The HSE will issue invitation to tenders to build new private hospitals on State lands "this week or next", according to the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
During a heated session of Leaders Questions in the Dáil today Mr Ahern told the Labour party leader Pat Rabbitte that the sites would be leased and not sold to private interests.
"Minister Harney said today that she wanted to get investment into the health service and contrary to some view, which is mainly deputy Rabbitte's view, we're not giving away any land, the land would be leased," Mr Ahern said.
The Taoiseach also added that private providers would enter into a profit-share arrangement with public hospitals.
Bidders are expected to be selected by mid-April and contracts will be signed several weeks before the general election.
Earlier Mr Rabbitte had called on the Minister for Health Mary Harney not to sign the contracts for the new facilities ahead of the election, saying they "should not be signed in the dying days of a government".
"The Harney plan to build super-private clinics on scarce public lands, financed by generous tax breaks for investors, is a serious policy error. It is expensive, it is bad for patients and it is wrong".
"It is a backdoor policy for which the Minister has no mandate," he added.
However, speaking on RTÉ radio today Ms Harney dismissed Mr Rabbitte's claims saying that the policy had been agreed by Government in 2005.