Mr Michael Noonan has positioned Fine Gael as a party of both low tax and high public service provision, with a mission to cleanse public life in the wake of recent scandals.
In his first address as leader to a truncated ardfheis in Dublin on Saturday, Mr Noonan also defined Fine Gael as a nationalist party seeking to reclaim its historic legacy from violent republicans.
In an hour-long televised speech to almost 500 delegates, he dispensed with the recently fashionable props and video inserts to deliver a comprehensive outline of the policy direction he wished the party to take. The planned ardfheis was a Dublin conference due to the foot-and-mouth crisis.
He emphasised again his move to cleanse Fine Gael of its past dependence on big business for funding. Now the party of the small donor, it would take no more corporate cheques.
"The people of Ireland gave their pennies to Daniel O'Connell at the church gates. They bought treasury bonds from Michael Collins when he was on the run. I know that they will rally to a new Fine Gael to give politics in Ireland back to the people, and to get this depressing Government out of office."
In contrast to the post-nationalist rhetoric of his predecessor, Mr John Bruton, Mr Noonan declared: "It is time we took back the national flag from the men of violence. It is time it again becomes a flag of peace". He adopted a carefully neutral position on the workplacehome debate on taxation. "We will respect and support the role of women whether at home or in the workplace", he said.
On the Government's controversial "individualisation" of the standard tax band, he said he would "veto policies which seek to conscript women into the labour force . . . We will not introduce tax or welfare changes which bias women towards one role or the other."
For working women juggling employment and children, he promised to provide "affordable childcare" convenient to their homes or workplaces.
He attacked the Government over the negative side-effects of rapid economic growth: "The new apartheid between rich and poor; the alienation in young people; inflation and congestion; the jigsaw of regional imbalances; the erosion in the quality of life; the demoralisation of public service workers; the mock battles in Brussels and the disillusionment of our European partners; the deterioration of basic services like health and education."
The European social model involving "ready access to high-quality, affordable health care . . . equal opportunity in education . . . decent pensions . . . [and] a focused social welfare code" was the desirable model, he said.
However, he proposed no fiscal changes to increase the money available to fund it. He noted the large budget surpluses of recent years, indicating a belief that there was enough money available now to fund the improved public services he called for.
Indeed, he said he would continue Ireland's low corporate tax regime. The main fiscal measure in the last Budget that was unpopular with business - increasing employers' PRSI payments for higher-paid workers through abolishing the PRSI ceiling - should be reversed, he said.
On income tax he promised in government to take those on the minimum wage out of the tax net altogether. He would continue the income-tax-cutting trend through introducing a new 30 per cent tax, which would apply to income above the standard rate and over time would be extended to cover middle income.
His commitment to improved services was not a commitment to spend more money. "Simply throwing money at a problem will not make it go away", he remarked. However, he acknowledged that the health services were under-resourced.