EU: Charlie McCreevy met his new boss, José Manuel Barroso, at a private meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to be told of his nomination as EU Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services.
The two men had spoken a fortnight ago in Lisbon after the Minister for Finance accepted an offer from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to succeed Mr David Byrne in Ireland's seat on the Commission.
Mr McCreevy learned in Brussels that he will spend the next five years in the role of front man for the EU as its strives to deepen the economic links between its 25 member-states.
After a lengthy stint as finance minister, there will be two crucial elements to his new job.
The first will see Mr McCreevy take responsibility for the promotion and development of a single European market for services. This follows the introduction of the euro and the opening of EU borders for trade in goods in 1993.
Chief among the areas here that the EU wants to target are financial services such as banking, insurance, pensions and stockbroking.
In theory, the process might ultimately result in Irish consumers being able to open an account in a branch of Deutsche Bank in Dublin. In practice, however, a multitude of obscure directives will be required to pave the way for this to happen.
For such a process to have a real impact, EU governments will be obliged to incorporate such directives in their domestic law. It will fall to Mr McCreevy to enforce such directives.
This will be the second aspect of his job - protecting the work already done to achieve the internal market.
For example, Mr McCreevy's predecessor, Mr Frits Bolkestein, recently took action against Germany for its failure to recognise the qualifications of foreign univeristy lecturers.
Given that many financial vested interests will be challenged by the opening of the market, Mr McCreevy will have a tough job delivering his reforms.
As a powerful economic portfolio, the job is more one of political management than the allocation of expenditure. It is not, however, as prestigious as the competition post, which was believed by some informed observers to be within Mr McCreevy's grasp. Neither did he secure a vice-presidency of the Commission.
However, Mr McCreevy will still have a place in the heart of the Commission's economic operation. According to informed sources in Brussels, the new Internal Market Commissioner will be a member of a new group of commissioners working to promote the EU's competitiveness strategy.
Known as the Lisbon Agenda, the strategy is designed to turn the EU into the world's most competitive economic area by 2010. For political reasons mainly, the project has failed to get off ground.
Thus Mr Barosso made it clear at his press conference in Brussels yesterday that he will personally co-ordinate efforts to revitalise the strategy.
With Europe's biggest economies struggling to achieve strong growth, Mr McCreevy will feel entitled to lecture his new colleagues on the rise of the Irish economy.
Never slow to speak his mind, Mr McCreevy's time in Finance was characterised by his stauch refusal to deviate from his liberal economic credo of low taxation and open competition.
He is still more likely to dismiss the contrary position than to entertain any watering down of his own point of view.
All of that will be to his advantage as he sets about his reformist agenda of enforcing single market rules and extending their reach.
Still, the most intriguing aspect of the appointment is Mr Barosso's decision to shift direct responsibility for EU taxation policy from Internal Market into the new directorate general for Taxation and Customs Union.
Commission officials stressed yesterday that this decision was grounded in the need to create new portfolios for the 10 new states which joined the EU in May.
However, the placing of tax in a separate portfolio removes a potential source of conflict between Mr McCreevy and some of the EU's most powerful members, such as France. Mr McCreevy has always argued forcefully against the harmonisation of corporation tax in particular, the exact opposite of the French stance.
While the new Commission may well continue moves to harmonise the tax base, it is difficult to imagine Mr McCreevy doing anything other than fighting the harmonisation of tax rates.
The Taoiseach said yesterday that he was pleased with the appointment. As the man who acted as king-maker for Mr Barosso, Mr Ahern expected a serious economic post for the new Irish Commissioner.
While not a post at the highest tier of the Commission, the economic role ensures Ireland has a place at the top table.
In the past fortnight Mr Barrosso has had the unenviable task of matching 24 highly ambitious candidates with jobs of unequal standing. However, agreement was reached after a relatively short negotiation.
In contrast to the prolonged horse-trading that marked his own appointment as incoming President of the Commission, yesterday's announcement came two weeks ahead of deadline.
The former Portuguese prime minister has sent a clear signal that he means business. No rest for Mr McCreevy.