The Minister for Agriculture has said the Republic is going through "a critical week" in the fight to prevent foot-and-mouth disease entering the State.
At his daily briefing yesterday, Mr Walsh welcomed the news that the preliminary results of tests from the "hot suspect" case in Co Tyrone had been negative. This was "very welcome indeed".
He said the surveillance zone on the Border at Monaghan was no longer needed because there was now no exclusion zone on the Northern side of the Border. Close liaison with the Northern authorities was being maintained, he stressed.
Low-risk activities, which would be defined by the special committee he had set up to advise on controls, could commence when he was sure the risk from the disease had subsided and following advice from the expert group.
"The fact that the Augher case is negative is important to us but we will not be in a position until later in the week to decide on those low-risk activities and this will be made easier if farmers continue their tight controls."
This was a critical week, he said, pointing out that the first outbreak of the disease was identified on February 20th in Britain.
The Meigh case was identified on February 28th "and the 14 days after that are high risk from our point of view" - that would be around the end of this week.
However, "we will not be out of the wood until 30 days after the last confirmed outbreak in Britain."
Mr Walsh said he did not expect that Irish horses would be going to Aintree, and that it would be a considerable time before marts could resume full activity.
Mr Tom Parlon, the IFA president, said yesterday it would be a good signal if those involved in importing sheep illegally were imprisoned.
The gardai and the Department of Agriculture had a lot of information on illegal activities and there was "massive anger out there in the farming community".
Any farmer who had any information on illegal importation of sheep or had contact with such sheep should offer this information to the authorities.
He praised the work being carried out by the State to keep the disease out, and the co-operation and support of the public. However, he would make no apologies for the restrictions because the stakes were so high.
Mr Parlon refused to be drawn into criticism of the British government's handling of the crisis. He said that now was a time for diplomacy and that "there was no suggestion we could cope better if we got the same level of infection".
The European Union should be held responsible for all direct and indirect losses suffered by the agri industry because it had dismantled frontier controls on farm movements, the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association said yesterday.
Mr Pat O'Rourke said he would be urging the Minister for Agriculture to seek a special EU fund to compensate farmers for losses already incurred.