AIB has been given approval by the EU's banking regulator, the Single Supervisory Mechanism, to start repaying €3.3bn to the State.
The bank will repay €1.7bn through a capital reorganisation which will partially redeem preference shares created in 2009.
It also plans to use "contingent capital notes" - a form of finance which was provided to the bank during Ireland's financial crisis - to repay €1.6bn.
"The approval of these capital actions by the SSM represents another key milestone in the transformation of AIB," CEO Bernard Byrne said in a statement accompanying the announcement.
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Former-Greek Finance Minister - Yanis Varoufakis was speaking in Kilkenny last night. He says that Ireland is not an example of “successful austerity.”
He likened Ireland’s strategy during the bailout to that of a prisoner who does everything that they are told - in the hope that they will someday be set free.
The economist added that former Greek governments had tried the same tactic, but it didn’t work.
Speaking at the Kilkenomics festival, he singled out Ireland’s low corporation tax as the main factor which has turned the economy around.
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The newly merged Kraft - Heinz group has published its first set of results as a single entity.
The global food company has missed earning expectations - reporting a net loss of $303m, or 27 cents per share.
Ahead of the results the company announced that it will cuts costs by closing seven plants and reducing its workforce by 2,600.
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The Irish Times reports that a German inquiry into Ryanair pilots’ work status has been widened.
It concerns 50 pilots who fly the airline’s planes - but who are not Ryanair employees.
Instead they are registered with the UK agency Brookfield Aviation Limited - and they are technically self-employed.
It is reported in the German media that the pilots wore Ryanair uniforms - they were obliged to be on-call 11 months of the year - and that they had no right to refuse shifts.
If they are found to have been effectively full time employees, they could be untitled to back-payments for unpaid insurance and state pension contributions.
“This is a matter for Brookfield and its pilot contractors. However, the use of contract staff continues to be both legal and widespread in the airline industry,” Ryanair said in a statement.
