Councillors attempt to hit pause as company prepares to launch drone delivery service from Glasnevin

Dublin City Council should “refuse all planning applications for drone delivery services” until certain conditions are met, a council committee agreed last week. 

For example, before drones start delivering toasties and tacos in the city, any prospective operator should submit a “comprehensive Noise Impact Assessment”, said a motion from Fine Gael Councillor Gayle Ralph, which the committee backed.  

But the council is probably moving too late. 

Dublin-grown drone delivery company Manna, which has been delivering coffees, burgers and butchers’ cuts from the skies of Blanchardstown since last year, is planning to expand into the city soon.  

The company has begun setting up a new base on Slaney Road in an industrial estate in Glasnevin. 

Right next to a Hosted Kitchens location where Griolladh, Yeeros, Shake Dog and other companies prepare food for delivery – by Deliveroo and JustEat at the moment. 

Manna’s characteristic drone base setup is waiting in the car park behind its offices: its black, orange and blue launch pads, plus a shipping container for use as an operations centre. 

The company hopes to expand its delivery service into Dublin city “by late this summer”, a spokesman says. 

And, as it has done elsewhere, it appears to be planning to launch its drones into the sky without any planning permission for installing a drone base. 

There won’t be a planning application, said Green Party Councillor Janet Horner, at the meeting of the council’s Mobility and Public Realm Strategic Policy Committee 28 May. “I think they don’t intend to submit one,” she said. 

A Manna spokesperson did not respond directly to a query on whether there is a plan to apply for planning permission for their planned drone base in Glasnevin. 

The company is “planning to expand to reach one million users in Dublin”, and their timelines “are predicated by regulatory approval by the IAA [Irish Aviation Authority]”, he said.

Moving to regulate

“There is an urgency around this,” said Dermot Collins, a senior executive officer, at the meeting on 28 May. “Particularly looking at, you know, what’s planned for Glasnevin.”

Ralph’s motion was designed to hit pause before Manna starts lowering fast food and ice pops from the sky in Dublin city, until certain hoops are in place for the company to jump through.

First, the motion predicates the “working group established by the Chief Executive” complete and publish “its report on the implications of commercial delivery drones”.

Second, that there’s a public consultation and more awareness brought to the "Drone and Urban Air Mobility Strategy for Dublin City Council 2024–2029”.

Thirdly, the motion says any company proposing drone delivery should provide a detailed noise impact assessment, “to ensure a thorough evaluation of potential noise impacts during both day and night”.

At the meeting, Collins pointed out that the council’s drone strategy actually focuses on how the government uses drones: for building inspections, fire service support, mapping and surveying – so, not on what Manna does really.

While those government-managed drones are “doing the dirty and dangerous work”, Collins  said, “I think the key concerns that I see will be around the proliferation of drones within Dublin City as commercial activity.” 

The motion passed, but it’s not binding. Councillors don’t have the power to forbid council planners from accepting and deciding on planning applications.

Besides, there do not appear to be any plans for anyone to submit a planning application for a drone base before Manna starts operating one in Glasnevin. 

Even if someone did, there’s nothing in the council’s development plan for planners to rely on, saying where drone bases can be installed and where they can’t. 

There’s no national framework, either. The Department of Transport is working on a national drone strategy, but the council doesn’t expect that to be done until later this year, Collins said. 

“That’ll take a number of months,” said Horner, the committee’s chairperson.

“Unknown territory”

Manna has a licence from the IAA to operate its drones, and that is its regulator.

Green Party Councillor Feljin Jose says he met with the IAA about two months ago. 

“Their point was that it's very much they approve the kind of, paths, and the take-off and landing, but they don't make any considerations – nor they're required to – about noise or amenities or anything like that,” Jose said.

For the council, right now drones are in a grey area when it comes to planning permission, “because they are air-based rather than on the ground”, said Horner, the Green Party councillor.

Collins, the council manager speaking at the meeting on 28 May, said “We’re in unknown territory in terms of drone operations.” 

Absent a national policy, or guidance in the Fingal or Dublin city development plans, the rules for where and how drone bases can be installed appear unsettled.

Before Manna launched its first drone base, beside a McDonalds at the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, its landlord applied for planning permission. 

Within about three months, Fingal County Council had approved that so Manna could start delivering food over Dublin 15.

When another base popped up, behind the Clonsilla Inn, the council investigated, cited the drone base as unauthorised development and ordered the landlord to remove it. 

Asked about the lack of planning permission for this base at the time, Manna CEO Bobby Healy said “You don’t need planning permission to take off and land drones.”

The company is really only laying rubber mats on the ground when it sets up a drone base so nothing’s being built, he said. And there’s no change of use of the property either, Healy said. 

“Our view is that this is normal commercial use of a space that already has commercial planning approval,” Healy said. “No different than the many motorbikes and cars that do delivery in and out of a restaurant that deliveroo etc are doing.”

Later, another drone base popped up at Junction 6, off the M50. The landlord did not apply for planning permission for that one either – and Fingal launched a planning enforcement investigation into it last August.

Jose, the Green Party councillor on Dublin city council, said “we have no control over the actual landing or whether or not there’s planning permission or not. So, yeah, we need regulation quickly.”

For Jose, this gap is “incredibly worrying”.

Yes, says Una Caulfield, of the Griffith Avenue and District Residents Association (GADRA), “Manna can do what they want.” 

“And I find that, I just find that a bit scary,” Caulfield said. 

Councillors’ and residents’ concerns

One of the primary concerns councillors raised at the meeting was the noise they expected the drones coming and going from a base in Glasnevin to make.

Robbie Sinnott, a representative of Voice of Vision Impairment, who is a member of the committee, said noise “can cause distress for autistic people”. And “for visually impaired [people], it can take away audio cues”, he said. 

Una Caulfield of GADRA said that noise is a major concern for her too. "If they were very quiet, you know, I don't think it would be as much fear around them,” she said.

Just this January, she said, Drumcondra was made an autism friendly village. “We don't want things that could set people off.”

Labour Party Councillor John Walsh, who represents Dublin 15, where Manna has been operating for quite some time, said noise is one of the main complaints he gets. 

Manna says its current drones are “quieter than a passing car” while cruising. 

Recently, the company started piloting new drones, which are between 2 and 4 decibels quieter, the Manna spokesperson said. 

When cruising at 50 metres, a Manna drone sounds at 60 decibels for a listener on the ground, said an IAA official in May last year. When lower for delivery, the sound is about 65 decibels, he said. 

Residents who live under flight paths in Dublin 15 have said the sound stands out from car traffic because it’s at a higher pitch, more like a lawnmower or scrambler or something.

At the 28 May meeting, Social Democrats Councillor Paddy Monahan brought up privacy concerns. 

Dee Manning said her parents, who have lived in their home in Dublin 15 for over 50 years, are in a flight path for drones leaving the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre. She said it’s notably changed how they enjoy their garden. 

“For years, like we would, we would have sunbathed in the back garden and stuff like that,” Manning says. “But now I don't think anybody would.”

Maybe people were spooked by cars when they started appearing too, Manning said. “And it's, you know, it's progress. But as long as it's progress with consideration for everybody.”

Manna says its drones only turn on their cameras for about 15 seconds when lowering food down to customers, for safety reasons –  and that the cameras do not record anything.

Next steps

At the committee meeting on 28 May, Horner, the Green Party councillor, said, “We're looking to develop policy, but that'll take a number of months to do.” 

Collins, the council manager, said that a “sub group” had been established “that's looking at the policy around planning for people and commercial entities that would be looking to get planning permission for drones”. 

“That's in its infancy at the moment,” he said. But it will link in with the national policy the Department of Transport is working on, he said. 

That national policy probably wouldn’t be delivered before autumn, said Horner.  

Horner asked if there will be meetings before then, “between ourselves and the Irish aviation authority, that may be fruitful in the meantime, regarding the kind of operation of the complex in Glasnevin?”

By the time a policy is ready, Dublin 9 residents might already be seeing kebabs lowered into their neighbours back gardens on strings.

While councillors debate frameworks and consultations, Manna is waiting on one thing: clearance from the IAA.

CORRECTION: This article was updated at 8.51am on 4 June 2025 based on feedback from Manna, to remove references to McDonald's products, as Manna does not deliver those; and to make clear that it is residents listening to the drones (not Manna) who say their sound is higher-pitched than car traffic, more like a lawnmower.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.