{"id":16283,"date":"2025-08-22T14:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T14:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/16283\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T14:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T14:17:12","slug":"what-are-the-new-rules-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/16283\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the new rules? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drone delivery<\/a> is back in the headlines again, as operators are to face fines for any breaches of new rules.<\/p>\n

Here are some questions you might need answered to make sure the story doesn\u2019t go over your head.<\/p>\n

Why are we droning on about this?<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Government published a national framework for drones to guide their use and the ongoing regulation of the sector. <\/p>\n

The same evening, Dundrum residents aired their concerns at a public meeting<\/a> on a proposed aerial food delivery hub behind the Holy Cross Church on Main Street in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Who is running the drone delivery service?<\/p>\n

Manna, founded in 2018 by Bobby Healy, is the biggest drone delivery service in Ireland with more than 150 employees. <\/p>\n

The firm currently operates drone services in Dublin 15, with an operation in Helsinki, a base in Glasnevin and further plans for expansion including Dundrum.<\/p>\n

What do they deliver?<\/p>\n

It has been well publicised that Manna can airdrop your extra-hot, triple-shot, soy caramel macchiato directly into your back garden, but the service also carries out public service deliveries, as well as food items and books from Eason.<\/p>\n

Manna says it gives free delivery to \u201cGarda\u00ed, nurses, and incapacitated people\u201d including the delivery of medicine. <\/p>\n

The company has also had some engagement with the HSE on the delivery defibrillators as part of the National Ambulance Service.<\/p>\n

\"BobbyBobby Healy, the chief executive of Manna, the leading Irish drone delivery company, addressed residents’ concerns at a public meeting in Dundrum. Photograph: Hugh Dooley\/ The Irish Times What are the local concerns?<\/p>\n

Noise and privacy are the two main ones.<\/p>\n

Other concerns expressed by residents are how the sector is unregulated, damage from crashes, and the jamming of drones.<\/p>\n

Manna says its insurance covers any damage \u201cup to $5 million\u201d (\u20ac4.3 million), that its drones do \u201cnot record, store, or transmit any data\u201d and that they are fitted with technology to protect against jamming.<\/p>\n

Is there regulation?<\/p>\n

The publication of the drone framework is the first part of a process in guiding the ongoing regulation of the sector, but it is not true to say the sector is unregulated.<\/p>\n

Drone companies must adhere to strict regulation from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) on the safety of its craft and the Data Protection Commission (DPC) in its use of data.<\/p>\n

The headlines from the framework are the introduction of fines on drone operators for regulatory breaches, a commitment to develop no-drone zones and a set of \u201crules of the road\u201d for unmanned aircraft traffic management.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish cities face \u2018dystopian future\u2019 due to drone deliveries, TD warnsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Is it noisy?<\/p>\n

Mr Healy has admitted on several occasions \u201cthe fact that drones do make a noise\u201d. <\/p>\n

The company commissioned a report from John Kennedy, associate professor in vibrations, acoustics and dynamics at Trinity College Dublin on its noise impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn plain terms, the drone in cruise is as loud as a person talking; in hover it lands in the same bracket as a washing machine,\u201d the report said, noting it reached 59 DBA during flight and 66-68 DBA while landing.<\/p>\n

However, locals who have experienced it have a different assessment; one resident of Dublin 15 said it was \u201clike living close to a helicopter\u201d, whilst another described them as \u201clouder than cars near our house\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drone delivery is back in the headlines again, as operators are to face fines for any breaches of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,7924,18,13,14,3428,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,11171,5,7,8,2212],"class_list":{"0":"post-16283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dundrum","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-government","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-manna","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-weekendreview"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}