Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join with others in paying absolute credit to the work of An Garda Síochána, not just in recent months but over a long time, across all our communities. It is the absolute backbone of our community. The work it does every day to keep us safe is what we rely on to keep our society going. The most important point to come out of this debate is the uniform opinion of the House on the important role of community policing.

Other Deputies spoke about geographic specific issues. I want to raise an issue, one which I have raised with the Minister several times and one which is increasingly of concern for all of us, particularly in the capital, that is, knife crime. As per figures from the Minister, knife seizures have increased by a third since 2017. Over 2,000 knives were seized by An Garda Síochána in 2019 with over 1,200 already seized this year alone. The sad thing is that it is not just seizures. Hospitalisations due to knife injuries, stabbings and slashings have gone up by 10%. Sadly, we are seeing an increasing number of deaths from knife crime, including in my own constituency with a very sad case in Dundrum not so long ago.

What can we do to really tackle this? Many measures have already been taken. I commend the good work launched by the Department, the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, on early intervention and education. We can do more, however. We can look to other jurisdictions and the success of countries like Scotland. What can we learn from Scotland? Glasgow was the murder capital of Europe in 2005. The introduction of the violence reduction unit in Glasgow and across Scotland has seen those crime figures, in particular knife crime figures, decline.

One action that proved to be so successful in Scotland - indeed we have done it here before - was a weapons amnesty. In 2006 the then justice Minister, now Senator Michael McDowell, brought in a two-month weapons amnesty which took over 300 guns, knives and much more off our streets. Will the Minister consider the reintroduction of a weapons amnesty to get those vicious weapons out of children's hands, as it is children largely being found with knives, and off our streets?

There is also a need for early intervention education programmes. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan has a worthy Bill on sentencing for knife crime. I appreciate many people will look to that approach. Before we even get to that stage, however, we need to look at stopping the causes of crime and stopping knives getting into young people's hands. That is why we should encourage those programmes to get members of An Garda Síochána into the schools to warn of the dangers of knife crime. We must make sure those who may have been caught up in these criminal activities have interventions through youth, work and education programmes.

Many people will ask how we pay for this. It is quite simple. An Garda Síochána and its agencies have seized over €16 million worth of criminal funds this year. I put down parliamentary questions to the Minister and, more importantly, to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, on this issue. Where does that money go? We see these goods auctioned with cash taken off criminals. It all goes back to the Exchequer. Does it go back into the black hole?

I speak every day with our party colleague, Councillor Kenneth Egan, who is working on the front line as an addiction counsellor, a youth intervention officer, a county councillor and, most importantly, a boxing coach with young people. Can we not say to those communities most devastated by crime, the illicit drugs trade, as well as knife and gun crime, that we are going to seize the proceeds of crime and plough it back into those very communities to ensure another generation of children are not deprived of their youth and no more mothers or fathers have to get that dreaded phone call that their child has lost his or her life to knife crime?

See this speech in context