The Department of Media gave a senior civil servant a severance package worth almost €220,000 when they left their role earlier this year.
Government sources confirmed the payment was made to the Department's former secretary general Katherine Licken after the figure was outlined in parliamentary question responses to TDs.
In a parliamentary question response to Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy, Labour TD Alan Kelly and Independent TD Carol Nolan, the Department said a €219,240 severance package was paid to one individual.
The Department said it was a payment made at secretary general severance level and was made "in accordance with the Top Level Appointments Committee retirement terms" which have applied to all new secretary general appointments since October 2011.
Government sources have confirmed the recipient of the payment was Ms Licken, who retired from her secretary general role in January.
The payment was made in line with contractual entitlements and calculated in accordance with official Government rules.
A note from Minister for Media Catherin Martin accompanying the response said: "My Department in its current configuration was established in September 2020 and the reply relates to the period from that date.
"Redundancy or severance payments in the Civil Service generally arise with respect to specific categories of employees, as determined by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDR) and approved by Government.
"There was one severance payment and one redundancy payment made over that period in respect of my Department, as set out in the table below. The contractual entitlements arising were calculated in accordance with the rules as determined above.
"The payments did not arise out of settlement agreements outside the normal arrangements and the issue of separate sanction did not arise."
