Civil servants should be legally obliged to report cases of corruption known to them, according to a report on corruption in Ireland by the Council of Europe.
The report, which was adopted in December and published this week, concludes that corruption is relatively rare in the Republic but suggests that stronger legal safeguards are necessary.
The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which is distinct from the European Union, commissioned the report to assess how closely the Republic conforms to agreed guidelines on corruption.
An investigating team visited Dublin last May and met Government representatives, gardaí, the Director of Public Prosecutions, members of the judiciary and some of those involved in conducting the tribunals.
The team, known as the Greco Evaluating Team (GET), was composed of Mr Andy Hayman, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, Ms Eva Rossidou Papakyriakou, a Cypriot prosecutor, and Mr Giorgi Baramidze, a Georgian member of parliament and corruption expert.
The report calls on the Government to draw up a detailed picture of corruption in Ireland, based on solid research and statistics. It says the Garda should draw up an anti-corruption strategy aimed at detecting and preventing the corruption of officials. And it casts doubt on the authorities' conviction that there is no link between corruption and organised crime in Ireland.
"In the GET's opinion, this flies in the face of international trends: as a matter of fact, it is generally recognised that organised crime requires corrupt links for it to exist.
"The GET was not convinced that there are sound arguments to support the idea that no link can be made between organised crime and corruption. In fact, throughout the evaluation visit, the GET identified indications that there may be a link between organised crime and corruption . . .
"Comparisons may be drawn with some other European small countries: despite low crime levels and the benefits of policing close-knit communities, the experience shows that corrupt activity is ever present regardless of the size or culture," it says.
The report says that gardaí and prosecutors should receive special anti-corruption training and calls for a legal guarantee of investigators' independence.
"The GET did not receive any indications that An Garda Síochána might have been subject to political interference in the investigation of a case involving members of government, political leaders or high government officials. However, police independence in the investigation of individual cases did not seem to be guaranteed in the law or through specific institutional arrangements," it said.
The report stressed that corruption appeared to be at very low levels in Ireland but suggested that the recent scandals involving politicians could represent "the tip of the iceberg".
It expressed concern about the lack of a central authority dealing with the area of public procurement, which is often a focus for corruption.