A man was stabbed several times on Dublin's Grafton Street on Sunday morning.
The victim, aged in his 30s, was taken by ambulance to hospital for treatment while a suspect, also aged in his 30s, was arrested by gardaí from Pearse Street station.
The attacker and victim were not known to each other and both had been out socialising into the early hours of Sunday morning, according to The Irish Times.
Senior gardaí are to meet with Dublin business owners and Dublin City Council over fears about street violence in the capital following the attack.
In a statement on Sunday afternoon, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said she “strongly condemns this assault”, adding that such violence had “no place in our society”.
Ms McEntee, who has come under increasing political pressure to tackle violent crime following a spate of high-profile attacks over the summer, said she was “committed to ensuring Dubliners working and living in our capital, and those who visit the city, are safe and feel safe”.
Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan, who is TD for the Dublin Bay South constituency where Grafton Street is located, told The Irish Times that the latest assault “confirms many people’s fear that there are parts of Dublin that are unsafe during certain times of the day”.
Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly said Fine Gael had not invested enough in law and order.
“Everyone should be entitled to be safe in our nation’s capital, be they Dubliners, workers or tourists. However it’s clear that there are serious issues with crime in the city that must be tackled by government.
“During their time in office, Fine Gael have failed to invest in, adequately fund and show leadership for the gardaí. As a result, there aren’t enough guards on our streets, they don’t have the resources they need and they feel overstretched and under-supported. It isn’t good enough,” Ms O’Reilly said.
“Sinn Féin have outlined our proposals to keep communities safe by putting guards back on our streets with the resources they need to do their jobs safely and effectively. Minister McEntee must act and implement our proposals urgently, to finally get to grips with the issue of crime in Dublin.”
