Unsecured creditors of Irish Fertilizer Industries were told yesterday they they could expect to be paid little more than a quarter of the €60 million they are owed.

About 100 of the more than 2,000 creditors, who include the 700 workers at the three closed factories at Arklow, Cork and Belfast, attended the creditors' meeting in the Davenport Hotel in Dublin, where liquidator Mr Ray Jackson told them they could expect to be paid between 24 and 28 per cent of the monies owed to them when the company was wound up in December 2002.

Mr Jackson said all the assets of the company had been disposed of except the Arklow factory site, which he hoped would realise €4 million; the Cork factory (€15 million) and the farm holding attached to Cork (€1.7 million).

Terms have been agreed for the sale of the Cork factory, but the liquidator is awaiting acceptance documents from the purchaser to complete the sale. Two of the four offers for the Arklow site have been rejected by the liquidator, while negotiations are continuing with the other two.

Creditors were informed that the liquidation process was expected to be completed by October or November this year.

The liquidator told the creditors that he had been given legal advice that a claim by the Belfast workers to have their pension shortfall brought up to the legal requirement should be accepted as an unsecured claim in the liquidation process. Negotiations with the actuary were continuing regarding the £12 million figure.

Two late claims have been submitted on behalf of workers in the south but as yet neither has been accepted. One claim is for €5 million as an unsecured creditor and the second for €780,000 is as preferential creditor.