10 of 31 local authorities publish political donations given to councillors

Fingal and South Dublin County Councils are the most transparent in the country, while Kerry and Westmeath are the worst performing.

A National Integrity Index of all 31 local authorities shows just 10 are publishing political donations given to their councillors.

The index - by Transparency International Ireland - is used to judge councils on transparency, accountability and ethics given they spent €5bn of public money last year.

It is composed of 30 indicators – 12 in the transparency category, 10 in the accountability category and eight in the ethics category.

Transparency International Ireland say each local authority’s total score out of 30 is converted into a percentage to find an overall score.

It found Fingal and South Dublin County Councils are the most transparent, while Kerry and Westmeath are the worst performing.

Wexford, Galway County and Kilkenny showed the biggest improvements.

But the body claims too few are open with their efforts to tackle the risk of corruption, with just 10 of the 31 local authorities publishing donations statements or ethics declarations of their councillors.

Researcher Dr Elliott Jordan-Doak says publishing financial donations would reassure the public and that they have a right to know.

"The overall concern of course is maintaining that decisions are made in the public's interest," he said.

"The only way to do that really is to make sure that the public have access this information and they can judge for themselves whether the decisions are really being made in their interest or possible in the interest of someone else."

The index finds councils published more information than was the case last year, but none put online the diaries of their chief executives.

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