Ireland has joined 11 other EU member states in seeking a subsidy to offset the impact of avian flu which has led to a 10 per cent drop in demand for poultry.
The Department of Agriculture has submitted a "poultry plan" to the European Commission which has agreed to underwrite half of a bill expected to cost millions of euro to restore consumer confidence in poultry.
The Irish plan will be adjudicated on at the next EU poultry management committee meeting in Brussels on June 21st.
The Irish submission contains a range of measures to bring the market back into balance, including a package which will encourage breeders and hatcheries to reduce volumes of hatching eggs or breeding stock.
It has also suggested a scheme for growers and processors to reduce the time it takes to go through the process and a storage scheme which would involve poultry being taken off the market and stored until markets improve.
The department is also seeking EU support for a poultry promotion campaign, possibly in the autumn, depending on developments.
Earlier this week, EU Commissioner for Agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel confirmed that Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and the Czech Republic had now submitted plans. Italy and the Netherlands were expected to submit their requests soon.
"We will now look into these notifications to see whether the measures chosen by member states are acceptable," she said.
The commissioner ruled out funding a storage scheme or donating poultry as food aid.