Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

----- which means that there is no compulsion on a lone parent whose child is between seven years of age, unlike in the North where it is five years of age, and 14 years of age. All of the options in terms of education, training, community employment and other participation will be available. If the lone parent does not want to seek any of those opportunities, there is no compulsion.

Sinn Féin's vision for young lone parents who have a child at, say, 25 years of age is to say to that parent and the child that they are going to be dependent on social welfare until the child is 18 or 22 years of age.

See this speech in context