July 24 (UPI) — Law enforcement officials in Ireland stopped a vehicle containing a car bomb earlier this week during an intelligence sweep of republican dissidents.

The Garda Special Detective Unit stopped a vehicle in Carrickmacross, Ireland, bound for Northern Ireland on Wednesday when they discovered a device made with suspected military-grade explosives. They arrested the driver of the vehicle, described as a woman in her 20s.

The bomb was successfully defused. A man in his 40s has also been arrested in relation to the incident.

Carrickmacross is a town near the border of Northern Ireland.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly told reporters that the bomb was “not just components or pieces” but a fully constructed explosive device. The device was designed to be placed under a vehicle for an attack suspected to take place in Northern Ireland.

“Any seizure of this nature is really concerning,” Kelly said. “However, we certainly know that there are a small minority of dissident republicans who did not agree with the Good Friday Agreement, they did not put weapons and explosives [out of use], they didn’t go through with the proper process in relation to decommissioning. So that is something that we continue to deal with.”

Kelly went on to describe the bomb as “advanced” and the incident as an “extremely significant seizure.”

“This was an explosive device and it would have or could have potentially caused significant damage,” he said.

Jim O’Callaghan, Ireland’s minister of justice, called the seizure of a car bomb “very worrying.”

“I think it evidences the fact that there is an ongoing threat in respect of dissident republican activity.”

The dissident republicans that O’Callaghan and Kelly refer to come from various groups of people who reject the Good Friday Agreement, a 1998 deal meant to end the Troubles, a violent conflict in Northern Ireland.