Whats wrong with German standards?

I've read your above post about three times and I've given up trying to find a point in it - German standards on corruption are too high, ours are too low or something else. It appears to be a stream of conciousness, that has no beginning, middle or end and so I really don't know what response you're looking for other than "meh".

Or would you like to clarify what you're trying to say?

Fair enough, it's just not terribly clear from what he wrote.

So tolerance for corruption is significantly higher in Ireland than in Germany? There's a blinding flash of insight.

'Screwing the system' in Ireland has long been seen in positive terms, with a 'cute hoor' being a character type to be admired. This is not unusual for formerly subjugated nations as historically 'screwing the system' was in effect a form of rebellion against an occupying power. Arguably the Greeks suffer from this too to a great extent, but that's another discussion.

Upon independence, we retained this cultural trait, which morphed from screwing the English system to screwing the Dublin-Jackeen system, and we just went along with it. That Haughey, for example, was utterly corrupt was widely known, and I remember some even expressing admiration at this. Fear of retribution (legal and otherwise) from him and a general culture of normality where it came to such behaviour meant that, despite this common knowledge, it remained an unspoken truth - we actually did the same thing with regard to clerical child abuse, or did you genuinely think that no one knew what was going on there?

When the proverbial shìt hit the fan, the political establishment panicked; corruption was so widespread and common practice that no one even bothered to cover their tracks half the time and reform would have implicated almost everyone.

Thus someone came up the idea of the tribunal; which was seen to be addressing the issue when it was in the public eye and then would drag on until the public eye would grow bored and could then quietly brush everything under a carpet of legalistic language that would only be understood by someone who stood to gain from said system. Pure genius.

And that's why Ireland has jailed practically no one for corruption, and even when we have it's never been for long.

On top of this, such is the nature of 'parish pump politics' in Ireland that we continue to support such 'cute hoors' despite being exposed publicly (how many continue/continued to get re-elected?). So demand to clean up is very limited given we would rather have a local councillor or TD who can 'sort out' planning permission for an extension to our house than one who's going to be above board.

Overall, Ireland has the politicians that we deserve and until we change our culture with regard to some of the above, we will continue to elect them, regardless of party name; because corruption is not a function of ideology, but opportunity.

zero_hope wrote: »

I myself come from a country where members of parliament have been forced to resign over things such as not paying their TV licence or putting an MBA on their CV which in reality was a degree from a diploma mill. To be fair the corruption you people have in Ireland is on the same scale as many third world countries.

What country are you from, If you don't mind?

Which index are you using to measure corruption of different countries from?

zero_hope wrote: »

I am a Swedish man, this is a country where morals and decency exists unlike the social decay that we witness in Ireland, UK, America and Mediterranean countries.

And hubris apparently. I've worked and done business with plenty of Swedes; there's no shortage of wink and nod beneath the vernier of Lutheran proprietary, in my experience.