Only a fraction of those who were illegally charged by the State for nursing home care have to date been given refunds.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has confirmed that 3,259 repayments have been made so far. But an estimated 70,000 people or their estates are said to be eligible for refunds.
At this stage less than half of those eligible for refunds - some 30,000 people - have applied to get their money back. More than 11,000 of the applications for refunds have been made by living people and the remainder by estates.
The final date for receipt of applications for refunds is December 31st next.
The HSE said yesterday the repayments scheme was launched in August last year and the first repayment offers were made in November last year.
To date almost €66 million has been handed out in refunds. "The average repayment is in the region of €20,000," it said.
"To date, over 5,900 repayment offers have been made, totalling over €111 million and these amounts continue to grow every week," it added.
"An additional 2,000 claims have been processed and concluded where no offer will be made due to these claims falling outside the terms of the scheme," it continued.
The HSE also said there are 407 legal cases pending in relation to the refunding of nursing home charges, some of which relate to care received in private nursing homes.
Some families seeking refunds have claimed the scheme is cumbersome and there are long delays in having their claims processed.
The HSE said this was for a number of reasons. It said a very high number of deficiencies have appeared on claim forms which have to be rectified before they can be processed. It also said that over 13,400 estates which lodged claims to date did not have a grant of representation as required by law and the scheme administrator had to establish probate before the claim could be progressed and this took time.