The Minister for Transport has said a ten-year funding schedule for transport projects announced in Wednesday's Budget was "a radical and far-sighted departure".
He was speaking today at a press conference in which he expressed confidence in the future of State-owned airports, and said a second terminal for Dublin Airport was needed - but that complex issues must be addressed.
The Waterford TD said he believed the three airports managed by the Dublin Airport Authority - Dublin, Cork and Shannon - had a "huge future".
He supported the plans to separate the airports into three independent companies and said he believed they wanted to be "master of their own destiny and that's the way I believe it has to be".
Hailing the "flexibility" afforded by the extension of financial planning to 10 years, he said projects planners and agencies would be able to work with greater confidence and certainty.
Previously funding was allocated on a five-year basis and €10.2 billion is already earmarked in the investment "envelope" covering the period 2005-2009.
Mr Cullen said the new departure creates "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to identify the sort of infrastructure we want and we need for the decades ahead".
Among the projects that have been mooted are a Dublin Airport metro; an underground link between Connolly and Heuston train stations, the linking of Dublin's two Luas lines; a Cork-Limerick carriageway and the reopening of a train line along the western seaboard.
Mr Cullen declined to comment on plans under consideration but said: "At the heart of our plan will be connectivity - a transport system that puts integration first." Details for projects over the next 10 years are being finalised, he added.
"Rather than taking a piecemeal, project-by-project approach to transport investment, we are going to present a vision of a future characterised by a highly efficient transport system which enhances quality of life and promotes competitiveness," Mr Cullen said.
He also announced extra €3.45 million in funding for the Rural Transport Initiative next year. The initiative promotes community-based initiatives aimed at tackling social exclusion caused by poor access to transport.