Written answers

Tuesday, 15 January 2019

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Maritime Jurisdiction

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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140. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a matter regarding a map contained in SI No. 22 of 2016 (details supplied) will be addressed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54194/18]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In international law the outer limits of a coastal state’s maritime zones - such as the 12 mile territorial sea, the 200 mile exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf - are measured from the baseline. The normal baseline is the low water mark along the coast. In 1958, however, following an earlier decision of the International Court of Justice, it was agreed at the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea that in places where a state’s coastline is heavily indented, or is screened by a fringe of islands, straight baselines connecting appropriate points on headlands and islands may be drawn.

As the configuration of the Irish coastline on the west and south coasts meets these criteria it was decided that Ireland should become one of the first countries in the world to adopt the new system, drawing straight baselines connecting fifty points from Malin Head in Donegal to Carnsore Point in Wexford. These were set out in the Maritime Jurisdiction (Straight Baselines) Order 1959. As other parts of the State's coastline do not meet the necessary criteria straight baselines were not drawn in those places.

The fifty points were resurveyed several years ago using modern survey techniques that allow far more precision than was possible in 1959. The 2016 Order prescribes an updated and more accurate system of straight baselines drawn between the resurveyed points and replaces the system established by the 1959 Order.

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