Aviva Ireland made an operating profit of €73m last year as gross written premiums underwritten by the insurer jumped to €584m, thanks to improved performance by the company's personal and consumer lines.
Operating profit at the company increased €1m year-on-year despite growth of €63m or 12.1% in the value of premiums.
Declan O'Rourke, CEO of Aviva Insurance Ireland, said the business performed positively in a competitive market and highlighted the combined operating ratio, Aviva's key measure of profitability in general insurance, improving from 96% to 94.8%.
"Gross written premiums increased by 12% to €584m, due to strong growth in both our personal and commercial lines business," he continued.
"We continue to invest significantly in digitisation by delivering a leading online platform for SME business and a new direct-to-customer platform for personal lines.
"We are also benefiting from new products and distribution."
Aviva entered the health insurance market in collaboration with Level Health at the end of last year, and O'Rourke said the company is "very happy with progress” since it started underwriting policies in Q4.
O'Rourke said Aviva supports the Government Action Plan for Insurance Reform to address the costs and availability of insurance, and that the company has entered new markets and launched new products in response.
"Aviva’s average prices for car insurance in Ireland are lower than they were in 2017 and lower than in the UK," he said.
"To maintain progress, we urge government to implement the Action Plan recommendation to set legal cost scales for personal injury.
"We also urge government to work to reduce the plaintiff rejection rate in the Injuries Resolution Board, and to introduce Pre-Action Protocols to ensure more cases resolve without the need for costly litigation and long delays for all parties.”
O'Rourke said Aviva had been dismayed by the Judicial Council proposal to increase personal injury awards by 16.7%, saying Ireland's awards for minor injuries are "already many multiples of awards in both the EU and UK."
"We believe an increase of this magnitude at this time is not in the best interest of society as a whole and will reverse the positive impact of the decade long government action plan for reform," O'Rourke stated.
"We are asking government to send this draft back to the Judicial Council to review the categories of injury individually to ensure they are fair to all parties, and to properly benchmark our awards with other EU countries.”
Parent group Aviva plc underwrote £12.2bn, up from £10.9bn in 2023, and made an adjusted operating profit of nearly £1.8bn (£1.5bn) last year.
Aviva's £3.7bn acquisition of Direct Line remains on track, and shares in the group have risen more than 2% in London today.
(Pic: Getty Images)
