The EU is to buy 12,285 tonnes of Irish beef into its Special Purchase Scheme over the next five weeks, the EU Beef Management Committee in Brussels has announced.
The Special Purchase Scheme was devised to take surplus cow and heifer beef off the market this year.
Factories have the option of destroying or storing the beef processed under the scheme, which is open-ended.
This replaced the Purchase for Destruction Scheme which removed 275,000 animals - both male and female - in the January to July period at a cost of £200 million to the Irish taxpayer and a further £200 million to the EU.
This was a market support system introduced following the collapse of international and the near-collapse of EU markets for beef when the latest BSE scare broke out in France in November.
The 90p per lb paid under this Purchase for Destruction Scheme has kept beef prices high until recent weeks, but as no third country markets reopened to Ireland and EU consumption remains weak, prices have started to slide.
However, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, expressed optimism this weekend that the Egyptian market, closed since December, may reopen after the visit of a high-level veterinary team from Cairo next week.