Calls to abandon Ireland’s retrofit programme—most recently prompted by commentary on an ESRI report—are missing the bigger picture. Ireland still relies on imported fossil fuels for most of its home heating. That dependency leaves families exposed to price shocks we cannot control. The best lasting way to reduce that exposure is to use less energy in the first place, and that means improving the efficiency of our homes
The alternative is: a future where Ireland’s housing stock remains amongst the least energy‑efficient in Europe[1], where Irish households are locked into volatile fossil fuel prices (as the last few weeks and years have shown), with cold and drafty homes that are expensive to run due to higher long‑term energy bills.
Energy efficiency is not an untested experiment. Driven by the EU Energy Efficiency Directive, over the past three decades, improved appliances, and efficient lighting have delivered huge energy savings for households across Europe. Retrofitting simply extends those proven benefits to the fabric of our homes—and Ireland has barely scratched the surface. Every major international body—the IEA, IPCC, European Commission, OECD, and WHO—identifies energy efficiency as the first and most cost-effective step in decarbonising heat.
The biggest winners are our citizens. A warm, well‑insulated home is not just cheaper to heat; it’s healthier. Cold, damp housing is linked to asthma, respiratory illness and excess winter deaths. Every euro invested in energy efficiency pays back in lower healthcare costs, reduced hardship, better quality of life and increased property value.
We also cannot ignore the environmental reality. Burning fossil fuels in our homes pollutes the air we breathe and drives up carbon emissions. Switching to electric heating—paired with a well‑insulated home—cuts local emissions to zero and makes Ireland less dependent on polluting fuels.
Some argue that because progress has been slower than expected, the retrofit strategy itself is flawed. However, Government policy is already evolving: reviewing retrofit standards, streamlining grants, allowing standalone measures, cutting VAT on heat pumps and solar, rolling out low‑cost loans, and expanding support for low‑income households. These are the right adjustments in the right direction, not signs of failure.
And while deep retrofits take time to mobilise, there is a significant cohort of houses in the middle where a very deep retrofit is not required but rather a measure such as external wall insulation will achieve most energy reduction savings. These dwellings will be much less expensive to future proof, and the long‑term national benefits are overwhelming.
A retrofit economy creates thousands of skilled jobs, boosts local supply chains, and keeps investment circulating in Irish communities. It builds a more resilient housing stock that uses less imported energy and delivers stable household bills for decades to come.
Ireland’s challenge is not whether to retrofit, but how fast we can scale a programme that is unambiguously in the public interest. The ESRI is right to highlight bottlenecks—but wrong if its conclusions are interpreted as a case for retreat. The strategic, economic and social imperatives all point in the same direction: stick with retrofits, accelerate where possible, and design complementary measures where needed.
Abandoning energy efficiency would leave Ireland colder, poorer, more polluted and more exposed to matters outside our control. Staying the course will leave us with something far better: a warmer, healthier, more secure Ireland that is prepared not just for the next winter, but for the next generation.
[1] State of the Irish housing stock—Modelling the heat losses of Ireland’s existing detached rural housing stock & estimating the benefit of thermal retrofit measures on this stock – ScienceDirect