Around 67,000 people illegally charged for nursing home care are to be repaid in full with interest, under a new scheme agreed by the Government today.
However, the Statute of Limitations is to be applied to the scheme, which means only those alive and the estates of those who died in the last six years will be refunded the charges.
It means that the estates of deceased people who died before December 1998 will not receive repayments.
The repayment scheme will cost between €500m and €1bn, and is expected to take some years to complete.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, told the Dáil earlier that details of the compensation scheme would be published tomorrow.
There are around 22,000 people living who will benefit from the scheme, half of whom are in nursing homes; the remainder have a mental or physical disability.
The estates of a further 40,000 to 50,000 are also due to receive repayments.
The repayment of interest will be based on the rate of inflation for each of the relevant years.
The Health Service Executive is to be assisted by an outside firm with experience in managing large claims.
A final decision on the scheme was taken at today's Cabinet meeting.
