Authorities were not alerted until all six victims had died

The HSE was not alerted to a spate of deaths at a private nursing home in Donegal until all six patients had died.

The first the HSE was told of a serious situation at Nazareth House in Fahan was when the on-call public health doctor alerted health bosses on Sunday night.

By that stage, six elderly patients aged between 85 and 98 years had died — five of them in the previous five days.