Local authorities will be informed where BSE-infected animals have been buried if they require such information, the Department of Agriculture has said.
The announcement came following the concession by the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, on Wednesday that the burial of BSE suspect animals would end. In future, the carcasses would be frozen and retained.
The issue was highlighted when locals dug up the carcass of a BSE-infected cow from a pit on a farm in Loughrea, Co Galway after they discovered the pit was near the source of four groupwater supply schemes and a number of private wells.
The carcass was left outside the farmer's home. Complaints to Galway County Council brought the issue to public notice.
Mr Walsh stressed that the freezing of suspect animals was an interim measure until an alternative method of disposal could be found. He was highly critical of what he termed "alarmist statements" about the safety of water supplies.
The Department was prepared to tell any local authority that wanted to know the location of all BSE burials, a spokesman said yesterday.
He said this was in line with the Minister's statement that the Department had been open about the need to bury animals and about the methods used to dispose of them.
The National Federation of Group Water Schemes, which had called for the ending of the practice of burying BSE animals, yesterday welcomed the Minister's announcement, and said it would urge local authorities to seek and remove BSE carcasses.
The Western Zoonoses Committee, at a meeting in the Western Health Board Headquarters in Galway yesterday, also welcomed Mr Walsh's decision. The committee was established at the request of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
Members of the committee, which includes professionals in the areas of health, food and microbiology, discussed issues surrounding BSE.
UCD's Prof Paul McNulty, who has been involved in research on the disposal of BSE animals and on so-called Specified Risk Material from animals, favoured incineration as the safest option.
If properly run, such a system should present no threat to public health, he said.