The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 851 -

"851A.

(1) In this section,

'agent' means a member of a professional body;

'investigation authority' means a statutory body responsible for the investigation of alleged criminal offences;

'professional body' means -

(a) an accountancy body that comes within the supervisory remit of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority,

(b) the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority, or

(c) the Irish Taxation Institute;

'Revenue officer' includes serving and former officers of the Revenue Commissioners;

'taxpayer information' means information of any kind and in any form relating to one or more persons that is -

(a) obtained by a Revenue officer for the purposes of the Acts, or

(b) prepared from information so obtained,

but does not include information that does not directly or indirectly reveal the identity of the person to whom it relates;

'the Acts' means -

(a) the Tax Acts,

(b) Parts 18A, 18B, 18C and 18D,

(c) the statutes relating to the duties of excise and to the management of those duties,