The Consumers' Association of Ireland (CAI) attacked the insurance industry for not passing back profits to policyholders quickly enough in the form of sufficiently reduced premiums.
New figures showed that profits at non-life insurance companies increased by 65 per cent to €689 million last year.
Statistics published by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority show that in the motor insurance sector, insurers recorded profits of €330 million last year, a rise of 55 per cent on 2003. This was achieved despite a 10 per cent fall in the total value of motor premium business written.
It is feared that insurance companies may now be reticent to pass on further cuts until the knock-on effects of reinsurers' liabilities from Hurricane Katrina become clearer.
But the CAI said consumers were still suffering as a result of dramatic increases in motor premiums from 2000 to 2003. CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell described the 55 per cent increase in profits, despite underwriting a smaller value of business, as extraordinary.
"It just shows how Irish consumers have been taken for mugs for so long," said Mr Jewell.
"This shows that we don't have the competition we need in the industry," he added. "Everybody is entitled to make profits in business but this level of profits while premiums are still high is not acceptable."
However, the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) attributed the increase in profits in the motor sector to a reduction in claims costs arising from the Government's reform programme and its own anti-fraud campaign.
The IIF said policyholders and shareholders were both benefiting from the industry's continued profitability and that motor insurance premiums were now back to 1999 levels.