Aviva Insurance Ireland, the third largest insurer on the Irish market, made an operating profit of €73 million in 2024. 

Declan O’Rourke, CEO of Aviva Insurance Ireland, has expressed that the business has performed positively in a challenging market and said; 

“Gross written premiums increased by 12% to €584m, due to strong growth in both our personal and commercial lines business.”

Innovations such as a new online platform for SME business and a new direct-to-customer platform for personal insurance lines have contributed to Aviva’s profits, as have new products and distribution.

Aviva, in collaboration with Level Health, also began offering health insurance towards the end of last year and O’Rourke is “very happy with progress”.

Central Statistics Office figures suggest that Irish motor insurance premiums rose by 11.4% on average last year, while home insurance premiums rose by 8.3% on average.

Aviva has defended their premiums with O’Rourke stating “Aviva’s average prices for car insurance in Ireland are lower than they were in 2017 and lower than in the UK.”. Lower prices were attributed to the new personal injury award guidelines set by the judicial council in 2021.

The judicial council has proposed a 16.7% increase in the value of personal injury awards, the first since the introduction of the guidelines in 2021, as a response to the impact of inflation on compensation amounts.

The proposal to increase personal injury awards by 16.7% has caused “dismay” at Aviva as 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.”

“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.”  

Essentially, insurance works by the contribution of each customer’s premium into a central fund or ‘pot’ from which valid claims are compensated or paid out of. This applies to motor and home insurance.

Any increase in the number of claims, such as following a storm, will affect insurance prices or premiums. 

Likewise, an increase in the cost of claims, such as price increases for:

will push up insurance premiums.

These external factors that affect your insurance premiums will be in addition to individual risk factors related to the customer, such as your age or the age and type of your vehicle with motor insurance or the rebuild cost or geographic location of your home, for example.

It can be difficult to beat industry wide price increases for car and home insurance but here are some tips to help you find more affordable insurance.

Many factors can contribute to the current insurance price increases but Compare Insurance can help you to beat price rises with great quotes for car and home insurance.

We can get you free quotes on insurance from every insurer in the Irish market, so you can compare prices, or a free, no obligation phone consultation with our qualified advisors if you wish to discuss your options.

Fill in our online assessment, email, or call us today to see how much you can save.