Sinn Féin has proposed an additional €3.6 billion investment in the Department of Health over the next five years in its new healthcare policy.

The plan promises free prescription medicine for all households, 5,000 new hospital beds and increased access to medical cards if the party is elected to government.

On Newstalk Breakfast today, Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane said this is the “most significant and comprehensive health care plan ever produced by any political party”.

“The scale of my ambition will not be limited to what has been an acceptance of failure in healthcare,” he said.

“We went from having a trolley crisis that was a winter trolley crisis, to an all-year-round crisis.

“We've had promises that were made to children with scoliosis and spina bifida that were not met.

“We have children with disabilities who can't access assessments of need or basic services - and our plan is an additional €3.6 billion in the Department of Health over five years.”

GP numbers

Mr Cullinane said that medical card services should be expanded to include ‘a whole range of primary and community care services’, while GP numbers could be increased through public contracts.

“It’s not about taking people out of general practice – it's about increasing the number of GP’s,” he said.

“At the core of our plan is choice for trainees.

“I have engaged with trainee doctors, and what they tell me is that some of them want independent practice, they want to be entrepreneurs, they want to travel.

“Others want the option of working for the State on a public contract which exists in the vast majority of European countries.

“So what other countries are doing well is not beyond this State.”

The Sinn Féin plan also includes a €509 million in improving access to hospital, €155 million for disability services and €98 million on home support and care for older people.

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