EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you five things you should know before you head out the door.

1. #HOUSING: The government is to make €10 million available for repairs to pyrite-damaged homes.

2. #BUDGET 2014: The dissection of Budget 2014 continued today, culminating in angry exchanges in the Dáil. “You’re an embarrassment on television!” the Ceann Comhairle eventually told the chamber full of deputies.

3. #POST: Got mail to send to the UK? Do it before Royal Mail staff go on strike on 4 November.

4. #OPEN FOR BUSINESS: The US Senate has finally reached an agreement to reopen government and end the fiscal impasse…just hours before the nation’s debt ceiling was hit, reports Politico.

5. #SMOKING: The Irish Cancer Society has released a powerful video, hoping it will prove that non-branded cigarette packets will discourage children from smoking. Sitting around a school table, a number of third class pupils ask simple questions, including: “Why do people do it? Like, and why do they make smokes in the first place?”