The percentage of people who no longer have any trust in the Catholic Church has risen from 13 per cent in 2004 to 32 per cent, a new survey says. However, the survey found that even fewer people have any trust in the Government or the banks.

The survey was carried out by market research company Amarach on behalf of advertising agency Chemistry, using a sample of 850 adults over 10 days.

According to the study, 32 per cent of people no longer have any trust in the Church, up from 13 per cent in 2004 and six per cent in 2001. A further 21 per cent said that they “didn’t really” trust the Church.

However, the survey also showed that 44 per cent of people had absolutely no trust in the Government, up from 30 per cent in 2004.

Meanwhile, the percentage of people showing no trust in the banks was 41 per cent, up from nine per cent in 2006.

The figures also showed that trust in the media had also declined, from 16 per cent in 2004 to 24 per cent now.

The overall number of people expressing a level of distrust with the media was 59 per cent, compared to 20 per cent in 2001, when trust levels were first tracked.

The Church has been badly hit by the publication of the Ryan report into institution abuse last May, and the publication of the Murphy report into abuse in the Dublin archdiocese last November.