Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney says he has total respect for all military personal.

His comments come after it emerged he challanged an Air Corp pilot who refused to fly him to Cork for a meeting in 2015 - because of fog - when he was Defence Minister.

Internal emails show the Air Corps being "very unhappy" with the minister's intervention.

On his way into this morning's Cabinet meeting Minister Coveney defended his record:

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The emails indicate Coveney - who was defence Minister at the time - said that he had a very important meeting in Cork and note that he was frustrated.

The Air Corps were "very unhappy" with his intervention and said they had never received such a call in 25 years.

According to the emails, Minister Coveney's secretary then phoned the pilot to say there was no fog and this was seen as "rubbing it in"

The defence forces has made no comment on the revelations.

Nicole Gernon reports: