Vivas, the third health insurer in the market, more than tripled premiums earned from customers to €29.7 million in 2006 and expects to more than double this figure this year.

The insurer, 65 per cent of which is owned by AIB and financier Dermot Desmond, made a pre-tax loss of €262,394 last year.

However, when a deferred tax credit of €948,509 was included, the insurer made a profit of €686,115 in 2006, compared with a loss of €3.6 million the previous year, according to accounts to be filed shortly.

Vivas chief executive Oliver Tattan said the company would have 150,000 subscribers by the end of this year, giving it a 7 per cent share of the market, and 200,000 by the end of 2008. The company entered the insurance market in 2004.

Tattan said he expected Vivas to earn premiums of more than €60 million this year. He said the company could potentially earn €450 million in premiums by 2010 given the growth rate of the overall health insurance market. He estimated that the market could grow from €1.5 billion now to €6 billion in 2010.

"The 150,000 puts us at 7 per cent market share by year end. If we can get to that position in three years from zero, we would expect to more than double that in the next three years."

Tattan won the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year category at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards at a ceremony in The Citywest Hotel in Dublin last night.

Vivas is the third insurer in the market behind the dominant player, VHI, which has a market share of about 76 per cent, and Quinn Healthcare, which controls 17 per cent of the market.

According to Vivas's accounts for 2006, the insurer paid out gross claims of €6.5 million last year, compared with €425,036 the previous year. The reinsurers' share of the pay-outs in 2006 was €3.2 million.

The insurer's provision for unearned premiums rose from €5.4 million to €15.2 million as its business increased.