I welcome the Bill from Deputy O'Gorman and the opportunity to again speak on this issue. It is a really important issue for Dublin West but it will also have an impact right across the country. It is interesting that it comes this week in light of the scrambler issue. I have raised the issue of Garda use of drones. Gardaí have been trained in the use of drones. I have been asking about this since 2021. An Garda Síochána has drones and gardaí have been trained in their use since 2023. However, they are not being used because regulations from An Garda Síochána are still awaited. There were legislative issues but these were cleared up by the Minister, who said there were none. It has gone back to An Garda Síochána and now it seems regulations are needed. There is just confusion about this across the board. Businesses do not seem to be confused about what they think they can do, however. This is a real example of the Government not getting its act together with regard to new technologies. We are going to see this on a monthly basis with the development of AI technology. We are going to be scrambling to try to deal with things literally every week. I live just down the road from Millennium Park, where the drone take-off zone is located. To be honest, when some of this was developed three years ago, I was intrigued. I walked the dog there pretty much every day - I still walk in that park - to see what was going in there. We saw how it was being developed and we saw drones. I was genuinely interested to see how this would work and the impact it would have on the community. I knew it was a trial period and wanted to see how it would develop. It would be untrue to say there is either unanimous opposition to this or unanimous support for it. There are very mixed feelings in Dublin 15 about its operation and impact. We were waiting to see what the impact would be in a couple of years. It was clear that noise was going to be the big impact. I simply do not accept the drone operators' views on the impact of noise as drones hover over your house. Anybody who has seen or experienced it will tell you that the noise of the drone as it drops off the package is unacceptable. To be fair, when you are walking your dog and the drone is at its peak height, you can hear it but it is not massively significant. It can be a little bit annoying but the impact is not as big as it is when a delivery is being made to your door or the door of someone else nearby. What most people are really concerned about and cannot get their heads around is the scaling of this. What is it going to look like? At the moment, there are five drones operating from Millenium Park. They can do a delivery every couple of minutes so, in an hour, five drones could make a couple of hundred deliveries. What will it look like when there are hundreds or thousands of drones in the sky? There is no doubt that other companies will look at this and say it is a very cheap and effective way to deliver products. It will not just be coffee and food. It will be small packages and deliveries. We see the development of these technologies in the war in Ukraine. We see the size of some of the drones and what they are used for. Some of these packages will probably be huge. There are hundreds of van drivers, delivery drivers and Deliveroo workers. All of those companies that currently deliver are going to see this as an opportunity to get rid of human beings delivering packages. They will see it as a way to operate much more effectively. I would invite anyone who does not know what we are talking about to come see. I was out canvassing a couple of months ago and we had comrades down from Belfast. They were looking at the drones above them asking what was going on. We told them it was coffee being delivered or someone getting their lunch or breakfast delivered. They were absolutely flabbergasted and could not believe it. Not everybody is aware of this but it is coming into every community and it is something that will be a huge issue for people. Another issue is privacy. For people who do not understand, when the drone goes over a person's property to make a delivery, a camera switches on. It looks down at where the square is and when it sees that nobody is there, it drops the package. I understand the company states this is not recorded but we know from previous history, and from our own WhatsApp groups and social media, that people take screenshots and videos from various computers. I have a real worry. People should have the right to be in their own garden and expect the privacy of their own garden. This should be expected. At the moment, I do not think people really trust that this is happening with the drone deliveries. Certainly, as it goes into the future, it will be a deep concern for people. I welcome the debate and the moves to regulate this. I have read the framework and looked at the framework. Unfortunately, there are no timelines on it. We do not know. The people living with it in the here and now, the people who are experiencing this in Dublin 15, cannot wait for another year, year and a half or two years. We know the company tried to open another two zones and ran into planning issues. We know it is pressing forward. I do not think we can wait, and certainly given the advancement of the technology, we certainly cannot wait for the Government. It is really disappointing to see this happen to another Bill brought by the Opposition. The Government constantly asks us to bring forward our solutions. Every time something happens in here, we are told to bring forward our solutions and that the Government will listen to us. Deputy O'Gorman has brought forward a solution and what has the Government done? It has kicked it down the road for another 12 months. It is really disappointing. The impact will not be in the Minister of State's constituency. It was previously but then it moved to our constituency. It will be in every constituency. We need to move fast to ensure people's right to their gardens and their privacy, their right not to have the noise these drones cause and their right not to have the nuisance they cause. I am not opposed to drone technology. It is another piece of technology that is here. It would be foolish to say we can ban this type of technology or get rid of it but we have to be able to regulate it. We have to make sure the concerns of our communities are not undermined by the desire to ensure businesses such as these drone delivery companies take precedence over our communities. It is disappointing that the Bill is being kicked down the road. We are going to be coming back to this time and again. As time goes on, the Chamber will get fuller of people who have concerns about drone deliveries in our communities. I ask that the Government act soon.

Sentiment score: 0.06