Drone footage was shot without the appropriate permissions in place at two events for Fianna Fáil presidential candidate Jim Gavin .
Mr Gavin, who has previously promoted safe drone use in his role as a senior executive with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), confirmed on Wednesday that a drone shooting campaign footage did not receive the appropriate permissions when making a video of him participating in a parkrun last weekend.
Later on Wednesday, a Fianna Fáil spokeswoman confirmed that a second regulatory report had been made relating to drone footage that was shot at Mr Gavin’s campaign launch last Sunday, at the Exo Building in Dublin’s docklands.
The report, known as a voluntary safety occurrence report, is aimed at improving aviation safety.
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A Fianna Fáil spokeswoman said that Mr Gavin became aware on Tuesday that the IAA had been contacted about drone usage at the parkrun event. He then checked with the pilot if he had sought permission in advance.
Upon discovering that no permission had been sought, Mr Gavin directed the pilot to the procedure to report the incident.
After that, Mr Gavin asked about drone usage and permission in other campaign videos.
“He found that similarly, at Exo, permission should have been sought and wasn’t, so again he directed the pilot to file a report,” the spokeswoman said.
Asked by reporters on Wednesday about the further use of drones in his campaign, Mr Gavin said that the appropriate permissions were in place for another, separate, video.
When asked specifically about the footage which led to the second regulatory report, Mr Gavin said his campaign planned an “audit”. He said that where the relevant regulatory approval wasn’t in place, he would ask that a report be submitted.
His spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Gavin was aware of the second report being submitted before fielding questions on it today.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Gavin said that he didn’t see the drone at the parkrun event, which he participated in alongside Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers.
He said he was giving the run “my all” and that Mr Chambers “put me through my paces”.
“We didn’t see the drone - it was brought to my attention yesterday so I simply asked the drone operator to file an ‘occurence report’.”
Mr Gavin said that aviation culture dictated that there would be no blame game and that the industry attempted to learn from mistakes.
“I’ve been involved in aviation all my life, drones are a great form of aviation, mistakes are made, we simply learn from them - managing football teams, managing teams myself, every day I’ll make mistakes in this campaign, that’s life, I’m human, we simply learn from it,” he said.
He explained that under aviation rules, certain areas acted like a “box of airspace” where drones could only operate with prior permissions.
