I want to speak with the Taoiseach about provision for children. First, I welcome the intervention by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, in response to our Labour Party motion on services for autistic children and children with disabilities. I commend the Minister of State on committing to bring our Labour Party proposal to Cabinet. If six regional testing teams are not functional by 1 August, she has committed the State to paying for assessments of need of children who are waiting more than three months. That was a really important, timely, unexpected, but very welcome intervention by the Minister of State, supported by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman. I ask the Taoiseach if he can commit to that for the children and parents who were listening to the debate earlier and have heard what has been said. We acknowledge there is a recruitment crisis. We have acknowledged all of that. We have acknowledged the progress that has been made, but we need to see that sort of really effective commitment being made and being honoured by Government. We owe that to Cara and Mark Darmody, and to all of those who have been so active for so long, seeking adequate and effective interventions and services for their children.

I raise another issue relating to provision for children, namely, the Barnardo's report published today, which lays bare the real impact of the cost-of-living crisis for children in Ireland. It exposes the stark reality facing so many parents across the country who are making the unthinkable decision of not to bring a sick child to the doctor because they simply cannot afford it. One parent reported being afraid to do the washing because of ESB bills. This report has confirmed what we, in the Labour Party, have been warning about for some time, that the barrage of tokenistic and untargeted measures adopted by Government were simply not enough to keep the wolf from the door for far too many. They were simply not enough for children today asking their parents if they are poor.

The week in which we see the publication of this important Barnardo's report, and in which we hear from parents who are trying to get services for autistic children, also appears to mark the beginning of the budget kite-flying season. The Taoiseach has condemned the practice of the drip-feeding and kite-flying of proposals over the years, yet he and his party colleagues have been first out of the traps, calling for tax cuts in this budget and showing fundamental disrespect for their partners in government, some of whom have been very open about their critique of this. More importantly, it is disrespectful to the people in our communities across the country who are struggling to get services and to make ends meet, as Barnardo's has told us. It is disrespectful to them to see Fine Gael Ministers and Deputies testing the waters, attempting to consolidate popular support by playing politics, mooting ideas to resonate with the core vote, and insulting households trapped in poverty.

Does the Taoiseach agree that it is impossible to maintain a position favouring tax cuts while leaving behind so many families and children in poverty? Does he agree that at a minimum, any tax relief in this budget must be accompanied by a meaningful increase in social welfare payments, a commitment to the living wage and, crucially, a commitment to invest budget surpluses in the provision of services for children with special needs and for children who are facing such an enormous shortfall in service provision for autism and disability services across the country at the moment?

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 work, and 600,000 more at work today than when I first became a Government Minister. Incomes are at an all-time high and female participation in the workforce is at its highest ever level. When you are in that position, when you pursue the right economic policies, trade policies and foreign policy for a number of years, then you have choices. Yes, in that context, when you have a strong economy, it is possible to reduce taxes, to increase social welfare and pensions and to find more money to invest in public services and public infrastructure. Not only is it possible, but it is what we have done every year, probably for the past six or seven years. Perhaps that has not been noticed by the Deputy, but it is a fact. I invite the Deputy to fact-check that. For the last number of years, we have been able to reduce taxes on incomes, we have been able to increase pensions and social welfare, and we have been able to increase public spending both on services and on infrastructure. We will continue to do that as long as this Government remains in office.

The biggest risk to us doing that in the future is a fundamental change in economic policy and a fundamental change in foreign policy. If we move away from the centre of the European Union and vote down trade agreements, as some of the Opposition parties want to do, and change our fundamental pro-enterprise, low tax and economic policies-----

Some of the Taoiseach's own colleagues want to do it as well.

-----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-----

A child poverty guide.

I am sorry; I did not quite hear that.

Deputies, please.

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 have never had a problem with using private practitioners to provide public services whatsoever. If we do, however, we need to get it right. We need to know how much capacity exists in the private sector. I am told it might not be that much, but we need to know. We also need to know what the legal basis for doing so would be. I know we cannot use the NTPF without a change to primary legislation, but changes to primary legislation are possible. We also need to consider unintended consequences. That is always a risk when we bring the private sector into providing a public service.

I thank the Taoiseach.

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.

Time is up.

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.

I thank the Taoiseach. I call Deputy Bacik.

Certainly, I agree that budget surpluses do give choices but the kite flying by the Taoiseach's own party this week suggests that his choice is to insist on a Fine Gael ideological agenda of tax cutting at the expense of providing the necessary public investment to deliver services for people who are struggling to make ends meet. It is at the expense of investment in meaningful measures to tackle child poverty, which is a commitment the Taoiseach made, and yet we see more than 188,000 children living in poverty, such as those whose stories were told in the Barnardos report today. I appeal to the Taoiseach and Government to ensure the necessary investment is made.

I thank the Taoiseach for engaging with me on the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte's, commitment. I thank him for saying the work is under way on that. Of course, we want to see the six regional assessment teams in place. I ask him again to ensure the necessary public investment is in place so those assessment teams are in place in order that the backlog of assessments of needs can be met in that way, and that he will abide by that timeline of 1 August given by the Minister of State which the children and their parents so desperately need.

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 welfare, increasing spending on public services and an increased investment infrastructure, shows that we are right, and the Deputy is wrong in terms of our understanding as to how the economy works.

The figures show it.

With regard to the issue-----

We have just been talking about services.

-----the Deputy raised on the cost-of-living crisis, of course, I acknowledge that many parents and families are struggling with the cost of living. We are acting on this, however. I will give the Deputy 12 ways in which we are acting in the 16 seconds that remain. We increased the national minimum wage and working family payment for low-income working families. We increased social welfare payments. The one-parent family payment is up by €12 per week, for example. Next month, every child will receive €100, including middle-income parents, because some of them are struggling too, and the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance will be paid at the higher rate. We also reduced college fees, increased the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant, reduced the cost of school transport, waived examination fees, introduced cheaper childcare and cheaper public transport, introduced free schoolbooks in all primary schools from September and the expansion of hot school meals. So long as this Government stays in office, we will do more again. The biggest risk is a fundamental change of economic or foreign policy. If we do that then we will go backwards.