Free medical cards for children under six would be provided by the Green Party in government, its health spokesman John Gormley announced yesterday.
"The basis of our policy is to get the early years right. We place a strong emphasis on children staying healthy through good nutrition and nutritional advice, and avoiding, as far as possible, high-cost drug therapies," Mr Gormley said.
"The over-prescribing of antibiotics continues to be a source of concern, particularly in the context of rising rates of MRSA."
Mr Gormley said the scheme would cost an estimated €90 million annually, but the party felt it would be a good investment. He added that if the scheme were extended to those under 16 years , the cost would be an estimated €181 million a year.
After a two-day Green Party policy meeting, in Drogheda, Co Louth, Mr Gormley said that access to healthcare should be non-discriminatory and based on need, not ability to pay.
There was an urgent need to reorient health services away from high-cost hospital care to low-cost primary care in the community. His party believed that primary care centres, staffed by doctors, nurses, midwives, nutritionists, psychologists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, should be set up.
"These community centres would ease congestion in accident and emergency units and provide a whole range of services under one roof."
Mr Gormley claimed that the Government's healthcare strategy was in tatters. "The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has gone down the privatisation route, which is something we reject.
"Primary healthcare, in most civilised European states, is the backbone of healthcare policy. Yet, it is ignored in this country, and we see its consequences."
Louth general election candidate councillor Mark Dearey said the party would increase the number of places for undergraduates studying medicine to 725, while capping the proportion of non-EU medical students at 25 per cent.
Compulsory retirement at 65 years for GPs working in the public area would be abolished.
Wicklow general election candidate councillor Deirdre de Búrca said that in power the party would facilitate community midwifery and local birth centres run by midwives, through the introduction of financial incentives for midwives wishing to establish their own practices in the community.
"Three out of four women in Ireland will have a child at some point in their lives, yet plans to close 11 of the State's maternity units will force women to travel even greater distances to have their babies."
In other policy initiatives, the party said that it would restore, on a phased basis, medical card eligibility to the pre-1996 levels of 34 per cent of the population. Task force recommendations,dealing with obesity and alcohol, would be implemented.
