Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 2 March 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Financial Services Ombudsman's Bureau - Strategic Plan 2017 and Tracker Mortgage Issues: Discussion

10:00 am

Mr. Ger Deering:

Yes. The answer to the Chairman's question is that the insurance company is obliged to draw the attention of the consumer to it, on renewal or at any time it makes such a change, under the consumer protection code. The information that insurance companies give is, probably, in terms of insurance, one of the biggest difficulties that we deal with. The issue is around it being clear. We had a discussion in our office yesterday. Something on which I will be engaging with the insurance companies, for example, is when people take out health insurance or travel insurance and they are asked do they have pre-existing conditions. Any of us here could have a conversation about pre-existing conditions. What I think a pre-existing condition is may be different to what somebody else deems it. That is okay. The person states he or she does not have and he or she travels. Then, in six months or a year, something happens, one makes a claim and one is told, "You had an X-ray five months before you travelled which has now shown up that you have a condition." We believe, particularly in phone calls and in written correspondence, there is an onus on insurance companies to explain in detail.

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