I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide for the regulation in the public interest of the private and commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems, commonly referred to as drones; to create an additional consideration for issuance of a National Planning Statement; to require local authorities to prepare objectives for the management of unmanned aircraft system operations; to permit any person, a local authority or the Environmental Protection Agency make a complaint to the District Court with respect to the emission of noise from certain privately or commercially operated unmanned aircraft system or systems causing annoyance; to amend the Planning and Development Act 2024; to amend the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 (as amended); and to provide for related matters.
Today I am proud to table my first Private Members' Bill, the drone regulation Bill 2025. For more than a year now, a commercial company, Manna Air Delivery, has been using airborne delivery drones to deliver food takeaway orders across Dublin 15. This is a brand new area of technology and, as with any new technology, there are benefits. However, these deliveries will spread to more areas across Dublin and the country and as such there is an urgent need for airborne delivery drones to be regulated because, right now, the rules around their use are incredibly lax.
Members of the public have raised with me a wide range of issues related to airborne delivery drones, including concerns about the noise from these machines, the safety of them, the planning status of drone bases, privacy issues, as these drones are fitted with cameras, and their impact on wildlife. I have raised these concerns repeatedly in the Dáil in the past eight months as a Topical Issue matter and as a parliamentary question to the Minister for Transport. Earlier in the year, I also successfully requested a dedicated meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport. At that hearing, we heard from experts, particularly those in the local authority sector, about how the gaps in existing regulations are preventing them from adequately dealing with the concerns the public are raising.
My Bill comes as a response to the disappointing National Policy Framework for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, which was published by the Government in August. This framework was an opportunity to clearly set out a timeline for delivering the regulatory reforms that are needed to accommodate this new technology. Instead, the framework contains no clear commitments to introduce laws to fill the gaps in the existing rules about commercial drones.
The Bill has two key functions. First, it makes clear that drone bases - these are the locations from which delivery drones operate - need planning permission. It does this by amending the Planning and Development Act 2024 to create a new consideration for the Minister to take into account when issuing a national planning statement, that is, that it is consistent with the regulation of the private and commercial operation of unmanned drone aircraft systems in the public interest. The point of the public interest is particularly important. Each local authority would also be required to have a section in its development plan setting out how it regulates commercial drones, again prioritising activities that are in the public interest.
Second, the Bill changes the law to make it easier for local authorities to regulate noise pollution coming from drones. Right now, section 108 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act stops local authorities regulating noise from aircraft, which includes drones. My Bill would change this so that drones operating within the neighbourhood airspace could be subject to noise pollution complaints.
Commercial drones are a new field of real innovation. They already have important uses. I have no doubt they will have more. However, right now Dublin 15 is in the middle of an experiment. Thousands of journeys that would take place on our roads are now being transferred into the skies above our homes. There has been no discussion about the scale of this change or of whether this is something people want. By proposing rules around two key elements, planning and noise pollution, I look to seriously debate the issues around commercial drone deliveries in the Dáil.
I commend the Bill to the House and look forward to the opportunity to go into its provisions in more detail on Second Stage and subsequently on Committee Stage.