The stipends available to a PhD student are actually very good, especially if you’ve come directly from the pasta & baked bean-eating life of an undergraduate.
Things must be better in Ireland than in the US with regard to grad student funding. Some of my friends get paid $1000/month as physics and engineering PhD students.
Sister's doing a PhD here (or there rather, from your POV). Back of the envelope calculation, she'd be earning roughly 10% more than the minimum wage if you view a PhD as a 36 hours/week job (I wouldn't).
Pretty sure that that's close to the norm for PhD pay though.
(Sorry, no hard figures to compare, due to a feeling that I shouldn't discuss someone else's financial situation candidly online, even if details probably just a google away).
Things must be better in Ireland than in the US with regard to grad student funding. Some of my friends get paid $1000/month as physics and engineering PhD students.