A tough day for government hasn’t been helped at all by the latest survey results showing Ireland’s dismal performance in the World Corruption Cup.
The tournament, organised by Transparency International, ranked 176 countries in total, from least corrupt to most. Ireland did make improvements over the last 12 months, but could only jump from 19 points obtained in last years tournament , to 26 points in this years.
Some may say this is a good improvement, but when compared to our European partners, our lack of progress becomes immediately apparent – and rather disheartening.
Ranking best out of Europe was Greece, who had a solid performance over the year and secured 94 points for themselves, out of a maximum 176. Topping the European group for most corrupt country, will also see Greece automatically qualify for next years tournament. Bulgaria then came in 2nd, with 75, then Italy with 72.
Expected More
With a solid line up of corrupt politicians and bankers, Ireland was really hoping to place far better in the tournament. With many seasoned internationals, who have years of experience in corruption, the country’s expectations were much higher – many presuming that Ireland would be in a good position to challenge the likes of Italy and Greece to take home some silverware and give the country something to celebrate.
But unfortunately, it appears that our senior politicians didn’t perform on the world stage and Ireland could only manage a dismal 26 points out of 176.
Many will now be calling for an overhaul of the team, to remove some of the senior players and bring in some new, fresh and corrupt faces to challenge both our European and international competitors. Ireland has a strong base of grassroots corruption, with many local authorities being centres of excellence for corruption, that feed into the national framework of the country.
Although this years performances was poor, there is a lot of work going on at ground level to ensure that in future rankings, Ireland’s corruption levels will continue to improve and share the stage with the international heavy weights, such as North Korea, Somalia and Afghanistan.
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Ireland perform terribly in world corruption cup.