Cork residents welcome Manna decision to pause drone deliveries in Ireland

Campaigners say noise, privacy and planning concerns remain despite the company's decision to suspend operations

Manna delivery drone in the red colour of Cork with the message Up Cork! printed on the side. Picture: Larry Cummins

Residents in Cork’s Blackrock area and surrounding communities have welcomed news that Manna Drone Delivery is to cease operations in Ireland.

The company, which announced a “strategic pause” in Irish drone delivery operations on Friday, began a pilot scheme in Cork in February. The service covered the southside of the city from a base at Marina Market on Centre Park Road.

Announcing its decision to pause operations in Ireland, Manna cited a series of planning refusals in Dublin and a lack of progress on regulatory rules as reasons for shifting its focus towards international expansion.

In April, Cork City Council’s planning directorate opened an enforcement file relating to Manna’s Cork operations, giving the company one month to respond to a warning letter concerning the development of a drone delivery hub and the erection of a cabin and fencing at the site.

Drone Action Cork, a group of residents from the Blackrock, Beaumont and Ballintemple areas that has campaigned against the company’s Cork operations, said it welcomed the announcement.

“Residents have endured persistent noise, privacy and safety concerns, and we are relieved that respite may be at hand,” the group said in a statement.

“However, we have received no official confirmation that Cork operations have ceased, and we urge residents to remain vigilant.

“The underlying failures — no national regulatory framework, inadequate planning protections, ignored community concerns — remain unresolved. We call on Government to act now.”

Manna Drone Delivery base at Marina Market, Centre Park Road, Cork City. Picture: Larry Cummins

One local resident, who gave her name as Siobhán, said she was “delighted and relieved for everyone in the community” to hear of Manna’s decision.

“Drone delivery was never necessary in the first place – there are plenty other options of deliver available to people,” she said.

“It’s something that is so intrusive, into your personal life, into your personal space, into your head, actually.

“I’m very reluctant to trust the news. I’m almost afraid to believe it, that’s how bad the stress has been from those things flying over our homes.”

Labour councillor Peter Horgan said drone deliveries were not something his constituents wanted to see introduced without protections for their quality of life.

“Ultimately, we are still in a situation where we do not have clear governance and guidance on the operation of BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) drone operations in this country and in Cork,” he said.

“I have been asking city officials and Government departments for action in terms of protecting people’s quality of life, and we do need the Government’s working group to engage with the various local authorities on what the various elements of drone operations will look like going forward.”

Manna delivery drone in the red colour of Cork with the message Up Cork! printed on the side. Picture: Larry Cummins

Fianna Fáil councillor Mary Rose Desmond said the decision would be welcomed by many people in Ballintemple and surrounding areas.

“I think the writing had been on the wall from the planning decisions that had been made recently, but certainly from a city councillor’s perspective, there seems to be a very grey area around BVLOS delivery drones, so I think this a welcome decision,” she said.

“While there may be scope in the future for medical or essential deliveries by drone, I don’t think the regularity of fast-food deliveries warranted the impact they were having on people’s lives.”

Seamus Doyle, chairperson of Drone Action D15, lives near the Coolmine drone delivery hub in Blanchardstown, Dublin, which was denied retention permission by Fingal County Council last month.

Mr Doyle’s group has campaigned against Manna’s operations in the Dublin 15 area since July last year, and he said the company’s decision to cease operations in Ireland would be welcomed locally.

“We’re delighted with the decision, because it gives us back peace and quiet in our back gardens in particular, and when we walk in the parks in the area there is not that annoyance there anymore,” he said.

“For lots of members of our community, it has been a huge stress on them. The number of customers availing of the service has been very small, but the disturbance has been huge.

“It’s the community of Dublin 15 who have been the ones to experience these problems, and we have worked hard giving voice to that community, so well done to local people for expressing themselves so well, to their local representatives and through the planning process.”