It is the cornerstone of the Government's housing policy, intended to streamline the planning process and ultimately deliver more homes.
However, the Planning and Development Bill has found itself bogged down in delays as it moves through the Oireachtas, with the Government and opposition parties blaming each other for slowing it down.
The battle at present is being played out within the Oireachtas Housing Committee.
Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien has accused Sinn Féin of attempting to filibuster the bill.
Sinn Féin for its part argues that the Government is pushing through complex legislation, without allocating adequate time to consider it.
It is a row that, at present, remains unresolved.
What is the problem?
The Planning and Development Bill is going through a process at present called committee stage, where politicians on the Oireachtas Housing Committee, comprising both Government and opposition party representatives, can put forward amendments and discuss the legislation in detail.
This is a significant piece of legislation however, running to over 700 pages. It is the third largest piece of legislation in the history of the State.
As a result, there is a large number of amendments - almost 1,200.
The Oireachtas Housing Committee is sitting for lengthy periods to try to get all of these amendments through, with sessions over the past month ranging from 12 hours to 19 hours per week.
This is due to increase to 24 hours per week later this month.
Opposition parties are not happy. Some members argue that "their heads are fried" by the end of lengthy sessions, and it is preventing them from adequately scrutinising the legislation and from carrying out other Dáil business.
They also say that Darragh O'Brien is not present for all of these sessions. Instead, at times, the junior ministers in his department represent him.
"In fairness things run more smoothly when Darragh O'Brien is there. He has a better command of the bill," one opposition member said.
The Government side however argues that Sinn Féin has embarked on a tactic of filibustering the bill.
It claims that Sinn Féin is strategically calling votes on the amendments unnecessarily and even removed one of its members, Thomas Gould, all with the intention of slowing down progress of the bill.
If a member is not present, the committee must wait eight minutes before it can vote on an amendment.
Meaning, the absence of Mr Gould resulted in votes taking around ten minutes each in total.
Sinn Féin said it did this in protest over the committee schedule, but that he has now returned.
In fact, the ringing of bells in Leinster House this week, as a result of the vote call, is said to have caused frustration amongst many politicians outside of the committee room.
The Opposition's perspective
Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin believes that Minister O'Brien wants to be able to stand in front of cameras before the summer recess with a fully enacted Planning and Development Bill, and proclaim that, "Darragh gets it done", as his Callan's Kicks alter ego might do.
The Government has said previously that it hopes to have the legislation completed before the summer recess.
"That's a completely arbitrary deadline though," Mr Ó Broin argues.
He believes the legislation should be carefully considered, to ensure that when it is enacted it is a success.
He said that if it is enacted before the summer, it will be a bad piece of legislation that will lead to confusion, appeals and legal challenges.
To back up his argument, he refers to concerns raised by the Irish Planning Institute and others.
Mr Ó Broin said that many parts of the bill are not due to commence until 2025 at the earliest, so he cannot understand the rush.
He has requested that the committee schedule be changed, to allow more weeks of hearings, but with a reduced number of hours per week.
Mr Ó Broin also wants the minister to attend more sessions.
Social Democrats housing spokesperson Cian O'Callaghan also believes the current schedule is not satisfactory.
He takes the view too that committee sessions would be far more efficient if Mr O'Brien attended more of them.
Ministers of State are not as familiar with many parts of the legislation, members claim. Which is slowing down discussion, as they have to seek clarification from officials.
Thomas Gould removed himself from the Housing Committee this week, in protest over the committee schedule, however he returned on Thursday.
Sinn Féin hopes a negotiated settlement, or "truce", can be reached over the schedule going forward.
The Committee Chair's perspective
"Somebody who thinks there's a truce thinks there's a war on. There's no war," insists the Green Party's Steven Matthews.
As Chair of the Oireachtas Housing Committee, he said that he must remain impartial.
However, he believes that opposition parties have taken an "entirely unreasonable position".
Mr Matthews believes the long meetings each week allow for sufficient scrutiny.
He is also sceptical of claims that Mr O'Brien has not attended enough committee meetings.
He believes that the attendance of the minister compared to his junior ministers has been "evenly spread out".
During the three days of 19 to 21 March, the committee will meet for 24 hours.
Mr Matthews does not see this as unreasonable, adding that it is the normal working day for most people.
He also says that the Planning and Development Bill has already taken a significant amount of time to develop and he does not want to see it delayed further.
Mr Matthews is critical of the decision by Sinn Féin to remove Mr Gould in protest, as it delayed votes.
He has not been formally notified of Mr Gould's return to the committee, he has written to the Sinn Féin whip, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, to confirm Mr Gould's position.
The Government's perspective
Mr O'Brien launched an attack on Sinn Féin during the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party meeting this week.
He accused the party of trying to "filibuster" the bill, adding that votes are being "strategically called" to further delay the proceedings and that it appears as though Sinn Féin is trying to push the Government into "guillotining the bill", which he said he does not want to do.
Tánaiste Mícheál Martin also chimed in, telling members that there was a lengthy pre-legislative scrutiny process and that a delay would have an impact on climate targets.
Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe believes that even if the committee does progress at the Government's preferred pace, there will be another four weeks left at best.
He would like to see a compromise, but he says it cannot take away from the deadline of enacting the legislation by the summer recess.
Can a truce be reached?
There appears to be a fundamental difference between the position of Sinn Féin and the Government in how both want to see these committee sessions progress.
Sinn Féin wants more weeks of scrutiny, with fewer hours per week.
The Government wants fewer weeks of scrutiny, with more hours per week to compensate.
Even if a compromise can be reached at this particular stage of the legislative process, there are still more stages to go, which could also face delay.
It has led some TDs to speculate that the Government may guillotine the bill towards the end of the legislative process, in order to have it enacted before the summer.
