Three political parties are holding meetings today ahead of the new Dáil term commencing next Wednesday.
Fine Gael TDs, senators and MEPs have gathered in Limerick, Sinn Féin are meeting in Dublin, while the Green Party meets in Tramore, Co Waterford.
Policy and strategy are on the agenda for political parties who are spending today finetuning their message just days out from the new Dáil term.
Fine Gael representatives are focusing on the cost of living and examining ways to protect what it describes as the "squeezed middle".
Helping businesses to keep costs down and formulating a tax package that keeps more money in workers' pockets has also been discussed.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Budget was high on the agenda at the party think-in.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme, he said they want to ensure people do not have to pay as much tax and are "allowed to keep more of their hard-earned money".
He said there will be a welfare package also as they need to increase pensions and weekly payments for carers and those with disabilities.
He defended what the Government is doing around housing saying they are building "a lot more".
"I think the only way that we can get on top of the housing crisis is increasing supply," he said, adding that they are seeing real progress on that.
Separately, Mr Varadkar said because of good decisions made in recent years the Government is going to have substantial surpluses.
"And we are not going to spend them all. We could but we are not going to," he said.
He said a large part will be used to pay down debt and be set aside for future pension liabilities and future infrastructure costs.
Sinn Féin 'will talk to everybody' after general election
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has told her party that the longer Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil stay in Government, the worse things get in areas like housing, health and the cost of living.
She said that the focus for the party is to elect enough TDs to form the next Government which can deliver real change.
Northern Ireland First Minister Designate Michelle O'Neill is attending today's meeting.
Speaking on the same programme, Ms McDonald said the best outcome after the next general election will be a Government without Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, but she said she "will talk to everybody".
She said she will respect the democratic verdict of the people when they go to the polls and that a Sinn Féin programme for government would centre on social progress.
Ms McDonald said the issue of housing has touched every corner of Irish life and it is a "real" problem in terms of recruiting and retaining staff across the Irish economy.
She said that getting responsibility for the housing portfolio would be a "red line" issue if her party was to enter a coalition after the next election.
"We want to affect change across all of Government... but for us housing is absolutely core," Ms McDonald said, adding that her ambition was to see a drop in homelessness figures "very quickly" after taking office.
She said her stint in hospital during the summer confirmed the need for further investment and for workforce planning in the health system and also other areas like education adding that she spoke to younger people in the hospital who are considering options abroad.
Budget 2024 must be 'socially progressive' - Green Party
Meanwhile, the Green Party is putting election strategy centre stage at its gathering in Tramore.
The party contends that it has been the most effective junior Government party in the history of the State and it will bring this message to the electorate in the local and European elections next year.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said it is important to get a balance with the budget as he highlighted how it must continue to be "socially progressive" to protect people.
He said it was about ensuring that those on low incomes were protected most and also about addressing climate change as he described weather systems "spiralling out of control" and seeing tens of thousands of people dying as a result.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has set a target of 100 council seats in the local elections next year.
Speaking in Tramore, he said that would represent a doubling of their current representation.
He said while it is "madly ambitious" if the party is asking people to make the scale of changes we need to make on climate "it is right for us to ask that scale of ambition of ourselves".
He said he also wants a similar doubling of the party's Dáil seats in the next General Election.
Mr Ryan said that despite the party’s poor showing in the polls "we've never been more needed, the very thing we have been warning about for 40 years is now unfolding before us".
He said: "We have over 100 candidates already selected; we’d like 170 odd candidates running in the local elections. I'm confident that we’ve got a message to say keep going green, because this is the future.
"If you just focus purely on polls, it’s chasing the shadow the entire time, and our job is to deliver in Government."
Speaking earlier to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said that his party's focus was on radical transformation and the Government was changing the quality of life and improving it while protecting the environment also.
He said in a broader sense the Government was focused on a wide range of measures including ensuring better road safety and better public transport being implemented and "a better environment" in the centre of Dublin.
Mr Ryan acknowledged that energy prices were still high and the Government were keeping a close eye on those in debt difficulty.
"We will have to introduce some further measures," he said, referring to the high gas prices.
However, he noted that the recent reductions in both electricity and gas by suppliers is "timely as we go back into the winter".
Additional reporting David Murphy
