Profits have surged at the ESB, with the company reporting that it earned pretax profits of €338 million last year.

It also pledged to pay an €88 million dividend to the exchequer, and said that it is taking a €94 million "non-cash" charge to cover various steps it is taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Ian Guider, markets editor of The Business Post, joined us to discuss this and the day's other business stories, including:

• Digicel in talks about possible debt write-downs
• Retail sales decreased by 4.3% in February
• Applegreen lays off 4,800 workers

Listen to the interview in full by pressing the play button on this page.