Winners and losers: The big political losers in the Government climbdown on decentralisation are the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, and his colleague the Minister for Agriculture, Ms Coughlan.
If the Cabinet last year can be blamed for sanctioning what proved to be an unrealistic proposal, certain rural Ministers managed to salvage the parts of the plan that will benefit their home constituencies.
But with Waterford and Donegal failing to feature on the fast-track and priority lists that will form the basis of the watered-down plan, Mr Cullen and Ms Coughlan have missed out badly.
These counties were a prominent part of the original plan which was announced with some gusto last year by Mr Charlie McCreevy in what proved to be his final Budget.
With Mr McCreevy safely dispatched to the European Commission in Brussels, the way was clear for the Government to revise a plan that has alienated many thousands of civil and public servants.
The revision means that Dublin-based Ministers will no longer have to justify a colossal plan that has the potential to disrupt the lives and careers of many hundreds of their most politically-aware constituents.
Keen to avoid diluting a Budget package next week in which the Coalition will again seek to stress the social aspect of plans, the Government put the bad news out first yesterday by confirming a radical reduction in the scope of the immediate project.
Gone is Mr McCreevy's promise to move some 10,400 Dublin-based officials to 53 regional locations.
Gone too is his claim that the project will prove self-financing. According to the latest report from the implementation body chaired by Mr Phil Flynn, the entire initiative will not break-even until 2026, with savings accruing "in perpetuity" after that.
In the revision, only 3,492 of them will move in the first phase of the initiative. They are scheduled to go to 20 regional centres, meaning that at least another 30 locations are out of the loop.
Rural Ministers such as Mr McCreevy's successor, Mr Brian Cowen, managed to salvage large parts of the programme that were set out for his constituency.
Portlaoise will receive 392 Department of Agriculture jobs, while Tullamore receives 135 posts in the Department of Finance.
No doubt this will come as a relief to Mr Cowen's colleague in Laois-Offaly, Mr Tom Parlon, whose "Parlon Country" posters epitomised his enthusiasm for a project he has championed in his capacity as the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works.
Jobs are still going to Drogheda, in the constituency of Mr Dermot Ahern, and to Killarney, in the constituency of Mr John O'Donoghue.
Mr Éamon Ó Cuív will be pleased that 164 jobs in his Department will move to Knock Airport.
Yet there was no room in the revised plan for Donegal town, supposed recipient of 258 jobs in the Department of Social and Family Affairs, where Ms Coughlan was Minister at the time of the last Budget.
Other parts of that Department will move in the first round of departures from Dublin, but not to Ms Coughlan's constituency.
Mr Cullen was Minister in the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government when 225 posts were earmarked to move to Waterford, in his constituency.
If the failure to include Waterford in the first phase could prove dangerous in the cauldron of constituency politics, Mr Cullen made no secret of his disappointment. "The Minister would obviously like to see Waterford included at this stage, but recognises that work remains to be done," said his official spokesman.
Despite the climbdown, the Government still insists it will deliver the remainder of the decentralisation initiative.
But just as the break-even point is as far away as 2026, it is a long-term game.
