Opposition parties are to seek amendments to the draft Garda Bill published today when it comes before the Oireachtas.
The Green Party has criticised the draft saying it is a missed opportunity, while the Labour Party welcomed elements of the reform proposals but said amendments will be needed.
Announcing the draft, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said he hoped the Bill could be passed before the summer recess but stressed he would not force the it through the Oireachtas and welcomed input from other parties.
Green Party justice spokesperson Mr Ciarán Cuffe said the Ombudsman proposals would not fully adress concerns about gardaí investigating each other.
"Minister McDowell is allowing members of the gardaí to staff the Ombudsman Commission's office. This compromises the impartiality of the new body and must be changed," Mr Cuffe said.
The requirement that the Garda Commissioner first be informed before a Garda station can be searched by the Ombudsman's inspectors makes "a mockery" of the process, Mr Cuffe added.
He also expressed concern about granting the Garda Commissioner power to exchange information with law enforcement agencies outside the State without "proper transparency".
"The Bill presented a golden opportunity to reform the Gardaí ... but it falls far short," Mr Cuffe said.
Labour Justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello said the draft contains "many necessary reforms".
"However, some inadequacies and anomalies remain, which we will address in the Dáil. In particular, the Government has rejected Labour's proposal, published in November 2000, for the setting up of a new Garda Authority, made up of individuals representative of the community as a whole," he added.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) broadly welcomed the Bill
"We would welcome in particular the explicit statutory acknowledgement that the Garda have a vital role to play in upholding human rights, and changes elsewhere in the Bill that reflect Ireland's human rights obligations," the council said in a statement.
"The Bill also seems to create a new Ombudsman Commission with effective investigative powers."