It is all too easy to be cynical. But amid the reshuffle of junior ministers last week, the technology sector landed a genuine champion in its new minister of state, Conor Lenihan. Lenihan has vast experience in the technology sector and was an obvious choice for the role.

Among his key strengths benefiting the technology sector are:

* loyalty to Fianna Fáil

* being from a good Fianna Fáil family

*being in a four-seater constituency that has no other minister.

Some may sneer, but few other candidates in public life have the digital vision or the interest in technological issues that Minister Lenihan holds.

In this regard, he is expected to waive the standard basic technology briefings from the civil service that would normally be received by incoming ministers of state with special responsibility for science, technology and innovation.

In the coming weeks and months, he is likely to confound the cynics who predicted that he would simply read from pre-prepared civil service scripts without having the faintest idea what he was talking about.

Indeed, Lenihan will certainly need no introduction to any the following issues, about which he is known to be an expert:

*The crisis in our next generation network roll-out

*The upcoming battle between 4G-LTE and Wimax for the standard in mobile communications

*The future regulatory structure of ComReg

*Maximising the potential of cloud computing

As an industry champion, Lenihan will also continue to expound upon the benefits of using online communications to promote the smart economy.

As is well known, he is a long-time blogger and digital scribe. He was also an early adopter of Twitter, now the most influential social-networking tool among Irish IT professionals.

His regular tweets (he posts at least ten times a day) are as incisive and wise as they are funny.

Predictably, there has been a wide and hearty welcome among industry veterans for the new minister of state with responsibility for science, technology and innovation.

‘‘Thank God they’ve appointed someone who really knows what this stuff is all about,” said one senior industry executive last week. ‘‘I really feel that things are going to turn for the better now.”

True to his reputation, Lenihan has hit the ground running. Already, his own page on the Fianna Fáil website has been fully updated, and not left claiming that he remains a minister of state with responsibility for cultural integration.

‘‘As a technophile, Conor would have gone ballistic if they had left the old details up,” said a close friend.

‘‘Imagine a minister for technology with a completely out-of-date website! Not on Conor’s watch!” It is so easy to be cynical.

But to those who are tempted by the lowest form of wit, I say: look at the appointment of Conor Lenihan.

This should tell you the real story of Irish politics.