Ireland is increasingly perceived to be corrupt, according to a report published today. John Devittargues that politicians should stop attacking whistleblowers, tribunals and the media, and do more to help such champions of public integrity
The gloss has long been taken off Ireland's image of a country untouched by serious graft. Whistleblowers, the media and tribunals have exposed systemic malfeasance affecting the health services, the clergy, banking and insurance, the professions, policing, local government and political finance.
Ireland's score in the Corruption Perceptions Index(CPI), published today by Transparency International, has fallen correspondingly.
In 1995, Ireland received a score of 8.57 out of 10 on the CPI, where a score of 10 denotes a country entirely unaffected by corruption (no country has scored full marks). This year that score is a mediocre 7.5.
We are now ranked 17th out of 180 countries. And while our ranking is relatively good internationally, we have fallen well behind the likes of Finland and Denmark in terms of our attractiveness to certain foreign investors - especially those who wish to do business without backhanders or the need to cosy up to politicians.
It's not all doom and gloom, of course. It should be clear to close observers of the Government that the conditions for good governance have improved in Ireland over the past decade. For one thing, our ethics framework is far stronger than it was up to the mid-1990s.
That change did not come on its own. The momentum for reform was created by whistleblowers, the press and some farsighted politicians. They made the case for public inquiries into political and Garda corruption, and justified new systems to improve transparency in government and to combat sleaze in the private and public sectors.
The tribunals and Oireachtas inquiries are also credited with having saved the taxpayer some €2.2 billion in revenue through their exposure of systemic tax evasion - a multiple of that spent on the tribunals put together.
More recently, the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) froze lands in Carrickmines worth €61 million. The Mahon tribunal had previously heard evidence from Frank Dunlop that this land was rezoned as a result of bribes paid to councillors.
The amount claimed as a result of Judge Alan Mahon's inquiries could dwarf that seized by the Cab in criminal assets. More cases are expected.
Like a patient hearing unwelcome news from a doctor, our political leaders appear to have gone into denial. Instead of lauding the work of anti-corruption investigators, they have chosen to berate the media or the tribunals for simply doing their job. Worse still, they continue to leave potential whistleblowers with little legal protection, and have attempted to reverse some of the groundbreaking reforms we witnessed 10 years ago.
In the last year alone the Government has announced a number of retrograde measures for reasons that remain unclear. First came its decision to discard the Whistleblower Protection Bill which would have extended legal protection for whistleblowers in both the private and public sectors against legal or disciplinary action.
The Government has decided instead to take a "sectoral approach" to whistleblower protection without any timetable or indication as to who will and will not be covered.
Later in 2006, the minister for justice announced a new Privacy Bill, ostensibly to protect citizens against unwarranted intrusion into their private lives by the press. The Bill would allow the subject of a media investigation into corruption to seek a closed High Court hearing to request an injunction against a reporter. The reason for the court's decision would remain secret.
The effect of this would be to gag the media before it could even begin its inquiries. This would also be likely to be in violation of the UN Convention against Corruption, a treaty that Ireland has yet to ratify.
The minister for finance was no more inclined to advance Government transparency or openness than his colleague on St Stephen's Green. He ruled out the Standards in Public Office Commission's (Sipo) request for the power to appoint an inquiries officer into allegations of wrongdoing without a prior public complaint. His department also dismissed calls from Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly for a reduction in fees for freedom of information (FOI) requests and appeals. Irish FOI fees are the highest in the developed world and have led to what O'Reilly describes as a "culture of secrecy" within government.
Meanwhile, when the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) pointed out that it was grossly understaffed, the Taoiseach told the ODCE "to wait its turn". This in spite of the New York Times describing Ireland as the "Wild West of European finance", coupled with growing concern among foreign regulators, the International Monetary Fund and the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force about the risk of financial crime and money laundering in Ireland.
Furthermore, in the wake of the payments controversy surrounding the Taoiseach, the Government sought to amend the Ethics Acts so that politicians could receive three times more loans and gifts without declaring them to government departments or the Sipo.
The Taoiseach's remark last year that he had appointed people to the boards of State bodies because they were "friends" didn't lead to the expected clamour for reform of the appointments system. Instead, the Opposition sat on the fence and the issue was quietly laid to rest.
Irish business is believed to lose more than €2 billion a year from economic crime and corruption.
The effect that a country's reputation for straight dealing has on competitiveness should not be underestimated. The World Bank has identified a clear correlation between the scores of countries on the CPI and levels of foreign direct investment. This can be partly explained by investors' concerns over poor infrastructure and unfair access to public contracts, both of which are products of state and corporate corruption.
Using the World Bank formula, it was estimated in 2001 that Ireland had lost up to 10 per cent of foreign direct investment because of corruption. How much water this statistic holds is open to debate.
What is certain, however, is that nations such as Finland, Denmark and Norway frequently top both the Global Competitiveness Index and the Corruption Perceptions Index. Not only does this give the lie to the old myth that corruption greases the wheels of business, but it should concentrate minds on the urgent need to deal with the problem effectively.
If we value our international reputation, then our leaders must lend unambiguous support to those who courageously expose the truth - no matter how uncomfortable the truth may be.
John Devitt is chief executive of Transparency International Ireland.