Ms Anna O'Sullivan:

No. The UK has made a trilateral agreement with Norway and the Faroe Islands. It made an agreement with Norway last year and an agreement with Norway and the Faroe Islands this year. It allows them to fish for mackerel in its waters in exchange for a transfer of mackerel from the Norwegian and Faroese quotas to it. It is an independent coastal state, so it can make such bilateral and trilateral agreements without reference to the EU.

The EU has a bilateral agreement with Norway, for example, but it allows access only for blue whiting fishing in a specified part of the Irish EEZ. If there is no agreement in place, Norway cannot fish there. The EU-Norway agreement was not finalised until March of 2022 or 2023. I am not certain of which because of the passage of time. Until the time in question, Norwegian fishermen could not enter Irish waters. Those are the rules. One can pass through if steaming from one place to another. There is a right of safe passage. I am sure there is a term for it in the law of the sea. You cannot fish unless there is an agreement in place.