TAX defaulters made settlements totalling £9.1 million with the Revenue Commissioners last year.

The list published here is in respect of the year ended December 31st 1995. Settlements are not published where the amount is less the £10,000 or where the taxpayer has in advance of any Revenue investigation voluntarily furnished complete information relating to undisclosed tax liabilities. The biggest settlement - £620,000 - was made by Apex Fire Protection Limited, a Dublin-based company specialising in fire-fighting equipment.

Revenue officials also targeted publicans, hoteliers and restaurateurs and farmers. Many made settlements last year, ranging from £200,000 to £13,000.

Former TD, Mr Jim White, who owns several hotels, paid £350,000 for underpayment of tax for the Imperial Hotel Company in Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare and Hydro Hotel Limited also in Lisdoonvarna.

Apex, which has offices in Harolds Cross, Dublin, paid £350,000 for underpayment of tax and £250,000 in penalties and interest. Mr Sean Flood, joint managing director of Apex, said the settlement concerned payments of expenses and benefits to staff stretching back over several years. The company had 60 staff on the road at any one time, he said, and the issue had concerned the methods of payment of various payroll expenses.

"As the company grew, the problem (of the expenses payments) grew with it," he explained. The matter had been resolved satisfactorily and did not cause any major problems for the company, he said.

Mr Flood said Apex, which employs 80 people, had expanded since the tax settlement, was trading profitably and was now the biggest fire-fighting equipment services company in Ireland.

Mr White said the £350 000 settlement his companies paid included penalties and interest. He said it concerned payments which the company made to staff at the end of every tourist season. "We looked on it as a gift or a bonus," he said. "We didn't deduct tax on it."

It was a very thorough examination, he added, concerning payments made over 12 years.

One of the highest settlements made was by Mr Liam Cashman, who owns a stud farm in Fermoy, Co Cork. He paid £372,00, of which almost £150,000 was penalties and interest. Mr Cashman could not be contacted as he was away on business yesterday.

The former Irish Quality Association chief executive, Mr John A Murphy settled a tax bill of almost £159,000. Mr Murphy was sacked from the association in 1993 following a tax audit which revealed he had paid himself bonuses of £288,000 over a 12-year period.

Mr John Gerrard, restaurateur and company director, whose assets have been frozen by the High Court, paid £19,160 in taxes, penalties and interest. Mr Gerrard, who ran the Happy Eater fast food business in Sligo, is the subject of injunctions from Anglo Irish Bank and Davitt Foods.