Councils are being criticised for not publishing details of any political donations given to their councillors.
A National Integrity Index of all 31 local authorities shows that just 10 are displaying their councillors' political donations or their ethics declarations.
The Transparency International Ireland research finds Fingal and South Dublin County Councils are the most transparent, while Kerry and Westmeath Councils are the worst performing.
Their report points to Wexford, Galway County and Kilkenny councils as having seen the biggest improvements.
Overall, TI Ireland claims too few councils are open with their efforts to tackle the risk of corruption.
Speaking about the findings, Dr Elliott Jordan-Doak from TI Ireland said it is vital the public knows if their councillors are receiving donations.
He explained: "Although we did see an improvement overall, we'd like to see more councils post the donations statements and the ethics declarations of councillors - these pieces of information are crucial for ensuring transparency.
"Basically we want to know that councillors have nothing to hide."
He added: "We don't have enough money on who is funding councillors - we don't have the donation statements.
"Of course they're available in person... but, as I said, [putting] them online would be to make the whole process more transparent."
You can see the full ranking of local authorities below.
Local Authorities 2019 Results
| Ranking |
Council |
Score (out of 30) |
% |
|
1. |
Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council |
22 |
73 |
|
3. |
Monaghan County Council |
21 |
70 |
|
4. |
Kildare County Council |
20 |
67 |
|
5. |
Dublin City Council
Kilkenny County Council Meath County Council Wexford County Council Wicklow County Council* |
19 |
63 |
|
10. |
Clare County Council
Donegal County Council Galway City Council Tipperary County Council |
18 |
60 |
|
14. |
Cavan County Council
Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council Limerick City and County Council |
17 |
57 |
|
17. |
Sligo County Council |
16 |
53 |
|
18. |
Cork City Council
Cork County Council Galway County Council Roscommon County Council Waterford City and County Council |
15 |
50 |
|
23. |
Carlow County Council
Laois County Council Leitrim County Council Louth County Council |
14 |
47 |
|
27. |
Longford County Council
Mayo County Council Offaly County Council |
13 |
43 |
|
30. |
Kerry County Council
Westmeath County Council |
12 |
40 |
*The above table was amended to place Wicklow County Council in joint fifth place based on updated information from Transparency International Ireland.
Reporting by Shane Beatty and Stephen McNeice
