The Garda security and intelligence section is to be hard hit this year with the departure of the majority of its top officers.

Two Dublin men were stopped by gardaí in a car which was found to contain 150kg of explosives, the Special Criminal Court has heard.

The Special Criminal Court has ruled that members of the public should be excluded from the court when six members of the Garda National Surveillance Unit give evidence in the trial of eight Dublin men accused of IRA membership.