Public meeting hears concerns on drones

A public meeting held this week heard concerns from residents concerning drone operations in Cork city.

Residents expressed concern around noise and privacy issues, and also discussed the recent decision by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to drop notification requirements for Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) operators.

Cllr Kieran McCarthy, who attended the meeting on Tuesday in Cork Constitution Football Club, said he shared the concerns of residents on privacy, noise, and environmental impact.

He said a national working group needs to be established by the IAA examining noise and privacy concerns to allow for legislation on commercial drones.

In February this year, the IAA established restrictions on drone operators in Cork in advance of a consultation phase. It required all operators to apply for permission two days in advance of flying.

The zone was established to facilitate delivery drone operator Manna Air Delivery.

The IAA recently published the results of a consultation it ran regarding the restrictions.

The consultation received 662 submissions, 95% of which were from the Cork area. The majority came from members of the public, with only a small minority coming from drone operators.

It said that the majority of submissions dealt with noise, privacy, and safety, which fell outside the remit of the consultation.

A key result was the dropping of the requirement for VLOS operators to apply for permission two-days before their intended flight.

Going forward, this requirement will only be in place for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operators.

Cllr Peter Horgan, who also attended the meeting, said he has asked the IAA to pause licenses for BVLOS operators until such time as the authority implements regulations on their operations.

“It’s not good enough now that we have operations happening with no regulation in place. I’m going to keep pushing this politically, and talk to my colleagues in the Oireachtas.

“It’s important that residents in the area, in Ballinlough, Ballintemple, Beaumont, and Blackrock have confidence in our state agencies and in the process and procedures of our society,” he said.

The latest meeting of Cork City Council passed a motion put forward by Cllr Brian McCarthy which called for a review “of the impact of these drones on the public, the environment and the impact of the IAA restrictions on other drone users in the testing phase”.

It called for the IAA to carry out the review, and for the results to be made publicly available before any further expansion of services goes ahead.

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.