€23m administrative costs in nursing home refund scheme

MORE than €77 million has been paid out in refunds for illegal nursing home charges, with a staggering €23m going towards administrative costs according to new figures from the Department of Health.

Of the 30,000 claims lodged, only 3,800 have been dealt with at a cost of €77.3m. Last night, the slowness in refunding thousands of claimants was criticised by Fine Gael’s health spokesman James Reilly. He questioned how the process which is due to conclude by August 2008 could now meet its deadline.

The refunds scheme was established last year in an effort to compensate up to 70,000 living and dead people who had been charged illegally over a 30-year period for staying in public nursing homes.