Economy: Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has blamed Fianna Fáil's recent poor performances in opinion polls on the fact that the party has not been effectively communicating the progress being made in key areas.
Speaking to journalists following the party's two-day parliamentary party meeting in Westport, Co Mayo, Fianna Fáil Ministers maintained their belief that many people would not be deciding on their voting intentions until next spring.
Ministers also used the final press conference to set out the party's claim that the continued success of the economy was not guaranteed, and would require a coherent set of policies which they said Fianna Fáil had.
Mr Cowen told journalists the party leadership had "the bottle for the battle".
Describing opinion polls as "a snapshot", he said between now and the general election the Government would be continuing to implement the Programme for Government.
"We'll also be trying to articulate what we have been doing, and what we will do. We are going to concentrate on a positive agenda."
He acknowledged that Fianna Fáil had been performing poorly in opinion polls, and blamed this on a failure to get across the progress being made in areas such as health, transport and infrastructure.
"Thus far we have not been articulating sufficiently the real progress, the substantial progress that we are making on a whole range of areas."
Describing the election as "an open race", Mr Cowen said there were a considerable number of undecideds that the party would be targeting.
Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin said he believed there was "an electorate out there to be won".
"In my opinion the real decision will not begin to happen until March and April when people have to make a decision on who are they going to vote for for a government."
He said it was "quite credible" for Fianna Fáil to return its support to close to that it received in the 2002 general election.
Minister of State with responsibility for children Brian Lenihan also defended the record of the Progressive Democrats in the two portfolios controlled by the party, health and justice.
He said there was a constant dialogue between the party and Minister for Health Mary Harney.
"There is full confidence in her on the the part of our TDs and Senators."
Mr Cowen also claimed that the continued success of the economy would depend on the policies of the next government.
"We can't take our economic success for granted. No one has a patent on economic success."
He said he foresaw the creation of 500,000 jobs through the "knowledge economy" over the next decade. The Government was investing €4 billion in the area, including research and development and fourth-level education.
"If we want to have full employment and good paying jobs then we can't just sit back and expect the jobs to be there," he said, adding that there would be provisions for investment in the area in both the National Development Plan and the budget.
He reiterated the party's claim that Labour and Fine Gael did not have coherent policies, and again claimed they were uncosted.
He cited the example of differing views between the parties on risk equalisation in the health sector, claiming that Fine Gael was opposed to the mechanism in contrast to the Labour position.