Reports say that the former managing director of AIB, Colm Doherty, received a pay package of over €3m last year after stepping down in November as a condition of the State's second bail-out of the bank.
The Irish Times says that Mr Doherty received the payments under a contract agreed when he was promoted in November 2009 to the role of managing director, replacing chief executive Eugene Sheehy.
The bank's former managing director's pay was made up of a salary - from January to November - of €432,000. In place of a year's notice, Colm Doherty was paid €707,000 when his contract was terminated at the direction of the former Finance Minister Brain Lenihan.
He was also paid about €2m instead of a contribution to his pension.
In its own defence the Department of Finance says that it did not sign off on this payment, but that the package was what Mr Doherty was legally entitled to, under the terms of his contract.
His appointment to the position of managing director in 2009 was controversial, as it went against the former government's commitment to change at senior executive level at the banks. Mr Doherty had been on the board of the bank since 2003, and a director at a time when the bank made bad lending decisions.
More details of payments to Mr Doherty and other board members will appear in AIB's 2010 annual report, which is expected to be published soon.
The Minister for Finance says the whole approach to bankers' remuneration will have to be re-examined.
On his way into today's Cabinet meeting, Michael Noonan said changes would have to be made in the sector.
Mr Noonan said the payment dated back to the time of the last government.
The payment was also described as 'inappropriate' by Minister Simon Coveney.
