Gardai seized 998 knives in Dublin in 2020, and a total of 2,243 were recovered nationwide, which is 5% more than the previous year.
998 knives is almost half of the country’s total. 172 were seized in Cork City and 86 in Co Limerick.
Dublin Central TD Gary Gannon says the number of knife seizures in the capital city is ‘massively concerning‘.
“The streets around Dublin are too often unsafe.”
“That comes down to a multitude of factors, it comes down to the poor street lighting, the dereliction.”
“There are people on the streets with knives and ready to use them in some instances.”
Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond previously said that Ireland should look at Scotland and their decreased knife crime.
He said: “Scotland launched a wide-reaching anti-violence campaign and a Violence Reduction Unit in 2005 when Glasgow was experiencing very high levels of crime, in fact, it was the murder capital of Europe.
“They have successfully seen their homicides reduce by more than half through measures such as a knife amnesty, mentorships and education programmes in schools, youth services and youth training programmes.
“We can follow Scotland’s example by introducing a wide-reaching and all-encompassing response to these increasing knife crime statistics.”
