Michael Noonan's address to the Fine Gael conference was "a bit nervy in the beginning", according to many Fine Gael delegates, but they blamed it on the autocue. Buoyed up by recent events, they were willing to be generous and forgive.
However, they will not forgive failure at the polls. "He is the man. But people will give him one election. Pressure will come on him if he doesn't succeed," said Mr Frank Butler, from Dun Laoghaire.
"There is a great sense of expectation," said another Dun Laoghaire delegate, Mr Larry Shannon. "If he doesn't get us into power there will be a stalking horse ready to go against him." However, Mr Shannon was not alone among the party members present in being unhappy about the manner in which John Bruton was removed. "He was shabbily treated. He gave 10 years as leader, 30 years in all to public service."
Sharing the upbeat mood in the hall, Mr Stephen McCullen from Swords said: "It is amazing the change over the last few weeks. People were sad to see John Bruton go. But they now think that there is a great chance to get the Government out.
"And Michael Noonan is the man to do it. He is more aggressive. He seems to want to be Taoiseach. People have confidence that he can deliver on what he said he would," said Mr McCullen, who joined Fine Gael in 1987.
Looking around the Concert Hall in the RDS, Ms Jane Murphy from Castleknock in west Dublin said she recognised faces that she had not seen at a Fine Gael gathering for years.
"I am not saying that he is only going to get one crack at it. They are giving him a chance to move Fine Gael forward. He is definitely more aggressive than John Bruton was," she said.
The former Fine Gael general secretary, Mr Finbar Fitzpatrick, said: "The mood is akin to the FitzGerald era in 1978. I am not saying that it is same. People like Alan Shatter and Alan Dukes have been given a new lease of life. Quite a few people on the front bench are like that.
"The old front bench was too big, too unwieldy. People were added to it after the South Tipperary by-election because they were suspected of being part of a heave.
"It just became depressing. People could see that after 10 years they had 54 seats. When John Bruton took over they had 55. It is inconceivable that Michael Noonan will not gain significantly.
"He will have to go from 54 to 60 at the very minimum, but 64 would be more realistic. There are seats to be won throughout Munster, in Clare, in Tipperary," said Mr Fitzpatrick.
The ageing profile of many in the hall was "just one of those things", according to a retired ESB official, Mr Michael Hayes from Rathfarnham. "It's a bit like the Catholic Church. A lot of people at Masses now are middle-aged. You can see that at Fine Gael branch meetings," he said.