reporting by the Sunday Independent<\/a> that a four-bedroom bungalow in Killiney used to house staff from several Chinese restaurants had been declared a potential fire hazard after inspectors found sleeping space for up to 34 people.<\/p>\nThe property was found to contain 15 bunk beds and sleeping areas in bedrooms and communal rooms.<\/p>\n
Dublin Fire Brigade recommended that the building should no longer be used for its existing purpose, citing fire safety concerns.<\/p>\n
In the signed letter shared by China Song, which is attributed to the \u201cCulinary Team of Cainte Entertainment Limited & Affiliated Restaurants\u201d, the workers said the accommodation had been provided free of charge after many of them arrived in Ireland with little English and struggled to find somewhere to live.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur employers stepped in and provided us with completely free housing, asking for nothing in return,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n
The workers said living in the accommodation was voluntary and allowed them to save money while searching for longer-term housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to state clearly: We are not being exploited or mistreated by our employers,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey provided this shelter out of care and goodwill to help us survive a very difficult housing market.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter acknowledges that additional staff had stayed at the house in recent months as new employees arrived in Ireland, but says residents shared rooms with between two and four people during what it described as a temporary transition period.<\/p>\n
It also urges media outlets to \u201creport our situation accurately\u201d, adding that the company\u2019s support had been invaluable when staff first arrived in Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope the public can understand the full picture, rather than making judgments based on partial information,\u201d the workers wrote.<\/p>\n
The letter does not directly address the fire safety concerns identified during the inspection or the finding that the property had been deemed a potentially dangerous building.<\/p>\n
Cainte Entertainment previously told the Sunday Independent it had been providing temporary accommodation because staff were struggling to secure housing in Dublin.<\/p>\n
The company added that the number of people staying at the property was reducing as employees found alternative accommodation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STAFF LIVING IN an overcrowded south Dublin house at the centre of a fire safety investigation have publicly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,263047,263048,18,13,14,6,3847,8752,19,17,40606,11,12,15,16,5,197258,154957,5281,6265,7,8],"class_list":["post-622675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-china-song","tag-chinese-restaurant","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-housing","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-killiney","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-open-letter","tag-overcrowding","tag-restaurant","tag-staff","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}