The south-east region, embodying five county authority areas, has particular problems embracing a common identity and a common cause as a region. Now a regional political forum is being proposed to tackle the problem.
Powerful county allegiances and keen inter-county competitiveness on the sports field translate into a territorial sensitivity that has in the past, some believe, influenced which roads were upgraded and what areas developed.
Although there is a broad awareness that this fragmentation can detract from the interests of the region as a whole, it has seemed impossible for local representatives to rise above the deep-seated rivalries on key issues, particularly concerning major infrastructural development in the areas of health, education and industry.
Many would say, for example, that the south-east would have had a university years ago if there had been regional agreement and a single-minded case made for its location in Waterford.
Now Joe Walsh, a Kilkenny county councillor, has called for stronger links and joint political action between county councils in the cause of attracting industry to the south-east.
Mr Walsh echoed the view of many in the region when he said recently the south-east was not attracting its fair share of new high-tech industries.
"One of the reasons, I feel, is that we have a fragmented approach," he said. "What I am anxious to see is that we should all pull together as a region. We spend a lot of time moaning that Dublin is getting this, Cork is getting that, but it's our own fault because we don't pull together."
At a meeting between Kilkenny councillors and IDA executives, Mr Walsh said a regional task force should be formed to identify regional weaknesses and remedy them jointly.
The South East Regional Authority (SERA) has a remit to review overall development needs in the region and to co-ordinate the provision of public services. At a recent meeting it heard a case on behalf of another key facility, Waterford Regional Airport.
Leading industrial and development voices in the south-east have pointed out that improved services at the airport could be a vital factor in attracting major new industry.
At present the £6 million facility is struggling to survive. With just one scheduled daily flight, at midday, to London Stansted, its throughput last year was just over 18,000 passengers.
Industrialists and businessmen see the introduction of an early-morning flight to London as crucial if the commercial potential of the airport is to be realised. An air link to Manchester could boost tourism in the south-east.
Mr Peter Tawse, the airport manager, told the SERA meeting the airport was technically capable of realising the benefits that should derive from a regional airport. The facility is capable of handling well over 100,000 passengers a year.
But the incentives needed to induce operators to introduce new services are not available.
SERA has identified a number of key factors as prerequisites if the movement towards regionalism is to be advanced. One is that the areas defined for the various regional authorities, which were established in 1994, should be adopted as the standard for collecting data, for planning and for relating the activities of different agencies.
At the heart of the issue is the need to foster a regional identity. This, SERA points out would allow marketing of the region as an entity. It suggests that the regional boundaries should be coterminous with European election constituencies, and that Seanad representation should be based on the regional authority area.
The membership of the regional authority currently consists of a number of elected councillors from each of the constituent local authorities in the region.
However, SERA aims to put an agreed structure in place to improve and co-ordinate the regional voice and its lobbying capacity at political level.
It proposes to do this by setting up a regional political forum which would meet several times a year to address strategic issues of concern.
The members will be drawn from the regional authority, MEPs, TDs, senators and the chairman or mayor of the constituent local authorities.