Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is an important issue to fishermen in north Donegal, particularly those in Greencastle who fish for haddock off the Rockall bank. It is a really important fishing ground for them. It is an issue the Deputy and I have discussed on a number of occasions.

As I have explained before, Rockall has always been within the 200-mile zone of UK waters. It was never within the 200-mile zone of Irish waters. We had frank discussions on that before when I indicated and called the Deputy up on comments he made that might have indicated that somehow it was within the Irish 200-mile zone at some stage, which was never the case. It has always been within the UK's 200-mile zone. Therefore, the UK would have those waters around it. As the Deputy rightly said, the issue here is that because it is an uninhabitable rock, it should not be able to impose a six- or 12-mile exclusion zone to our fleet around that rock, which is what can be done with a habitable island, for example, Tory or any of our islands. The exclusive zone can go within 12 miles around those.

This is one of the outworkings of Brexit, unfortunately, whereby there is now more capacity for the UK Government to put licences and restrictions on the licences for Irish boats going into its waters. It put this restriction on licences for any Irish boat that goes into UK waters in terms of not being able to access the 12 miles around Rockall. We do not agree with that. We have a traditional fishing right there, which we have always said and should continue to be able to have. I have been engaging diplomatically, through the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin, and his predecessor, Deputy Coveney, with the Scottish and UK authorities to try to find a resolution to this. We have not been able to make the progress we would like on that yet. It is a really important fishing ground. We will continue to do that. The way to resolve this is diplomatically, if we can, because any legal approach around it will likely take many years and see us locked out for a long time. We will, therefore, continue to engage. It is disappointing that we have not been able to find an outcome to it, but we will continue to work to get it.

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