Mr George Redmond has said the payments he received for advice while he was an official in Dublin Corporation were "a Sword of Damocles" and it had ruined his life.
He was responding to questions from the tribunal's legal team as to whether he had considered the potential risk of receiving large sums of money for advice. "It was a Sword of Damocles and in a way I buried it . . . I lived with that sword over my head and it obviously has ruined my life," he said.
Yesterday was the last day of Mr Redmond's preliminary evidence, and before the tribunal adjourned Mr Justice Flood asked Mr Redmond to consider it as a "period of reflection".
He asked Mr Redmond to reflect on the facts concerning the people he had assisted, what he had assisted them with, what had happened and when and where it had happened.
In reply, Mr Redmond said he appreciated the chairman's comments but said he had difficulty remembering events. "I'm at a stage now where I want no confrontation with the tribunal."
Mr Redmond said he had never sought the payments but was given them, and while some people employed him who had felt he had a certain expertise, he never used that expertise against Dublin Corporation's interest.
He said he had conned developers out of hundreds of thousands of pounds for deals done on behalf of the corporation and he had that on his conscience.
He could not connect any payment he received with any matter he carried out. "It was not performance related," he said.
Mr Redmond said when he had retired he received a number of lucrative offers for consultancy positions. "But in spring of that year there were police investigations. The blight started for me that year."
Mr Redmond said he wanted to make a comment regarding public representatives when counsel for the tribunal said that he could make a statement on that at another date.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Desmond O'Neill SC, read out a circular regarding rules of conduct for officials of local authorities, which stated they were not to "engage in gainful occupation" outside their official work which might conflict with office or prejudice them.
Mr O'Neill also referred to circulars on gifts and bribes which stated that any person remunerated out of central funds would face imprisonment or a fine.
Mr Redmond said there was a distinction with what he had done as he had never done anything or stopped anything from happening in Dublin Corporation.
"I was right down the middle with regard to the duties I was asked to perform," he said. "I am most positive in what was presented to me and I was not influenced by gifts or whatever."
Mr O'Neill asked Mr Redmond why he had not kept a record of all payments received to prove their legitimacy. "I didn't think it out in that depth, with that precision . . . maybe I should have with hindsight. I am struggling now with memory and recollection," he said.