Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are two issues. This needs to be resolved quickly because it is impacting fishermen now. God forbid, as we heard from the Scottish Minister that they will enforce the procedures. This means boarding a vessel, directing it to port, the powers to arrest individuals and to place sanctions such as impounding the vessel including its gear and the fish on board. That is how drastic this is. These multimillion euro ships being tied up at port could seriously impact the owner of the vessel and the families of the fishermen on board. It needs to be resolved.

I do not understand why the Taoiseach is refusing - even quietly or privately - to lift up the phone to his counterpart in Scotland and to raise this issue. Many years ago Paddy Harte stood up in this Chamber and said he represented the interests of Rockall because it was a part of his constituency. The Minister of State said we never claimed ownership of it. If he looks at the records going back, he will see that we never accepted the jurisdiction of Rockall because we believed it was part of our jurisdiction at that time.

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