Patients who were illegally charged for their accommodation in nursing homes and other public long-stay facilities have received around €21,000 each in repayments to date under the Government's reimbursement scheme.
Up to 60,000 patients and their estates may receive compensation under the scheme which could cost up to €1 billion.
Minister for Health Mary Harney told the Dáil that since the repayment scheme got under way last November around €17 million had been paid out.
The repayment scheme has given priority to the estimated 14,000 patients affected who are still alive. Payments to the estates of former residents of long-stay facilities has yet to commence.
Ms Harney said the HSE had told her Department that to date more than 24,000 applications for repayments had been received.
"The timeframe for repayment is predicated primarily on whether the applicant is alive or whether the application is being made by the estate of a deceased person.
"Living people who were wrongly charged will be the first to receive payments under the scheme," she said.
"It is expected that the bulk of payments to estates will commence in the spring. Provision has been made for applications to be received up to 1st January, 2008," she added.
The Minister said that in addition, the HSE had put arrangements in place whereby it can make applications on behalf of living persons in long-stay institutions where there is no other connected person to make a claim and where the applicants were unable to apply themselves due to ill health, or mental or physical disability.
Ms Harney said in reply to parliamentary questions from Fine Gael's Michael Ring that the Government anticipated that the reimbursement scheme would run until next year and that it was expected that the final repayments would be made by mid-2008.
The scheme provides for repayments to be made to persons still alive who were wrongly charged for their care in public long-stay facilities as well as to the estates of those who died since December 9th, 1998.
The scheme does not allow for repayments to the estates of those who died prior to that date.
The repayment scheme is being administered by KPMG/McCann Fitzgerald, who were appointed last August.
The Minister said the administrators had commenced scanning the records of long-stay facilities and that to date they had visited 160 locations.
Ms Harney said a dedicated website, www.repay.ie, an information phone line, 1890 886886, and an e-mail facility, queries@repay.ie, had been established by the scheme administrator to assist the public in accessing claim forms and general information.
She said the information line operated from 8am-9pm, Monday to Saturday.
She said no appeals had yet been received in relation to the operation of the repayment scheme.
The Irish Times revealed last month that in addition to the repayments for the illegal charges the Government was facing, it may also have to pay back interest illegally retained by former health boards on money held on behalf of patients in long-stay public facilities.
Ms Harney has said that this could amount to €39 million.
