An attempt to create long-term stability in the beef industry will be made today when the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, chairs what is being described as a "beef summit" in Dublin.
Mr Walsh promised to hold the meeting when the last dispute between the meat factories and the Irish Farmers Association was called off.
A series of protests from late September by the IFA which had been demanding better prices for their cattle, saw plants closing their doors, sometimes for three days at a time, and disruption to the industry.
In the meantime, the price of beef improved, allowing the protests to end and creating an opportunity for today's event to take place.
Mr Walsh, who refused to intervene in the dispute, promised to seek some way of avoiding the recurring difficulties between the processors and the suppliers.
The summit, he said, would focus on the evolution of the markets and, in particular, the market outlook for the period ahead.
"If we can get a better shared understanding of the market conditions and the factors which are influencing the situation, then an important first step will have been achieved."
Finding that "understanding" could be difficult because the level of trust between the factories and the farmers has been at an all-time low since the blockade of the meat plants by the IFA under the leadership of the association's former president, Mr Tom Parlon.
The farmers believe the factories are making a fortune at their expense and the factories say that the prices they can pay are determined by the markets.
Even since the ending of the last dispute, led by the new IFA president, Mr John Dillon, there has been a further souring of relations.
The factories have dropped the prices they are paying for cattle over 30 months old which, they claim, command a lower return from the international beef markets.
Today's meeting will open with a full run down on those international beef markets by the chief executive of An Bord Bia, Mr Michael Duffy.
He will outline the current state of the market and the long- and short-term outlooks for beef sales.
The beef export plants said at the weekend that they would be outlining their position, which had not changed since the last dispute.
Returns from the markets will continue to determine the prices available to beef producers.
The Irish Farmers Association, which will be represented by Mr Dillon, will argue that without a viable price for their cattle, there can be no beef industry.
In a weekend statement, Mr Dillon said farmers could not survive financially at the bottom of the EU price league and must have a reasonable margin above costs of the production.
The IFA and other farm organisations which have also been invited to attend will be seeking to have the issue of the rationalisation of the beef plants put on the agenda.
They argue that the reduction planned in the number of plants will have a direct bearing on prices and fewer plants will mean factory owners will be better able to "manage" prices.
The Irish Meat Association, which reported progress in discussions with Enterprise Ireland in the search to rationalise the industry, has always denied its members had been involved in price fixing.