Homeless activists counted the year's highest number of rough sleepers on the streets of Dublin last night.

Inner City Helping Homeless outreach teams counted 179 people sleeping on the streets of the capital last night.

The count was taken as the city prepared for the arrival of Storm Ali.

This afternoon, the charity's CEO Anthony Flynn warned that more people will died on streets this winter, unless the Government opens up more emergency beds.

"We could see up to 250 rough sleepers by December and we could see deaths on the street," he said.

"We are not getting a response in regard to the beds that are required at the moment.

"We are asking the minister to come out and implement those beds through the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) immediately."

Homeless beds

He said there are "too many people entering homelessness at the bottom end and not enough people leaving at the top end" with colder conditions on the way.

"We are back to the levels that we have seen last year and the year before," he said.

"While we did bring those numbers down for a period of time, they are back on the increase again.

"Unless we tackle the problem and the beds are implemented, we are going to see deaths on the streets this year again."

The DRHE is asking members of the public to inform it of any rough sleepers they have concerns about with outreach teams are " out now and ready to respond."

Reporting from Brendan O'Loughlin