The Minister for Agriculture said yesterday there was nothing to be alarmed at in the latest BSE figure, nine in September.
The total number of cases to the end of September, he said, was nine lower than at the same time last year, and the number of cases went up and down from month to month.
Mr Walsh, speaking on RTE Television from Brussels, said the number of cases in Ireland was very low overall, and as Ireland operated a slaughter-out policy customers should be confident in the quality of Irish beef.
The September cases were found in herds in Cavan, Carlow, Kilkenny, Cork, Monaghan, Tipperary and Offaly. Five of the cows were six years old, three were seven and one was five. Three of the cases were found in suckler herds and the remainder in dairy herds.
There have been 318 cases of the disease found in cows in the State since it was first identified in 1981. Eighty of those were recorded last year.