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If you’ve had cancer in the past and you’re trying to buy a home, this page is for you.
Until recently, a cancer diagnosis often caused delays, higher premiums, or outright refusals for mortgage protection, even when treatment had finished many years earlier.
That position has changed.
In June 2023, Insurance Ireland introduced a new Code of Practice for underwriting mortgage protection for cancer survivors.
Under this Code, insurers must ignore a past cancer diagnosis when assessing mortgage protection, provided certain conditions are met.
You’ll often hear this described as the “Right to Be Forgotten”. In practice, it’s closer to a right to be ignored.
You still disclose your cancer history. The insurer simply cannot use it against you if you qualify.
You may qualify if:
If you meet these conditions, insurers cannot consider your cancer history when underwriting mortgage protection.
The Code applies to mortgage protection of up to €500,000 on a mortgage for your primary residence.
The following insurers have committed to the Code:
This part matters.
The Code applies to mortgage protection only.
It does not apply to:
Those products are still assessed using standard underwriting rules.
Yes.
You must answer medical questions fully and honestly.
If you qualify under the Code, the insurer must ignore the cancer diagnosis when making their decision, but the disclosure still has to be made.
Applying incorrectly or withholding information can still cause problems later.
The Code came into force on 6 December 2023.
It is now active across all participating insurers.
Insurance Ireland has appointed an external reviewer to oversee how the Code is applied.
The first review took place in January 2025, with further reviews scheduled every three years.
The Code itself will be revised as part of that process.
In many cases, yes.
If you are paying a high premium because of historic medical loadings and you now qualify under the Code, it may be possible to replace your existing policy at standard rates.
This needs to be handled carefully to avoid gaps or unnecessary underwriting.
If you want a second pair of eyes on how your cover is structured, you can start here:
Complete our mortgage protection questionnaire
The Code is designed to remove past cancer diagnoses from the underwriting decision, once the conditions are met.
If you qualify, insurers should not load premiums, delay decisions, or request additional medical evidence because of your cancer history.
That’s a big change from how things worked in the past.
Where people still run into issues is usually around eligibility, disclosure, or timing.
For example:
This isn’t about gaming insurers. It’s about making sure the application fits the Code properly
If it does, the process is usually straightforward.
The Code works well when the situation is clear-cut.
Where things can become more nuanced is when someone has had more than one cancer diagnosis, or diagnoses at different points in time.
For example, one diagnosis may fall outside the required remission period, while a later, unrelated diagnosis does not.
In cases like that, insurers still apply the Code — but they have to look carefully at how it fits the full medical history.
This is not about declining cover. It is about making sure the application reflects the facts accurately and in context.
That’s where having someone who deals with these applications regularly can help keep the process straightforward.
This change is genuinely positive news for cancer survivors buying a home.
But the details still matter, and mistakes are hard to undo once an application is submitted.
If you want to make sure things are handled properly before anything is submitted, complete our questionnaire and I’ll take a look.
Thanks for reading,
Nick
Editor’s note: First published June 2023. Fully rebuilt in 2026 to reflect how the Code of Practice is applied in real Irish underwriting today.
Written by Nick McGowan, QFA RPA APA
Nick is a qualified financial advisor and founder of Lion.ie, an independent Irish life insurance and income protection brokerage based in Tullamore. He’s been helping people get fair cover for over 15 years and was named Protection Broker of the Year 2022.
If you’d like straight answers without the sales pitch, you can learn more about Nick here.
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