Nearly 10,000 medical staff, including 5,000 nurses and 1,500 general practitioners, would be hired under Labour Party reform of the health services, that would cost an extra £2.5 billion a year by 2006.
The leader of the Labour Party, Mr Quinn, defended the dramatic rise in health spending. "Not only can Ireland afford to do it, it cannot afford not to do it," he said.
Under the "Our Good Health" plan, a universal health insurance scheme would cover all of the public's hospital and general practitioners' bills, at an extra cost of £400 million.
The State would pay the full bills of half the people, 10% more would be partly subsidised, while the top 40% would continue to pay VHI and BUPA premiums, said Labour's health spokesperson, Ms Liz McManus.
Operating theatres and laboratories would be "immediately opened" at nights and weekends if Labour got back into power, while patients would be sent "to Northern Ireland or elsewhere" in the short-term.
A Health Care Guarantee would ensure all patients are treated equally when they are in hospital, and that all adults would get an appointment within six months, or within three months for children.
Universal insurance would create a "unified and properly funded service that treats all patients equally, with one first-class standard of medical treatment for all and a single payment", said the document.
The existing two-tier system encourages consultants to treat private patients over those on the public waiting list. "This is a form of medical apartheid," said Deputy McManus.
However, she opposed Minister for Health Mr Martin's preference for separating public and private beds. "If that happens, we will get two systems, one good, one bad," she said.
Hospitals, equally, are not encouraged to increase patient numbers. "The absurdity of budget capping must be replaced by a payment system where 'the money follows the patient'," she said.
Proposing free GP care for all, Labour said GPs are currently under-used. "International comparisons show that countries with the strongest primary care systems, and more GPs, have healthier populations and lower overall health costs."
Ireland has only five GPs for 10,000 people, compared to the EU's average of nine for 10,000. In addition, well-off districts have three times more GPs than poorer ones.
The number of GPs must be increased over the next decade by 1,500, to 3,700. "This would require an immediate increase in medical training places," the document said.
Labour also proposes to hire 800 more consultants, 660 physiotherapists, 660 speech therapists and 510 occupational therapists.
Nearly 5,000 hospital beds would be added "over the next few years", and new equipment and buildings supplied for community clinics and GPs' surgeries at a cost of £6 billion.
"When the whole reform has been completed, the additional total cost of £2.5 billion a year will be well within the capacity of government finances without requiring any increase in taxation," said the document.
However, significant spending would not be needed for 18 months, said Mr Quinn, by which time the country's economy will have recovered.
