Scouting Ireland (Irish: Gasóga na hÉireann) is one of the largest youth movements on the island of Ireland, a voluntary educational movement for young people with over 45,000 members, including over 11,000 adult volunteers early 2020[update].

The organisation is independent, non-political, and open to all young people without distinction of origin, race, creed, sexual orientation, spiritual belief or gender, in accordance with the purpose, principles and method conceived by Lord Baden-Powell and as stated by WOSM.

[7] The aim of the organisation is to encourage the social, physical, intellectual, character, emotional, and spiritual development aspects (known as the SPICES) of young people "so that they may achieve their full potential and as responsible citizens, to improve society".

[18] The leader of the overall organisation is the Chief Scout, who is its leading volunteer and public representative, chairs general meetings and other bodies, and makes key awards.

Successful motions are carried forward to the relevant national bodies, including general meetings.

The organisation's governance is supported by a number of national policies, largely set by general meetings and overseen by the board of directors.

In addition to policies on finance, personnel, uniforms and facilities, these include documents on the Youth Programme, adult resource management, and safeguarding.

Because of the impacts to available adult leadership, the coming of the Great War in 1914 could have affected the viability of Scouting in Ireland.

In Dublin in the 1920s, two Roman Catholic priests, Fathers Tom and Ernest Farrell, followed the progress of Scouting.

After some study and experimentation, they made a proposal to the Catholic Hierarchy of Ireland and were granted a constitution and Episcopal patronage in November 1926.

Thus, the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) (Gasóga Catoilici na hÉireann) was created.

[37] In July 2017, Scouting Ireland commissioned a review of the handling of child protection cases, which included an initial check on a small sample of more serious allegations.

The review did not make any assessment of allegations, major or minor, but noted areas for improvement in handling such cases, such as "without prejudice" suspensions instead of the then-operational "voluntary stepping aside" approach, and a recommendation against lobbying by accusees, which it concluded was happening in some cases.

[38] The organisation made changes to its processes in response to the work of Elliott, including implementation of the "suspension without prejudice" concept, pending investigation, and plans for recruitment of a safeguarding co-ordinator and additional child-protection officers.

This resulted, in April 2018, in the suspension of the remainder of Irish State funding pending discussions with the relevant department.

Also in mid-April 2018, four senior figures in Scouting Ireland voluntarily stepped away temporarily from their roles, pending a barrister-led review of certain matters.

[40] Funding was again suspended when the Chief Scout was invited to chair an EGM called to reform governance structures, and again restored after the meeting voted in favour of proposed changes, and the entire board stood down, allowing a completely new board to be elected.

[41] In November 2018 Scouting Ireland officials and the Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone noted to the relevant committee of the Oireachtas that a study of the organisation's records, and contacts from alleged victims, had revealed allegations related to abuse incidents, most notably from the 1960s to the 1980s.

[42][43] In 2019, Scouting Ireland commissioned Ian Elliot to undertake a "learning review" on the issue of sexual abuse within the organisation.

[44][45] The resulting report, titled "Historical Sexual Abuse in Scouting: A Learning Review", noted that the safety and wellbeing of young people had not always been prioritised "particularly through the eighties and nineties".

[45] The report criticised the emergence of small cliques which played too great a role in the operation of Scouting bodies.

[45] Adults with a sexual interest in young people sometimes rose to positions of power and influence and controlled any fledgling accountability processes, preventing known offenders from being removed.

[45] It also said that the introduction of an accountability framework was resisted and that "Individuals, who were suspected or known to be sex offenders, gained positions of power and became largely impregnable".

[45] In his Executive Summary, Ian Elliot said that the existence of a "negative culture driven by self-interest, along with poor governance structures [were] the main cause of the continuation of sexual abuse in scouting".

[57] A number of Irish people have held office at international level, including as Member (Eoghan Lavelle) and Chairman (Thérèse Birmingham) of the European Scout Committee.

Both Jerry Kelly and Thérèse Birmingham have served as Vice Chairman of the World Scout Committee.

[58] In 2001 John Geoghegan was appointed director of the World Scout Foundation, a role he held until retirement.

[59] John Lawlor and Máire Fitzgerald served as Youth Advisors to the World Scout Committee.

[62] It was held at Punchestown Racecourse, County Kildare with the aim of celebrating one hundred years of Scouting in Ireland.

[62] The next Scouting Ireland National Jamboree, "JamboRí 2018" was held in 2018 at Stradbally, County Laois, with 4,000 in attendance.