A spokesman for the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, said today no funds are available from Fáilte Ireland to assist festivals in discharging their debts.
He added that funds were only available from the tourism body to assist festivals in their marketing campaigns.
Since December 2001, almost €550,000 in Government funding has been allocated to the Rose of Tralee festival.
The Chief Executive of the festival has said that unless €250,000 can be raised by the weekend, she will have to inform its directors that attempts to save the company have failed. The festival directors will then have to decide whether or not to put the company into liquidation.
Rescue package bid
Over the past three months the festival's chief executive, Siobhan Hanley, has been trying to put a rescue package together to save the company from liquidation.
Ms Hanley told RTÉ News she has secured verbal agreements from a majority of the company's creditors, who are owed €900,000, to settle for payments amounting to a third of their debts.
But, she said, the success of the rescue package was dependent on a commitment from five organisations to make a contribution of €50,000 each to pay off the debts.
Ms Hanley said the Mayor of Tralee met earlier this week with the five bodies, Tralee Town Council, Shannon Development, Tralee & Kerry Vintners, Tralee Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Holiday Tralee, but no financial commitments were made at the meeting.
Ms Hanley said there are others from outside Tralee interested in investing in the festival, but they would only do so if the company was debt free and if organisations in the town had also come on board
