The ten staff members at Irish language newspaper Lá Nua have been given redundancy notices, and the tabloid is expected to close at the end of the month.

At the same time, plans to launch a Welsh-language daily, Y Byd, were abandoned last week. Closure of both papers is due to inadequate funding, management for both papers have said.

UK Heritage Minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas praised Lá Nua earlier this month, holding it up as an example for establishing the Welsh-language paper, the Western Mail reported Wednesday.

“We need £100,000 to carry on printing to the end of the year. This is because of a shortfall in advertising revenue due, in the main, to a ban on advertising in the Irish language by the Northern Ireland Executive,” Lá Nua Editor Conchubhar O' Liatháin told the Western Mail.

O' Liatháin said funding for the tabloid from cross-border Irish-language promotion agency Foras na Gaeilge was “£200,000 per year in a contract which began on December 1, 2006, and was scheduled to end on December 31, 2008.”

Lá Nua announced at the beginning of the month it would stop publishing print editions, and switch to online publishing only, as Belfast Media Group, which publishes the paper, could not absorb losses from the print side.

The tabloid newspaper has offices in Belfast, Gweedore, in County Donegal and Cúil Aodha, in County Cork. Belfast Media Group has a 50 percent stake in the newspaper, and Irish language groups and enthusiasts own the other half, the Sunday Business Post reported Feb. 10.

The team planning to launch Welsh-language Y Byd said that it is “absolutely clear to the Government that an annual grant of as little as £200,000 would be insufficient to establish a Welsh-language daily newspaper,” according to the Western Mail.