Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney speaks to Reuters during an interview in Dublin, Ireland, February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Ireland would not veto a British request to extend the Brexit timetable for 21 months but it would prefer to see problems with the current deal resolved, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Monday after a speech at the U.N. Human Rights Council.

“We have said consistently that if there’s a request for more time and a plan to go with that in order to try to deal with the outstanding issues Ireland certainly wouldn’t be standing in the way,” he told Reuters.

“But really, I think the focus should be on trying to resolve the outstanding issues at this stage rather than extending Article 50.”