Invigorated by new TDs and Senators, Fine Gael intends to offer a very different face in coming months, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent
Speaking to colleagues in Galway on Monday night, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny promised "a new aggressiveness" when TDs return to the Dáil later this month.
The first signs of this approach were already evident as Kenny focused on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's personal finances. Before this week, the Fine Gael leader pulled his punches on the issue, believing that Ahern was too many points in credit with the public and that they would take his side in such an argument.
Now, however, the situation has changed. Ahern, barring extraordinary change, has fought his last election as Fianna Fáil leader. The passing of the mantle of power may be two years away, or more, but Kenny now senses a weakness that he can exploit.
Choosing repeatedly not to use the figures before the Mahon tribunal, he instead preferred his own calculation of €300,000 in today's equivalent better to strike a chord with voters.
Seeking to raise the ante for the Taoiseach before he enters the Mahon witness box today, the Fine Gael leader said he had failed to offer "a credible" explanation for the money found in his accounts.
"I do feel that the people of the country can't have this fantasy land where you have money flying around in bags, in hotel rooms and wardrobes and political constituency offices.
"This is the time for the Taoiseach to deal with all of this, to say where he got this money from, who paid it to him and why he accepted it," he said.
The ante, clearly, will be raised further this week if Ahern fails to deal with all of the questions left in the mind of the tribunal; and Fine Gael believes that he cannot do so.
Twice before, Ahern's finances have been put before voters and they passed judgment: once because most thought it unfair; and later because they were more worried about the economy.
Today, however, Fine Gael privately senses the mood has changed. The economic clouds have darkened a little, or a lot; and the focus on "life after Bertie" has begun. Only time will tell if they are right.
Kenny's more sharp-toothed display, though untypical of him, is reflective of the enlarged Fine Gael parliamentary party. With 51 TDs, Kenny leads a hungrier, younger and, sometimes, a bit meaner crew, who are clearly prepared for a more confrontational style.
In his first five years of leadership, the Mayoman successfully reorganised a battered party, soothed longstanding divisions and restored morale. The task was not easy and the scale of the achievement can easily, but wrongly, be disregarded because it has been completed - even if it did not get them into power.
Today, though, he must manage stirred-up passions and burgeoning ambitions. Though significantly different from his previous challenge, it is not without its dangers.
His first hurdle will come with the selection of his front bench and whether he seeks to wield a new broom and send some of the 2002 survivors to the backbenches.
Such a move would create divisions and disrupt the disciplined camp he has led up to now: one that remained disciplined if only because it did not have any other choice.
Bar a few, however, the outgoing Fine Gael front bench did not become household names in the way that Fianna Fáil counterparts did during their opposition sojourn between 1995 and 1997.
Some of the reasons may be understandable: the loss of major players in the 2002 election; the better economic times; and the media's focus on officeholders.
Nevertheless, they did not emerge as a cabinet-in-waiting and Kenny must create momentum as Fine Gael returns to Leinster House, and he must foster the ambitions of his younger troops.
So he could find room for a few newcomers but not promote them too far; and demote a number of more senior figures, but not enough of them to create a potentially troublesome group.
So far, there are some signals that he will try to have it both ways, depending on how much weight one puts on his Galway remark that each TD will have "specific duties and responsibilities".
The danger there is that he will achieve the worst of all worlds and end up with an unfocused team lacking in perceived freshness, and still have some bruised egos.
However, Kenny must also look to his own performance. Whether he and senior figures like it or not, he did not convince enough people that he was ready to be taoiseach.
During the last Dáil, he struggled, as others had before him, to land blows on Ahern in the Dáil, protected as the latter is by Dáil rules and by his own ability to obfuscate.
On policy, Fine Gael, as he admits, must freshen the arrows in its quiver, though the task is not without its problems in a world where politics remains in the centre ground, and where room for manoeuvre is restricted.
In Galway, Kenny was quick to put forward the argument that the task of convincing voters will be easier now that Fine Gael has 51 seats, and not 31 as it had back in 2002.
The point has merit, but the necessary extra seats will be hard to win, and organisational and selection decisions that proved wrong in the last election will have to be reversed.
The poisoned chalice that is organisation now passes from Carlow Kilkenny TD Phil Hogan, who made enemies amongst his own as inevitably happens with such jobs, to the party's director of elections, Frank Flannery.
Despite the problems facing him, Enda Kenny can for now begin his next political journey with some hope, if not boundless optimism, but, at least, he does not have to worry about his own leadership.