Production at pig processing plants has resumed following an agreement between the Government and meat companies.
As pig meat returns to butcher and supermarket shelves, the European Commission is expected to announce €15m in aid for the Irish pork industry.
The aid will come in the form of a mechanism called aid for private storage
The APS mechanism allows producers to take products off the shelves for six months if there is still consumer resistance.
During the period, they will be paid under the scheme and at the end of six months the products will go back on the market for an agreed price.
Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the scheme would be paid for out of the EU budget.
'We need to take practical action to help support the Irish pork sector at this difficult time,' she said.
The agreement reached between the Government and pig processors will see a contingency fund of €180m set up to cover costs arising from the recall of pig meat.
After days of intensive negotiations, the deal was reached just before 1am this morning.
The ten farmers whose pigs were fed the contaminated meal will also be compensated for the slaughter of their animals.
Relief for farmers
Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who took part in the negotiations, said this morning that the agreement will be a great relief to hundreds of farmers and thousands of workers.
'I understand that some small-scale processing has already recommenced and... I hope that most of the large processors will be slaughtering some tomorrow afternoon,' Mr Cowen said.
'We are making a facility available of the order of €180m in terms of the product recall that is now taking place,' Mr Cowen said.
The agreement has also been welcomed by the Pig Processors and the Irish Farmers' Association.
Elsewhere, the Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister has said she is hoping to have an early meeting with her counterpart in the Republic to discuss better North/South communications following the alert over pork.
Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew said that 'with the benefit of hindsight there were always things that maybe could be handled better'.
She said she hoped to talk to the Minister for Agriculture and put some sort of early warning system in place so that both departments could communicate with each other if there were problems.
Employees set to return to work
Slaughtering of pigs has recommenced at the Rosderra Irish Meats factory in Edenderry.
The company's Managing Director, Jim Hanley, told RTÉ News that they intend to also restart slaughtering at the plant in Roscrea and recommence processing of pork and bacon products at both plants tomorrow.
SIPTU said that while some workers have already returned to their duties in Edenderry, it is now expected all 850 employees of Rosderra will return to work tomorrow morning.
Some workers at Dawn Pork and Bacon in Grannagh in South Kilkenny returned to work this morning.
A SIPTU spokesperson has said the meat processing factory hope to recommence slaughter this afternoon.
It Is hoped production will be fully back up an running by the weekend, with all workers returning to their jobs. Just over 250 people were temporarily laid off at the plant on Tuesday.
A spokesperson at Country Style Foods also in south Kilkenny has said they have been back in production since yesterday.
A planned protest at Leinster House by workers laid-off due to the contamination of feed has now been called off.
Meanwhile, Tanaiste Mary Coughlan told the Dáil that the Dept of Agriculture will be bringing in a supplementary estimate to cover the cost of the €180m contingency fund.
She also said there will be a full investigation into the matter.
She was responding to a question from Fine Gael's Richard Bruton who said a thorough investigation was needed given the fact that there was a multiple systems failure.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore welcomed last night's deal, but noted while the Government could find €180m for the fund, they could not provide €10m for the cervical cancer screening programme.
