Concern has heightened here over the rapid spread of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain, where it seems to be "out of control", according to the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh.
At the daily press briefing yesterday, Mr Walsh said that while the final test results on sheep from farms in Louth and Carlow had been negative, the danger to the national herd remained.
"We are clear of foot-and-mouth disease in the Republic and it appears that the North of Ireland is also clear. The level of infection in Britain is frightening and it looks as if it is out of control there," he said.
Mr Walsh said 649 farms were now restricted in the State under control measures and he had been assured that no animals had crossed the Border illegally since the ban on imports had been put in place.
"We are in close daily contact with the authorities in the North and we can say that our figures and theirs tally. However, we are following up even the most obscure leads," he said.
"We are satisfied as well that we have tracked the two loads of sheep which may have been contaminated but we are not relaxing in any way any of the controls we have put in place," he said.
Meanwhile, Department of Agriculture officials admitted their investigations into the movement of lambs as a result of the disease had revealed a high level of illegal cross-Border smuggling.
It has emerged that The Irish Times estimate of 8,000 illegal imports into the State since the beginning of January, may be on the conservative side, and there could be thousands more sheep in the Republic since before the import ban was imposed.
It is still not known officially how many slaughter permits issued in Britain to allow sheep to be moved into Northern Ireland have been used. But it is thought to be less than half of the slaughter licences issued on an estimated 20,000 imports.
One of the main problems has been that the sheep which were exported for slaughter into the North of Ireland were never counted. Livestock lorries were weighed in Britain and a figure based on average sheep weights aboard per truck was used, after subtracting the unladen weight of the vehicle.
Also, there appear to have been few checks on the use of the slaughter permits in the North, and this has allowed a leakage of animals from Britain into the island of Ireland, which has a common sheepmeat policy for EU purposes.
This trade appears to have intensified since last November, when Ireland's key markets in Europe were hit by a BSE scare and beef consumption dropped dramatically. However, this increased the demand for sheepmeat and the prices for it.
A second illegal trade has also emerged. Some farmers in the Republic whose flocks were being inspected by the Department for premium purposes, have been importing ewes from the North to match the flock size they have been claiming as their own. This has been particularly prevalent in Border areas.
These animals are leased for the day of the count - and in some cases have been returned North, or to other farms in the Republic which were not expecting a spot check - adding to the amount of movement of animals and the possibility of spreading disease.
Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, warned farmers and dealers yesterday that it would not be issuing movement permits for animals after 5 p.m. today. It urged anyone wishing to move stock for slaughter next Monday to apply to its offices before 5 p.m., as the system would be closed for the weekend.
Both the Department and Teagasc warned they must be consulted before slurry is spread on land, because of the potential hazard of spreading foot-and-mouth.