Labour leader Pat Rabbitte has said he is disappointed that his party has not made significant gains in the 2007 election.
Mr Rabbitte said that the election was a standstill for Labour and at the end of the day people decided that they did not want to risk change.
He said he set out to increase the number of Labour party seats and in the process to elect a government for change.
He said 'we started off with an election in favour of change and for better public services and ended up with people saying it is too much of a risk to take'.
The Labour leader said that as a country we had managed to get the national debt under control but we had transferred that to individual citizens and consumers who are indebted to 'an extraordinary extent'.
Mr Rabbitte said the approach this time was to be part of an alliance. He said that in 2002 Labour had contested the election as an independent party and the result was the same.
He said there was an ongoing necessity to modernise the Labour party and that many young voters did not remember that Labour was in at the origins of the Celtic Tiger.
Mr Rabbitte said he thought people were sensitive to the charges that Labour would destroy the economy and there would be a slump government.
He said some of the authors of the charge did not do so well themselves and may well have done Labour damage.
Looking at Fine Gael's strong performance, Mr Rabbitte said it was inevitable that Enda Kenny was going to make gains after losing so many seats in 2002 and given the cautious and conservative nature of the Irish political landscape.
While he did not rule out Enda Kenny's chances of becoming Taoiseach, he said Mr Ahern was in a strong position.
Mr Rabbitte said he would remain on as party leader and he reiterated his commitment to the Irish people that he would not lead the Labour party into government with Fianna Fáil at this time in history because he wanted to deliver change.
He said when he meets his parliamentary colleagues on Wednesday he will be outlining his position.
