The Ulick McEvaddy-backed drone company Green Aviation is submitting a proposal to establish a drone base at Galway Airport.

The proposal to the local authority calls for R&D, technology development, and flight testing to take place at the site.

The news emerges ahead of the Drones Data X conference which will be held in Mayo next month. The event is organised by Philip McNamara, USA managing director of outsources customer care company Voxpro. He said this country's "operator- friendly regulations" give it a chance to attract big drone companies here,

"The Government is very willing to be innovative when it comes to helping start-ups and helping companies. A lot of these drone companies are having issues with testing in the US. The Federal Aviation Administration are quite wary of drones...so it's very expensive for companies to apply to become commercial drone pilots.

"So large companies could have a big opportunity to say look, come to Ireland you can test in Ireland, you can develop in Ireland, and you can start up in Ireland."

Sunday Indo Business