Children are often not up to an ideal standard of language proficiency after two years, says a report on primary schooling in Dublin 15, and this potentially impacts on their entire school-life and their future. Teachers from 25 schools surveyed also raised concerns about the lack of training language support teachers received before being sent into the classrooms.

Another major problem was the isolation and sense of failure immigrant children feel when they cannot keep up in class because of the language barrier. According to one teacher, some children "couldn't take it anymore".

Another teacher highlighted that bright children who were anxious to get on well in school often felt inhibited by their lack of language: "Some children get quite depressed because they can't interact. . . It really affects them."

The challenges for newcomer children without English increase depending on how old they are on arriving in Irish schools. One teacher recalls her sense of shock upon her first appointment to a school in Dublin 15: "I had worked in a Dublin school before and never had an issue with language, then I came to this school and I had a class of 27, where only four had English. I just couldn't believe it. I felt such pressure for those four children, never mind the ones who couldn't speak English."

The English Language Support Teachers Association has called for a dedicated department of support teachers to be established. The Sunday Tribune understands that there are cases of secondary school principals applying for English support grants from the Department of Education and putting the money elsewhere rather than in supporting newcomer students.