An Englishman based in Laois who is trying to stage a charity banquet in aid of the Omagh Fund has criticised the lack of support for the event.
Mr Keith Baston-Norkett, who runs Springfield Promotions from Abbeyleix, said he had been horrified at the reaction of big business in Dublin and Laois to the £100-per-ticket charity event.
"I sent out 5,000 invitations to companies in Dublin and Laois and I have been appalled at the poor response both from Dublin and locally," said Mr Baston-Norkett, who is known locally as "Big Keith".
"I am ashamed to tell you what some of the companies said, except they indicated to me that this was a `dead' event and they had already contributed," he said.
"It is hardly a dead event for the people of Omagh who will need support for many years to come. I cannot understand how people could react this way.
"One company, a household name in Ireland and a huge employer, said it had already contributed £10 and it was not going to become involved again," he added.
He said major radio and television programme-makers had rejected all his attempts to get publicity for the event.
The response from Laois was as poor as from Dublin, and this despite the fact that he had arranged luxury coach transport from the county to the event in the Grand Hotel in Malahide, Co Dublin.
He said the guest speaker for the event, scheduled for February 18th, would be the former Irish national football squad manager, Mr Jack Charlton.
In addition, Springfield Promotions, which is a company that specialises in celebrity personal appearances, function organisation and personal management, had arranged for UK-based comedian Lee Wilson to entertain the guests.
"I had limited the number of tickets to 400, and all the profits will go directly to the Omagh Fund. I just cannot understand the attitude of business people to it."
He said that, as an Englishman living in the Republic, he thought the event, for some reason he could not understand, was of no interest to those he had targeted.
"I take it as a rebuke, not a personal rebuke, but a rebuke nevertheless, that there has been such a low response to such a worthy event," he said.