A former correspondent at RTÉ said there is "absolute disgust" at the payment of €450,000 to Breda O'Keeffe.
The exit package to the broadcaster's former chief financial officer was not approved by its Executive Board.
The figure was revealed by Director-General Kevin Bakhurst at an Oireachtas Committee yesterday.
It is the latest revelation in the long-running payments scandal at the national broadcaster.
Former RTÉ correspondent Ciaran Mullooly told The Pat Kenny Show he was told there was a cap on such payments.
"It's just incredible, it's unbelieve to me," he said.
"I was in that queue for voluntary exit redundancies at that time.
"It was over a 12-week period I waited for news of wether or not I would be given the opportunity to get the exit package.
"I was repeatedly told about this position with regard to the suppressing of my job, that my job would be left vacant indefinitely.
"The other line coming back repeatedly through the organisation was that... there was a cap on this.
"That nothing over €200,000 was going to be agreed with anybody, and RTÉ were told this was a cost-saving measure."
An RTÉ logo at the station's Donnybrook headquarters in Dublin, 26-6-23. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ieMr Mullooly said the organisation was tightening its belt.
"I'm just absolutely shocked that RTÉ management at the time could have possibly agreed [this package] at a time when we were on our knees," he said.
"Jon Williams, the head of news, was seeking cost-savings of €1.2 million when I left.
"It was very clear he was going to do what he had to do to make those savings.
"We took it in good faith, but the reaction to the news yesterday is just one of absolute disgust".
'RTÉ was broke'
Mr Mullooly said he had "direct dealings" with Ms O'Keeffe and senior management on a project known as 'The Marconi Project'.
The site in Co Westmeath is home to Guglielmo Marconi's original transmitter that put RTÉ on-air.
"The original transmitter is still there; 10 years ago before I left RTÉ we started a campaign to open a new tourism centre," he said.
"We spoke to key people - Fáilte Ireland were coming onboard with up to €3 million in grant aid, Ericsson Ireland had come onboard.
"It was planned to be a new national science museum and RTÉ effectively scuppered the project.
"They told us at the time they were broke, they couldn't afford to give us the land adjacent to the transmitter site which we needed for car parking.
"Breda O'Keeffe was the one who told me this couldn't be done because the RTÉ organisation was broke".
Mr Mullooly said the land was eventually sold at public auction for €350,000.
"It has left a really, really bad taste in the mouth of so many people that RTÉ could plead the poor mouth, but at the same time were able to pay out this amount of money in redundancy," he added.
Sinn Fein TD and Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Brian Stanley has called on Ms O'Keeffe to pay the money back.
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