The chairman of the Northern Ireland Police Federation, Mr Les Rodgers, has denied that negotiations on RUC redundancies have taken place, as claimed by the Northern Secretary yesterday.
Dr Mo Mowlam said senior Northern Ireland Office civil servants had had discussions with rank-and-file members to discuss lay-offs. But Mr Rodgers said the meetings had only been only set up to "clarify anomalies" in the Patten report and make sure the British government understood police regulations.
"That to me is not negotiation on redundancy packages, just laying the ground rules," he added. It was "totally erroneous" for Dr Mowlam to say negotiations had begun.
"For someone to hype this up is not quite right. It sends the wrong signals to our officers that we are moving forward too fast. I can assure them that we are not."
The Patten report proposes that police numbers be cut from 13,000 to 7,500. Mr Rodgers said it was far too early to discuss cutting the size of the force. This would depend on the security situation, on parliament deciding on the report and on the consultation which came before that.
He said the federation believed that until everything else had been worked out, no officer should be asked to go unless they wanted to.
The federation's vice-chairman, Mr Jim Spratt, also dismissed speculation that lay-offs had been discussed with British government officials and insisted the federation's line would remain firm.