A test which will allow Irish meat exporters to market beef as "tested BSE free" could bring an end to the expensive slaughter-out policy introduced here in 1989.
The slaughtering of all animals on farms where BSE has been found has been a huge and costly public relations exercise which has no foundation in science as the disease cannot be transmitted from cow to cow, nor maternally.
Since the first case was detected in the Republic in 1989, £55 million has been spent on the slaughter of 67,000 healthy animals, £45 million on compensation to farmers, and £10 million on disposing and storing the remains.
The scheme has, however, underpinned Ireland's strict controls on the disease and has allowed us to export our beef to many markets despite the fact that we cannot claim the national herd is free of the disease.
The slaughter-out policy has been the foundation of a large range of controls which have allowed Ireland to sell over £1 billion worth of beef abroad in very difficult circumstances.
The ban on feeding bovines meat-and-bone meal has been in place since 1989, and those feeding regulations have been intensified over the past decade.
There are now dedicated mills for the assembly of meat and bone-meal for pigs and poultry. Farmers involved in feeding pigs and poultry must get a licence.
There is also an inspectorate to cover both the farms and the millers.
In addition, all so-called specified risk material, - parts of animals in which BSE could occur, like the brain, spinal cord and other material - is removed from cattle and sheep and rendered at a designated plant in Cavan, and is not used in meat-and-bone meal production.
In addition, all animals in meat plants and abattoirs are slaughtered under veterinary supervision and are individually checked for BSE and other diseases.
As all Irish animals are now listed on computer, the authorities are able to check where they came from and their movements through to slaughter.
The full range of checks have been in operation since 1996; that is why the authorities expect a fall-off in BSE numbers from this year as, in theory, it should have been impossible for an animal under four years old to have been fed contaminated product.