The Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International has published its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2014 today, so where does our fair isle sit on the rankings?
As it turns out, we're not that bad, but we didn't sneak in to the top ten of either the least or the most corrupt countries in the world, which is both bad and good respectively. Overall, Ireland sits tied for 17th along with Barbados and Hong Kong, with a score of 74 out of 100, which is an improvement on our score from 2012 of 69. That probably won't make pleasant reading for Enda and the lads though, given those large-scale protests in Hong Kong recently...
Speaking of the top ten, you can check them out below in full:
10 Most Corrupt Countries in the World
Somalia (score 8)
North Korea (score 8)
Sudan (score 11)
Afghanistan (score 12)
South Sudan (score 15)
Iraq (score 16)
Turkmenistan (score 17)
Uzbekistan (score 18)
Libya (score 18)
Eritrea (score 18)
10 Least Corrupt Countries in the World
Denmark (score 92)
New Zealand (score 91)
Finland (score 89)
Sweden (score 87)
Norway (score 86)
Switzerland (score 86)
Singapore (score 84)
Netherlands (score 83)
Luxembourg (score 82)
Canada (score 81)
Unsurprisingly, lovable old North Korea appears high up in the list of the most corrupt countries, while the least corrupt top ten is dominated by European nations, along with Canada, New Zealand and Singapore. In Europe, Ireland is 12th overall, and we seem to have a better grip on things than Greece, Italy and Romania, who are at the bottom of the Euro ladder.
If you want to have a poke around and see what countries are the most corrupt on the map, then there's a version of it embedded below for you to mess around with. We're off to Denmark.
Via ABS CBN News. All pics via Transparency.org
