State of economy: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is "astute and brilliant", "noble" and the "consummate politician" of his generation, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen told delegates.
In an impassioned introduction to Mr Ahern's presidential address, Mr Cowen said the Taoiseach's achievements over the last 10 years since Fianna Fáil returned to power have "been astonishing".
"He would be the first person to acknowledge that he has done it together with you who have stood beside him through thick and thin, and who always will," said Mr Cowen, to loud cheers from delegates.
The country faces new challenges in the years ahead, but those challenges can be tackled from "a platform of success. We do not have a guarantee of prosperity, but we have the best foundation possible".
Earlier, Mr Cowen told the ardfheis that Ireland's economic success over the last 20 years was not "inevitable", "the result of some fortunate accident", or "the natural order of things.
"No, it was the result of the hard work of the Irish people combining with the responsible and forward-looking policies of Fianna Fáil in government," he said.
The Opposition does not "understand how we have gotten to this point", he went on, despite their claims that they are "worthy protectors of our economic prosperity" when they opposed the Government's tax cuts.
"They don't understand that tax cuts drive economic success, which create the resources for social services. They haven't been able to figure that one out yet. Every time a Fine Gael - Labour government encounters economic difficulty, its first reaction is to raise taxes. Rather than working to alleviate the problem, their bookkeeping reflex always leaves matters worse off for everybody.
"To put it at its most basic, you can either have Fianna Fáil in government managing the economy or you can have Pat Rabbitte as minister for finance. It's as simple as that.
"That's the choice. That's why he has been so quiet and non-committal on the economy. His public position is that he won't raise taxes. His party's approach is to try to spend their way out of every problem.
"He is falling over himself telling us about his spending plans but he is eerily silent when it comes to telling us how we will pay for his proposals," said Mr Cowen.
Though low euro interest rates have helped, other EU countries have enjoyed them too but yet struggle with "high unemployment, rising national debt burdens and weak, anaemic economic growth".
The Government has put "budgetary responsibility first", cut borrowing, spent sensibly and shouldered the cost of meeting "the national debt burden ourselves rather than passing it onto the next generation", he said.
Taxes have been cut, people have been given incentives to work harder, while some of the best foreign industries have been retained here despite global competition, while new ones have been attracted. Social partnership had brought industrial peace.
"Over the course of the past decade, the combination of this Government's sound policies and the hard work of the Irish people have transformed our country," he said.
