Survey: 28% of top Irish executives believe corruption has got worse

Almost double the amount of professionals in Ireland — compared to the rest of Western Europe — believe there has been an increase in bribery and corruption since the onset of the economic downturn.

The latest annual global fraud survey from Ernst & Young shows that 28% of senior executives here feel such activity has increased over the past four years, as opposed to 16% across Western Europe.

More than 1,700 executives — including chief financial officers and heads of legal and internal auditing committees — across 43 countries were surveyed.