Government to consider tougher punishment for knife crime as scale of confiscations skyrockets

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee will bring a memo to Cabinet in relation to tougher sentences on knife crime.

RTÉ have reported that under the planned amendments, the maximum sentence for serious knife offences would increase from five to seven years.

Ms McEntee and her colleague Minister of State James Browne are seeking more powers for gardaí to issue anti-social behaviour orders.

The move from the Minister for Justice comes after new figures revealed yesterday that an annual average of over 2,100 knives have been confiscated from suspects over the past five years.

Figures published by the Department of Justice show more than 18,000 knives have been seized nationally over the past decade.

The annual figures also show an alarming upward trend - rising from 1,344 in 2014 to a peak of 2,260 in 2020.

Last year’s total number of seizures at 2,186 was the second-highest annual total in the past decade.

So far in 2024, complete figures for 15 of the 23 Garda divisions nationwide show the high confiscation rate is continuing with 432 knives seized up to March 20.

Ms McEntee is also expected to update colleagues on other measures her department is taking to tackle crime.

The figures were released as part of a parliamentary question submitted by Social Democrats TD, Catherine Murphy.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy said a multi-layer approach is needed to address the issue of knife crime and there should be a range of measures including community and youth work, along with penalties.