James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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We are all sadly very conscious of the effect that knife crime can have on the quality of life for local communities and I can assure the Deputy that the Government is committed to supporting An Garda Síochána to tackle this issue. While I am conscious that Ireland has a comparatively low level of knife crime compared to neighbouring jurisdictions, every incident where a person is stabbed is a very serious matter.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Anti-Social Behaviour Forum was established arising from a commitment in the Programme for Government in 2021 to set up a special expert forum on anti-social behaviour, to consider the effectiveness of existing legislation and propose new ways forward including new powers for An Garda Síochána and additional interventions to support parenting of offenders.

As the Deputy may also be aware, an Anti-social Behaviour Forum (ASB) knife crime subcommittee was established in 2021, as a joined-up, multi-agency approach, to consider options for legislative amendment and community-based interventions including on raising awareness of the dangers of carrying sharp weapons, as knife-crime does not simply derive from street violence, or from young offenders, and is also prevalent in domestic, sexual and gender-based violence situations.

I can inform the Deputy that the knife crime sub-group last met on 19th December to outline new proposals to address knife crime. Proposals such as increasing the penalties for more serious knife-crime offences, the previous work of the sub-group and the complimentary initiatives to tackle knife crime were discussed.

Some of these complementary initiatives include increased support of diversion for young offenders through Youth Diversion Projects (YDP), and some YDPs have been funded to address awareness raising and wraparound supports for harder to reach young people more likely to carry knives.

These proposals, including any potential amendments to existing legislation, are being consideration by my officials and key justice sector agencies and I expect to be able to make progress over the coming months.