Ireland's free-range poultry need not be housed compulsorily at this time, the expert group set up to advise the Department of Agriculture on avian flu said yesterday.
The department also announced a new lo-call number on which the public can report dead wildfowl. There have been complaints from the public about delays and lack of action on this issue in recent days.
Minister for Health Mary Harney will travel to Vienna today to discuss bird flu with her EU counterparts.
France and the Netherlands were yesterday given the go-ahead at an EU meeting in Brussels to vaccinate poultry flocks against bird flu - despite continuing doubts across Europe about whether inoculation works.
There is no specific vaccine against the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus now spreading across the EU, and vaccination shuts down export markets for affected commercial poultry.
But the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health - which comprises national veterinary experts from the 25 member states - approved the French and Dutch requests to try a strategy of "preventive vaccination".
One senior European Commission animal health expert said the move amounted to launching a "pilot project" on the value of vaccination.
The plan was approved just as Austria reported the first cases in the EU of the H5N1 virus in the poultry population.
Until now all outbreaks have been in wild swans or ducks.
But the significance of the Austrian find was played down because the two chickens and three ducks infected had been in close contact with an infected wild swan at a closed animal sanctuary, and there was no risk to the wider commercial poultry population.
Slovakia, Greece, France, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Germany have now all confirmed outbreaks of bird flu - mostly the worst H5N1 strain.
Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea has called a meeting of the inter-departmental working group on emergency planning for early next week to consider the threat.
A statement issued on behalf of Ms Coughlan following the first meeting of the Irish expert group yesterday said she was advised that free-range poultry need not be housed compulsorily at this time.
The Minister announced a further enhancement of her department's helpline facility - a new 24-hour lo-call number, 1890 252 283, has been opened.
The department said it would in future limit collection of dead wild birds to species most likely to carry the H5N1 virus.
Dead swans collected by the department in Waterford and Bundoran, Co Donegal, are being tested for the disease in Dublin.
So far scientists have examined over 650 dead wild birds since last July. All tested negative.