IT QUIT New Zealand recently following a flood of claims relating to the natural disasters there but, in Ireland, Ecclesiastical Insurance is hoping to treble the size of its business over the next five years.

“My remit is growth,” Ecclesiastical’s newly appointed managing director Ireland David Lane told me this week. “The board has given us the green light for a growth strategy.”

Set up in 1887 to provide insurance cover for the Anglican church in Britain, Ecclesiastical entered the Irish market in the early 1980s and has spread its services into other sectors.

It now offers insurance across five categories: faith (Catholic, Hindu, and Methodist groups are among its clients), heritage (Lismore House and the Kildare Street Club are properties it covers), education, charities (Oxfam and the Irish Cancer Society are clients) and care.

“We’re just about to launch a scheme for funeral directors,” Lane said with a deadpan look.

It’s also keen to provide insurance to commercial and retail property owners. “That’s an area we can develop more. Shopping centres would be ideal for us.”

Owned by the All Churches Trust, which is a charity, Ecclesiastical did about €15 million in gross written premiums last year. The total market is about €300 million.

“We’d like to build that to €50 million in four to five years,” Lane said. “We need to do that to be a player in the market.”