The country's largest health insurer, VHI, is giving its one million members at least €75 back each after Covid lockdown led to a big drop in the number of people seeking medical help for other ailments.

VHI chief executive Declan Moran said the cashback was a direct result of the fact that many people could not access health care during the pandemic.

"The ability to provide access to our customers to healthcare settings has been severely limited and as a result, claims are down," Mr Moran said.

Health insurance expert Dermot Goode said: "This is welcome news for all health insurance members, but it's important to remind consumers of the need to shop around at each renewal to make sure you're on the best value cover.

"VHI are attributing this to the lower-than-expected claims payouts, especially in relation to public hospitals, which is interesting."

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VHI also announced it is reducing its prices by an average of 3% across its plans from May 1.

The cut is because it expects claims will be lower than prepandemic levels.

While claims from the private hospital sector are beginning to show signs of normalising, it is expected that claims from public hospitals will take longer to recover.

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