Paul Gallagher SC will supervise a team of planning law experts working on a review “of unprecedented scale”, the government said, which will improve the government’s ability to implement major programmes, including the National Development Plan and Housing for All Plan.

The review also aims to improve Ireland’s “national competitiveness”, recognising that planning legislation has become “overly complicated and difficult to navigate, contributing to significant delays and additional costs in the delivery of housing”.

It will be completed by September 2022 in order to enable the delivery of the Housing for All plan, under which the government aims to increase the supply of housing to an average of at least 33,000 housing units per year over the next decade.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: “When we published Housing for All earlier in the month, I reiterated my view that housing is the single most urgent and important social issue facing our country at this time and that I am determined that we as a government get to grips with it.

“We also committed that the Housing for All plan would be underpinned by accountability and a strong delivery focus. This large-scale planning reform programme, which will bring about fundamental improvements to our planning laws, reflects the approach we are taking overall, with challenging deadlines and a truly cross-government approach to delivery of Housing for All’s objectives and other major plans.

“Our planning laws need a complete overhaul to meet the ambition outlined in Housing for All. Streamlining and simplifying the planning laws will support the accelerated delivery of housing set out under the Housing for All plan.”