The number of Bean an Tís has dropped by almost a third in the past five years.
Department of the Gaeltacht figures show 495 host families provided places for students to stay last year.
That's a 32% drop from 655 families in 2017.
The issue is examined in a documentary on TG4 tomorrow night.
Some of the reasons include the break for the lockdowns meant families moved away from hosting students.
Another included complicated cooking requests like vegan or vegetarian meals, which has been described as a 'new phenomenon' for them.
Dé Máirt 💻 pic.twitter.com/7OCU3DC1bZ
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Home Sick
Eilís is a Bean an Tí in Conemara, and says there's the odd issue, but the teenagers are great company:
"Typical teenage stuff really I suppose nothing that I haven't dealt with in my own family kind of thing."
"Nothing stands out."
"I mean you'd get students come into you and they might be homesick or never left home before so you're trying to coax them... and by the time that two weeks or three weeks are up there crying leaving you!"
