Fine Gael and Labour today promised vowed to spend an extra €1.1 billion on health service if elected to provide free health insurance for all children up to the age of 16 and free doctor treatment for all children under five.
The two parties have committed itself to providing 2,300 more acute beds in the country's hospitals and 1,500 long-term beds for patients.
The parties' joint health strategy will target children's health, preventative medicine, and involve serious reform of the way health services are managed. Medical cards will be allocated to 40 percent of the population, they promised, with free GP cards to all children under five years of age.
The Better Healthplan is the fourth chapter of the comprehensive Health Plan which the two parties are launching in advance of the general election.
"Waiting has become the word which our people now associate with the health service," said Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.
"MS sufferers wait years to see a neurologist, our children wait months to see an orthodontist, every day hundreds still wait on A&E trolleys, women across Ireland wait for cancer services promised in hoax plans and thousands wait for procedures and operations.It is time for the waiting to stop," he said.
"We will achieve these goals through a combination of reform and investment, enhancing the quality of services and achieving better value for money."
The party leaders believe the key to cutting waiting times and responding to the needs of patients is by increasing the capacity in the health service. They also want all children up to 16 years to have free medical insurance and health checks and screening before youngsters start primary and secondary school.
Measures will also include scrapping plans to build private hospitals on public land, recruiting 1,500 new consultants, training more doctors and the expansion of community support services for elderly people to live independent lives as far as is practicable.
"Ultimately, the solution to providing both a better and fairer health service is for the principle that the money follows the patient to apply across the health service," added Labour leader Pat Rabbitte. "These changes of themselves will contribute to a fairer and more efficient health service."