IRELAND HAS BEEN ranked as the 15th most reputable country by members of G8, a new survey by Corporate Reputations and the Reputation Institute has found.
Included in this was an increased belief that Ireland have an effective government.
Now in its fourth year, Ireland’s placings had, until now, been dropping year on year: 11th in 2009; 14th in 2010 and 17th in 2011.
Of the 50 countries surveyed, Canada remains the most reputable, with Australia second and Sweden third.
The UK was found to be the 14th most reputable country, while the US was 23rd. Iraq remained in last place.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, the managing director of Corporate Reputations, Niamh Boyle, believes that the results are significant:
The main take is that the trend has started to reverse, because our reputation has really plunged over the last number of years. There is an awful lot said about Ireland’s reputation from within, but there isn’t much about what the G8 countries think of us.
According to Boyle, Ireland’s view of itself can often be at odds with how it is viewed on a global scale.
You hear a lot about the rest of the world, and how they feel about Ireland as a contributor to global culture, by Irish politicians particularly. Whereas we would score ourselves highly in this regard, the G8 countries don’t.
They do, however, see Ireland as having a beautiful and enjoyable country, which offers an appealing lifestyle.
While Ireland’s reputation increased by just over two points, Boyle says that a “five percent increase on reputation score brings, on average, a 12 per cent increase in tourism receipts and a seven per cent increase in foreign direct investment.”
Methodology
The placing was determined based on the responses of 36,000 people from the world’s eight largest economies - Canada, Germany, Italy, UK, Japan, France, the US and Russia.
The methodology used to calculate the placings – known as Country RepTrak – averages the perceptions of the people surveyed over four indicators: trust, esteem, admiration and good feeling. Scores range from zero to 100.
Despite respondent’s feelings towards their own country being excluded from the final results, the way in which Irish people view themselves improved by five points.
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