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

1. #KEVIN CARDIFF Ireland’s nominee to the European Court of Auditors and whose department signed off on accounts with a multi-billion euro error has faced questions from MEPs today who asked about his role in the Department of Finance at the time of Ireland’s financial collapse. Here’s what happened.

2. #BUDGET LEAKS The Taoiseach has said that Ireland had no choice but to distribute financial documents containing details of the government’s economic plans to Germany because it of the “constitutional requirement” of the German parliament. TheJournal.ie published extensively from the documents last week and you can now view them in full here.

3. #MURDOCH James Murdoch has stepped down from his role on the boards of all of News International’s British newspapers. He will remain chairman of News International’s European operations but his latest move comes as some surprise as the phone hacking scandal rumbles on with the inquiry it triggered hearing evidence from the family of Madeleine McCann today.

4. #EUROZONE As Germany experienced a disastrous bond auction today there is also growing concern over the cost of borrowing in Belgium where there hasn’t been a government for over a year.

5. #MAN FLU Man flu exists, it’s official although it’s actually called the common cold. Nonetheless it is there and its symptoms are not to be dismissed. A survey by Uniflu has found that 30 per cent of men have knowingly exaggerated their level of sickness as opposed to just 19 per cent of women but then they wouldn’t understand, as it’s a man flu thing…