Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Ireland claims continental shelf extending beyond the standard 200 mile entitlement to both the west and south of the country. Under international law these claims must be examined by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. For the purposes of our claims, we have divided the extended shelf into three sectors.

The first sector is to the south west of the country near the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, an area which is approximately half the size of the State's land territory and which was the subject of Ireland's first submission to the Commission. The Commission issued recommendations in 2007. These confirmed Ireland's entitlement in this sector and set out details of where the new outer limit there should be established. The area involved is approximately 39,000 sq km, which is a very satisfactory outcome. The Government made an order under the Continental Shelf Act 1968 on 31 March last which formally establishes the area concerned as Irish continental shelf.

The second claim is in the Celtic Sea, where there are unresolved boundary issues with the UK, France and Spain. The four countries made a joint submission for this 80,000 sq km area in 2006. The Commission last month confirmed this claim and negotiations on its division between the four will begin in due course.

Ireland also claims part of the Hatton-Rockall area of the north-east Atlantic, which extends up to 500 nautical miles from the coast. There is an agreed Ireland-UK boundary here, but it is not accepted by Iceland or the Færoe Islands, which make their own claims. The four have met regularly since 2001 in an effort to resolve the overlapping claims issue, but to date have been unable to reach agreement. In view of the ten year deadline for the making of submissions to the Commission, which for Ireland expires in May, Ireland lodged its own claim for this area last month. It is not possible at this stage to say when the Commission will examine it, but the four countries concerned intend to keep the matter under regular review.

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