Big Bangs , normally cause disruption.
Then we take it on the chin... short term pain for long term gain has to be the approach here because the entire problem needs fixing now and the longer even part of it is left unattended, the greater the overall cost will be.
Leo,s pals were able to sneak in a nasty bit of stealing from pension pots , small nuff , not to create waves.Even though it was thievery! they got away with it.....
They got away with it for the same reason as most Irish governments get away with most other things..... because we roll over just about every time (we bitch'n'moan in the pubs, but do nothing else). The water charges were probably the first time in decades that we as a nation ever did anything proactive to stand up for ourselves and even then, most of the protests probably had less than 1% of the population in attendance.