Irish public trust in civil servants and government among highest in OECD

The level of public trust in the Civil Service and government in Ireland is among the highest in the developed world, according to OECD research.

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 that they trusted the institutions.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is made up of more than 30 countries and includes most of Europe, as well as the US, Japan, Australia, Turkey and Canada.

The report, published on Wednesday, found Ireland had the highest level of public trust in the Civil Service, with more than two-thirds of respondents expressing confidence in the institution. It examined surveys of people across 22 countries to gauge trust in public institutions such as national and local government, the judiciary and the Civil Service.

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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 third-level education reported trusting the Government, compared to 40 per cent of those with a second-level education. Two-thirds of those with no major financial concerns said they trusted the Government, compared to 40 per cent of those struggling financially.

Class perspectives

There was an even wider gap in levels of trust when it came to social class. Trust in government was twice as high for those who reported to have a high social status compared to those with a self-reported lower social status. The report said this gap was “particularly pronounced” in Ireland, Iceland and Korea compared to other countries surveyed.

There were also lower levels of confidence among younger generations, it said. While only one in five Irish people aged 18-34 responded that 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 national government was slightly higher than trust in local authorities.

The report said political parties elicited the lowest levels of trust across the board, with on average 55 per cent of people saying they did not trust them.

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.