Outgoing Irish Life & Permanent chief executive David Went is set to join the board of State health insurer, the VHI.

Minister for Health Mary Harney has approved Mr Went's appointment to the VHI board and the insurer is set to announce this shortly. He is expected to take up the post as soon as it is formally announced.

Mr Went is best-known as chief executive of Irish Life & Permanent, the banking and insurance group formed from the merger of Irish Life and Irish Permanent in 1999. The group has two divisions, Irish Life, which provides pensions, insurance and life assurance, and Permanent TSB, a retail formed when the group bought TSB in 2001.

In 2006, the group posted a 26 per cent increase in profits to €529 million.

Mr Went is due to retire as chief executive on May 18th, when he will be succeeded by the current head of Permanent TSB, Denis Casey.

Mr Went became chief executive of Irish Life plc in 1998 following a period as chief executive of Coutts Bank, NatWest's private banking arm. Before that, he was chief executive of Ulster Bank and Ulster Investment Bank. Mr Went is also chairman of the Trinity Foundation, which raises cash for Trinity College Dublin. He is chairman of the board of The Irish Times Ltd.

A number of VHI directors have stepped down recently as their five-year terms as members of its board came to an end. They included chartered accountant Kevin Moynihan, who is also head of the Killarney Technology Centre, and Cork accountant and auditor Joseph O'Leary.

The VHI is the dominant health insurer in the Irish market. Its biggest competitor is Quinn Direct, which recently bought the business operated by British insurer Bupa. Bupa left the market last year claiming it could not afford to foot the bill for risk equalisation.

Since Quinn took over the business earlier this year, the Government has pledged to introduce changes to risk equalisation that will spread the estimated €32 million cost more evenly.

The VHI is a statutory body and is exempt from the requirement to maintain large reserves that are imposed on other insurers.