McCrossan questions failure to tackle technical issues around civil service interviews

daniel mccrossan Civil service

SDLP West Tyrone MLA Daniel McCrossan has questioned the Department of Finance’s failure to tackle technical issues during civil service job interviews.

 

An Assembly question to the Finance Minister has revealed 446 candidates were unsuccessful due to sound and video issues with their interview in the 2024/25 financial year.

This is up from 427 candidates the previous year.

West Tyrone MLA Mr McCrossan said:

“I have repeatedly challenged the Finance Minister and her department to deal with the problems around technical issues with online interviews impacting the job application process with the Northern Ireland Civil Service and not only has no action been taken to address this, we now find that the situation has actually gotten worse over the past year.

“The job application process for public bodies like our civil service must be as transparent as possible and every effort must be made to ensure that the best candidate is successful when applying for a role. For 873 people to lose out due to technical difficulties in the last few years is not good enough and the inability to manage online interviews in the correct manner raises serious questions around this entire process.

“I really feel for all of the candidates who applied for these jobs in good faith and have been impacted by this technical failure. The onus is on the Minister and her department to address these issues and ensure that nobody is disadvantaged in this way. I have submitted a number of questions to the Minister establish the impact on applicants and what she intends to do about the situation. The SDLP will continue to push for solutions and to demand that this is finally addressed so that we get the best talent possible for these roles.”

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