OVER 85 per cent of Irish people feel that corruption is a major problem in Ireland, yet more than half feel they are not affected by corruption in their everyday lives and only 2 per cent have been asked to pay a bribe in the past year, a new survey shows.
The results from a Eurobarometer poll reveal Irish people have mixed emotions about corruption with 55 per cent saying that corruption is unavoidable and has always existed, well below the EU average of 70 per cent.
Similarly 53 per cent said they are not affected by corruption in their daily lives compared to the EU average of 67 per cent.
Yet 86 per cent of the Irish respondents surveyed said corruption is a major problem here, higher than the EU average of 74 per cent.
Irish people were more likely to think there was corruption among national, regional and local politicians than the EU average while 65 per cent of the Irish said there is insufficient transparency and supervision in the financing of political parties.
Eight out of 10 Irish respondents thought corruption was part of business culture in Ireland, well above the EU average of 67 per cent.
Almost a third of Irish respondents thought that corruption was widespread among the Garda, down seven per cent on the 2009 survey and slightly lower than the EU average of 34 per cent.
However, Irish people were less likely to think there is widespread corruption in judicial services with just 21 per cent citing it as likely.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the revelations of recent years Greeks topped the poll when it came to the belief that corruption was a major problem with 98 per cent of respondents agreeing.
It was followed by Portuguese and Cypriot respondents, 97 per cent of whom rated corruption as a major problem and by 96 per cent of both Hungarians and Romanians. Just 19 per cent of Danish survey-takers considered it a major problem.
The Eurobarometer survey was carried out by TNS Opinion Social network with fieldwork conducted in September 2011.