asked the Minister for Justice the number of cases of personal attacks with knives on indi-years; and the number of such attackers brought before the courts.

The figures asked for are not available. Offences against the person involving attacks with knives are not recorded separately in the criminal statistics but are classified as murder, attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm, wounding, assault and so on, as the case may be.

The Garda say that they have no reason to believe that there has been any increase in offences involving the use of knives over the period referred to in the question.