Irish companies take the top five spots in a survey of corporate governance practices among 250 euro zone firms carried out last year. In the annual survey, conducted by independent French research firm Proxinvest, AIB is rated the best company for its corporate governance, followed by Bank of Ireland, CRH, Elan and Jefferson Smurfit.

Eircom is the lowest ranked Irish company, in eighth place on the list after French groups Air Liquide and Aventis but ahead of Finland's Nokia and UPM-Kymmene. British firms are excluded from the survey as they are not in the euro zone. Companies are graded on about 30 criteria including shareholding structure and defences, the quality of control by the board of directors and the integrity of corporate practices.