The National Assembly must prove its value to the public in its first four-year term or be regarded as a flop, Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Michael German believes.

Mr German sees the point of those critics who say the assembly is coming into being on the back of an underwhelming democratic mandate which threatens its success and continued existence.

Michael German says the Assembly should trigger the imagination of the Welsh people

Just 50.3% of a 50.3% turn-out voted for the new tier of government - only slightly more than a quarter of the electorate.

Some commentators say this lack of interest is due in part to the restricted powers granted to the assembly - and that these limitations will condemn it to being talking shop.

Though the new body will control an annual �7bn budget it cannot set taxes. And it can only vary Westminster-made laws covering a restricted portfolio of areas.

However, Mr German is so determined to overcome these factors and make a success of the assembly that his party united with Labour and Plaid Cymru to support devolution in the 1997 referendum.

"The assembly has got to be seen as relevant to everyone's lives," he says.

"If we haven't delivered a more prosperous Wales with more and better job opportunities in the next four years, then we will have failed.

The Lib Dems pledge to cut class sizes in primary schools

"It has to be seen as something that can increase people's prosperity and can handle the vital services that are important to people's everyday lives, like health and education.

"And also it has got to deliver a better form of government, one in which people have a say and feel engaged with rather than cut off from.

"The key is that the assembly is a challenge for us all that should trigger the imagination of the Welsh people and give us an opportunity to stand up for ourselves and look outward."

Will to win

Like all the parties the Lib Dems say they are fighting to win an overall majority in the assembly - even if in their case most polls put them third or fourth in the race.

"We are the only party fighting this election who can be trusted to make devolution work for Wales," Mr German says.

"Basically we have got a Conservative Party who are opposed to the assembly and have very little positive to say about the way Wales should run itself.

"We have got a nationalist party who are en route to an independent socialist republic if Wales gave them the power. And I don't think that is what people want.

"And we have a Labour Party who only want to continue Westminster government by extension.

"Really the opportunities for the Lib Dems are huge."

Coalition concerns

But if the opinion polls are to be believed, perhaps the best opportunity for the Lib Dems could be to act as partners in some sort of coalition, assuming neither Labour nor the nationalists win an overall majority.

Michael German on his party's conditions for forming an Assembly coalition.

Mr German says the Lib Dems would only enter into a partnership if it was entirely "transparent" so that the public and party members could be confident there were no secret deals.

The Lib Dems would also insist that the coalition's programme would have to be broadly in line with the party's three main aims in Wales:

• reducing the number of children in every primary school class to below 30
• ensuring that nobody waits longer than six months to be admitted to hospital to see a consultant or for treatment - rather than just cutting the number of people on waiting lists
• establishing a more open and accountable style of government in Wales.

In pursuit of this last aim the Lib Dems have proposed a whistle-blowers' charter to protect the jobs of assembly employees who reveal corruption or mismanagement.

The public may be encouraged to complain by e-mail

They also want to make the new institution as open to public scrutiny as possible.

Voters would be able to question assembly members and ministers by e-mail from computers in public libraries and face-to-face at regular open forum meetings.

'Promise-related pay'

But perhaps the Lib Dem idea on accountability that has gained the most attention is "promise-related pay".

Under this scheme, ministers would automatically receive the �34,500 salary due to them as assembly members.

But how much they were paid of their extra wages as ministers - between �34,500 to �50,000 - would depend on how well they kept their pledges.

The arbiters would be a citizens' jury of voters.

"I think it's a way to prove that we as a political party mean what we say and that if we make promises we will carry them out," says Mr German.

"It can work very well. All you need to do is write down promises politicians make at the beginning of the year and the citizens' jury measures their achievement at the end of the year.

"And that's no more than you would expect for a senior executive in a large multi-national or national company.

"I think politicians, particularly politicians who are proposing performance-related pay for teachers - which we disagree with - should be prepared to carry out the same thing for themselves.

"I think the genuine disgust that many people in Wales feel about the way Labour has treated them in local and national government can only be overcome with this approach.