Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ellis for raising the issue, which is obviously a very difficult one for the family concerned that wanted to purchase their own home. While I have an appreciation of the difficulties individuals may find themselves in as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, neither I, the Minister for Finance, nor the Central Bank of Ireland can interfere in the provision or pricing of insurance products nor do we have the power to direct insurance companies to provide cover to specific individuals or businesses. This position is reinforced by the EU framework for insurance, which prohibits member states from doing so. Consequently, unfortunately, I cannot direct insurance companies as to how they price their policies or what terms and conditions they apply to those policies.

It is my understanding that insurers use a combination of rating factors in making their individual decisions on whether to offer life insurance, such as mortgage protection cover, and what terms to apply. These factors can include age, health, family medical history, occupation and lifestyle. In addition, these may be determined or linked to the policy duration and whether the policy is for ten, 15, 20 or 25 years. In the case of mortgage protection policies, these tend to be over the lifetime of the mortgage repayment schedule. In addition, my understanding is that different insurers do not use the same combination of rating factors. Accordingly, price and availability of cover varies across the market, and policies are priced in accordance with each firm's prior claims experience.

My officials contacted Insurance Ireland, the representative body for such providers in Ireland, on this issue recently. It stated that while some customers are still able to get life, critical illness or mortgage protection insurance at this challenging time, it is aware of a small number of individual cases where a final decision on some life insurance applications is being postponed for a period where applicants have an underlying health condition. That essentially confirms what the Deputy outlined, that there is a small number of such cases. Insurance Ireland, the representative body of the insurance industry, has confirmed that. However, it stated that while unaware of any cases where life cover has been denied as a result of Covid, such policies are assessed on a case-by-case basis and that underlying health conditions will be taken into account by the underwriters, as was the case pre-Covid-19. It does appear that there are delays occurring for people who otherwise would have got mortgage protection previously, but because of Covid the insurers are being exceptionally careful and overly prudent in the cover they now offer.

I can understand the difficulties the Deputy has highlighted. It means that a person who probably had mortgage approval in principle before Covid came along, who had a certain amount of money and felt they would be able to proceed, but the delay could in all probability mean they might not be able to get a house because the vendor might have moved on to somebody else who did not have a problem getting a mortgage. I hope that after the Covid restrictions the family that was entitled to it will be able to get mortgage cover far more easily. I accept the delay due to Covid could affect the purchase, as the house in question might not still be on the market when the situation hopefully improves early in the new year. I understand the difficulty because of Covid, and the unknown period involved. Depending on the employment situation of individuals, it is causing a problem during this period which did not exist previously. I hope once Covid is under control that things will get back to normal and those people will be able to get back on the housing market next year, albeit not perhaps to buy the house they were looking at earlier this year.

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