The House of Commons last night awarded Sinn Féin an enhanced package of allowances - worth an estimated €1 million - in the hope of further encouraging the republican movement's adoption of the political path.
DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley branded the award "blood money" and "a bribe" stitched in a deal between the British government and Sinn Féin. And Conservative MP David Wiltshire claimed the decision, on a government motion, "plumbed new depths of appeasement to terror".
At the end of some 5½ hours of debate, MPs voted by 329 to 178, a majority of 151, to lift the suspension on the entitlement of Sinn Féin MPs to Westminster secretarial, office, travel, living and other allowances imposed by the Commons last year.
This package of allowances, first granted to Sinn Féin MPs in 2001, is worth an estimated €880,000.
In an earlier vote MPs also approved the creation of a new parliamentary allowance for Sinn Féin - worth some €123,000 - by a majority of 100. This new allowance will give the party its equivalent share of support - known as "Short money", after a former leader of the Commons who introduced it - currently available to opposition parties sitting at Westminster to provide research and other back-up for party spokesmen in pursuit of their parliamentary roles.
However, the current leader of the House, Geoff Hoon, and Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain came under sustained pressure to explain why such additional support was necessary for a party whose MPs refused to take their seats. SDLP leader Mark Durkan led complaints that the new allowance would place Sinn Féin at an advantage over opposition parties at Westminster, because they would be permitted to spend it on what Mr Hoon defined as "representative business".
Mr Hoon insisted the new money would be subject to the same sort of strict controls which applied to other parties. But he said the motions were designed "to recognise how far the IRA and Sinn Féin have moved - and to encourage further progress".
Theresa May, for the Conservatives, rejected claims by Mr Hoon and Mr Hain that they were acting on the recommendation of last week's report by the Independent Monitoring Commission - insisting that consecutive IMC reports on financial sanctions against Sinn Féin had applied only to the Stormont Assembly. DUP MP Nigel Dodds also protested that the government had signalled its intention to reinstate the allowances before the IMC report.