Play
Stop
Nine News: Fergal Bowers, Health Correspondent, reports that 70,000 patients will be eligible for repayments
Play
Stop
Six One News: Fergal Bowers, Health Correspondent, reports on a scheme to repay around 70,000 people - or their estates - who were illegally charged by the State for public nursing home care
A scheme to repay around 70,000 people - or their estates - who were illegally charged by the State for public nursing home care has begun.
Those eligible will be people who were wrongfully charged at any time between August 1976 and December 2004.
Priority will be given to processing the claims of the living to ensure people currently resident in public nursing homes benefit first.
It is estimated that the average payment will be between €15,000 and €20,000.
Only the estates of those wrongly charged and who died on or after 9 December 1998 will be eligible.
The scheme is expected to run for two years and will cost €1bn.
Claim forms can be obtained at post offices and from the Health Service Executive.
