A major overhaul of planning laws will be finalised next month with legally binding timelines on planning appeals set to be introduced.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin last year tasked the Attorney General Paul Gallagher with streamlining the planning process.

The existing planning framework has been repeatedly blamed for stalling developments in housing and key infrastructural projects.

Sources familiar with the plan said that one of the key reforms could be introducing a statutory requirement on decision times for An Bord Pleanála (ABP).

A legal requirement was recently introduced to force ABP to make decisions on Large Scale Residential Developments (LRSDs) within a 16-week time period or face significant fines.

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Under the new proposals, this could be extended to all other decisions coming before them. Currently, there is a statutory requirement on local authorities to make decisions within 18 weeks, the first step in what is normally a two-part process.

There is no legally-binding timeframe for ABP, which deals predominately with appeals.

The fast-track option of allowing developers of strategic housing developments (SHDs) to apply directly to An Board Pleanála rather than via local authorities is to be scrapped.

This option is viewed as having had the unintended consequence of further clogging up the court system, as the only course of appeal was through a judicial review.

Sinn Féin Housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said he believed introducing a statutory decision-making time period for ABP would be "sensible" and that current delays were a "real problem". He said that part of this was caused by a lack of resourcing which will also need to be addressed.

Mr Ó Broin said that extending the amount of time planning permission is valid for would be a "very foolish idea", adding that the two previous extensions that were introduced did not lead to increased levels of development. He instead called for commencement to be required "within a defined period of time" when planning is given.

Meanwhile, country development plans - which map out local authorities' plans for specific areas - are also in line for a shake-up, with consideration being given to extending them to become a ten-year plan as opposed to the current five-year model.

Mr Ó Broin called on the Government not to rush through any new legislation due to the significant impact it will have.

"If you introduce poorly conceived changes to the planning system it will delay everything," he said.