People began queuing for food vouchers outside the Dublin’s Capuchin Day Centre at 2am this morning.

The centre is today handing out 3,000 Dunnes Stores vouchers to help families get through Christmas.

Gardaí were on hand to help with the queues overnight as people began queuing in the early hours.

Manager Alan Bailey said huge numbers of people queued up last week when the centre handed out Christmas hampers.

“Last week we had issues giving out the tickets,” he said.

“We had issues but Gardaí were here in good strength this morning and they had a good policing plan in place so everything is running smoothly.

“The first people started queuing at 2:15am this morning. We gave out our first [vouchers] at 6am just to get people off the street. It was that cold.”

He said the vouchers are worth a total of €150,000 to struggling families in Dublin.

Alan Bailey who manages the centre says they're giving out 150-thousand euro worth of vouchers.

“It will make a huge difference to people, the €50 voucher,” he said.

“A lot of our people are not homeless but something like Christmas stretches them a little bit further than normal so it makes a big difference to have this.”