Let’s hear it for the humble U-turn

After the opening credits of his TV3 programme on Wednesday night, Vincent Browne took a swing at the Government at the end of one of the more chastening days of its three years and eight months in office.

“Tonight, the biggest U-turn since the last biggest U-turn,” Browne said in reference to the revised water charges package being announced. “The Government capitulates to all Ireland’s protesters, but have they U-turned enough?”

In this case, it's probably not enough to placate many of the protesters, who Socialist TD Joe Higgins had earlier that day pointed out, objected to the concept of paying for their water full stop rather than any specific sum Irish Water might seek.

But if we look at it over the course of the year, yes, the Government has at times displayed an ability to climb down like a scaffolder in a thunderstorm. It has been described as an annus horribilis for the Coalition but 2014 could also be branded the year of the U-turn.

There have been changes of direction on medical cards, whistleblowers and Seanad byelection candidates. There have also been positional switches on having a Vatican embassy, the removal of funding from health and disability organisations and pylons.

Browne’s opening salvo on Wednesday night would appear to suggest that a U-turn is a bad thing. But is having a government that is willing to react to public opinion, albeit often belatedly or out of self-preservation, a negative?

In his speech on water charges in the Dáil on Wednesday, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly said three times that the Government had "made mistakes" on the subject. His Labour colleague, Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin, earlier that day sought to point out that we have "a listening Government".

It's good to see our leaders put their hands up and have an occasional mea culpa moment rather than blustering on, but if those in power are regularly forced to spend periods in reverse, it raises questions about their authority.

David Farrell, professor of politics at University College Dublin, says there is an argument to be made for a government showing flexibility and a willingness to meet the mood of the public or wider parliament, which was more common in continental European politics than in the "adversarial" system seen in Ireland and Britain.

However, he says U-turns should happen at a “less fraught stage” than we saw with the water charges and that the intense pressure the Coalition came under could have been lessened had it been willing to listen at an earlier stage.

In the case of this Government, and some of its Ministers, much of the rowing back has been on proposals that were foisted on them by the previous administration, the troika or predecessors in their respective departments, he says.

Prof Farrell suggests the Irish Water debacle could have been different if Kelly rather than his predecessor Phil Hogan had held the reins in the Custom House throughout the term, given he appears "more amenable to change".

“Blame should be attached to Phil Hogan for railroading the plans through,” he says. “A more flexible pair of hands might have discussed it further.”

Farrell could “not think of an example like this in living memory of a government making such a dramatic climbdown” as the one on Irish Water. “The Government was between a rock and a hard place as it basically had to climb down or face being put out. It is unfortunate they got into this position as it was always likely to blow up and it’s shocking it got so far.”

It should be pointed out that U-turns are not unique to the parties of Government. Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams recently came under pressure for a flip-flop on paying the water charges. Both Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil were criticised last year for changing their stance on the abolition of the Seanad. Fianna Fáil signed off on the property tax in government but later claimed it was "the wrong tax at the wrong time" when introduced.

The cacophonous response Taoiseach Enda Kenny received on arrival in Blackrock, Cork, yesterday from anti-charge protesters suggests this latest U-turn might not be enough.

With a general election fast approaching, it's unlikely to be the last U-turn we see from the parties on either side of the floor in Leinster House.