I move:
That a sum not exceeding £400,164,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1982, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for the Environment, including grants to Local Authorities, grants and other expenses in connection with housing, and miscellaneous schemes, subsidies and grants including certain grants-in-aid.
In presenting this Estimate to the Dáil, I propose to outline some of the major activities of my Department and how these activities, guided by the Government's policies, contribute to the economic and social benefits of the community. As Government policies and programmes in the traditional areas of my Department have an influence on all sectors of society in all parts of the country, the House will appreciate that this Estimate will have an interest for the population as a whole. The services and activities which arise from the funds provided through this Estimate contribute to everybody's daily wellbeing through the provision of houses, roads, water and sewerage services and many other matters affecting the physical environment.
The net total of the original Estimate for the Environment Vote is £400,164,000. It will be further increased by a Supplementary Estimate for £44,170,010 for which I shall be seeking the approval of the House at the close of the debate. The Supplementary Estimate has already been circulated and I understand the arrangement is that it will be discussed in the general debate on the main Estimate. This extra amount arises mainly from the additional funds allocated by the Government in the budget to my Department and I will be expanding on the various items later in the speech.
The provision in the Environment Vote is part only of what will be spent this year on the services of my Department and the local authorities operating under the aegis of my Department. Money for the services also comes from some other Votes, from the local loans fund and from local authorities' own resources arising from rates and miscellaneous items of income. When all these are reckoned, the Department and the local authorities will, it is estimated, spend some £1,250 million on current and capital account in 1982. This figure compares with about £1,000 million in 1981. The local authorities will have almost £1,200 million to spend this year and they will themselves raise about £300 million of this amount.
Whenever I speak to this House comprehensively on matters concerning my Department, I invariably focus on the building industry. I have said it many times before and I say it again — the building industry in this country is exceptionally important, because of its key role in national development, its huge employment generating capacity and the enormous spread of its activities. It is true to say that national development, progress and prosperity depend in a singular way on an efficient, able and thriving building industry. In order to illustrate its importance, I should point out that, in 1982, the value of output in the industry is expected to exceed £2,100 million, while total direct employment is of the order of 95,000.
It is particularly important that, during a recessionary period, the industry should get additional support from Government to counteract the reduced private sector investment and to maintain output and employment to the greatest possible degree. And here again, I would like to assure the House and the industry of the continuing support of the Government. I do so because we fully recognise the key role which the industry must play in stimulating economic development, providing employment and promoting confidence.
Of the additional £87.45 million development capital provided in the March budget, £64½ million is going to the building industry, for housing, roads, sanitary services and other key programmes which had in many cases experienced reductions in real terms in the finances provided by the former Government. This extra money will boost public capital spending affecting the industry to an estimated record £1,335 million in 1982, representing a rise of 19.5 per cent in money terms and about 4 per cent in real terms over 1981. These extra provisions are a measure of the Government's commitment to the maintenance of a healthy building industry in the face of difficult times, which will enable the industry to play its full part in the process of recovery when the lift-off in the economy arrives. The extra money is expected to cut job losses in the industry by about 2,000.
I would now like to turn the attention of Deputies to some of the housing elements of my Department's estimates.
As regards local authority housing construction, the Government on assuming office found that the programme had fallen to its lowest level for many years. Completions in 1981 fell to 5,681, the lowest since 1972. More disturbingly, the level of employment at the end of January 1982 had dropped to 5,274, as compared with the impressive figure of 7,163 in June 1981, before Fianna Fáil left office. The Government are determined to raise the level of the local authority housing programme to a level commensurate with the attainment of a target of 6,000 annual completions and a substantial improvement in the overall employment position. I recognise that a completions figure of this order is unlikely in the current year, having regard to the fact that there were only 7,186 houses in progress at the end of 1981.
As you are aware, the Government have provided £18.5 million — £14 million of which is for Dublin Corporation — over and above the original provision of £167.5 million, making a total provision for the programme this year of £186 million. Actual expenditure on the programme this year, taking account of incoming and outgoing debit balance on accounts, will be 26 per cent higher than in 1981. Local authorities, who have already been notified of their initial allocations, have now been allocated £2.488 million towards the financing of further new work which they propose to commence this year. These extra allocations will raise substantially the level of work in progress and employment on the programme. By the end of the year, I am confident that there will be about 8,000 houses in progress, a considerable improvement on the position obtaining at the end of 1981.
The new works allocations have been issued at an earlier date this year than for many years. The local authorities will, thereby, be facilitated in programming the new schemes which have been provided for in the allocations and they can ensure that work gets under way to improve the level of employment.
During the course of the budget debate, I indicated the additional schemes in Dublin which will be undertaken on foot of the extra £14 million provided by the Government. In all, the corporation hope to commence more than 2,000 houses (553 of which are in the inner city area) this year. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the corporation on the strenuous efforts which they have been making in getting work commenced on the new schemes. Given the favourable building weather in recent months, rapid progress on these new schemes can be expected this year. As I have stated before, the cost of the corporation's programme will be substantial; however, we are committed to making available all that is required and can be spent on the corporation's overall programme this year, up to a maximum of £91 million. The additional capital will enable the corporation to boost work in progress to about 2,300 houses at the end of 1982 and, by then, employment will have risen by almost 500 bringing the total work force on their programme to just under 2,000. This Government's unprecedented investment in the inner city will make a major step in the revitalisation of this area.
The Government are particularly anxious to achieve the maximum amount of employment from their substantial additional investment in local authority housing. I am confident that a recovery in employment will gather momentum as the new work provided for in the Government's capital injection gets under way. Fianna Fáil have always recognised the construction industry as being an invaluable source of employment. Government investment in local authority housing, as well as increasing direct employment on the programme, has a significant "knock-on effect" in other ancillary industries, such as the manufacturing and supply of building materials, etc. In order to maximise the amount of jobs which will be created as a result of this Government's additional investment in local authority housing, I would urge local authorities to give the maximum amount of support to native contractors and materials within the constraints imposed by our membership of the EEC. The creation of extra employment is vitally important, requiring a high degree of co-operation from the various parties involved.
The Exchequer recoups to the local authorities loan charges incurred by them on the provision of houses for letting. The provision in subhead E.1. for this subsidy in 1982 is £96.584 million, an increase of nearly £18.0 million over the amount expended last year. This sum includes £1.3 million being provided under the supplementary estimate and which arises from the decision of the previous Government to increase the local loans fund interest rate from 12 per cent to 15 per cent as from 1 February last.
Local authorities are responsible for the maintenance and management of their rented estates and retain all rental income for this purpose. Under previous Fianna Fáil administrations, the authorities were also permitted to use a proportion of the proceeds of sales of their rented houses for maintenance and management costs, but the Coalition Government withdrew this arrangement earlier this year. I am glad to say that I have reversed that decision and the authorities may, as in 1981, use 40 per cent of the proceeds of their house sales for eseential maintenance — the overall amount involved is of the order of £7 million.
A sum of £1.5 million has been provided from the Public Capital Programme to enable local authorities to finance schemes of improvement works to their rented dwellings. These schemes include the provision of fireplaces in dwellings with central heating but no fireplaces, provision of extra accommodation and amenities for the mentally or physically handicapped, water/sewerage facilities, fitted bathrooms and hot water systems in houses which do not have these facilities and additional accommodation to relieve statutory overcrowding. These schemes of improvement works will, particularly in older dwellings, help to bring them up to acceptable standards. In Dublin, arrangements have been made for the abatement of the 1982 rent increases on substandard houses. An additional capital allocation of £1 million is also being made available to Dublin Corporation this year for the provision of shower units in central city flat schemes built without bathrooms.
The local authority house purchase loan scheme provides mortgage finance for persons not catered for by the commercial lending agencies. The initial capital provision for the payment of these house purchase loans in 1982 is just over £103 million. The previous administration took a number of decisions which, if put into effect, would have been very disadvantageous to borrowers under the scheme. Firstly, they restricted ordinary loans to persons who were married or about to marry. This discriminated unfairly against single persons not about to marry, irrespective of the urgency of their housing needs. The Government have now removed this restriction and a single person, not about to marry, may apply for a local authority loan in respect of the purchase or construction of a house where the contract to purchase was signed or the foundations completed on or after 25 March 1982. An additional £2 million was made available under the Budget to meet anticipated requirements arising from this decision. The Government also decided that all local authority house loans shall be advanced at a fixed interest rate of 12½ per cent, and authorities have been notified to this effect. The effect of the decision by the previous Government to increase the interest rate would have been to increase the rate payable by borrowers by 3 per cent to 15½ per cent as from 1 February last, and this would have increased the monthly repayment by £33 on the normal maximum loan of £14,000.
The building societies continue to provide the bulk of house purchase finance in this country. In 1981 and despite the relatively low rate of inflow of funds in the early part of the year societies advanced a record total of £321 million in respect of mortgage finance, divided between £135 million for 7,000 new houses and £186 million for 9,900 other houses, which represented 71 per cent of the total mortgage finance provided by the main lending agencies for private houses in 1981.
In the course of discussions which I had with the societies in April last I indicated that the Government would be prepared to increase for this year from £15,000 to £30,000 the limit on individual investments which attract the present composite rate of income tax. In order to provide a stimulus to employment and activity in the building industry, I also proposed that the societies examine the possibility of borrowing abroad to the extent of £20 million, this borrowing to be subject to a State guarantee against possible exchange losses. The societies agreed to explore this proposal. Arrangements were made for a further meeting between representatives of the building societies and myself early this month for the purpose of reviewing the situation in the light of prevailing conditions. In the meantime the societies, for their part, have agreed to defer until 1 September any increase in home loan rates for existing borrowers and until 1 August any increase for new home loans.
I want to take this opportunity to express the Government's appreciation of the major contribution to housing which the building societies have made over the years. I am fully confident that this contribution will continue to expand over the coming years to the benefit of aspiring house-owners, the building industry generally and the national housing programme.
Subhead E2 contains a provision of £15 million for housing grants of which £8.25 million is for the £1,000 new house grants for first-time owner-occupiers and £6.75 million for house improvements grants. In the case of new houses about 10,500 grants amounting to £10.3 million were paid in 1981 as compared with about 9,100 grants amounting to £8.4 million in 1980. The additional £2 million, provided for in the budget, is included in the Supplementary Estimate to allow for the expansion of the existing improvement grant scheme.
A new scheme of house improvement grants was introduced by my predecessor in October, 1981. The scheme allowed grants for the provision of basic amenities — water, sewerage, bathroom and chimney — where those were lacking and a grant for an extra bedroom for the relief of overcrowding. The scheme, however, provided no assistance or encouragement to householders to conserve their houses by carrying out necessary repair or renovation works. The Government recognised this to be a serious deficiency in the light of the obvious need to conserve the housing stock. Deputies will be aware that we have now rectified matters by expanding the scope of the October, 1981 scheme to make grants available for the inclusion of necessary conservation works to the basic fabric of the home. I think most Deputies will agree that we now have, what is on the whole, a sensible and balanced improvement grants scheme.
The mortgage subsidy scheme was introduced by me in April 1981, as part of the housing package. The scheme was designed to ease the burdens of first-time owner-occupiers of new houses by making a subsidy of up to £3,000 available to eligible applicants over a period of three years. The subsidy applied to mortgages executed on or after 10 April, 1981, and both single and married people were eligible. However, in July, 1981, the Coalition Government introduced restrictions which had the effect of confining eligibility for the subsidy to married people or people about to marry. This discriminatory and widely unpopular restriction has, I am happy to say, been removed by me and eligibility has been restored to single people not about to marry. An extra provision of £1 million was set aside in the budget for this purpose in 1982. The original provision of £10 million in Subhead E3 is therefore being increased by £1 million in the Supplementary Estimate. In 1981, 3,500 applications amounting to £10.5 million were approved. I am confident that the restoration of the subsidy to all first-time owner-occupiers, together with the very substantial level of assistance now being made available to purchasers, will help to restore confidence in the house building industry.
The Supplementary Estimate contains a new provision in Subhead E4 of £1 million by way of grant-in-aid to a task force which has been set up to undertake an emergency programme to improve the living conditions of old people living in insanitary or unfit accommodation. It is clear that some elderly persons in the community are living alone in conditions that are not acceptable. They can be found in urban and rural areas alike. Many of these dwellings lack proper sanitary facilities, are often in a very poor state of repair offering only minimal protection against the elements, offer no comfort to the occupants, and normal standards of cleanliness and hygiene are impossible to maintain. In these cases the people concerned have neither the financial means to pay for the remedial works, nor the capacity to arrange them.
Under-investment in sanitary services with a consequent shortage of serviced sites can be a significant factor contributing to high prices for serviced land and consequently to the escalation in the cost of constructing factories, houses and community buildings, including schools and hospitals. The record of the Fianna Fáil Government in financing sanitary services investment speaks for itself. Between 1977 and 1980 alone we almost doubled the overall public capital programme provision for public water and sewerage schemes — from less than £25 million in 1977 to almost £47 million in 1980. In 1981 we provided £66 million as part of the Investment Plan, 1981. The sum of £76 million provided for public water and sewerage schemes in 1982 by the Coalition Government represented a reduction in real terms in sanitary services compared with last year, when allowance is made for increased construction costs. This capital provision was not adequate to allow a substantial volume of major new schemes to start.
I am therefore very glad that the extra money injected into the overall capital programme in 1982 includes £7.8 million for sanitary services. As a result, I recently gave the go-ahead for the commencement of work in 1982 on a number of new sanitary services schemes which are of the highest priority for economic and physical development. I have divided the £7.8 million as to £6.4 million for loan finances for public schemes, £1 million for grants for public schemes, and £400,000 for grants for group water schemes. Subhead F3 of the original Estimates contains a provision of £4 million for grants to local authorities for public water schemes in the western areas which is being increased by £1 million under the Supplementary Estimate, while Subhead F2 contains a provision of £7.5 million for grants for group water supply and sewerage schemes which is being supplemented by £400,000 under the Supplementary Estimate. The revised Public Capital Programme figure for loans for public schemes is £82.4 million as against £66 million for 1981. These borrowings of local authorities are subsidised from subhead F1 for which an initial provision of £21.225 million was made — this is being increased under the Supplementary Estimate by £500,000 to meet the cost of extra subsidy arising from the previous Government's decision which increased the Local Loans Fund interest rate charged to local authorities from 12 per cent to 15 per cent as from 1 February. The overall capital provision for sanitary services, as increased by Fianna Fáil under the Budget, is therefore £95.3 million — an increase of almost 30 per cent on the 1981 provision.
The rural piped water supply programme received a major boost following the introduction of a new scheme of grants under the Western Package of aid from the FEOGA. As a result, I was able to announce increased grants in 1981 for private group water schemes in the western areas. These grants generally cover 80 per cent of the cost of the scheme instead of 66? per cent as heretofore. The maximum grants have been doubled from £300 to £600 per house and from £200 to £400 per potential farm supply respectively. At the end of 1981, work was in progress on the installation of water in 6,300 houses and 175 schemes had been designed to serve a further 5,700 houses.
An adequate road network is of major importance to our efforts to attract new industrial development as well as serving existing needs. In recognition of this fact and as part of the Government's programme of increased capital investment to boost activity in the construction industry, I have been able to provide an additional £10 million for road improvement works over the amount proposed by the previous Government for 1982. The extra £10 million is included in subhead L of the Supplementary Estimate. These supplementary grants have been allocated with the aim of intensifying the on-going programme for major works as identified in the road development plan and for the improvement generally of the national route network. In addition, the grants will finance a special programme of urgent reconstruction works on roads other than national roads.
On foot of the full provision of £101.5 million in 1982 being provided under subheads L.1 and L.2, roads grants totalling £104.43 million have been allocated to road authorities. Of this total, almost £40 million has been allocated for major improvement works which are listed in the road development plan. Among the major schemes for which grants have been provided in the Dublin region are a new road from Whitehall to the airport; a by-pass of Swords; a new road linking Clontarf Road with the East Wall Road; a new bridge adjacent to Heuston Bridge and a by-pass of Palmerstown on the N4 to the west. Outside the Dublin region, grants have been allocated for three new bridges over the Lee and a new ring road in Cork; a ring road and a new bridge over the Shannon in Limerick; new bridges in Waterford, Athlone and Galway and inner relief roads or ring roads in Dundalk, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Tralee and Clonmel.
Apart from major works, the plan also provides for an extensive programme of normal improvement works designed to bring all sections of the national primary routes and significant sections of the national secondary routes up to a specified minimum standard. Grants totalling £22.6 million have been allocated for this programme in 1982.
Subhead L4 of the Supplementary Estimate includes an additional provision of £2 million for recoupment to local authorities of abnormal costs incurred as a result of the blizzard conditions which occurred in January this year.
Money invested in our road network is money well spent. It yields a realistic rate of economic return in terms of improved transport mobility, efficiency and safety. It also has the added advantages of utilising materials and equipment of Irish manufacture and it has a high labour content. I expect that the full provision of £101.5 million for road works this year, together with the considerable investment which will be made by local authorities from their own resources, will provide direct employment for 10,200 road workers.
Apart from public roads, there is a substantial network of "non-public" roads which feed into the public road network and which are of particular benefit to the agricultural community. The local improvements scheme has catered for such roads since 1968. This year a sum of £3.1 million has been provided for in subhead J compared to £2.714 million in 1981. The scheme has received added emphasis with the introduction of the western package. Under the terms of the package, EEC aid is available for both local roads, that is county roads used mainly for agriculture and forestry, and for farm roads. In so far as local roads are concerned, the block road grant allocations to the western counties include sums specifically to finance a programme of works on eligible county roads. As regards farm roads, the local improvements scheme has been adapted to take account of available EEC aid. In the current year the western counties have been asked to devote specified minimum amounts from their allocations to eligible farm road projects. These measures, which have the approval of the EEC authorities, are designed to ensure that the £15 million approximately in EEC aid available for local and farm roads over a ten year period will be fully taken up.
In regard to drinking and driving the level of activity against the drinking driver will be maintained. Amending legislation is being prepared, which will clarify and rectify some of the existing provisions of the law on the subject, so that enforcement measures can take their full effect. The scourge of the drinking driver and the level of accidents in which the abuse of alcohol is a major factor are well known. Subhead L3 includes an amount of £343,000 for the Medical Bureau of Road Safety. The work of the bureau is a vital element in the enforcement of the law against the drinking driver. Last year the bureau received 8,295 specimens of blood or urine for analysis from the Garda Síochána.
This year I was able to allocate from subhead L3 £405,000 to the National Road Safety Association to enable them to maintain their activities. In addition to Exchequer funding, the association have been also able to obtain valuable sponsorship from the commercial sector. I congratulate the interests involved for giving practical effect to their concern for road safety. I hope that this interaction between public and private sectors in the promotion of road safety continues to develop.
I come now to subhead O for which the provision is £138 million. This grant is designed to compensate local authorities in respect of the relief given to domestic and other ratepayers under the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1978. The size of the grant is related to the amount of the relieved valuations and rate in the £. In respect of 1982, my predecessor notified local authorities on 15 January 1982, of an upper limit of 15 per cent on rate increases for 1982. The provision made by the Coalition Government in the Estimate for the Department of Environment fell short of what was estimated to be needed to recoup local authorities the full cost of rate reliefs based on a 15 per cent in the rate in the £. The amount of that shortfall is now estimated to be about £12 million.
At the stage we assumed office the broad thrust of budgetary strategy was already determined and our room for manoeuvre in relation to public finances as a whole was limited. I was, however, able to persuade my colleagues that the situation facing local authorities in regard to the funds available for their day to day services required special attention. As a result I was able to notify local authorities of two separate measures which would be of direct benefit to them.
The first of these measures was the limitation of statutory demands on local authorities in respect of the cost of arterial drainage and supplementary welfare. These demands had in recent years been increasing at a faster rate than increases in local rate revenue. This had an upsetting effect on local finances and generated a good deal of resentment among the local authorities who had no control over the demands. The positive measures I was able to take for this year placed an upper limit on increases in the demands to keep them in line with limits in the rate increases. This had the direct effect of reducing by £3 million the demands already served on local authorities
The second measure of direct benefit to the financing of the ordinary day to day services related to the disposal of the proceeds of sales of local authority dwellings. The position facing local authorities when I assumed office was that the entire proceeds would have to be directed towards the house building programme in order to reduce the burden on the Exchequer. This would have led to a direct reduction in the money available to local authorities for their day-to-day services, in particular, the maintenance of existing local authority houses would have been affected. I could not allow this situation to continue. I am pleased, therefore, to say that I was able to reverse my predecessor's direction and allow local authorities to continue the practice which had obtained for many years of applying a proportion of the proceeds of sales to local revenue purposes. The direct benefit to the day-to-day local finances is estimated at about £7 million this year.
These two measures taken together will benefit local authority finances by an estimated £10 million in 1982 and will go some way towards offsetting the shortfall which local authorities would otherwise have had to face in the financing of their day-to-day services. In addition they will help to remove a major obstacle to effective management of their finances by the local authorities.
There is provision in subhead V9 for an appropriation-in-aid in the sum of £10 million as a contribution in lieu of rates. This contribution is intended to come from the Electricity Supply Board. At present there is an indirect subsidy given to the ESB by way of exemption from rates on their generating stations and certain other property under the Electricity Supply Acts. The Minister for Industry and Energy has at present before the Dáil legislative proposals to give effect to the decision taken by the former Government that the removal of the indirect subsidy should commence in 1982 and that this would best be done by obtaining a contribution in lieu of rates for the current year, thus reducing the net cost to the Exchequer of funds being provided for local authorities. The Minister for Industry and Energy is making the necessary arrangements with the ESB in regarded to the interim payment of £10 million.
The supplementary provision of £20.75 million for Dublin Corporation includes the £20 million, referred to in his budget statement by the Minister for Finance, to supplement the corporation's resources for their normal services in 1982. This general grant was found to be necessary to avoid far reaching and unacceptable cutbacks across the whole range of the corporation's day-to-day services. The size and severity of the problems affecting Dublin city distinguish them from such urban development problems as exist elsewhere in our country. I am happy that it has been possible to make provision for this additional injection of funds to complement the other more specific measures necessary to tackle in a positive and comprehensive way the special problems affecting our capital city. The balance of £750,000 is provided to assist the corporation's housing maintenance programme.
While on the subject of local authority finances, Deputies will note that £5 million has been provided in subhead N under which local authorities are recouped portion of their expenditure on malicious injuries compensation. The Exchequer meets in full the cost of the decrees in respect of damage caused by explosives and attributable to the disturbances in Northern Ireland and also that element of costs of other decrees in excess of the produce of a rate of 20p in the £. This ensures that no ratepayer will be called upon to bear a rate of more than 20p in respect of malicious injuries compensation. The malicious Injuries Act, 1981, which came into force on 6 November, 1981, allows local authorities more flexibility in dealing with claims. It is now possible for cases to be settled out of court and this should ensure that claims are settled at an earlier date than previously possible.
I would like to refer here briefly to the audit of the accounts of local authorities. The local government audit is responsible for the public accountability audit of, in current terms, between £1½ and £2 billion annual expenditure. I am happy to place on the record the high professional competence and integrity of the local government auditors and the dedicated and efficient service they have given over the years. In this connection I would like to dissociate myself from the remarks made in this House by an Opposition Deputy during the debate on the Supplementary Estimate for my Department on 19 November 1981 when he said, "It is undesirable to have a Department of the Environment auditor working almost full time in Dublin Corporation because he can get close to the people working there and could easily accept the explanations given to him". The imputation in the Deputy's remarks is regrettable and unfounded.
This year, for the first time, my Department's Estimates contain a separate subhead for expenditure on fire services. I am fully committed to continuing a policy of giving increased priority to the needs of the fire service because of the invaluable role it plays in preventing loss of life and the destruction of property. We all recognise that increasing demands are being made on the service due to the growing level of industrialisation and urban development throughout the country, the introduction of new technology and the use of new materials and substances, processes and building methods. Various measures have been taken and others are in train to assist the fire service in meeting the demands being placed on it. Subhead T provides for current expenditure of £650,000 on the service in 1982 as against £272,500 in 1981.
The Fire Services Act, 1981 which came into force on 1 January 1982 updated and strengthened the legal framework and organisation of the fire service. Arrangements for implementation of the provisions of that Act at local and national levels are continuing. In this connection I should mention that I am pressing ahead with proposals for the establishment of the Fire Services Council which I see as playing an important part in the development of the fire service. I hope to be in a position to make a more detailed announcement in the near future. A token provision of £10 in subhead T for the Fire Services Council is included in the Supplementary Estimate.
An adequate level of capital investment in the construction of fire stations and the purchase of fire fighting, communications, rescue and other equipment is essential. There are nine fire stations currently under construction at various centres throughout the country, seven of which should be completed this year, including some in the Dublin area. A number of others are at advanced stages of planning. Since January 1978 some 23 fire stations or extensions have been completed and proposals for financing the purchase of 61 new fire applicances and other fire service equipment have been approved.
A capital allocation of £3.75 million for fire services was proposed by the previous Government for 1982. I am happy to have been able to get a further £1 million under the budget so as to ensure that funds are available to finance urgently-needed new projects which are now at advanced stages of planning and which might otherwise have had to be deferred. This expanded programme of capital investment has been further encouraged by a scheme of subsidy to local authorities which I introduced in March of last year. This subsidy is payable at the rate of 50 per cent in respect of loan charges incurred by local authorities on borrowings for expenditure on fire service projects and equipment. It should do much to encourage local authorities to provide and maintain the facilities that are needed. Subhead T.1 provides a sum of £500,000 to meet subsidy payments arising in 1982.
Provision is made in subhead T.2 for the payment by my Department of a grant of £100,000 to the Fire Prevention Council, and this sum will be matched by the Federation of Insurers in Ireland. The funds will enable the Council to provide a comprehensive programme of activities during 1982, including conferences and seminars, advertising leaflets and posters and a National Fire Safety week.
I should like to make a brief reference to the Tribunal of Inquiry into the tragic fire which occurred at the Stardust Club, in Artane, Dublin in February of last year. Deputies will, I am sure, have seen the statement issued yesterday on my behalf indicating that the report of the tribunal has just been submitted to me. Arrangements for the printing of the report have been put in hand. In the meantime, arrangements are being made for photostat copies of the report to be made available to the Stardust Relatives and Injured Committee, the political parties and the media. These will be available on Monday, 5 July 1982.
The essence of the Government's environment policy is that all decisions on development should take full account of the likely impact on the environment. The main aim of this policy is to protect and improve the physical environment side by side with economic and social progress so that there will be a better quality of life for everybody, now and in the future.
The detailed recommendations in the report of the Environment Council entitled "A Policy for the Environment" are being considered by the various Departments concerned. Progress on their implementation will be monitored by the Inter-Departmental Environment Committee which will report to me on the matter. The initial term of office of the Environment Council expired in June, 1981 and a new council was not appointed. The council did an amount of useful work and I am at present reviewing the question of appointing a new council, and of the role which it might be called on to fill. Work is now in progress on the preparation of a first report on the state of the environment, and I hope that it will be available for publication early in the coming year. Such reports will assist in enabling the Government to assess the effectiveness of environment policy and programmes and the need for further measures.
Local authorities play an important part in the protection and improvement of environmental resources and are responsible for the development of a variety of community and amenity facilities. In this connection, I am glad to say that I have recently made available to local authorities an allocation of £4 million under the Government's youth employment programme. This major financial injection, as well as providing useful and interesting work opportunities for young people in their own areas, will enable local authorities to extend these programmes for providing and improving amenities and recreational facilities. This sum of £4 million is in addition to the £500,000 which is included in subhead G in respect of grants for environmental works, community premises in non-Gaeltacht islands and dangerous places.
The budget provided an additional amount of £2.5 million for Dublin Corporation in 1982 for environmental improvement works. These funds will enable the number of people employed on this programme to be increased to at least 500 this year. The £2.5 million is included in the supplementary estimate in Subhead G.
As in 1981, I have asked local authorities to promote local environment campaigns and to undertake suitable programmes of work with the backing of the above allocations. In the campaigns last year, I asked for special emphasis to be placed on the active involvement of local communities and voluntary organisations in measures for the control of litter and the positive improvement of local conditions. I am satisfied that the 1981 campaigns marked an encouraging step forward in the fight against litter and environmental decay in many areas, and have asked that a very special effort be made to extend the campaigns this year to all areas, particularly tourist areas. I will make an environment award — a trophy and cash prize — later in the year to the area which makes the most positive response to my request. I will be asking local authorities to make full use of their new powers under the Litter Act, 1982.
The provision in subhead U for pollution control is £355,000 compared with £50,000 in 1981. The increase is for the acquisition and development of a site at which a national centre for the reception of certain industrial wastes is to be provided. The need for such a centre, in order to ensure that potentially hazardous wastes are safely disposed of, has become increasingly urgent in recent years. When the centre is fully operational I have no doubt that it will be a significant support for the Government's job creation programme, enabling industries which might otherwise have been forced to locate elsewhere to set up production in this country. I am very pleased to note the whole-hearted support being given to the project by industry in general and, in particular, by the Confederation of Irish Industries and the Federation of Chemical Industry.
I am aware that there has been some criticism of the project. The criticism appears to be based mainly on misconceptions regarding the nature and purpose of the proposed centre. There have been references to an industrial or toxic waste dump being established on the site. I should like to kill off this impression once and for all. No waste will be dumped on the site. The centre will resemble a small warehouse or factory complex at which limited quantities of industrial wastes, which cannot at present be satisfactorily disposed of on land-fill sites, will be taken under careful supervision, bulked up and stored, prior to export to approved disposal outlets abroad. Limited waste treatment facilities may also be provided at the site if the volume and types of waste forthcoming show this to be necessary and justified.
All appropriate environmental safeguards will be taken in the design and operation of the centre. Experts of international repute will be engaged by the National Building Agency which has been assigned the task of carrying out the necessary development. The normal procedures in regard to planning permission will apply.
It must not be assumed that the proposed centre will provide a solution to the problem of industrial waste disposal. The centre will deal essentially with relatively small quantities of special wastes. The great bulk of industrial waste can be safely disposed of, in association with other wastes, on land-fill sites which have been carefully chosen and are properly operated. There is an urgent need for development of a network of such sites in different parts of the country, and I am urging local authorities to press on with measures to meet this need. This is not an optional matter. Waste is an unavoidable by-product of industrialisation. If we are to have the industries and the employment which they provide, the necessary waste disposal facilities must be provided. The Government strategy is based on development of means of disposal which are widely recognised as being environmentally safe and acceptable. Local authorities must play their full part in giving effect to this strategy.
Serious problems still exist as regards the settlement of travellers, in spite of the substantial financial support which is given by my Department. These problems are especially evident in the Dublin area and in some of the other urban centres, and impinge not only on the travellers themselves, but also on the settled community. While some 1,300 families have been provided with accommodation, there are almost as many still on the roadside living in degrading conditions. In the Dublin area alone the number of traveller families living on unapproved sites is estimated to be over 400.
I should like to emphasise that the primary responsibility for providing accommodation facilities rests with the local authorities, and decisions to proceed with particular schemes have, of course, to be made at that level. Unfortunately, some local authorities, even in areas where there is great need for the provision of proper facilities, have been reluctant to take action. Opposition to schemes often poses difficulties but, in the long term, such opposition may well be to the detriment of all concerned as unauthorised encampments grow out of control. This has been illustrated in the Dublin area, where serious environmental damage has resulted from widespread unauthorised camping. The provision of accommodation and the protection of the environment go hand in hand, and I look to the local authorities to meet their responsibilities on both aspects.
My Department will continue to provide every possible support and assistance to local authorities in their efforts to achieve progress with the accommodation programme, including continued financial support. In the current year, £1.4 million is being made available under subhead R mainly to provide subsidy on loan charges for capital projects and also to provide a 90 per cent contribution towards the cost to local authorities of employing social workers. A sum of £1.75 million of non-voted capital is also being provided in the current year to finance new schemes.
What is clearly needed, of course, is commitment at local level. Without it nothing can be done and the problems both for the traveller families and the settled community will become intolerable.
I should also like to mention the Travelling People Review Group. This widely representative group was set up in January 1981 by Deputy Woods, Minister for Health, and myself to examine current policies and programmes in relation to services and support for travelling people and to make early recommendations. The Government are committed to act on the findings of the group, and I look forward to receiving their recommendations very soon.
I have initiated a review of planning legislation in the Department in order to identify any changes in the law that may be necessary to speed up decision making at both local and appeals levels. I feel that there is scope for improving the performance of the planning system, and that in view of the importance of job creation all avoidable delay should be eliminated. This review will take time, and in the meantime I will be asking each planning authority to carry out a review of their approach to planning control and to the processing of planning applications. My aims are that the number of planning applications finally determined at local level will increase while appeal numbers will be reduced, that avoidable delays and complaints from developers and other interests will be less frequent, and that a more productive deployment of staff and resources will be achieved by planning authorities. In the short term, the Local Government (Planning and Development) Bill, 1982, when enacted, will extend the duration of planning permissions, including those which ceased to have effect on 31 October 1981 and will establish a new procedure for extension applications to overcome the difficulties caused both for planning authorities and for developers under the existing law.
I believe that existing methods of tackling the special problems of physical redevelopment and urban renewal in inner city areas are inadequate, and I am proposing a new approach to this matter to allow intensive revitalisation schemes to be undertaken. Deputies will be aware of the Bill before the Dáil to enable a number of pilot projects to be launched at an early date. The areas selected for the initial projects are the site at the Custom House Docks in Dublin and the area covered by the medieval walled city of Dublin. The legislation, however, will enable parts of other urban areas throughout the country to be similarly designated at a later stage, if this kind of approach is considered to be necessary and suited to their needs. The Bill provides for the establishment of small ad hoc development commissions with responsibility for the regeneration of their areas and with appropriate powers and finance. The Supplementary Estimate includes sums of £10,000 for each of the above-mentioned projects.
I now turn to the very severe problems that beset the inner city area of our capital. The major problems associated with the area are well documented — unemployment, particularly among the young, sub-standard housing, widespread dereliction, vandalism and poor social opportunities, to list but a few. Although effort and money have been devoted over the years to tackling these problems, a huge task remains. It is this Government's intention to undertake the concerted action needed to overcome these problems in the inner city. A start has been made already. A massive injection of funds was provided in the budget to enable an all-out effort to be made to revitalise the inner city. I have already referred to some of this expenditure, the extra capital for new housing, the special provision for the improvement of sub-standard housing and the extra money for housing maintenance. I have referred also to the special allocation of £20 million to Dublin Corporation to enable them to maintain their level of services and to the provision of £2.5 million for environmental improvement schemes. The inner city will benefit in due course from this substantial injection of funds.
In addition, however, it is my intention to further the work started by the Fianna Fáil Government in 1978 when they established the special inter-Departmental committee to make recommendations to deal with the problems of Dublin's inner city. This was followed by the establishment of the inner city group which operate at present under the aegis of my Department.
Since the group were set up in 1979 they have made allocations totalling £1.3 million from the Dublin inner city fund. The provision for the fund in this year's Estimate is £300,000 in subhead P of the Estimate. Support from the fund has been given for a variety of worthy projects. I would like to mention particularly the Dublin inner city employment programme which encourages the employment of inner city residents through the payment of premiums to employers who take on employees who are resident in the inner city. Under the programme 374 employees were taken on in 1981. The programme is to be continued this year, and I am glad to note that support for it will be forthcoming from the EEC through the European Social Fund. While all the projects that have been supported from the inner city fund have been worthwhile, the Government intend to extend the work and to put it on a more formal basis. I intend to introduce legislation which will provide for the setting up of a Dublin inner city development authority which will take over the functions of the inner city group.
The proposed authority will have the wide co-ordinating powers that are necessary to enable them to promote the co-ordination action required to overcome the problems of the inner city area. In order to improve the employment prospects and social opportunities of residents, it will have wide powers to enable them to encourage development and the provision of jobs in the area. The authority will have their own special fund to enable them to make grants to achieve their aims and objectives. A sum of £1.7 million is included in the Supplementary Estimate for the new authority in 1982 in addition to the £300,000 for the inner city group included in my Department's original Estimate.
I must stress that while these initiatives relate to Dublin, because of the urgency and special nature of the problems of the capital, the Government's intention is to see that the problems of run-down inner urban areas are tackled more vigorously and more effectively in other areas, particularly the larger ones, as well. To this end an examination is being undertaken of the operation of existing policies and practices relating to the promotion of urban renewal in order to see how they might be made more effective, as well as considering the scope for new approaches. The Minister of State, Deputy Brady, who has a special responsibility in this matter will be consulting with local authorities so that account may be taken of their views and ideas in the development and implementation of policy for the restoration and revival of urban centres which have gone into decline.
In 1981 I introduced a scheme of grants to assist local authorities to complete unfinished housing estates where all efforts to have them completed by the developer have failed. My predecessor recognised that this was a worthwhile scheme and proposed an allocation of £500,000 in 1982. I propose to honour this commitment in the hope that it will enable the backlog of uncompleted estates, which meet the criteria of the scheme, to be completed.
I should like to take this opportunity to export planning authorities to use to the full the very considerable powers available to them under the planning Acts to ensure that developers meet their obligations by completing estates to a satisfactory standard and that the terms of planning permissions are precise and enforceable in this respect.
I have spoken of the major items of expenditure in the Department's Vote and the more important services of the Department. The Vote includes many other items which though important in themselves are relatively speaking smaller in amount. I just have not had time to go through these items one by one, since to do so would unduly restrict the time available for other Deputies. The purpose of the various expenditures will be clear from the descriptive material in Part 3 of the Vote. Should a Deputy wish to obtain additional information about any of these items, I shall endeavour to provide it in my reply.