Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have no problem with the Order of Business as outlined but I ask the Leader to invite to the Chamber the Minister for Finance so he can give his views on the marketing and administration of whole-of-life insurance policies in this country. Members may be aware that such policies involve an applicant taking out a life cover policy for events after his or her death and it would protect the family financially. It is good and useful for most people to undertake such a policy. However, people do not seem to realise that after ten years paying into such a policy, an anniversary is reached whereby an insurance company may, and invariably will, increase the premia significantly with no corresponding increase in the guaranteed sum. I can give a brief example. Ten years ago, an individual took out a whole-of-life assurance policy, with the premium set at €90 per month and the assured sum at €100,000.Ten years later, the sum insured has grown to approximately €220,000, a 100% increase, but the premium has gone from €90 up to €800 per month. This is something most people cannot afford.

When these policies are being sold, it is not made clear to the purchaser that this is going to be the scenario. One finds people who are coming into middle and old age and who can no longer afford to maintain the premiums on their life cover at a time when, actuarially speaking, they probably have more need of it than ever before. This matter was raised in the previous Dáil by my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, who has identified a very significant cohort of people who are caught in the trap to which I refer. It is a trap, because in many cases individuals have used life cover as security for their mortgages and they cannot arbitrarily opt out because then they do not have mortgage protection, which is more difficult to obtain the older one gets. This matter must be examined. I raised it briefly in the previous Seanad. I am going to put forward a Bill on it soon if I do not see the Minister moving on it. I hope the Leader could make that possible.