It will hardly come as a shock but Ireland's already low trust in politicians has plummeted a further 20% in the last two years, according to a survey – one of the sharpest drops across the EU.

When the boom was at its height in 2007, just under half of people here had trust in politicians, which was below the EU average but higher than the UK. In the wake of the property and banking collapse, trust in politicians has dropped to less than 40%.

Presenting the results in Brussels, Dr Jorma Karppinen, a director of the Eurofound agency, which conducted the survey, said that across Europe the "crisis has had a negative impact on well-being and quality of life, dropping from a 2007 high to 2003 levels and below.

Irish "satisfaction with life in general" has also dropped in the last two years. But there has been a significant increase in the number who believe that there is a "lot of tension between poor and rich people".