Efforts will be made next week officially to distance Dáil Éireann from the visit by two TDs and a Senator to the resumption of the trial of the Colombia Three in Bogota in early December.
The Progressive Democrats, supported by the Labour Party, have already requested the Ceann Comháirle, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, to hold a Dáil debate next Tuesday.
Calling for a Dáil debate, the Progressive Democrat whip, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said: "I was worried by the perception that was going out that this was a cross-party delegation representing all of us - which it is not."
The three men - Mr James Monaghan, Mr Niall Connolly and Mr Martin McCauley - were arrested last August as they attempted to leave Bogota airport travelling on false papers.
They are entitled to, and are getting, the full protection possible of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy O'Donnell said.
"They are receiving that. The embassy in Mexico has been doing a great job," she added.
The withdrawal of Fianna Fáil Dublin West TD, Mr John Curran, Labour's Mr Joe Costello and Sen Paul Bradford of Fine Gael has reduced the potential impact of the proposed visit, which is being organised by the Bring Them Home Campaign.
However, the presence of Fianna Fáil's Sen Mary White is causing some concern because Irish senators enjoy a higher profile than their TD colleagues during visits to the United States, and elsewhere in the Americas, because of the comparison made with the US Senate.
The others travelling are Sinn Féin's Mr Sean Crowe and Independent TD Mr Finian McGrath.
Mr David Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionist party, attacked the Republic of Ireland as a state held together only by anti-British sentiment and religion, the Chicago Sun-Times reported yesterday.
"If you took away Catholicism and anti-Britishness, the state doesn't have a reason to exist," Mr Trimble told the newspaper's editorial board in a meeting on Thursday.
"Its institutions are British and American." - (AFP)
