Irish PM says case of missing boy believed to be dead utterly heartbreaking

File: Gardai forensic officers at a house in Dundalk, Co Louth as they search a former family home, in the investigation into the suspected murder of eight-year-old Kyran Durnin - (Niall Carson/PA Wire)

Ireland’s prime minister Simon Harris described the case of Kyran Durnin as “deeply disturbing” and questioned how an eight-year-old child’s disappearance went unnoticed for so long.

Mr Harris said the child, missing for two months and believed to be dead, was failed badly. “How was this child failed? How could an eight-year-old little boy effectively disappear and not be noticed?” he asked.