A Fine Gael minister is playing down reports of disagreement within the party on when a general election should take place.

The government are mandated to go to the people in April of 2016 - but some senior figures in the party are said to want to bring forward that date to as early as October next year.

As of today, some senior staff have taken up positions working solely on campaign strategy rather than day-to-day operations.

The Children's Minister James Reilly will chair one of the strategic committees.

And he says although Fine Gael are making the necessary preparations for an election, he does not anticipate one being called any earlier than 2016.

Meanwhile, Labour would fall to five seats in the next Dáil - according to an analysis of the latest opinion poll.

The same analysis shows Fine Gael would be bigger than Sinn Féin, despite the same level of support.

But the analysis by Adrian Kavanagh of Maynooth University suggests Fine Gael would still lose over 30 seats compared to the last election.

He says the figures show a coalition of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil may be likely.