The developers of a large, suburban-style estate got the go-ahead from Cavan County Council last month. They had said most of the new owners would be commuting to Dublin every weekday.
Supporting documentation supplied by developer Lomor Holdings also claimed the site in Virginia was just one-and-a-half hours' drive from Dublin.
Lomor had planned to build 281 housing units - 20 detached bungalows; 17 pairs of semi-detached bungalows, three two-storey detached houses and 68 pairs of two-storey semi-detached houses, as well as 22 blocks of four two-storey terraced houses.
The company said 85 per cent of the new owners would probably be commuting to Dublin, just 10 per cent would be working in the area and 5 per cent would be retirees.
Lomor also expected the commuters to leave the estate between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. and to return between 6.30 and 7.30 p.m. each weekday.
These travel times have been described by regular commuters as "optimistic".
Planning permission for the development was turned down by An Bord Pleanala last December.
However, Lomor responded with a new application to Cavan County Council for a similar development on the same land - but with 44 fewer houses.
In its new application Lomor claimed most cars leaving the estate in the mornings would not be heading for Dublin but would instead now "turn right towards Virginia town".
The council granted planning permission last month.
According to Ms Mary Whelan of the Virginia Development Association, this is just one of the developments that caters more for a notional population commuting to Dublin than for the community living there.
Ms Whelan questions the benefit of the proposed houses to the village, or to the proposed owners, who would spend at least 12 hours a day away from their homes. She says the community is not simply engaging in an anti-development exercise.
Recent developments in the county include apartment blocks and townhouses built to a density that is uncalled for in the mainly rural communities, she says. She points to another development plan for Virginia which envisages 22 town houses without front or back gardens, built on a site of about half an acre.
Mr Ian Lumley of An Taisce says the organisation was disappointed it was not notified about the latest application from Lomor.
Mr Lumley says An Taisce supports the development of Virginia for the population needs of the town and the surrounding hinterland, but the organisation is clearly opposed to the development of housing estates for Dublin commuters.
Allowing the building of houses for long-distance carcommuters is contrary to Government policy as articulated in Sustainable Development - A Strategy For Ireland.
He adds that the development proposed by Lomor was "an isolated and self-contained suburban enclave with no design relationship to the very formal layout of the existing town."
According to Mr Brian Johnson, Cavan county manager, however, the development of Cavan in the future is likely to be influenced by access to the Dublin/Belfast economic corridor, through the N55 to Dundalk.
The major growth centre is Cavan town, with secondary centres at Virginia and Belturbet.
The county is experiencing a boom in planning applications, at 2,500 last year, placing it in the top quarter of counties in the Republic for numbers of applications.
The 1996 County Development Plan is being reviewed and will take account of increased development along the Border due to the peace process, the emergence of Cavan town as a "quality of life" centre, and the upgrading of the N55.