Business Opinion: Two news items got conveniently lost in all the noise surrounding last week's cabinet reshuffle. One was the publication by the aviation regulator of its assessment of the break-up of Aer Rianta. The other was the release of yet another league table of broadband penetration.

The aviation regulator concluded that despite claims to the contrary, the break-up of Aer Rianta would not push up charges at Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports, while the European Competitive Telecommunications Association reported that once again the Republic was bottom of the class for broadband, beaten only by Greece.

Contrast these two news stories with what happened in the reshuffle, where Dermot Ahern gets promoted to Foreign Affairs from Communications while Séamus Brennan gets demoted from Transport to Social Family and Community Affairs, and by all accounts was lucky to hold onto his place at the Cabinet table.

Broadband was the "big issue" of Ahern's tenure at Communications, and certainly the most important from an economic perspective. Under the Programme for Government he was charged with delivering on the following commitments:

We will ensure the putting in place of open-access broadband on a national basis.

We will create real competition for local phone services by ensuring the unbundling of the local loop.

We will ensure that that the full range of options, including wireless technologies, are utilised to expand broadband access in rural areas.

Progress in these areas has been painfully slow and if the latest figures are anything to go by there is no chance that Ireland will meet Ahern's self-imposed target of reaching the European average for broadband penetration by 2005.

The defining issue of Brennan's time at Transport was without a doubt the restructuring of Aer Rianta. His obligations in this regard under the Programme for Government were:

We will continue to transform Aer Rianta and as part of this process we will ensure that Shannon and Cork Airports have greater autonomy and independence

Against this Brennan had to be cognisant of a number overarching commitments given on State companies, the most important of which were:

We will seek to secure a viable long-term future for State companies without ideological preconceptions.

We will approach the issue of the most appropriate form of ownership or structure for State companies on a case-by-case basis.

We will ensure that public enterprise is managed in the spirit of social partnership, with a view to achieving optimum service delivery and value for the public.

There can be no doubting Brennan's zeal for implementing his mandate at Aer Rianta and equally there is no doubt he tested the limits of the commitments given on semi-state companies. But it is bizarre that his success should have cost him his job, while Ahern's lacklustre performance earns him preferment.

It would appear that the reshuffle brownie points were earned, not for how successful you were in delivering on the Government's election promises, but for something else entirely.

The only people that Ahern managed to seriously upset in his time in Communications were the fishing industry and Eircom. One counts for little in electoral terms while the other enjoys the status of public enemy number one. Any attack on Eircom always plays well on the Government back benches.

Brennan on the other hand fell foul of David Begg, ICTU and ultimately his own party. His attempts to deliver on the Government's promises at Aer Rianta brought him into conflict with the company's unions, who, quite understandably, moved to protect their members' interests. A most unholy alliance developed at Aer Rianta between the staff, the board led by Noel Hanlon and various other vested interests.

Numerous straw men were erected by the opponents of the break-up, including the charges argument dispatched last week by the aviation regulator. But the most damaging hand played by Brennan's opponents was the threat by ICTU to bring the Taoiseach's beloved social partnership crashing down if he did not rein in his "maverick" minister.

The Taoiseach proceeded to do just that and sacked Brennan. No doubt he would argue that the damage that would be done to the economy by the collapse of the social partnership process would far outweigh any benefits that might accrue from splitting Aer Rianta.

A word of advice to Martin Cullen, the new transport minister. Stick the Programme for Government and all those election promises in the bottom drawer of your new desk. It will only get you in trouble with the boss.