A coroner in the Leinster area has raised his concerns about a nursing home which did not tell the authorities about the deaths of two of its patients last year.
The two patients were subsequently buried without death certificates being issued.
The issue was raised in the Dáil this morning by Fine Gael frontbencher Fergus O'Dowd.
Regulations state that the medical officer in an area must be notified of the death of a dependent person within 48 hours.
However, a letter from the Health Service Executive to Mr O'Dowd concedes that the then South Western Area Health Board had not been informed of the deaths until it received a complaint from the local coroner.
Subsequently it emerged that one death had been formally notified five months after the individual was buried and the other was not notified at all.
Describing the situation as extremely serious, Mr O'Dowd said he was continuing to seek further details of the nursing home involved.
