Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has put forward the subject of honesty and I am glad he has done so. Let us go through facts in detail. It is true that there were a number of agreements between the Irish Government and the British Government on the area around Rockall, culminating in the 2013 agreement. It was signed in 2013 and then laid before the Houses in 2014. The Minister says that the Government always protests that a rock that is uninhabited cannot generate an EEZ and a continental shelf. However, it can generate a 12-mile limit. An array of legal experts are clear that the Government's repeated ceding of the territory around Rockall allows the British to generate a 12-mile limit around it.

Here is the problem. For the past seven months, fishermen from Donegal have tried to exercise their traditional fishing rights. They have been denied and blocked from doing so. The Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Agriculture, Food and the Marine have failed to resolve this issue. Why have they not taken this for international arbitration or made a counter-claim on that territory? Iceland does not recognise the 2013 agreement. Iceland and Denmark do not recognise British control over Rockall but our Government does. The problem is that the 2013 agreement was never taken in these Houses for debate.

I will bring the Minister's attention to the ruling of the Supreme Court in the Barlow case of 2016. Seven Supreme Court judges stated the following:

In constitutional terms, it means that the Constitution requires that the regulation of natural resources stated to be the property of the State must be the subject of a decision by the representatives of the People who are accountable to them. [I will continue] Legislation is normally required to take place in public (Article 15.8), which carries with it the possibility of public knowledge and debate. In effect, therefore, the Constitution mandates that if State property, in particular natural resources, is to be sold, leased, managed or regulated, then that decision should be made in public by representatives who are accountable to the People who can accordingly make their views known. It follows in my view, that the Court should take a strict approach to the requirements of Article 10.3 which ensures compliance both with the text and the underlying rationale of the Article.

Clearly the 2013 and 2014 agreement did not comply with that standard and I put it to the Minister that it is unconstitutional. The Minister talked about truth and facts. Let us go to page 10 of his legislation where it clearly states:

The Maritime Jurisdiction (Boundaries of Exclusive Economic Zone) Order 2014 (S.I. No. 86 of 2014) shall continue in operation and have effect on and after the commencement of...

I will not read the rest. The Government is putting that agreement, which was never debated in these Houses, into law. It is putting on a legal or constitutional footing that which did not have a legal or constitutional footing before. That was an opportunity for the Government on two levels. It was unconstitutional and it had no strong legal footing, just like the voisinage agreement before it. That is why the Government had to legislate for the voisinage agreement to come into effect. That is what happened. I remember that debate well.

With the 2014 agreement, the Government could argue with some degree of defence that it was under the jurisdiction of the Common Fisheries Policy. However, the area the Government has ceded to Britain around Rockall is now part of its territorial waters and it has put in place a 12-mile limit. Why would the Government not take that to international arbitration? It has failed to get our Donegal fishermen back fishing in their traditional grounds for the last seven months. It has not stood up to the British Government on or defended our sovereign interests in this matter. It has meekly allowed that to happen. The British Government is blocking our Donegal fishermen from accessing their traditional fishing grounds for seven months and the Government did not take it to international arbitration. There was no legal basis in Irish law for that to happen. The Government could have challenged it but instead it made what is happening there legal under Irish law. The Government undermines its own case even further.

Those are the facts and the truth and every fisherman in this country knows it. It is time this Government grew a backbone and stood up for our interests and defended them. It is outrageous that the Taoiseach stood up here today when I asked him to withdraw this legislation and denied what is in black and white. There is not a single objective person in this country reading that Bill who can deny that the Government is putting on a legal and constitutional footing what was not legal or constitutional before. It is undeniable and shameful that the Government is backing down and not standing up for our interests. The Taoiseach should be ashamed of himself for his response today.

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