16 kids’ death cause unknown & no clue on whereabouts of dozens missing from care… ‘catastrophic’ Tusla truth laid bare

The Irish Sun’s new campaign, State of Neglect, exposing the country’s harrowing children-in-care crisis and calls for Tusla to be held accountable for its litany of failures

CHILD agency Tusla has no idea what caused the deaths of over a third of the children known to its services who have passed away over the past two-and-a-half years, The Irish Sun can reveal.

Shocking figures obtained by this paper show that 16 of the 45 deaths of children known to Tusla between January 2024 and May of this year are still classified as ‘cause unknown’.

It comes as the agency also admits to having no clue as to the whereabouts of dozens of children who have been missing from care for two weeks or more over the same period.

A survivor of historical institutional child abuse has described the Tusla admissions as a “catastrophe” that shows the lives of marginalised kids are still forgotten about.

The damning figures, released to us through the Freedom of Information Act, also show three of the 45 deaths of children since January 2024 were homicides and six others were suicides.

A further 11 of the deaths were from natural causes, five were the result of road accidents and four more were from other accidents.

However, the highest percentage of the child deaths were classified as “cause unknown”.

Tusla insists many of those cases are still awaiting conclusive post-mortem or coroner examinations.

However Mannix Flynn, a Dublin city councillor and survivor of sexual and physical abuse at St Joseph’s Industrial School in Letterfrack in the 1960s, said the figures highlight how the lives of vulnerable kids still matter little in modern day Ireland.

Flynn told The Irish Sun: “This is a catastrophe.

“We were told that the State would step up to the mark when it came to the protection of vulnerable children, but these figures show otherwise.

“What they show is that there is still an underclass of children whose lives do not matter, where deaths of these children are disproportionate and we can’t even get the answers as to how a huge number of these children died.

“The fact that the cause of their deaths remains unknown is very alarming.

“Tusla shouldn’t have to be waiting on a coroner’s report to initiate actions if these deaths have been caused by a gap in care.

“The biggest failure here is from the biggest institution of them all, which is the State.”

In its own report on child deaths, the Ombudsman For Children’s Office said the unknown element to many of them highlights the immediate need for an independent statutory body to review and investigate these deaths.

Currently, all cases where a child in care or known to Tusla dies are referred to the National Review Panel for review.

However, the NRP lacks full statutory power and must still report back to Tusla, which then reviews the reports before approving publication.

Moves to put the NRP on a statutory footing are currently going through the Oireachtas with the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2025 — but it is unlikely to be enacted this year.

The Ombudsman stated: “The Ombudsman for Children’s Office has received many complaints about children who died in tragic, sometimes preventable, circumstances — including suicide, homicide, drug overdoses, accidents and sudden deaths.

“Some of these children were in State care or known to services, yet in too many cases, we still don’t know how or why they died.”

In a statement to The Irish Sun about child deaths, Tusla said: “In 2025, out of 106,444 referrals received and responded to, there was no death of a child in care.

“There were 19 deaths of children living at home and known to our services due to a range of reasons such as natural causes, homicide, and other causes.”

One of the 19 children to die last year was Ukrainian teenager Vadym Davydenko, 17, who was stabbed to death on October 15, 2025 at an emergency care facility in Donaghmede, Dublin, that was overseen by a private company on behalf of Tusla.

Tragic Vadym was killed just two weeks after arriving alone in Ireland. But his death is not officially classified by Tusla as a death in care as Vadym was being housed in one of the agency’s discredited Special Emergency Arrangement facilities, which Tusla is now set to close down.

In its most recent report on child deaths for 2025, the NRP also highlighted the case of two-year-old girl Rosa, who was known to Tusla from birth because of concerns about her parents’ history.

Rosa died as a result of an assault.

She had moved to a different jurisdiction with her family, which resulted in a lack of substantive oversight by social workers for a time.

The highest number of deaths last year was among children aged between 11 and 16 years (six), followed by the deaths of five infants aged under 12 months. Another five deaths were older teens.

In relation to deaths of children so far this year, Tusla said: “To date in 2026, there has been no death of a child in care (residential or foster care) referred to the NRP, and 11 deaths of children living at home and known to our services.”

One of those deaths was tragic schoolboy Oisin Reddin, 12, who was known to Tusla, and was strangled by his father, Wayne O’Reilly, 48, in a horror murder-suicide at his home in Lindisfarne Grove, Clondalkin, Dublin, on January 8 this year.

Despite Garda concerns after O’Reilly had previously threatened to harm the boy, Tusla created a “safety plan” for Oisin that allowed him to remain living with his father.

Meanwhile, figures obtained by The Irish Sun show how dozens of kids in State care go missing.

The figures revealed that an average of 27 children are missing from care at any given time so far this year, with four of them missing since 2024 and a further 16 since last year.

In all, there is an average of just over 1,000 missing in care reports filed each year, with some children reported missing on numerous occasions.

The vast majority of the missing children are classified as Separated Children Seeking International Protection.

In a statement to The Irish Sun, Tusla admitted it often has no idea where these missing children end up or what has happened to them.

Tusla said: “The vast majority of young people in the Separated Children Seeking International Protection service reported as missing are aged over 16 years.

“Some of these young people communicated their intention to travel on to other countries to join family members, and some indicated it was never their intention to remain in Ireland and left soon after they arrived in the country.

“For those who did not subsequently make us aware of their whereabouts, these young people are counted as missing and An Garda Siochana are notified accordingly and are reviewed in engagement with other policing authorities in Northern Ireland, elsewhere in the United Kingdom and Europe.”

However, the head of Ireland’s anti-trafficking organisation MecPaths, JP O’Sullivan, said these children are in serious danger of being exploited.

He slammed Tusla’s lax response to dealing with these missing children.

O’Sullivan said: “It is no longer acceptable for the State to advise that a high majority of unaccompanied minors missing from State care had indicated their plans to return home. These are children.”

The Irish Society For The Prevention of Cruelty To Children also said the State needs to do more to protect vulnerable kids in its care.

ISPCC chief Caroline O’Sullivan told The Irish Sun: “Children have a right to be safe and protected from harm.

“The State has a responsibility here in situations where the children’s primary caregivers are unable to do so.”

She said it was also imperative the deaths of children known to State services are fully investigated.

O’Sullivan said: “Jumping to conclusions or surmising about the circumstances of the death of a child, in state care or otherwise, is not helpful.

“Anyone with a remit for determining or investigating the death of a child ought to have all the necessary resources and information made available to them to ensure a clear understanding of what caused these deaths and that justice is achieved for the child and their bereaved families and friends.”