A day after the Government said it would sell off the last of its stake in AIB, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has moved to lift the State’s remaining €500,000 executive pay cap at that bank as well as PTSB. As Joe Brennan reports, both lenders remained subject to a pay limit after restrictions were lifted at Bank of Ireland in late 2022, following the sale of the State’s last shares in that lender.

Joe also reports that Energia Group, the electricity and gas utility controlled by New York private equity firm I Squared Capital, handed a further €40 million of dividends to its owners in April, weeks after they pressed the start button a sale of the business. The payment, disclosed in Energia’s financial accounts for the year to March, brings total distributions to more than €540 million since the US firm bought Energia, then known as Viridian, in 2016 for €1 billion.

Why does Ireland struggle so much with infrastructure? In his column, John McManus unpacks why this country has struggled with big projects for years and will continue to do so.