Dear John Gormley and Eamonn Ryan

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Ministers
Eamonn Ryan & John Gormley

Dear Ministers,

I wonder, if as Irish government ministers, do you take suggestions from Joe Public at all these days?

There have been gallant but largely ineffective efforts by your departments and agencies SEI and Change.ie to improve our ghastly environment and energy situation. I wonder, has anyone, outside the club, actually costed the changes, or made any commercially based statistical analysis of the success to date?

My guess is that if either SEI or Change.ie were in business in the real world, they would have been quickly put into liquidation for lack of demand and/or poor returns on investment.

I have two very simple and cheap to implement suggestions to make. IMHO they would save more energy in one year than both SEI and Change.ie have since their inception.

My suggestions are that you would serve Ireland’s energy efforts far better by:

1. Introducing simple, accessible and clear to understand grant subsidies for attic insulation in the hundreds of thousands of older homes and public buildings.
2. Making arrangements to have every house, school and workplace in the country turned over to the use of CFL bulbs.

If fully implemented, these simple measures would give a continuing return for many years to come and save much more than grants for fancy geo-thermal systems and the like that only the relatively rich can afford.

But it is my guess guys that you don’t listen to suggestions except from overpaid “advisers” and club members of cosy state funded agencies. Joe Public would never have the wit or brains to see possibilities would he?

Or maybe I am being too cynical?



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