Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 86: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the position regarding jurisdiction claims over Rockall; if the Irish claim has been accepted by the UK; the position regarding agreements between Ireland and the UK on the continental shelf. [29590/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Rockall is a small uninhabitable rock, 25 by 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 his sought to formally annex it under its Island of Rockall Act 1972.

As I said in response to the most recent question on this issue on 19 May last, 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.

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 by 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 Faeroe 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 in May last year – 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 submission 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 made a successful submission to the UN Commission in relation to a large area of seabed in the Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay and the four countries will shortly begin discussions on its division between them.