President cites youth unemployment as Europe’s biggest challenge

Europe's greatest challenge is its young people given the extent of youth unemployment across the continent, President Michael D Higgins has said. Mr Higgins cited Greece, where 56 per cent of people under the age of 25 are unemployed, as a country where the crisis among the young was most acute.

Addressing a gathering celebrating 30 years of Gaisce, the President said it would be "very wrong if we just sit back and allow the marginalisation of young people". Such a stance would leave young people open to the "predators" of fundamentalism.

Mr Higgins revealed that the only poem he had written in the last three years was The Prophets Are Weeping, which referred to the huge displacement of people across the world because of conflict. Many were becoming prey to extremists of one persuasion or another, he said.

Some 61 people attended a ceremony at Dublin Castle to receive Gaisce’s highest award – the gold medal from President Higgins. The award-winners come from 20 counties. Eleven young people from the North who participated in the British equivalent of Gaisce, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, also received medals. Gaisce awards are a three-tiered development programme for young people aged between 15 and 25. Young people are set goals under the supervision of an adult volunteer.

Mr Higgins said the stories of those who won awards were "so rich, diverse and valuable". Among the award-winners were young people who worked on residential projects in France with the scouts, another who worked in a Romanian orphanage and a third who was involved in an Order of Malta pilgrimage to Lourdes.

Many won awards for working with children with special needs. Mark Gilligan from St Declan's College won for looking after deaf children for two weeks in Zambia. "I don't know how to put into words our proud I am," he said. "I feel proud, but I'm no better than anyone else."