Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

If we are talking about a cut-off point of the child reaching 13 years of age, we will have an opportunity, three or four years in advance, to ensure parents are benefiting from education and training. There must be a sea change in cultural attitudes so that lone parents, particularly young parents, are not looking forward to a 22-year time span during which they are not obliged to take any responsibility for their own education and training or advancement into employment. The intention is that facilitators will work with people from the time they make their first application and at regular intervals until their child is 13 years old.

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