The Government's €1 billion repayment scheme for persons illegally charged for their stay in public nursing homes and other State-funded accommodation will not now get under way for at least another month.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) is expected to sign a contract with an external company to design and manage the scheme before the end of the month.
It is understood that a public information campaign will then be launched with a view to the first repayments being made by the end of July.
The introduction of the repayment scheme has been delayed for several months as a result of difficulties in securing a contract with an external company.
Earlier this year, the HSE scrapped an initial competition for an external company to design and manage the scheme because of the level of fees being sought.
At the time, companies involved in the competition had sought fees of €30-€50 million.
The HSE later launched a second competition in the hope that it would generate "a more competitive market response".
At the time of the launch of the new competition, the HSE said it was confident that repayments could begin by May.
It is understood that the board of the HSE was told earlier this month that a contract with an external company to run the scheme would be signed shortly.
Up to 20,000 people who are alive and a further 40,000-50,000 estates of deceased former residents of publicly funded, long-stay accommodation will benefit from the scheme.
The Government has estimated that the overall cost of the scheme would be around €1 billion.
The Opposition has repeatedly called on the Government to manage the repayment scheme from within the public sector rather than commissioning a private sector company.
Fine Gael and Labour have maintained that the expertise for handling large-scale payment schemes was available within the public sector.
The Labour Party proposed that the Department of Social and Family Affairs could handle the scheme.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny claimed that the Government was putting greater emphasis on the process for repaying the money owed to patients in long-stay facilities and their families than on the repayments themselves.
However, the Government has argued that the operation of the scheme would involve "a substantive administrative task".
It has maintained that it wanted to put in place a transparent, efficient and fair system while not causing a drain on public services.
