The sod has been turned on a new €2 billion town near Lucan in south-west Dublin, which is planned to accommodate 20,000 people.
Some residents claim that Adamstown is going to lead to major traffic headaches.
However, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, described the new town as ‘carefully planned’.
The developers say the construction will be completed in stages to ensure the issue of transportation is properly dealt with.
The 223-hectare site, which is located along the Dublin-Kildare Rail Line, will have schools, a rail station, sports facilities and 70 acres of parkland.
It is the first area to be developed under a fast-track planning procedure called Strategic Development Zones.
The Government created Strategic Development Zones in 2001 as a means of quickly dealing with Dublin's spiralling housing crisis.
The zones were recommended in the Bacon Report and given statutory force in the Planning Development Act 2000.
Critics of the SDZs say while the policy was launched with much fanfare, Adamstown is the only one to make it beyond the planning stage after four years.
