Cullen can be expected to back regional demands for infrastructure

Transport: It would be crass to suggest that the appointment of Mr Martin Cullen to the Transport portfolio would simply result in the acceleration of the building of the Dublin to Waterford motorway.

Or that it would result in increased State aid to Waterford Regional Airport, or improved regional rail services and roads between Waterford and other cities.

But the appointment of Mr Cullen to Transport might result in all of those, as well as a focus on development of transport infrastructure elsewhere outside Dublin.

Certainly Mr Cullen's track record shows he has taken care of his Waterford constituency. His website "welcomes" spending of half a million euro for fire engines for Waterford City; €29 million for Dungarvan waste-water treatment plant; €2 million for Waterford Regional Airport, and more in a similar vein. Nothing strange in that; most ministers tend to look after their constituencies.

What the Department of Transport gives to Mr Cullen is the opportunity to demonstrate what he himself has called "joined-up thinking" on regional development outside Dublin.

Coming from Waterford, the Minister is acutely aware of the huge Government spending on Dublin-based projects such as Luas and the Port Tunnel, while roads between Cork and Limerick, Galway and Shannon, or indeed Waterford and Dublin, remain underfunded.

One of his major achievements at Environment may yet turn out to be the publication of the National Spatial Strategy. Mr Cullen has spoken convincingly of the need to create other growth centres outside Dublin, and at an EU conference in Dublin this summer emphasised the importance of transport in terms of regional development.

"An efficient and effective transport system is ... an important contribution to social development, particularly for promoting regional balance and social inclusion," he said.

He has spoken in support of the Atlantic Arc, a grouping of almost 300 technology companies that have located on the west and south coast.

The group is not shy of pointing out the near billion euro spent on projects such as Luas while Shannon Airport remains a twisty, two-hour journey from Galway City.

With Mr Cullen's commitment to more balanced regional development and his new responsibility for roads and airports, he has the opportunity at least to create the conditions in which his national spatial strategy can flourish.

But if Mr Cullen is pro-regional development, he is essentially pro-development. Conservationists who will face him in argument over the Meath motorway issue will have taken no comfort yesterday at his appointment.