A Fianna Fail TD will attempt to increase pressure on the British government to speed up the repatriation of republican prisoners as she begins a three-day visit this morning to republicans in prisons across Britain.
Later this week Ms Cecilia Keaveney, the party's spokeswoman on prisoners' affairs, will have talks with Ms Roisin McAliskey's solicitor, Ms Gareth Peirce.
Ms McAliskey is fighting extradition to Germany in connection with an IRA mortar attack on a British army base there last year.
Ms Keaveney will meet prisoners and prison governors at Frankland Prison, Durham; Full Sutton, York; Whitemoor, Cambridge, and Belmarsh in south-east London.
In August the British Prison Service confirmed the British and Irish governments were actively considering the transfers of 18 republican prisoners at the same time as the security status of 13 republican prisoners in Britain was downgraded.
Then Sinn Fein repeated its call for the transfer of all 26 "Irish political prisoners" and yesterday Ms Keaveney said it was "vitally important" that prisoners who had played a role in the IRA ceasefire "are spoken to and that their views are heard".
"Both Britain and Ireland signed up to the terms of the Transfers of Sentenced Persons Act of the 1995 EU Convention, which clearly states that the transfer of prisoners to their own country to serve their sentence is a right, and this issue is a humanitarian one which must be addressed," she added.