Fine Gael has called on the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to "completely review" current policing policies which it says are concentrating gardaí in bigger towns.
The call was made by Mayo TD, Mr Michael Ring, the party's spokesman on social and family affairs. who said that population changes and economic circumstances now called for a different approach to policing, especially in the west.
He highlighted the case of a break-in at Newport church in Co Mayo, just before Christmas, as an example of the need for a change, claiming that rural areas were now a soft target for criminals due to the absence of gardaí.
Mr Ring said the present policing policy of withdrawing gardaí from rural areas and closing rural police stations had been adopted at a time when the population there was in decline and there was little or no crime in such areas.
He added: "The decision to concentrate gardaí in bigger towns was an attempt to combat crime in such towns.
"What has happened is that the criminals have been forced out of the towns and are now selecting targets in rural areas where there is no Garda presence.
"I am calling now on the Minister for Justice to immediately reopen the Garda station in Newport and to restore the sergeant and two gardaí who have been withdrawn from the town.
"Newport and other towns like it are experiencing an increase in population.
"The economic circumstances mean that there is more money around and young people are drinking much more and engaging in mindless vandalism.
"The presence of a local Garda force would put a stop to such activities," Mr Ring said in a statement.
He added that the Minister for Justice was the darling of the media, projecting himself as the great liberal.
Mr Ring continued: "His job is to see to it that people can sleep safely in their beds, not entertaining the media and high society to his lofty views on the theory of tribunals or the tribulations of phone-tapping".
He added: "His job is to see to it that there are sufficient gardaí to police not just Dublin and the big cities and towns but also the villages and rural areas of the country.
"He was supposed to bring the gardaí up to 14,500 but has only brought about a miserable increase of a few hundred."