Fórsa has won a Government commitment to legislate to ensure that public servants working overseas won’t have ‘loadings’ applied to their health insurance policies, so long as they renew their insurance within nine months of returning to Ireland.

In a letter to union official Billy Hannigan, Tánaiste Simon Coveney said new regulations would also cover breaks in insurance for such staff while they are resident in Ireland, and the period over which any loadings would be payable.

Fórsa members in Revenue and the departments of foreign affairs, agriculture, business and enterprise, and elsewhere will likely benefit from the changes, which are expected to be introduced by statutory instrument in the third quarter of this year.

Billy said this issue was of particular importance to members posted abroad. “The revised arrangements will go a very long way to addressing our concerns. We will need to await the adoption of the necessary statutory instrument, but I am reasonably satisfied that this issue can now be regarded as solved,” he said.

Read the letter from An Tánaiste here.