No planning sought for drone base in Cork city
No planning permission has been sought by drone delivery company Manna for its temporary drone hub in the Marina Commercial Park.
Cork City Council has confirmed it has received no application in relation to the development.
Manna has been operating its delivery service from a site beside the Marina Market since February of this year.
There is no specific guidance for drone hubs in current planning legislation.
However, on 29 January of this year, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien told the Dáil that drone bases do constitute development, and existing planning legislation applies to them.
A spokesperson for Cork City Council said the council was aware of the development but had not developed any specific land use policies regarding the use of delivery drones.
Under the Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028, the site in question is designated for ‘Mixed-Use Development’.
The plan says the “permissible uses” include residential, education, business and technology, research, civic and community uses.
It also says “the range and scale of uses proposed must be commensurate to the scale of the zone”.
A spokesperson for Manna said the company has been “engaging with Cork City Council officials in relation to our operations since last year and continue to do so in line with the relevant guidance”.
“We’ve been very encouraged by the reception to date and are actively engaging locally, including STEM initiatives this week through our Community Engagement team,” they said.
The company, whose Irish operations have until now been restricted to Dublin, has faced setbacks there over planning permission issues.
In October 2025, Fingal County Council issued an enforcement action over a drone hub that was operating near Junction 6 of the M50. The hub had been built without planning permission, and was refused retention.
In its decision, Fingal County Council said insufficient details had been submitted regarding “noise impacts from the drone operations to fully assess the impact of the proposed development on residential amenity”.
It also said the development, which consisted of steel fencing and shipping container doors, was “visually incongruous”.
This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.