Ending the 50:50 police recruitment policy in Northern Ireland would cost £30 million sterling, it was claimed tonight.
As the British government pushes ahead with plans to strengthen the numbers of Catholics in the force, unionists demanded the process be halted three years before its completion date. The call was made during private discussions between Northern Ireland Office representatives and Policing Board members in Belfast today, sources disclosed.
With a review of the recruiting scheme about to begin, one of those at the talks said: "It was stressed that it would cost another £30 million to end 50:50 by 2007/08."
Under the terms of the Patten blueprint for overhauling the police service, the authorities are committed to employing Protestants and Catholics in equal numbers.
Under the old RUC fewer than one in ten officers were Catholic. But even though Sinn Fein has boycotted the new policing arrangements, it is hoped that by 2011 - ten years after the scheme began - a third of all recruits to the new Police Service of Northern Ireland will come from the nationalist and republican community.
As the reforms take hold, many veteran officers have retired under a severance scheme aimed at bringing the PSNI's operational strength down to 7,500 and allowing more Catholics to join.
Unionists have urged the Government to abolish the policy they claim has led to hundreds of high-calibre Protestant candidates being turned away. But it is understood some of those on the Policing Board are prepared to accept the Patten recommendations if they are implemented quicker.
"The NIO is putting up a financial smokescreen by warning about how much it will cost to bring this forward," one source said.
PA