THE GOVERNMENT IS planning to legislate to prevent insurance companies from using cancer survivors’ medical history against them.

A ‘right to be forgotten’ in insurance policies has been called for by cancer survivors, their families and campaigners for years, who have long argued that it is unfair for insurance companies to take cancer diagnoses into account years after a person has entered remission.

A memo is being brought to Cabinet this morning on the issue on behalf of Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe.

The proposal will focus in particular on mortgage protection insurance.

The government’s position is that people who have survived cancer should not be penalised for their past health experiences when trying to move on with their lives through activities like buying homes, building families, and planning their futures.

Government ministers will discuss the memo at a Cabinet meeting today.

In 2023, Insurance Ireland announced a new code of practice that outlined that insurers should disregard cancer diagnoses where treatment had ended more than seven years before an application.

The Irish Cancer Society said at the time that the move was an important first step but that the government needed to step in to create legislation on the matter.