We will not mortgage the country's future with costly promises," said Mary Harney at the Progressive Democrats' annual conference in Limerick last weekend.
And, as if it clinched the argument, "we believe in government, not gambling." She was cheered to the rafters. After five years in government with the old enemy, the PDs were no longer radical; they were certainly not redundant. Watching the show on television it seemed that not the slightest doubt crossed the mind of any of them.
But on her way to Limerick, the Tánaiste had glided through McCreevyland, the territory of her own best buddie Charlie, a Minister for Finance known far and wide as the gamblers' friend.
Even as she spoke, his followers were celebrating his latest coup - a tax break smuggled into the Finance Bill designed to crown the careers of professional sportspeople with a pot of gold.
Not any old sportspeople, of course, but the creme de la creme, the elite who'd already made it to the top. They mightn't need the loot; all the more reason to pile it on: McCreevy was never one to take need into account.
And if there were complaints - say, in the ranks of the GAA or among those who'd lobbied, with poor results, on behalf of the homeless or the disabled - what of it? It wouldn't be the first time McCreevy had kicked sand in the faces of those who felt entitled to a share of the community's resources.
As for the Progressive Democrats, they'd never been known to worry if those who had much were given more.
On the contrary. What-we-have-we-hold was the theme of their weekend. And it will be the theme of both Michael McDowell's presidency and the party's campaign in the general election.
"The country can't afford a lurch to the left," said Harney. McDowell spoke of Labour in government as "disastrous madness".
And, in debate with Derek McDowell of Labour on the News at One, he was more specific: a Blairite party would be acceptable. What we had here, though, were the "same old ideological people" as before.
This is the heart of the matter: the PDs are determined, not only to dictate the terms on which the next general election is fought but how the issues are defined.
There was a time when ideology was a term invariably applied to the left and then qualified by the term "alien".
The threat of "an alien ideology" sent well-heeled citizens scuttling off to search, on bended knees, for reds under their beds.
The new ideology comes from the right. It's for the well-heeled, the what-we-have-we-hold crowd, whose political spokesmen are the PDs. Their reverse takeover of Fianna Fáil was achieved without a fuss.
From lofty perches they pontificate on the affairs of what they call the real world. As one of the right's favourite economists Moore McDowell told the broadcaster Joe Duffy last week: "You are paid to emote, I am paid to think." And when the likes of Mary Harney or Michael McDowell pontificate from their perches it behoves the rest of us to sit up and take notice. Otherwise we're apt to get the wrong end of the stick.
For instance, when Harney talks about gamblers she's not talking about McCreevy's friends, whether in the members' enclosure at the Curragh or hoovering up the benefits of a 50 per cent cut in capital gains tax.
What the PDs consider potentially disastrous is the kind of promise made by the Labour Party and the modest reforms that even Fine Gael considers essential to the development of a just society.
As Labour's McDowell, Derek, puts it, his party wants to achieve "tangible and measurable improvements in the public services". More to the point, it wouldn't just talk about it, it would get down to improving health, housing and education and reducing the gap between rich and poor.
And, yes, it would cost money - but the money would not be found by raising personal taxes. Which is still not enough for the PDs who have to be reminded by that honourable old curmudgeon Des O'Malley how they've failed to live up to their own expectations on public spending.
They've failed to live up to their own expectations on other issues as well. They once talked of refusing to have a referendum on abortion until consensus had been achieved.
It hasn't been achieved, not even in their own small party.
Consensus was never going to be achieved and everybody with a titter of political wit knew it. But Bertie Ahern, who likes to go a step of the road with everyone, had made a promise . . . And Harney bit her lip and agreed.
Ahern called for a calm debate and ended up screeching at the Opposition in the Dáil while his henchmen - Frank Fahey and Dick Roche, for example - set out to spread muck like farmers spreading slurry in the fields of the West.
Harney, who last week prated about gambling, now expects the electorate to take a gamble in one of its most serious decisions without the information it should have had: the booklet the Referendum Commission produced will not have been delivered to the homes of most of those who have votes. The text on which they vote will not be on their polling cards.
But expecting people to play blind man's buff on March 6th is all of a piece with the hypocrisy, cynicism and confusion which have characterised the Government's attitude to the issue from the start.
They needn't worry: hospitals in Britain will terminate the pregnancies of 7,000 Irishwomen this year as they've done every year since the 1983 referendum passed.
Those who suffer most, as usual, will be those who are too poor or too frightened to travel. Women who ought to be able to avail of a properly supervised and conducted medical service at home.
Michael Noonan is right: this is the worst government we've had to endure.