A new poll has reveled that engineers and doctors are the most trusted professions in Ireland. 

The public poll, commissioned as part of an Engineering 2018 report, has found 90% of Irish adults trust engineers to tell the truth and, of the 10 professions listed, only doctors are more trusted.

It also showed that 91% of adults regard engineers as highly competent.

While new figures show industry demand for engineering has seen graduate engineer starting salaries increase by 11% in the past four years.

There has also been a 4% rise in engineering graduates from undergraduate courses, according to the report.

The survey found that teachers, judges, business leaders and journalists are seen as highly competent and trusted to tell the truth.

While gardaí, trade union officials and TDs were voted eighth, ninth and tenth on the list respectively. 

Source: Engineers Ireland

Engineers Ireland director-general, Caroline Spillane said while engineers were now in high demand, Ireland was still suffering from an acute shortage of engineering skills.

"We are seeing new job opportunities for graduates and increasing salaries reflecting this, but there continues to be a shortfall of engineers to meet the needs of industry.

"Now, more than ever, we need to encourage young people to study engineering, which is essentially the lifeblood to successfully delivering the ambitious new infrastructural and technological initiatives that have been outlined in Project Ireland 2040."

The report also highlighted that, while the economic recession was a challenging time for the engineering sector, the industry has strengthened in recent years with 83% of engineering employers recruiting engineers in 2017.

The survey was conducted face-to-face by Behaviour & Attitudes between January 19th and February 1st 2018 of 1,000 adults, aged 16 and over, at randomly-chosen sampling points.

View the report in full here