Detectives are likely to videotape statements by witnesses on a more extensive basis than has been the case up to now, according to the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
He was speaking following last week's collapse of a Limerick murder trial when a number of prosecution witnesses denied making statements to Gardai identifying the accused as the murderer.
Video equipment has been installed in 220 interview rooms in Garda stations around the country, following a pilot test that ran for nearly eight years up to 2000.
Rejecting charges that suspects, let alone witnesses, are rarely videotaped, Mr McDowell said the practice was "extensively used" by detectives in relation to suspects.
"I believe the system of using videoing of statements [by witnesses] is a matter that the Garda Síochána are now going to consider on an extensive basis. They have not been doing it until now, but the resources are there.
"They have not been doing it before now as a matter of administrative practice," said the Minister, who sharply rounded on elements within the Garda and the media for orchestrating attacks on him.
Some gardaí believe that witnesses may be less likely to retract statements if they are videotaped, although the law would have to be changed before such statements could be submitted as evidence on their own.
Mr Liam Keane walked free from the Central Criminal Court last week after six witnesses denied making statements identifying him as the man who stabbed Mr Eric Leamy.
During a series of interviews over the weekend, the Minister rejected those who are now calling for all gangland trials to be heard by the non-jury Special Criminal Court as "crassly stupid".
Mr McDowell said he had been amazed by some of those who have called on him to abandon "the Constitution, and the protection the Constitution offers" to citizens.
"I believe that Irish juries are capable of conducting jury trials.
"Some of the most egregious suggestions seemed to have been dreamt up on the back of a beer mat," said the Minister, who has been engaged in a running battle with a number of tabloid newspapers over his performance as a member of the Cabinet.
"Some people are pursuing their own agenda on this matter. There are more resources going into the Garda Síochána than even before, in terms of money, manpower, equipment."
The Government's spending plans for next year, due to be published later this week, will show that record levels of taxpayers' money are being used to help the Garda to fight crime.
Refusing to criticise the force, Mr McDowell said there were some people within it who were deeply worried about the impact the reforms promised in his Garda Síochána Bill would have on their careers and lives.
"Some of them are afraid of that. Some of these people have decided that they will put a flak screen against it. I don't think that it amounts to anything more than that," he said on RTÉ's This Week programme.
Despite the collapse of the Keane trial, the Minister insisted that the criminal justice system is not in crisis.
"I do not believe that we have arrived at a state of social anarchy. There are areas where gangland activity has produced an atmosphere of intimidation.
"I accept that. But I do not believe that the judicial system is in crisis. I do not believe that it has broken down. And it is a gross exaggeration on the part of the media to suggest that it has."
The Special Criminal Court should not be used for gangland trials, particularly since it would be impossible to imprison people for being members of a gang, as members of proscribed organisations, such as the IRA, are jailed. The gangs, he said, had a much looser structure and did not induct members, or make them swear oaths, as the IRA did.
Currently, IRA members can be jailed solely on the word of a Garda chief superintendent.
