The Mayo TD, Ms Beverley Cooper-Flynn, has said she does not have £2 million to meet the estimated legal costs resulting from her recent libel case over an RTE programme.
She said that her father, the former EU commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, would not be in a position to "bail her out" either.
During a phone call to her local radio station, MWR, yesterday, Ms Cooper-Flynn said she was not wealthy. Her personal resources were no different from those of any other person of her age.
She said she did not regret taking the case. Given the opportunity, she would not turn the clock back.
Ms Cooper-Flynn took a libel case against RTE, its reporter Charlie Bird and a farmer who appeared in a programme which accused her of having encouraged tax evasion. The jury found her reputation had not been damaged, and costs were awarded against her.
Ms Cooper-Flynn said yesterday she had received tremendous support from Fianna Fail colleagues. The level of public support for her was "unprecedented". She said the "media frenzy" attached to her court case had had a lot to do with the fact that she was her father's daughter. That was something she would never wish to change.
The £2 million bill presented her with a "daunting prospect". "Two million pounds is an awful lot of money, and I don't have it. My Dad simply would not be able to afford to bail me out either as we are gone way beyond that now, and it wouldn't even be an option.
"I am no different to any young person out there. I am 34 now and have worked in a banking career and was a PAYE taxpayer all my life. I just got on with it the same as other people so I am not a fairly wealthy person."
She would say within the week whether she would appeal to the Supreme Court.
Asked if she was surprised NIB had not supported her in her court case, she said: "I took the view that the allegations made by RTE were personal against me and that is the basis on which I took the case. I was not representing NIB.
"But in my work with the bank it was never the case that I was doing a solo run. I did my job just like anybody else. I wasn't the chief executive, I wasn't even a manager. I was very low down and I was rewarded like everyone else for doing what I was told."
If the Taoiseach asked her directly to resign from Fianna Fail for the sake of the party, "I would say No", she said. "I went into politics because I wanted to serve the people of Mayo, and that has not changed."