IFI exposure to its banks was in the order of €40 million or more. According to the company's financial statements for the year to September 2000, it owed some €51.12 million in unsecured overdrafts and loans.

Irish Fertiliser Industries (IFI) owes its banks and suppliers more than €50 million, a creditors' meeting in Dublin will be told today.

Mr Ray Jackson of KPMG is expected to be appointed as liquidator to the company, which closed last month after the company's shareholders refused to inject further funds being sought by management.

The company is 51 per cent owned by the State and the remainder is held by the British chemical multinational ICI.

Bord Gáis is owed some €6 million for gas supplied to the company's plants.

CIÉ is also a creditor. The State transport group is owed more than €600,000 for rail freight services.

A number of haulage companies are also on the list of creditors. Certain hauliers dealt exclusively with the fertiliser company so the continuation of their businesses is uncertain after the closure of IFI.

The Revenue Commissioners may also be owed money by IFI. The statement of affairs, to be published this morning at the meeting in Leopardstown, south Dublin, is expected to show a deficit between the valuation put on the company's assets and the sums it owes to creditors.

However, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, said last month that she hoped enough money would be raised in the liquidation to meet the company's liabilities.

About 620 workers lost their jobs when the Government decided not to support the company.

A worker director at the company, Mr Stephen O'Riordan, yesterday threatened "the mother of all battles" to secure an enhanced severance package from the company.

About 150 workers protested yesterday at ICI's headquarters in London, stating that the package of €24.5 million in redundancy payments, worth an average of €50,000 to each worker, falls well short of what they require.

The State is paying almost €12.5 million to fund the package, with the other €12 million to be paid by ICI.

But while representatives of the staff held a meeting with ICI management during the protest, they were told not "to get their hopes up" for an improved package.

ICI is to report back to them within a week.

Mr O'Riordan said staff had left ICI in no doubt about their determination to fight for a better severance deal.

He said: "It was a very, very tough meeting. We made it quite clear that, as far as we were concerned, it was the shareholders who had created this mess and it was up to them to clear it up."

Workers were looking for 5.5 weeks pay per year of service, in addition to statutory redundancy but the equivalent of between two and 2.5 weeks per year is currently available.