, as some reports suggest, who was supposed to be under the care and supervision of Tulsa, was missing for an entire 14 hours after it was discovered she had been raped on the grounds of the Citywest Hotel in Saggart, in the early hours of the morning by an African illegal economic migrant. A garda (Irish police officer) told the court the man accused replied "I have nothing to say" when he was charged. The accused was granted free legal aid after the court was told he was unemployed. He was remanded in custody to appear in court on Wednesday, the 22nd, when there will be a bail application. A defence solicitor requested an Arabic interpreter. The Citywest Hotel has since been sealed off as a crime scene and has undergone forensic examination. (The Irish Times, C Lally, K Holland, 2025)

Tusla added the girl has been living “in a fully staffed, registered residential placement, provided by a funded partner in the community and voluntary sector”. This suspect had come to Ireland about six years ago seeking international protection, and the application was rejected last year, but the Irish Government has no plan to address the ongoing border dilemma; instead, they pretend it is not an issue and act frivolously. The Citywest Hotel is used by the State as accommodation for international protection applicants (IPAS). The suspect was issued with a deportation order following a failed (international protection) asylum bid, but deportation was never followed up by the irresponsible Irish government, whose lack of action or planning further exacerbates the out-of-control border crisis.

One week before, a 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death during a violent attack at a Tusla-run complex in north Dublin. It is believed he was stabbed 50+ times over a breakfast dispute. The victim suffered injuries to his head, hands and upper body, with a source describing a “very difficult” scene. The property was being used as a residential unit by Tusla, the child and family agency. The apartment, at the Grattan Wood complex in Donaghmede, Dublin 13, was being run by a private contractor on behalf of Tusla. Tusla said the apartment where the teenagers were living was used by it to house four unaccompanied minors, with 24-hour support from staff. It said the facility provided care to those seeking international protection. (The Irish Times, C Lally 2025)

Unvetted care workers subcontracted by Tusla were given access to vulnerable children at risk of abuse

On the National Review Panel, there are only 4 available individual reports each year, dating back to 2020, which include two reports; then the years are followed mostly by a range of 4 to 5 consecutive reports for each year before that. Where are the individual reports? This does not align with the statistics of cases Tulsa provides. There is an incredible lack of transparency regarding child services, not just in Tulsa, but the UK equivalent, Cafcass and CPS Child Protection Services.

For example, here are some stats from Tulsa's annual reports. Furthermore, where are cases like the Daniel Aruebose case? Tulsa just wash their hands with cases after they have been previously involved, no follow-up, no keeping in touch or checking to see if parents who once were seeking support or who were flagged to the child services still require additional support!

"The average annual rate of notified deaths is now 24 per year, while the number fluctuates somewhat. This is in a context where the number of referrals to the statutory social work services has risen from 29,277 in 2010 to 96,364 in 2024. As each of the foregoing annual reports has highlighted, the children and young people whose deaths were notified during that 14-year period were also involved with a range of different systems, including health, mental health, and youth justice, with Tusla social work services playing a major role in certain cases and a minor role in others." (Tusla, National Review Panel Annual Report 2024)

While the exact current number of companies contracted by Tusla is not specified, Tusla has contracts with various companies for emergency accommodation, with some providers being controversial and facing scrutiny. This reliance on "Special Emergency Arrangements" (SEAs) is due to a lack of regulated placements and has led to €215.5 million being paid to 31 third-party companies since 2021. Concerns have been raised about the suitability of some of these placements, which include hotels and rented properties. Tusla uses Special Emergency Arrangements (SEAs) to place children in foster or residential care.

The chief executive of Tusla, Kate Duggan, appeared before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, and was questioned about recent reports in The Irish Times about one company that was providing emergency accommodation for children had been reported to An Garda Síochána. She said that when an agency provides a service to Tusla, they have to give us an assurance that their staff are Garda vetted and that their staff are qualified. (The Journal, C Finn, 2024)

“We give out 75% of our funding, which goes out to community, voluntary and private services. We don’t see a copy of all of the Garda vetting or a copy of all of the qualifications; what we see and what we receive is an assurance. Because of the nature of these special emergency arrangements (SEA) being unregulated, we decided to put in a double lock there. So the double lock was that on top of seeking an assurance, on top of seeking confirmation, we physically got copies of the Garda vetting, we physically looked for copies of the qualifications,” (Kate Duggan, Tusla chief executive, 2024)

Prior to August 2023, missing children from care data were not part of Tusla’s collated data or national metrics. Missing Children in Care information was held on individual case files. The data information is now collated manually at a point in time, on a bi-weekly basis.

As of 30 January 2025, there were 36 children missing from the care of Tusla, including 33 Separated Children Seeking International Protection and Unaccompanied Minors and 3 missing from Mainstream Care. Of these 36, 2 are in contact with professionals and/or carers. Of these 36, 5 have been missing for between 1 and 3 days. Information regarding whether children missing from care are suspected to be victims of, or at risk of, sexual exploitation is located on individual case files and is not collated centrally by Tusla. (Norma Foley, Minister for Children, Disability and Equality 2025)

In February 2024, it was reported that 27 companies were contracted by Tusla between 2013 and June 2023 to provide care for children in Special Emergency Arrangements (SEAs). An SEA, or Special Emergency Arrangement, is a temporary and unregulated placement for children in Tusla's care when there is a shortage of standard, regulated placements, such as foster care or residential homes. In fact, out of the 27 child accommodation service companies that Tulsa uses to house children, a mere 4 are deemed regulated.

Since 2021, 161 children have been referred to the Irish police for child sexual exploitation while either in the care of Tusla or known to Tusla.

A case that was recently raised in the Dáil regarding a child who was in the care of Tusla, who went missing and, a year later, was found at the age of 14 in a brothel

How does this happen? How does a toddler in the care of Tusla go unnoticed for over 4 years?
How does a 10-year-old autistic girl go missing under the care of Tusla for 14+ hours just to be raped by a man who is supposed to be deported?
How does a young teenage boy get knifed 50+ times over breakfast at a Tulsa residence?
How many other children are left either with abusers, trafficked or in unsafe environments?

How many other children are not cared for, but under the guise of care from this so-called family/child agency group?

Who is the spokesperson for these child services? What are the polices and practices of such highly prominent family services? Why is there zero transparency when it comes to child services? Shouldn't the public know the inner workings of these services after all, they supposedly operate on behalf of families? Look into it, check out the review section of the UK child services Cafcass.
Also include the United States review section of CPS Child Protection Services. The review section of the Irish equivalent Tusla, while also searching for the scandal after scandal of each, there is too much to put in one article!
Look into the reputation they uphold. These companies are incompetent from top to bottom; they get it wrong too much. Reform the structure of family services; the nuclear family is under attack. These companies aren't fit for purpose, and not just the 95% unregulated companies that Tusla themselves use to protect children, the same companies that, in some cases, are brothels. Tulsa is not fit for purpose, nor is the family court (all regions). There needs to be more outcry from the public, at the very least, to reform the family court and child care services structure.
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