VSP Vision Care’s Jim McGrann, left, with Ireland’s Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, marking VSP’s expansion of vision benefits and services in the Irish market.
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.— VSP Vision Care announced this week that it is launching its vision benefits and services business in Ireland. The company has already started to develop its network of eyecare providers in Ireland, and the vision benefit is now available in that country, according to a spokesperson for VSP Vision Care.

“Many of our global clients have operations in Ireland, and they have asked us to bring our product into this market,” said VSP Vision Care president, Jim McGrann, when announcing the launch this week in Dublin. “We know there is a very challenging climate in the private health insurance market in Ireland, and we are confident that by introducing a vision plan, employers and insurers can deliver better health outcomes for their employees and members.”

Jeremy Chadwick, managing director for VSP Vision Care in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will oversee VSP’s expansion into Ireland. VSP Vision Care plans to partner with employee benefit companies, health insurers and flexible benefit consultants across Ireland to make the vision benefit options available to Irish employers. “Employers can provide their employees with an allowance that can be applied toward eyecare services and materials,” a VSP Vision Care spokesperson said to explain what specific benefits VSP will be offering in Ireland.

VSP Vision Care will also work with a network of independent eyecare providers in Ireland to deliver eyecare examinations. “We already have the start of our network here and are continuing to actively recruit eyecare providers who are in Ireland,” the spokesperson told VMail. “This announcement is very much in line with the announcement we made in the U.K. at the end of last year,” the spokesperson added, referring to the company’s expansion there, as reported by VMail, May 27, 2013.