Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 166: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her plan to restore a portion of the funds allocated for the introduction of the fair deal to the Health Service Executive to cover the estimated potential shortfall of €77 million in the budget provided for the nursing home repayment scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32180/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Health Service Executive (HSE) has responsibility for administering the health repayment scheme in conjunction with the appointed scheme administrator KPMG/McCann Fitzgerald. The HSE has advised my Department that as of 19th September 38,859 claim forms have been received under the Health Repayment Scheme. It is estimated that following adjustments for rejections and duplicate claims, the number of valid claims will be approximately 19,300. 17,684 claimants have received an offer of repayment and it is anticipated that the remaining offers will be processed by the end of November 2008. However it should be noted that the repayments offered in November cannot be paid until the statutory 28 day period has elapsed.

An allocation of €150m was provided for the scheme in the estimates for 2008. All eligible applications received prior to the closing date will be repaid in full and an appropriate provision will be made as necessary to meet any costs arising under the scheme. An operational plan submitted by the HSE to my Department indicates that the additional costs associated with the scheme in 2008 will amount to €77m. My Department is in discussion with the Department of Finance concerning the matter and I expect the situation to be resolved shortly.