Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 18: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the position of such talks as to the status of Rockall in terms of international law as have taken place; if such talks have been concluded; and the implications of such conclusions as have been reached. [4308/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

During the 1960s and 1970s the issue of Rockall was a source of legal and political controversy in both Ireland and the United Kingdom. Much of that controversy lay in fears at the time that jurisdiction over Rockall and similar rocks and skerries was thought to be central to the mineral rights in the adjacent sea-bed and to fishing rights in the surrounding seas.

However, during the course of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which took place from 1973 to 1982, the Irish delegation worked hard to establish a satisfactory legal regime applicable to islands. This effort was successful. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was adopted at Montego Bay at the conclusion of the Conference on 10 December 1982, provides at Article 121 paragraph 3 that: "Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf."

Article 121 (3) applies to Rockall. Ireland ratified the Convention on 21 June 1996. The United Kingdom acceded to the Convention on 25 July 1997. It is accordingly accepted by both states that Rockall cannot be used as a basis for delimiting their respective continental shelves or fisheries zones. While the United Kingdom continues to claim jurisdiction over Rockall, this claim is not accepted by Ireland. Each country remains aware of the position of the other.