Six members of the current cabinet received almost €270,000 in severance payments in the 1990s.
The six ministers - including the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny - received the payments after the 1997 general election, when the Rainbow Coalition was removed from office.
The figures compiled by Today FM show that three members of cabinet received just under €€62,000 each between 1997 and 1999, having been ministers in the Rainbow Coalition.
Enda Kenny, Richard Bruton and Brendan Howlin each received IR£17,388 in 1997 - the year their government was replaced by the first Bertie Ahern administration - as well as IR£25,047 in 1998 and IR£6,361 in 1999.
In total, each received £48,906 - the equivalent of €61,958 when converted to euro.
Another three of today's ministers - the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, his predecessor as Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, and his deputy leader Joan Burton - were junior ministers in that government, and received almost €€28,000 each.
Each received IR£7,877 in 1997, IR£11,254 in 1998, and IR£2,857 in 1999 - a total of IR£21,988 (or €27,919).
Pension entitlements
Another two of today's ministers also served in cabinet before - but were not entitled to severance payments as both had held ministerial rank before the payments were introduced into law in the early 1990s.
Both Ruairi Quinn and Michael Noonan had served as ministers under Garret FitzGerald in the 1980s - and so neither was entitled to severance pay after their second term in cabinet.
However, between leaving cabinet for a second time in 1997 and their re-appointment in 2011, Ruairi Quinn received a total of €419,810 in pension payments - while Michael Noonan was entitled to €409,662.
When the pension payments of the other six ministers are also included, the eight ministers in total received €1.18 million between 1997 and 2011.
In some cases, ministers did not draw down pension payments for the entirety of this period, as pensions can only be paid to former ministers when they turn 50.
Richard Bruton only began receiving pension payments in 2004 for this reason, while Eamon Gilmore only began to receive his payments in 2005.
All of the above payments were legal entitlements - though a government source stressed that Fine Gael and Labour TDs had all voluntarily waived their ministerial pensions at the peak of the financial crisis.
"Changed significantly"
In a statement to Today FM News, the government said the rules in relation to ministerial pensions and severance pay had changed significantly since the 1980s and 1990s.
It said all ministerial severance payments have now been abolished under legislation introduced by Brendan Howlin, and also pointed out that ministerial pensions are no longer paid to people who continue to serve as Members of the Oireachtas.
It also pointed out through a series of pay cuts - including one imposed voluntarily by current ministers on their first day in office - salaries for cabinet ministers have been cut by over 35 per cent since 2009.
Eoin O'Malley, a politics lecturer in DCU, says the payments are reflective of a different time:
The controversial severance payments came to prominence last month when it emerged that Alan Shatter was entitled to over €70,000 in such payments over a two-year period.
This was despite the Oireachtas passing legislation to abolish the payments - because the new law had not been commenced by Brendan Howlin at the time his colleague stepped down.
During the debate about whether Alan Shatter should accept the pay, Enda Kenny pointed out that several serving Fianna Fáil TDs had received ministerial severance pay in 2011 - arguing that was a breach of a FF electoral promise.
