Postgrad University of Galway students lobby for pay structure reforms at 2026 AMLÉ Comhdháil

Two University of Galway students spoke in favour of motions that seek to reform pay structures for postgraduates during the first day of the 2026 Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (AMLÉ) Comhdháil.

The motions, proposed by AMLÉ’s Postgraduate Affairs Committee, centred on the issues of minimum salaries for doctoral researchers and career frameworks for postgraduates, respectively.

Daniel McGonigle, a PhD researcher in translational biomedical science and former Postgraduate Taught Officer for Comhaltas na Mac Léinn, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe (CMLOG), spearheaded a motion on the Establishment of a Minimum Salary Benchmark for Irish Doctoral Candidates.

The motion addresses the issue of PhD stipends, the highest of which currently stands at €25,000, but that rate only applies to around 30% of doctoral candidates.

Passed by a stark majority of the congress, it now mandates AMLÉ to advocate and campaign for a minimum salary expectation to be adopted by other postgraduate organisations.

Eoghan O’Mahony, a master’s student of civil engineering, spoke on a motion entitled Establishment of a Coherent Research Career Framework for Ireland, which passed unanimously.

“As researchers in Ireland, including master’s [students] and taught [students], we do not have a clear framework over what our pay is, what our hour rates are,” Mr O’Mahony told SIN. “It’s down to the whims, down to the whimsy, of the department to establish what we’re actually entitled to.

“I spoke yesterday to back this coherent framework so that students will know, going into their research careers, what they’re entitled to and what they will get, as is the case on the continent but not the case in Ireland.”

Mr O’Mahony believes that postgraduate staff within CMLOG is necessary to see similar reforms implemented in University of Galway.

“The Postgraduate Research Officer and Postgraduate Taught in Comhaltas na Mac Léinn, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, will have to push for all departments and all faculties within the university to recognise that there is a push for this coherent framework […] We need the Union [CMLOG] to push on this mandate, as it was passed by AMLÉ, and make sure that students feel the benefits.”