Voters will be faced with "a fundamental choice" about Ireland's future in next year's general election, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will tell 5,000 delegates this weekend at the party's ardfheis.
The one-day gathering, which will be attended by 5,000 delegates, will focus on "looking forward, not back", Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin said last evening.
"It will be about giving a positive message about Ireland's future, not a negative one. People don't want negative messages. They want to see a party focused on the future," she said.
The mood of delegates attending the party's 70th ardfheis in the Citywest Hotel in south Dublin will be lifted by a series of recent opinion polls that shows its support rising and the Fine Gael/Labour alliance languishing.
Ministers will not unveil any new policies at the ardfheis, Ms Hanafin said, though she rejected charges that this may reflect complacency on Fianna Fáil's part.
"What people are saying is that the direction is right, though more can be done. We are doing a lot, for instance, for disadvantaged education, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be doing more," she said. Fianna Fáil's next ardfheis will take place in late March next year, just before RTÉ imposes restrictions on the live broadcasting of political conferences in advance of the general election.
The party's general secretary, Seán Dorgan, said Fianna Fáil has seen "a huge surge" in Ógra Fianna Fáil's membership.
Delegates will debate a variety of motions at the ardfheis, though most of them do little more than laud the Government's economic and social policies.
The Denis Lacey cumann from South Tipperary will ask the ardfheis "to recommend that the Christian emblems and insignia will continue to be displayed in Irish schools, hospitals and public buildings", following a Dublin hospital's decision last year to remove a Christmas crib from its reception area. Ms Hanafin said she believed the hospital had been wrong.
Delegates will also be asked to urge the Government to strongly resist the Commission for Energy Regulation's recently announced gas and electricity price rises.
