Elaine Byrne 3 February 2014
The European Commission published its first Anti-Corruption report today.
Information on the Eurobarometer polls and summaries of each country can be found here
The Ireland chapter is here.
The report makes a number of observations across different sectors of Irish public life. It has commended the government for the reforms it has introduced but states that more needs to be done, particularly when it comes to prosecuting corruption.
The European Commission report was written by European Commission officials from DG Home. It was researched by me with the assistance of Trinity College Dublin, Government of Ireland scholar Mark Carpenter.
Irish Politics Forum 
Why as an Irish citizen do I feel/know that some people are immune to prosecution for corruption and why do I also feel that this report is just another polite, toothless affair, that is meant to keep the lid on corruption, rather than help confront and play an active part in reform. To use a Bertism “much done more to do”.
Hi, Robert,
It isn’t corruption per se; the incidence, and impact, of genuine corruption is probably very limited. The powers-that-be would love people to sweat the small stuff. That distracts public attention from the real problem, And that is a system of governance that encourages and facilitates the sustained capture of economic rents, i.e, the receipt of returns in excess of those that would be secured under genuinely competitive conditions (reinforced by effective regulation) or under strict enforcement of performance and outcome criteria in areas where competition is inappropriate. What makes matters worse is that those who should be devising and enforcing competition law and regulation and enforcing performance and outcome criteria are either among the most assiduous pursuers of economic rents or have been neutered by the political system (or both).