asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason for the delay in deciding the ownership of Rockall and the surrounfing sea-bed; and whether negotiations with Britain on the matter have yet started.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Ownership of Rockall.
12.
The Deputy will recall from previous replies to questions on this matter that the Irish and British Government have agreed to refer the delimitation of the Continental Shelf to an independent settlement of disputes procedure in the form of ad hoc arbitration. Division of the Continental Shelf between the two countries has been the subject of negotiations since 1964. When it became clear that agreement was not possible by way of negotiation the Government decided that the matter should be submitted to some form of third party settlement of a judicial nature. In February, 1980 the British side finally agreed to submit the matter to ad hoc arbitration, a proposal first put forward by the Irish side in 1976, subject to agreement between the two parties on such matters as the location of the arbitration tribunal, its terms of reference and the regime to apply to the disputed area pending the final decision of the tribunal.
Since then negotiations have been continuing at official level with a view to setting up the arbitration tribunal. Of the different options open to the two sides, ad hoc arbitration offers the most appropriate form of procedure for settlement of this issue. However, ad hoc arbitration by its nature means that there is no existing institutional or procedural machinery which the parties can have recourse to, consequently a vast amount of work must be done before the arbitration proper commences.
In addition it must be stressed that the delimitation covers the entire extent of the Continental Shelf contiguous to Britain and Ireland. It is not concerned solely with the delimitation of the Rockall Plateau or exclusively with any single feature in isolation, such as Rockall, but involves the whole shelf in the north-west and in the Irish and Celtic Sea areas insofar as it is the natural prolongation of the landmass of two neighbouring states.
The Deputy can be assured that this matter is progressing as rapidly as is prudent given its complexity and importance.
I know it is a most complex matter, but 18 years is a long time for negotiations to be still going on regarding arbitration. When does the Minister expect that arbitration will start?
It is difficult to set any time limit for something so complex and sensitive. The first step is to establish the tribunal. We are talking about a term of years, perhaps even four years, before the final decision will be available.
In the meantime is mineral exploration of the area being delayed because of the hold-up in talks?
I have nothing in my brief to help me answer that question but I will make inquiries and let the Deputy know.
Would the Minister not accept that it would be in our interests and in those of Britain if exploration were going ahead?
That is a separate question.
I would appreciate if the Minister would come back to me on that.
I certainly will.
Would the Minister accept that our national position has been weakened by our concern with the island of Rockall as such, and would he accept that we would have been better off to assert firmly that a rock or an island this size does not have territorial waters and that no rights attach to it?
I have already said that the matter is going before a tribunal for consideration. It is a complex and sensitive matter and the House would agree with me that some progress has been made on this matter after a long number of years.
I want to clarify the period of four years. What will take four years?
The first step is to establish a tribunal and once it is established, which I hope will be very shortly, it will take about four years to reach a conclusion.
But it is hoped to establish it shortly. The Minister will recognise that when the Government changed in 1977 this tribunal was about to be established and that was five years ago.
I said that in my reply. In 1976 we proposed to the British side that the matter go for arbitration, but it was not until 1980 that the British agreed to do that. It took them four years to agree to it. Now that they have agreed to it a tribunal will be set up and I am advised that the tribunal will have dealt with the matter within a four-year period.
(Limerick East): Could the Minister inform the House that our Government and the Government of the United Kingdom have both agreed that they will abide by the findings of that tribunal when those findings emerge.
Again I have not anything in my brief to help me on that but my opinion is that I would think so. I will check on that because of the importance of it and will communicate with the Deputy.
(Limerick East): Is it arbitration or negotiations?
It is arbitration.
Would the Minister agree that there is a certain inconsistency between saying that the ownership of the rock is not of itself significant and at the same time putting forward a firm claim to ownership of the rock? Would he not accept that we would be better off to put our money on one or other horse?
I would not like to answer that because my answer would be of a gambling nature. The matter is going to arbitration. This Government and the previous Government agreed with that and we should allow that to continue.
Would the Minister agree that it would be a fair summary of the second part of his answer to the question that the tribunal does not have a shared basis of agreement from which it would depart to examine the question in the first place? I share the concern of Deputy FitzGerald, who asked what precisely is being established in the four years. I understand the second part of the Minister's reply to state that there was no agreement between the parties on the actual terms of reference on which such a tribunal might operate.
I wonder if the Deputy was here for my whole reply. It is a much wider question than just the Rockall question because there are no procedures there at present. There is no machinery for working and both sides would have to agree on how to get the thing going.