EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of the day’s main news – plus any bits and pieces you may have missed:

In today’s Budget news…

• On the first day of Budget 2012 Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin outlined €2.2billion in cuts to public expenditure. You can catch up on his speech in full here, along with ministers’ in-depth breakdown of the cuts.
• The main points included a reduction in child benefit, an increase in the student registration fee, and garda station closures. We’ve got a rundown of the key points here.
• TheJournal.ie has been looking at the first day of the Budget in numbers – and in pictures.
• Throughout the day, we’ve also been tracking your reactions to the revelations on Twitter. And as the dust settles, we’re asking you to tell us: What do you think of the Budget so far?

In the rest of the day’s news…

• The EU waited eagerly for the results of a key meeting between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, after which the pair announced that a “tougher” EU treaty was now a necessity. Such a treaty would, of course, require a referendum in Ireland…
• There was good news for Ryan Tubridy after it emerged that Friday’s Late Late Toy Show was the most popular TV programme in Ireland for 17 years – drawing an incredible 1.4million viewers.

Customers choose Christmas decorations at a wholesale market in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, China – which claims to be the Christmas ornament capital of the world. Sales are up 10 per cent this year. (Zhang jiancheng/AP/Press Association Images)

• But bad news for independent TD Mick Wallace, who was fined €7,000 by a court for failing to pay pension contributions for employees of his construction company on time.
• A group of students occupied the constituency office of Fine Gael’s Eoghan Murphy in Ranelagh, south Dublin, calling for an end to fee increases and grant cuts.
• Ryanair announced that its passenger numbers fell significantly last month against November 2010 – but said it had predicted the drop.
• Missing Dublin teenager Darren Sherlock has been found safe and well today. The 15-year-old had disappeared from Santry in north Dublin.
• In what was surely among the most expensive car crashes ever, no fewer than 11 luxury motors – including eight Ferraris and a Lamborghini – collided on a road in Japan.
• We’ve been tackling the real issues on Budget day, by asking: Do you brush your teeth before or after breakfast?
• And finally, remember the Animals’ classic Sixties hit House of the Rising Sun? Well here it is as you’ve never heard it before – performed by assorted pieces of antiquated computer equipment…

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