|
The figures come from the latest EU-wide attitude study (Eurobarometer) and support the similar recent data coming from across the EU. There has been a sharp increase in the proportion of Europeans putting growth ahead of environmental protection - but the change has occurred at a faster pace in Ireland than elsewere.
Irish people also consider climate change much less of a priority (38%) for the EU than some of our neighbours such as Sweden (70%) Denmark (67%) or Austria (62%). Ireland ranks in the lower half of EU countries for this question with the EU average being 44%.
Respondents were also asked whether they thought that the EU is indispensable in tackling global problems such as climate change. The answers show that fewer people in Ireland than in any other EU country thought so – just 47% of Irish people agreed that EU action was key while the EU average was 75% with many countries scoring higher again.
You can see the executive summary HERE  [186 KB] and the full study HERE  [2 MB]
More:
Other questions in the latest Eurobarometer relate to responses to the economic crisis and show that Irish confidence in the economy crashed from 77% to 3% between autumn 2007 and autumn 2009, a much harder fall than the EU average (which was 50% down to 23%).
Nevertheless, life satisfaction in Ireland remains stubbornly high at 85%, seven points ahead of the EU average.
Each Eurobarometer asks questions about knowledge and perception of the EU. Here just 31% of Irish people surveyed could answer at least 2 out 3 questions correctly, ranking 20th out of the 27.
(Want to try them? Here they are:
1. The EU currently consists of twenty-five Member States
2. The euro area currently consists of 12 Member States
3 a Switzerland is a member of the European Union (IF 'SPLIT A')
3 b. Iceland is a member of the European Union (IF 'SPLIT B'))
The data was collected in autumn 2009 by TNS MRBI and is based on interiews with over 1000 Irish respondents. The study was analysed and the study written by Professor Richard Sinnott and James McGuire at the Geary Institute at UCD.
| 
