As you may have noticed we have some elections coming up in a week. Local Authority and European Parliament places will be contested. Well, that's not entirely true for the council seats. Already some councillors in a number of electoral areas have been chosen without a vote being cast. In those cases the number of candidates running was the same as the number of seats available.
This limited level of interest has been apparent in the European election campaigns too. We've got lots of candidates in each constituency and not that many people keen to vote for them. The logic behind it is straightforward - the voters don't believe the local authorities or the European Parliament matter.
They don't see any evidence that either administrative group has any real power. Therefore they couldn't be bothered going out and exercising their mandate.
The contrast with events this week in South Africa is stark. There, thousands of people actually queued for hours to vote. Their response to their chance to participate in the democratic process has been wholehearted. Partially, it is because it was only their second shot at it. Mainly, it is because they believe their votes will make a difference.
So what are we going to do about the wave of political apathy in this democracy? How are we going to restore that level of belief?
The answer, or at least the European part of the answer already exists.
Let me explain.
About a week ago Bertie Ahern headed off to Monaghan. In the normal run of things a trip to Monaghan would not be seen as desperately significant. It, along with the rest of the Border counties, doesn't get much of a look-in these days.
And when they were in the news it was for all the wrong reasons; sectarian killings and arms finds being the extent of the media's interest.
ON TOP of that the Taoiseach was performing a function on behalf of the European Commission. Attention spans, both media and public, tend to be fairly short when it comes to matters European so, even though this newspaper did devote a good number of column inches to the event, many people will not have registered it.
It would have been nice if the new European Commission President, Romano Prodi, could have made the trip as well but he's a busy man with a Commission to reconstitute. Still, what happened in Monaghan was worthy of his attention, and ours.
The Taoiseach opened the European Union House. Behind the inauspicious name lurks a concept the more neglected regions of the country have been striving for for decades. EU House is an example of real decentralisation.
We've had some efforts to spread Government departments and agencies around the State but always with a strong level of control being exercised from Dublin. True, this form of decentralisation had the welcome effect of spreading jobs around; it just didn't really move the power anywhere. To get anything done, Dublin had to be your destination.
What is different with EU House is that it will oversee the distribution of EU funds throughout the Border area; it will be a one-stop source of information and it will allow the people in the region to get things done without sending a delegation or even a letter to the capital.
The people in EU House will have a significant input into how the £500 million of EU money announced by Bertie Ahern at the opening is divided up. And, because they will be able to see what is going on around them, we can expect it will be spent where it is really needed.
The decision to create the first of these facilities in Monaghan also deserves praise. The Border region is the most deprived in Ireland - research carried out by the Government and voluntary bodies has shown this repeatedly.
Even without the studies, the application of common sense would have pointed to this conclusion. Twenty-five years of terrorist activity and the associated unwillingness of businesses to invest in the area have left it unprowled by our wondrous Celtic Tiger.
In fairness, this has been noted in Europe, and attempts have been made to address the problem through the EU Peace Programme and the International Fund for Ireland.
Up until now that work has been carried out through Dublin and London with the consequent imperfect understanding that sort of remote effort will inevitably bring about.
There's also an inescapable logic to housing one of the cross-Border bodies which is a key to the Belfast Agreement here. The location is right, and the understanding of matters European already there would seem to indicate that the EU Structures cross-Border body need search no further for a home.
I said this was the first of these one-stop-shops not because any more are planned. To the best of my knowledge, there are none. But it is an idea that will not go away, and a variation on it will have to be put in place by the Government as part of the regionalisation scheme that has been agreed to secure more structural funds.
Both the EU and the Government should take a close look at what has already happened in the Border counties. Organisations such as the Cross-Border Women's Network, Area Development Management and the local Combat Poverty Agency have been energised by this demonstration of commitment from Europe. And all this before the place was even opened.
This is a practical demonstration of a thing called the Hawthorne Effect. This is a psychological principle stumbled upon by researchers in 1924 trying to find methods to increase productivity on factory floors.
The Hawthorne Works was a telephone plant in Chicago. It was decided to see if increasing the lighting would increase production. It did. Then they returned the lighting levels to normal. Production went up again. Then they dropped the lighting levels below normal. Production went up a third time. Finally it dawned on the researchers that the lighting was not the reason - it was the fact that attention was being paid to the workers that made the difference.
That same principle is at work in the Border counties. The people in power have started to pay real attention to what is going on there and the locals like it. While the rest of us have been happy to react with our usual jaded and dismissive attitude to all things European the people in and around the Border have been invigorated by the arrival of EU House.
If the EU wants us to participate fully in Europe, including in the election of a strong parliament, then it needs to continue to pay attention to us at a local level. More facilities like EU House have to be put in place throughout the country.
Of course there is a caveat. Ireland is rightly renowned for its linguistic ability. So can we please come up with an inventive, inspiring and, preferably, Irish name for the next such facility.