Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The section is important. It relates to what many people call the small print in insurance contracts. How we deal with that is archaic and outdated at the moment but this will bring it into a modern era in a serious way. It will not allow for claims to be invalidated where a warranty does not impact on the reason for the claim. The Minister of State referred to burglar alarms. There is a good example where one has a warranty that insists on a class A burglar alarm and, unknown to oneself, one has a class B alarm. One's house burns down because it was struck by lightning. In such a situation one's insurance claim would be invalid. That will no longer be the case because the burglar alarm had nothing to do with the fact that lightning hit the house and, therefore, the insurance company will pay out.

Even if one was in breach of the warranty for a period, it is only for that period that one's insurance contract is invalidated for and only for the portion to which the warranty refers.