Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are working to try to take every step possible. I am aware how important it is to both Greencastle fishermen regarding haddock and access within the 12-mile zone and to fishermen in the squid fishery. As I have said to the Deputy, the 2013 agreement has no bearing whatsoever on the status of Rockall. I stated earlier to the Deputy what the 2013 agreement did. I think he accepts this. Rockall has always been within the 200-mile zone of British waters. What we contest is that they should have a 12-mile exclusion zone, which is acceptable under international standards where there is an inhabited island owned by a country, but this is not inhabited. We dispute totally the fact they should have a 12-mile zone.

What happened in 2013 was simply there was a grey area that ran from north of Inishowen out into the sea along the 200-miles line between ourselves and the UK and there were a few miles in that which both navies managed and oversaw. They simply drew a line up the middle of that in the 2013 agreement to remove the grey area. Rockall is many miles north of that. It was not relevant to that piece at all.

We have been working hard on this. It means a lot for our Greencastle fishermen and for the squid fishermen. We continue to engage to get access again to that traditional fishery that we would have fished.

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