Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 38: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been drawn to plans to install a plaque on Rockall with the approval of a British local council; if he has made a formal protest to the British Government in this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20976/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Rockall is a small uninhabitable rock, 25 x 30 metres wide, located approximately 160 nautical miles west of the Scottish islands of St. Kilda and 230 nautical miles to the north west of Donegal. It marks a point at which the Rockall Bank, part of the very large Hatton-Rockall area of continental shelf extending under the north-east Atlantic Ocean, protrudes 21 metres above sea level. During the 1960s and 1970s the issue of Rockall was a source of legal and political controversy in both Ireland and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom claims sovereignty over Rockall and has sought to formally annex it under the Island of Rockall Act 1972.

While Ireland has not recognised British sovereignty over Rockall, it has never sought to claim sovereignty for itself. The consistent position of successive Irish Governments has been that Rockall and similar rocks and skerries have no significance for establishing legal claims to mineral rights in the adjacent seabed and to fishing rights in the surrounding seas.

During the course of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which took place from 1973 to 1982, Ireland worked hard to achieve agreement on this principle. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was adopted 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." Rockall falls into precisely this category.

I am aware from newspaper reports that an individual intends to attempt to place a plaque on the rock in the near future. Since activity of this nature has no effect on the British claim to sovereignty over Rockall and has no significance in international law in relation to the status of the rock, I do not propose to take any action in relation to it.

In 1988, Ireland and the UK reached agreement on the delimitation of areas of the continental shelf between the two countries, stretching out up to 500 nautical miles from their respective coastlines. This included the division of the Hatton-Rockall area of continental shelf on which Rockall is situated, although under the terms of the Law of the Sea Convention the location of Rockall was irrelevant to the determination of the boundary. According to that determination, Rockall is situated to the north of the boundary agreed with the UK in 1988 and lies outside the zone claimed by Ireland.

As with any claim to continental shelf lying beyond 200 nautical miles from shore, the UN Convention requires that Ireland and the UK submit their claims for examination to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. However, the claims to the Hatton-Rockall shelf agreed between Ireland and the UK are not accepted by Iceland or the Færoe Islands, which make their own claims. The four sides have met regularly since 2001 in an effort to resolve the overlapping claims issue but to date have been unable to reach agreement. In view of the 10-year deadline for the making of submissions to the UN Commission – which for Ireland expired last May – Ireland lodged its national claim for this area in March 2009. While the Commission's rules of procedure prevent consideration of the submission without the consent of all the states concerned, its lodgement at this time stops the clock on the deadline and preserves Ireland's legal position. In the meantime, the four sides intend to keep the matter under regular review and we will continue to work for the creation of conditions that will permit consideration of the submission by the Commission as soon as possible.

The State's continental shelf has already been successfully extended beyond 200 nautical miles in the area to the west of the Porcupine Bank. Together with France, Spain and the UK, we have also successfully extended it in the area of the Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay.