The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, has described as "tragically inadequate" facilities in Ireland to dispose of the growing mountain of meat-and-bonemeal.
Mr Walsh said his Department had received two applications for extensions to rendering facilities to dispose of this meal. He expects them to get the green light within three months.
"Ireland is the largest exporter of beef in the EU . . . but it is not possible to have a credible food industry if we have to export our waste," he said.
There are 50,000 tonnes of meat and bonemeal in storage in Ireland. An EU-wide ban on the feeding of meat and bonemeal to animals came into effect at the start of this year.
Mr Walsh was speaking at the opening of the 75th Green Week in Berlin, one of Germany's largest food fairs, with more than 1,500 exhibitors. The fair was opened by Germany's new Agriculture Minister, Ms Renate Kuenast of the Green Party.
She has the difficult task of restoring consumer confidence in German beef, shaken by the discovery last November of the first of 16 cases of BSE in cows of German origin.
She has proposed a new focus on ecological instead of industrial food-production methods and plans to introduce government-administered stamps of quality for food products to put consumers at ease.