The Minister for Justice has announced plans to establish a Garda Inspectorate which will report on standards and performance in the Garda Síochána.
Mr McDowell made the announcement at a Garda graduation ceremony in Templemore, where 167 new members of the force were commissioned today.
The minister said the inspectorate would meet the key challenge identified by the Morris tribunal report of ensuring oversight of the changes that are needed and that it would "buttress and support public confidence in the Garda Síochána".
Justice Minister Michael McDowell
Mr McDowell said he will bring forward the proposals, in close consultation with the Garda Commissioner, for inclusion in the Garda Síochána Bill, which is currently before the Oireachtas.
He said the Bill already has the objective of completely modernising the law on the Garda and of setting out in a clear, statutory framework the functions of the force and its relationship with the Government.
It will also establish the independent Garda Ombudsman Commission, which will be separate to the new inspectorate.
"I believe that the measures already in the Garda Síochána Bill, together with new provision for a Garda Inspectorate, will hugely increase the capacity of the force to demonstrate to the public, in a very real way, its openness and its willingness to embrace change," Mr McDowell said.
"The public trust the Garda Síochána - I am convinced that there is a huge reservoir of goodwill towards the force - and these new mechanisms will provide reassurance to the public that their trust is well placed."
He told graduates and guests at the Templemore ceremony that a key element in the success of the Garda had been the trust the public had always placed in the force - a trust based on the belief that the Garda Síochána is imbued with the "highest ethical standards", a trust that had enabled extensive powers to be vested in its members and a trust that "should never be broken".
The all-important public trust had been challenged, the minister said, by the recent findings of the Morris tribunal, which found wrongdoing on the part of some gardai in Co Donegal in relation to fake arms finds in the early 1990s. He regarded it of crucial importance that everything necessary be done to restore and strengthen it.
"The public has been dismayed at the findings of serious wrongdoing by some gardaí, and at a system that let this happen.
But I know that this sense of dismay, and indeed of anger, is shared by Commissioner Conroy and the vast majority of members of the force who, day-in day-out, do their duty conscientiously, and who have been badly let down by a very small number of their colleagues.
"Anger and dismay are understandable but by themselves achieve little or nothing; committing ourselves to putting things right and learning from these events is the hall-mark of the professionalism and real patriotism which is now required of all of us."
Mr McDowell said that in the interests of the force, in the interests of the future of today's graduates, in the interests of the public, in the interests of the State itself, action must be taken to address the findings of the Morris tribunal report.
"This action must address the findings of individual wrongdoing, but must also
address the systemic failings that permitted that individual wrongdoing to continue unchecked and to damage the force."
The minister said he was glad to see the "immediate and determined" response of the Garda Commissioner and of senior management to address "each and every one" of the issues falling within their responsibility and to come up with proposals to remedy the problems as a matter of urgency.
Mr McDowell added that he was honoured to be part of today's graduation ceremony and he noted the Templemore course is "one of the longest and most intensive training courses for police officers in the world".