Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea a coastal state is entitled to a continental shelf of 200 nautical miles, approximately 370 km in breadth, regardless of whether its continental shelf physically extends that far subject only to the similar rights of its coastal neighbours. It may also claim a broader shelf where it can show the natural prolongation of its land territory under water extends beyond this limit. A claim to extended shelf must be supported by scientific and technical data and be established to the satisfaction of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which was created by the convention for this purpose.

Ireland's shelf naturally extends beyond 200 nautical miles to the west and south of the country. For the purposes of our claims we 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, therefore, was the subject of Ireland's first submission in May 2005.

In April this year, the commission issued its recommendations concerning the limits of this claimed area. The Government accepted these recommendations and work is in hand to designate in domestic law the additional seabed enclosed by these limits as continental shelf belonging to the State. Ireland is then likely to become the first country in the world to establish sovereign rights to exploit mineral resources on continental shelf lying more than 200 nautical miles from its shore. No hydrocarbon prospecting or exploration can be licensed there until this is done.

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 with the UK, France and Spain in May 2006. It covers an area of approximately 80,000 square kilometres, which is slightly larger than the State's land territory. This submission remains under consideration by the sub-commission established to examine the evidence submitted in support of it. The four states will have further discussions with the sub-commission when it resumes its work in New York in January. The sub-commission is expected to formulate its recommendations during 2008. These recommendations must, in turn, be approved by the commission. The question of division of this area between the four states concerned will be considered after the recommendations are made.

Ireland also claims continental shelf in the part of the north-east Atlantic Ocean known as the Hatton-Rockall area which extends up to 500 nautical miles from the coast. Ireland and the UK agreed a maritime boundary on the continental shelf here in 1988 but this is not accepted by Iceland or Denmark on behalf of the Faroe Islands which also make extensive overlapping claims. The four countries have met regularly since 2002 in an effort to resolve the issues arising from overlapping claims, most recently at the end of September in Reykjavik. A further meeting will take place in Denmark next month.

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