Electric Ireland is part of the ESB Group, which owns generating plants. However, regulations demand that both businesses operate separately, so ESB cannot use profits from power plants to offset Electric Ireland’s rising costs.
While this may be the case, I assume that means those profits can be used for something else. Possibly to hire a bunch of people to survey the quality of the insulation on every residential property, to locate gaps, holes, cracks, around any object which protrudes through any exterior wall, such as doors, windows, and utility lines.
Then they could proceed to remediate this issues for what are probably geriatrics in rural areas, As the most efficient way to reduce their heating and cooling requirements.
Additionally the fund may be able to be increased for the purposes of providing various window and door insulation supplies, such as removable, wooden window inserts, around single pane windows, instead of replacing the windows. To create the effect of additional panes of glass. The inserts may use poly-carbonate or other transparent plastic material for the space between the wood of the removable winter pane, which have to be custom cut to length on site, with circular and/or table saws and power drills to accommodate the many varying sizes of windows.
As well as additional fire retardant insulation around water-heaters.
Another approach, which would only apply to the small number of financially vulnerable people, and which could create a precedent for the EU. Would be something like for households with a total household income below €42,000 and primary homeowner is older than 50 years of age or are currently receiving benefits from the government for disability, would be eligible for a fixed price per KWh for energy, which would be priced at most 100% higher (double) than the cost of production and transmission, to addresses within Ireland.
Additionally as part of the [Insert title of initiative here]
Individuals which are considered financially vulnerable, would also have the option of either replacing their wood stoves with electronic stoves or having their wood stoves retrofitted with something akin to heatsink fins, to make them more effective as heaters, If a stove used for Heating is replaced, multiple heaters which add up to the capacity in BTU which is being replaced with either Ceramic or Infrared heaters.
Residential buildings which still use a fireplace for heating, if they insist on using the fireplace for heating instead of a free upgrade to one of the above heaters, because for them the cost of wood is cheaper, should have the chimney exhausts retrofitted with carbon filters to recapture some of the emissions, at the expense of this fund.
