PD manifesto launch:The State's prosperity is not guaranteed and would be put at risk if a government led by Fine Gael and Labour is elected, the Progressive Democrats have claimed.
Voters decide not only on who leads a new government, but also on its direction, the party's leader, Michael McDowell said. "We are at a decisive point in the life of our country." His party, he said, had been "founded in the dark days of the 1980s to bring Ireland from bad to good".
"Our mission statement now is to bring Ireland from good to great. This is one of the most important elections in recent times. The electorate is faced with the choice about where Ireland is going," he added.
"Is this Ireland content with the progress it has made? Is this an Ireland that believes that we remain in the middle of our transformation, and that given the right platform, we could go from good to great," Mr McDowell said.
Promising tax cuts, extra State spending, substantially higher pensions and payments to carers, Mr McDowell said the plan is affordable, on the basis of conservative economic projections.
Emphasising the experience of senior figures, Minister for Health Mary Harney said she was convinced that "huge progress" had been made to reform the health service since she took the job two and a half years ago.
"I would love the opportunity to continue with it. In this election, the choice of minister is effectively between me, Dr Liam Twomey, or Liz McManus. The Green spokesman, John Gormley, has already said on the record of the Dáil that he does not wish to be the minister," she told a press conference held within hours of the official launch of the election campaign.
Promising 12 guarantees to patients, Ms Harney said the State will spend €22 billion a year - up from the current figure of €13 billion - on the health service by 2012, if the economy continues to grow at the present rate.
Mr McDowell said: "The prosperity that we have witnessed in the last decade did not happen by accident. It was the fruit of the hard work of the Irish people and sound management of the economy. It is also the fruit of a good, experienced, steady Government willing to take the often difficult decisions necessary to ensure that our economic success is sustained and built on.
"It happened in part because the PDs - the most pro-enterprise party in the history of the State - were there at the very heart of Government, that we were there to keep taxes, to keep work rewarded and that risks were encouraged, and that competitiveness was put at the top of the Government's agenda, and to put the interests of the Irish people first. In short, to put shared interests before vested interests.
"Ireland is in the middle of a transformation. It isn't something that is complete. It certainly isn't something that should be taken for granted. There is a great job of work to be done, not merely to hold what we have."
Committing to Ms Harney returning to her portfolio if the party is re-elected, Mr McDowell said she brought about a "transformation" in the service. "No other party comes even knee-high," said Mr McDowell, who said he believed the Progressive Democrats could win "double-digit" seats, despite poor poll figures.
"To those who are writing us off, I want to simply say this: I heard what you said in 2002. I wouldn't be here if I had listened to the advice of all the newspapers about my own prospects in my own constituency.
"We all have to be humble on these occasions and submit to the verdict of the electorate, and that applies to commentators and politicians. The people will make up their own mind, and the commentators rarely get it right," he said.
Interjecting, Ms Harney, to loud cheers and applause from Progressive Democrats' supporters attending the press conference, joked: "And that was very humble."
On Northern Ireland, Mr McDowell said: "The PDs have played a critical role in holding the path against paramilitarism and lawlessness on the one hand, while offering a vision of reconciliation and the rule of law as the foundation of NI on the other."
