The Progressive Democrats must spend the majority of its next 20 years in government in order to keep up the pace of reform in Ireland, Tánaiste Mary Harney said at the weekend.
Speaking at a dinner marking the party's 20th anniversary, Ms Harney said that if she was at a similar event in 2025 celebrating the party's next 20 years, she would want to be able to say the party kept up its determination and pace of reform and progress of its first 20 years.
"I want to be able to say we spent the majority of our second 20 years, like the first, working at the heart of government."
She repeated her wish to stay as Minister for Health if the PDs are returned to government after the next election, and to continue to push for health service reform.
She said the well-off could buy the best healthcare but "the real test is how we look after the old, the sick, the poor and people with disabilities.
"So I'm pleased we've been able to do more in the last 12 months than in 30 years to give people free access to their GP."
She said that with the establishment of the Health Service Executive and the abolition of the old health boards, "we're now beginning to see the value and the potential of a coherent health service management".
The Government would shortly be announcing substantial new support for older people needing long-term care, major investment in home care and reform of nursing home care.
"I sought this job and I want to continue in it. The full reform of health will take time. But I'm determined to give it every drop of political energy and experience I have."
The PDs would seek a mandate at the next election for stable, reforming, effective government.
"We are not interested in making up the numbers in any government," she said.
"We are not interested in multi-coloured experiments in government or in a chaotic coalition.
"We are not interested in playing with government like someone messing at chemistry, producing unstable and explosive mixes.
"We simply won't put at risk the economic and social well-being of our country with government experiments and neverland policies."
Since the party's foundation, Ireland had had tremendous economic success and its society had become more open, more transparent and more democratic.
She contrasted present day prosperity with the "dire economic times" of 20 years ago.
"We had an oppressive political climate. We had the social catastrophe of mass unemployment and emigration. Those were the winter nights of smoggy old Dublin. And in those days and nights, a group of us made a huge political leap of faith.
The founding party leader, Des O'Malley, said Ireland was "immeasurably better off now than it was 20 years ago and much of that change can be attributed to the implementation, by us and by others, of what we advocated in 1985".
He said the party's achievements had been done with support varying between 4 per cent and 12 per cent.
"Filling a niche helps one to avoid the dilution of policy which populism requires."