THE CHIEF executive of Hibernian Group has defended the company's decision to outsource 560 jobs to India, saying it is the best way of preserving the remaining jobs left in Ireland.

Stuart Purdy told a conference on corporate responsibility, organised by Concern and the British embassy yesterday, that issues relating to insurance in Ireland are "relatively stark" and that profit levels in its life and pensions business are the lowest in the 27 countries in which its parent company, Aviva, operates. Hibernian has been accused of corporate greed for its announcement last week that it will be outsourcing the jobs to its centre in Bangalore over the next three years.

Hibernian made a gross operating profit in the Irish market last year of €352.9 million, an increase of almost 90 per cent on the previous year. Mr Purdy said he had spent the last two days "looking in the eye" of his employees and explaining to them why the company was proposing the move.

"The reality is that, when we find it difficult to get and maintain people and difficult to make the business pay, we do have to look at solutions that bring attractive savings to our business and the reassurance of ongoing service," he said. He explained that Hibernian made a loss of €63 million in its life and pensions business in 2006 (it made a €116 million profit last year), but that its profit level last year was only 1.4 per cent.

He said the move to Bangalore was a "really important step in getting significant profitability and sustainability into the business".

Unite, which represents two-thirds of the 2,200 employees, will begin balloting for strike action over the proposals tomorrow.

The union says the decision is unnecessary, as other Irish insurers have not outsourced.