Seanad debates

Monday, 31 May 2021

Maritime Jurisdiction Bill 2021: Second Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Barry WardBarry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deirtear gur Bille comhdhlúthaithe atá i gceist anseo. Déarfainn níos mó ná sin, is Bille é a thugann dlíthe muirí le chéile and that it is very important that we have a coming together of the law on maritime issues, and a clarity that has perhaps been lacking. I disagree with a previous speaker who stated that this is writing some words on piece of paper to satisfy a UN convention. It is tremendously important to put together on paper, and in a single place, clarity about what the law means, especially in the context of jurisdictional issues.

I welcome the Bill and I recognise its importance. I come from a coastal community in Dún Laoghaire, as the Minister is aware. We have a fishing community in Dún Laoghaire, albeit a small one in comparison with some of the larger fishing centres around the country. One of the welcome elements in the Bill, although it probably does not solve any problems for individual fishermen, is the recognition of potential. Reference is made in the Bill to both living and non-living resources. I feel that the Bill focuses to a greater extent on non-living resources. We should be talking about living resources as they affect our fisheries industries. We know from various instances around the country in recent times of the dissatisfaction of fishermen. We must address this. We cannot address it simply by subsidising fishermen to sit at home. People involved in the industry want to be at sea. They do not want their boats tied up in port. They want to be out fishing, gathering a catch and bringing it home.

When we talk about resources and the natural resources in this area, it is important to remember that overfishing helps no-one. The protection of those resources is as much as anything else about controlling the extent to which they are exploited.

I welcome the reference in section 9(2) to the potential resources in the context of energy. I welcome the exploitation of renewable forms of energy. Senator O'Reilly referred to wind energy and wave energy. Wave energy in particular has enormous potential. I hope that in the future, as the technology develops, we will be able to exploit that.

A number of Senators referred to Rockall. Believe me, nothing would have given me greater pleasure than for the Minister to sneak into the Bill some sort of claim on Rockall, but I am not really sure that is the right way to proceed. This is a matter I would like us to address in the longer term. Equally, like other Senators, I am uncomfortable with the references in section 21 to the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. I do not understand why we are not relying on European documents.I understand the costs involved and the expertise required to develop these maps are considerable and for Ireland to do it alone would be an enormous project. It is something we should be working on but why are these maps not being made available in a centralised way in Europe?

There is confusion in this debate between militarisation and neutrality. I agree with the comments on the difficulties being faced by the navy. It has an incredibly important role to play, as others have already said. Being a neutral country is not problematic. What is problematic is the idea that as a neutral country, we should not invest in military technology or resources because we should. There is a very important role to be played by the navy here and I disagree with the suggestion that we should not be putting things into this Bill that we cannot protect. Again, there is a difference between protecting and policing. The protection comes in this Bill by enshrining our maritime jurisdiction in law, thus allowing us to enforce issues of international law that we could not otherwise do. Policing or enforcement is a different matter and we definitely have a deficit in that area.

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