In David McWilliam's book, "the Pope's Children", he makes what I consider to be a very interesting point about the way the classes in Ireland are converging closer so that you now have a large middle class working the system. These are the people who are borrowing to fund their lifestyles today with what is apparently no thought for tomorrow. Hence the new cars, the luxurious holidays (not 1 but 2 and 3 holidays per year), designer clothes, jewellery, expensive watches, golf equipment and golf club memberships, gym memberships, spa treatments, gambling (have you noticed how popular this has become recently?) etc.
The working classes who are on minimum incomes and who do not qualify for loans, credit cards etc. simply spend everything they earn on a weekly basis or worse end up with the high interest moneylenders.
The wealthy classes are the ones investing in the businesses that provide the services and products to everyone else.
This is a realtively new phenomenon in Ireland since money only really arrived here in the 90's. This is a recognised pattern in the US and Ireland appears to be going that way.
I think the problem is that many Irish people confuse income with wealth. When you are earning 100k a year and "own" a house that seems to be going up in price all the time, you will feel wealthy and so spend more of your income. Suddenly, where you were satisfied with that '03 car outside before, now you just have to have the latest '06 gas guzzling SUV model because, well, you're making loads of money and its not a problem. And besides, you want everyone to know how "well" you're doing.
Meanwhile, the person earning 30k a year and is the kind of person who borrows a travel guide from the library rather than buy one before going on holidays, is more than happy to drive a 16 year old car that is kept in good condition and invests at least 10% of monthly income first before paying anyone else is probably a lot wealthier than the other person, or certainly will be over time even if the income is three times or more less.
The point is, the amount, type and your use of any debt you owe is more a reflection on your personality (or on society as a whole) than on any economic circumstance. You can't blame banks for taking advantage and throwing money at people. This is their business, after all. And I'm afraid to say that I believe Irish society has become quite undisciplined with respect to debt and has become a show - off and even quite snobbery with it. Not just cars and property, but have you noticed the increased snobbery with respect to food for example? Or golf?
Debt can be a great thing when used correctly, but it appears to me it is being abused by the vast majority of Irish people because they are not willing to wait to earn anything first.