Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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107. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the response to the actions of Scottish fishery protection vessels intercepting Irish vessels going to fish at Rockall; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2022/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government is aware of contact between a Scottish marine patrol vessel and an Irish fishing vessel, the Northern Celt, near Rockall on 4 January. The Minister for Foreign Affairs met with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine on 7 January to discuss developments in relation to Rockall. The skipper of the Northern Celt also contacted my Department and a response has now issued to him, setting out the current position.

The Government is seeking to address the issues involved, reflecting the long-standing fisheries tradition in the area around Rockall, and has been in contact with the relevant Scottish and UK authorities on the matter. Taking account of the new EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which came into effect from 1 January 2021, contact may now also be required with the European Commission.

While such engagement continues, the Government has advised Irish vessels operating in the area around Rockall that there remains an increased risk of enforcement action being taken by Scottish fisheries control authorities at present.

Ireland has never made any claims to Rockall, which is a small uninhabitable granite rock located approximately 160 nautical miles west of the Scottish islands of St. Kilda and some 230 nautical miles to the north-west of Donegal. Furthermore, Ireland has also never recognised British sovereignty claims over Rockall.

The consistent position of successive Irish Governments has been that Rockall, and similar rocks and skerries, should have no significance for establishing legal claims to continental shelf or an exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This is a position that Ireland advanced at the UN conference on the Law of the Sea, which took place from 1972 to 1982. This position is one that is fully reflected in the Convention adopted at the end of that Conference.