Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, tonight condemned the planting of a hoax bomb under the car of Sunday Worldcrime journalist, Mr Paul Williams.
Mr McDowell said he was being fully briefed on developments in the Garda investigation into the incident, which was focusing on subversive elements including the INLA.
The minister rejected suggestions by the journalist that Government-imposed cutbacks were responsible for a recent reduction in security measures at Mr Williams' home.
He said security arrangements were an operational matter for the police.
Earlier it emerged Mr Williams was being given 24-hour Garda protection following the hoax bomb alert.
Mr Williams and his family, along with more than 140 residents living nearby, were evacuated after the suspect device was apparently spotted under his car by gardaí in a passing patrol car at 3 a.m.
Army bomb disposal experts and gardaí were called to the scene, and the object was removed and detonated. It was found to have been an elaborately prepared device made to look like a bomb.
Speaking this evening, a defiant Mr Williams said: "I am certainly not going to stop doing what I do".
"Those bastards don't have the right to tell me what I do or don't do and they don't have the right to intimidate any other decent member of this community," he said.
Earlier in a statement he said he and his family were "fine".
"We are receiving amazing levels of support from our neighbours and friends," he said. Mr Williams noted the "diligence and attention to detail" of the gardai who reportedly spotted the device and raised the alarm. "We are relieved to be now receiving their protection on a full-time basis," he added.
A Garda spokesman said he could not discuss any aspect of Mr Williams's protection, but that the incident this morning was being investigated.