Annual profits rise 16% at Mary Harney insurance firm

Pre-tax profits at the insurance firm where former tánaiste Mary Harney serves as a director increased by 16.5% to €24m last year.

Ms Harney was appointed to the board of Dublin-based Euro Insurances in February 2012. Newly filed accounts show the firm also boosted revenues, last year, by 5% to almost €166m.

Ms Harney is one of five board members at the Dutch-owned firm, which paid €17.8m in dividends to shareholders last year.

She serves as a non-executive director with three other non-executive directors and one executive director, Hessel Kaastra.

Directors’ pay last year dropped from €878,215 to €388,523, with pension payments down from €691,250 to €13,978.

No breakdown is provided for the amount received by each director, but Ms Harney is likely to have received far less than for her role as an independent non-executive director than Mr Kaastra.

The principal activity of the firm is the insuring and r-insuring of motor damage and third party liability risk of group companies and third party clients. While the firm’s total revenues increased last year, its Irish business plummeted with revenues here decreasing by 85% to €530,997.

Its strongest performer was its Italy market, revenues there rising from €27.76m to €37.6m.

The figures show the firm paid out €92.47m in claims last year with the reinsurer’s share of €1m reducing the amount to €91.45m.