Ms Ciara Keegan:

Good morning Chairman and committee members. I began scouting as a cub scout at the age of nine. I am now 21 and I remain an active rover scout and an adult scouter with Blancharstown, 104-144 scout group to this day. My years in scouting have taught me a number of things. It has taught me that my best is always good enough. It has taught me that there does not have to be borders if I do not want them there. It has taught me that I get to decide my own path in this world because scouting has empowered, motivated and encouraged me to think for myself. I have never been told where to go; I have just been told that there is nowhere I cannot go. We are taught to reflect on our actions and be proud of them, or take responsibility. We know that our actions have an effect and that sometimes they have an effect on a person or a group but also if we want to, and I mean really want to, we can effect the world in a really positive and meaningful way.

I know how to stand up for myself, take action for myself and I know how to take action for others when they cannot do so at the time. Soon we will have scouts volunteering on the refugee camps in Greece. Their main job will be to give the young people there a sense of childhood, care and importance because we know the value of empowering a child, even if only for a brief moment. This is another value we have been taught. We have been taught to care, or maybe it is not something that can be taught but rather experienced. This is what we call learning by doing. We do this by hands-on experience that is not only team driven but self-driven in the real world. This is how I know what I know. It is by real hands-on experience away from any sort of screen or classroom, out with real people who care and who one can trust.

We are told today to be frightened of so many things and because of being involved with the scouts I am not frightened. I have been pushed to knock on that stranger's door in Hungary and ask them if I can camp in their garden and then find out they are no longer strangers. I was handed a pocket knife at the age of ten and hesitated to use it but because somebody trusted me to do it, I have learned to trust my capabilities too.

I have got lost in the Mourne Mountains and knew that was fine because I was with a team who cared about each other and that there were no problems there, just challenges. I have stood up in front of the World Scouting Conference and helped deliver the bid for the international event that John has mentioned and not even flinched because that was nothing in comparison to when a tropical storm hits in Japan and one has decided one has put up one's tent well enough to withstand anything. I have been equipped through scouting to withstand anything, but if it comes to a point when I am knocked back, I will be fine too.

Scouting breeds resilience. That is a difficult thing to master but scouting makes us bouncy in spirit and in nature. Probably the biggest thing I have learned on my travels is that I am totally happy with who I am and that there are so many people out there who are happy with who I am too. What we are doing is a positive thing for the self-esteem of young people like me. It has a positive effect on our young people's overall mental health. If we can continue to do that for nearly 50,000 young people in Ireland, that is something I want to remain a part of and help make happen.