The living survivors of the mother and baby homes will be able to seek compensation before Christmas.
Legislation for the €800 million payment scheme will be passed by the Dail within a month, Children's Minister Roderic O' Gorman has confirmed.
A total of 34,000 survivors will be eligible for financial payments and 19,000 for enhanced medical cards under the new scheme.
Anyone who was in the home as a baby for less than six months will not qualify for redress, however.
An Independent Director for authorised intervention to oversee the recovery, identification and reinternment of the 796 bodies buried in the Tuam mother and baby home's sewerage system will also be appointed soon.
The position will be publicly advertised by the Government shortly and they expect the position to be filled within weeks. They are seeking a candidate with international forensic experience.
The excavation of the site will start early in the new year and there will be an office for the dig director at the site.
A large part of the process will be trying to identify the bodies.
Minister O'Gorman said: "I have obtained approval from the Government for the mother and baby institutions baby scheme and am acutely aware of the sense of urgency.
"The scheme will provide financial payments and an enhanced medical card to eligible survivors in acknowledgement of suffering experienced while resident in mother and baby and county home institutions.
"The scheme will be one of the largest of its kind in terms of the numbers expected to benefit and have an overall value of 800 million euros. Some 34,000 survivors will be eligible for financial payments and 19,000 will be eligible for enhanced medical cards under the scheme.
"All mothers who spent time in an institution and all babies who spent six months or more in an institution will be eligible for a payment with the amount increasing based on their length of stay.
"There will be an additional work-related payment for women who were resident in certain institutions for more than three months while an enhanced medical card will be available to everyone who was resident in a mother and baby home or county home for six months or more."
The Minister who was responding to a number of Dail queries from several deputies also said as soon as the bill is passed in Leinster House the scheme will be immediately open for applications.
Galway TD Catherine Connolly was critical that some former babies are being excluded from the payments scheme.
She fumed: "The Minister is persisting with a cold, calculated scheme that is based on reducing costs. He is excluding the thousands who spent less than six months in an institution. He is ignoring scientific evidence."
The forthcoming dig in Tuam will cost €7 million.
The Minister added that whoever is appointed Director of the excavations will be expected to appoint a range of appropriately qualified experts to undertake the dig, recovery and post -recovery analysis processes.
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