Mass retrofitting (insulation, cold-proof windows, heat pumps, PV solar panels) would give employment, provide Ireland with free electricity, and massively improve living standards. Expensive to do, but it would pay back in spades.
The sensible way to do it would be a repeat of the schemes that installed central heating into virtually every house in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, when you had the system installed by the utility providers and paid them back the (grant-aided) price on your utility bills over four or five years.
Retraining people who've lost their work because of the Covid-19 pandemic to retrofit houses would give work to thousands, and eminently exportable skills, for those who might want to go away for a few years and come back with a nest egg.