The European Commission yesterday referred Ireland and two other EU member states to the Luxembourg court over an alleged failure to comply with obligations under the Terrorist Content Online Regulation.

Ireland was previously sent a letter of formal notice in January 2023 and a reasoned opinion in February 2024.

There are four roles under the TCO Regulation for which Ireland is required to designate a competent authority. However, Ireland has only designated a competent authority in respect of three of these so far.

An Garda Síochána has been designated as the Irish competent authority to issue removal orders and Coimisiún na Meán has been designated as the Irish competent authority to oversee specific remedial measures and to impose sanctions and penalties.

Ireland has yet to designate a competent authority for scrutiny of cross-border removal orders.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration said: “Ireland remains fully committed to the complete implementation of Regulation (EU) 2021/784 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2021 on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online.”

The outstanding role “refers to the process whereby the competent authority is requested by the provider or host of content subject to a removal order issued by another member state to scrutinise whether the removal order infringes the Regulation or the fundamental rights enshrined in the EU Charter”, they added.

The spokesperson said: “The Department is in the process of finalising this designation and expects to conclude this process in the very near future.

“The Department remains in active communication with the EU Commission to provide updates on this outstanding designation.”