The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is returning early from the EU summit in Stockholm to chair a meeting of the Foot-and-Mouth Task Force at noon today.
The meeting takes place as the slaughter continues of all livestock in a three-kilometre zone around the Republic's first outbreak of the disease.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, denied yesterday that the movement of slaughtered animals out of the exclusion zone could spread the disease.
He said the Department planned on having slaughtered all the animals within a one kilometre zone by late last night. Work would continue over the weekend on slaughtering 13,500 sheep and 3,000 cattle.
The Department, he said, was working on providing the certification necessary to trade the expert group examining the extent of controls was continuing its deliberations. He refused to be drawn into criticism of the British authority's handling of the crisis.
Mr Walsh said as far as he was aware, there were no suspect cases of foot-and-mouth disease within the Republic or any cases they were worried about.
Prof Michael Monaghan, who chairs the Expert Group on the controls which should be taken for various events and activities, said the committee was now looking at "risk management rather than risk assessment".
Although no sporting or other activities would be allowed in Co Louth, the committee was attempting to assess the risks from other activities which were creating difficulties. One of these, he said, was whether or not the artificial insemination service should be allowed resume.
Asked about the possible resumption of horse racing, Mr Walsh said he had said nothing about the matter but it had been categorised by the expert committee as a high-risk activity.
The Department yesterday announced there had been three cases of BSE confirmed last week and for the first time, two of these cases had been found in one herd - on a dairy farm in Co Cavan. The third case was in a nine-year-old dairy cow in Co Cork.
These bring to 42 the number of cases found this year and to 638 the number of cases found here since the disease was first identified in 1989. Since January 2nd last, 59,914 animals over 30 months of age have been tested for the disease at meat plants and all the tests have been negative.