A former Fine Gael deputy mayor of Dungarvan, who is denying taking corrupt payments, told gardaí there was no free meal in relation to his dealings with a developer.
Fred Forsey Jr, 43, also admitted he was a desperate man at the time and described how getting tens of thousands of euro from a developer was like a miracle.
The former Dungarvan town councillor is being cross-examined by the prosecution today at Waterford Circuit Court.
He denies receiving a total of €80,000 in corrupt payments from a property developer in 2006 to help get land rezoned.
Prosecuting Senior Counsel Denis Vaughan Buckley asked Mr Forsey if he thought receiving €80,000 from a developer would not be seen as suspicious by his council colleagues.
Mr Forsey replied that it was not, as he was having a lot of financial difficulties.
He said that when he phoned the developer asking for a loan, he thought it would be the most embarrassing day ever. However, when he agreed to give him the money, it felt like a miracle, Mr Forsey said.
He said he has not paid any of the money back.
Mr Vaughan Buckley read out statements the defendant made to gardaí following his arrest in July 2009 when he returned to Ireland for a wedding.
Mr Forsey told gardaí the money he received was not a corrupt payment, but a loan from the developer.
In his statements, Mr Forsey said he made loan applications to a number of banks in Dungarvan before he went to the developer, but the prosecution pointed out that bank officials last week gave evidence that no loan applications were made.
This morning, the former councillor admitted he had not filled out loan forms in the banks but that he had phoned one bank, and that he had filled out some loan applications online.
Mr Forsey told his trial he was confused and very tired in custody when he gave the statements to gardaí.
Prosecuting SC Denis Vaughan Buckley said that in one of his statements, the figures he was supposed to have received amounted to €90,000.
Today in court Mr Forsey said he was very tired at the time and was like a zombie as he had only five hours sleep while in custody.
He said the cell in the garda station was a very scary place, it was filthy and you could not even sit on the bed.
He also told the court he is currently on Back to Work allowance and that he is involved in developing a telematic insurance device, that they lost a deal in Australia and that he has two deals on the table.
He said he tried to get his passport to go to England for a meeting, was told he could go without his passport, but decided against this as it was against his bail conditions.
This afternoon a consultant who was working for the developer told the court that Mr Forsey wouldn't have had a hand, act or part in the development and that the only thing he could do was lobby county councillors.
On cross examination, the consultant said he first learned that Mr Forsey had received €80,000 from the developer in the last 12 months as part of this process and he didn't know about it then.
Prosecution asked would he have advised his client against paying a town councillor €80,000, even if it was a loan, and if it was unethical, to which he replied it was certainly questionable.
The defendant's former wife, Jenny Forsey, came into court this morning half-way through his evidence.
He said to gardaí in 2009 that he told Jenny he had got the money from remortgaging their house, but admitted this morning he was confused and tired at the time and agreed his evidence now was he told her he got the money from the developer.
He told the court he knew the developer who gave him the money was worth a couple of hundred million and that in bringing a motion attempting to have the town boundary extended, all he (Mr Forsey) wanted to do was promote jobs.
Under cross-examination, Mr Forsey again said that his former wife had lied in court. He said she would have known the money he received was €60,000, and that she would have seen the loan agreement in the house.
When asked where it went, he said it was in a filing cabinet but that when they broke up, a neighbour told him there was a skip in the driveway and his stuff was going into it. The prosecution claims Mrs Forsey knew nothing of the so-called agreement.
Part of his statement was read out regarding getting €80,000 from the developer, with the questioning gardaí stating the developer was a tough and hard businessman, and that he (Mr Forsey) had said that, of course, there was no free meal.
This morning, he told the court this was a phrase he would not have used, and said he would have to go back and check the video recording of it.
The trial continues.
