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

He is not the President of Brazil yet. The job of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is to have appropriate relations with countries around the world. I do not write off our entire relationship with Brazil because we disagree. Clearly, I disagree with much of what he has said but he is the Brazilian President-elect who has been democratically elected and we will judge him on the decisions that he makes once he is President.

Our job is to look out for Ireland's value system and our interests. This is a very large country in South America. In many ways, it is one of the world's superpowers. Ireland will reach out and try and work with people, even if we disagree with them.

The Sinn Féin approach is to just shut people off if they do not agree with the party's perspective. We try to win the argument with these people rather than write them off before they take office.

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