The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, has demanded that the Irish beef factories increase the price they pay to farmers for beef following the deal worked out last week in Dublin.
The Minister, who had just returned from a farm ministers' meeting in Luxembourg, said he was very disappointed that cattle prices had not risen this week to 80p per lb.
Mr Walsh said he had worked hard for additional EU supports for the industry by having special intervention introduced for Ireland and increasing the upper weight limit for qualifying cattle.
"Since then there has been an additional increase in export refunds, and that should be, in my view, reflected in better prices to farmers for their cattle," he said.
He said the factories had agreed last week to stabilise prices and to increase them to 82p per lb very soon.
"I am demanding that they do that. I worked very hard at putting better arrangements in place and I did that in order to reflect better prices for cattle," he said.
While the factories had stopped the price free-fall, "what I am demanding now is that they reflect the new and better conditions put in place to the farming community. The big intervention tender that we arranged will take place on Tuesday week."
A spokesman for the Irish Meat Association, representing the factories, said last night that it had not promised to pay 80p from the beginning of this week but had promised to stabilise prices and move to 82p per lb within weeks.
The Irish Farmers' Association is planning to hold protest meetings at meat plants today. It may picket the head offices of Ireland's largest meat processor, Mr Larry Goodman, in Ardee, Co Louth.