EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you five things you should know before you head off for the evening.

1. #BACK IN THE GAME: Kevin Cardiff’s controversial nomination to the European Court of Auditors moved a step closer to being passed this evening after the largest group of MEPs in the European Parliament decided to vote in his favour. The European People’s Party – the grouping of which Fine Gael is a member – has voted to support Cardiff’s nomination when it is put to a plenary sitting of MEPs in the European Parliament in Strasbourg tomorrow.

2. #BANK GUARANTEE: Ulster Bank lost around €925 million in customer deposits in the four days after the Irish government introduced its bank guarantee scheme, according to a state-sponsored British report. Ulster Bank was not among the institutions guaranteed by the Irish state as it falls under the UK’s Financial Services Authority.

3. #FAMILIES: What does the average family in Ireland look like? A major new study by the ESRI and UCD has found that there has been a major decline in the traditional family unit of a married couple, with one in three families in Ireland now departing from this traditional model.

4. #CROKE PARK DEAL: The Croke Park deal on public sector pay could be renegotiated if the economy hits a further slump, Pat Rabbitte has said. The Communications Minister said the deal – which guaranteed no lay-offs of public servants in return for an agreement on increased flexibility – would be revisited if the current terms proved unworkable.

5. #TALLAFORNICATION: Almost a quarter of a million people tuned in to TV3′s new reality show Tallafornia last night. The show, which follows a group of young men and women living together for four weeks in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght, also trended worldwide on Twitter.