The Labour Party would raise a minimum of €350 million a year extra in capital gains taxes from sales of property, shares and houses.
This plan is laid out in the first part of the party's election manifesto.
Party leader Mr Ruairí Quinn said Labour would keep the Exchequer's current account in the black, rule out borrowing for day- to-day purposes and keep income taxes steady.
However, Mr Quinn adopted a conservative approach to demands for major pay increases by public and civil servants from the benchmarking review, which is due to be completed in June.
The benchmarking process would have to take into account all factors, including the job security and index-linked pension benefits enjoyed by State employees which are not shared by private-sector employees, he said.
People working in the private sector had received above-inflation wage increases linked to productivity.
"If we get the level of productivity that we got elsewhere then we would do it," said the Labour leader.
He said Labour was prepared to borrow to pay for up to 30 per cent of the National Development Plan and spend up to €1 billion a year extra on roads and transport. Under Labour, most capital gains would be subject to income taxes up to 42 per cent, rather than the 20 per cent rate introduced during the lifetime of the outgoing government by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
Under current conditions, the change would reap €750 million for the Exchequer but Labour's finance spokesperson, Mr Derek McDowell, said he believed counteraction by taxpayers would reduce this to €350 million.
Exemptions would ensure that the sale of the family home would remain excluded from captial gains tax, while a "small gains allowance", worth €2,500 for singles and €5,000 for married couples, would keep small-scale share-dealing out of the tax net.
Rejecting Fianna Fáil charges that Labour planned to raid the National Pension Fund, Mr Quinn said it would reduce contributions to it from 1 per cent to 0.25 per cent of Gross National Product for the next five years.
However, he said the money saved would not be used for current spending.
Instead, it would be invested to cover the cost of some new hospitals planned under the Government's €7.7 billion health strategy.
Criticising Fianna Fáil's election manifesto, Labour's finance spokesperson, Mr Derek McDowell said its plan to let a National Development Finance Agency borrow for infrastructure was "a big con".
"Fianna Fáil's proposed new agency within an agency may sound clever, but it doesn't hide the fact that Fianna Fail are proposing to borrow," he said.
"What they haven't said is how much they will borrow and what they will borrow for."
Rejecting Fianna Fáil's allegation that Labour would increase income taxes, Mr McDowell responded: "The days of the massive tax giveaways are over, but there is still work to do in making our tax system fairer.
"We are proposing to keep our promise to those on the minimum wage, and keep wages below €254 per week out of the tax net. We will not increase income tax rates," he said.
Mr Quinn said Labour would not increase the 12.5 per cent rate of corporation tax, which he said he had helped to negotiate with the European Commission during his time as minister for finance.
The manifesto promises that Labour would "redress over time" the controversial tax individualisation changes introduced by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, which it said were biased against single-income families.
"We have set out six pledges. This is not one of them. We disagreed with the principle of it but it can't be a priority because of the money it would cost," he told a press conference.
Asked if some changes would happen on a phased basis from the first year of a Labour-involved administration, Mr McDowell said he had not prepared his first budget yet. "I can't answer that."
Though he echoed Mr McDowell's arguments that changes would be extremely expensive, Mr Quinn quickly interjected: "It will not be in the first budget; it is not a priority." The country's existing semi-States would remain under State control, but the Public Enterprise Management Agency would be created to ensure that they are given greater commercial freedom.
Justifying the creation of two new public holidays a year, Mr Quinn said employees were now working longer hours, commuting for longer: "Why shouldn't they have what the Danes and the Greeks have?"
Acknowledging that the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation and other employers' groups will oppose the measure, he said extra holidays were "good for tourism, leisure and families".
Meanwhile, statutory redundancy payments would rise to a minimum of three weeks a year.
Improvements in childcare would be funded by a rise in employers' PRSI, the party's manifesto proposes.