James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The difficulty with it just being an awareness campaign is that it could terrify more young people and they may end up carrying knives, which is the last thing we want to happen. There has been an increase, albeit not very significant, in knife carrying in the country. There was an amnesty here in 2006, but it was only to hand in knives that were about to become illegal. The evidence from other countries is very mixed and seems to have a very short-term use. I can continue to have the conversation around an amnesty, but it needs to be very careful. We need to be careful that if it was to be done, it would not come to be considered the complete solution. I am not opposed to the idea, but the evidence regarding its usefulness seems to be fairly limited.

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