The 407 workers at the Ispat plant in Cork, who are fighting for better redundancy terms, have been told by the liquidator, Mr Ray Jackson, that he is seeking to sell the plant as a going concern on the international market.
Mr Jackson has said the workers' statutory entitlements may be paid out within two weeks.
Representatives of the employees at the Haulbowline plant, which was wound up at a creditors' meeting last week, want the Government to take action to improve the deal which the workers have been offered.
For employees under 41 years of age, it will mean £200 for each year worked, while employees over that age will receive a maximum of £400 for each year worked.
The workers want the Government to make a public statement on whether Ispat, under the terms of the sale agreement in 1996, invested £20 million as required over a six-year period.
The workers want to know what procedures the Government used to monitor the agreement to ensure compliance by the Indian-owned company.
Of crucial importance to the availability of funds for redundancy purposes is whether the company is entitled to claim that more than £20 million which it says was invested in the plant was a loan from the parent company, Ispat International.
By calling it a loan rather than an investment, Ispat International is entitled to take its place in the queue of unsecured creditors. The workers claim this raises fundamental questions.
They feel the Government washed its hands of the former Irish Steel plant when it sold the State shareholding to Ispat for £1, wrote off an old State loan to Irish Steel of £17 million and invested over £20 million in the plant.
If the intention was to secure a future for the Irish Steel workforce under Ispat, strict monitoring of the agreement by the Government would have ensured a significant plant upgrading and the introduction of remedial environmental measures. Instead, the plant, according to Mandate shop steward Mr Denis O'Halloran, was "patched up as they went along".
The 407 workers are suspicious that the level of investment claimed by Ispat was never made and have called on Mr Jackson, of KPMG, to investigate the statement of affairs presented to last week's creditors' meeting by the company.
The stories of five Ispat workers who found themselves on the dole are fairly representative.
Mr Michael Gillie, a father of five, was earning up to £40,000 annually. His family have now to cope on £150 a week. One of the longer-serving employees at the plant, he reckons his statutory entitlements amount to no more than £9,500.
Mr Gillie joined Irish Steel as an apprentice electrician when he was 16 and has remained there since. He said some workers heard the news of the closure directly from management while others and their families found out from radio bulletins. That was a disgrace.
After 29 years of service, Mr Denis O'Halloran, a production foreman, will get about £8,500. As an employee and trade union official, he believes they were treated with contempt.
"I heard it less than half-an-hour before the plant closed. When I phoned home my wife already knew about it. She had heard it on the street.
"This company should not just be allowed to walk away. The Government made a deal with Ispat and it wasn't honoured, definitely not in terms of its part of the investment programme. And now they are claiming what money was put in was a loan from the parent company and they want it back. It is outrageous and they shouldn't be allowed get away with it.
"If the parent company is involved in this then its huge resources should be used to ensure the Cork workers are given decent redundancy terms," Mr O'Halloran said.
Mr Arthur Cambridge was a steelworker for 23 years. He has six children between 13 months and 20 years. His wife, Vera, suffered a stroke last year. His take-home pay has dropped from more than £340 a week to £111 on social welfare.
The household has a further £111 coming in because of his wife's disability. He expects his lump sum payment to be in the region of £5,200, which will be used to pay debts, including money owed on a car which is "an absolute necessity," since his wife's illness.
Like his colleagues, he said the company's method of announcing the closure was ill-advised and showed little compassion for the feelings of the many families affected by it.
Production manager Mr Fionnan Kerrigan was an Ispat employee for 15 years. The youngest of his four children is six months, the eldest 13 years. A year ago the family moved into a new home.
The most vital thing now, he said, is for the redundancy terms to be improved so that the workers and their families will at least have a chance of getting by while the options are being considered.
The most galling aspect of the closure, he added, was that prior to Ispat taking over, workers who took a redundancy package received £1,200 per year of service and when Ispat later called for further redundancies this was increased to £1,250.
"We should demand at least the same terms from this multinational company," Mr Kerrigan said. As things stand, he will receive a cheque for £3,400.
The closure forced Mr Liam Gilley, an electrician with three children, to cancel his family holiday and lose a booking deposit of £160. He expects to get a redundancy cheque of £3,000.
While workers are waiting to hear their fate, creditors owed more than £14 million are just as anxious to hear theirs.
For many small firms, like Cork Truck Services, £110,000-plus is a lot of money. Mr Pat Ferriter, a director of the company which employs 30 staff, was hoping lay-offs could be avoided. He believes strongly that Ispat International should not be allowed to call its investment in the Cork plant a loan and thinks creditors will be lucky to get between 5p and 10p in the pound.
Avonmore Electrical Rewinds, of Mallow, Co Cork, with 70 employees, is owed £56,000. How much will be recovered eventually is an unknown at this stage, said Mr Charlie Drake, credit controller. Ispat paid his company one cheque on the week of the closure but warned of a cash-flow problem and asked him not to lodge it. When he did he found the cheque to be useless.
Munster Metal Company Ltd, in Limerick, is listed in the Ispat statement of affairs for £190,000 but the final amount will be less than that, according to managing director Mr Malcolm Clein. Now that Ispat is closed, his company must look immediately to foreign markets. "Right now, we're trying to readjust but we don't know where we stand as of yet. One thing is certain though, if the Ispat claim was off the creditors' list, we'd all do better. There are major questions about the Ispat loan."