The Revenue Commissioners have said they expect this year to be a record one for bringing tax offenders to justice.
The Chairman of the Revenue, Frank Daly, said the commissioners had been given new powers to help them prosecute accountants who help people evade tax.
Revenue's annual report published today indicated special investigations yielded a total of €697m in 2004. €585m came from off-shore related investigations.
It said there had been exceptionally strong tax collection performance.
Net receipts came in at €35.7bn which was €2.2bn ahead of the Budget estimate.
The commissioners said there had been a strong uptake of the online service for self-assessed tax returns.
10,000 people have indicated that they will make disclosures because they have undeclared money in insurance products. This may lead to the Revenue discovering new areas where people have been hiding money.
There were only seven convictions for serious tax evasion in 2004.
Mr Daly said that while these figures were low, he recognised that there was a public expectation that Revenue would secure more prosecutions.
