Vol. 249 No. 9
asked the Minister for External Affairs if he will make a statement on the boarding by members of the crew of a British minesweeper of an Irish trawler and the circumstances in which this boarding occurred in view of the earlier boarding of the Owenro.
8.
asked the Minister for External Affairs if he has yet received an apology from the British Government over the incident concerning interference with an Irish ship; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
9.
asked the Minister for External Affairs if he has now received from the British Government an apology for the boarding of the Irish vessel Owenro; if he has received a reply from the British Government; and, if so, if he will release the full text of same.
10.
asked the Minister for External Affairs the result of the representations made to the British Ambassador concerning the recent boarding of an Irish vessel by a British naval party; and if he is satisfied that there will not be any recurrence.
11.
asked the Minister for External Affairs if he is now in a position to make a full statement regarding the boarding of Irish ships in Irish territorial waters flying the Irish flag by members of the crew of the British minesweeper, Kellington; if he has yet received any apology from the British Government for these incidents; and if he has received an assurance that similar events will not happen again.
12.
asked the Minister for External Affairs whether in connection with the recent searches of Irish ships at sea he has had any discussions with the British authorities; and whether he has any comment to make on the matter.
13.
asked the Minister for External Affairs if he will make a statement on discussions held between the Irish and British Governments in relation to the boarding of Irish ships by the British Navy.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 together.
While the British Government regret any inconvenience that is inevitably caused to innocent individuals pursuing their lawful business, they maintain that in the interests of preventing gunrunning to Northern Ireland they must reserve the right to make boardings.
We maintain that it is for the Irish Government to take whatever steps we consider necessary to prevent the illegal importation or exportation of arms into or from our territory and I am pursuing the matter on this basis with the British Government.
Could I ask the Minister if the British Government have now decided there is no need for an apology for the incident and can I take it they will continue to infringe these rights of Irish ships?
They regret the inconvenience and reserve their right to take whatever steps they feel necessary——
In Irish territorial waters?
The territorial waters all along the coast are ours but the British regard the coastal waters of Northern Ireland as theirs. This is intimately bound up with the Partition of our country. It is not a legal question but a political one which needs a political solution.
Could the Minister state the exact whereabouts of the ship in question?
It is not possible to establish the waters in which the Owenro was when it was boarded. The fishing vessel was in the waters off the Northern Ireland coast.
Is it not a well-established principle of international law that ships have a right of innocent passage to and from ports provided they are not engaged in illegal activities, and was this not an infringement of that right?
There is a practice of innocent passage but it does not give total immunity to ships in territorial waters.
The Minister referred to the waters of Northern Ireland. Surely the Minister is not acknowledging that there are such things as territorial waters belonging to Northern Ireland?
No. I say these are our territorial waters but the British regard them as theirs. The decision on that will be a political one, not a legal one.
Would the Minister not acknowledge that there are legal and political elements involved here and that in any event even if it were in the territorial waters of another state, it would not entitle the state in question to make a forcible boarding if the ships were, in fact, in the course of an international passage? If they were on an international shipping line, which they were, no matter what waters they were in, they were in an international passage and not proceeding to any British port or British-occupied port.
To answer the second part of the question, there is this practice of innocent passage through territorial waters, but it does not confer a right of total immunity and states have this right of boarding if they suspect illegal activities or have reason to do so. The question of territorial waters is so intricately bound up with the Partition of our country that it cannot be answered simply. Searching of the vessels has been likened to the searching of vehicles on land in the Six Counties.
Surely the right of boarding applies in a time of war. This is not a time of war. Is the right not directly involved here infringed because it is during peace time?
My legal advice is that the right exists regardless of war or peace. There is no total immunity for this innocent passage.
Could I ask the Minister has this policy been discussed at any level, and was the Taoiseach aware, after his recent visit to New York and his discussions with Mr. Health, that such a policy on the part of the British was in the offing?
No. The first I knew of this was when I saw reports in the newspapers. On reading this, I was perturbed and I caused the British ambassador to be called to the Department of External Affairs where the Secretary expressed to him the strong feelings of the Government on that question. The second incident took place within a few days of this while we still had not a response to the démarche made by the Secretary of the Department. I instructed our ambassador in London to seek an immediate interview with the Foreign Secretary of the British Government. The Foreign Secretary was not available but the Parliamentary Under Secretary met the ambassador last Friday. The ambassador expressed in the strongest terms our feelings about what happened. I again instructed the ambassador to continue to seek an appointment with the Foreign Secretary and this appointment has been arranged for tomorrow. There has been no question of communications or consultations since the démarche made by us——
Would the Minister agree that relations between the two countries are in a rather sorry state when we see the British taking action without consultation with us? Would it be true to say that relations are worsening when the security forces of one country act in this way without any consultation with a friendly state nearby?
If it became common practice for other nations of the world to behave as Britain has behaved in this case, civilised relations between Governments would become very difficult.
Have we any assurances that this will not recur?
We have no assurance. All I can say is that I hope the nations of the world will not take this as a model for their behaviour.
Would the Minister agree that the British Government are taking a rather crude assessment of this Cabinet in terms of their gun trading and so on? Does the Minister think this has any bearing on the incidents?
That has no relevance.
No, we have no interest in the British Government's interest in our Government.
