According to the Revenue Commissioners 3,393 people filed their income taxes for 2013 on a non-domicile basis. 'Non-dom' status allows individuals to exempt their offshore income from Irish taxes.

As part of its campaign to lead the UK's next government Labour has pledged to abolish the non-dom tax loop hole in the UK.

Launching the policy the party's leader, Ed Miliband said that the rich should not be allowed to "operate under different rules."

If the party is elected, and implements this policy it could spark an exodus of leading entrepreneurs and business figures from Britain - the Republic of Ireland would be an obvious place for these individuals to move to.

Like the UK, Ireland currently does not levy tax on income outside the country for people who live here, but who are not domiciled here for tax purposes. Many of Ireland's non-dom residents have their taxes registered in low-tax regions like Monaco.

Labour says that changing the non-dom rules could add "hundreds of millions of pounds" to the British exchequer. 116,000 individuals in the UK currently exempt their offshore income from UK tax for an annual charge of £90,000 (€124,000).

Famous "non-doms" in the UK include some of Britain's richest individuals, such as Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Additional reporting by IRN