Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has called for a 12 month suspension of the national pay deal.
In his address to the Fine Gael National Conference in Wexford, Mr Kenny said the country could not afford the deal.
He called on the Government and public service unions to implement a complete pay freeze for 12 months.
He said private sector employers and their staff should ensure that there are no pay increases at the expense of jobs.
Mr Kenny promised that Fine Gael in government would deliver on universal healthcare and pledged to draw a line in the sand on government spending.
He also repeated his opposition to involving venture capitalists in recapitalisation of the banks, saying the Government should take preference shares in Irish institutions instead.
Mr Kenny said banks should be held accountable for what he claimed was reckless behaviour.
Radical reforms needed in public sector - Bruton
Fine Gael has called for sweeping reforms of the public service as the basis for economic recovery.
Deputy Leader and finance spokesperson Richard Bruton told the party's National Conference that every body receiving public money should make itself publicly accountable for its targets and plans.
He said the Government had lost sight of what it takes to survive in a small open economy, and stressed the need to improve competitiveness.
Meanwhile, the children's spokesperson Alan Shatter has criticised the Green Party saying ‘there isn't a policy or principle they won't sacrifice to preserve their ministerial positions.’
Earlier, health spokesperson James Reilly said the party would introduce voluntary redundancies for the health sector, but warned that involuntary redundancies must also be an option.
He roundly criticised the Government's handling of the health system but said it could be fixed with political leadership.
Deputy Reilly told delegates the setting up of the Health Service Executive enshrined the inefficiencies of the old health boards and said FG would retrain surplus health managers to work in frontline services.
Ireland must trade way out of recession
Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar has called for tax breaks to encourage businesses to take on new employees, saying Ireland must trade its way of the recession.
He said the banks should be recapitalised only on the condition that they provide credit to viable businesses and home-buyers.
Mr Varadkar said Ireland had to become competitive again by re-examining the national pay deal and refusing any new hikes in electricity and gas prices.
While environment spokesman Phil Hogan has said 50,000 jobs could be created over the next decade by moving to greener technologies.
Mr Hogan said Ireland should exploit renewable technologies as a source of employment in the same way that the pharmaceutical sector was targeted in the past.
He said doing nothing would be very expensive as Ireland would have to buy carbon credits which could cost up to €350 million by 2020.
