Irish fin min eyes return of AIB capital ahead of IPO

DUBLIN, Aug 7 (Reuters) - State-owned Allied Irish Bank's strong results puts the government in a strong position to recover the full cost of bailing it out, beginning with a return of excess capital ahead of a potential share sale.

"I welcome the strong set of results announced by AIB today and their confirmation that they are well positioned to start returning material amounts of capital to the Irish state," Finance Minister Michael Noonan said in a statement.

"This morning's comment from the bank's CEO that subject to regulatory approval, the bank is strong enough to do this now, means that the state's finances should receive a significant benefit in the coming year independent of any decision to sell some of our shares in the bank." (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Jason Neely)