Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 23 May 1995

Vol. 453 No. 3

Written Answers. - Ownership of Rockall.

Godfrey Timmins

Ceist:

39 Mr. Timmins asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the negotiations, if any, that are taking place between Ireland and Britain over the ownership of Rockall; if negotiations are not taking place, if he will seek an independent arbitrator to try and resolve the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9301/95]

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Spring)

There are no negotiations taking place over the ownership of Rockall, nor are there negotiations planned.

Following a temporary landing on the rock in 1955, the United Kingdom laid claim to Rockall by occupation. By Act of Parliament in 1972 it declared Rockall to be part of Scotland. Ireland did not recognise this claim.

In the early 1970s there was a possibility that the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea which was then working to agree on a new legal regime for the oceans, might decide that even islands such as Rockall — that is to say, barren, uninhabitable rocks — should be allowed their own continental shelves and 200 miles exclusive economic zones. One of the principal Irish objectives at the Conference was to ensure that this would not be the case.

In the event, that objective was achieved. Under the Law of the Sea Convention which resulted from the Conference, sovereignty over an uninhabitable rock such as Rockall does not give rise to a right either to a continental shelf or to a 200 mile exclusive economic zone although it does create a right to a 12 mile territorial sea around it.

In the case of Rockall, as I have said, Ireland did not recognise the British claim to sovereignty, deriving from the temporary landing of an individual on the rock in 1955, which would be the basis for a claim to a 12 mile territorial sea.

I do not believe that it would be useful to ask an independent arbitrator to resolve this issue.