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Higher maximum sentences for knife crimes

Increased maximum sentences for four types of knife crime are to come into effect from today (30 September).

This comes after the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee signed a commencement order for part 9 of the Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024.

This part of the law amends the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act 1990 by increasing the maximum penalties for the following offences under that act:

• Section 9(5) offence of possession in a public place of an article intended to cause injury to, incapacitate or intimidate a person (increased from five years to seven years),
• Section 10 offence of trespass with a knife, weapon of offence, or other article that has a blade or sharp point (from five years to seven years),
• Section 11 offence of production of an article capable of inflicting serious injury (from five years to seven years), and
• Section 12 offence of manufacture, importation, sale, hire, or loan of prescribed offensive weapons (from seven years to ten years).

The changes in the law follow recommendations from the knife crime sub-group of the Expert Forum on Anti-Social Behaviour chaired by the Minister of State at the Department of Justice James Browne.