Unfortunately there is no such thing as "obvious", so it would have been nice to detail or link. I'm always interested in broadening my knowledge and correct my mistakes if given the opportunity . But without any evidence here, I'm wondering if by "relevant authorities" you are referring to the intense counter-information campaign made by Ryanair to dismiss the allegations.
The "lie" (I'd call it a "fallacy"...) is to say they broke the law. No indeed they did not, those who say so are wrong. Playing around with rules is their speciality, so they know how to have the law on their side - not always though (cf. gross abuse of EU freedom of movement vs. establishment in France). They often carry the minimum legal requirement (and "50% of pilots choose to take more" dixit Ryanair management, well sorry even if that's true it's little), from that point of view they don't breach the law, yet they do potentially endanger people's lives* with risky behavior triggering emergency landings that ought not to be (*Be it for that matter or for exhausted FAs btw).
Of course, it doesn't take away any of their merit in proposing commercially competitive rates for a good on-time record that people are so happy with, at regional airports abandoned by legacy carriers which may be useful to many pax (but then again thanks in part to taxpayer money subsidizing the FR flights and blackmailing tactics).