"Substantial progress" has been made in behind-the-scenes talks to keep the Irish farm organisations inside the new partnership deal.
While the farming organisations publicly pulled out of the Sustaining Progress agreement, saying there was nothing in it for them, talks continued to find a solution to the impasse.
The acceptance by the employers' group, IBEC, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions of the new deal on Wednesday added new urgency to the negotiations, according to sources close to the talks.
However, the idea that the farmers had left it too late and would be locked out of the new deal is not correct.
The deal, though officially ratified by the other groups, does not become fully operable until next Tuesday week, when the first plenary session of the partners involved takes place.
"Substantial progress has been made in the last few days and there is a growing confidence that the farming organisations will be part of the new deal," a well-placed source said yesterday.
Those talks involve senior officials from the main farm organisations, top officials from the Department of Agriculture and Food and there is also an input from the Department of the Taoiseach.
The farm organisations had complained their sector had been severely hit in the last Budget.