The record number of new homes built in recent years will leave Ireland with a "legacy of cold houses for coming generations" because of their "very poor standards" of insulation and energy efficiency, according to an Austrian expert.
Dr Christian Rakos, director of the Austrian Wood Pellets Association, who spent a year working with Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) in Bandon, Co Cork, said all of the 80,000 new homes built last year could have been much better insulated at very little cost.
Noting that Ireland has one of the highest levels of fuel imports in the EU, Dr Rakos said he was "astonished" by the complacency of Irish policy-makers about the emerging energy gap. "They need to be given a hard shake to recognise these realities", he declared.
Although the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources is responsible for energy policy, he noted that the word "energy" is not even included in its title; this in itself indicated an "amazing lack of interest in such an important area". With the prices of oil and gas rising, Dr Rakos said the department should be looking at the "enormous potential" of bio-fuels such as timber to bridge the energy gap and reduce Ireland's dependence on imported fossil fuels - currently in excess of 80 per cent.
Otherwise, he warned, "it will be extremely difficult to cope with energy shortages". Already, according to an SEI estimate, Irish householders are spending a total of €2.2 billion a year on energy - including electricity and heating oil, gas or coal.
"There is very serious potential in Ireland to switch over to bio-fuels on a significant scale", according to Dr Rakos. "Wood pellets are 70 per cent cheaper than oil and 45 per cent cheaper than gas, and it's going to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
"We are looking at a crisis with oil supply, and we can address this either on the traffic side or on the heating side. My belief is that it's much easier and more economic to address it on the heating side - and switch to a fuel that's a lot cheaper.
"You can get the job done in a few years if policy-makers decide this is an issue they want to address, and you would be able to create exponential market growth if it's well co-ordinated. But it needs a kick-off of financial incentives to get going".
James Kennedy, chairman of the Irish Wood Energy Association, said even though Ireland was "starting from a very low base" a major switch to renewables would offer "huge opportunities for job creation" as well as cutting down on fossil fuels.
He blamed "lack of joined-up thinking" in Government for Ireland's failure to embrace renewable energy. "We're just not at the races. We haven't even started in this business. And this is in the context of spending €7 billion a year importing oil, coal and gas".
Mr Kennedy said one of the real problems was that the focus in Ireland on renewable energy was almost entirely on wind power to generate electricity - "yet that accounts for only 20 per cent of total energy, while heat [ for buildings] amounts to 40 per cent".
The EU's Energy Performance of Buildings Directive - due to be implemented here in stages from January 1st next - will have an impact, he believes. But it needed to be backed up by a co-ordinated plan to make buildings in Ireland more energy-efficient.
Tim Cooper, former director of buildings at Trinity College Dublin, said the Government should be giving householders carbon credits or some other incentive to encourage them to change their heating systems from burning fossil fuels to burning wood chips or pellets.
Like Dr Rakos, he believes there is great potential in farmers growing willow as a short rotation crop for use as a fuel. "The nice thing about biomass is that you can grow it in winter, harvest it in spring and dry it in summer, on a three-year cycle. It's like making hay".
At present, only one company in Ireland - Balcas, near Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh - produces wood chips and pellets. However, because of the lack of demand here at home, most of its annual production is exported.
