Student representative bodies have not been able to do enough for postgraduate students, according to a member of a new group for post-grads. Niall Dunphy, president of University of Limerick's Postgraduate Students' Association, was the chairman of the first meeting of the Irish Postgraduate Forum.

Dunphy said he had a great respect for students' unions and USI, but that those bodies had to look after the interests of the majority of their members first. "I have no problem speaking to them on issues like this but it is better to have a more focused group," he said.

"There is a feeling that some student unions don't understand the issues. Perhaps they don't want to understand, but they haven't been doing the job." At the inaugural meeting of the group in Limerick, most universities and major ITs were represented. It is hoped that more will attend the next meeting, hosted by Trinity Graduate Students' Union, in late February.

Dunphy says that the group will be headed by a steering committee representing all the colleges involved. It will be chaired by someone from the college hosting the event; any secretarial support will also come from the host college's union.

"We don't want to have any figureheads because once you have those, people can become more important than issues and it can get politicised." Apolitical post-grads have permitted rises in postgraduate fees, he says. The typical post-grad was the "sort of student who spent more time studying as an undergraduate".

Although the abolition of postgraduate fees is top of the group's wish list, Dunphy says, "it is not just about fees, it is a much wider thing than that. People are calling out for more postgraduate students, but if undergraduates are to be attracted we have to try to get postgraduates out of the poverty trap they are in."