The latest crime figures show "alarming" increases in levels of serious crime, the Labour Party has said.
Labour's justice spokesman Joe Costello said the statistics painted a picture of "an Ireland more akin to downtown Bogota than a modern European Capital" such was the extent of gangland murder, assaults and violent crime.
Responding to the publication of provisional crime figures for the first half of the year, Mr Costello said: "Today's figures show alarming increases in levels of serious crime, including murder, over the last few months. Levels of gangland crime, violent death, robberies, and drugs seizures have all risen in recent months as crime levels exceed acceptable levels."
Mr Costello said that over the past number of weeks, Dublin alone had endured a spate of high-profile robberies, assaults and killings that had fuelled today's figures. The figures show murder is up by 35 per cent on the first half of last year, with some 23 people murdered up to the end of June.
"The Garda Representative Association say they are the worst funded and resourced police service in Europe, lacking some of the most basic equipment they require to carry out their work," Mr Costello said.
"[Mr McDowell] has still to recruit any of the long-promised 2000 extra gardai, and botched some vital parts of the Gardai Siochana Bill, especially the composition of the Ombudsman Commission."
Fine Gael's justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said the figures show there are now close to 500 more headline offences committed each week compared to five years ago.
"In the year 2000 there were 73,206 headline crimes recorded in the State. Five years later the total, as released today, suggests a total for 2005 of 97,500," he said. "This is no cause for celebration for the Minister."
He said there were only 240 more gardai on the streets today than three years ago, when Mr McDowell promised to increase the force by 2,000.
"The public are now paying for the failure to deliver on these promises. I welcome any reduction in crime figures, but we would have a better chance to get back to the levels of just five years ago if we had those extra gardai on the beat."