'Ireland is the most corrupt country in the Western world'

gozunda wrote: »

Least we forget - here are just some of the major corruption scandals and their aftermath in the last 30 years

In 1995 Denis O'Brien was suspected of bribing Fine Gael government TD and Minister for Communications Michael Lowry. The license procurement, which ultimately made O'Brien one of the richest men in Ireland, was proven to be corrupt in an investigation by the Moriarty Tribunal in 1997.

The McCracken Tribunal was an inquiry into the financial affairs of politicians Charles Haughey and Michael Lowry. It started in February 1997 to investigate reports of secret payments by Ben Dunne to former  Taoiseach,  Charles Haughey and former cabinet minister Michael Lowry. A report from the Tribunal found that Haughey had given untrue evidence under oath and that Lowry was knowingly assisted by Dunne in evading tax. As a result of the findings and revelation of substantial funds in secret Ansbacher accounts, owned by Haughey, the new Ahern Government established a more extensive follow-up, the Moriarty Tribunal to investigate the financial affairs of the two politicians.

The Mahon Tribunal. The tribunal ran from November 1997 to March 2012 and was the longest running and most expensive public inquiry ever held in the Republic of Ireland. This inquiry was to investigate allegations of corrupt payments to politicians regarding political decisions and  planning permissions  and land rezoning issues in the 1990s in the Dublin County Council area.  Findings of corruption were made against 11 councillors, due to court proceedings only 6 were named 


The FÁS expenses scandal happened in Ireland in November/December 2008. The scandal first emerged in June 2008 when the Dáil was informed that gardaí were investigating the alleged misappropriate use of funds by a senior executive within FÁS. A number of high profile resignations followed after revelations that FÁS executives spent hundreds of thousands of euro belonging to the company on lavish holidays to the United States, which included first-class travel and expensive rounds of golf.

The Morris Tribunal in 2002 was a public inquiry to address allegations of the 1990s and early 2000s against the Garda Síochána. Subjects explored included suggestions of corrupt and dishonest policing in County Donegal but its recommendations and conclusions have more widespread consequences and importance.it investigated the case of Frank McBrearty Snr from Co Donegal was the victim of harassment following the death of Richie Barron. He was awarded nearly €2.5 million euro in compensation by the Irish High Court.


In 2014, material revealed by two Garda Síochána (Irish police) whistleblowers, Maurice McCabe and John Wilson, as well as the handling of the material and of the whistleblowers, led directly to the resignation of Ireland's then Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter. It was also part of the background leading up to the resignation of the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan. It was also part of the reason for the retirement of his successor Nóirín O'Sullivan.

In the period 2009- 2017 it was revealed that Gardaí had exaggerated the number of breath tests carried out by 1.45 million over a seven-year period, a report found that 3,498,400 breath tests were recorded on the Garda’s Pulse computer system, when only 2,040,179 were recorded on alcohol testing devices.This represents a discrepancy of 1,458,221 breath tests.

A number of formet executives of Anglo Irish Bank were charged in July 2012 with unlawfully helping a group of investors to buy shares in the lender in 2008, falsely inflating the share price before the bank was nationalised in 2009. The bank later collapsed, a key reason Dublin was forced to accept a €67.5bn bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund.

Also Seán FitzPatrick head of Anglo Irish Bankfrom 1986 until 2008, resigned after it emerged he had taken secret loans worth €155 million from the bank, hiding them from auditors for 8 years. He later defaulted on these loans due to the Global Recession and has since been unable to repay his debts, although he retired from his position with a pension of €4 million a year

And so it goes on ...

And this is only a partial list and notably excludes those who were not caught or where corruption remains uninvestigated.