Corruption Perceptions Index 2024: Anti-corruption watchdog says corruption risk is a ‘grave and imminent threat to national security’

Transparency International (TI) Ireland has repeated its call on the Government to move quickly in plugging gaps in the country’s defences against corruption as it publishes the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) results. Ireland maintains a score of 77 out of 100, ranking 10th out of 180 countries, reflecting the relative absence of any major corruption scandal over the previous three years. Denmark continues to be perceived as the least corrupt country in the world with a score of 90 out of 100; South Sudan is perceived to be the most corrupt with a score of 8.

 

The CPI ranks 180 countries based on perceived levels of corruption. Ireland’s score is drawn from the findings of eight separate surveys and studies, which are conducted by international think-tanks and political risk agencies. The higher a country’s score, the less it is perceived to be affected by public-sector corruption. Neither TI nor TI Ireland conduct the surveys used to compile the index.

 

Whilst Ireland continues to perform relatively well in comparison to most of its peers on the index, the risk of corruption persists and poses a serious threat to democratic institutions and national security, according to TI Ireland’s Chief Executive, John Devitt.

 

 

 

‘Corruption and prevailing public perceptions of corruption pose a much more serious threat to global and national security than any foreign government or weapon system. You don’t need overwhelming air power and armoured divisions to capture a state. It’s much easier just to buy its politicians with donations and to misinform voters by taking control of the means by which they get their news. We are now witnessing the most serious threat to democratic norms and institutions since the 1930’s and yet many liberal democratic governments seem to think they can fix public distrust in those same institutions by accommodating far-right narratives on migration and ‘woke politics’, Mr Devitt said.

 

‘What's more, the underlying causes of public distrust in democratic government are not being addressed. Research shows that the public distrust politicians and government in large part because they believe, rightly or wrongly, that they are beholden to party donors. This is having an impact on turn-out at elections and amplifying far-right and libertarian claims that only ‘strong men’ and smaller government can purge the State of corruption. If we are to correct such narratives and rebuild public confidence in our institutions, liberal democratic leaders need to show they are committed to addressing the substantive causes of corruption. Chief amongst them is the role of private money in politics’, Mr Devitt added.

 

While Ireland has tighter controls on electoral donations and financial interests than many of its counterparts, risks still persist. The Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) has neither the powers or resources to effectively audit and investigate party and candidate returns. Parties and candidates also continue to use online crowdfunding and fundraising events to bundle donations which make it possible to flout electoral law without the risk of detection. Indeed, the source of less than 9% of donations to Irish political parties between 2019 and 2022 was revealed to the public.

 

 

 

Ireland’s ethics regime is also ‘hopelessly outdated’, according to Dr Alexander Chance, Head of Policy and Research at TI Ireland. 

 

‘The final report of the Mahon Tribunal published in 2012, found that ‘corruption in Irish political life had been both endemic and systemic’. It made a series of very detailed recommendations on how public ethics legislation, structures and processes should be reformed to safeguard against such abuses. And yet, most of these have not been implemented. Many of these recommendations were incorporated into the Public Sector Standards Bill 2015 (PSSB). If enacted, the Bill would have modernised the disclosure of elected officials’ financial interests, required TDs and office holders to disclose large loans and liabilities, and strengthened SIPO. However, the Bill was allowed to lapse and despite findings of malpractice by both the Mahon and Moriarty Tribunals, too little has been done to prevent a reoccurrence’, said Dr Chance.

 

Since then, the 2021 Hamilton review of structures and strategies to tackle corruption and economic crime made many of the same recommendations as the PSSB, as did the Government’s own 2022 Review of Ireland’s Statutory Framework for Ethics in Public Office. The previous Programme for Government undertook to ‘reform and consolidate the Ethics in Public Office legislation’, however this commitment was not fulfilled. A similar commitment to ‘Update the Ethics in Public Office legislation’ was included in the recently agreed Programme for Government.

 

 

‘Ever since the various Tribunals of Inquiry revealed serious political corruption, the public have been waiting for their representatives to make good on their repeated assurances that they take political integrity seriously. The continued failure over many years to implement reasonable but robust rules suggests that the promotion of ethics in public office has been a low priority for successive governments and the Oireachtas. Politicians rightfully decry malpractice in other parts of the public sector but thus far seem unable to set internationally recommended** standards for themselves.

 

‘In December, we wrote to party leaders to remind them that continued neglect of political integrity is no longer an option,’ Chance continued. ‘As we can see from other countries, popular support for democracy is easily eroded through even the most minor of ethical lapses and the perception of a conflict of interest. And if safeguards are not in place, such perceptions – whether well-founded or not – can be exploited by those seeking to further undermine trust in our democracy and thereby weaken national security. We therefore urge the new Government and Oireachtas to deliver on previous commitments to implement the recommendations of the Mahon Tribunal and enact the Public Sector Standards Bill without delay’, Dr Chance continued.

 

The threats to national security are also heightened by Ireland’s vulnerability as a potential conduit for dirty money from other countries. This includes the proceeds of corruption, as well as organised crime, tax and sanctions evasion and other criminal activities. TI Ireland’s recent ‘Weak Links’ report highlighted that, as a rapidly growing international financial centre, Ireland faces serious risks associated with illicit financial flows from overseas. These risks require urgent attention to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for dirty money, and to ensure the integrity of its financial system and reputation in an increasingly unstable political and economic environment. The Weak Links report drew attention to specific gaps in Ireland’s current legislative and regulatory framework that could facilitate illicit finance, notably a restrictive approach to beneficial ownership transparency, weaknesses in proposed reforms to limited partnerships, the need for a more robust and properly resourced verification system to safeguard company registrations, and the absence of anti-money laundering controls around certain Special Purpose Entities.

 

‘Our work on dirty money echoes the concerns of others, such as the International Monetary Fund, that Ireland needs to acknowledge the scale of the threat it faces from illicit finance from overseas, and to translate that better understanding into a more comprehensive and robust approach that spans strategy, improved corporate transparency, and properly resourced enforcement. We are particularly keen to see the proposed legislation to reform limited partnerships incorporate more ambitious measures to prevent these structures from being used for corruption and economic crime. It is also imperative that the Government review its restrictions on access to beneficial ownership data, which is an indispensable tool for identifying and investigating money laundering and other criminality. By closing financial secrecy loopholes, enhancing enforcement, and treating illicit finance as a national security threat, the Government can protect our financial system and demonstrate global leadership in the fight against crime and corruption,‘ Dr Chance added.

 

Notes

 

About Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI):

 

 

For the avoidance of doubt, neither Transparency International (TI) nor TI Ireland directly attributes a country's rise or fall on the CPI to any individual.

 

In addition to the annual CPI, TI also periodically conducts the Global Corruption Barometer for different regions of the world. The Global Corruption Barometer surveys the experiences of everyday people confronting corruption around the world and is the only worldwide public opinion survey on corruption. The most recent Global Corruption Barometer for EU countries was conducted in 2021, and included public experiences and perceptions of corruption in Ireland. The findings suggested that Irish respondents perceive that undue influence over public policy is a problem, but that the public are less exposed to corruption in their daily lives than in most other European countries.

 

** The EU’s 2024 Rule of Law Report recommended that Ireland ‘Further strengthen the existing ethics framework, including the monitoring and enforcement capacity of the Standards in Public Office Commission, and strengthen and digitalise the asset declarations system.’ The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) last year highlighted the Government’s delay in providing a ‘uniform and consolidated values-based normative’ public ethics framework covering conflicts of interest, declarations of gifts, assets and liability declarations, contacts with lobbyists and third parties, and post-employment activities. In a separate 2024 report, GRECO made a series of recommendations to prevent corruption and promote integrity in top government roles, including pre-appointment integrity checks and corruption risk assessments, publicly available codes of conduct, and regular integrity training.

 

See the CPI Source Description for more information on the methodology and questions used for each survey: