The Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen today rubbished the stereotype of his party as having "no real interest in the public, is not supporting the common good, and is all about strokes" as nonsense.
In an exclusive interview in today's Irish Times, Mr Cowen also distanced himself from 'right-of-centre', 'left-of-centre', and 'liberal' labels.
"I think there are people trying to superimpose this idea of right and left on Irish politics probably since independence. We are different to the extent that we are a small country which hasn't inherited ideas of class, who were trying to build a Republic which would give opportunities to everyone regardless of their background."
Mr Cowen said that while he has no problem with the Taoiseach's description of himself as a socialist, he would describe himself as "a republican". He said Mr Ahern's stance was "totally consistent with what our performance has been in Government. We are the people who brought in the welfare state in this country."
Defending Fianna Fáil's politics, he said the party was the author of social partnership; had restructured the economy to deal with crippling debt and reduced taxes to encourage job creation.
"This effort to portray my party as being outside the mainstream - as being right of this or left of that or whatever you want to call it - the social partnership framework makes that a rather nonsensical analysis."
And he said when the Opposition attacks the Government over broken promises they forget they were pouring on the promises without reference to costings. "We remember what the Telecom [shareholders] were told, we remember what the taxi men were told. It was the Opposition that made those sort of crazy promises."
He said the Government had simply "made corrections half way through the year" to ensure budgetary targets were met. Evidence of this could be seen in this year's Budget he said. The Government had removed more people from the tax net, introduced a disability funding package, and improved social welfare provision.
"Now we have come through the international downturn of the past two or three years. The Government deserves credit for having brought the economy through this period so well."
Mr Cowen says succeeding Mr Ahern as Taoiseach is "not a burning ambition". "I am Minister for Finance, I have a lot of work ahead both organisationally and in Government." The Taoiseach has been there for ten years and can stay on "for as long as he likes", says Mr Cowen.