asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of patrol boats for fishery protection from EEC countries guarding the 200-mile fishing limits established by Ireland and other EEC member states.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fishery Protection.
18.
The number of fishery protection vessels at present available to patrol the Irish extended fishing limits is six. With regard to the fishing zones of other member states it would not be appropriate for me to comment on fishery protection resources deployed by those states. Fishery protection is entirely a matter for each member state in its own waters.
In view of the fact that we have co-operated with the EEC Member States in establishing the 200-mile limit on the understanding that they will assist in the patrolling of this area, does it not seem strange that this Government do not seem to have any information with regard to what the EEC are doing in helping to protect these waters from third country states?
Speaking from memory, I think the Deputy is overstating the assumption on which the waters were extended. The community as such have no territorial waters, and the Deputy knows that. These are national waters. There is no specific undertaking about the degree of protection which will be given by other States to us or the degree of help we are going to get. I take it that the reason for the Minister's rather laconic reply is that he has no Ministerial responsibility for the naval protection services of other states.
Do I take it that we ourselves are the only people responsible for the protection of the 200-mile fishery limit, and that if third countries fish that area other EEC states have no jurisdiction over the area and no authority to arrest boats from third countries for illegal fishing?
The Deputy will admit that the supplementary is a fair distance from his original question. I cannot answer it accurately off the cuff, but I tell him that there is, as far as I know, at the moment no firm arrangement in regard to the patrolling as against outsiders at the outer part of the 200-mile limit. The only understanding which has been arrived at is that the ultimate fishery regime will be arranged in such a way that a disproportionate share of the cost of policing what will be a very large maritime zone from our point of view will not fall on a relatively very small economy.