Officials from the Department of Health are in talks with the Irish Medical Organisation over how to reclaim around €12 million in medical card payments made in error to GPs around the country.
The payments were made in error to doctors whose patients had either moved or had died but were no longer using the services paid for by the Department of Health under the medical card scheme.
The payments were disclosed to the Committee of Public Accounts in the Dáil this morning.
A spokesperson for the Department told ireland.comit hoping to reach agreement with the IMO on a national structure to facilitate repayments by mid-February.
The Department is currently awaiting further details from the health boards to ascertain exactly how much money was paid and to whom.
The disclosure came to light when the scheme was extended to include the over 70s in July 2001. An audit of the health service's books by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell resulted in 15,000 medical cards being cancelled.
It was found that patient databases had not been updated with details regarding the whereabouts or status of patients and those who had moved on or who had deceased remained on the books.
