Leader's speech: An edited version of Mary Harney's keynote address to delegates.
"Ireland is a success. We have learned how to succeed and we have learned to value success. And we are fully aware there are new challenges for us.
By nearly any measure - jobs, education, investment, health and culture - we are making progress. Our society is changing, not falling apart. It's not perfect, but it's much better than before.
We have a great basis on which to improve public services, quality of life and social inclusion.
We should be proud of this, of economic success and social progress together.
I believe you can increase your standard of living and contribute to your community at the same time.
I believe you can seek a promotion in your job and aspire to a good house, while supporting local jobs and helping the homeless.
I believe tax should be as low as possible, that everyone should pay a fair share and the Government shouldn't waste it.
People rightly want better public services, they want to see the law enforced, criminals caught and anti-social behaviour stopped.
Some people will say you're selfish to want these things and you can't have it both ways. They're just wrong. These are the old false dilemmas: that you have to choose between lower taxes and social justice, between increasing our living standards and helping the disadvantaged, between development and the environment, between rights and the rule of law.
The choice is not between self or society. The real choice is about what type of society each of us wants and each of us contributes to.
I believe in a society that values each person, that offers each person and each community the chance to be their best, that celebrates success and solidarity equally and together.
We are, I believe, closer to that type of society than before and that's great progress.
The facts are - people in Ireland are living longer and healthier lives - we have more jobs than ever before - we have more young people getting a better education - we have less poverty than ever before - we have better roads and public transport - we have banned smog in the sky and smoke in the workplace.
People are now coming to Ireland to visit, people are coming to learn and people are coming to work. We have welcomed many different nationalities into our workforce in recent years. We recognise the valuable contribution they make to our economy and our society. Every worker in Ireland will be treated equally under our law.
Democratic values
Those of us who are passionate about progress for Ireland are very clear about the foundation for success for the next 20 years.
It will be honest, democratic politics, based on the rule of law, not bankrolled by violence or the threat of violence.
We must always stand by the Republic. We will hold the line on respect and tolerance, on rights and freedom, on equality and justice.
In the last year we have set down some very important markers against criminality, thanks to the resilience and hard work of Michael McDowell as Minister for Justice.
We can be proud of the two greatest Ministers for Justice in modern times, Des O'Malley and Michael McDowell. They are supremely loyal to the State, loyal to the Constitution and loyal to the Republic.
In the next 20 years, we must hold fast to this tradition.
Strong economy
We'll build on the foundation of a strong economy that rewards work, risk-taking and new ideas.
We'll run an enterprise economy, the one that allows business to do business, the only economy that can provide more resources for public services. We'll keep income taxes low and business taxes low. We'll be competitive, not just because we have to, but because we want to.
Education and poverty
A successful economy is about people and opportunities. We want to open opportunities for all to reduce and eliminate poverty and we'll do it by education.
We'll provide all young people the richness of education and the opportunity for personal reward in work.
The society we want is one that achieves 100 per cent literacy. It is one where children finish education to their highest potential. It is one with top class research in our universities.
Competition
In every aspect, we are in this together, as an economy, as a society. It's not about opportunity for some, sympathy for others. Nor is it about competition for some, and protection for others. A society with competition is a fairer society.
Twenty-five years ago, there was one bus service a day from Galway to Dublin. Now there are over 30. There was one phone company, one broadcaster, one airline. Now we have choice and service. That's what competition does for people.
Competition is not just about lower prices. It's also the best way to get improved services and more innovation for all consumers. You can never have too much competition.
That's why we believe so strongly in competition between airports and at Dublin airport.
We have a long way to go in some areas, but we have to keep up the pressure for the consumer. Competition works. It's a core value of our party. And we're determined to make it work.
Health
By last September, I had spent seven years in Government working for jobs and enterprise, building our economic success. It was time to bring success in the economy to success in health.
That's why I took the health portfolio in Government.
In the economy we've gone from the "sick man of Europe" to "Europe's shining light" in less than 20 years. We've got to do it in health too, to build world class health services.
I have a very basic approach to my job. What works for patients is what works for me. Nothing more, nothing less. Patients come first.
Patient care and patient safety will drive every aspect of reform and investment.
Our ambition as a party is to have as much positive impact on health as we've had on politics, on jobs and on taxes. This is the new project. It's a big task, and we're determined to achieve it.
We didn't bring tax rates down in one go, or in six months or two years. But we'd never have achieved the progress we made on tax and jobs if we had started with modest ambitions and a weak will to succeed.
I have five priorities for action.
Accident and Emergency
We're starting with Accident and Emergency. 3,300 people a day are treated at A&E departments, 1.2 million a year. But too many people spend far too long on trolleys.
The public judge our hospitals by their experience of Accident and Emergency. I agree. It's no use if the administration works wonderfully while the customer service takes forever.
With hard work and the right policies, we abolished the dole queues. Now we have to abolish trolley queues.
I have brought forward a 10 point A&E plan for this year. Every action in that plan is being implemented now. If new actions are needed, there will be new actions. If new decisions are needed, new decisions there will be. We want results. And hospitals should be paid for results.
Long term care
This brings me to another major challenge. As far as this party is concerned, a successful Ireland has to provide proper long term care for older people.
Right now, we have a variety of schemes and supports, but people find them confusing, bureaucratic and legally difficult.
People have a right to know that services are legally based. Any charges must also be legal. That's why I acted quickly to deal with the 29 year mess about illegal nursing home charges. It's basic policy housekeeping. It just has to be done. But it's only the start.
I want this to be a major legacy for us: that we put in place a radically better system of long term care for 21st century Ireland.
Faster building
I want to build hospitals and healthcare faster.
Take radiotherapy - an essential part of treatment for most cancer patients.
In 1999, it was decided that Galway should have radiotherapy. The decision was implemented. But the first patients were treated only last month - nearly six years later, far too long. Our system isn't serving patients this way.
I'll be taking decisions on radiotherapy very soon - and I want to make sure that implementation happens fast. Ten years to build a national radiotherapy network is too long.
To go faster, we'll have to change the way we finance, plan and implement new services.
Take another example: we need to replace the old Children's Hospital in Crumlin. How quickly can we do it? Parents just want the result, and not in 10 years' time. But that too will mean change.
We're already setting aside €2.5 billion for health capital investment in the next five years. Hospitals are very expensive to build and equip and they could absorb every last euro available.
To build health services faster, I intend to use private investment in a real partnership to benefit all patients.
Other countries like Sweden, Portugal and Australia are making public and private investment work together. There is no reason why we can't do it too.
There are many Irish people with ideas and investment only waiting for the starter signal to provide new health care.
Why should Irish investment go into property schemes abroad when it could go to hospitals at home? I am giving the starter signal right now. I want to see action, and fast.
Medical cards and disability services
We're now providing more for people on low incomes and people with disabilities. The Government and I decided last November to pay for 200,000 more adults and children on low incomes to visit their doctor for free. The Oireachtas also passed a law to allow it. We pay GPs €300 million to treat medical card holders, double the 1998 amount.
We'll pay €50 million more for the new cards. Since the Government is willing to pay for people on low incomes to visit a doctor, they shouldn't still have to pay out of their own pockets.
Shorter waiting times
We have to continue to cut waiting times for operations. It used to be that people waited for years for an operation without even a definite appointment.
Now, we're reducing waiting times with the National Treatment Purchase Fund alongside hospital investment. People told us it couldn't work in theory. But it does work in practice for patients. That's why I've given it a 50 per cent increase in budget this year, to reduce waiting times further.
I want to see patients treated in our public hospitals based on medical need. We have a complex public private mix that has developed over 50 years. Untangling it is not going to be easy.
But that won't stop us working to achieve fairness and equity for public patients. It's about patients first, not whether patients are public or private.
Conclusion
I'm totally focused on progress in these areas.
They'll all require change from everyone involved. In health reform, no-one is excused from playing their part, from changing the way things are done and doing better for patients. And that always has to be our number one priority: what's best for patients.
We'll seek a renewed mandate to continue the work at the next general election.
We'll stay at it until the job is done, just as we are doing with tax, with jobs, with the economy, with insurance costs, with crime and the peace process.
This is the stuff this party is made of. This is what the people of Ireland expect from their politicians. Not myths, not rhetoric, but visible results.
This is what patients want and need.
Patient care and patient safety is what it's all about. It's a mark of a civilised, modern society, the society Ireland is, and will be, the society the Progressive Democrats will build for the next 20 years."