The Irish public’s trust in its Public Service and Government is among the highest in the developed world, according to research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Ireland ranked alongside several Nordic countries when it came to trust in Government, with a majority of people surveyed in Ireland, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Luxembourg saying they trusted their institutions.
The report found Ireland had the highest level of public trust in the Public Service, with more than two-thirds of respondents expressing confidence in the institution.
The OECD surveyed people across 22 countries to gauge trust in public institutions such as National and Local Government, the judiciary and the Public Service.
On average across the countries, four out of 10 people surveyed said they trusted their National Government.
Slightly more than half of the respondents from Ireland said they trusted the Government.
The report found a large gap in levels of trust between groups with different levels of education – in Ireland, more than half of those with a tertiary education reported trusting the Government, compared to 40 per cent of those with secondary education.
There were lower levels of confidence among younger generations, only one in five Irish people aged 18-to-34 said they trusted the Government, about 60 per cent of those over 50 years of age said they did.
When it came to the judiciary, Ireland and Denmark had the highest rates of trust in the courts, where a majority believed judges made decisions free from political influence.
While people in most countries surveyed said they trusted their Local Government more than the National Government, in Ireland trust in the National Government was slightly higher than trust in Local Authorities.
When it came to how easy information about public services was to access, four-fifths of Irish people surveyed said they believed it would be easy to find.
The OECD is made up of more than 30 countries and includes most of Europe, as well as the United States, Japan, Australia, Turkey and Canada.
Dublin, 14 July, 2022
