Higher expectations among consumers explained increased levels of personal debt, Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan told the Dáil.
The reality, he said, was that people had commitments to meet and bills to pay, irrespective of what level of society or income they were at.
"One's expectations also increase. The credit secured 20 years ago was to pay routine bills like electricity, gas, coal and food. By and large, the situation today is nothing like that."
Mr Brennan added that some of the figures he had seen related to "credit card bills and loans for cars, motorcycles, bicycles and short holidays, all of which are legitimate, but people's expectations have risen".
On the 10,075 new people who had approached Mabs (Money Advice and Budgeting Service), Mr Brennan said the majority were aged between 26 and 40. They were mainly single people or single parents with young children.
Just over 50 per cent of them were in receipt of a social welfare payment, and 30 per cent, or just under 3,000, were working.
The Minister was replying to Fine Gael spokesman David Stanton, who expressed concern about the increase in personal debt.
Personal debt among Irish consumers had increased by 11 per cent between last year and this to an average personal debt level, excluding mortgages, of €6,000, he said
Mr Stanton asked if Mr Brennan was concerned about the finding.
"Has the Minister any comments to make about people in employment who are forced to go to Mabs, in other words the working poor?"
Labour's spokesman Willie Penrose asked why financial institutions were charging exorbitant interest rates. "Has the financial regulator a role in this regard? Has the Minister spoken to the credit union movement, the poor person's bank? "
Mr Brennan said that the findings of a major report, and other research, had made it clear that poor people paid more for loans. He said his departmental officials were seeking legal advice on whether it was possible to amend the Consumer Credit Act.
