Dublin City Council circulates position paper on use of drones in city

After calls from councillors and city residents to do something further to regulate commercial delivery drones, Dublin City Council has put together a two-page “drone position” paper. 

Its position is that the situation is “complex and evolving”, and it’s going to have a think about what to do, and plans a series of “community engagements” in the autumn. 

The Department of Transport is working on a national drone strategy too. But that’s not likely to be done until later this year at the earliest.

“In the meantime, these guys can do what they like,” independent Councillor Mannix Flynn said Tuesday. “So there needs to be emergency legislation rushed through.” 

The company Manna, which is regulated by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), has been delivering by drone in Blanchardstown – under Fingal County Council – since early 2024. It intends to expand across the Dublin area, it has said. 

There are planning applications in to South Dublin County Council for a drone base in Tallaght, and to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for one in Dundrum, the position paper says.

Manna is not yet doing deliveries in the Dublin City Council area, but it appears to be preparing to start flying from a base in a Glasnevin industrial estate in the coming months. 

At the start of June, Manna’s characteristic drone-base setup was already waiting in the car park behind its offices in Glasnevin: its black, orange and blue launch pads, plus a shipping container for use as an operations centre. 

Flynn, the independent councillor, on Tuesday criticised the slow pace of action on commercial-drone regulation by the central government and Dublin City Council. “It’s not as if they didn’t see it coming down the road.” 

Councillors on Dublin City Council’s Mobility and Public Realm Strategic Policy Committee in late May supported a motion from Fine Gael Councillor Gayle Ralph that the council should “refuse all planning applications for drone delivery services” until certain conditions are met. 

Then, in early June, the council’s Central Area Committee backed a motion from Ralph calling on the council to “act under its existing powers, confirmed by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to designate Cabra Glasnevin Ward as a Quiet Area, thereby ensuring its formal recognition as a No-Fly Zone for drones”.

The council executive’s 27 June 2025 position paper on drones does not say it plans to do either of those things.

Noise and privacy

In Blanchardstown, the first flashpoint between residents living under flight paths and Manna has been noise.

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

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

For comparison, the sound of washing your hands would be about 45 decibels, and the average road noise exposure in New York would be 73 decibels, the IAA official said.

On Tuesday, Flynn, the independent councillor, said – as others have – that drones flying overhead raise privacy concerns for him.

A Manna spokesperson has said that 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.

Despite this statement from Manna, Flynn says he is still wary of the idea of having cameras flying over people’s homes. 

“Manna’s not an expert on GDPR or privacy – at the end of the day they are trying to run a commercial operation,” he says.

What’s in the position paper

Dublin City Council recognises that the situation with commercial delivery drones is moving fast, as is the development of the technology, says its position paper on 27 June. 

“There is no published policy, legislation or guidance at a national level so this creates significant challenges,” it says. 

The council has a drone unit, and a drone policy, but that focuses on the council’s own use of drones – not on private drone delivery services like Manna.

Perhaps in response to Ralph’s motion at the Central Area Committee – seeking to make Cabra-Glasnevin a “No-Fly Zone for drones” – the position paper then details how drones can be restricted from flying in certain areas. 

The IAA publishes maps showing “restricted zones” for drone operations, the drone position paper says. “A number of these already exist for safety and security reasons, for example around airports and prisons.” 

These are not absolute no-fly areas, the document says. Drone operators can request permission from the relevant “zone authority” to fly there if necessary. “DCC is not a zone authority in this respect,” it says. 

“Airspace is managed by AirNav Ireland,” the document says. “Anyone wishing to fly a drone in a restricted airspace must submit a UF101 request to AirNav for review.” 

And then AirNav consults DAA, the company that operates the airport, or the Irish Prison Service, or whoever the “zone authority” is.

“Temporary restrictions can also be requested by other organisations for events like the St Patrick’s Festival or major concerts at Croke Park or Aviva Stadium,” the document says.

For any complaints about “drones that appear to be flying unsafely or outside expected norms”, there’s a public reporting portal at iaa.ie/dronealert, the document says.

 Dublin City Council has set up an internal Drones Governance Group “dedicated to discussing the potential role of the city in any future legislation or regulations regarding drones in the urban space”. 

It has also “engaged with 19 internal sections to proactively explore where additional drone flying restrictions might be appropriate as part of a wider research and innovation partnership”, the document says. 

The council has been working looking to other European cities, and to a project with Maynooth University and the IAA, to explore the pros and cons and best practices for the use of drones in cities, it says.

“As with many emerging technologies, Dublin City Council will continue to explore and examine how these can enhance service delivery and benefits to citizens,” it says.

“We are in the process of arranging further engagement and consultation around drones in the city and will be hosting a series of community engagements to discuss issues outlined this autumn,” it says.