THEY have a substantial deal on EMU to point to, new measures against drugs and crime, some progress on EU treaty reform and accolades in many European languages ringing in their ears. But the Irish public seems stubbornly indifferent to reports of its leaders triumphs on the world stage.

"Bravo pour le travail", enthused President Chirac. "Very good... extremely good... great skill handled the presidency excellently first class job", gushed Mr Major. As each head of state or government began his seven or eight minutes on the IGC on Friday afternoon, almost all had their own few words of praise for how the whole thing had been handled.

Ireland's political leaders - John Bruton, Dick Spring, Ruairi Quinn and others - have worked themselves to the bone for the past six months on the European agenda. But as the great Euro roadshow prepares to leave Ireland for the Netherlands in two weeks time, do the punters really care?

According to Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll results published in the past few days, the majority of Irish people have little knowledge as to what exactly their representatives were doing. And while Messrs Bruton, Spring and Quinn may be all the rage with Messrs Chirac, Kohl and Major, the Irish public, and their voting preferences, take a different view.

The poll results published on Saturday in The Irish Times showed that the Irish people had deep ignorance of what was going on at the Inter-Governmental Conference of the EU. (The IGC is a conference - separate from the normal ministerial meetings and summits of the EU - which is negotiating changes to the EU treaties. These changes are to make decision-making easier and improve the effectiveness of the Union's common foreign and security policy.)

The most striking feature was that most people said they did not know whether or not the IGC was discussing certain issues. Of those who thought they did know, many got it wrong.

Just 4 per cent correctly stated that the IGC was not discussing a date for Economic and Monetary Union (the date was actually agreed in 1992) 24 per cent correctly stated that it was discussing reform of EU institutions; 12 per cent correctly stated that it was not discussing a trade deal with the US while 29 per cent were correct in their belief that it was discussing the Maastricht Treaty provisions on foreign and security policies.

AND while the complexities of the issues are lost on most people, the public appears quite indifferent to the proposition that our political leaders have done us proud. The domestic battering the Government has taken on the Dunnes Stores controversy appears to be much more prominent in the public mind than high European politics.

Poll results published on Fridays showed Mr Bruton's personal satisfaction rating down to 53 per cent from 54 per cent in September and 56 per cent in June at the start of the presidency. Mr Spring's rating has remained at his June level of 52 per $ cent following a drop to 51 per cent in Setember.

The opinion polls are disappointing, Mr Spring admitted on Saturday. "Any fair-minded person would say that we have run a good presidency. I don't think that you would expect to get credit for that from the punters, so to speak, but if you had made any mistakes during that presidency I think you would have heard about it loud and clear.

"In 10 months time I suppose we will have the real opinion poll and we can judge it after that."

The level of public ignorance should also ring alarm bells for whatever government will ultimately have to handle the referendum on EU treaty changes. If the public does not understand the issues, and is suspicious of politicians talking unintelligible gobbledegook about Europe, they could spoil the party and vote down treaty changes.

This problem is not confined to Ireland. The public in other member-states traditionally has an even lower level of understanding of European issues than the Irish. The sceptical Danish electorate or the disgruntled French could also reject a new treaty. If one member-state rejects it, it cannot come into force.

Apart from the public indifference, there is a lot for the Irish politicians to be pleased with. On the four themes identified by Mr Bruton at the start of the presidency sound money, safe streets, secure jobs and a peaceful Europe - a considerable amount has been achieved.

(1) The EMU deal - sound money - is the most tangible success of the summit. Mr Quinn led the negotiations on this into the early hours of Friday morning. The deal on budgetary rules to apply in the single currency was finalised later in the day.

(2) The package on drugs and crime - safe streets - contains a considerable number of measures to increase European co-operation to prevent international drug trafficking and crime.

(3) As for more secure jobs, the progress British insistence that job creation is up to member-states, not the EU. There is nevertheless, likely to be a chapter in the new EU treaty on employment, which will state an aspiration to increasing employment and establish an EU employment committee.

(4) Mr Bruton's aim of a peaceful Europe relates to the IGC negotiations, which are designed to reform EU institutions and decision-making so that central and east European states can join. Ireland was asked at the Florence Summit to produce a draft of possible amendments to the EU treaties. It has done that - albeit with some predictable gaps where agreement has not been reached - and the draft has been widely praised.

BUT while it's all highly competent and satisfactory, it's not the stuff of history. In 90 Messrs Haughey and Collins had their six months on the world stage as Europe was trying to react coherently to the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Messrs Bruton and Spring ended up handling complex, demanding but ultimately unglamorous "work in progress".

On January 1st the exhausted political and administrative class will get back to normal life. Several officials over the weekend looked forward fondly to lengthy Christmas and January holidays. Others suggested that they never got holidays at all.

As for the politicians, post-Christmas contemplation will focus them on a general election campaign widely expected before June. One of Mr Spring's aides suggested over the weekend that Mr Spring's visits abroad as Minister for Foreign Affairs would now be severely curtailed. He had just told Department of Foreign Affairs officials, said the aide, that once the weekend was over they would not get their hands on Mr Spring this side of an election.