Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge Deputy Lowry for raising this important issue and for his ongoing advocacy for people who have cancer and those who have survived it. Friday is Daffodil Day, and I commend the Irish Cancer Society on its decades of advocacy and service provision to people with cancer and cancer survivors.

Successive national cancer strategies have delivered continuing improvements in outcomes for Irish cancer patients in terms of earlier diagnosis, better treatment and improved survival. The five-year net survival for all invasive cancers averaged 65% for diagnoses between 2014 and 2018. This is a substantial increase from only 42% in the 1990s. We are now in a situation in Ireland where a person is more likely to survive cancer than die from it, and there are more cancer survivors than people who have cancer. That is an important step in the right direction.

Treatment for our medical oncology, radiation oncology and surgical oncology services also continues to improve, with an estimated 200,000 people living with and beyond cancer in Ireland.

On the issue the Deputy raised in regard to insurance, I want to acknowledge that this a real problem and it is being considered by the Government at the moment. I also have to acknowledge that insurance is ultimately about the calculation of risk. That is how premiums are calculated, but they must be calculated in a way that is fair. I also want to acknowledge the sensitivity of the matter and to assure the Deputy that officials are now engaging with stakeholders and colleagues across Europe to better understand how they have dealt with this issue. We are aware of the Irish Cancer Society’s report, The Right to be Forgotten beyond cancer: Access to financial products and services, which was published in February. The Government is also aware that a number of EU member states have implemented such a policy. On foot of that, officials are now examining the approach taken in these jurisdictions. It appears to be inconsistent across jurisdictions. It is done differently, in different ways, so we now need consider what might work best in an Irish context.

The issue is also being considered at an EU level. The European Commission’s Beating Cancer Plan includes an initiative to address fairer access for cancer survivors to financial services, including insurance, via a code of conduct and a reflection on long-term solutions. As I indicated earlier, we acknowledge that this is an issue that needs some work and that other EU countries have acted on this. For that reason, the Department of Finance is doing some work on this. Hopefully, we will be able to make some proposals in the coming months.

See this speech in context