Stephen Breen’s diagnosis of head and neck cancer in 2019 came as quite a surprise, but the Dublin man took his treatment very seriously and after six months of chemo, radiation and surgery, he was given the all-clear.
He returned to life with a “newfound vigour”, he said, believing he was “closing one tough chapter”. But when he and his wife began the process of trying to buy their own home earlier this year, he quickly realised the disease would continue to have an impact on his life.
“You go into that process very innocently. I’ve had no issues repaying loans or owing money. But quite quickly, what you learn is … in order to go through the process of getting the finance in place, you need to get mortgage protection insurance in place,” the father of two said.
“But then this Hansel and Gretel paper trail becomes a huge part of your life. They want you to speak to a nurse, they want you to get a letter from your doctor, they want a letter from the consultant whose care you were under.”
He added: “No matter how much of that paper trail I provided them with, it never seemed to suffice. It seems like the endless actuarial trail that never seems to enable the purchase of a property.”
The 49-year-old and his wife sought mortgage protection insurance from four companies, but each of them told him he would be “deferred” for six months. Several homes they wanted to purchase fell through as a result of this.
Eventually after months of trying, he found one company who would provide him with mortgage insurance, but this was “weighted” – and his insurance will cost him around 250 per cent more than if he had previously not had cancer.
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On Tuesday, Cabinet agreed to bring forward legislation which will ensure that cancer survivors cannot be discriminated against when it comes to certain insurance products, specifically mortgage protection.
The Programme for Government sets out plans for the legislation, known as the Right to be Forgotten, to require insurers to disregard a cancer diagnosis where treatment ended more than seven years before application, or more than five years if the applicant was under 18 at the time of diagnosis.
In 2022, the Irish Cancer Society published research which found only one in four of those surveyed felt they were treated fairly when applying for such products.
In response, in 2023, Insurance Ireland introduced a voluntary code of practice for underwriting mortgage protection insurance for cancer survivors.
Under this, former cancer patients who are seven years cancer-free can apply for a mortgage of under €500,000. A review of the code, published in May 2025, indicated the voluntary code was working, the Department of Finance said.
The move has been welcomed by the Irish Cancer Society, but they are calling for the legislation to ensure financial service providers disregard a cancer diagnosis five years after an applicant has completed their treatment, rather than seven which is currently stipulated in the Central Bank (Amendment) Bill 2025.
Consequently, for people like Mr Breen, the new legislation will have little impact. He is six years all clear, one year shy of when the new legislation will be applicable.
He doesn’t yet know whether the cost of his mortgage protection will be reduced once he reaches that seven-year mark.
“It’s great to see a focus on this issue, but the challenge is they have to listen to the clinical professionals,” he said.
“What the doctors do is they say ‘you’re five years clear’ and they discharge you, send you off and you think that’s the end of it. If doctors say after five years, you’re discharged. Why can insurance providers wait until seven years?”
