The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, will tell Fianna Fáil backbenchers at the party's two-day meeting in West Cork next week that 270 additional hospital beds will be made available later this year.
He is also expected to reveal new measures aimed at relieving pressure on accident and emergency services in Dublin. The Minister will tell TDs he will approve plans by the Eastern Regional Health Authority to secure "step down" facilities for 200 patients who no longer require care in acute hospitals.
"In response to the recent pressures on A&E departments the ERHA has developed plans to move a further 200 patients from hospitals to a more appropriate setting.
"My Department is giving this latest proposal favourable consideration with a view to providing the necessary funding to the ERHA in 2004," according to a Department of Health memorandum.
He is also expected to tell TDs that the opening of the €400 million worth of healthcare facilities which have been lying idle for some time will add 270 beds to the acute bed complement.
The Minister has come under pressure from Cabinet colleagues and backbenchers since the local elections to tackle the problems in hospital accident and emergency departments, where overcrowding and long waiting times are common.
The Irish Times understands that the Eastern Regional Health Authority has expressed concern to the Department of Health in recent months that the problems in accident and emergency services in Dublin were deteriorating.
The Eastern Regional Health Authority is understood to have asked the Department to provide additional hospital beds.
The problems in accident and emergency services are seen to have two main causes - a shortage of acute beds in general, and hundreds of patients inappropriately placed in those that are open.
The additional 200 "step down" places to be announced by the Minister will be provided for patients who no longer need acute hospital care but who up to now have had no place else to go.
The additional 200 "step down" places will be in addition to the 129 places that were funded by the Department of Health early in the summer.
A spokeswoman for Mr Martin said last night that in response to recent pressures on accident and emergency facilities, the Eastern Regional Health Authority had developed plans to move a further 200 patients from hospitals to a more appropriate setting.
Meanwhile, the Minister has appointed an extra emergency medicine consultant at Beaumont - bringing the total there to three - along with a new unit in the Mater to speed up decisions about the type of care needed.
Clinical nurses, specialising in minor injuries and geriatric care, are to be appointed in all Dublin teaching hospitals, while new nurses for St James's Hospitals will be appointed to deal with acutely ill elderly patients.