We need to rebuild trust in our maligned politicians

With distrust in our politicians soaring and semi-state and banking chiefs earning huge sums, it’s crucial for Taoiseach Enda Kenny to deliver on his pledge to restore our the public’s faith in them.

WHO do you trust? Nobody it seems. Priests, gardaí, lawyers, journalists and civil servants. Virtually anyone who was once held above suspicion is now approached with great caution. So shaken are the Irish people by events of the past three years that we have lost faith in virtually everyone. That is, if a survey published this week is to be believed.

The Irish public have virtually no faith in politicians. So wary are we that we are four times more likely to believe the words of a random stranger than we are to trust our elected representatives.