Summer schools in the Gaeltacht are cracking down on students breaking strict "no-English" rules by using mobile phones to speak in English and to send text messages to their parents and friends.
Many schools now insist that students give up their telephones after 10 p.m.
According to Mr Gearóid Ó Brosnacháin, chairman of Comhchoiste Náisiúnta na gColáistí Samhraidh (CONCOS), a group representing many of the schools, the prevalence of mobile phones among students was an "increasing problem".
He said, "There is no doubt that they are making the jobs of Gaeltachts more difficult."
He said that the possibility of banning the phones entirely had been considered but the organisation acknowledged the right of parents to talk to their children if they so wished.
"I think as long as parents want to have access to their children, and to know they are safe, it is very hard to ban them. This is the age we live in. We have to allow parents access to their children whether this is in Irish or English."
Gaeltacht summer schools which aim to immerse students in the Irish language are seen as an invaluable way of helping children to develop an interest in Irish, and to perform well in both Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate Irish exams.
On texting, Mr Ó Brosnacháin said: "We would hope that kids would send back messages in Irish but we wouldn't be standing over them."
Mr Pádraig Firtear, director of Coláiste Chorca Dhuibhne, which runs Irish summer courses in the West Kerry Gaeltacht, said in his experience, a lot of parents spoke in Irish when they telephoned their children.
Camera phones are banned at colleges.