The Prime Minister’s Cabinet reshuffle this week put ministerial portfolios neatly into their respective nutshells.

Where seemingly disparate elements were injected into ministerial portfolios after the March 2008 election, now appear to have been streamlined quite neatly, with elements of different portfolios being slotted into what appear to be many of the right places.

The shifting of Enemalta and the Water Services Corporation to the finance ministry is one such example, particularly so given the heated debate over the cost of new tariffs on businesses and consumers alike.

The reinstatement of a specific portfolio for SMEs and the self-employed under Finance Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi was also a positive move and one that has been lacking since the beginning of the current legislature.

Consumer rights and competition being placed in the domain of Chris Said also ties in neatly with his pre-existing information and public dialogue portfolio, while the portfolio of arts and culture also complements, very neatly, PS Mario de Marco’s tourism portfolio.

Meanwhile, Dolores Cristina now has a heavy portfolio, having been given John Dalli’s substantial social policy role and all that comes with managing a welfare state. But her other area of education is also intrinsically linked to her new role as regards social policy.

What comes of the supposedly new and improved, streamlined government and whether the exercise was more than a cosmetic one aimed at plugging the ministerial hole left behind by John Dalli remains to be seen. That, however, does not appear to be the case, a simple appointment of Joe Cassar to health minister and a transfer of the social policy portfolio to Dolores Cristina would have otherwise done just the trick.