Kerry was the biggest winner when grants were announced yesterday by the Minister for Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, for a number of festivals.
Grant aid totalling €1.6 million was announced by Mr O'Donoghue for 22 events, with more than €590,000 allocated to Kerry. However a spokesman for his department rejected the suggestion that the Minister, a TD for Kerry South, was being parochial.
His spokesman stressed that while Mr O'Donoghue had announced the grants, the scheme was administered by Bord Fáilte, whose board had the final say.
Mr Tony Donegan, manager of the industry marketing service department at Bord Fáilte, also emphasised that Mr O'Donoghue had no role in allocating the funds.
He added that while the grants were only announced yesterday, the decision in relation to allocating the second biggest grant of €486,000 to the Killarney Summerfest was made before Mr O'Donoghue switched from the Department of Justice to Tourism.
The largest individual grant went to the Integrated Festival Programme for Donegal which received €500,000. However, Mr Donegan stressed that the former tourism minister, Dr Jim McDaid, had no say in the allocation of this funding to his constituency either.
Apart from the Killarney Summerfest, the other Kerry festivals to benefit are Féile na Samhna in Dingle, the Rose of Tralee Festival and the Caherciveen Celtic Festival of Music and Arts.
The funding comes from a €31.75 million fund announced in the last budget to expand regional tourism by promoting festivals and cultural events during the next five years. Bord Fáilte has received 170 applications for funding and it is expected a number of these, which have not been successful to date in receiving support, will be grant-aided in the coming months.