The annual report of the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner says it has seen an increased tendency to use various AI tools, which often means the complaints are longer, more voluminous and contain a lot of general information not related to the wrongdoing being alleged.
“The impact is that it can take longer to read and examine these reports, and to identify the core issues being raised,” the commissioner says.
Noting that the office is bound by strict timelines, it says the additional time required to read these AI-generated reports adds to the challenge of meeting deadlines, “and this can be exacerbated by the inclusion of incorrect legal references or ‘hallucinations’ generated by the AI tool.”
In his third annual report as Protected Disclosures Commissioner since being appointed in January 2023, Ger Deering says a considerable number of reports from whistleblowers are in fact employee grievances, inter-personal disputes, or complaints from people unhappy about something, rather than wrongdoing.
The role of the office is to transmit reports of wrongdoing to the person or body most appropriate to follow them up. Sometimes the commissioner investigates the reports himself.
The office has now dealt with 956 disclosures. The total for last year, 411, was a sharp increase on the figure of 262 from the year before.
“I do not believe this is indicative of a major increase in wrongdoing being reported,” Mr Deering says. It has more to do with inappropriate or mistaken use of the process for other purposes.
His office received several reports about financial and governance issues in sports and social clubs, and in other voluntary bodies. Because of the nature of the alleged wrongdoing in some cases, the commissioner could not identify an appropriate body to transmit the report to, and investigated the case himself.
“Given that I have no powers of enforcement or sanction, the outcome of such follow-up will likely be limited,” Mr Deering says.
“Having examined some reports related to alleged wrongdoing in a trade union, it emerged there may be a regulatory gap when it comes to trade unions in respect of governance issues that fall short of criminality.”
He also drew the attention of Jack Chambers, the minister for public expenditure who has responsibility for the protected disclosures regime, to the “unrealistic and unhelpful time limits” within which the commission has to operate. If a person or body objects to taking receipt of a protected disclosure, Mr Deering’s office has 14 days to make a ruling, and to find an appropriate alternative.
“It is most disappointing that, despite this office and others pointing out this serious problem in the operation of the legislation, the Government appears to be unwilling to rectify it,” his report says.
One person made 32 protected disclosures last year, while another person made 23, the report shows.
In terms of disclosures that it transmitted, 80 went to the HSE, 56 to the Workplace Relations Commission, 25 to the Defence Forces and 20 to the Central Bank.