Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has accused the Government of squandering the benefits of a booming economy.
She said: "It has been extremely frustrating to watch this Government and successive governments miss opportunities when we have a booming economy, record employment and a huge surplus.
"To see that along with 14,000 homeless people including 4,000 children, threadbare disability services and an increase of 15% in child poverty in this Government alone."
The party has said that it would raise maternity benefit to €350 a week.
Gathering for the party's annual think-in in Dublin ahead of the resumption of the Dáil tomorrow, Ms Cairns said an election could not come soon enough and she expected it would take place in November.
She denied that the Social Democrats were not open to going into Government next time round.
Ms Cairns said: "We absolutely want to go into Government, I didn't go into politics to go into opposition.
"I have certainly realised the importance of opposition but absolutely we want to turn our policies into a reality but we won't go into Government just to make up the numbers. We want to see the biggest mandate for the Social Democrats in Government."
The Social Democrats will run candidates in "more than half" of the 43 constituencies and Ms Cairns said they were close to finalising selections of candidates.
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The party increased its number of councillors in the recent local elections to 35, up from 19 in 2019.
"We will talk to everyone after the election but our focus is on trying to build our own mandate," she said.
Asked if she would encourage voters to give their second preference to Labour, she said she would not.
