Audit: Each Government department has been asked to conduct an urgent investigation to make sure all charges they are imposing have a sound legal basis.
The review has been ordered following the publication this week of the Travers report on illegal nursing-home charges.
It found that the Department of Health had failed at the highest levels over more than 28 years to deal effectively with "a flawed legal foundation" for charges levied on elderly people in long-term health board care.
The failures mean that taxpayers are now facing a €2 billion bill for the refund of charges illegally deducted from the pensions of more than 300,000 people for almost 30 years.
Had the "flawed legal foundation" for the charges been addressed by amending legislation, as had been suggested many times over the years, according to the Travers report, the issue of such large refunds would not now arise.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the Government would now have to make sure all other State charges were properly based in law, "otherwise we could get into this again".
Asked how the Government was doing this, a spokesman said: "In the first instance it is a matter for each department to look at in the context of its own risk management, and it will be considered further by the Government as part of its consideration of the overall report".
It is understood there has been no Government decision yet on how the whole review of charges will be co-ordinated.