Transparency International is a body which concerns itself with transparency and accountability globally and is having an increasing impact on corruption around the world. Established 10 years ago, it now has branches in almost 100 countries, including 10 of the 15 EU member-states and all eight of the central and eastern European countries which are due to join the Union in 15 months' time, writes Garret Fitzgerald.
A growing number of companies, including major multinationals, are signing up to its code of standards. As yet, it has no Irish chapter, but it is possible that, following a well-attended meeting in Dublin last Thursday, organised by the Joseph Rowntree Trust, one may be established here.
Transparency International has no illusion that there is any objective way of measuring how corrupt, or free of corruption, any country is. But what it can and does measure annually - in most countries by means of seven or more separate surveys of domestic and international opinion - is the general perception of the extent to which each of over 100 states are perceived at home and abroad to be free of corruption.
Of course, reality and perception can diverge, and whatever the reality may be, it is clearly damaging to the interests of any state to be perceived to be low down on a scale of freedom from corruption.
In Transparency International's 2002 Corruption Perceptions Index, two European countries, Finland and Denmark, together with New Zealand, were seen as the least corrupt states in the world.
Ireland, however, was down at 23rd in this listing. Among EU countries, only France, Italy, Portugal and Greece were viewed as being more corrupt than Ireland. Moreover, the perception of Ireland had significantly disimproved during the preceding three years, for as recently as 1999 Ireland was 15th on the list.
Such a deteriorating perception of ethical standards in Irish public life is potentially damaging and is, I believe, in substantial measure unfair. It seems to me to derive, somewhat perversely, from the fact that over this recent period much publicity has understandably attached to the work of tribunals inquiring into past financial misbehaviour by some politicians back in the 1990s, or in some cases even earlier.
It was, I am afraid, inevitable that our belated efforts to deal with such past misbehaviour would produce a short-run negative effect of this kind.
However, as someone who from the 1960s onwards was deeply concerned about what appeared to be a deteriorating ethical situation in several segments of Irish politics, I have to say that, in my view, the situation at national level today is better, not worse. For, as I remarked in this column some time ago, whatever may have been the case in the past, it would be quite unfair at this stage to attach any suspicion of financial impropriety to those politicians who have attained Cabinet rank in the past decade and are now in government.
And, at least in that very important respect, we are now in a much better situation than was the case a decade or more ago.
Of course, that does not mean that there may not be other areas where problems persist - for example, at local government level. There, the scale of the financial gain accruing to the beneficiaries of planning permissions and rezoning in certain counties, and perhaps also in illegal waste disposal, has, to say the least, placed great temptations in the way of some of those engaged in local government. It is clear that problems in this area have not yet been resolved.
Nor does the raising of standards at Cabinet level mean that there is not an urgent need to reform many other areas of potential political abuse at national level. Matters needing attention include private or business funding of political parties and individual candidates; the appointment without any element of transparency of inadequately-qualified party activists to the boards of state companies; and abuses of power by ministers who, at the expense of distributive justice vis-à-vis other parts of our State, divert sections of government departments or discretionary funding of projects to their own constituencies in the clear hope of buying local support for their own re-election.
In my view, there is also a possible problem related to abuses of expense claims, including the appointment of political supporters to various bodies - for instance, to prison visiting committees far away from where these appointees live. Through this process, such supporters may be enabled to claim unvouched standard subsistence and travel amounts which may be substantially in excess of their actual disbursements.
To an extent that most politicians are still clearly unable to grasp, there is increasing public awareness of abuses such as these, which are seriously damaging respect for politicians and eroding confidence in the political system. This is a reality that politicians urgently need to face - and to be seen to address with concrete actions.
Recently, civil society has been disturbed by signs of politicians rowing back from certain reforms of the past seven or eight years - for example, in relation to political funding - and also by recent suggestions that politicians may be contemplating reducing public access to government decision-making through the Freedom of Information legislation.
This worsening ranking of Ireland in the Corruption Perceptions Index reflects diminished confidence in politics, which discourages ethically-concerned people, and especially young people, from engaging in political activity.
Fortunately, there is, so far as I am aware, no evidence that any significant number of foreign investors have been affected by this, and I would be surprised to hear that any of the hundreds of foreign firms seeking to establish themselves in Ireland have been faced with a demand for a bribe in order in some way to facilitate any aspect of this process.
Nevertheless, we clearly need to do something to tackle the image of our public ethical standards which has been created by some past events. It seems to me that this could be assisted by participation in the Transparency International process, through the establishment here of a chapter of Transparency International.
An equally important part of the work of such a chapter would, however, lie in a somewhat different area, viz in encouraging Irish firms trading or investing abroad to commit themselves to eschew any form of bribery or corruption, thus helping developing countries, and also some in Europe with which we deal, to achieve higher standards in business and public life.
Through such participation in Transparency International, backed by civil society but involving also both the business community and politicians, we could contribute to higher ethical standards both at home and abroad.
gfitzgerald@irish-times.ie