There has been a great deal of commentary recently on the United Kingdom (UK) government’s stumbling efforts to increase economic growth through a combination of radical changes in tax and in employment and environmental regulations. The goal itself is seen as desirable: who would be against a sustained effort to increase national income and make resources available to pay people more and provide for the type of services expected in an advanced economy? It is the UK government’s reckless approach and strangely politically illiterate arguments that have generated the most interest, not the pursuit of economic growth as a policy goal. Ireland has measured its relative success in terms of increases in national wealth and, while the narrow basis on which this is built and the gloomy global outlook are causes for concerns, the nature of the growth being sought has changed little in recent decades.