Friday is Daffodil Day, which is perhaps the most iconic and recognised annual fundraising campaign in the world. Cancer does not distinguish between location, age, status or circumstances. Cancer makes its own rules. Sadly, this year, almost 45,000 people will hear the news that they have cancer and their journey will begin. Sadly, that journey will take them down the road of endless hospital and medical appointments. It will also take them down roads with obstacles that only reveal themselves as their journey progresses. Very soon, cancer patients will discover that their illness is not the only challenge they face. They must also contend with the costs associated with their treatment, which can be as high as €1,000 per month. The everyday costs associated with a cancer diagnosis have been raised many times. The financial struggles at a time when a person can be at his or her most vulnerable are a burden he or she should not have to carry.

What is not generally known is that a cancer diagnosis can present a lifelong financial burden for patients long after they have recovered. New research from the Irish Cancer Society has revealed that many people affected by cancer at any time during their lives face being refused financial products, which include both insurance and mortgage protection cover. Even if the adult individual was diagnosed with cancer as a child or teenager, he or she can still face challenges when trying to access financial protection for the future. People who have a cancer diagnosis in their past are three times more likely to have difficulties getting insurance than the general population. They are twice as likely to have problems obtaining a mortgage. It seems that their past diagnosis is being used as a stick to beat them financially. Despite the fact that more and more people are now cancer survivors, they continue to be discriminated against.

The Irish Cancer Society is calling on the Government to implement the right to be forgotten into legislation in order that people do not have to declare a cancer diagnosis five years after recovery. This has been implemented by many other European Union countries. People who have been diagnosed with cancer in the past are simply asking that their future lives are not defined by cancer. They have completed their cancer journey. They have navigated the endless issues that cancer patients face and struggled with the loss of income due to an inability to work. Many do not qualify for a medical card, which subjects them to hospital charges, the cost of travel and parking and many other associated bills. Many have had the pressure and embarrassment of debt collectors arriving at their doors demanding payment for unpaid medical expenses. Their journey with cancer itself may be over. They have been blessed to have survived. Penalising them further is both cruel and heartless. They deserve the right to forget. Will the Tánaiste please enable a Government decision to grant them this right?

I acknowledge Deputy Lowry for raising this important issue and for his ongoing advocacy for people who have cancer and those who have survived it. Friday is Daffodil Day, and I commend the Irish Cancer Society on its decades of advocacy and service provision to people with cancer and cancer survivors.

Successive national cancer strategies have delivered continuing improvements in outcomes for Irish cancer patients in terms of earlier diagnosis, better treatment and improved survival. The five-year net survival for all invasive cancers averaged 65% for diagnoses between 2014 and 2018. This is a substantial increase from only 42% in the 1990s. We are now in a situation in Ireland where a person is more likely to survive cancer than die from it, and there are more cancer survivors than people who have cancer. That is an important step in the right direction.

Treatment for our medical oncology, radiation oncology and surgical oncology services also continues to improve, with an estimated 200,000 people living with and beyond cancer in Ireland.

On the issue the Deputy raised in regard to insurance, I want to acknowledge that this a real problem and it is being considered by the Government at the moment. I also have to acknowledge that insurance is ultimately about the calculation of risk. That is how premiums are calculated, but they must be calculated in a way that is fair. I also want to acknowledge the sensitivity of the matter and to assure the Deputy that officials are now engaging with stakeholders and colleagues across Europe to better understand how they have dealt with this issue. We are aware of the Irish Cancer Society’s report, The Right to be Forgotten beyond cancer: Access to financial products and services, which was published in February. The Government is also aware that a number of EU member states have implemented such a policy. On foot of that, officials are now examining the approach taken in these jurisdictions. It appears to be inconsistent across jurisdictions. It is done differently, in different ways, so we now need consider what might work best in an Irish context.

The issue is also being considered at an EU level. The European Commission’s Beating Cancer Plan includes an initiative to address fairer access for cancer survivors to financial services, including insurance, via a code of conduct and a reflection on long-term solutions. As I indicated earlier, we acknowledge that this is an issue that needs some work and that other EU countries have acted on this. For that reason, the Department of Finance is doing some work on this. Hopefully, we will be able to make some proposals in the coming months.

I welcome the fact that the Government is taking the matter seriously. The Tánaiste, who is a qualified doctor, will be aware that it takes enormous strength, courage and willpower to overcome and to conquer cancer. The journey is long and arduous. It is an endurance test that stretches both the mind and the body. A medical all-clear is greeted with an overwhelming sense of relief and joy. It is a happy release from the burden of a debilitating, prolonged illness. As a survivor, to be told years later that you do not qualify, or that you are ineligible to access products because you have previously had cancer, is a hammer blow. This unfair approach undermines a survivor’s confidence, and it creates a doubt. It segregates and categorises former cancer patients. It is a blatant form of discrimination, which causes untold further and unnecessary hardship. I am asking for the Government to expedite this matter, to follow the example of other European countries and to make this part of legislation.

As I indicated earlier, the Government is examining this matter to see what is being done in other European jurisdictions and how we might do something similar here in the Irish context. Officials from the Department of Finance have met with Insurance Ireland on this. They will also be willing to meet with the Irish Cancer Society to pursue it further.

Insurance Ireland advises that life insurance must be underwritten on a case-by-case basis, and that different types of cancers present different types of risk of recurrence, which has to be reflected in its underwriting practices. Insurers use statistical, medical and actuarial data to make underwriting decisions to ensure the terms and conditions of insurance are appropriate and that they are in the interest of all policyholders. Any rating that may be applied is usually time-bound. Generally speaking, subject to no further complications, a rating would apply for no longer than ten years.