The debate on the economy produced calls from delegates for greater tax relief and the allocation of increased resources to deprived areas throughout the State.
The party's former leader, Mr Des O'Malley, who received a standing ovation, said the Progressive Democrats had participated in two governments during which tax rates had fallen by a cumulative 18 points.
"Last December, at the instigation of the Tanaiste, Mary Harney, we took the first concrete steps towards tax credits, which represents the most radical transformation of the system of personal taxation in the history of the State.
"But there can be no resting on our laurels after a decade of achievement on tax-reform and reduction. We may have come very far from the bad old days, when taxation levels were truly penal, but we still have considerable ground to make up on many of our European and North American counterparts."
Senator John Dardis said the PDs continued to advocate the virtues of prudent control of the public finances. Indeed, the party may have suffered from a mistaken perception that it had nothing on its mind except cutbacks and was incapable of making the transition from scarcity to surplus. "Nothing could be further from the truth."
A lengthy motion, passed unanimously, called for rapid movement towards a top tax rate of 40 per cent and a lower rate of 20 per cent, a national minimum wage by April 2000 and additional employment initiatives to bring unemployment to 5 per cent by the end of the year.
Ms Cait Keane (Dublin South Central) said the workforce was the cornerstone of the economy. Stressing the need for adequate childcare facilities for working and stay-at-home parents, she urged the speedy introduction of the recommendations contained in the re port of the expert working group on childcare. "Childcare is in crisis. We have to do something now. I am asking the Progressive Democrats, as partners in Government, to immediately, not six months down the road, address that crisis."
Mr Jim Lawlor (Sligo-Leitrim) said that while the economy was booming in the Border region where he lived, there were still areas of deprivation, as there were in the cities.