Nearly 300 children went missing from State care last year, the majority of which were teenage boys.
Newstalk revealed through a Freedom of Information request that there were 319 cases reported, with 294 of these being children, all of which were between 10 and 17 years of age.
The figure marks a slight decrease from 2021, when 295 children were reported missing. In 2020, there were 319 missing person cases from child and family agency Tusla.
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Gardaí were notified of each case according to Tusla, who said that those missing from State care are all classed as very vulnerable individuals within the State.
John Church, Chief Executive of the ISPCC said these children were "most at risk" and are of greater concern to the public.
Mr Church identified a period between school and returning home to State care as a possible window for when some of the children and teenagers went missing.
He stressed that it is very concerning when the ISPCC, a charity concerned with the prevention of cruelty to children, are brought in to treat a case.
Tusla, who have 5,000 staff working for them, have said that the missing cases include an individual missing for anything over 20 minutes. In some cases, many of the children or teenagers living in State care returned home shortly after the file was submitted to Gardaí.
The agency also stated that all of those involved in missing cases last year were found within a period of 24 hours.
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