Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is something I will be in communication with the Central Bank on. We need to deal with the fact that the Equal Status (Amendment) Act 2012 is failing people and the Central Bank needs to step up. In Britain, we have the strategic environmental assessment, SEA, with a memorandum of understanding, with the relevant agency there, to make sure it has the teeth to make sure insurance companies do not deny life insurance cover to classes of people who should be getting that. These are people who went and told their own story on public radio last week, in terms of eating disorders that are historic. People with diabetes and people recovering from Covid have been told they cannot get life insurance.

That should not be and is not allowed under the Equal Status (Amendment) Act 2012 but, unfortunately, the only body charged with implementing that is the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, which does not have the teeth to deal with this. I ask that the Central Bank go into a memorandum of understanding with that organisation, to make sure insurance companies cannot do to people what is happening. Denying mortgage cover to people who are trying to secure their first or second home is a growing trend. It is not a requirement in Britain to have that cover, but it is here.