CAN a minister – no matter how good he or she might be – survive a shattering policy reversal and then go on credibly to pilot the complete reversal of his or her previous thinking back through the Assembly?

The answer in the case of the head of Public Services is no – and that’s come from the department itself. At least, the announcement (one imagines with the support of the minister) that his deputy will henceforth lead the bedevilled waste project appears to acknowledge that.

Is that attempt at distance sufficient? Utterly not. Department heads are there to lead, to answer for their policies in the Assembly and to explain to the electorate why certain things are being done or not done. It is one reason why they receive an £8,000 a year special responsibility payment.

What they are not there to do is to pass on poisoned chalices and, to give the PSD minister credit, nor would he look to shirk his duties.

However, this tacit acknowledgement that, when it comes to waste, he is a dead man walking does no one any good.

The deputy minister may have the project but the PSD board is riven on the right way forward – the raw emotion expressed here yesterday by one of its members was palpable – so who will steer the disagreements through the board? The deputy with the minister sitting out, or with the minister supporting something he does not believe in?

PSD can, rightly, claim it was only serving the will of the House. You don’t like this policy? We’ve plenty of others…

Does that wash? Not entirely. Look at Environment. It was told to introduce paid parking and its members decided that their own beliefs took precedence over those of the States.

And if deputies cannot introduce something as innocuous as a 20p an hour fee on the piers, how are they to coerce islanders into generating no waste at all?

It will take years to determine whether last Friday’s decision was inspirational or an unmitigated disaster. With PSD still at the helm, however, one thing is clear.

Deputies can take whatever decisions they like, entirely free of responsibility or consequence.