Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 121: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the situation with respect to proposals to extend the seabed sovereignty of Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38462/08]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I take it that the Deputy is referring to the legal regime governing the exploration and exploitation of Ireland's continental shelf. The regime governing the exploration and exploitation of the continental shelf in international law is set down by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Under that Convention a coastal state is entitled to a continental shelf 200 nautical miles (approx. 370 km) in breadth regardless of whether its continental shelf physically extends that far, subject only to the similar rights of its coastal neighbours. It may also claim a broader shelf where it can show that the natural prolongation of its land territory under water actually extends beyond that limit. A claim to extended shelf must be supported by scientific and technical data and be established to the satisfaction of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which was created by the Convention for this purpose.

Ireland's shelf naturally extends beyond 200 nautical miles both to the west and the south of the country. For the purposes of our claims we have divided our shelf into three sectors.

The first sector is to the south-west of the country on the edge of an area known as the Porcupine Abyssal Plain. This sector (which is approximately half the size of the State's land territory) is not disputed by any other state and was therefore the subject of Ireland's first submission to the Commission, made in May 2005. Based upon this submission, the Commission issued its recommendations on the limits of this claimed area in April 2007, allowing Ireland to designate an area of extended shelf of up to 39,000 square kilometres. The Government has accepted these recommendations and work is now in hand to designate the additional seabed enclosed by these limits as areas to which the Continental Shelf Act 1968 will apply.

The second sector of claimed extended continental shelf is in the Celtic Sea and the Bay of Biscay where there are unresolved boundary issues with the UK, France and Spain. This sector was the subject of a joint submission by the four countries in May 2006. It covers an area of approximately 80,000 square kilometres, which is slightly larger than the State's land territory. The joint submission was examined by a sub-commission established to examine the evidence submitted in support of it. The four states met with the sub-commission on a number of occasions, most recently in September. The meeting was positive and the sub-commission has now formulated its draft recommendations. These recommendations have in turn been transmitted to the full Commission and will be considered by it for approval in March 2009. The question of division of the area between the four states concerned will now be considered after the recommendations have been made.

Ireland also claims continental shelf in the part of the North-East Atlantic Ocean known as the Hatton-Rockall Area, which extends up to 500 nautical miles from the coast. Ireland and the UK agreed a maritime boundary on the continental shelf here in 1988 but this is not accepted by Iceland or Denmark (on behalf of the Færoe Islands), which also make extensive overlapping claims. The four countries have met regularly since 2001 in an effort to resolve the issues arising from overlapping claims but have recently concluded that they are unable to reach agreement at the present time. Nevertheless, the four are keeping the matter under regular review and, in the meantime, Ireland will proceed to make a national submission to the Commission in respect of the Hatton-Rockall Area by the deadline of May 2009.