Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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480. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of negotiations with the British government to reinstate access for the Irish fishing fleet to the waters around Rockall. [43162/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I continue to work closely with my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to resolve the current difficulties regarding access for our fishing fleets to the waters around Rockall.  

Over the course of the past year, I have outlined Ireland's position in relation to Rockall and considered possible  ways forward in contacts with both the UK and Scottish Governments.

Irish officials also remain in ongoing contact with the European Commission on all matters relating to the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, including fisheries. 

Following elections in Scotland earlier this year, I spoke with my Scottish counterpart, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson on 21 July on this matter. We also had a further opportunity to discuss Rockall at an in-person meeting in the margins of the British Irish Association conference in Oxford on 3 September.  We agreed at this recent meeting to intensify efforts to identify a way forward.  Irish and Scottish officials are in ongoing contact in follow-up.

Through the range of engagements set out, the Government is seeking to address the issues involved, reflecting longstanding fisheries patterns in the area.

The Government's  position in relation to territorial claims on Rockall is consistent with longstanding Irish Government policy.  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. Nor has Ireland ever recognised British sovereignty claims over Rockall, and accordingly has not recognised a 12 nautical mile territorial sea around it either.