Councillor left Ireland due to affair, says developer

A property millionaire alleged to have made corrupt payments to a councillor told gardaí the councillor left the country in 2007 because he had “an affair with a young one” and not because of a Garda investigation, a court has heard.

The statement was made by Michael Ryan, aged 60, of The Sweepstakes, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, who denies three charges of corrupt payments totalling €80,000 to then councillor Fred Forsey Jr in 2006.

They are alleged to have been made in relation to a 32-hectare piece of land outside Dungarvan which Mr Ryan wanted rezoned from agricultural use to industrial and residential use.