Repayment of illegal nursing home charges will cost the State about €1 billion, Minister of State for Health Seán Power told the Dáil.

It was estimated, he said, that up to about 20,000 people who were still alive, and a further 40,000 to 50,000 estates, would benefit from repayments under the scheme.

Safeguards would be put in place to prevent fraud and exploitation of those receiving repayments not in a position to manage their financial affairs, he said.

"The patient private property account system manages the private money of long-stay patients, which may include pension income, maintenance charges, spending money or comfort payments to patients or clients and lodgements to clients' accounts."

The account provided the patients with an ability to exercise their autonomy through such activities as choice of clothing, recreational activities and so on, and might be administered by an institution as a service to patients unable to do so, said Mr Power.

Mr Power was introducing the Health (Repayment Scheme) Bill, providing for repayments to those wrongly charged for inpatient services in publicly-funded long-stay residential care. The charges were found to be illegal, and the Supreme Court found that the retrospective imposition was illegal.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey criticised the Government's delay in bringing legislation to the Oireachtas, especially if it related to the health service.

"Why was the legislation not dealt with last year? These people are, for the most part, in their final years in long-stay care and will only have a short time to enjoy their refund."

Labour spokeswoman Liz McManus said the legislation represented "the latest element in a long and sorry saga on elderly people who have been in State care and have a right to be protected by the State".

Finian McGrath (Independent, Dublin North Central) said members of the Oireachtas had a constitutional responsibility to support, respect and look after elderly people.

Paudge Connolly (Independent, Cavan-Monaghan) said he understood that over 40 per cent of the people concerned would be paid back promptly. But he would wait to see what length of time it would take for the repayments to reach those from whom they were wrongly taken.