Lands around what was once Dublin's largest dump are to be redesignated by Fingal County Council to develop a major urban quarter with capacity for thousands of new homes.
The local authority said more than 1,000 acres of land in the Dunsink area, located between Finglas and Blanchardstown, has the potential to become a new town.
However, Pavee Point said it is concerned about the future of three sites in the area, which are currently home to more than 100 Travellers.
From the 1970s until the 1990s, Dunsink was home to the capital's largest dump and a large population of Traveller families who lived along the site.
The landfill stopped accepting waste around 30 years ago and was later capped, covered and monitored by the local authority. It is now in what is described as the "aftercare phase" of landfill management.
Late last year, Fingal County Council announced plans to redesignate more than 1,000 acres of land around Dunsink to develop a new major urban quarter with the potential for thousands of new homes, including an initial phase of 2,500 units.
If the plans proceed, the area located just 7km from Dublin city centre, will be bigger than some of the more recent towns that have been built in the capital, such as Adamstown and Clonburris.
Director of Services for Planning and Development at Fingal County Council, Róisín Burke, said the area has huge potential.
"It's a real opportunity to create a new town. It's going to provide social, affordable and private homes, and then alongside that, all the necessary community and physical infrastructure you'd expect.
"Educational facilities, community facilities, employment opportunities, so it's a really exciting opportunity for us to bring forward a new urban quarter so close to Dublin city centre," Ms Burke said.
However, the Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre said around 100 Travellers who still live at Dunsink have not been consulted about the plans.
The organisation's Co-Director, Martin Collins, said the long history of Travellers in the Dunsink area needs to be acknowledged and incorporated into any plans.
Travellers first moved into the area 55 years ago, in 1972.
"I personally lived in the area for almost 16 years, and back in the day, when people didn't have much, there was a great community spirit among the Traveller families here. The dump just above the road, which is decommissioned in 2003, many of us lived off that dump for years.
"I personally picked that dump, collecting a little bit of scrap, second-hand bits and pieces for the Hill Market and to be quite honest with you, it fed many of us," Mr Collins said.
"My concern is there's a bit of an information vacuum. There has been no consultation with the Traveller residents, and there is three official designated Traveller sites in Dunsink Lane.
"We don't know what the potential implications for those sites will be, and there is a real concern in the area that the Traveller families will be displaced to effectively make room for the settlers," he said.
"The three sites in the area, two are in badly need of upgrade and refurbishment.
"There is obviously need for additional accommodation units, and we would hope and expect that of the 2,500 housing development that some of those units will be allocated to the Traveller families as well.
"We want to be consulted, and it's only by having a partnership approach and the full integration, the proper and effective integration of the three Traveller sites into the overall proposed development for Dunsink, can we have a vibrant, diverse and an inclusive community.
"And really, that should be the collective ambition of all of us," Mr Collins added.
Ms Burke said Fingal County Council is accelerating the development of Dunsink after the Minister for Housing asked all local authorities to find more land for homes and that they will consult with the local communities.
"Dunsink was considered a long term proposal, and we're releasing it from that long term designation and bringing it forward for development in the much shorter term.
"What's out for comment at the moment is step one. We'll be publishing a detailed plan around Dunsink in the coming months, and we'll be linking in with all major stakeholders, including the Travellers themselves around that and trying to find solutions that work for everyone and all the stakeholders in the site," she said.
"We're not building on the landfill itself. We're building beside the landfill. The landfill itself offers a huge opportunity to become a public open space.
"So it's going to be public green area, open space and a recreational hub, so it will provide walks, trails, pitches and all sorts of recreational facilities for the existing population and the future one aswell," Ms Burke said.
Among those keen to see the plans are the local horse and pony club, who currently care for around 120 animals on the grounds of the former dump that is earmarked for recreational use.
Colm Kiernan, Chair of St Joseph's Horse and Pony Club in Finglas West, said he has been promised that the club will be part of any future development at Dunsink
"Hopefully Fingal County Council will look after us, build stables for us, as there's a huge horse culture going back generations.
"I've been told by Fingal that they're going to cater for the horse project so I'll take their word for that," Mr Kiernan said.
Fingal County Council said a detailed development plan for the area is due to be published before the summer.
The current public consultation on the redesignation of the lands at Dunsink and the rezoning of a number of other areas for housing in the Fingal area is open until 29 January.
