Corruption in Ireland - We should be honest about dishonesty

DESPITE the great delay in bringing even one of those responsible for our economic collapse to book, and despite the almost laughable fact that the Moriarty Tribunal resumed its public hearings yesterday 13 years and €200 million after it began its investigations, Transparency International has reported that Ireland is amongst the least corrupt countries in the world.

We were ranked 14th in a table of 178 countries. Remarkably, America fell to 22nd position, the first time the United States was not amongst the 20 least corrupt countries.

However, the hard-core of their old Cold War protagonist, Russia, follows an entirely different and less regular drumbeat. Prime minister Putin’s fiefdom was found to be world’s most corrupt major economy. It joins Tajikistan in 154th place.