asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the British Government have notified their intention to protest or if they have in fact protested to the Irish Government against the recent order made by the Government under the Continental Shelf Act, 1968.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Rockall Designation Order.
31.
No protest has been received from the British Government but a Foreign Office spokesman in referring to the recent Irish designation order stated that they were studying the matter and that Her Majesty's Government would be protesting and reserving all her rights in the matter in due course.
Do I take it the Foreign Office spokesman has indicated that the British Government will be protesting, and could I ask the Parliamentary Secretary if this will in any way change the view of our Government in making similar protests when the action is the other way?
I do not follow——
Have we at any time indicated we would protest when the British made a similar order——
Certainly, and we have done so——
Have we protested?
——and, as is stated in the reply to a later question which the same Deputy has put down, a protest is in preparation and should be on its way within a couple of days.
We will hear the reply when it comes.
32.
asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the communications, if any, the Government had with the British Government on the occasion of the British Government's designation order on 52,000 square miles of the Rockall bank of the Continental Shelf.
33.
asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the communication, if any, the Government had with the British Government arising out of the recent British claim to a 200-mile economic zone extension from Rockall.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 32 and 33 together.
In September, 1974, the British Government designated areas off the west coast of Scotland comprising 52,000 square miles within which they claimed that rights with respect to the sea-bed, the subsoil and their natural resources might be exercised.
The Irish Government in a Note referring to the designation order stated categorically that they did not accept that the British Government could acquire jurisdiction over areas rightfully within the jurisdiction of the Government of Ireland or was entitled to designate areas off the Rockall Plateau or other areas on the Irish side of our proposed line of division. We proposed a meeting of representatives of the two Governments to discuss the matter. Several meetings have taken place and since agreement could not be reached a Note was sent in April last year to the British conveying a proposal from the Government that an arbitration tribunal be established to adjudicate in the matter. No reply has yet been received to the proposal but the Minister understands that a decision in principle in favour of arbitration will be received from the British authorities before the end of the week.
While welcoming the information the Parliamentary Secretary has conveyed in the last part of his reply, I think he will note that whereas the British Government did indicate their intentions to protest to our Government, our Government apparently took no such steps to protest to the British Government when they took an action of that sort over three years ago. Will the Parliamentary Secretary note that our Government should take a stronger line in the event of such designation on the part of this Government?
The British Government have been informed by word of mouth at official level and also by an official protest in such a way that they could not possibly be in any doubt nor could the international Community be in any doubt about our view in regard to the status of Rockall. Only in the last few hours this confirmation has arrived, and we will be hearing from them before the end of this week in regard to accepting arbitration. This is something for which we have been pushing since last April. Even before that at official level we were pushing for a friendly settlement which would have avoided the expense and trouble of arbitration. It is by no means the case, as the Deputy may suspect, that at official or political level, the Government have not been following this matter with urgent attention.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary indicate the terms of the proposed friendly settlement which was not acceptable to the British Government?
No. We never got to the stage of a draft settlement. The situation was that the basis on which the British wanted to draw a line was completely different from that on which we wanted to draw a line. The essence of the difference was that the British wanted to regard all islands, however small or uninhabitable, as generating a maritime zone of their own, and we were prepared to recognise for that purpose only inhabited islands within three miles of the mainland.
The proposed lines were so far apart that nothing remained for it but arbitration. We had hoped we might be able, by the conventional methods of negotiations, to bring the sides together, but repeated meetings failed to achieve that.
Has the Parliamentary Secretary any indication as to when this arbitration might get under way, in view of the fact that at the moment it is an arbitration of the British and that, until such time as that is resolved, we are still in the weaker position? In other words, they are the ones who have made a claim and we are simply resisting their claim.
That is not so. We have, as the Deputy knows, counter-designated an area——
One area.
The Deputy will appreciate—and this is the substance of the advice we have been getting, which is based on experience of arbitrations of the other countries; we have not had one so far—that excessively aggressive or provocative behaviour is not the best record to have behind you when going into an arbitration, and that a State which is able to say: "We behaved all along reasonably and moderately", will impress an arbitration tribunal more than one which has behaved provocatively. I am not saying that had we taken Deputy O'Kennedy's line it would have been provocative but the advice we got was that the best line was to be vigilant and moderate.
The remaining Questions will appear on tomorrow's Order Paper.