The party that broke the Civil War mould in Irish politics in 1985 set out to prove at its Galway conference it is still radical and a long way from being redundant.

With local elections coming in June (the European elections were hardly mentioned) the party was aiming towards the political centre, determined to put the 1997 general election disaster behind it.

There were no harsh words about cuts in the number of public servants or in the quality of services provided to women. Instead, under the slogan "Building a New Ireland", the Tanaiste and party leader concentrated on managing the new-found prosperity of the Celtic Tiger and in spreading its benefits.

Ms Harney's "vision thing" embraced a prosperous, modern and more caring Ireland in 2010, to help reassure the public economic success and an inclusive society were interlinked because, she said, without the first element, the wealth needed to eliminate social exclusion would not become available.

Education for all could end the "effective apartheid of Irish society", but teachers alone would not be able to counteract social disadvantage. Equality of opportunity could be secured only through government investment, by targeting funding at the most deprived communities. That was the only way to break the cycle of disadvantage and despair.

The party's new "big idea" of immediate, massive infrastructural investment in motorways, railways, water and sewage services, with which the Tanaiste opened the conference on Friday night, was developed by Mr Des O'Malley, on Saturday, in the key debate on the economy.

The former party leader believed £5-10 billion could be raised in the privatisation of state companies over the next five years and this money - in addition to private sector investment - should be used in infrastructural development. But unlike Ms Harney, he stopped short of advocating that budget surpluses should be used for this purpose rather than for paying off the national debt.

But it wasn't a case of "privatisation or bust".

Privatisation should be engaged in only to promote competition, he said, and the party should be on its guard against creating private monopolies in key sectors. Monopolies were generally bad and private monopolies were frequently the worst. There were several Irish examples, he said, but didn't name them.

Mr O'Malley fought shy of the broad brushstroke approach in a number of other areas in order to emphasise the party's social commitments. With a backward glance at the level of capital gains tax - and at Charlie McCreevy's commitments in the next budget - he argued that tax equity demanded that the gap between capital and corporate tax rates and income tax rates should not widen further. Workers who had built the economy should get back more of their hard-earned money.

Regional development was another key issue. Parallel universes existed in our small country where, side-by-side with city growth centres, towns and villages were losing their people, their services and traditional structures. Along with the new EU structural arrangements, he insisted, power had to be devolved out of Dublin and local authorities had to be given revenue-raising powers.

"No governmental structure, whether national or local, can perform to its true potential unless it raises its own revenues for the most part. The willingness to make the hard decisions and to be accountable for them is the essence of democracy," Mr O'Malley said.

Later, Bobby Molloy unveiled proposals to build 22,000 local authority houses over the next four years, along with a further 10,000 Government-assisted social housing units in the voluntary sector. And he spoke of the need to integrate new housing developments and public transport facilities, particularly railways.

Liz O'Donnell was hopeful a resolution could be found to the difficulties besetting the Belfast Agreement and spoke of the need for compromise.

The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs also linked the need to implement the equality and human rights aspect of that agreement with the requirement for a comprehensive and progressive policy to deal with refugees and asylum-seekers coming here.

Difficult issues were not ducked. Just as Mr Molloy ruled out increased Government subsidies for new houses as something that would fuel price rises, Mary Harney gave the thumbs down to tax breaks for working parents putting their children into day-care facilities.

What about unemployed parents, she asked, or those on social welfare. What about fairness and equality? The solution she proposed involved increased child benefit and enhanced childcare provision, with creches in the workplace and in communities - particularly in disadvantaged communities.

Ireland was not, Ms Harney, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, told delegates, a corrupt country; but there was clear evidence of "improper activity" by influential people who played by different rules from the rest and who ignored the laws of corporate governance and of taxation. They had to be sorted out because the republican ideal, the foundation stone of our democracy, was that all citizens are equal before the law.

That said, Irish business had to grow and develop; had to concentrate more on research and development and pursue new export markets. It had to become more open and imaginative, by profitsharing with its workers, in order to create a feeling of partnership.

Because of rapid economic growth, the country was now in the fortunate position that it could plan for prosperity and for a bright future. They could be constrained, the Tanaiste insisted, only by a lack of imagination and a lack of ambition.

It was optimistic, enthusiastic stuff, and the audience responded in kind. But the delegates exhibited a worrying age profile. And the numbers were down on previous years. If the new policy departure does not lift the party's fortunes in the coming local elections, the outlook will be grim.