RUC officers to hear pay-off package

The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, will this week announce a "most generous" compensation package for RUC officers who retire from the force in advance of the creation of the proposed Police Service for Northern Ireland, according to official sources.

More than £200 million is understood to be earmarked for about 2,000 officers who are expected to leave the force over the next two years. On average, each retiring officer will receive a lump sum of about £100,000, or three times his or her annual salary, plus an enhanced pension.

The Police Federation and the other representative bodies of the RUC have been in discussion with the Northern Ireland Office on redundancy payments since the Patten report was published last September.

Mr Mandelson is due to announce the package on Thursday. According to the Sunday Times, 600 officers will leave the force in January followed by a further 750 in the financial year 2000-01, with 600 more leaving the year after. This would reduce the full-time force from 8,500 to 6,500.

Meanwhile, British government sources yesterday said that any further amendments to the Police Bill probably would not happen until the autumn.

The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, yesterday accused unionists of "posturing" over seeking to retain the RUC title. "From the unionist point of view it's not about names, symbols or badges. These are only the issues they are using to maintain control of any police service because they know that they are unacceptable to republicans and nationalists," he said.

"They are the weapons they will use to block the changes that are necessary to attract republicans and nationalist recruits," Mr McLaughlin said.

The Alliance deputy leader, Mr Seamus Close, yesterday criticised the SDLP and Sinn Fein for failing to support the Police Bill. "The SDLP and Sinn Fein are playing political games over the Police Bill and are jeopardising the prospects of young people from all sections of the community applying to join the reformed police service," he said.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionist Party review group set up to monitor the decommissioning issue has said it is seeking clarification on a number of issues from Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body about the recent examination of a number of IRA arms dumps by Mr Martti Ahtisaari and Mr Cyril Ramaphosa.

The review group, set up the Ulster Unionist Council in May, would not say what clarification it required. It said, however, that it did not accept the statement by the Taoiseach that the examination had dealt with the decommissioning issue.

It added, however, that it accepted that the arms examination "can be helpful if it represents a start to the process of credible and verifiable decommissioning, leading to complete disarmament by the IRA".