Irish people ate 7 per cent more beef in the 12-month period to the end of May this year than in the corresponding 52 week period, the latest retail figures available have shown.
While total meat sales in Ireland dropped in the period surveyed by Taylor Nelson Sofres, beef sales increased to 47,500 tonnes.
Irish people consumed just under 134,000 tonnes of meat but in value terms, total meat sales were marginally lower than in the previous year at just under €880 million.
The research, carried out for An Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, found that lamb sales also increased by 8 per cent to 10,700 tonnes while bacon sales remained relatively steady at just over 15,000 tonnes.
Overall these increases were offset by declines in the volume of pork and poultry sales.
Pork sales fell by almost 4 per cent on the previous 12 months at just over 29,500 tonnes. This figure reflects a 5 per cent decrease in fresh pork sales and a 3 per cent fall in the volume of sausages sold.
The findings, published in An Bord Bia's "Market Monitor" said that total poultry sales decreased by just over 1 per cent on year earlier levels to less than 31,000 tonnes.
The survey also found that the average weight of purchase per household decreased by 0.8 kg to 103.3 kg but that the proportion of households purchasing meat over the past year increased slightly to more than 99 per cent.
Of total sales of meat, beef had the highest penetration with just over 92 per cent of households purchasing beef throughout the year and the average weight of purchase increasing by almost 5 per cent to 39.4 kg in the period.
There were indications that the Irish love of the sausage may be in decline with a drop in the average weight of purchase of pork sausages of 4 per cent to 11.7 kg.
The number of households purchasing lamb decreased marginally to 68 per cent but the average weight of purchase during the year increased by 7 per cent to 12.1 kg.
The survey also found that supermarkets increased their share of meat sales at the expense of traditional butchers and sold 72 per cent of all Irish retail meat.
