THE President, Mrs Robinson, has rejected claims by the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, that she has, failed to adhere to proper protocol on her visits to Northern Ireland.
The claim was made on the Spotlight programme on BBC Northern Ireland television last night in which Mr Trimble called on the President to stop visiting the North unless she is prepared to adhere to "the proper protocol".
He said: "One would not have regarded her as being someone who is aggressively trying to promote the republican agenda, but yet that's what her visits are actually doing."
A spokeswoman for the President said that Mr Trimble had been "misinformed" and that proper protocols were followed whenever the President visited Northern Ireland.
She said the President was usually greeted by the lord lieutenant for the area in which she arrived and by a minister or senior official of the Northern Ireland Office.
Mrs Robinson is believed to have visited the North 16 times since becoming President, and the Northern Ireland Office has said that her visits have been private.
However, Mr Trimble asserted that she was travelling to the North in her official capacity as President without the proper protocol of being met by Queen Elizabeth's representatives.
He said: "To come in this ambiguous manner, where it can be interpreted as representing Articles 2 and 3 being thrust down people's throats, is not welcome. If she cannot follow the normal courtesies towards Her Majesty, then she's better not coming.
In September, Mrs Robinson was given a hostile reception by loyalists when she visited the Windsor Women's Centre in south Belfast. The centre has been attacked several times since. The President said she regretted the controversy and stressed she has no political agenda in visiting Northern Ireland but simply wished to convey friendship.