Preparations are underway at the RDS in Dublin, where a charity Christmas Dinner will be served to 500 people - most of them homeless this Christmas.

The annual event, organised by the Knights of Columbanus, will be attended by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin - and by Dublin's Lord Mayor Naoise O Muiri.

Recent figures revealed a 20 percent rise in the number of homeless people on the Capital's streets.

The Knights' Christmas event will also deliver 15 hundred take out dinners to families in Dublin who are struggling this Christmas.

Simon Wilson is a volunteer at today's event in the RDS: