Newly elected Athlone Mayor Councillor Aengus O'Rourke says he wants to see the restoration of town councils for larger towns discussed at the government formation talks.
The Fianna Fail councillor took the chair of the Mayor of the local authority for the second time this week and says the issue is one he has been campaigning against since the changes were made back in 2014.
Councillor O' Rourke says the town of Athlone was easily one of the biggest losers when it came to them having town council status taken away and replaced with municipal districts.
He says under the town council system areas like planning, rates collection and distribution of those funds were under the control of the authority in Athlone but since 2014 these powers have bene centralised back to Mullingar.
The new Athlone Mayor says it's something that he's determined to keep campaigning on until changes are made…