The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, will today chair what is being described as a "beef summit" in Dublin later today in an effort to create long-term stability in the beef industry.
The meeting comes as a response to a series of disputes within the industry, including protests from late September by members of the Irish Farmers Association who were demanding better prices for their cattle.
Today's meeting will open with a full run down on those international beef markets by the chief executive of An Bord Bia, Mr Michael Duffy.
He will outline the current state of the market and the long- and short-term outlooks for beef sales.
The Irish Farmers Association, which will be represented by Mr John Dillon, will argue that without a viable price for their cattle, there can be no beef industry.
Mr Walsh said this morning it was essential that key problems facing the beef industry were addressed at today's meeting.
"What I want to do is to have an in-depth consideration of the market outlet for the next five years and then to have a shared understanding of that between the producers and processors and to ultimately later on this evening agree on strategy options for the industry over the next five years."
The talks were made even more necessary when recent threats to the beef market, including the foot-and-mouth crisis and BSE, were considered.
"We have an important industry worth €1.5 billion and I believe the time is now right to look seriously at the market, because the market is the only place that is going to return a price to the producers and return a good economic value to the processors."