Laois County Council are looking to secure funding for a Town Centre First Masterplan for Mountrath.
There are calls for a midlands town to get a facelift.
Laois Independant Counciller James Kelly says Mountrath was left with a number of vacant premises after the crash in 2008 and it has never recovered.
He's says they need to create spaces for people to sit and relax in the centre of the town for leisure, and make the town pleasing to the eye so they will regularly comeback and attract tourists.
Counciller Kelly says the area is falling behind: