A man accused of raping a woman he met on Tinder told Gardaí he didn't expect them to have sex on their first date but hoped they would.

The man, whose identity is protected, insists they had consensual sex when he drove her up the Dublin Mountains in September 2014.

Following his arrest, the accused told Gardaí he met the complainant a few days after they matched on Tinder and she was keen to meet up.

He said they’d been sexting in the lead up to their first date, and while he felt they were meeting up to have sex, he didn't know if it was going to happen but said he hoped it would.

He said they pulled into a car park at Kilmashogue Lane up the Dublin Mountains and started kissing, but stopped when she asked him to.

He said they resumed kissing a short time later and that led to sex, which he claimed was fully consensual.

He denied using force and said she could have left at any stage.

He said they had a disagreement because he didn't use a condom and she accused him of tricking her into having sex.

In his second interview, he said he couldn’t remember her name and insisted at no stage did he rape her.

Our Courts Correspondent Frank Greaney reports: