Labour has called on the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, to extend the deadline by which people must apply for refunds for the underpayment of benefits under the Drug Payment Scheme.
The scheme relates to underpayment between July 1999 and February 2001.
Labour's health spokeswoman Ms Liz McManus said many of the patients involved are elderly and sick and will not have retained receipts going back four years.
Some 175,000 people were overcharged by up to €250 between July 1st, 1999, and February 28th, 2001. The overcharging happened when the threshold above which people could make claims under the scheme was raised from €40.63 to €53.33 per month in July 1999.
However, the new changes were not signed into law by the then health minister, Mr Brian Cowen. The new regulations did not come into effect until February 2001, which meant people who had been claiming refunds in the intervening period were being assessed on the new threshold when the lower threshold still had effect.
"Seeing as this money was deducted illegally in the first place because the Minister failed to sign a piece of paper, the onus is on the Department to correct this and repay money to those people," Ms McManus added.
The current deadline of this Friday 31st October had already been extended from September 30th.
