A universal health insurance system was the key announcement in Enda Kenny's speech to the Fine Gael ard fheis in Citywest, Dublin, last night.

After a fortnight of policy announcements on a range of issues, there was little left in the policy locker to surprise the 5,000 delegates, but Kenny's speech was nevertheless greeted with the obligatory standing ovation.

In a perceived criticism of the Labour Party's continued reluctance to deny it would go into government with Fianna Fáil, Kenny said: "Fine Gael is the party with the team, the energy and the ideas to get the Irish people back to work. And we are the only party that guarantees the political change this country so desperately needs."

Although Fine Gael styled itself as "the party of new ideas" over the weekend, Kenny did not outline any specific new policies last night but discussed the way his party has put forward proposals for job creation, third-level education funding, Dáil reform and stimulating the economy in recent weeks.

Reiterating the party's newest proposal, first announced on Friday night, Kenny outlined how Fine Gael in government would introduce universal health insurance based on the Dutch model. The party has compiled a study of the system as it was implemented in the Netherlands and hopes to replicate it in Ireland.

Kenny believes Ireland can recover fully from the recession inside five years and attacked Fianna Fáil's handling of the economic crisis.

"Fianna Fáil could have, and should have, anticipated the economic crisis. While I recognise that global factors are partly to blame for the downturn, the reality is that mismanagement by our own government has meant that Ireland is suffering much more than other countries. Make no mistake about this: Fianna Fáil is responsible for the state of our domestic woes."

He warned that no country has ever taxed its way out of a recession and pledged to create 100,000 jobs by the end of 2013 under his party's Rebuilding Ireland plan. He also said Fine Gael in government will abolish employers' PRSI for every new job created.