Minister of State for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Noel Treacy, firmly defended his decision to drop commission disclosure from the draft regulation in advance of a meeting yesterday with representatives of the Consumers' Association of Ireland (CAI).

In an initial response to queries from Family Money, a spokesman for the Minister insisted that the draft involved was just the latest in a number of such drafts. He said the department did not wish to comment further in advance of further discussions between it, the insurance industry and the CAI.

But in a subsequent statement on Wednesday, Mr Treacy said he was pursuing a disclosure regime and that details were still a matter of consultation with the parties which, he hoped, would be concluded "as soon as possible".

He also expressed disappointment that confidential discussion documents had been leaked.

Mr Treacy said his proposals would "exceed the minimum disclosure required under EU law . . . and will be highly transparent, simple to understand, user friendly and consistent across the insurance industry".

He also said that broad agreement had been reached on the proposal to oblige suppliers of life insurance products to provide a tabular statement that will show total deductions, including commissions and charges, for each year of the policy.