It is understood that the Ukrainian teenager who died earlier this week had only arrived in Dublin last week. 

Vadym Davydenko was 17 years old and being cared for in a Tusla apartment in Donaghmede, North County Dublin. 

On Wednesday, Gardaí were called out to the property where they found him badly wounded. 

Despite the efforts of paramedics, he was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Gardaí have arrested a teenager for questioning in relation to the incident. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, Kitty Holland of the Irish Times said Vadym had hoped to study IT and cybersecurity in Ireland. 

“He had come, as we understand it, as the education system in Ukraine is not what it used to be. 

“Third level institutions are in a bad way and he had come hoping to further his education. 

“He was 17 and was at the end of his secondary education.” 

Gardaí in Donaghmede. Picture by: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie.

As a child, he was registered with Tusla who allocated him a place to stay in the Donaghmede apartment.

Ms Holland added that the child and family agency has long been under “huge pressure”, with not enough staff or accommodation to keep up with demand. 

“One of the ways they plug the gap, when they don’t have places, is they set up these quite hastily arranged special emergency arrangements,” she said. 

“There is a proliferation of private providers who use agency staff and they set up these accommodations where they’ll rent a flat. 

“They might rent a hotel room; they put an agency staffer in with the child and it’s meant to be a short-term arrangement.” 

Tusla accomodation

Last year, in figures released to the Irish Times, the State revealed it had paid €56 million to companies providing special emergency arrangements. 

It is, Ms Holland added, “huge money” and there are “big profits to be made from vulnerable kids” such is the demand for Tusla support. 

“The complexity of society has increased as well,” she explained. 

“Children are coming to them with more complex issues; they are more traumatised, they need more longer-term care. 

“There’s more families in crisis; you can look at things like the housing crisis, poverty, the cost of living crisis, drug addiction. 

“All of those things which are leading to children really needing State interventions and, in extreme cases, to be taken in care. 

“So, they are absolutely inundated and they’re really struggling to keep up with the demands on them.” 

Anyone with any information about the death of Vadym Davydenko has been asked to contact Coolock Garda Station.

Main image: Gardaí and forensic investigators at the scene of a suspected fatal stabbing in Grattan Wood, Donaghmede. Picture by: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie.