Sales at Standard Life's Irish operations rose by 79 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, the group said today.

The company said sales for the three months reached £455 million (€513.3 million) for its two businesses in Ireland, Standard Life International, which sells products predominantly to UK investors, and the domestic business Standard Life Ireland.

Sales at Standard Life International rose by 93 per cent to £267 million as it developed new distribution channels. The domestic business recorded a sales increase of 62 per cent, to £188 million.

"We have had a strong start to the year despite challenging market conditions," said Standard Life's chief executive Nigel Dunne.

Mr Dunne said there were a number of factors that produced a "multiplier- effect" in increasing sales for the first three months of this year, including rising sales of single premium investment bonds, an increasing move to more secure investment and pension decisions, and good investment performance by Standard Life Investments across group pension managed, equity, fixed interest and absolute return fund categories.

However, the company said it was concerned about potential changes in tax relief that would make pensions less attractive.

"The risk is the government makes long term pension policy errors that materially damage the quality of life for generations of Irish people in retirement. The current income tax reliefs on pension contributions must be maintained to keep people saving," Mr Dunne said.

He said a proposal to introduce a 0.5 per cent levy on pension funds would have long-term impact on pension values.

"This levy could be substantially reduced if it was spread across all savings and investments products, including bank deposits .It doesn't make sense to impose a higher tax on pensions where saving levels are woefully inadequate," he said.