Almost 190 knives have been seized by Gardaí in Kerry since 2020.
That’s according to figures provided by the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, which were provided following a query from Labour leader Ivana Bacik.
The figures cover from 2020 up to last year.
These figures were provided to Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan by An Garda Síochána.
They show that from 2020 up to last year, there were 185 knives were seized in Kerry.
Last year, Gardaí seized 44 knives in this county; that’s the highest number of such seizures over the past five years.
The number of knives seized by Gardaí in 2022 and 2023 stood at 39 in both years, which was up from 35 for 2021.
In 2020, Gardaí in the Kerry Garda Division seized 28 knives.
Nationally, 2,157 knives were seized by Gardaí last year; that’s down from 2,193 in 2023.
Minister Jim O’Callaghan says he strongly condemns the use of knives to threaten, intimidate or harm others.
He says he’s committed to ensuring that communities are safe and tackling knife crime is an important element of that.
He says last year, legislation was introduced which increased the maximum penalty for the offences of possession of a knife with intent to cause injury, trespassing with a knife, and producing a knife to unlawfully intimidate another person, from five to seven years imprisonment.
In addition, the Government doubled the maximum penalty for assault causing harm to ten years in 2023. The offence of assault causing serious harm already has a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
