As a new BSE crisis loomed last night, with Britain banning sales of meat on the bone, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, is to meet his British counterpart, Dr Jack Cunningham, in Whitehall this afternoon.
The meeting will deal with the double blow facing the Irish food industry. This follows last night's extended blockade of west coast ports in the UK, which led to Irish food shipments being once again turned back from British ports, and the fresh BSE crisis.
For the last three days little Irish beef has been getting into Britain because of the blockades, which were extended last night. There were reports that four Irish lorries, from the North and the Republic, were prevented from leaving Stranraer port in Scotland. A meeting of Welsh farmers in Holyhead last night was told there was picketing at Liverpool and protests planned for today at Dover.
The Irish Road Haulage Association has instructed its members not to turn back to Ireland when confronted by farmers. In a statement the association said it was calling on the British police to "guarantee Irish vehicles a right of passage from the ports".
It added that compensation would be sought from the British authorities for losses over the past week.
The British government yesterday banned sales of meat from which the bones have not been removed after its BSE advisory committee warned of the possible risk of the disease being transmitted in bone marrow.
Mr Walsh said his Department, with the Department of Health, would be urgently considering the findings and assessing whether there were implications for the sale of meat in Ireland.
"Obviously the overriding concern in all of this will continue to be the safety of the consumer," he said.
The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, said he would be raising the issue today with his British counterpart at a meeting in Brussels where European health ministers are gathering.
There was some scepticism about the British warning last night when Irish veterinary experts pointed out that the British findings were based on experimental research "which differs considerably from the situation found in normal field conditions".
It was also pointed out that Ireland, unlike the UK, slaughters and disposes of all animals found in a BSE-infected herd and searches out animals reared from or related to the infected animals. In Britain, only the infected animal is destroyed.
But last night there was deep concern in beef export circles about the likely impact this announcement will have on beef sales in Britain, the Republic's largest EU market, which are worth £170 million annually.
The market had just recovered following the last BSE crisis which led to a drop in exports there of 40 per cent, a decline in cattle prices and a ban on live cattle exports to Arab nations.
Ireland exports 85,000 tonnes of beef to the UK annually.