Minister has no answers on knife crime in our city

Marie Sherlock TD for Dublin Central and Labour Party Spokesperson on Health has called on the Government to urgently address knife crime. She called out that the Government established an Anti-Social Behaviour Forum in 2020 and has failed to publish any recommendations in the years since then.  Deputy Sherlock was speaking following the horrendous stabbing of a 17-year-old boy on Eden Quay on Sunday night and her question to the Minister for Justice in the Dáil yesterday.

Deputy Sherlock said:

“Across many of our communities, including in my own constituency, the carrying and use of knives has become normalised for some young people. Alarmingly, a siege mentality has taken hold over some groups of young men. No one should feel that they must be armed with a knife to feel safe.

“To date, the Government response has been to talk about more gardaí, greater stop and search powers and longer sentences. We accept that we need deterrence, but sentencing will not be enough to make our streets safer.

“While we very much welcome the recent small increase of Gardaí on our streets, the reality is that they are already hugely stretched. We also know that our prisons and the Children’s Detention Campus are full and that a report commissioned by the Department of Justice in 2021 found that intensive stop-and-search is not effective.

“Crucially, we cannot allow a culture of carrying knives for protection to become normalised. We cannot underestimate the impact of knife crime on the individuals who are injured and on our communities.

“A knife crime analysis published by An Garda Síochána found a 28% increase in the number of knife seizures between 2020-2024 compared with 2015-2019. In 2024, 325 knife seizures took place in the Garda Dublin North Central area, which covers large parts of the north inner city in my own constituency.

“We need solutions that are based on tackling deprivation and marginalisation, making it more difficult for people to get their hands on exceptionally sharp knifes, improving education on the impact of knife crime, and ensuring that diverting young people from crime is at the heart of any strategy.

“And we must think outside the box and give very serious consideration to a knife amnesty as they have in other cities such as Glasgow and London to encourage people to dispose of dangerous weapons.

“How many more young people are injured, or worse, before we see real and effective action by Government on knife crime?”