Ms Beverley Cooper-Flynn's political future in Fianna Fáil may hang on today's Supreme Court judgment in her appeal against the outcome of her failed 2001 libel action against RTÉ.
The court is to give its decision on the two-day appeal which was heard in February and in which judgment was reserved.
Should Ms Cooper-Flynn lose, the Opposition is likely to renew demands for her expulsion from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party.
Ms Cooper-Flynn was readmitted to the parliamentary party before the 2002 general election after resigning the party whip eight months earlier after losing her libel action against RTÉ journalist Charlie Bird and retired farmer Mr James Howard. The High Court found that as a financial adviser with National Irish Bank, she had advised or encouraged people to evade tax.
After a 28 day hearing a jury decided her reputation had suffered no material injury as a result of RTÉ broadcasts of June and July 1998 implicating her in encouraging people to evade tax by investing money in certain offshore schemes.
Ms Cooper-Flynn resigned from the parliamentary party immediately after the High Court judgment, and it was clear that had she not resigned the party would have moved to have her expelled.
However she was readmitted in time to be a Fianna Fáil candidate in the 2002 general election.
The Taoiseach told the Dáil in February this year that she had been readmitted to the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party on the grounds that she had lodged an appeal against the libel case verdict. Losing the appeal, therefore, is now likely to lead to calls for her expulsion. That was her second period outside the parliamentary party.
She had been expelled in February 1999 for failing to support a motion calling on her father to clarify the controversial £50,000 payment he received from developer Mr Tom Gilmartin. She was readmitted to the parliamentary party in November 1999.
Ms Cooper-Flynn faced further controversy in February after it emerged that she had advised her father on the investment of half of the money he received from Mr Gilmartin in an offshore scheme. However, following a Dáil statement in which she said she had not knowingly assisted Mr Flynn to evade tax, the Opposition did not call for her expulsion from the parliamentary party.
Should today's judgment go in her favour, Ms Cooper-Flynn faces further obstacles.
She is expected to give evidence to the Mahon tribunal about what happened the £50,000 Mr Gilmartin gave her father.