EACH WEEKDAY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you a comprehensive guide to what’s happening in the political world.

Everyone’s talking about… 

Sam Boal Sam Boal

Labour’s think-in is taking place in Wexford over the next two days with TDs and Senators discussing how to advance the party’s agenda in the forthcoming budget, or as TD John Lyons put it on Morning Ireland earlier, to demonstrate to supporters “that their vote for Labour last time was not in vain”.

A Red C poll at the weekend showed just a one per cent rise in support for Labour, hardly ‘The Burton Bounce’ that was evident in a B&A poll over the summer. It demonstrates that Tánaiste Joan Burton still has a lot of work to do to save her party from the type of result it got in the May elections.

What’s on the agenda today? 

• As well as Labour’s meeting, Fianna Fáil’s parliamentary party gathering is taking place in Roscommon with the party’s TDs and Senators to hear from Tom McDonnell from NERI and NUIG economist Alan Ahearne among others. Our own Daragh Brophy is there.
• Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe is due to meet senior gardaí today amid fresh penalty points claims.
• The funeral of Ian Paisley is taking place in Belfast today.
• The Dáil and Seanad are back on Wednesday. 

What the others are saying? 

• The pre-Budget leaks and kite-flying begins as the Irish Times reports on plans to for a ‘return-to-work dividend’ for parents. Joan Burton tells the paper it’s all about making work pay. (Page 1) 
• The Irish Independent has a big investigation on the nearly €12 million in pay-offs to councillors who lost their seats in the local elections with all of the councillors who got payments listed on ages 12 and 13. 

Inside the Fine Gael think-in… 

Much of what happened at the FG gathering in Fota Island last week revolved around Leo Varadkar and his apparent ‘scolding’ from Enda Kenny. Unperturbed, the Health Minister was in good spirits at the social gathering on Thursday evening. He was holding court until the small hours at the picturesque resort and even joined in the sing-song with a distinctly average (Soz, Leo) rendition of Tender by Blur which involved reading the lyrics off his phone.

"Is it Oasis or Blur for you then, Enda?" Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

In case you missed it… 

• The Scottish independence question will be answered by the end of the week and the polls show the race could not be closer.
  
• The Man Who Would Be Ming: Daragh Brophy has been speaking to Michael Fitzmaurice, a candidate for the Roscommon-South Leitrim by-election, who has the backing of new MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan.
• The Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe told us over the weekend that a loosening of the party whip system could be on the cards. Though not any time soon.

Our most popular story over the weekend was… 

Our (entirely unscientific) poll on Saturday asked you if there was an election tomorrow who would you vote for? The result is perhaps indicative of a party’s ability to get out the social media vote more than anything else.

Finally, on the Twitter machine…

We were wondering the same ourselves:

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