It has been claimed that the Government is to pay former members of Northern Ireland’s police part-time reserve £20 million.
Gerry Kelly, a minister for political party Sinn Fein, said that he found out about the offer in a letter from Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the leader of the Democratic Union Party (DUP) Peter Robinson. Mr Kelly claimed that the letter was sent in error to Sinn Fein’s head office.  
Mr Robinson said he had received the letter but wanted to wait until he had met with former part-time reservists before publishing details.
“A meeting has been arranged with the reservists for early next week about this proposed scheme and how it could best be implemented,” said Mr Robinson.
“I want to be sure their views are fully considered and reflected when the scheme is rolled out. I have long felt it was unjust that part-time reservists had been neglected and not given due recognition.”
But Mr Kelly has criticised the offer, calling it a government attempt to “buy off the DUP”, after the deputy first minister Martin McGuiness, also of Sinn Fein, previously told the Prime Minister that such payments would be “unacceptable”, during negotiations over the budget for devolving policing and justice powers.
“Yesterday I was given a letter from Gordon Brown to Peter Robinson indicating that the British Government has decided to issue a gratuity payment of £20 million to former members of the RUC Part-Time Reserve,” said Mr Kelly.
Sinn Fein is against making pre-conditions on devolving policing and justice, and sees this offer as one that will cause friction.
“They talk about confidence – how is that going to bring confidence?” said Mr Kelly.
“When they talk about community confidence, they are only talking about one section of the community – they don’t care if they annoy nationalists and republicans.
“At a time of economic downturn, and huge pressures on working families and the disadvantaged, this payment is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Mr Brown has already published budget proposals for the devolution of policing and justice in Northern Ireland and Sinn Fein has approved the deal – believed to be in the region of £800 million to £1 billion, but the DUP said that the unionist community must have confidence in any proposed arrangements before devolution happens.
It is believed as many as 9,000 former part-time reservists could benefit from the money.
A spokesman for the Police Federation said they would welcome any recognition of the contribution made by the part-time reserve since 1970.