Ruairi Quinn said at the start of the current campaign that, in the European elections, apathy was Fianna Fail's only asset.
The claim is arguable. But the results of today's Irish Times/MRBI poll show that, whatever the party's strategy, it seems to be working.
If the elections had been held on Wednesday or Thursday, the party would have headed the poll in all four constituencies, retained its seven seats and had a fair chance of taking an eighth.
There are even signs that, thanks to strong performances by such candidates as Niall Andrews in Dublin, Brian Crowley in Munster and Pat "The Cope" Gallagher in Connacht-Ulster, the party's fortunes generally have begun to recover.
Whether the recovery continues after the European elections when the MEPs have returned to Strasbourg and Luxembourg depends on Fianna Fail's handling of national issues which are not specifically covered in the present survey.
It was these issues, largely raised by the McCracken, Flood and Moriarty tribunals, which sent the ratings of the Government, the party and the Taoiseach spiralling downwards since October 1998.
The Government's present standing (at 58 per cent) has improved by seven points since early May; the party's support (at 51 per cent) is five points up; and Mr Ahern's rating (at 67 per cent) has risen by nine.
What might be described as the European factor must be taken into account.
This is illustrated by the contrasting fortunes of two of the smaller parties in the national polls.
The Greens, who have two MEPs in the running in the European elections, have doubled their support to 4 per cent in less than a month.
The Progressive Democrats, who have no European candidates and are not supporting any of the other parties, have dropped from 5 per cent to 3 per cent.
As Mr Jack Jones of MRBI explains elsewhere today, the number of candidates also influences results: the fewer the candidates the better for the bigger parties.
THE number of candidates has fallen from 52 in 1994 to 42 this year, and since Fianna Fail is the biggest party it has gained most.
As for apathy, which the Labour leader described as Fianna Fail's only asset, well, there's a lot of it about.
The number of people who didn't know how, or whether, they would vote amounted to one in four in Dublin, one in Five in Leinster and Connacht-Ulster and around 15 per cent in Munster.
Why so many should remain undecided little more than a week before polling day is not explained by the latest survey polls, but there are some straws in the wind.
Nuala Ahern, of the Green Party, suggested lately that the hardest task for the candidates would be to persuade the electorate to vote, even, as she said, for parties which they could trust.
Mr Quinn thinks their reluctance may be a reaction to the continuing financial scandals, but doesn't believe the protest will have the desired effect.
"Staying at home is not the way to send the signal the Government needs. They will construe it as a tacit endorsement of their behaviour."
My suspicion is that, if anything, the level of indecision or lack of interest is underestimated by the polls, if only because respondents are slow to admit that they will not vote.
Only the local elections may prevent the turnout on Friday from being lower than it was in 1994 when, at 44 per cent, the State's showing was the second-lowest in the EU.
The steadily declining interest in politics has been most evident in European and local elections, among all classes, but especially the poorest; and among all age groups, but especially the young.
There are those who choose to vote only when they expect to benefit from the results, when it's payback time.
And there are those who, at the other end of the scale, feel hopelessly lost.
But two polls on the European elections and related attitudes were published in The Irish Times this week.
And the first, which appeared midweek, may offer some clues as to the findings of the second.
The first poll showed a high level of satisfaction at the way in which EU membership had affected the respondents' personal interests.
There was, however, a marked reluctance to make commitments for the future, especially if they looked like costing us money or calling for change which would not be repaid with interest.
So enlargement of the EU by admitting east European countries was favoured by 40 per cent in Ireland - 14 points lower than the EU average - and opposed by 38 per cent.
The creation of a common European government won less than 30 per cent support here, more than 15 points below the EU average.
Support for a European army was little more than half the average.
In these circumstances, it's scarcely coincidence that Fianna Fail, the party least favourably disposed towards change in the EU, should win the electoral support it has secured.
Both Fine Gael and Labour are members of powerful groups, Christian Democrats and Socialists, with vigorous policies favouring development and growth.
They have obvious difficulties when it comes to convincing the electorate of the merits of their policies in the long run, especially since the electorate, as often as not, seems to consider itself outside the EU, not of it.
One of the most frustrating features of the politics of the EU is the sense that whoever is not a specialist is an intruder.
George Bernard Shaw wrote that all professions are conspiracies against the laity and, in this case, the conspirators are defended by experts of whom the Irish electorate is deeply suspicious.
From time to time I share that suspicion and was cheered by a report which appeared some time ago in the International Herald Tribune.
Here is how it went when it was reprinted in April: "The Norwegian Prof Birkedal has just given a lecture in which he stated it as his opinion that the sun is growing cold.
"According to the professor the sun will lose its light in the course of a century or thereabouts, provided it does not receive fresh heat from some unexpected source.
"Prof Mohn believes that Prof Birkedal's discovery is most important and quite likely to be correct, as it would explain many recent meteorological phenomena."
The report first appeared in 1899. A century later, it's safe to say that, in this instance at least, the experts were wrong.