The Irish Meat Association is expected to make a commitment to kill 25,000 cattle aged over 30 months every week.
This is part of the special slaughter scheme to combat BSE which starts next week.
In addition, the factories are expected to agree later today to process another 15,000 cattle each week. They will be over 30 months but will be tested for BSE.
The removal of 40,000 animals a week off Irish farms was welcomed yesterday by the Irish Farmers' Association's (IFA) president, Mr Tom Parlon, who described the news as "substantial progress".
However, he warned that the success of the scheme, due to begin on Monday, would depend on how much farmers were paid for their animals.
The IFA has been demanding that the base price being paid for bullocks going for destruction should be 90p per lb.
Otherwise, he said, the scheme would not work.
The Department of Agriculture said yesterday that it was in discussions with the Department of Finance on the issue of paying the additional 5 per cent necessary to bring the baseline price to 90p.
Some new details of the scheme emerged last night as talks continued between the special committee set up by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Mr Walsh, and the industry.
The Department of Agriculture confirmed yesterday that 18 meat plants have offered their killing capacity for the special EU scheme, which will run for six months.
A small number of these plants will be dedicated solely to the destruction scheme.
The factories, according to farm organisations, have a wide geographical spread which will facilitate farmers in moving their animals off their lands.
However, last night it emerged that the main difficulty between the factories and the Department is over the controls which will be imposed if an infected animal is found on the beef-processing lines.
This could occur when animals over 30 months are tested and processed for food.
The discovery of such an animal in a post-mortem test could mean the total closure of the killing line and the destruction of other carcases processed on the same day.
The Department committee, under the chairmanship of the Department's secretary general, Mr John Malone, is understood to have agreed a price with the factories for the scheme but the issue of penalties has yet to be resolved.
Some Irish factories reopened yesterday and were paying over 90p per lb for animals under 30 months, indicating that the UK market is buoyant.
A spokeswoman for An Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, said that there was little movement on mainland European markets because of the New Year holiday and it was too early to say if there would be any recovery this week.