Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the amendment. This issue of the six-year rule has come up repeatedly over a long number of years. Paragraph (b) of the amendment, which deals with the matter of life assurance, provides clarity in respect of any ambiguity surrounding the issues. I note the Government Bill is due to come forth as well and that identical amendments were tabled. This is all about what is best for people, many of whom found themselves victims of circumstance whereby the time had run out before they realised the substantive difficulties they had got into over a policy. It will be welcome when we have people coming to our constituency offices to whom we will be able to say there is now scope in this regard. I have met people over a long period, certainly in Limerick, who are dealing with this issue, as I have no doubt my colleagues elsewhere have. This is a welcome amendment and I very much welcome that we have cross-party support from Government, Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil on this matter.