Italians are no less honest than their European partners - it only seems that way, the country's state auditor said this week. Mr Andrea Monorchio, head of the Court of Accounts, told a conference that Italy had a high incidence of corruption only because it was good at catching fraudsters.

Italians have long had a reputation in Europe for having a relatively high proportion of tax dodgers, bribe takers and cheats among them but you can see why he might feel aggrieved.

As the great and the good of Irish business life are finally being brought to book for the goings on in the infamous golden circle of the 1980s, it increasingly relegates the foibles of their Italian peers to the league of amateurs.

The latest allegations that as many as eight out of 15 directors of CRH, the largest industrial group in the State, were involved in what was essentially an unlicensed offshore bank for their personal profit, operated out of the company's registered offices by its then chairman leaves one with mixed feelings.

On the one hand, there is anger that those at the top of the business elite in this State chose to apparently flout the law in this manner. The pathetic protestations of the CRH board this week that, as a board, it knew nothing of what was going on when its former chairman was consistently suborning his fellow directors will do little to shed favourable light on this giant of Irish industry and its top executives.

On this other hand, I guess it is somewhat reassuring for shareholders to know that those in whom they place their trust to run the company in a profitable manner were not so dim as to be unaware of what was going on at the time in Irish business circles and not so bound by principle as to shun the opportunity to maximise profits - albeit personal rather than corporate profit.