Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Section 15 of the Bill provides that the moneys to be paid to a valid claimant are to be net of any charges or deductions that may be made by the insurance undertaking, in other words, the charges that comply with the normal legal practice for insurance undertakings in these circumstances. As such, these charges and deductions take account of taxes and administrative charges which the undertaking are legally entitled or, indeed, obliged to recoup from the proceeds of a policy that has been encashed. It would be inappropriate for the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to make regulations in relation to such taxes as they related to revenue matters or the contractual relationship between the insurance undertaking and its client. In any case, the basis for these charges is the policy contract. The Minister for Finance has long held that these schemes should interfere as little as possible with the rights of customers and that is what both the relevant pieces of legislation have tried to adhere to. For that reason I do not propose to accept the Senator's amendment.