A former Fine Gael Councillor has been giving evidence in his trial over allegedly receiving €80,000 in corrupt payments.
Fred Forsey Junior has pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution contends that Mr Forsey took the money as a bribe, while Mr Forsey says it was a loan as he was in financial difficulty.
He accused his former wife Jenny of lying in her evidence last week, saying she knew about the loan agreement, which he said he had in place with the developer.
The former deputy mayor of Dungarvan told the court he always struggled with money and often missed mortgage repayments.
Mr Forsey Jr told how Fine Gael TD John Deasy asked him to take his seat on Dungarvan Town Council and he was subsequently co-opted onto the council. He later retained his seat in the 2004 local elections.
He said he wanted to do everything to bring jobs to Dungarvan and had met the developer at the centre of this rezoning allegation when he was trying to get somebody to invest in a website he was thinking of developing during the dot.com bubble but nothing came of it.
He said he never became good friends with the developer but that they would salute each other if they met out socially.
Mr Forsey Jr described how he heard in 2006 from another businessman of a plan to bring jobs to the area outside of Dungarvan and that he never had a face to face meeting with the developer, saying his interest was purely on job creation.
He said he rang the developer to get a loan for €60,000 or €70,000 as he was going broke and that it had nothing to do with the proposed land rezoning.
The man agreed to give him the money he says and a loan agreement was drawn up in August 2006.
In detailed evidence, he described how his marriage was breaking down and he left his wife Jenny in September or October 2006 and later rented a house with his partner Karen Morrissey.
He described how in December 2006 when he was going to give maintenance money to Jenny, his mother-in-law threatened to stab him and do time for him if he did not pay maintenance and that she knew about the €10,000 which her daughter had lent him and that she would go to the gardaí about it if he did not pay it back.
He said this was the last thing he needed so he contacted the developer, who agreed to give him a further €10,000.
He said his three children witnessed the rows between him and his former wife, and that it was very upsetting.
The trial continues.
