Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides that a coastal state exercises sovereignty over its territorial sea, which is the belt of water located immediately adjacent to its land territory. Every state has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles. Sovereignty extends to the bed and subsoil of the territorial sea. Ireland ratified the convention on 21 June 1996 and has established a territorial sea 12 nautical miles in breadth.

The convention also provides that a coastal state exercises sovereign rights over its continental shelf for the purpose of exploiting its natural resources. Each coastal state is entitled to a continental shelf 200 nautical miles in breadth regardless of whether the shelf naturally extends this far, subject only to the same rights of neighbouring states. Where the shelf naturally extends beyond 200 nautical miles, this must be established to the satisfaction of the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf before a coastal state can exercise its sovereign rights there.

Ireland's shelf naturally extends beyond 200 nautical miles both to the west and the south of the country. Scientific and technical data must be submitted to the UN Commission to satisfy it that all claims are valid. For the purposes of our claims we have divided our shelf into three sectors.

The first sector is to the south west of the country on the edge of an area known as the Porcupine Abyssal Plain. This sector, which is approximately half the size of the State's land territory, is not disputed by any other state and was therefore the subject of Ireland's first submission, made in May 2005. The UN Commission is expected to make its recommendations concerning the limits of the claimed area in March of this year. The Government will then designate the additional seabed enclosed by these limits as continental shelf belonging of the State. Ireland is likely to become the first state in the world to establish a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from shore. Once this sector is designated, hydrocarbon prospecting and exploration can be licensed there.

The second sector of claimed extended continental shelf is in the Celtic Sea and the Bay of Biscay. This was the subject of a joint submission made together with the UK, France and Spain in May 2006 and covers an area of approximately 80,000 square kilometres, which is slightly larger than the State's land territory. The UN recommendations are also expected shortly on this sector and the question of delimitation of the zone established on the basis of these recommendations will be finalised thereafter.

Finally, we claim shelf on the Hatton-Rockall Plateau in the north-east Atlantic where there are overlapping claims by Iceland, Denmark and the UK. Despite meeting regularly since 2002, the four states have as yet been unable to agree on the making of a joint submission or co-ordinated national submissions. These consultations are continuing.

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