John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 106: To ask the Minister for Health and Children when the national repayment scheme will be completed; the number of outstanding claims; the estimated time to finalise this scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24384/09]

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.

Some 35,000 completed application forms have been received by the Scheme Administrator. To date, 33,913 or 96.89% of applicants have now either received an offer or have been rejected. As a result, there is in the region of a further 1,000 claims to be processed.

The Scheme is progressing as speedily as possible and every effort is being made to settle claims as quickly as possible. However, there are a number of different factors which have affected the length of time it takes to process a claim:

A very high number of deficiencies have appeared on claim forms which must be rectified before they can be processed. It is estimated that approximately two thirds of all claim forms were submitted without some critical piece of information which meant that the claim could not be processed until the Scheme Administrator had written to the potential claimant and requested the information required. In addition, in excess of 75% of all Form of Entitlement forms submitted were deficient. The HSE and the Scheme Administrator have taken a proactive role in addressing this issue.

Over 13,500 estates who have lodged claims to date did not have a grant of representation, as required by law, and the Scheme Administrator has had to establish probate before the claim can be progressed. This is to ensure that the person entitled to claim on behalf of an estate is the person who ultimately receives the repayment. The probate process can typically be a lengthy one - however a special system established for the purposes of this scheme has significantly reduced the waiting period. The majority of certificates of entitlement have now been issued and this has facilitated people in proceeding with the application proper. The requirements of the Health (Repayment Scheme) Act 2006 rightly place a strong emphasis on detail and on ensuring that a person is entitled to make the application and would be the rightful recipient of any potential repayment. For example this would be particularly important in determining who would be eligible in the case of a deceased person where no grant of probate was made and where several family members might make an application for repayment.

All relevant HSE facilities around the country– over 330 in total – have had to be visited by the Scheme Administrator to review and retrieve their records of payment. In some cases, these records dated as far back as 1976. The format in which this information was stored varied widely between institutions and usually included a mixture of paper files, handwritten files and computer files. All of this information had to be scanned and uploaded onto a usable database and this process took over 6 months to complete.

Bearing in mind the various challenges that have arisen during the course of the scheme to date, the waiting time for each applicant has varied based upon the factors outlined above. The Scheme Administrator continues to work closely with the HSE to process claims as speedily and efficiently as possible.

It is anticipated that the vast majority of the 1,000 remaining claims will be processed in the next few weeks. However, it should be noted that the repayments offered cannot be paid until the statutory 28 day period for appeal has elapsed and a completed acceptance form has been returned to the Scheme Administrator. In addition, claimants who receive offers must be given the opportunity if they so wish, to appeal the Scheme Administrator's decision. There are currently over 2,000 appeals being worked on at present and this will impact on the timeframe for finalisation of the Health Repayment Scheme.