Michael McDowell has called on his party to seek up to 20 Dáil seats and four Cabinet places after the next election to allow it deliver its agenda of "social liberalism, economic liberalism, reform and prosperity".
He also called on all "republican" politicians to rule out going into government with Sinn Féin after the next election, warning that that party's aim was to hold the balance of power.
He said the choice of a "defining partner" for the next government was simple and stark, and that only the PD could guarantee the continuation of "a prosperous, liberal, democratic and republican Ireland".
Speaking to his party's 20th anniversary dinner in Dublin, the Minister for Justice told party supporters that they should aim to double their seats or more at the next general election.
"That is a formidable challenge. But doubling our strength at the last election was equally daunting - and was done. The prize is great. The means are in our hands. Fortune favours the brave."
He denounced the abuse of the term "republican" by what he called "a sectarian, divisive and cruel movement".
"Every body that the Provisionals left on Border roads or in shallow graves, with hands tied behind the back, with bullet wounds to the head, with marks of extensive torture to the limbs and trunk, still speaks silently across time of the monstrous cruelty and evil of that movement.
"No amnesty will drown out those words. While the members of the army council whose sanction for each such murder was given may now attempt to pose as statesmen, they will never wash away their personal direct responsibility for those acts.
"In the bottom of drawers across Northern Ireland are the tapes of confessions made by those victims to stop the torture, and sent to their relative to justify their murder. Those taped voices speak more eloquently about the real values of Adams and McGuinness and the real nature of the Provisional movement than all the verbiage that we hear from the mouths of those gentlemen themselves."
Speaking before the publication yesterday of Bertie Ahern's comments ruling out serving in government with Sinn Féin, Mr McDowell said: "It is time that every republican on the island of Ireland made it absolutely clear that there will be no room in democratic government, north or south, for a party or a movement that is controlled by a secret army."
He said real republican values were needed as never before, saying that economic success was not the sole aim of politics. "Great though our economic success has been, a greater challenge lies before us. We face as republicans the great unfinished task of building on this island a new future in which all the people of this island can share."