A European Commission report looks at corruption in EU member states. Unsurprisingly Ireland faces particular scrutiny, writes European Correspondent Ann Cahill .

This country has spent an enormous amount of money on exhaustive tribunals of inquiry that behaved as a tightly-closed shop, had no procurement procedures and whose extravagant spending was not subjected to either independent validation or expert oversight.

The State is facing legal bills of more than €400m from the Mahon and Moriarty Tribunals.

THE Revenue Commissioners received a staggering €500 million last month from its ongoing investigations into offshore accounts.