The Fine Gael leader has said some of the State's pension fund should be invested in improving what he termed our "Third-World infrastructure".
On RTÉ's This Week programme yesterday, Mr Michael Noonan said: "I don't see any great merit in investing Irish pension funds in office blocks in downtown Tokyo if you could be investing it here in roads and bridges and tunnels and transport systems which would contribute to our economy and give us also the kind of quality of life which quite clearly we don't have at present."
He was putting forward the proposal because he believed "the best guarantee of pensions of Irish citizens into the future is the prosperity of our own economy".
Mr Noonan said the proposal would mean it would not be necessary to raise taxes to fund capital expenditure. Fine Gael's programme for government, if elected, would not include any new taxes, he stressed.
He also said public-private partnerships should fund a significant proportion of the National Plan.
Mr Noonan stressed he didn't feel the State was facing an economic crisis but it was facing a fiscal crisis. "If you look at the Government's own figures, they are predicting a deficit next year of almost €4 billion and just under €5 billion the year after and, to add fuel to the fire, they haven't allowed anything for the next pay round, for benchmarking or the health strategy, and these are huge gaps which are emerging now," he said.
He also criticised the Government for leaving State companies such as Aer Lingus, Aer Rianta, RTÉ and An Post "in an absolute shambles" after "the seven most profitable years that were ever in this State".
On the Government's planned abortion referendum, he said he would be asking the Fine Gael parliamentary party not to support it.
"I'm seriously worried about such an extensive amendment being enshrined in the Constitution. There are so many uncertainties that, in effect, we are deferring what it actually means to a future Supreme Court decision.
"But secondly, I cannot see, looking back over the last nine years since the X case, the necessity to take away a protection which women have at the moment which was given at the time of the X case."
Mr Noonan said he was ready for the next election and was confident Fine Gael would gain extra seats. "We have 54 seats. I'm not saying how many we are going to gain but we are targeting a significant number of seats and . . . we are quite confident.
"The present government is Fianna Fáil, PDs and four individual Independents, but if Labour and Fine Gael were to gain eight seats between them, we would actually be able to form a government with an overall majority after the next election. That's a very very achievable target for two parties," he said.
His interest in putting Mr Tom Parlon on the Fine Gael ticket in Laois-Offaly had been to challenge for a third seat in the constituency. He believed Ms Olwyn Enright and the party frontbencher, Mr Charles Flanagan, would take the other two seats.
Mr Noonan also said the Government should bring forward the code of conduct proposed by the Oireachtas Ethics Committee to "deal with the Liam Lawlor issue" and "anybody else in the future or in the present phase of tribunals who would not co-operate".