EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you the five news stories you need to know before you hit the road.

1. #COURTS A man (56) appeared before the Special Criminal Court, charged with membership of the IRA and possession of explosives after a bomb was found at a hotel he was staying in. Samuel Devlin was arrested on Sunday afternoon.

2. #APOLOGY The Taoiseach has apologised to Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe. Enda Kenny said in the Dáil today that he is “sorry for the issues that Sergeant McCabe faced and I am sorry that they weren’t dealt with earlier”.

3. #TDS Sixteen TDs say they want a meeting with RTÉ because they believe they are being treated “very unfairly” in being excluded from a Prime Time panel. RTÉ says that the independents are not a political party and represent themselves.

4. #BURGLARY Gardaí disarmed and arrested a hatchet-wielding man who had entered a premises in Dungarvan, Co Waterford. The man had threatened the occupants and also stole cash and a mobile phone.

5. #PISTORIUS The prosecutor in the Oscar Pistorius case wants to have Pistorius committed to one month of psychiatric tests to see if he has “general anxiety disorder”. Tomorrow, the judge will make her ruling on the issue.