I too direct my plaudits at Deputy Ardagh. This is very much her initiative and something that was well supported along the way by the Irish Cancer Society and other Deputies and Senators across these Houses. It is one of those evenings when we can all say a job has been well done. It shows the utility of this House as well. We try to do it all of the time but it is more explicit on occasions like this when we are reflecting the real, everyday needs of the people who elect us. We do not know ourselves the day on which a diagnosis of cancer will knock on our doors. It does not discriminate. There is not a family in this country that have not been affected. I know that Deputy Ardagh's own family have been affected as well. I have no doubt that experience influenced her commitment to bringing this legislation forward. We always try to be the messengers of the people in this House and time and again in my nigh on 30 years as a public representative - almost 16 years in the Oireachtas and as a member of local authorities before that - I have come across these cases. I have worked with insurance brokers in my own constituency of Louth time and again to try to address the issues that are brought to their attention by clients or indeed people who would be more appropriately described as potential clients because until now, there was very little they could do for a client seeking mortgage protection insurance on his or her way to purchasing her or her home. We have all dealt with those cases and they are heart-breaking. This is a very real human issue that is being addressed in this legislation. I am glad that the Minister of State has more appropriately framed this initiative and his intention in terms of the legislation as a right of disregard rather than a right to be forgotten. That is the appropriate way to describe this. It is fantastic that when this legislation is passed, cancer survivors will no longer be discriminated against in terms of accessing mortgage protection insurance. We know and the Minister of State referenced the fact that a voluntary code has been in place since 2023. Voluntary codes are all well and good but they often do not always cut it. We often see voluntary codes that are developed on a positive basis through the bona fides of a regulatory body or a well-established agency but they can often fail those they are designed to support and protect. It is positive that we are inserting this requirement into the primary legislation. The scope of the intended legislation involves only mortgage protection insurance but could I ask that this matter be looked at in terms of the right to access additional financial products and services, that we keep an open mind on this and that this is regularly reviewed and interrogated because cancer survivors like everybody else are entitled to live a full life and participate fully in the economy of this country and our society? If it is the case that someone cannot access all of the financial services that are available to the broad range of citizens then he or she is not by definition a full actor in every aspect of economic and social life so I ask that this be kept under review. I think it is inevitable that we will be looking to review this. In legislation, more often than not there is at least an in-built review after two to three years in terms of the operation of an element of an Act and we need to be very clear that it has to happen in this case. Financial service providers are only too capable of undertaking actuarial reviews on services and their client base and so on and I have every confidence that the financial services industry, in its broadest definition, is well capable of ensuring there is extensive access to all financial services for those who have come through cancer diagnosis, who are survivors of cancer and are living healthy lives. The Minister of State knows very well that we need to keep a very clear-eyed view when we come to the operation of the insurance industry and how it operates in this country. It needs to be put on notice that there is a very clear expectation of it that it act in accordance with this legislation. There should be no requirement for the insurance industry to be asking any more of cancer survivors in terms of the information it needs to make a determination on access to mortgage protection product than what is outlined here. We know only too well from our experience that the insurance industry can often go further in its interrogation, if I could describe it as such, of clients and prospective clients. I would ask the Minister of State and the regulator - the Central Bank - to keep a very close eye on how the insurance industry manages this. Unfortunately, there was a very tight timeframe for us to introduce our proposed amendments on Committee Stage, which we hope and expect will happen next week. This is an important debate but we may not have the opportunity to bring forward the kind of amendments ideally that we would like to on Committee Stage. Given its importance, I ask that we give this legislation sufficient time as well on Report Stage and that the use of the guillotine or at least the excessive use of the guillotine is avoided because we will have views on the kinds of amendments we wish to bring forward and we will need time to do that. In doing so, that would give the people who are targeted by this legislation their full due and the respect they deserve and give this legislation the respect it merits. We need time to fully consider this and propose amendments.

Sentiment score: 0.12