Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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194. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount of funding provided to date for the development of U-Space in Ireland; to outline the estimated total cost for its development and implementation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31833/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The European Commission in conjunction with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency developed an enabling regulatory framework (Regulations (EU) 2021/664, 2021/665, and 2021/666) that allows for the safe development of the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) services market and the integration of UAS into our airspace.

Regulation (EU) 2021/664, the U-space Regulation, provides for a digital system that aims to keep UAS operations safe, secure, and green. The concept of U-space emerged to support commercial operations with UAS, especially those entailing greater complexity and automation, to provide for the safe integration of a number of proximate UAS flights in a volume of airspace. The implementation of the U-space regulation will facilitate greater growth in the UAS sector by enabling increased density and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.

Regulation (EU) 2021/664 outlines the service providers and services required to establish U-space. At a minimum these must include network identification, traffic management, flight authorisation and geo-awareness. U-space full services are not envisaged until 2030.

Many EU member states are finding the implementation of U-space challenging. The U-space regulation leaves it up to each State to designate U-space airspace and to choose the model of provision of U-space services (centralised or distributed). The implementation of U-space will require the adoption of high-level strategic decisions and possible regulatory developments, as well as close collaboration, cooperation, and coordination with relevant State entities and the UAS sector itself.

The Department of Transport and the IAA are initiating a programme of work to identify the requirements, timeline, and costs of a U-space delivery programme. As a first step the Irish Aviation Authority has established a dedicated Airspace and U-space Division that will work closely with the current IAA UAS and Air Navigation Services Divisions on the establishment and oversight of an unmanned air traffic management system. The IAA is also collaborating with Lero, the Research Ireland Centre for Software, Maynooth University, Dublin City Council and UAS industry bodies on a project, the Drone Innovation Partnership, that will inform the development of a unmanned air traffic management system in the Dublin city region. To date no funding has been allocated for the development and implementation of U-space.