There are constant complaints in the midlands that there is very little evidence that the Celtic Tiger has left even a footprint.
The most recent industrial news has been the closure of textile and clothing plants, with the dole queues getting longer rather than shorter.
However, one Birr company has managed to grab a handful of the growing economy by providing vital equipment to the pharmaceutical, electronic and food industries.
There is a £30 million market for the supply and special laundering of clean-room garments and accessories.
The Countdown plant in Birr is providing such a service in its modern facility.
The cost of clean-room garments can vary from plant to plant but, according to Barry Geoghegan, managing director of Countdown, most plants spend £4 per worker a week on reusable garments and £8 a week on garments which can be re-laundered.
He explained that people working in clean-rooms, sterile suites and static-sensitive areas must wear special clothing to protect the highly-sensitive working environment from the minutest kind of contamination.
It is vitally important, he said, that the air be totally clean in enclosed areas where microchips, fine chemicals and pharmaceutical compounds are produced.
He said that some workrooms demand almost total sterility and that temperature, humidity and pressure must be controlled.
Air-borne contaminants such as tiny particles of clothing and even skin flakes must be eliminated.
"The people who work in these rooms are the greatest potential source of contamination, so full-body clothing, along with gloves, face masks and wipers, are part of the daily working clothing in many Irish factories," he said.
Mr Geoghegan said that he saw the opportunity to produce such clothing for a growing industrial sector. Last year he began making non-linting garments at the Birr plant, which now employs 15 people and has an estimated turnover of £1 million.
"Lint is the name given to the tiny shreds of yarn and fibre that are invisible to the naked eye, so our non-linting clothing is generally made of 100 per cent polyester," he said.
"We make garments that are lightweight, comfortable and easy to wash and, for the microelectronics industry the garment has to have good anti-static properties.
"What we do is design garments to special order, liasing closely with customers to produce clean-room garments specifically suited to their requirements which we test for filtration efficiency and anti-static attributes," he said.
But, he continued, the company attempted to bring a little bit of style and make the clothing easy on the eye and easy to wear.
"The days of just using a standard basic boiler suit for every application is long since gone," he said.
The company, which opened last year, now claims to have one of the most highly-sophisticated methods of laundering used clothing in the country.
It uses ultra-pure water. The garments, which are collected from plants, go through special washing machines and from there to a dry room with controlled airflow.
They are then packed in the company's own clean-room for dispatch to their customers, which include several in the United States.