Only one person has been jailed as a result of tax offences in this country since 2003, according to Revenue chairman Josephine Feehily.
She told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee that person was given a three-year sentence last year, most of which was suspended.
Ms Feehily said that 19 criminal prosecutions went to court in 2008, the largest number in recent times. She said the conviction rate was very high, with only three acquittals last year.
Ms Feehily also told the PAC that 47 barristers and solicitors living in the Dublin 4 area were examined by Revenue in 2007, as a result of which €838,000 in tax, interest and penalties was paid. She was responding to questions from Labour's Roisín Shorthall, who said there was evidence that self-assessment was 'a licence for tax evasion'.
It has also emerged that 883 taxpayers who sought to voluntarily disclose non-taxed income as part of a Revenue investigation could not avail of early disclosure as they had not disclosed the income in previous schemes in which they took part.
Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley told the PAC that this ultimately yielded €50m for the Exchequer.
Meanwhile, Revenue had to pay €1.6m in 2007 in a tax settlement for benefit in kind in respect of staff use of official vehicles for travel to and from work and other expenses.
The C&AG said this demonstrated that there was always a risk that an organisation could fail to comply with the very rules it was trying to enforce.
