On Budget Day, it is a sobering thought to remember that policymaking in this country does not have a great track record for economic literacy. To be sure, Ireland enjoys one of the highest living standards in the world – as best we can tell, given the limitations of national accounting statistics. Many of the factors bringing that about are well beyond the control of local policymakers, including Ireland’s geographic and cultural position between Europe and North America and things like favourable economic conditions globally in the 1990s. But it is also incontestable that one set of factors that drove…