The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, yesterday rejected what he termed "untruthful comments" that he had tried to suppress or treat as secret the report which recommended that BSE-infected animals should not be buried.
In his first public comment since the controversy arose in Co Galway over the burial of a diseased carcass at the site of four group water schemes and 14 other wells, he said burial had never been the preferred option for disposal.
It had been used because there was no alternative means of disposal available to his Department. He went on to outline the conditions which attach to burial licences for BSE suspect animals.
"I completely reject the untruthful comments. I am on record in a press release issued on February 21st, and indeed subsequently, as having publicly welcomed publication of the report of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy [BSE] Scientific Advisory Committee," he said.
"We are entirely in agreement with the principle of the report's recommendation that burials should cease. The reality, however, is that there is no readily available alternative for disposal of these animals which would enable us to discontinue the practice of burial," he said.
"Incineration is one such option, but this is not currently available here and may itself be fraught with difficulties," he said, adding that the Department had been actively seeking to put in place arrangements to render rather than bury BSE suspect animals.
He said other options included gasification and freezing/storage, but such arrangements required the agreement of other agencies, and the Department had been working purposefully to try to secure such an agreement.
Figures giving the number of confirmed cases of BSE, county by county, show that Cork has had the highest number of burials since 1989.
As of January 1st last, there had been 72 cases there, followed by Cavan, 47; Monaghan, 42; Donegal, 29; Wexford, 29; Meath and Limerick, 28 each; and Tipperary, 23.
The remaining counties had fewer than 20 cases. They were Carlow, 12; Louth, 6; Longford, 8; Dublin, 2; Clare, 19; Wicklow, 7; Kildare, 7; Westmeath, 9; Waterford, 10; Galway, 19; Sligo, 5; Kilkenny, 10; Leitrim, 3; Laois, 5; Kerry, 8; Offaly, 4; Roscommon, 2, and Mayo 1.
That brings the total of confirmed cases to 435 at the beginning of this year. Since then there have been a further 104 confirmed cases.