LAST UPDATE | 3 Apr 2023

CANCER SURVIVORS WILL be able to avail of the right to be forgotten when applying for mortgage protection.

The right to be forgotten ensures that previous diagnoses of cancer survivors who have gone a period of time without requiring treatment are overlooked in the event of the survivors seeking access to insurance, life policies and financial products.

Insurers will disregard cancer diagnoses where treatment ended more than seven years before an application under a revised code of practice announced by Insurance Ireland.

This timeframe will narrow to five years in the cases of survivors who finished treatment before turning 18.

The new code will also allow for cover of up to €500,000 per applicant, a threshold less than 10% of mortgage protection policies reach, according to Insurance Ireland.

It will be rolled out among Insurance Ireland members on a voluntary basis.

In a statement today, the body said the code will lead to a “faster, more streamlined process for impacted cancer survivors”.

The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling for EU member states to enforce a right to be forgotten for a maximum of 10 years after cancer treatment by 2025.

Insurance Ireland highlighted that while discussions continue at European level, the revised code goes beyond proposed provisions from the European Commission for mortgage amounts of €200,000 or less and a period of 15 years since end of cancer treatment.

The move comes after discussions between the insurance industry and the Irish Cancer Society last summer regarding the charity’s 2021 report, which highlighted many cancer survivors do not feel that they can access the necessary life cover in order to be obtain a mortgage.

Separate research released by the Irish Cancer Society in February of this year found people affected by cancer were more likely to experience difficulty when dealing with insurance providers than the general population and called on the Government to pass legislation to enshrine the right to be forgotten.

A bill designed to prohibit financial service providers from discriminating against cancer survivors seeking to access financial services five years after the termination of treatment was passed through the First Stage of the Seanad in October of last year.

In February, the Government stalled the progression of the legislation, provoking criticism from the Irish Cancer Society. 

Director of Advocacy at the organisation Rachel Morrogh pushed back on claims made by Insurance Ireland in a statement to the Business Post that it’s merely a “perception” that cancer survivors are penalised when trying to access such services.

So there’s nothing ‘unilateral’ about this - Ireland is already very much the laggard not the leader with respect to this legislation.

Industry should not decide what laws do and don't progress. The Bill should have gone to Committee Stage so all perspectives could were heard.

— Rachel Morrogh (@RachelMorrogh) February 5, 2023

“The Irish Cancer Society hears regularly from cancer survivors who are unable to access insurance & financial products, despite the industry saying it’s a ‘perception’,” she said.

“Industry should not decide what laws do and don’t progress. The Bill should have gone to Committee Stage so all perspectives could be heard.”

‘Insufficient’ 

 In a statement today, Morrogh said the move was an “important first step” but not the “ultimate goal, which remains the enactment of legislation”. 

“We see the Code of Practice as a positive interim measure while the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ Bill goes through the Oireachtas,” she said, before highlighting efforts across Europe to enshrine the right to be forgotten in legislation. 

Other European countries have already put ‘right to be forgotten’ legislation in place and the sky hasn’t fallen in. 

“France led the way in 2016, five other countries have followed, three other countries including Ireland are at different stages of developing legislation… so the writing has very much been on the wall for the insurance and banking industries that change is coming.”

Morrogh’s sentiment has been echoed by one senator who sponsored the delayed legislation, Fianna Fáil’s Catherine Ardagh, who has described the code as a “welcome development in the short term” but ultimately “insufficient”. 

Senator Ardagh, who recently met with Minister for Finance Michael McGrath  on the matter, says she is hopeful the minister will support steps to legislate the right to be forgotten. 

I am hopeful he will agree to work with us to legislate for a right to be forgotten so that it is reflected in the statute books to give equality and right of access to cancer survivors without any doubt.”

In his own statement, the minister hailed the code as an “important step” and described the issue of access to financial services for cancer survivors as “a key priority of Government”.

He said that Government will monitor the code’s impact following its publication and assess what additional actions may be needed, but made no direct reference to the progression of the stalled legislation. 

According to research from the Irish Cancer Society, approximately 200,000 people in Ireland are living beyond a cancer diagnosis, while 3 in 5 people diagnosed with cancer are alive 5 years after their diagnosis.