{"id":654248,"date":"2026-08-24T18:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/654248\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T18:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:19:17","slug":"new-law-to-provide-greater-certainty-for-cancer-survivors-seeking-mortgage-protection-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/654248\/","title":{"rendered":"New law to provide greater certainty for cancer survivors seeking mortgage protection \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cancer survivors are to be granted a legal \u201cright to be forgotten\u201d allowing them to obtain mortgage protection without discrimination based on their past diagnosis. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Under a previous voluntary code, which was not adopted by some insurers, a survivor could access mortgage protection after seven years of remission or five years if individuals were diagnosed when under the age of 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">However, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/politics\/2026\/04\/28\/right-to-be-forgotten-for-cancer-patients-in-insurance-market-to-be-enshrined-in-law\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/politics\/2026\/04\/28\/right-to-be-forgotten-for-cancer-patients-in-insurance-market-to-be-enshrined-in-law\/\">the reforms<\/a> come into effect in October, people who have been free of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cancer\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cancer\/\">cancer<\/a> for five years will not be penalised when applying for a mortgage.   <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The threshold for mortgage protection cover will also rise from \u20ac500,000 to \u20ac650,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The act also places the consumer protections on a statutory footing for the first time, moving from the existing voluntary nature of the code of practice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It is intended to provide greater certainty, consistency and protection for cancer survivors seeking mortgage protection insurance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">T\u00e1naiste <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/simon-harris\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/simon-harris\/\">Simon Harris<\/a> said the move would mark a \u201cmajor milestone in delivering statutory protections\u201d.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cPeople who have come through cancer have continued to face barriers when buying a home, switching a mortgage, or seeking security for their families, even years after their treatment had ended,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Minister of State with responsibility for financial services, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/robert-troy\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/robert-troy\">Robert Troy<\/a>, said the act \u201ccannot undo what some families have been through\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cHowever, it can remove an unjust obstacle. It can give people a meaningful chance to plan, to build and to move forward with confidence and optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The legal change follows a lengthy campaign by advocates and charities, including the Irish Cancer Society, who have long called for the waiting period to access certain financial products to be reduced from seven years to a maximum of five years, in line with medically-recognised remission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cancer survivors are to be granted a legal \u201cright to be forgotten\u201d allowing them to obtain mortgage protection&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[110,18,135,19,3912,17,107128,9650,44],"class_list":["post-654248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-insurance","tag-ireland","tag-mortgage-application","tag-mortgages","tag-simon-harris"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117151869397548714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}