The Department of Social Protection has said it is not standard practice for staff to conduct interviews behind closed doors in all its offices.
The comment follows an assertion by a judge that it appeared to be “standard practice” for interviews in a Sligo social welfare office to be conducted behind closed doors.
Judge Keenan Johnson made the comment as he found a 48-year-old man not guilty of coercion at Sligo Circuit Court.
It had been alleged that the defendant, during an interview at the social welfare offices in Sligo in April 2014, asked a woman for oral sex in return for her not being prosecuted for fraud.
The judge ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish the complainant had been intimidated.
Judge Johnson called for changes “as a matter of urgency” in how interviews are conducted in the department saying it was no longer feasible or acceptable in this day and age” to have the doors of interview rooms locked, especially during interviews involving different genders.
Where no CCTV cameras were present this left “both the interviewer and the interviewee vulnerable to false accusations,” he said.
Asked to clarify the Department of Social Protection’s position on locking doors for interviews, a spokeswoman said: “It is not standard practice across all offices and the Department will take full account of Judge Keenan Johnson’s judgement.”
