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

1. #PENALTY POINTS United Left Alliance TDs Clare Daly and Joan Collins have named one of two judges who have allegedly had penalty points on their driver’s licenses terminated. Gardaí have confirmed they are investigating these claims. Deputy Daly said in the Dáil today that gardaí who blew the whistle on points being terminated inappropriately were being “victimised”.

2. #OCCUPY Independent TD Mattie McGrath and five other people are occupying the headquarters of the Friends First financial company in Loughlinstown, Dublin. They are protesting at the outcome of a meeting with senior figures at the firm over an attempted repossession of a tractor from a family farm in Co Wexford.

3. #NORTHERN IRELAND The PSNI has arrested three people in connection with violence in Belfast city centre last night over a vote to remove the Union flag from the City Hall for most of the year. It said that there is “no excuse for vandalism and thuggery” and that “this is not the imagery that Belfast needs at a time when economic conditions are so difficult”.

4. #TRAGEDY Three teenagers aged 15 and 16 years old are to be charged over the death of assistant referee Richard Nieuwenhuizen yesterday. The 41-year-old died from injuries he received during a violent incident following a football match on Sunday. FIFA President Sepp Blatter was among those who expressed his sympathies over the tragic death.

5. #BOOTLESS A homeless man who was given boots by an NYPD officer was seen over the weekend wandering barefoot. A photo of Jeffrey Hillman being gifted with the boots by Officer Lawrence DePrimo went viral. But new reports say that Hillman has hidden them away because he “could lose his life” for wearing them.