Ireland ranked 14th best in list of corrupt countries by perception

IRELAND has been placed 14th best on a list of 178 countries which have been ranked according to how corrupt they are perceived to be by business people.

According to the Corruption Perceptions index published by Transparency International (TI), Ireland remained at a score of eight out of 10, which suggests a low level of corruption.

Nearly 75% of the 178 countries in the survey scored worse than average on the scale, which ranges from zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption).

However, chief executive of TI Ireland John Devitt said there has still been many instances where the fragile nature of Ireland’s anti-corruption standards have been exposed but have gone relatively unnoticed.

“The events over the past few years show that you don’t have to break the law to be corrupt. Politicians and special interests have combined to make decisions for a very powerful minority at the expense of ordinary taxpayers. We can start to deal with the problem by controlling the flow of money into Irish politics and encouraging people to come forward and protecting them when they speak up in the public interest.”

According to the index, Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore are the least corrupt with a joint score of 9.3, while Somalia is the most corrupt country with a score of 1.1.

TI president Huguette Labelle, said: “Allowing corruption to continue is unacceptable — too many poor and vulnerable people continue to suffer its consequences around the world.”

TI also noted that of the 36 countries that have signed the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development anti-bribery convention, as many as 20 show little or no enforcement of the rules.

Transparency also criticised the Irish government’s approach to whistle-blower protection which only protects employees in selected categories, claiming that people working in public, private and non-profit sectors continue to be exposed to dismissal or legal reprisals for reporting concerns in the public interest.