Ireland rises to 17th in transparency index

Ireland’s image as being an honest country in which to do business has improved for the second year in a row, according to an index of corruption perceptions published by Transparency International.

As the memories of the Mahon and Moriarty tribunals begin to fade, Ireland moved from 25th place in the 174 countries scored in 2012 to 17th this year. The head of Transparency International in Ireland, John Devitt, said this should not lead to complacency when one considers just 10% of investigations into corruption lead to a prosecution.

Four of the top five performing countries were European — Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway — and the warning about complacency was repeated by the group’s EU director, Carl Dolan. “Although some of the best performing countries are in Europe, EU states should be concerned about their complicity in corruption around the globe. We know that any effort to stop corruption in one country is undermined as long as corrupt officials are allowed to hide their money in another,” he said.