Central Bank (Amendment) Bill 2025: Instruction to Committee

Minister of State at the Department of Finance (Deputy Robert Troy)

I move:

That Standing Order 194 is modified in accordance with Standing Order 241(2) to provide that it be an instruction to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach in relation to the Central Bank (Amendment) Bill 2025, that the Committee has power to make amendments to the Bill which are outside the scope of the existing subject matter of the Bill in order to make provision for:

(a) the establishment of a statutory obligation on insurers to disregard a person's medical history, in respect of a diagnosis of cancer, for the purposes of applications for mortgage protection insurance relating to a principal private residence;

(b) the definition and regulation of the conditions under which such medical history shall be disregarded, including the completion of active cancer treatment and specified periods of remission;

(c) the provision by applicants of information necessary to demonstrate compliance with such conditions, where requested;

(d) the specification of a maximum amount of mortgage protection insurance cover to which such disregard shall apply;

(e) the conferral of functions on the Minister for Finance to review and prescribe such maximum amount, including the making of orders subject to approval by Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann;

(f) the amendment of the Insurance Act 1936, including the extension of provisions relating to the winding-up of insurers and reinsurers, and the powers of the Central Bank of Ireland in that regard; and

(g) the amendment of the Insurance Act 1964, including provision in relation to the Insurance Compensation Fund;

and to change the title of the Bill and make other consequential amendments required to take account of the changes above.

I thank the House for the opportunity to discuss the motion to introduce amendments to the Central Bank (Amendment) Bill 2025 on Committee Stage which will ensure that the Bill delivers, in a practical and legally robust manner, the policy objective of providing protections for cancer survivors in accessing mortgage protection insurance cover for their principal private residence. A cancer diagnosis should not define a person's future or stand in the way of owning a home. It should not stand in the way of providing security for oneself or one's family and should not cast a shadow over someone who has already gone through so much.

As Members will be aware, the Central Bank (Amendment) Bill 2025 was originally introduced as a Private Members’ Bill by my colleague, Deputy Catherine Ardagh, before I took it on as a Government Bill and sought to provide for a broad statutory right to be forgotten, as it is known, for cancer survivors for certain financial products. That objective has strong support across Government and Opposition benches and is reflected in the programme for Government commitment to legislate in this area.

Following detailed analysis and extensive engagement with stakeholders, including the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, the Central Bank, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, Insurance Ireland, the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Society of Medical Oncologists and the Society of Actuaries in Ireland and engagement with EU counterparts, it became clear that certain aspects of the Bill as published required refinement in order to ensure that the measures are proportionate, operationally effective and compatible with EU law.

It is important to recognise that the Bill builds on the voluntary code of practice introduced by Insurance Ireland in December 2023. An independent review found that the code was broadly effective but also highlighted the limitations of a voluntary approach. These amendments will bring that voluntary model to a framework that provides legal certainty. They will give statutory effect to protections that were previously voluntary, making them enforceable in law and ensuring consistent application across the market.

The amendments will provide for a revised structure to the Bill, including: a new Title, namely the Insurance (Disregard of Certain Medical History and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, which more accurately reflects the purpose of the Bill, as well as essential definitional provisions clarifying key terms such as insurer, mortgage protection insurance, applicant and principal private residence and introducing a definition of active cancer treatment to ensure consistency in application.

A significant change is the removal of the proposed amendment to the Central Bank Act 1942. This reflects policy that the Central Bank’s role remains focused on prudential supervision and conduct regulation, and that individual consumer complaints in this area are more appropriately addressed by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, a body already established to resolve disputes between consumers and financial service providers. While the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman is not mentioned explicitly in the Bill, compliance with the framework is a requirement for insurers.

The amendments also clearly define the scope of the Bill to apply specifically to mortgage protection insurance rather than across all financial services. This targeted approach aligns the Bill with the existing voluntary framework and avoids unintended impacts across the wider insurance and financial services market.

At the core of the amendments is the statutory obligation on insurers to disregard a person’s cancer related medical history once the specified conditions are met. These conditions reflect the operation of the voluntary code currently in place, requiring that an individual has completed active cancer treatment and has been in complete remission for a period of five years. This five-year threshold is shorter than the seven-year threshold currently in the voluntary code, reflecting established medical standards and the point at which the risk of recurrence is significantly reduced. I thought it prudent to shorten this timeframe based on the evidence presented to me and the need to give certainty to survivors.

While the measure is often described as a right to be forgotten, the legislative approach is in fact a right to disregard. The amendments will introduce a clear operational framework for insurers to verify, if requested, information necessary to determine eligibility, including confirmation of diagnosis, treatment completion and remission. Insurers can then assess and determine applications accordingly. That history must be disregarded and cannot be used to refuse cover or to increase premiums within the statutory threshold. The original Bill’s sponsor, Deputy Ardagh, is aware of and supports this approach.

The Bill also specifies that the disregard obligation will apply up to a defined level of mortgage protection insurance cover, set at €650,000. This represents an increase on the existing voluntary code’s threshold of €500,000, which I sought during consultation, and expands access to protection while allowing normal underwriting practices to apply to any portion of cover above that threshold. To ensure the framework remains responsive to market developments over time, the amendments provide for periodic upward review of the threshold. The Minister for Finance will be required to review the threshold in five-year periods, having regard to factors such as residential property prices, and may increase the amount by order, subject to approval by both Houses of the Oireachtas.

The amendments also include standard provisions on the administration of the scheme, including the payment of expenses in accordance with public financial procedures. In addition, and to deliver on action 24 of the Action Plan for Insurance Reform, amendments to the Insurance Act 1936 are also included. These amendments will give the Central Bank of Ireland the power to petition the High Court for the winding up of reinsurance companies.

This will address a gap in the current framework and bring reinsurers into line with other financial services sectors, such as banks, credit unions and investment firms, where the regulator already has appropriate insolvency powers. The proposal also responds directly to the IMF’s financial sector assessment program recommendation that weaknesses in the insurer insolvency regime be remedied through legislative change. Also included are amendments to the Insurance Act 1964 to fully implement changes to the Insurance Compensation Fund framework arising from the sixth motor insurance directive. These amendments ensure that captive insurance undertakings, which insure only the risks of their own corporate group, remain outside the scope of new levy requirements relating to crossBorder motor insurance business. This approach is consistent with the existing Insurance Compensation Fund framework, under which captives are excluded from levy requirements for domestic insurance businesses.

Together, these measures ensure that the legislation is both effective in protecting consumers and fully integrated within the broader regulatory framework governing the insurance sector. On 27 April, the Government approved these amendments, and a decision was taken to progress the legislation as a priority measure in order to deliver on a programme for Government commitment. These changes will deliver a balanced, proportionate and effective framework that will provide real benefit to cancer survivors.

I will take the opportunity to thank, in particular, Deputy Catherine Ardagh, who initiated this Bill in the first instance in the Seanad, re-initiated it in the Dáil and enabled me to capture or overtake it to allow me to prioritise it as a Government Bill. We have gone further than what was originally envisaged under the voluntary code. This is good news for cancer survivors. As I said, I want to thank Deputy Ardagh in particular, but all Members of the House who have been very supportive as we have worked our way through this legislation. I look forward to addressing any questions and engaging in further detail on Committee Stage of the Bill, which I understand will be taken next week, should we get approval of the Bill here tonight.

Deputy Máire Devine

Sinn Féin welcomes this Bill. Ensuring the right to be forgotten is essential for people who have overcome cancer. For people who face a diagnosis of that kind, and we all know somebody who has, purchasing a home will not be the first thing on their minds but shelter and owning your home is so important to recovery and the quicker we realise the difficulties people are facing - the battle with cancer, even when they are on the far side of it, it is an battle to simply be treated like everybody else by the banks and insurance companies, which are the modern gatekeepers of home ownership.

The Government can be assured of Sinn Féin's support for this Bill. In many ways, it is long overdue. In Ireland we saw a voluntary code recently adopted by the insurance industry. Insurance companies can choose whether they adhere to a code in each individual case. The longstanding default of self-regulation has not served us well. That voluntary code only applies to mortgage protection insurance and not to other types of insurance.

That said, the fact we are looking at this policy area raises many more questions. Is after five years of being cancer free a fair threshold to be set for the right to be forgotten? We have to add the difficult years of battling cancer. Only when people are finally cancer-free does the clock start and then they have to wait for five years to apply for mortgages. I do not think that seems right. We need to look hard at that and perhaps the Minister of State will do so on Committee Stage.

I hope the Government will be sincerely open to looking at how we could go further than what is set out in the Bill. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have a long track record of siding with the banks, including allowing them to send up to 100,000 mortgages to vulture funds, many for no reason, and without consent. The families deserve justice there. The banks are allowed to enjoy corporation tax relief while boasting a combined profit of €5 billion last year alone and despite never fully repaying the Irish people for bailing them out. This is an opportunity for the Government to show is it on the side of ordinary people and not the banks. Ordinary people deserve so much more.

Make no mistake, banks and insurance companies do not want this even if they would not say it publicly. If this is to pass, they want it to be as narrow as possible, with the wait time for a fresh start as long as possible. A year after the first all-clear from a doctor should be more than enough. We need to understand that very recently, in the past decade, healthcare treatment and options have been revolutionised, as has the treatment of serious illnesses with the rapid positive results that were always promised. This needs to be taken into account. Survival rates from cancer have quadrupled and it is no longer necessarily the big C scary stuff we thought it was perhaps a decade or so ago. Healthcare has moved on and has been revolutionised so I do think a year being clear from a doctor should be enough.

People need to be able to move on with their lives, especially with lives they felt had been threatened. We have to think about why we are only talking about cancer. There are many serious medical conditions that mean people cannot access mortgages either because the banks will not lend or the insurance companies will not provide the insurance banks require to issue a mortgage. My party colleague Deputy Conway-Walsh was dealing with a case a couple of years ago where a woman who had previously suffered from an eating disorder was denied insurance. She was denied precisely because she was continuing therapy to ensure she did not relapse. She was effectively being punished for doing the right thing, for seeking help and staying healthy and investing in her own health. I believe that eventually, due to the woman bravely speaking out and to political pressure, she was offered cover but nobody should have to go down that route and that is all on an individual, desperate basis, putting your life story out there and begging and pleading for somebody to listen so they will act and give cover.

This leads me to another area. It is not often that lending is the greatest barrier. As I mentioned in the story about the women with the difficulties with an eating disorder, the issue is often accessing the mortgage protection insurance. This is where we need to be careful to ensure the legislation has the intended effect. Not only must people not be denied cover but we also need to ensure they are offered fair and affordable premiums. If someone gets an offer but the monthly cost is extortionate, then the barrier to accessing a mortgage will remain. It is a kind of catch-22. This issue is sometimes kicked around between the banks and the insurance companies; hands off, Mexican stand-off and it is somebody else's problem. The insurance company will say that where they will not insure, there are exemptions under section 126 of the Consumer Credit Act. While banks will say that insurance companies should be providing insurance, people are denied mortgages for not having mortgage protection insurance and are quoted extortionate premiums. Many people do not know that they can argue their case with the bank.

I welcome this legislation and commend my Dublin South Central colleague and former Seanad mate, Deputy Catherine Ardagh, and well done to her for bringing this forward. I commend her on progressing this and ask the Minister of State to have a think about what I have just said.

Deputy Ged Nash

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 has 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.

Deputy Michael Collins

I want to speak on behalf of ordinary decent people out there who did the right thing all their lives. They worked hard, saved carefully and tried to put some money aside for their retirement. The problem is what happens when they are struck down with cancer, which is a very serious ailment that can in some cases lead to life-threatening situations. In more cases, it does not and they make a good recovery. There has to be some leverage there for these people who have gone back to normal life and deserve that understanding of the situation they are in.

There is not much understanding in the financial sector for such people because I have heard from people who were not wealthy investors but rather were farmers, small business owners or working families. They went to financial advisers in good faith and like anyone else, they took reassurance from seeing that these advisers were registered with the Central Bank of Ireland. They believed that meant something. They believed it meant oversight, protection and accountability but when things go wrong, and I have seen this at first hand in my own constituency, the reassurance counts for little. People have lost hundreds of thousands or even millions of euro of their life savings and what are they told? They are told the Central Bank does not deal with the individual complaints and are sent down a long road of process and paperwork while their futures hang in the balance. Meanwhile the very individuals who are responsible can shut down one company, walk away and set up again under a different name still operating, still authorised and still dealing with people's money. This is simply not good enough. What message does that send? It sends the message that there are no real consequences for those who mislead or fail their clients.

We are told compensation schemes exist but they are limited and do not cover the reality of what many people have lost. For someone who has lost his or her pension or savings, €20,000 is not protection; it is an insult. What is the point of Central Bank registration if it offers no real protection when it is needed most? I raised this issue before and people out there listening today will be asking what has changed because from where they stand, nothing has changed. It is time to strengthen accountability, to ensure that individuals and not just companies are held responsible and to fix a system where people can walk away from the damage they have caused and simply start again because at the end of the day, this is not about regulation on paper. It is about real people, real losses, real health issues and real consequences. It is about people I have sat down with and listened to - people who are left devastated and even suicidal. Right now, far too many people are being left to carry the cost alone.

Deputy Catherine Ardagh

I thank the Minister for introducing this legislation. I welcome the opportunity to speak on what will be called the Insurance (Disregard of Certain Medical History and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, which many people across Ireland know simply as the "right to be forgotten" legislation. Tonight is a very important night for cancer survivors and their families. This legislation is about fairness, dignity and recognising that somebody who has survived cancer, completed treatment and rebuilt his or her life should not continue to face financial discrimination years later when trying to buy a home and protect his or her family. For too long, cancer survivors faced what many described as a second battle after their treatment has ended. They have already gone through surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, uncertainty and fear. They have fought the hardest battle of their lives yet years later, when they apply for mortgage protection insurance, many are still being treated differently because of their historic cancer diagnosis. It is simply not fair. A cancer diagnosis should not be a lifelong sentence and this legislation remedies that. I am very proud to say that I first introduced this legislation in the Seanad in 2022 alongside the then Senators, Deputy Jerry Buttimer and Paul Gavan of Sinn Féin, with broad cross-party support through the Oireachtas cross-party group on cancer.

Later in the Dáil, Deputy Erin McGreehan and I introduced the Central Bank (Amendment) Bill during one of the first terms of this Dáil. That is the basis of the legislation that is before us this evening. I want to say very clearly that this Bill does not belong to one individual or one political party; it belongs to a community. There is an old saying that it takes a village. In this case it took a community of survivors, advocates, doctors, lawyers, insurers, civil servants and politicians like the Minister of State to bring this legislation to where it is tonight. Every single person involved played a role in getting it here and many people spent countless hours over several years advocating for this legislation because they genuinely believed cancer survivors deserved better.

I want to acknowledge Professor Mark Lawler and Ciarán Briscoe for their work at the All-Island Cancer Research Institute. I want to acknowledge Adrian O'Higgins BL, who drafted the original legislation and gave enormously of his time and expertise in this process. I particularly want to acknowledge Rachel Morrogh, CEO of the Rape Crisis Centre, who at the time was head of advocacy and public affairs with the Irish Cancer Society and was one of the driving forces behind this legislation.

I also want to acknowledge Steve Dempsey, Nikki Gallagher and former CEO Averil Power, together with the wider Irish Cancer Society team, for their continued engagement and leadership throughout this process. Research from the Irish Cancer Society showed that almost a one quarter of people affected by cancer had difficulty even getting financial quotes after their cancer diagnosis. That research really mattered. It helped expose the scale of the problem and helped drive political momentum behind this legislation.

I also want to thank Commissioner Michael McGrath, the former Minister for Finance, who was supportive in the early years in constructive engagement very early on with the insurance industry.

I want to thank Michael J. McGrath in the Department of Finance, the civil servant who worked extensively on this legislation. I also want to thank Paschal Donohoe, Simon Harris and all the officials in the Department of Finance who worked carefully and diligently on this legislation over a long period of time.

I particularly want to thank the Minister of State, Deputy Robert Troy. Sometimes in politics people begin ideas and sustain ideas, and sometimes you need somebody to bring legislation decisively over the line. To use a sporting analogy, you need somebody to put the ball in the back of the net.

The Minister of State played that role impeccably and I thank him. He engaged seriously with stakeholders, insurers, patient advocates and officials, and he has worked tirelessly and constructively to ensure this legislation progressed to this stage. Hopefully we will see it at committee next week and see it progress before the term ends.

I think it is also important to acknowledge the stakeholder engagement process because it genuinely improved the legislation. At the beginning, stakeholders like Insurance Ireland were understandably very concerned, especially around underwriting, sustainability and risk, but one of the key moments in this process was the review of the voluntary code introduced by Insurance Ireland in late 2023 after our initial Bill in the Seanad. That review demonstrated something very important. It showed that many of the fears surrounding the right to be forgotten were not borne out by the evidence. The independent review found that approximately 1,300 applications had been made under the voluntary code and approximately 650 people received cover amounting to €96 million in insured loans. Most important, the review found no evidence that anybody who met the code criteria had been refused cover because of their cancer diagnosis.

This evidence changed the conversation. It moved the debate from fear to facts. It demonstrated that fairness for cancer survivors and a sustainable insurance market could co-exist. I think Insurance Ireland, despite negative press, deserves credit for engaging constructively with the Department and the Minister of State throughout that process.

The provisions of the Bill are extremely important and we cannot take our eye off the insurance industry. They have to follow this Bill to the letter of the law. The legislation will place the right to be forgotten on a statutory footing for the first time in Ireland. That is hugely significant because voluntary arrangements do not have the same rights and legal status.

Cancer survivors deserve certainty and the legislation reduces the remission period from seven years to five years. This is important because cancer outcomes and survivorship rates have improved enormously over the years, and our laws must reflect modern medicine and modern realities. The legislation also increases the mortgage protection threshold. This matters enormously given the reality of today’s housing market. The legislation also provides for a periodic review linked to CSO residential property price data and stakeholder engagement.

Above the threshold, normal underwriting provisions can still apply but ultimately, this legislation is not about actuarial tables or underwriting models. It is about dignity. It is about recognising that people who survive cancer deserve the opportunity to fully move forward with their lives.

As somebody who has worked extensively on cancer advocacy and healthcare issues, I have spoken to many survivors who felt deeply upset that despite being medically well and discharged from treatment, they still felt financially excluded. Many felt forgotten. Tonight, through this legislation, we are saying clearly that they are not forgotten, that we recognise their recovery, that we support their future and that surviving cancer should not prevent somebody from buying a home, raising a family or planning for the future.

Politics is often criticised, but legislation like this reminds us, as others have said, what politics can achieve when people work together constructively and collaboratively. This Bill is not about ownership. It is about collective effort. It is about survivors, advocates, doctors, lawyers, civil servants, insurers and politicians all coming together in a meaningful way to improve people’s lives.

I am proud to have played a small role in initiating this legislation. I am proud of everybody who stayed with it and helped shape it. Most important, I am proud that Ireland is taking this step for cancer survivors and their families. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, and I commend the Bill to the House.

An Ceann Comhairle

I thank Deputy Ardagh. That is a modest statement, I am sure. I invite the Minister of State, who has five minutes, to conclude.

Minister of State at the Department of Finance (Deputy Robert Troy)

I thank all Deputies who contributed to the debate this evening. I acknowledge patients, survivors and families for whom cancer has impacted their lives. There is not a family in this country that have not been impacted by cancer, my own included. I think of my two siblings who I lost to cancer many years ago. Perhaps that was one of the driving forces that meant I wanted to do something positive when I was in a role to do something that can make a difference to cancer survivors.

Deputy Ardagh has been very generous with her praise of me but I think of everybody who has worked together to bring us to where we are today. It just goes to show that when we do work collectively with key stakeholders and advocacy groups as a collective of people within the Dáil, we can make a very positive difference to people's lives. That is what this Bill is about, making a very positive difference to the lives of cancer survivors, ensuring fairness and ensuring dignity, as Deputy Ardagh has said.

I ask Members of the Opposition not to put in amendments just for the sake of it to say they are trying to do better than what the Government is doing. We arrived at this position after really intensive negotiations and after looking at international best practice. In Italy the term is ten years. In Portugal and Italy the term is ten years, as it is in the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, Luxembourg. In Slovenia, Romania and Czechia the term is seven years. The three other countries with terms of five years are France, Belgium and Spain. There is a reason why we are here. Many other countries do not have this at all. We have arrived at this position because it is proportionate and because it will not have unintended consequences for everybody else's policy. Of course we could put it at one year, but what impact would that have on the cost of mortgage protection for every other policy that has been taken out?

Let us keep working in the spirit of what we have arrived at with this Bill today. Many people spoke about the insurance industry, maybe in derogatory terms, and sometimes they deserve the criticism they get in this House but, to their credit and in fairness, they did introduce a voluntary code on the back of the work that then Senators Ardagh, Gavan and Buttimer introduced in the Seanad. The industry did introduce a voluntary code that worked. We are now going further than the voluntary code from seven years to five years. Deputy Ardagh said a sum of €96 million was insured under the voluntary code and that 100% of the people who met the criteria were offered cover at the standard rates. So, credit where credit is due, the insurance companies introduced a voluntary code and it was working. We are going further, with the reduction in the term from seven years to five years and increasing the cost cover from €500,000 to €650,000.

We have worked well together collectively. This is a very positive day, as Deputy Ardagh has said, for cancer survivors.

Sometimes you get up here and you talk about legislation and you wonder what the tangible benefits are for the people whom we are so honoured to represent in this House. There is very tangible benefit for cancer survivors.

I thank Deputy Ardagh for her advocacy and for pushing this to the fore at every opportunity she could. As the Deputy said, one of her first times to speak in the Dáil having been elected was introducing the Private Members' business. The Deputy enabling me to adopt that Bill has enabled us bring it forward to where it is today. I would have liked to have done it faster. Certainly, there are things we can learn from that. It is a positive news day for cancer survivors. With the support of the House, we will introduce it on Committee Stage next week.

I would ask members of the Opposition to not submit amendments for the sake of it. We have arrived at this. All the key stakeholders welcome this. The Irish Cancer Society welcomes this. I spoke at the All-Island Cancer Research Institute's summit in Croke Park on Tuesday. It welcomes this. Its members asked me to go and speak on this in Brussels to advocate the Irish position internationally. It is the right position. Let us stay united on this when it comes to Committee Stage next week.

Question put and agreed to.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Wednesday, 20 May 2026