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.

Transparency International scores on a scale of zero to 10, with zero reflecting exceptional corruption. The 2010 index shows that nearly three quarters of the countries scored below five but Ireland scored an impressive eight. This, despite all our travails and the budget-from-hell hanging over us, is not to be sniffed at.

It may not be as influential as our 12.5% corporation tax, but it must have some positive influence on investors considering locating projects in Ireland.

It suggests a stability and reliability in our affairs that should not be taken for granted. After all, this stability, this relative security for capital must have some value and is not as widely available as might be imagined. We should not be slow to use this strength to promote Ireland as a place to do business.

Neither should we take for granted that because we get such a good rating that there is little or no corruption in Ireland. Anyone with eyes to see, ears to listen and an income to be taxed knows that not everything in public or business life is beyond reproach.

We may not have to grease palms to pass a driving test or jump a few places on a housing list but there are many anecdotal accusations that, even if they only have the slightest thread of truth, deserve attention.

Ireland may not be amongst the most corrupt but we nevertheless managed to turn a blind eye to practices that won us the unenviable title of the wild west of European finance. But then that was light touch regulation and not corruption and we await, increasingly impatiently, the courts’ ruling on where the line between one and the other lies.

We must wait too to see if the courts will ever get an opportunity to decide if what went on at FÁS was just appalling mismanagement or corruption.

Transparency International’s definition of corruption may be too narrow to accommodate very many of the failings of human nature that lead to blood-red, brown-envelope corruption. And though we must celebrate our very positive rating, a rating very many countries would love to have, we should be at least honest with ourselves about our dishonesty.

One of the reasons we are in the mess we are in, one of the reasons we are facing a decade or more of austerity, is that we are not.