The chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly committee for education, Mr Danny Kennedy, of the Ulster Unionist Party, has expressed concern about the decision to allow two civil servants from the North's Department of Education to accompany Mr Martin McGuinness on his visit to the US this week.
According to Mr Kennedy, the North's Minister for Education, was on a "high-profile exercise for the republican movement" and it was therefore improper for two senior civil servants to join him on the visit.