The Department of Health is preparing to backtrack on its refusal to repay €20 million due to 175,000 people for drug payment refunds, according to a letter from the Department's secretary general to the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee.
The Government informally decided last July not to pay back the money owed to households, which followed difficulties experienced when the Drugs Payment Scheme was introduced to replace two earlier schemes to reimburse medical costs.
In November, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Fine Gael Sligo/Leitrim TD Mr John Perry, said taxpayers had "effectively been ripped off by the State by an average of nearly €100 each".
In the letter yesterday, the secretary general, Mr Michael Kelly, said he was "following up on the undertaking given to the committee in February to have the issue re-examined".
