{"id":503297,"date":"2026-06-16T23:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503297\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T23:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:08:14","slug":"mannas-plans-for-dundrum-drone-delivery-hub-blocked-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503297\/","title":{"rendered":"Manna\u2019s plans for Dundrum drone delivery hub blocked \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drone firm Manna <\/a>has been refused permission to develop a new delivery hub near Dundrum Town Centre.<\/p>\n

Last year, Manna Drones Limited sought permission from D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council <\/a>to create an aerial delivery hub to the rear of Holy Cross Church in Dundrum.<\/p>\n

The firm, led by Bobby Healy, sought permission to run the facility, which would include storage and ancillary office cabin container on site, from the location for a period of five years.<\/p>\n

The proposal faced significant local opposition, with more than 200 submissions made by the public about the hub.<\/p>\n

A submission on behalf of Monsignor Paul Cullen, who resides in the parochial house on the grounds of Holy Cross Church, said Manna\u2019s facility would \u201cmaterially adversely impact the quiet noise environment necessary for Holy Cross Church and parochial house and parochial centre\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last August, the firm was asked to provide the council with a number of noise impact assessments that would assess noise generated by all activities at the aerial delivery hub.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Drone delivery company firm Manna racks up losses of \u20ac50mOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Manna provided further information to D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in May about the proposed development and the local authority has made a final decision to refuse the application.<\/p>\n

In a decision on the case, the council said it has \u201csignificant concerns\u201d about the noise impact assessment carried out by the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe noise impact of the proposed aerial delivery hub and associated drone operations on residential amenity and other sensitive receptors, through the submitted Noise Impact Assessment, has not been sufficiently evidenced or modelled,\u201d the council said. <\/p>\n

It added that the submitted noise assessment has raised \u201csignificant concerns\u201d regarding the company\u2019s approach and methodology, which the council said failed to adequately consider the \u201cdifferent acoustic character of the proposed drone noise, both spectrally and temporally, to road traffic noise\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018No profit and crap governance\u2019 \u2013 is Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX actually worth $1.75 trillion?<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Manna said it would study the planning decision and was \u201ccommitted to growing its operations in Ireland and United States\u201d. <\/p>\n

It added that the noise assessment was carried out by an independent expert, who concluded \u201cthe predicted operational noise impact of the air delivery hub is insignificant\u201d and that drone operations would result in \u201clittle to no perceptible noise level change\u201d. <\/p>\n

The spokesman for Manna added the operational environmental management plan also concluded that there would be \u201cno significant adverse noise impact associated within the standard operations of the drones\u201d in relation to biodiversity and wildlife.<\/p>\n

Manna, a tech company that both develops drone technology and provides delivery services using drones, has existing drone hubs in Coolmine Industrial Estate and Blanchardstown Shopping Centre.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s facilities in Ireland have faced some public backlash, with some people who live near its hubs, from which drones take off and on routes the drones typically fly have complained about noise pollution.<\/p>\n

The company has previously said it faces one complaint for every 500 deliveries completed.<\/p>\n

Manna, which has partnerships with Uber, Deliveroo, and Just Eat, has raised tens of millions of euro to fund the development of its drone hardware and technology.<\/p>\n

Last month, the company closed a $50 million (\u20ac43.4 million) fundraising round from Ark Invest, which has previously backed OpenAI and Tesla, Boston-based fund Schooner Capital, Coca-Cola HBC and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF).<\/p>\n

The most recent accounts filed by the company, which cover 2024, show its main Irish firm has racked up accumulated losses of close to \u20ac50 million since the firm was set up in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drone firm Manna has been refused permission to develop a new delivery hub near Dundrum Town Centre. Last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[140450,12842,84880,42,68187,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-503297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bobby-healy","tag-dun-laoghaire-rathdown-county-council","tag-dundrum-town-centre","tag-headlines","tag-manna","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}