Detectives are continuing to question two men today over the discovery of a suspected major dissident republican bomb-making operation in Co Louth.
The pair were arrested and component parts of a potentially significant explosive device seized in Saturday night’s planned raid by gardaí in Dundalk.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said lives were saved by the raid, in which officers uncovered a number of items including two large modified gas cylinders fixed on to a trailer. He also reiterated his warning that the threat posed by dissidents was severe.
It is thought the raid of the outbuilding on the Old Newry Road in the town’s Mount Pleasant area could have thwarted an upcoming attack in Northern Ireland similar to those carried out in recent months.
The suspects, aged 23 and 52, were taken to Drogheda Garda station for questioning. They can be held for up to three days under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. They can be held for up to 72 hours.
Meanwhile the arrest scene, in an area surrounded by houses and factory units, was sealed off yesterday as experts from the Garda Technical Bureau conducted a forensic probe.
A number of items, including a car were taken away for further examination.
This morning, Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he agreed with Mr Ahern that the threat from "small unrepresentative groupings" and that these people had the capability of taking lives.
Mr McGuinness said the vast majority of Irish people and political parties were "standing rock solid" against the activities of dissidents and that the result of the recent Westminister elections had "clearly shown we want no more of this activity and that we have a situation where politics is working".
"What we need to do is keep our nerve. These people represent nobody but themselves. Overwhelmingly the people of Ireland support the peace process and, as President McAleese said in America yesterday, the peace process is rock solid," he told RTÉ radio.
Northern Ireland's Minister for Justice David Ford said the discovery of the bomb making facility showed North-South co-operation was working on the ground. Mr Ford said it was clear the vast majority of people wanted peace and that "robust action by the police services on both sides of the Border in tackling those small numbers who oppose that" was working.
He said he believed the devolution of policing and justice powers was a statement to those who might have been tempted in the past to provide some of support to dissident activity that progress had been made.
Mr Ahern said the threat from dissident groups remained strong but insisted authorities throughout Ireland were determined to tackle them at every turn.
“The harsh reality is from time to time relatively small groups of people can succeed in committing violent acts,” he said. “But these people will have to get the message one way or the other that their activities are doomed to fail.”
Later this week, Mr Ahern and new UK secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson, will publish the latest Independent Monitoring Commission report on the dissident threat.