Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On 26 December last year, President Higgins signed a Bill I sponsored into law, the Consumer Insurance Contracts Act 2019, three years after I initiated it in the House. It was passed unanimously on all Stages in the Dáil and Seanad. It was described as a game changer by the Alliance for Insurance Reform and by others as the most radical change in insurance law in this century. It shifted the balance away from the insurance companies in favour of the consumer. The Tánaiste will be aware that hundreds, if not thousands, of people have made claims in respect of business interruption insurance. Many have been forced to go to the courts to vindicate their rights under their contracts, which are being disputed by the insurance companies. My legislation would have cleared much of this up because there is a section in the Bill which provides that any ambiguity in contracts must be interpreted in favour of the consumer.

The Minister for Finance engaged with major insurers at the start of the year. They told him they did not want the Bill to be implemented at this time, despite it being passed unanimously by the Houses and it being over three years since it was introduced. He decided not to implement the Bill. Some 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for it to be implemented and thousands of businesses need it. When will all sections of the Bill be implemented by the Government?

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