“Today’s publication by the Revenue Commissioners of the Tax Deafulaters list show that their continuing trawl among those who have failed to pay their due taxes has yielded €31.7m from 136 cases. For this the Revenue Commissioners deserve our thanks and congratulations. This €31m will of course go to support public services in health and education. Many of the larger payments of tax and penalties relate to people from business/commercial backgrounds and indeed some in political life who held various off-shore and bogus non-resident accounts or were the subject of Revenue investigations.

Clearly the culture of tax evasion remains deeply engrained in sections of Irish society. Despite the efforts of the Revenue Commissioners in pursuing all those who have failed to pay their tax, there are clearly those who think it is worth the gamble simply because of the money they are set to make should they get away with it.

Each time the Defaulters List is published, it serves as a warning to tax evaders to put their affairs in order. How many warnings do some people need? Tax evasion is a criminal offence. People who defraud social welfare, often for very trivial sums of money, rightly face prosecutions in the court. The Revenue Commissioners need to take a more vigorous approach to persistent offenders particularly those cheating the Revenue from very large sums of money.