Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The amendment will provide that the State would have the same sovereign rights and jurisdiction on the continental shelf as it has in the exclusive economic zone. I want to point out that because international law and maritime zones are developed in a piecemeal fashion, it is not surprising that there are differences between the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf. The continental shelf is the seabed of the exclusive economic zone. The legal regime of the exclusive economic zone is mainly concerned with sovereign rights and jurisdiction within the water column above the continental shelf. The legal regime of the continental shelf, on the other hand, is concerned chiefly with the mineral resources present there. In the Bill, the sovereign rights and jurisdiction which the State may exercise on the continental shelf are set out in section 18. These may be exercised in areas of the shelf designated by Government order. International law has created two separate legal regimes for the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf and therefore it is not open to the State to take on for itself rights and jurisdiction that it does not enjoy under international law. I therefore cannot accept the amendment.