Mary Harney defines herself as a liberal whose politics is both her hobby and her job. "Perhaps that is a weakness. I don't devote myself to anything else, apart from my family and my friends," she says.

This weekend she leads the Progressive Democrats into their first conference since the party's devastating 1997 general election when their Dail representation slumped from 10 seats to four.

The Salthill conference, which opens tonight, is billed by the party's spin-doctors as "a staging post" for renewal and "a springboard" for the local elections in June which are a critical barometer of the PDs' ultimate survival chances. With just 31 outgoing councillors and a weak local authority support base, the party plans to run between 50 and 60 candidates in the June poll. Electorally, it stands extremely exposed, with a 4 per cent stake in the popularity polls.

"I am going to set my sights on more modest ambitions," Ms Harney declares. No wonder, since she predicted 14 PD seats before the general election and ended up with four. Refusing to divulge what her revised and humbler objectives might be, she says she is continuing to recruit "very dynamic people" to her party. It's a formidable project.

The current difficulty in attracting people into politics was "very sad" but arose from deep public cynicism over recent scandals in public life.

Confirming that she intends to move from the Dublin South West five-seater to the newly-created three-seat constituency of Mid-West, Ms Harney admits her personal survival in the next general election will be "very tough".

Her party's strength is even more vulnerable with the departure of Des O'Malley from national politics. She is sanguine about the prospects of Bobby Molloy remaining in national politics though he has not publicly expressed his intentions. "But I like a fight and a challenge", she adds with her trade-mark defiance.

Contrary to public perception, the Progressive Democrats have "struggled to raise money". They have "always been in overdraft' ' and the current debt is £250,000. The Sunday Independent last weekend revealed private banking arrangements between the Progressive Democrats and National Irish Bank. According to the item, which quotes confidential documentation, the bank "balked" at calling in security on a crippling PD debt because of the "political difficulties" involved.

"It is very disturbing because the essence of banking is client confidentiality," Ms Harney says. "It is deeply embarrassing for the 25 people who agreed to guarantee our debt. I was not aware there was any question of calling in security. The bank never discussed that with me or the treasurers. It came as a shock to me when I saw it in the paper," she adds.

Her party's strongest suit has been keeper of the flame of probity in Government but, as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Tanaiste's quest to tackle low standards in high places has extended to business in a prolonged range of investigations sweeping through the Ansbacher deposits and companies including National Irish Bank, Garuda, Bula, Celtic Helicopters and Dunnes Stores.

What she has discovered in over a dozen inquiries is "not pleasant". Against a culture that tolerated getting away with anything one could, these dubious activities were going on until "the recent past".

It would be erroneous to assume all apparent wrongdoing was contained solely within the Ansbacher set of offshore accounts. It went beyond that. "Company and tax law were honoured more in the breach than in the observance. The inquiries have shown that there are some in society who believed the law was not for them. I have been very surprised. All I have seen from the inquiries suggests there were those prepared to go to extra lengths to avoid paying their fair share of tax. They were oblivious to the law," she says.

The authorised officer appointed by her has been able to uncover "an enormous amount of apparent wrongdoing" in relation to breaches of company law extending beyond the Ansbacher account-holders.

The names that have emerged in relation to offshore accounts are not those of "ordinary people" or "the average business person". But, will we ever know their identities?

"Everyone is entitled to their good name. The fact that some people had offshore accounts does not necessarily mean they were guilty of wrongdoing," she says.

It seems the only way light can be shed on the identity of culprits is through a High Court Inspector but Ms Harney refuses to confirm if she will pursue this approach. "I cannot finalise my views until the reports are completed and that will be before the summer." But she does conclude that high taxes encourage evasion and that company law was not being enforced in a serious way until recently. Both these issues are being redressed now, she says.

Meanwhile, she "remains optimistic" about the establishment of an executive in the North and there can be no "parking" of the Belfast Agreement. The brutal murder of Rosemary Nelson was designed to derail the process. "Her murder in Northern Ireland represented what Veronica Guerin's murder represented in the South - a strike against a pillar of democracy and a woman who was trying to pursue justice for her clients," she says.

Should the inquiry into the solicitor's death be independent? "Whatever inquiry is conducted, it must be thorough and frank. Submerging information will help nobody but those supporting violence," she says.

The report of the Patten Commission into the RUC must be radical because a democracy must have as its basis a police force that inspires confidence in all sides of the community.

Her relationship with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has stabilised since the Government went into a tailspin over allegations by the London-based developer, Mr Tom Gilmartin, in January. In a badly-handled response to Mr Gilmartin's allegations that he attended meetings over planning - and that he inquired about a financial contribution to Fianna Fail - Mr Ahern had to go into the Dail and offer explanations. He also had to amend his recollection after records showed he had forgotten some of the meetings with Mr Gilmartin.

"The problem was not about attending meetings. Who can recall everything? Memory recall is not perfect. It is not a question of what people can remember - it is about how things are handled," the Tanaiste says.

What was the problem, then? "Well, people do not like reading things in the paper," she adds, remembering the flow of damaging newspaper stories that kept the Government on the edge of crisis in those weeks after Christmas.

"That period was very rocky. I was not sitting down waiting for some issue to arise and we would just walk. That was never the case, but there was a time when I thought it (the Coalition) was very vulnerable because so many things were arising so suddenly. Huge confusion set in." After a 12-day trip to Japan and the Antipodes, she returned to a cooled atmosphere and a robust session with her Fianna Fail partners. Since then, she and the Taoiseach have been meeting more regularly to scour for landmines.

People say she and Bertie Ahern are alike. Addicted to politics, they both have given up pretty much everything else in its pursuit. "We come from similar backgrounds, that are not the public school kind. I come from a small Land Commission background. We have both been in politics since we were very young. I was so young my friends joke that I've never worked. We both came to Leinster House in 1977 and will both be 22 years here this summer," she says.

Will they remain together in the long haul of government? "This Government will last a full term unless Fianna Fail pull the plug," she jests.