The Government has announced major health and public transport initiatives after its first Cabinet meeting in election year.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, yesterday announced that 709 acute beds would be commissioned in public hospitals by the end of this year, the largest ever expansion in bed capacity.
This is 259 more than was announced in the Government's Health Strategy late last year.
Within an hour, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, announced the beginning of the tendering process for the first line of the planned new metro for Dublin. She said she hopes the initial route will be built by 2007.
The announcements came as the Cabinet resumed business with under three months to go before the expected dissolution of the Dáil in April, which would allow for a May poll.
With health and public transport set to become key election issues, Fine Gael and Labour yesterday immediately accused the Fianna Fáil/PD Coalition of "pre-election gimmickry and window dressing".
Both main Opposition parties maintained that the beds announcement was inadequate, and said there were not enough nurses to staff these planned new beds.
Labour said the metro announcement was an 18-month-old decision dressed up as a new one.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation lent weight to Opposition criticism yesterday, saying they would not co-operate with the new bed provision unless staff shortages were addressed.
The INO general secretary, Mr Liam Doran, said there were 1,200 nursing vacancies in the State already, and at least 1,100 extra posts would be needed to staff the extra beds.
However, Mr Martin expressed confidence that the beds could be staffed.
The allocation was based on what health boards and hospitals had said they could put into operation, he said. There had been a dramatic increase in nurse recruitment, he added.
Some of the extra beds will be provided very quickly, the Minister said, particularly in Limerick and Sligo. In other cases, the beds will come on stream gradually with almost all in place by September.
As well as the 709 new acute beds in public hospitals, a Department of Health spokesman confirmed that the plan to purchase the use of a further 200 private beds, announced with the Health Strategy, would be implemented.
Yesterday's announcement was made at the publication of a review of national bed capacity which stated that 4,335 extra acute beds would be needed by 2011.
Fine Gael's health spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, said: "It is amazing what an election year can produce by way of promise ...This announcement is a ball of smoke."
His comments were echoed by Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, who maintained that many of the beds announced were already part of an existing programme of hospital expansion.
The metro announcement moves the planned system, first agreed by Government 18 months ago, to another stage in its planning.
A spokesman for the Minister last night rejected accusations of electioneering, saying this was a major step forward. The decision had to be taken now, because to wait until after an election would cause major delays in the completion of the much-needed system, he said.
The first phase comprises a line from Dublin Airport to the city centre, and on to Shanganagh near Bray (to link with the DART), with a spur to Blanchardstown.
However, doubts remain over funding for the €7.2 billion project, described by Ms O'Rourke yesterday as "the biggest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the State".
She said the project would be funded by a combination of State and private sector finance.
Ms O'Rourke took the opportunity of yesterday's announcement to trumpet Government progress on delivering the Dublin Transportation Office's blueprint for improving public transport in the capital.
"With Luas coming on stream next year, more quality bus corridors, over 400 extra buses for Dublin, additional suburban and DART rolling stock and services, great strides have been made in the past 18 months on delivering on the promise of that strategy," she said.
However Labour's public enterprise spokesman, Mr Emmet Stagg, said: "In its dying days in office the Government has re-announced a decision regarding a metro system which it has failed to progress one iota in 18 months."