Six members of the current Cabinet received almost €270,000 in severance pay in the 1990s.

The payments were made to six ministers - including the Taoiseach Enda Kenny - after the Rainbow Coalition was placed in 1997.

Enda Kenny, Richard Bruton and Brendan Howlin received almost €62,000 each; while Eamon Gilmore, Pat Rabbitte and Joan Burton received nearly €28,000 each.

In a statement, the government said the rules on severance pay had changed "dramatically" since the 1990s and that the current administration has now abolished the payments entirely as well as cutting its own salaries.

"Since the current government took office a Ministerial pension cannot be paid to either a TD or Senator" it says.

"Furthermore Ministerial severance payments have been abolished with the recent enactment of the Oireachtas (Ministerial & Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Act 2014. As well as this, this government has imposed a policy of strong pay reduction and restraint since taking office in March 2011 with the pay of all members of the government voluntarily reduced from its first day in office" it adds.

Eoin O'Malley is a politics lecturer in DCU. He says the payments are reflective of a different time, and that high payments are almost inevitable when politicians are involved.