The Government, by one of its own Minister’s admission, has had a bad week. As backbenchers paced the corridors of Leinster House fretting about the growing level of anger against the introduction of water charges, they seemed to have been taken by surprise at how quickly the issue had gotten away from them.

Fine Gael and Labour TDs were conspicuous by their absence from last Saturday’s protests, leaving what they would otherwise refer to as ‘The Usual Suspects’ to lead 150,000 people to march in the pouring rain. Who knows what the turnout would be like if it had been dry. Minister after minister came on Newstalk Lunchtime with me to highlight the pressing need for investment in Ireland’s water infrastructure. On one day we had two – Kevin Humphries and Pascal Donohue – who sang religiously from the same hymn sheet when pointing out that just 12 months previous, Dublin’s metaphorical well had run dry during the first Web Summit. They thought they were on message, but what had escaped them was the original message had been lost in the noise of what had followed.

The conservation and investment argument is a strong one. Government ministers are right in pointing out that Ireland is one of the few countries in Europe that doesn’t have water charges, which in turn allow for a functioning system that doesn’t leak some 41% of the carefully treated end-product. However, timing here is everything. Irish Water was born out of the bailout, not as the result of some environmental epiphany by Government. Its creation would have meant that a huge cost would have been removed from the country’s balance sheet, allowing us to get to the fabled deficit of 3%. To not have Irish Water would mean that would be a lot harder to do. In accounting terms, it’s a kind of three-card-trick. The public hasn’t necessarily been angered by that alone – in the mix you have a politically toxic bonus structure, anger over the installation of meters, the ridiculous request for PPS numbers to apply for allowances, uncertainty over final cost for families and a general distrust of the new utility.

All of this has led to an open revolt against what the Government had rather hoped would have been a charge that was sucked up by an electorate who believed that the economic tide was turning. The last play for Fine Gael and Labour is to reduce the charge in such a way that it doesn’t expose its three-card trick – and that’s harder than you might think. But failure to reduce the charges will result in their widespread rejection. Amid their dithering, the Government has created an expectation of a climb-down that will never be matched by their actions. Those backbenchers I mentioned were once worried that the general election would be a referendum on water charges. Given the rising anger over the handling of this issue, it could end up being far worse – a referendum on austerity. And that wouldn’t end well for either Government party.