Fanagan Funeral Directors seems to have buried its losses, and is back in the black after reporting a pre-tax profit of €592,760 for the 12 months to the end of December 2013.

This is a significant turnaround on the pre-tax loss of €40,370 the company reported the previous year.

Fanagan’s, which is Dublin’s largest funeral company, paid corporation tax of €31,777 last year, down from €88,605 the previous year.

After tax, the company made a profit of €410,028. The accounts show rent of €115,000 for property on Aungier Street in Dublin 2 was paid to a close relation of some of the directors.

Directors’ remuneration including pension contributions amounted to €1.08 million for the year, down from €1.27 million in 2012.

The accounts show the company had a net debt of more than €2 million at the end of 2013.

The funeral company appointed Eileen Gleeson as a non-executive director a few months ago. Established in 1819, Fanagan's is now in its seventh generation and is associated with Kirwans, Nichols and Carnegie Funeral Director businesses.

There are more than 600 funeral directors catering for the approximately 28,000 deaths per year in Ireland.