House charge fiasco - A mess of their own making

The chaos around the reintroduction of a household charge does not auger well for one of the most important projects faced by any Irish Government in decades.

If the same lack of professionalism, the same deep mismanagement, the kind of communications failure that cost Brian Cowen his political career, the disjointed approach — and, now, the bickering so often fathered by a looming failure — is applied to public sector reform then it is hard to be confident that that project, so vital to all our futures, might succeed.

Yesterday’s news that it is taking over a year for some social welfare appeals to be heard adds a worrying degree of authenticity to those fears.