Information is not available about the number of people given jail sentences for tax evasion, the Minister for Justice told the Fine Gael Justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins.
In a reply to a written question, Mr O'Donoghue said "the resources which would be necessary to extract [the information] from manual records could not be justified at the present time".
Almost £8 million in assets has been seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau in 1996 and 1997. Mr O'Donoghue told Mrs Nora Owen (FG, Dublin North) that £4,149,000 in assets relating to 11 defendants had been seized in 1996 and £3,820,860 connected to 35 defendants had been seized last year.
A total of 2,173 people were imprisoned for defaulting on fines in 1994, the latest year for which figures are available. Mr O'Donoghue told Mr Jim Higgins(FG, Mayo) that the number currently in custody for non-payment of fines is approximately 1 per cent of the total prison population.