Sinn Féin manifesto: Sinn Féin in government would complete a Green Paper on Irish unity within the first year, "to promote and assist a successful transition to a United Ireland". Deaglán de Bréadún, Political Correspondent, reports.
The party's election manifesto, Others Promise: We Deliver, launched yesterday, also pledges to introduce "Six-County elected representation" in Leinster House. There would be a referendum on a united Ireland, "to be held simultaneously, North and South".
On healthcare, the manifesto promises to "begin the transition to a new universal public health system for Ireland that provides care to all free at the point of delivery, on the basis of need alone".
There would be an immediate end to tax breaks for private hospitals, "and the land gift allocation scheme".
The party undertakes to provide "full medical cards for all under the poverty line and all under-18s".
All new hospital consultant posts would be "public-only" and Sinn Féin would "deliver into the public hospital system the additional 3,000 hospital beds required".
Sinn Féin would "reverse cutbacks in services at local hospitals and configure all hospitals to ensure that emergency services are available as locally as possible".
The party would set up a department of housing with a full minister, with the intention of constructing "70,000 new units by 2012 to accommodate social housing need".
Sinn Féin would amend planning legislation to ensure that "all new developments must allocate 30 per cent to social and affordable housing". The party would "eliminate street homelessness by the year 2010". Mortgage interest relief for first-time mortgage-holders and principal home owners who earn up to the average industrial wage would be increased.
On education and childcare, there would be "a universal pre-school session of 3.5 hours per day, five days a week for all children aged three to five years".
All class sizes for children under nine would be "immediately" reduced to a maximum of 20 pupils and the use of prefab buildings would be ended "within the lifetime of the next Dáil".
On the economy, the party would "adopt and implement an all-Ireland Economic Development Plan". Sinn Féin would launch "an open debate on the benefits of one currency for the whole island".
There would be a programme of public investment, "to ensure that government departments and agencies proactively invest in historically neglected and underdeveloped areas to reverse the current imbalance".
With regard to infrastructure, Sinn Féin seeks "an extensive expansion of an all-Ireland rail network on an accelerated basis."
There would be more buses for rural areas and 500 extra buses in Dublin. Road tolls would be abolished.
On taxation, the party would "keep those on or below the average industrial earnings within the standard rate tax band". Sinn Féin would close legal loopholes "that have allowed millionaires to pay no tax whatsoever" as well as introducing legislation to end tax exile status.
In other areas, the party would repeal the Offences Against the State Acts and dissolve the Special Criminal Court; ensure that immigrants had the opportunity to learn Irish; prohibit use of Irish airports for armed conflict by foreign powers and "withdraw from the EU Rapid Reaction Force, Battle Groups and Nato's Partnership for Peace".