A Government delegation will fly to Cairo today in a desperate attempt to save the most important market for the Irish beef industry. It is currently worth more than £200 million a year.
This follows a decision by Egypt to ban Irish beef as renewed BSE panic hit Europe.
News of the temporary suspension of EU beef imports has plunged the Irish beef industry into turmoil. Egypt is Ireland's largest single market for export sales, currently worth £1.2 billion a year.
The latest BSE scare currently gripping mainland Europe has effectively locked Ireland out of premium EU markets as well.
Mr Tom Parlon, president of the Irish Farmers' Association, said that BSE had now escalated into a Europe-wide problem, "the likes of which the Union has not previously encountered".
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, had agreed to speak to President Hosni Mubarak to reassure him of the quality of Irish beef.
He confirmed that he will also travel to Cairo next week following the EU agriculture ministers' meeting in Brussels. The ministers will attempt to agree strict controls proposed by the European Commission.
The controls being introduced in an effort to calm growing consumer concerns include a temporary EU-wide ban on the feeding of meat and bonemeal to all farm animals; BSE testing on all cattle over 30 months; or a cull similar to that introduced in Britain in 1996 for 30-month old animals which have not been tested, a "purchase for destruction" scheme.
It is estimated that the package may cost up to £3 billion to implement and cut 10 per cent of the EU's cattle herds out of the food-supply chain. Sales have crashed in France, Spain and Germany as the number of confirmed cases has risen there in recent weeks.
Ireland slaughters almost two million of its 7.5 million cattle annually, and an estimated 750,000 of these would be aged 30 months or over. The farm organisations said it would not be necessary to purchase these for destruction, if Enfer testing for BSE in carcasses was introduced as planned.
The Egyptian ban was described by the farm organisations as unjustified. They claimed Ireland had been caught in a crossfire created in Germany and France, which did not have the same controls as this State.
Mr Parlon said the 100,000 Irish beef farmers could be wiped out by the latest crisis unless intervention was opened and premium compensation paid to livestock farmers.
The EU ban came as it was learned that Ireland has had 20 cases of BSE in three weeks, the highest ever number in such a period. This has pushed the total number to 124 so far this year.
The measures announced by the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, are to be considered by agriculture and health ministers on Monday and are due to come into force in January, initially for six months.
In Brussels yesterday Mr Byrne denied that his proposal was a response to the panic over BSE which has caused beef sales in Europe to fall by as much as 25 per cent.
He declared: "I believe this shows leadership. It draws on the best scientific advice. It is a confidence-building measure. Our inspiration is that memberstates did not have full confidence in their own controls."
Some member-states have imposed unilateral bans on French beef imports following a sharp rise in BSE cases in France. Mr Byrne said that if the new measures were approved by the ministers, he expected import bans to be dropped.
He acknowledged that most EU member-states would not be in a position to test all older cattle for BSE until the middle of next year. Earlier this month he had called for a massive expansion of the testing programme.
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The EU Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, said that, as BSE had been discovered in a growing number of member-states, a co-ordinated response was essential.
"BSE is an EU-wide problem which requires EU-wide answers. Firm action is required. We have to restore consumer confidence," he said.
Mr David Byrne, the EU Commissioner for health and consumer protection, giving a press conference on the BSE situation in Brussels yesterday. Photograph: Thierry Roge/Reuters