"Green" policies are destroying this country

Oh god don’t put that out there, we’ll all end up paying for them to have brand new, state of the art EVs

The difference is stuff you are politically opposed to is labelled as 'fanatical' while stuff you agree with is 'realistc'

In 1946 the first rural electricity pole was installed in dublin, less than 20 years later, every rural parish in the country had an electricity supply.

Yet you think its impossible for Ireland to modernise our grid over the course of a decade

You call yourself a realist. Yet the reality of our need to act on climate change is conspicuously absent from all of your posts.

Make it your political priority that the cost of these changes should not be placed on the citizens, but rather the state should fund with central bank instruments and roll it out that way.

The sooner the Fossil Fuel industry realise that they're not in the business of selling fossil fuels, but in the business of selling energy, then there will be a modern Oil rush as their vast resources are put into generating clean energy before they get completely left behind and stuck with a load of stranded assets

Right now, they're using COP to try to squeeze the last bit of value from those assets, but we cannot let them do this, every billion they make from selling Oil Coal and Gas, is going to cost many times that amount in the costs of dealing with climate change

Not so, there were houses with no power well into the 70s and unless they find some way of controlling the prices ,we are heading back to people sitting in the dark,

First came Mini ice age then hole in the ozone, then Global warming and now climate change when we didn't get the Indian summers they promised, may as well throw the Millenium bug in there to keep with the scaremongering, current fad will have passed in a few years and there'll be some new piece of consumption orientated catastrophe,

Enid getting into the cronyism full swing and him dosed to the eyeballs,

In reality it's the Greens selling a vehicular variation of a new smartphone, next year they'll be peddling a newer version, whole movement has roots in blatant consumerism

It won't NCT and won't be insurable, Irish people never liked Jaguars , poorly assembled English junk, do you even drive?

Inflation is inflation though, the costs of all those energy upgrades have also very likely increased 20% in the last year due to material and labour shortages while the grants for them have remained fixed as far as I know.

Even the new ESB smart meter tariffs being offered aren't all that appealing compared to the old rates and they were sold to the public as encouraging a new wave of smart energy usage patterns, the sad thing is there is still a lot to be said for getting a fill of heating oil when prices are low during the summer compared to the spikes in electricity and natural gas prices we are seeing now.

You haven't factored in new doors and windows and air tightness works - all needed for your new heat pump to work properly. Possible wall insulation depending on age of the house and a new ventilation system. Your new heat pump will most likely need new rads also to work properly. So no you wouldn't be done and dusted. Heat pumps are useless without doing significant air tightness and other ancillary works. Not many people realise what's actually needed for them - it's not just swapping out one system for another, it needs a huge upgrade to the fabric of the building.

There are a lot of variables in there such as mileage, battery supply plus the costing is pretty vague with only figures from a private company established for the purpose, so I cannot see many ripping their cars apart to convert them based on just that article.

That said, it certainly sounds like a good idea at the price mentioned, but it would not lead me to have any more faith in our present green policies. It would make me question why we have heard nothing about this possibility rather than the nonsense of 1 million expensive new electric cars by 2030. If I was a conspiracy theorist I would be tempted to believe our Green party got in early on electric car manufacturing shares.

From your post you appear to have a better understanding of rural one-off housing than it might suggest.

The vast majority of those that live in one-off housing are as you say those that have been gifted a site by their family who are farmers. For that reason without having to pay the crazy prices a site would cost in an urban sprawl they can afford to build their own homes rather than add to the numbers waiting for eons for social housing and thus being a drain on the economy. They also very often have their own water supply and sewerage system of septic tanks (much more eco friendly than raw sewage being pumped into rivers and the sea which is still common practice for many urban areas) and again, no drain on public finances. Electricity supply may require a new line but for that "privilege" they pay through the nose.

Like everything in life a "free site" is rarely if ever free. There may be no contract but there is as often as not a tacit understanding that it comes with them being around to help out on the farm when needed, and that they will be there for the provider of the "free site" to look after them in old age. Something that is saving the state countless millions on an annual basis.

Of course you can always go the road of moving everyone into urban sprawls at gigantic expense and wipe out farming and farming communities by doing so, but you are going to end up with the very tricky problem that your food supply will run short. Unless it is a case of being in favour of the very questionable practise of intensive super farms providing it there would be no other option.