The attention span of the general public has become so short that commentators say we live in a "three-minute culture". There was a time when Irish politics was full of colour and drama, with mass rallies in O'Connell Street and charge and counter-charge from marketsquare platforms across the land. The issues were aired at after-Mass meetings, then parsed and analysed over the pub counter, in the cattle mart or at the fair.
People would marvel at the eloquence of James Dillon or Noel Browne in the Dail or share a laugh at the latest jibe from Sean MacEntee or the parliamentary gambits of Gerry L'Estrange.
There were complex questions in those days too but the public had a generally good understanding of wartime neutrality, the economic war, the turnover tax or whatever was the issue of the day. However, a recent opinion poll in The Irish Times showed only 11 per cent of respondents claimed to have a good understanding of the issues in the Treaty of Nice.
The No camp has been making a case that the June 7th referendum is a rush-job. The treaty does not need to be ratified until the end of December next year. The Green MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, has been complaining for some time about the limited availability of the treaty text. Official sources denied yesterday it could only be obtained on the Web or in hard copy format from the Department of Foreign Affairs. It had also been sent to citizens' information centres and public libraries, they pointed out.
Somehow one feels nobody will be injured in a stampede to the counter or the local library to obtain a copy of the treaty. Even when people get hold of it, they will find it very difficult to understand because it presupposes a knowledge of previous EU documentation, which is now being amended.
Let's hear it then, for Mr Jens-Peter Bonde, a Danish Eurosceptic member of the European Parliament, who was in Dublin yesterday to launch his booklet The Treaty of Nice - Explained, which he said would be available from Waterstone's Bookshop in Dawson Street, Dublin, for £10. Anyone who is seriously interested in the issue should read it in conjunction with the Government's White Paper, and then make up their own mind which way to vote.
But how many people have the time, patience and enthusiasm for such a task? The Government sent a summary of its White Paper to households throughout the State, but how many householders switched off "Corrie Street" to delve into the complexities of qualified majority voting? I have not yet seen the Referendum Commission's summary of the arguments from both sides but I have a feeling it will not distract anyone from the latest tabloid yarn about Geri Halliwell or the cut and thrust of the all-Ireland hurling championship.
Do parents still instruct their children never to sign anything without reading it first? Of course it is not always a practical proposition and we rely on our solicitors for complex legal documents. Thus most of those people who bother to turn out to vote will make their decision on the basis of whom they trust in political terms. Do you believe Bertie Ahern or Dana Rosemary Scallon, Michael Noonan or Anthony Coughlan, Proinsias De Rossa or Gerry Adams?
All of these people have special qualities but it is not really good enough that the future of a rational political project like the European Union is being decided as an act of faith, a leap in the dark on the basis of whether you would buy the political equivalent of a used car from one public figure rather than the other.
While the Government may not have been as remiss in dispensing information - or at least its own version of the facts - as its opponents make out, it is no secret there was little appetite in the political establishment for putting Nice to a vote. This referendum is like an unwanted child whose guardians go through the motions and observe the letter of the law, but without any real love in their hearts.