The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, has moved to ease foot-and-mouth restrictions after seven weeks during which farming activity has been virtually frozen.
While the Minister yesterday said there would be no relaxation of restrictions on animal movement, he has asked the farm organisations to come forward with their priorities in relation to movement.
Since March 6th, 60,000 permits have been issued by Teagasc, the agriculture and rural development authority, to allow the movement of animals from farms to slaughterhouses, the only movement currently allowed.
However, Mr Walsh announced that from Monday marts could be used as assembly points for animals going to slaughter. This is to facilitate farmers with small numbers of animals who faced heavy haulage costs.
Also from Monday, the artificial insemination service will be allowed to proceed under strict guidelines.
Mr Walsh agreed that the opening of tourist accommodation in rural areas could resume from April 30th in accordance with codes of practice laid down between his expert group, advising on controls, and the industry.
On sporting activities involving teams from Northern Ireland, Mr Walsh said these could proceed provided there were no participants or supporters from the 10 km exclusion zones around the North's confirmed outbreaks.
Protocols had been agreed with the show-jumping organisations, and their activities could resume under confined conditions from April 28th.
The Minister's statement was accompanied by another departmental warning about complacency. It said the overall national effort by all sectors of society had been magnificent.
"However, the stark reality is that the recent outbreaks in Northern Ireland indicate that the virus is on the island of Ireland. Mr Walsh was therefore extremely concerned about reports in recent days of variable compliance with disinfectant," the statement said.
The decisions on marts were welcomed by the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society last night. Its president, Mr Dessie Boylan, said the assembly approach would save farmers a great deal of time as delays of up to three hours and longer were being experienced at some factories due to long queues.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Mr Pat O'Rourke, said there was a renewed interest from Italy for the resumption of the import of live cattle from Ireland and he suggested that the same system of assembly could be used to facilitate that trade.
The president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Tom Parlon, said the top priority for farmers was the clearance for the movement of breeding bulls to prevent any further damage to the important breeding calendar.
The IFA had explained the severe pressure on livestock farmers under the present conditions to the Department. There were, he said, serious husbandry, feed and welfare problems now emerging on many farms because farmers were unable to move stock.
Fine Gael's deputy spokesman on agriculture, Mr Seymour Crawford, said farmers must be allowed to put their cattle on grass if serious animal welfare problems were to be avoided.