Gerry Adams said that the offer was agreed during recent talks at Downing Street when he threatened to pull the plug on devolution.

But he denied that it was a case of Gordon Brown buying his agreement not to block Peter Robinson's appointment as First Minister.

Last night Ulster Unionist peer and former Ulster-Scots Agency chairman Lord Laird blasted news of the pledge as "disgusting and despicable".

He said: "It is further evidence of the Government doing everything they can to placate Sinn Fein.

"Where is the parity of esteem that was promised to all the people of Northern Ireland? Is this fair on the Ulster-Scots movement? It is a disgrace."

DUP MLA Nelson McCausland said that the decision to grant the funding represented "nothing more than a fig leaf to save the embarrassment of Gerry Adams over his failure to deliver on Sinn Fein's promised Irish Language Act".

And he added that it was "hard not to feel a certain sense of pity" for Sinn Fein over the issue.

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