In a ruling handed down on 1 October, adjudication officer Patricia Owens said she was “not particularly concerned about whether the complainant used AI or not”, which was initially denied.

However, she said parties making submissions “have an obligation to ensure that their submissions are relevant and accurate and do not set out to mislead either the other party or the adjudication officer”.

The complainant’s submissions “were rife with citations that were not relevant, mis-quoted and in many instances, non-existent”.

“The complainant wasted a considerable amount of time of the respondent and the adjudication officer in seeking to establish the veracity or otherwise of legal citations,” she continued.

“The complainant’s attempts to bring in new allegations and claims late in the day and to seek to rely on phantom citations to support his claims can only be described as egregious and an abuse of process.”

The case, ADJ-00055225, concerned a discrimination claim brought against Ryanair by a cabin crew member, Fernando Oliveira.

Oliveira alleged that he was discriminated against by the respondent on the grounds of family status and race in relation to promotion, provision of training and conditions of employment.

He further alleged that he was victimised, harassed and sexually harassed in the respondent workplace.

Ryanair denied the allegations and the complaint was found by the WRC to be “not well founded”.

Oliveira was unrepresented while Ryanair was represented by Roland Rowan BL, instructed by Killian O’Reilly of Fieldfisher Ireland LLP.