Extending health insurance to the entire population would not be an early priority for Fine Gael on entering government, the party's health spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, told the conference.
Mr Mitchell made no mention of the party's policy of health insurance for all when he made a presentation to the conference on Fine Gael's health proposals.
Later, in reply to questions to a panel of politicians, he said Fine Gael favoured extending insurance cover to the entire population but that "this is not one that would happen in the early stages of the reforms we have proposed".
Mr Mitchell called for the appointment of a surgeon general who would monitor the performance of the health services and be answerable to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.
He also advocated the appointment of a health ombudsman and said there should be a signed covenant between patients and hospitals guaranteeing the patients' rights to a certain level of care.
The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, complained that in the debate on the health services, "we never talk about mental health". Hospital committees and chambers of commerce who met him never welcomed the fact that there was a new psychiatric unit in the town, he said.
He was particularly critical of the practice of delaying the transfer of psychiatric patients to new purpose-built units because the units had been used instead to solve the accommodation problems of medical patients.
He also wondered if people were aware of the enormity of the issue of services for older people. "I think that's going to become the major issue of the next decade."
It was not true to say the health service was in a state of total continuing crisis, he said. Waiting lists had come down and there were thousands more doctors and nurses. Many improvements to hospitals, such as new emergency departments, would be seen all over the State by 2003 or 2004.
The Labour Party would provide free GP treatment for all, the party's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said. Health insurance would be extended to everybody "for all essential treatments" to remove "the inequality that currently exists between the public and private system".
Under the proposed system, "the State will continue to fund directly A&E services and ambulance services. Those who cannot afford to pay will have their premiums paid by the State. Everyone will be able to choose their insurer and their hospital and consultant in consultation with their GP," she said.