I will deal with those matters during my opening contribution. I thank the Chairman for his welcome. As I said yesterday, the Government has committed itself to providing an infrastructure appropriate to a modern economy so that the economic success and the progress made in recent years can be maintained. In bringing forward the Supplementary Estimate, which is directed mainly at accelerating investment in national roads, we are delivering on the undertakings given in relation to the national development plan.
Overall, the Supplementary Estimate of £121 million represents an increase of more than 7% on the net expenditure provision in my Department's Revised Estimate. It will fund the provision of an additional £80 million for the national roads network, £45 million for the water and waste water services programme and £30 million for the Exchequer contribution to the local government fund. They are the principal spending increases for which the Supplementary Estimate provides, but it also caters for other items of a technical nature such as the new subhead of £2.8 million for partnership in local authorities.
A further new subhead has been opened to defray expenditure of £800,000 on the national spatial strategy. These increases, which amount to more than £158 million in total, will be partially offset by savings of more than £37 million on the social housing and urban renewal programmes. This leaves a net figure of £121 million. The briefing document has been circulated and I will deal with detailed questions in that regard later.
The national development plan will involve investment in national roads of more than £5 billion at current prices. It provides a clear strategy for the development of the national road network to the high standard necessary to support the continuing economic and social development and to facilitate regional development. The expanded scale of the national road investment programme also makes it possible to plan for the development of the road network in a more integrated manner than has been possible heretofore. The money is available and the challenge now is to implement the strategy.
This is a massive task for the National Roads Authority, but it has geared itself up to meet it. It has made significant progress already in delivering on the national road network improvement targets. The requirement for an additional £80 million coming on top of an historically high allocation means we are on course to achieve this.
During the year we have had significant progress on many major road schemes, including the M1, Dunleer-Dundalk, the N9, Moone-Timolin, the N4, Mullingar-Mc Nead's Bridge and the N20, Croom by-pass, all of which are expected to open by year end some six months ahead of schedule. The N7 by-pass opened in July and was almost 12 months ahead of schedule and the N25, Kilmacthomas by-pass, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2001, again six months ahead of schedule. Progress is also being made on other major road schemes, such as the N11, Glen O The Downs, N50, the Southern Cross route, the N20, Patrickswell-Limerick. Favourable weather conditions allied to the strengthening of on-site management practices by the larger construction firms have had significant impacts on the progress of the major projects which are under way at present.
That level of activity, represented by the national development plan, will also require considerable acceleration of the road planning and design process. The year has seen continued progress in bringing major road projects to construction in the fastest possible time thereby reducing the traditional long lead in time which is averaged at five years. Efforts are being made through better and earlier public consultation and through comprehensive EIAs to reduce the potential for objections to projects. Furthermore, the Planning and Development Act, 2000, will help that. The money for advance design of projects has increased from about £9 million three years ago to just over £40 million this year.
In relation to water and sewerage services, I am seeking an additional £45 million for capital investment in the water and waste water services programme. The expected outturn of the programme for 2000 is £335 million which represents an increase of 16% in the corresponding figure for last year. The additional Exchequer expenditure will boost the major schemes element of the programme by £36 million and the balance of £9 million will be used to underpin measures which have been introduced to upgrade rural water supply systems.
There is a number of very large waste water treatment projects under way in our major cities - Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway - and they will absorb a considerable proportion of the overall provision. These schemes are required for compliance with the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. Other schemes will provide for water conservation in Dublin along with new supplies in Tuam and Swords. These schemes alone represent approximately 25 % of this year's expected outturn. The expenditure at this level is evidence of the progress being achieved in major schemes and the level of investment required to maintain momentum in the programme.
The rural water programme, for which £9 million of the Supplementary Estimate will be earmarked, is funded from the overall water services provision and consists of a range of measures aimed at redressing quality and capacity constraints in rural water supplies. Earlier this year I introduced an enhanced package of grants and subsidies focused on addressing the water quality issues in privately sourced schemes. New regulations require group schemes to meet all the health related water quality parameters by 2003.
A new national water quality monitoring programme will involve the testing, continuously over a 12 month period, of private water supply sources. The tests will be used to match the recent technological advances in water treatment and disinfection to individual schemes with new grants and subsidies available to groups to pay for the water treatment. All counties will have agreed strategies in place by the end of 2000 for the rationalisation and upgrading of rural water supplies.
It would be remiss of me not to mention to the committee that certain non Exchequer funding for the programme has matured more slowly than anticipated and this has contributed to the requirement for additional Exchequer funding. However, the Government has approved a policy framework for applying the polluter pays principle under which all non-domestic users of water and waste water infrastructure are required to pay capital contributions towards the cost of that infrastructure. As schemes in the investment programme announced earlier this year proceed to construction, I expect that this funding source will contribute upwards of £200 million towards the cost of the three year programme.
The local government fund introduced by this Government in 1999 has placed local authority finances on a firm footing for the first time in many decades. It is already delivering significant additional resources to local authorities. These are being used to meet the demands placed upon them by a society with diverse and expanding requirements. The fund has provided local authorities with a guaranteed source of income since its establishment and its funding base has been steadily increased annually. This year some £660 million has been made available through the local government fund to finance the cost of a range of local authority services provided by the sector.
In essence, local authorities are being provided with £195 million more for equivalent services than was the case prior to the establishment of the fund. This year a further £30 million is required to assist local authorities in meeting increased expenditure on a range of current spending items such as wages and salaries and costs related to the implementation of programmes under the national development plan.
The committee should be aware that the Exchequer contribution to the fund was determined at a time when the details of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness had yet to be worked out and the £285 million provided this year did not take into account the additional cost arising from this source. A significant element of the additional amount to be provided by the Supplementary Estimate will be required in the context of the implementation of the PPF.
A small, but important, item in the Supplementary Estimate before the committee involves the provision of £2.8 million for partnerships in local authorities. This funding is part of a wider fund of £7 million provided by the Minister for Finance in his 1999 Budget Statement for developing partnership in the public service. The remainder of the provision will be utilised in health and education. The purpose of this provision is to provide a guaranteed stream of up front funding to enable the partnership process initiated in 1999 to be successfully implemented in the local government sector. Typically, this funding is used to provide appropriate training for management and staff and the overall process of bedding down change in local authorities is being assisted by facilitators and partnership committees which the authorities have appointed. Progress to date demonstrates that partnership has delivered results in a number of areas, such as service delivery, public image, health and safety and training programme.
The national spatial strategy acquires a new subhead of its own. The fundamental objective of that strategy is to achieve more balanced regional development while maintaining our economic competitiveness and seeking at the same time to promote the principles of sustainable development. In the main, the proposed supplementary of £0.8 million relates to the cost of expertise engaged by my Department in support of the second stage of the four stage process preparing the strategy for the end of next year.
The national strategy must deal with many complex issues. It must address the interrelationship between the location of population settlements, the location of economic activity and development, including industrial and commercial activities, and the infrastructural network such as transport, communications and services required to link our settlements and support their proper functioning. Overall, the strategy will provide a framework for the long-term co-ordination of sectoral policy formulation and implementation, including decision making on major investment in all forms of infrastructure, physical, social and human, for the country as a whole.
The savings of more than £37 million will be available to offset the additional resource sought through the supplementary. These arise on social housing and urban renewal programmes. Within the overall mix of the social housing programmes, capital savings are arising on the Ballymun regeneration programme, in particular, where appeals to An Bord Pleanála and judicial review proceedings by third parties have significantly delayed progress in carrying out the planned construction programmes. These are now out of the way and the output from the projects should accelerate rapidly.
Construction work is already under way on more than 400 houses of the 620 scheduled for the first phase of the project with the balance expected to commence over the next few weeks. Saving arising on the Ballymun regeneration programme in the current year will amount to £50 million. As an additional £23 million will be recouped to local authorities in respect of expenditure on emergency accommodation for homeless persons, including those seeking asylum, net savings of £27 million will arise within the overall local authorities and social housing subhead. During the debate in the Dáil yesterday a number of speakers expressed their concern that savings should arise in the area of social housing. As I have indicated, the savings have arisen specifically in relation to the redevelopment of Ballymun and on this project only. The funding provision of £312 million for the main local authority construction programme will be fully expended this year. We expect to achieve around 5,000 house starts this year, and house completions are likely to be in the region of 3,800 units. This could reach 4,000, but the recent prolonged spell of wet weather may hinder this.
Local authorities have been urged by my Department to front-load the construction programmes as much as possible. Uniquely, they have a carte blanche to start as many housing schemes as they possibly can. Funding for land acquisition is readily available from the Housing Finance Agency, and we are encouraging local authorities to embrace the public-private partnership principle by entering into contracts for the purchase of turnkey projects from private builders where they get a complete package of design-and-build on land owned by the developer. Local authorities have been assured that the necessary funding is in place under the National Development Programme to secure the entire programme. We are now one year into a four-year multi-annual local authority housing construction programme. The level of building activity is increasing, and I am confident we will see a much increased building programme next year.
While the main local authority construction programme is the biggest contributor to meeting the housing needs of those on the waiting lists, the voluntary housing programme is now making a significant contribution to social housing output. This year the voluntary sector will deliver about 1,000 units, which is twice as many as last year, and most of these will be let to people in need of housing and on the waiting list. The bottom line to all of this is that the Government is pursuing a determined policy to significantly increase the social housing output.
Savings of more than £10 million will arise in the area of urban regeneration this year. The simple reason for this is that the EU Commission only recently approved the relevant operational programmes. As a result the £10 million provided for the new programmes this year will not now be spent. I am confident that this lag in spending will be made good in full over the remainder of the programming period.
As the committee can see, the supplementary funding I am seeking will make substantial additional resources available for our roads and water services infrastructure, as well as providing support for the local authorities in implementing the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and in continuing measures set out in the national development plan. I hope I have outlined the need for the additional expenditure sought.
I commend the Supplementary Estimate to the committee.