The Department of Finance is to provide €4.3 million to health authorities to pay arrears to people who received the wrong rate of welfare allowance for the blind.
The Ombudsman's report said her office dealt in 2002 with a complaint about the failure of the South Western Area Health Board to pay the correct rate of this allowance to an applicant. The error, she said, was due to an incorrect interpretation by the board of guidelines issued by the Department of Health and Children.
"The outcome of the examination of the complaint was that the man was paid at the correct rate from a current date, with appropriate arrears paid in respect of the period during which the incorrect interpretation had affected his payments.
"Arising from the case, other health boards were asked by my office to review all blind welfare allowance cases in their areas. As a result, any individual who was in receipt of an incorrect payment had the payment adjusted with effect from January 1st, 2002," her report stated.
Ms O'Reilly said the former health boards provided the Department of Health with estimates of the cost of paying arrears to applicants. The Department of Finance had subsequently agreed to provide €4.3 million for this purpose in the health budget this year, she added.