Irish Examiner view: Gadgets in the wrong hands can pose a threat

Disruption caused at airports by drones is not a new threat — so why is new legislation required?

'No Drone Zone' signs on the perimiter fence at Dublin Airport. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Cool and slick gadgets can often deliver unacceptable and undesirable consequences. It’s one of the reasons that people used to smash machines. And it is difficult not to feel a twinge of sympathy for the likes of the Luddites and Swing Rioters when we see the perverse ways technology can be used in 2023.

At least those protestors had the excuse that they were trying to save their jobs and protect the value of their artisan skills against the inevitable, and impoverishing, advance of automation. But no such excuse exists in the malevolent use of equipment which is easily — perhaps too easily — available across the shop counter.