Irish vessels return to Rockall, but stay outside exclusion zone

Patrick Murphy: The Government should remind Scotland that if it wants to rejoin the EU, continuing to ban Irish trawlers from the exclusion zone could harm its chances of getting back in.

Irish trawlers have returned to Rockall to fish but they are staying away from the 12 nautical mile exclusion zone around it.

Their return follows an incident earlier this month when a Donegal trawler was stopped and boarded by officers from a Marine Scotland patrol boat near Rockall, in the north Atlantic.