On the apples and oranges part, what is there not to understand? "The EU" is neither a government, nor a parliament, but has institutions that are the equivalents of those; and neither the Irish parliament, nor the Irish government suffice as the equivalent of a prospective Confederation/Federation/Superstate.

Now, does that matter?

It can, in theory: one can have a positive image of something in general while having a low opinion of the particulars. (Witness Bush's job satisfaction ratings as opposed to his ratings on policies a few years ago.) One can have a romantic positive image of a political structure while having a low opinion of its real existing institutions. So, in theory, it may be that some people think the EU is a great thing, but think of nasty Brussels Bureaucrats and alternatively of McCreepy and attempts to take away Ireland's Commissioner when the Commission is mentioned, or think of waste when the EP is mentioned, or think of lack of transparency and horse-trading when the Council is mentioned, whatever.

But in the end, I was not 'driving at' anything, my 'drive' came to an end: my comment meant to say that having checked the numbers, the overall picture doesn't change if the correct comparisons are used, thus the apples-and-oranges thing became a minor quibble.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}