Mark my words and somebody keep this for the future, in the unlikely event they ever form a government. To answer the question asked by Deputies Paul Murphy and Bríd Smith, in my view strikes are best avoided and they are always resolved in the end. They can be resolved bilaterally through talks. They can be resolved at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, or at the Labour Court. This is how the Government intervenes using its offices, the Labour Court and the WRC. Uisce Éireann will not be privatised. This is …

There is always a problem with wording that might have unintended consequences in the Constitution. There is zero chance of it being privatised. It is not a company that turns a profit. I do not quite know who would purchase it.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 14, inclusive, together. The climate action unit in the Department of the Taoiseach seeks to co-ordinate and drive climate action across all Departments by assisting the work of the Cabinet committee on the environment and climate change and associated senior official groups. The Department also provides secretariat to the climate action delivery board, which is composed of the Secretaries General of those Departments that have core responsibilities in ensuring that the Govern…

I again thank Deputies for their contributions. Deputy Durkan is correct that all Departments have to play a role in climate action, but obviously the ones that have to play the biggest role are the Departments of Transport; Environment, Climate and Communications; Agriculture, Food and the Marine; and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as those represent the areas that account for almost all the emissions. Of course, the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Finance, and Public Expenditure, Nationa…

I do not think a unilateral approach from Ireland would work in that regard. What might make more sense would be a tax or a requirement that sustainable aviation fuels be used over time. That might be a more realistic approach than the sledgehammer approach which would probably essentially say that Ireland is closed to investment from major companies into the future. On the energy treaty, I am not aware of any proposals to withdraw from that.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. All of us will know from our experience in our constituencies or from talking to parents while out and about around the country that many children are not getting the assessments they need in due time and that others are waiting far too long for the therapies they required. Having said that, this is an area in respect of which the Government has shown huge commitment and in which it has invested considerable resources in recent years. The Deputy will know that we…

I have been in government for 12 years, and in those 12 years this country has made enormous progress. Just look at the figures that came out this morning from the Central Statistics Office, CSO. There are 2.6 million people at work and unemployment has fallen to 4.1%. Compare that to where we were 12 years ago. The Deputy does not like to talk about this, but let us not forget that her party has been in government for most of the last 20 years North of the Border. I know she does not want to talk about it, but it …

-----for parents who are concerned about their children not getting therapies. If the Deputy wants to bring up my record in government, she should not think it is any surprise that I should bring up hers. I am happy to compare it anytime, point for point.

If she brings it up again, I will bring it up again. On the issue of assessments of need, we have a real challenge here. Assessments of need are a legal entitlement, but have become a barrier to children getting the therapies they need. We shortened the assessment of need. That helped for a period of time and reduced the waiting lists. A court decision meant that we had to reverse that-----

-----and now that has created a problem.

That is sometimes what happens when you put things in law with a good intention. It can backfire on you.

On the issue of reimbursement, that is something we are going to give consideration to. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, in response to Deputy Kelly, already indicated that. When you do those things, you have to do it right. It is not unusual for us to reimburse private practitioners.

We do it with respect to GPs, we do it in dentistry and we do it in pharmacy. Yes, we are open to considering that over the next couple of months when it comes to therapy, but we have to do it right because if we do it wrong it can backfire.

The Deputy raised a lot of very important issues there. I am not sure if I can cover them all in my response given the time I have, but I will do my best. It is as simple as this: when you have an economy that is growing, when you have more people at work, when you have more people who are earning more, and when you have more businesses trading more and making more profits, there are more favourable choices that you can make. Look at the labour force survey that was published today. There are 2.6 million people at …

-----well then things will change fundamentally. We will go into recession and then we will have to face austerity again. I hope that does not happen. With regard to the issue the Deputy raised on parents accessing-----

I am sorry; I did not quite hear that.

I am trying to answer Deputy Bacik's question regarding the issue of reimbursement of assessments of needs. That is something we will examine. In fact, we have started examining it already as a possibility. I have no ideological objection whatsoever when it comes to paying private practitioners. We do it in general practice, pharmacy and dentistry. We do it for private hospitals through the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF. I have never had any problem with that; others might or might have had in the past. I …

We also need to work at the reimbursement model. Would it be a case of somebody just sending the bill to the Government? I do not think that would work. We would need some sort of prior approval system like we have for things like the cross-Border directive.

We are looking at this already, by the way. I hope the Deputy can pick that up from my response. We will be able to make a decision on it within a few months.

The Deputies assessment about choices and trade-offs is fundamentally wrong. If we pursue the right economic policies, the right policies on trade and the right foreign policies, we grow the cake and there can be more for everyone. If we pursue the wrong policies, then the cake shrinks and there is less for everyone. That is a different approach and different philosophy we have. However, the fact that we have done what we have done in the past five years, such as cutting income tax, increasing pensions, increasing …