Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, has been accused of playing the "most blatant" form of constituency politics with Government funding.
The Louth Fianna Fail TD, Mr Seamus Kirk said "The fact that Galway is received £9.2 million in the last 2 1/2 years from the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht while Cavan and Monaghan received nothing and Louth - received less than £235,000 for the same period beggars belief."
Mr Kirk claimed the Minister "seems to be under the illusion that taxpayers' money is for his own personal slush fund that can be splashed around his constituency with no regard or concern taken for the genuine needs of other constituencies".
He asked: "Are we now to believe that the main objective of Michael D. Higgins in Government is to control the purse strings in order to enhance his own re election chances at the next election? The Minister has some explaining to do and I look forward to questioning him on this matter when he returns from his holidays."