The House approved a motion enabling Ireland to join the International Seabed Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Joan Burton, said the bodies were being set up under the United Nations after protracted negotiations.
The Fianna Fail spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Ray Burke, said the resources of the sea must not be used solely by the developed world. "The history of the developed world ran sacking lands of the developing world must not be repeated."
Mr Des O'Malley (PD, Limerick East) said that in our anxiety to get into the EEC in 1973 we had given up control of our sea fisheries. In any negotiations that would take place under the new bodies we should be careful not to give away any more.