The final bill the State will have to meet for refunding illegal nursing home charges is now likely to be substantially less than the €1 billion originally estimated.
To date 5,007 repayments totalling over €99 million have been made and 8,015 offers of repayment, totalling over €155.5 million, have issued.
Despite the fact that the closing date for applications for refunds is looming at the end of this month, less than half those believed eligible for refunds have to date lodged their applications.
Some 32,000 claims for refunds have been made to date but it was estimated 70,000 people or their estates would be eligible for refunds when the scheme was announced.
The repayments scheme was launched in August last year.
The figures for the amounts paid out to date were outlined by Minister for Health Mary Harney in reply to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael Laois-Offaly TD Charlie Flanagan.
They were also discussed at an Oireachtas health committee meeting last night where Ms Harney was questioned on why uptake of the scheme had been so low.
Fine Gael's health spokesman James Reilly asked Ms Harney if the scheme had been advertised widely enough and if she would consider extending the December 31st deadline for applications for refunds.
Ms Harney said there were many people who did not claim refunds. Some said they were happy with the care their relatives received in nursing homes and were not going to make a claim as a result, she said.
Furthermore she added that the level of claims rejected was far higher than anticipated at 40 per cent.
To date just 2,000 applicants have given notification of their intention to appeal the decision to refuse their claim or the level of refund offered.
In addition some 400 people are choosing to bypass the repayments scheme and will be seeking compensation through the courts.
Ms Harney said consideration had already been given to extending the deadline for applications for refunds but it was felt this was not necessary as the whole issue had already been widely publicised.
Furthermore she said the contract for the private company administering the refunds scheme would run out midway through next year and to extend it would be costly.
She said it was predicted the total amount to be repaid under the scheme at the end of this year would be €132 million and this included repayments of €13 million made last year.
She also said she expects final refunds to be made under the scheme in 2008 and an allocation of €150 million had been provided for this in the recent budget.
The repayments arise out of a decision by the State to charge medical card holders in public nursing homes or in contract beds in private nursing homes for nursing home care from the mid-1970s up to late 2004 even though there was no legal basis for the charges.
The Travers report, published in 2005, pointed to "significant failures of administration" and "long-term systemic corporate failure" as reasons why the Department of Health had allowed the illegal charging to continue for so long even though it was "well aware" there were legal concerns surrounding the practice.