There were five new Ministers appointed yesterday to replace the members of the Cabinet who did not make the cut.
The most widely predicted promotion was that of Mr Seamus Brennan. He will head the newly created Department of Transport.
He has toiled for the past five years as the government chief whip, using excellent negotiating and organisational skills, particularly in relation to the four independent TDs who were needed to support the last government.
Mr Brennan was used by Fianna Fáil as a spokesman during the general election. He is considered a very safe pair of hands when someone is needed to talk to the media on a particularly sticky subject. In the previous government, Mr Brennan served as minister of state at the Departments of the Taoiseach and Defence.
The Government has cited the development of the State's infrastructure as a priority. His new Department will have responsibility for roads, traffic, rail and bus, aviation and road-safety.
Mr Brennan is a former general secretary of the Fianna Fáil party. In 1979 he backed George Colley in the leadership struggle. Elected to the Dáil in 1981, he became a member of the "Gang of 22" who tried to wrest control of the party from Charles Haughey.
When the Progressive Democrats were formed in 1985 it was expected that Mr Brennan would join but he held back at the last minute.
He served as minister for education from 1992 to 1993, and subsequently as minister for tourism, transport and communications. He has also held a number of minister of state appointments.
There was some surprise that Fianna Fáil acceded to the PD request to appoint former Attorney General Mr Michael McDowell as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. There is an expectation that he will be a reforming Minister, particularly in relation to the judiciary and gardaí.
The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, commented in the Dáil yesterday that Mr McDowell had finally got his timing right by managing to be elected as a TD at a time when the PDs were in government.
Mr McDowell, a senior counsel, was first elected to the Dáil for the Dublin South East constituency in 1987 but was unsuccessful in the 1989 election. He was again elected in 1992 but was subsequently rejected by the electorate in 1997.
Mr Éamon Ó Cuív replaces his first cousin, Ms Síle de Valera, in the Cabinet. The Galway West TD was appointed Minister for the new Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. He will have particular responsibility for a "more co-ordinated engagement by the State with communities around the country" but especially the west - a region he has been involved in lobbying for over a long period.
There is no surprise that a member of the de Valera family is in the Cabinet but there are questions about whether Mr Ó Cuív will publicly support the Nice Treaty during the referendum campaign due to be held in the autumn.
He became a minister of state at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development in February 2001, following the resignation of Mr Ned O'Keeffe.
A fluent Irish speaker, he had previously been Minister of State with special responsibility for the Gaeltacht areas, Irish language and island development since July 1997. He was first elected in 1992.
Ms Mary Coughlan is the only new female face in the Cabinet line-up. She was appointed to the new Department of Social and Family Affairs, which has lost Community affairs to Mr O Cuiv's Department.
Ms Coughlan, a TD for Donegal South West since 1987, continued a family tradition in politics, winning the seat held by her late father Cathal in the 1980s.
A very popular deputy, she replaced Mr Ó Cuív as Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands in February 2001.
The Taoiseach would have taken geographical considerations into account when making this appointment, particularly given the demotion of Dr Jim McDaid, a colleague in the adjoining Donegal constituency.
Mr Martin Cullen, who was appointed Minister for the Environment, was first elected as a Progressive Democrat TD in 1987. He defected to Fianna Fáil in the early 1990s.
In 1997 he was appointed as minister of state with responsibility for the Office of Public Works. His name had been mentioned in the last few days as a possible candidate for promotion but it was not certain whether he was still considered as a Fianna Fáil outsider.
Ms Mary Hanafin is the first female to serve as government chief whip. She is no doubt pleased with that honour but disappointed at not getting a full Cabinet post.
The Dún Laoghaire TD served as a minister of state at the Department of Health and was being hotly tipped for promotion.
There was speculation yesterday that she lost out when it was decided to keep Mr Michael Smith in the Cabinet as Minister for Defence.
However as chief whip she will get to sit at the Cabinet table.
A daughter of Senator Des Hanafin she has a strong Fianna Fáil pedigree. She was first elected in 1997.