Drone Services Ireland attended the Irish Aviation Authority’s UAS Stakeholder Forum on 28 August 2026. Here is what commercial operators and the clients who commission them should take from it – in particular, AirNav Ireland’s statement that a digitised UF101 approval system for the Dublin and Shannon control zones is hoped for by the end of September.
The Forum is the IAA’s quarterly meeting with registered UAS operators, formed this year by merging the previous Representative Associations forum with the Specific Category Safety Forum. Each registered operator may send one representative. The August session ran as a hybrid meeting at IAA headquarters and online.
The headline: UF101 approvals for Dublin and Shannon may go digital
The most useful item for anyone planning work in controlled airspace came from AirNav Ireland, who indicated that a digitised UF101 approval system for the Dublin and Shannon control zones is hoped to be in place by the end of September 2026. Today the UF101 process for flying inside those CTRs is a manual request with lead times that have to be built into every project programme. A digital route would shorten and standardise that, which matters for any survey, inspection or monitoring job near Dublin Airport or Shannon. We will report when it is live and how it works in practice; until then, the existing process and lead times still apply, and our Irish drone airspace map shows where the zones sit.
Cork City Council’s frustrations with MySRS
Cork City Council set out its difficulties with the MySRS system (the IAA’s online portal for operator registration and services) in some detail. The IAA’s response was to invite the MySRS team to the next Forum meeting to hear the issues directly. If your organisation has had similar problems with the portal, the next session is the place they will be aired.
Actions from the previous meeting: very little done
The meeting opened with the list of actions carried from the previous Forum. Very few had been actioned. The minutes of that previous meeting were only circulated shortly before 28 August, which left members little time to review them. That is an honest record of where the Forum stands: the structure is in place, and the follow-through is the part that needs to improve.
Attendance: the worst yet
Only four drone operators joined online, with one or two in the room – the lowest attendance the Forum has had. Some operators have chosen publicly not to engage with the IAA at this level. Our view is different. Decisions about controlled-airspace access, portal design and authorisation lead times get made whether operators are present or not, and a Forum with an empty room makes it easy for those decisions to be made without industry input. Attending, putting questions on the record and holding the action list to account is the only route to the process improving. That is why Drone Services Ireland attends.
What this means if you commission drone work
Three practical points. First, if you have a project inside the Dublin or Shannon CTR planned for the autumn, ask your operator whether the UF101 route has changed before assuming the old lead time. Second, authorisation and airspace still sit with the operator, not the client – see our guides to drone licensing in Ireland and where you can fly for the current rules. Third, ask your operator whether they attend these Forums. It is a small but telling signal about how seriously they take the regulatory side of the work.
Drone Services Ireland is a registered UAS operator and a member of the IAA UAS Stakeholder Forum, flying commercially in Irish airspace since 2016. We hold EASA Specific Category authorisations for work in controlled airspace.