Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a huge personal affection for Scotland. I worked there for a while after being a student. I lived in a little mining town called Armadale for six months. I also worked in Edinburgh. Scotland has so much in common with Ireland. We want to be supportive and we want to develop an even closer relationship, with a structure around that relationship, for the future. We want to be a partner to Scotland. We want to do that in the context of the overall relationship between Britain and Ireland. That involves complex political management, for obvious reasons, in the context of Brexit and the political pressures right now in Scotland. We want to be supportive and a good neighbour, but we also, for the first time, want to put a structure around areas where we can co-operate on a bilateral basis in a way that is constructive for both sides.

See this speech in context