Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Deputy. I am afraid I just do not see how the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Act 2019 relates to the Rockall dispute. This is a question of the Scottish Government, on behalf of the UK or, rather, off its own bat, asserting sovereignty over Rockall and thereby claiming an exclusive zone of 12 miles around that. We take a different view. When the exclusive economic zones were drawn, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was applied, and that treats uninhabited, uninhabitable rocks such as Rockall as if they do not exist. We accept that Rockall is in the United Kingdom's exclusive economic zone - everyone does - but what we do not accept is that Rockall has a 12-mile exclusive limit around it. For so long as the United Kingdom is part of the European Union, these are European waters and Irish fishermen are entitled to fish for their quota and for non-quota species in any part of that UK exclusive economic zone, but obviously with Brexit that will change. One thing that is often not fully appreciated is that Irish fishermen take a lot of fish out of UK waters. Perhaps 35% of all the fish that we take comes out of UK waters, including some of the most valuable species such as shrimp, mackerel and so on. That is why in any negotiation around Brexit we are going to need to do a lot of work to limit the damage to our fishery sector and to make sure that our rights are protected.

See this speech in context