The Minister for Justice was sharply attacked by the Fine Gael leader last night.
Mr Enda Kenny accused Mr McDowell of being in breach of his ministerial duty under the Constitution.
"What else can you call it when the man constitutionally charged with upholding the law, and keeping order in this country, takes to the national airwaves to tell us that he did not bother reporting a crime against his own family, because, after all, what would be the point?" Mr Kenny added. "In another country, he would be fired."
Mr Kenny added that Mr McDowell, in a newspaper article in 1998, had attacked the prison service, claiming that prison officers were holding the State to ransom.
Mr McDowell, he added, had said that the extent to which the system was out of control was so bad that the public could not be let in on the secret. "Well, I'm going to let the people in on another little secret," said Mr Kenny. "That in your tenure as Minister, the overtime bill is no longer €38 million. No. It is €60 million.
That's the jet and the change to boot." Mr Kenny advised the Minister to put the boot into crime rather than "swirling your quill."
He added: "There is plenty to be going on with. As we discovered, when your Government eventually released the crime figures it deliberately suppressed before the election in May."
Mr Kenny, speaking during the debate on his party's Private Members' motion critical of the Government's performance in tackling crime, said the statistics showed offences were up in various categories.
"The number of teenagers - let us face it, children - who are drunk in public is up by 370 per cent. And gangland-related violence and murder, the likes of which you would normally associate with an episode of Cops, is also on the increase," he added.
The motion was defeated by 75 votes to 59.
