But there are already renewable energy pioneers who brought this technology in to their homes at their own expense some time ago, simply because it made sense. How have they found that alternative technologies have fitted in with family life? The problems are fairly simple. For example, 40% of domestic energy is spent on heating water.

Seven years ago, Eileen Doran was building her own home, in Carnew, Co Wicklow. She wanted solar panels in the roof of the new house. "We were looked on as freaks, " she says. "They all thought we were mad. But we're not eco-warriors at all. I'm not out hugging trees or anything. I'm a bookmaker and my husband is a farmer."

When they moved into their south-facing house in 2000, the solar panels, which take up about one-sixth of the roof and look like four large radiators, caused a sensation. "People weren't used to seeing them on an ordinary house. They were only used to seeing them on swimming pools when they were on their holidays."

Doran still welcomes the curious to come and have a look. Her experience of solar energy has been entirely positive. "I can genuinely say that, after a few teething problems, which weren't caused by the panels at all but by the installation, we've had no major hiccup since."

Doran has two children, three bathrooms and seven bedrooms. Her house measures just under 3,000sq ft and has underfloor heating which is run from an oil-fired stove in the kitchen, which she turns on when she gets home from work. She has no immersion heater. "The panels take care of all our water needs, " she says. "A lot of people are under the misconception that solar panels need sunshine, but in fact they just need light. The costliest part of heating water is taking it from cold to tepid, then you just top it up. Even in the dead of winter, we have knocked a third off our heating bills. From April to October, we don't need any extra heating at all."

Her biggest problem was finding people who would install the new technology. "Some plumbers told us that underfloor heating would burn our feet." Although she received no grant for any of the new technology, Doran has no regrets. "Shortly afterwards, oil went through the roof. The solar panels and tank cost £3,500.

They paid themselves off in three years. I'd recommend it to anyone."

Renewable energy is not just for country dwellers. Last year Niall and Niamh Smyth built a timber house in Kilmacud, Co Dublin. "We got it in a kit from Scandinavian Homes in Galway. The house is 16m x 25m. For us, it was what was affordable. In the kit we got triple glazing, a heat-recovery ventilator, underfloor heating, all for 95,000, including VAT. We thought that was good value. But to get a builder, it's that price again. The structure went up in three days."

Eighty per cent of the heat in the house is maintained within it, but the air is renewed all the time.

"It's more a feeling, " says Niall. "There's fresh air in the house. We've no radiators but the house is a good temperature all the time. We did have a gas heater, but it was too hot. We have a small gas hob for cooking."

Niall now plans to install solar panels as well, and may apply for one of the new grants. He and Niamh have two small children and quite a small site. He would recommend the timber house option and the new heating methods to anyone."Without a doubt, " he says.

Liam Clancy . . . yes, that Liam Clancy, who mentored Bob Dylan . . . built his sustainable energy house over a quarter of a century ago, in Ring, Co Waterford. "If I'd built this house in America, it would have cost nothing because there were tax incentives, but here we're only starting, " he says. "There was no imagination or help for anyone until the gun of the EU was put to the government's head."

He travelled with his architect, Duncan Stewart, to view alternative energy building in America. "It's a big, big house. Five rooms downstairs, the same upstairs, then an observatory and my recording studio outside." It was built on a timber frame. "I bought the timber from an old estate in the midlands, and I got the Douglas Fir for the floors there as well. All for £12,000."

After many arguments with the insurance companies, they agreed to cover the building as long as there was a large body of water nearby.

"So we built a swimming pool. In the winter, the pool reflects light back up on to the solar panels.

It's just common sense."

The house was built facing south. The insulation followed the Scandinavian model, with large windows facing south, double-glazed, and small windows facing north, triple glazed. (Both Eileen Doran and Niall Smyth followed this model.

Insulation is not covered under the Greener Homes scheme. ) The Clancys raised their four children there.

It is now heated by a heat pump operating a reverse refrigeration scheme. "People come in and say, 'My God, you've got the central heating on!' And I say, 'We don't have central heating.'" All three of these satisfied customers are at pains to point out that renewable energy is nothing complicated, and not just for self-builders.

"Every house has potential, " says Liam Clancy.

"We should be fostering self-reliance on housing estates and in office buildings. The amount of energy that hits the earth is more than enough for us all. When I built this house, I wanted to show how absolutely practical sustainable energy is. But no one took any notice. Until now."

And there has, indeed, been great interest in the Greener Homes scheme, which includes grants for solar panels and wood pellet stoves and boilers. "We've dispatched 1,400 application packs so far, " says David Taylor, of Sustainable Energy Ireland, which is in charge of the scheme.

"We have five phonelines manned from 9.30 on Monday, and they're busy. We didn't anticipate that so many older people would be interested.

The calls are well spread throughout the country and we anticipated that. People who are off the gas grid for example, people who are building their own homes."

The scandal of Ireland's rocketing carbon emissions, the opportunities that have been missed with all the new building in the past decade, and the censure of the EU are what prompted the government to act at last. However, credit must be given to Minister of Natural Resources and the Marine, Noel Dempsey, for bringing Greener Homes to Ireland . . . at last.

Solar panels are grant-aided to 300 per sq m, up to a maximum of 12 sq m. There are almost full grants for the purchase of a wood pellet boiler (grant 4,200; catalogue price 4,800), although insulation costs are not covered.

Wood pellet boilers, popular in Germany and Scandinavia, provide an automated heating system, like conventional central heating, for domestic use. The forestry industry will provide the wood pellets from its waste. The Greener Homes website provides a list of installers, which must register with them.

David Taylor expects the increased volume of sales to keep equipment prices down. "The minister wants to make renewable energy affordable for the ordinary person.

"People are doing it because they want a second string to their bow. Because renewable energy is cheaper. And for ethical reasons, for the future."