‘Stop flying over our homes’ – Dublin 15 residents push back against drones
Seamus Doyle lives a 15-minute walk from a drone-delivery hub in west Dublin and says he sees up to 50 flights over his house every day.
He is a member of the Drone Action D15 group that has been pushing back against “unregulated” food deliveries by drones in the area.
“You see more of them starting Thursday evenings, then back and forth more frequently over the weekend – I’ve counted over 12 flying close to our house in an hour and at least 50 in a single day,” said Mr Doyle, who lives near the drone site in Coolmine Industrial Estate.
“There are more of them during a match or close to a Premier League game because people are ordering more food.
It was a lovely spring day and this drone had flown over my house around 12 times back and forth
“It’s chaos in the skies – I feel like even the birds are not nesting here like they used to any more.”
Mr Doyle is also a member of the Irish Wildlife Trust.
Dublin 15 has four sites run by Manna Drones Ltd. After Fingal County Council removed one site in Clonsilla due to unauthorised activity, sites on Old Navan Road, Junction 6 and Coolmine Industrial Estate are being investigated following enforcement orders by the council.
One site in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre is operating with planning permission.
“Last February, I was at home having a lie-in when I heard this really weird buzzing noise,” said Ann Marie O’Reilly, another Dublin 15 resident and member of the Drone Action D15 group.
“It was like a helicopter or something because I’d never heard that sound before. It was a lovely spring day and this drone had flown over my house around 12 times back and forth. I would have seen up to 27 in a day.
“I looked online and found I could request them to not be flown over my house. It stopped for a while, then this year they started flying over my house again. I had to email TDs and councillors to get them to change the flight path.”
Group member Gwen Schaarschmidt also had to write to the drone company after the frequency of flights over her house increased.
“The noise is unbearable,” Ms Schaarschmidt said. “You could see them in the distance at night. They emit a bright green or red light.
“When they started flying over us, I got a response saying they had active customers in the area and they couldn’t divert its path because of the frequency of customers around us.”
Ann Marie O'Reilly (left) and Gwen Schaarschmidt live in Dublin 15, where there is regular drone activity. Photo: Steve Humphreys
On October 6, Drone Action D15 held a meeting which it says was attended by 250 people, although media reports and Manna’s own headcount put the figure closer to 160.
“A lot of thought has gone into planning these suburbs we live in,” Ms O’Reilly said. “They’ve developed quiet cul-de-sacs and green spaces to make sure it’s a good place for families to live in. This has completely undermined that planning.
“People had a lot to say at the meeting – parents said they struggle to put their young children to sleep, shift workers who sleep during the day were affected. People with autism said it’s like a drill in their head and many people said that it drives their dogs crazy.”
The group have also found residents were concerned for their own privacy and the well-being of wildlife and birds in the area.
Manna has confirmed its drones operate between 9am and 9pm, and that while each drone has a camera, it does not record any footage.
We have operated a courtesy block directly over people’s homes and honoured them
“They say it doesn’t record us, but even with a live stream, there’s still someone manning those drones who can see into our gardens. It has a view of four or five adjoining gardens,” Ms Schaarschmidt said.
A Manna spokesperson said that, “where advised”, the company had applied for planning permission in Blanchardstown, Dundrum and Tallaght.
It said it had engaged with local representatives, sports groups and schools in Dublin 15 before launching in the area.
“We have operated a courtesy block directly over people’s homes and honoured them. We have a dynamic flight routing system rather than a set flight path,” the spokesperson said.
The company said it delivered not only fast food to customers, but over-the-counter medicines, with plans to introduce a defibrillation programme in the coming weeks.
Manna says there there were close to 450 messages of support sent to all local politicians.
It also said it had received 2,268 messages of support from the local community in total, and a petition with over 5,500 signatures supporting drone expansion in Dublin 15.
It also cited the popularity of the service, saying that there were 48,000 households who have availed of it.
Resident Robert Murphy, who supports the activity, said: “It gives the opportunity to have items delivered within a reasonably tracked time. The items when delivered are secure and at a good temperature and reasonable priced, compared to other delivery services which are not trackable.”
Another resident supportive of the service, Brian Soughley, said: “It’s a great service, and the sound of the drones is only a few seconds as it passes over to another delivery, it’s less noise compared to the constant hum of traffic.”
This month, two motions on drones were agreed by councillors at a local area meeting for Fingal County Council.
Labour councillor for Blanchardstown, John Walsh, introduced an enforcement motion after three sites for Manna Drones Ltd in Fingal were found to be operating without planning permission.
“It’s incredibly problematic that the company didn’t respect the planning system – planning is the only way that the local community can be consulted,” Mr Walsh said.
“Drone sites are too close to residential areas in the case of Coolmine, and Junction 6 – the site is just 100 metres away in the case of the latter.
“The danger I see is of it developing into a ‘wild west’ situation where priorities are given to drone operators and the needs of local communities are ignored.”
Fingal councillors also raised concerns that the new National Policy Framework on drones introduced in August by the Department of Transport did not address the need for the public’s consent when operating them.
The draft framework was poorly publicised, it only got 50 responses, which is atrocious
“When it came out, it was a disastrous document – it had no timelines or recommendations or any indication on how people can be consulted,” Mr Walsh said.
“The draft framework was poorly publicised, it only got 50 responses, which is atrocious for national consultation – we have over 300 for local ones, to give context.
“With this, we’ve facilitated the use of local communities to test drone delivery services while delaying any action on producing a framework that could have regulated it.”
Manna said it welcomed the new framework and regulation of drone activity.
“We in Manna fully support the introduction of greater clarity on the regulation of commercial drone activity,” the company spokesperson said.
“We welcome the framework and its assertion that planning policies should allow communities to avail of the opportunities that drones can bring while taking local concerns on board.”
Mr Walsh said the framework would need to outline how the public can be consulted before new technology is introduced.
“I welcome new technology, but no new technology can be introduced without public consent – the worst thing any private operator or government can do is rush something like this in and ignore public concern and hope it’ll go away.”