THE Government has overtaken the Church as the least trusted institution in Ireland, research shows. A mere 35% of educated high earners said they trusted Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s Government to do the “right thing”.
This was down from 37% the year before and also below the 43% average for governments worldwide.
A year ago, the Government was the third-most trusted institution in the country, ranking alongside the media but behind campaign groups and the business sector.
But the country’s religious institutions have improved their trust rating following moves by the Catholic Church to make amends for clerical abuse scandals, according to the pollsters.
Public faith in religious institutions has risen from 29% to 37%, making the Church the fourth-most trusted institution in the country.
The public’s trust in the country’s newspapers, radio and television has risen to 43% from 37% the year before, with the media retaining its position as Ireland’s third-most trusted institution.
Ireland’s business community has lost its crown as the nation’s most trustworthy institution, scoring 47% compared to 50% the year before.
But campaign groups and charities like aid agency GOAL, the Consumers’ Association of Ireland and Trócaire are the country’s most trusted institutions with a 59% trust rating, which is up from 48% the year before.
Public relations firm Edelman carried out the poll in 18 countries.
The firm pointed out campaign groups were striking a chord with the public in Ireland.
“They obviously benefit through their relevance and engagement with both domestic and international issues of concern such as climate change, human rights and the environment,” said Mark Cahalane, managing director of Edelman Ireland.
He added the bounce back in confidence in religious institutions had been “dramatic”.
This, he said, could perhaps be attributed “to a year of change in the main Church and a rising immigrant population”.
Edelman quizzed 150 educated, Irish 35 to 64-year-olds in the top 25% of earners and with a keen interest in current affairs, ensuring the sample reflected the opinions of all Ireland’s adults in the same group.
Trusted sources of information included newspapers (55% of those surveyed), radio (59%) and television (57%) while the least trusted were press releases (27%) and online blogs (14%).
Financial or industry experts were the most trusted spokespeople (62%) followed by campaign group leaders and doctors (both 57%) and academics (53%), while bloggers fared the worst with a 7% rating.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce