Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know with your morning coffee.

1. #CABINET MEETING: It might be a Bank Holiday, but today is little about holidays – and all about banks and marathons – for the cabinet. They’re taking part in intense cabinet meetings today and tomorrow, in Farmleigh where they hope to agree on the final scale of cuts coming in this year’s Budget.

Various ministers believe the cuts will total between €4.5bn and €5bn – but the Irish Times says the Department of Finance wants €6bn.

2. #MERGER?: Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews, meanwhile, has been using the long weekend to make some contemplations of his own – he has tweeted that he believes Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s poll showings suggest a merger of the parties seems a viable option.

“FG are not getting the traction in the polls because people see little difference between FF and FG,” he tweeted. “A merger makes sense to me.” He later added: “Civil war alignment is no longer relevant. Times have changed and body politic needs to change. My opinion – take it or leave it.”

3. #SHOOTING: A man has been hospitalised in west Dublin after a gangland-style shooting in Foxdene Park, Balgriffin last night. The victim was approached by a lone gunman at about 9:30pm, according to RTÉ, who fired five or six shots at him, striking him in the neck and chest.

He later underwent emergency surgery at Tallaght Hospital. Gardaí are investigating whether the attack is linked to that on the Corbally brothers in June.

4. #ROADS: Gardaí have begun an intensive search for the driver of a car which killed a 20-year-old woman in Gorey on Saturday night. Kelly Gregan had been leaving a nightclub when she was struck by a car, which had earlier been reported speeding, which was found burned out later in the night.

Meanwhile, the second man in the car that struck a wall on Ballygall Road East in Glasnevin has also died, bringing the death toll on the country’s roads this weekend to five.

5. #HELICOPTER CRASH: One of the three Englishmen killed in Saturday’s helicopter crash in the Mourne Mountains was a close friend of Princes Charles, William and Harry, it is claimed. Charlie Stisted was the chief executive of the Polo Guards Club, of which the three royals are members. Charles’ father and William and Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, is the president of the club.

Another passenger, Ian Woolrich, was also a member of the club – and was involved in the Titanic Quarter property company. Their helicopter was based in Surrey, RTÉ reported, and was on its way back there after refuelling in St Angelo airport in Enniskillen.

6. #WATER WATER EVERYWHERE: 1.3m people are drinking unsafe tap water, the Irish Independent claims. 290 treatment plants across the country need upgrading and are producing ‘safe’ water containing cryptosporidium, aluminium and e-coli.

7: #LEAVING CERT: Waterford IT is to introduce a “safety net” for students who fail honours Maths in the Leaving Cert, it is reported. WIT will introduce the system in tandem with its bonus CAO points for the higher level Maths course, offering a ‘second chance’ maths exam which the college will substitute for the maths requirement if students cannot manage a pass grade in the Leaving Cert proper.

The alternative scheme is seen as a slightly more integral option than that pursued by other colleges where an E grade is to be acknowledged as a passing one.

8: #DUBLIN MARATHON: Dublin’s Baltically cold streets will be taken over by 13,000 people of enviable courage today, with the 31st Dublin City Marathon beginning at Fitzwilliam Square this morning. The wheelchair race gets underway at 8:55am with the other athletes setting off at 9am.

Traffic restrictions are in place until Tuesday morning, so plan ahead if you need to drive within the city. There are just six DublinBikes stations out of action for the day, however.

9. #MISTER 15%: In a move that will shock few, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has questioned the role of agents in modern soccer. His comments come after Wayne Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford engineered a new pay deal for his client, boosting his earnings for the next five years by £23.4m – meaning Stretford’s own 15% cut stretches to over £3.5m.