In the unforgiving world of high-street fashion, Seán Barron is something of a survivor. Even at the age of 70, the creator of the Pamela Scott brand remains the driving force behind one of the last family-owned fashion chains in the Irish market.

A women's fashion whiz who was able to brush off the onslaught from international groups on Grafton Street, he is extremely well connected. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern opened one of his city centre stores in 2001. With Dr Michael Smurfit, he co-developed the Riverview leisure club at Clonskeagh, south Dublin.

But after decades in the rag trade, his failure to pay tax of €1.42 million caught up with him late last year. Only yesterday, when Revenue published its latest quarterly list of defaulters, did it publicly emerge that he had paid a total of €6.4 million to settle his debt.

Revenue said the settlement arose from its investigations into offshore assets and bogus non-resident accounts. In addition to his basic liability for underdeclared income tax and value added tax, his settlement included no less than €4.98 million in interest and penalties.

Big bucks by any standards, but Barron is a very wealthy man. He is known to have realised some €22 million last October when he sold Broadlands, a six-bedroom house on 2.82 acres opposite Killiney Golf Club in south Dublin.

While multimillionaire beneficiaries of the property boom are common these days, it was in fashion that Barron made his fortune. He prospered when many retailers failed, and bought out some of his Irish rivals as they retired from the business. If he is not quite the last man standing, he certainly ranks among the elite of Irish retailers. He runs the business today with his four sons. Scott Barron, one of his sons, is a former tennis pro.

It was in 1970 that Barron established Flairline Fashions, a wholesale enterprise that remains in business to this day. He established Pamela Scott on Grafton Street in 1976 and kept the business going when the store was burned down in a fire in 1987. It reopened in 1989.

Barron opened a Liffey Valley store in 1997 and bought out the Ashley Reeves chain of seven stores a year later. He opened a Pamela Scott store at the Blanchardstown centre in 1998, and bought out the Richard Alan chain of four stores in 2000. Half the Richard Alan outlets came under the Pamela Scott brand. In 2001, he opened an S Oliver store in Blanchardstown and opened the Escada outlet on Grafton.

The Pamela Scott business today has 12 stores while Flairline, its holding company, operates stores trading under the Escada, Ashley Reeves and Richard Alan brands.

Arzac Developments, which trades as Pamela Scott, had a turnover of €19.01 million in the year to August 2005 and pretax profits of €1.25 million. This company's leasehold properties took the benefit of a €2.36 million revaluation in that period.

Flairline had a turnover of €7.04 million in the same period and pretax profits of €80,332. Its freehold interest on 18/19 South William Street was valued at €12 million in May 2005 and its freehold on a building in the M50 business park at Ballymount, west Dublin, was valued at €4 million.

Mr Barron did not return a phone call yesterday. On previous occasions he has spoken publicly about his dissatisfaction with the price of Aer Lingus fares. Less than two years ago, he said he had written to Minister for Enterprise Mícheál Martin to complain about steep increases in retail rents which he characterised as the "biggest rip-off of all".

"He has agreed to see me but he is on holiday," he said then of the Minister.