As delivery drones whirr through the skies of Dublin 15, councillors consider further regulating them

Across the street from the Blanchardstown shopping centre, a white drone rises above the golden arches of a McDonald’s, and up into the dull grey sky.

Its propellers whirr. Four lights blink red and green. It flies off towards the north-east, the sound becoming fainter and fainter.

Within 15 minutes, it is back.

To date, three drone delivery services have taken off in Fingal, said a report to councillors earlier this month. Two are run by Manna, in Blanchardstown and Balbriggan, and a third is run by Wing, in Lusk.

At a meeting on 2 May of the Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart/Castleknock/Ongar Area Committee, local councillors asked whether the council had really thought through what kind of rules there should be for their use.

A spokesperson for Manna says it is an environmentally friendly service, and that since it has started to deliver food in Blanchardstown, its electric drones have taken an estimated 45,000km worth of road traffic off Dublin 15’s roads.

But councillors also pointed to ongoing noise complaints, and concerns about privacy.

The council wasn’t prepared for the sudden arrival of drones as they created their development plan for 2023 to 2029, Labour Councillor Mary McCamley said at the meeting on 2 May. “And now we have a seven-year plan where the drones never come into our development plan.”

Rolling out

Manna has been operating in Balbriggan since November 2021, according to a May 2022 report by Dublin City Council and other partners.

The Blanchardstown launch pads are a more recent addition, set up by Manna in late February.

Google’s own drone delivery service Wing has been operating in Lusk since 2022, according to Wing’s website.

Manna has six drones working out of the Dublin 15 area, doing roughly 150 deliveries daily, said Enda Walsh, a manager of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Division of the Irish Aviation Authority at the area meeting on 2 May.

When Manna’s drone deliveries started to buzz around Dublin 15 in late February, they caught some locals by surprise.

Blanchardstown local Mary Daly only found out when she heard one of the drones over her house in March, she said, on Tuesday. “We saw the lights, and a neighbour said they were doing food deliveries.”

All of a sudden, loads of her neighbours were using the service, she says. “They would go directly over us and they drop the delivery by rope.”

A lot of the deliveries in the Carpenterstown area have been flying over Daly’s back garden, she says. But, “it’s very, very noisy”.

Daly isn’t the only one to complain about noise.

Fingal County Council received “several” noise complaints from around Blanchardstown after Manna was licensed by the IAA in late February to do drone deliveries in Dublin 15, according to a March management report from the council’s chief executive AnnMarie Farrelly.

But the council doesn’t regulate drones, unless they are in parks, where park bye-laws apply, the report said. Anywhere else, it is a matter for the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).

Email complaints were still coming in to councillors a month after Manna’s launch in Blanchardstown, Councillor McCamley of Labour told the local area committee on 4 April.

John Daly, a council senior engineer in the Environment Department, said his department had received six noise complaints since Manna commenced its deliveries in Dublin 15.

Bobby Healy, the CEO at Manna, said at the IAA and Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport’s 2019 Drone Symposium that its drones would be invisible and inaudible when operating at cruise speed.

Daly says that isn’t the case as they fly overhead.

At the Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart/Castleknock/Ongar Area Committee on 2 May, Walsh, the UAS manager of the IAA, said that when Manna drones are cruising at a height of 50 metres, the sound they produce is around 60 decibels for a listener on the ground.

“And for delivery, so they lower for delivery, would be about 65 [decibels],” he said.

The initial goal is to keep the levels below standard traffic noise levels, he said.

Exposure to noise levels above 50 decibels in the daytime can cause health problems, says the Dublin Noise Action Plan 2018 to 2023.

The World Health Organisation’s 2018 guideline levels to avoid health impacts from traffic are 53 decibels over a 24 hour period, the plan says.

A Manna spokesperson said on Tuesday that they have recently been flying lower than expected due to temporary height restrictions from the IAA. But they hope to be back higher, and so quieter soon, they said.

Also, the drones fly at 95km/h, said the spokesperson. “So the duration of the sound is very quick.”

Daly, who lives in the south of Blanchardstown, says she can see why the service is appealing. “With the other deliveries on the bikes, if you got anything it would be cold. So it eliminates that problem.”

What bothers Daly is the surprise that they caused, she says.

One day they weren’t there and the next they were and she didn’t receive any notice of this, she says. “You’d think they would’ve explained it in advance.”

Said Labour Councillor McCamley at the area committee on 4 April: “We didn’t know about them. They suddenly appeared in our skies.”

Ironing out the creases

On 2 May at the local area committee, the IAA’s Walsh said that the IAA is investigating ways to dampen the noise.

They’ve looked at aircraft design, he said. And, asked Manna to mix up its routes because at first drones were following the same course, he said. “They don’t do that anymore.”

To avoid more populated areas, the IAA has asked Manna to divert over parks, Walsh said.

Green Party Councillor Pamela Conroy took issue with that. It would affect local wildlife, she said.

Councillors have all been trying to improve parks with better lighting, she said. “We’re told we’re not allowed lighting because of biodiversity, and we’re gonna divert drones over our parks that are noisy?”

Walsh said that if councillors want to restrict certain areas – for noise, environmental or privacy reasons – that should be brought into a development plan, Walsh said. “We can create UAS geographical zones to restrict those once we have the grounds for doing so.”

Now, Manna is also working with the IAA to increase their cruising heights, he said. “In their previous locations, that would normally be 65m rather than 50m. That additional 15m will have a good impact on noise reduction.”

That change is going to occur within the month, Walsh said.

Also, having drones operate only between 3pm and 9pm would mitigate noise, says Walsh.

Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly said she has received feedback from locals saying they haven’t been within that window. “And this morning, I was actually in the kitchen and I heard a drone, and I went outside. It was 12.01 [pm] and it was a drone coming and going.”

That information will feed into an audit that the IAA is doing in relation to Manna’s routes, Walsh said.

Manna doesn’t fly late at night or “very early in the morning”, a Manna spokesperson said on Tuesday. “But our general hours of operation are based on the demand of residents in D15 for freshly prepared meals.”

Expansion

At the May meeting, Councillor McCamley raised her concern that Fingal County Council hadn’t yet prepared any plan for how to manage drones in its skies.

Drones hadn’t been mentioned once in the council’s development plan for 2023 to 2029, she said.

“Are they allowed to fly over nursing homes? Are they allowed to fly over creches?” she said. “These are things that we should be putting into our development plan, and we haven’t.”

Walsh said that the IAA is working with Dublin City Council on its own drone strategy launch, and they are creating a joint innovation project to give local authorities guidance on bringing drones into their development plans. “That’s part of our longer term goal.”

Manna has also asked for two more sites within Blanchardstown, he said. “Not to increase the number of drones. But to spread out where the drones are taking off and landing from, which again will distribute the routes, and hopefully bring the noise levels down.”

Independent Councillor Tania Doyle expressed her concern with a landing zone that had appeared in Clonsilla during April.

Manna operates in an area zoned for retail and commercial operations currently in Blanchardstown. But this alternative one is in the heart of a residential area, she said. “Literally at the back garden of several homes.”

That hasn’t been approved yet, Walsh said.

A spokesperson for Manna confirmed that it is setting up a second hub in Clonsilla. Its landing pads are not structures and are temporary so no planning permission is required, they said.

Data protection

Privacy was also raised as an issue by Fianna Fáil Councillor Howard Mahony, who asked what the IAA’s policy on preventing breaches as the drones fly over homes.

Manna have low-resolution downward facing cameras on their drones, the company’s website says, which are used to make sure the delivery areas are clear of obstacles and people.

These narrowly focus on the delivery spot, and there are no video recordings captured at any time during the flight, the site says.

But a camera on a drone is no different from any other camera, Walsh said. “And it falls under the existing regulations around privacy.”

Data protection has guidance on that, but any individual who feels there is a breach is advised to make a complaint to the Data Protection Commission, he said.

Councillor Donnelly, speaking on Friday after the meeting, said she isn’t opposed to drones. “They are fantastic in rural areas, in terms of drone use on islands bringing medication, prescriptions. There is a place for drones definitely.”

But, as it stands, given the noise and some of the privacy concerns surrounding the use of cameras, she is unsure whether it should be a service that is used for everything, she says.

“I don’t know if food delivery is it, and if the price we’re paying for quick deliveries is worth it,” she says. “I’m definitely on the fence.”