The Department of Health is now facing more than 400 sets of legal proceedings in relation to patients who claim they were illegally charged for their stay in nursing home beds.
The State is facing an estimated bill of about €1 billion from people who were forced to pay charges for nursing home beds despite having full eligibility for free long-stay care.
A repayments scheme was established by the department in August last year in order to avoid litigation in the courts and to bring about a speedy resolution to the illegal charges controversy.
However, latest figures obtained by The Irish Times show many people are choosing to bypass the repayments scheme and seek compensation through the courts.
Solicitors acting on behalf of people taking cases say the rise in court cases is due to delays in the repayments scheme and a restriction which prevents families of patients who died before December 1998 from being refunded.
Internal departmental records show that about 407 sets of legal proceedings have been filed against the State.
They include claims of entitlement to free public nursing home care from patients who paid for private care and patients who stayed in public beds and say they were illegally charged.
Department officials say privately they are considering whether to defend or settle cases individually, while claimants whose cases meet the criteria of the repayment programme are being urged to use this scheme. It is understood that a number of cases have already been settled.
Age Action Ireland, meanwhile, has urged the Government to speed up repayments to patients who have been illegally charged.
Just €113 million of the €1 billion total bill has been paid. Health authorities have received just under 30,000 applications for repayments from the 70,000 estimated to be owed a refund.
Of these, 6,000 patients have received payments. Average repayments so far are in the region of €20,000.
The deadline for applications to the repayments scheme is December 31st of this year.
Eamon Timmins of Age Action Ireland said the progress to date has been disappointing. He said a concerted effort is needed by the Government to inform people about the scheme and assist them in applying.
In addition to a major publicity campaign, Mr Timmins said the Government should ease the burden of proof that is being placed on older people seeking refunds.
"While we accept that steps must be taken to ensure that only those who are entitled to refunds get them, the Government must also have records of taking these payments from older people," he said. "As the party which made the illegal charges, they should be coming from more than 50 per cent of the way in establishing who they took these fees from."
The department said the delay in making repayments has been due to a number of legal and technical difficulties. A public roadshow campaign to raise awareness of the scheme is also under way. A spokeswoman said the company which is administering the repayment scheme had had to visit more than 300 health facilities to scan records needed to calculate repayments.
