A couple who were attacked while they slept rough in Dublin city centre have thanked locals for their kindness.

Footage online shows a hooded man running up to where the couple are lying, and throwing what is thought to be a lit firelighter at them and running away.

The homeless woman wakes up and knocks the fire off their sleeping bag.

Speaking this morning, she said locals were very kind to them after the attack.

"The neighbours, fair play, the neighbours came down and they bring us down pots of tea, hot water bottles - they're very good" she told the Pat Kenny Show here on Newstalk.

"Soup, sambos - everyone in the flats are very good".

She says they they had been sleeping rough elsewhere before, but that "Someone came and tried to rob Michael so we moved, and we're here since".

"I'm more aware, I don't sleep as much as I did".

She says it was the first time she had been attacked like that, in nearly three years on the streets.

"I lost my apartment I was in because I was getting intimidated by the locals...where I was living".

"My apartment was broken into three times - the third time,  I was there and my head and all (was) split open".

"My daughter is living with her father and a nanny - I asked them would they look after her till I got another place for her to live".

Becoming emotional, she adds: "They want full guardianship of her now - they're not getting it though".

While her partner Michael says he met the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and former Dublin Lord Mayor Christy Burke, who told him he was eligible for a programme - but that he never saw them after an initial meeting.

"Christy Burke and Enda Kenny both met me last Christmas...and they said they'd be back to see me within 14 days, 15 days".

"I didn't see them ever again" he added.