A plan to send specified risk material (SRM) across the Border to Northern Ireland for incineration, is not being proceeded with as it is against EU Rules.
Yesterday, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, confirmed that his department has been conducting a "desperate" search to find an outlet for SRM which is building up at meat plants in the Republic.
"We made inquiries with the Northern Ireland authorities while looking for an outlet outside the Republic but my understanding is that there are legal problems about doing this," he said.
Mr Walsh, who was speaking to journalists at the Farm Machinery Show in the RDS, said while the slaughter of cattle for destruction was not his preferred choice of control, there was currently no alternative.
"The scheme had a slow start but there is now the capacity to slaughter 20,000 animals a week. I believe that the destruction scheme will be a feature of the industry for a number of months," he said.
Mr Walsh also confirmed he was opposed to the slaughter of calves which might be put forward later this month as a possible solution to the build-up of beef stocks in Europe.
He said that EU officials were putting forward the theory that it was much more efficient to kill a young animal rather than rear and feed an animal to adulthood and then slaughter it.