The Revenue Commissioners are preparing to focus on properties owned by Irish citizens in France and Spain as part of their next investigation into tax evasion.
Mr Frank Daly, chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, said this investigation had been "parked" during last year so that they could focus on their inquiry into funds held in offshore locations, but that they would shortly look at other areas such as offshore property.
The use of single premium investments and offshore credit cards to evade tax would also be scrutinised, he said.
The Revenue announced yesterday that it had collected €650 million from its latest disclosure scheme for undeclared offshore funds. This brings to €1.5 billion the amount collected in recent years from special investigations into areas such as bogus non-resident accounts and the fall-out from various tribunals.
The Revenue said the latest offshore settlements came from individuals who had sought to shield money from tax in bank accounts in the UK, the Channel Islands and Switzerland.
Mr Daly said one individual paid a tax bill of over €7 million arising from their offshore investments. Two people paid more than €6 million, one paid over €4 million, 11 paid around €2 million and 32 sent cheques for more than €1 million each to the Revenue.
Yesterday he pledged to pursue individuals who had not come forward to settle their tax affairs.
Irish financial institutions wrote to over 100,000 customers earlier this year to alert them to a possible Revenue investigation, and to encourage them to settle their affairs. Some 15,000 individuals contacted the Revenue on foot of these letters. Mr Daly said it would now follow up on those individuals who had not come forward.
He said the large amount of money recovered from this investigation showed that people were increasingly aware that tax evasion was not acceptable.
"People realise that if they don't pay their taxes they are cheating on their neighbour, on their colleagues and on this country which needs investment," Mr Daly said.
Some €749 million has now been collected from financial institutions and individuals who held bogus non-resident accounts. The Revenue has recovered €42.7 million from its inquiry into the Ansbacher deposits used by wealthy individuals to evade tax from the 1970s to the 1990s.
It has yielded another €50.4 million from customers who invested in unauthorised investments sold at National Irish Bank. Individuals investigated by the Moriarty tribunal contributed €6.3 million, while those associated with the Flood tribunal paid €18.7 million.
Mr Daly also confirmed that Revenue officials were investigating schemes used by some of AIB's most senior former executives which were found to have breached tax law.
The Revenue has contacted the tax authorities in the British Virgin Islands as part of its investigation.