EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you five things you need to know before you head out the door…

1. #VANDALISM: Gardaí in Shannon are investigating an incident of criminal damage to a US military aircraft at Shannon Airport. Graffiti was sprayed on the plane at some time between Monday and Wednesday of this week.

2. #ARREARS: New data shows that more than one in ten mortgage holders are in arrears – and one in five are having difficulties making their monthly repayments. The data from Moody’s notes that “elevated unemployment levels” are helping to push more and more people into arrears.

3. #EMPLOYMENT: Jobs minister Richard Bruton has published plans to reform the Joint Labour Committee system, which was effectively ruled unconstitutional by the High Court earlier this year. The legislation will allow JLCs to set a basic adult rate of hourly pay for their particular sector, with two additional higher rates based on a person’s length of service and the skills involved in their jobs.

4. #RETAIL: Some good news pre-Christmas for Ireland’s retailers: stats from the CSO show that the volume of sales was up by 1.6 per cent in November, with the value of sales up by 1.1 per cent. The stats follow October’s figures which were the lowest in years.

5. #ENDA THE YEAR: Enda Kenny has delivered a Christmas message to the people of Ireland. In a two-minute video released this afternoon, Kenny says that though we live in “such extraordinarily difficult times”, Christmas is a time to think about things we are “thankful for” and “blessed to have in our lives”. Watch the full video here.