The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has defended the use of Garda resources in tackling sex-related industries such as prostitution and lap-dancing.
Operations targeting such industries were a recognition of "our common humanity", and not the actions of a "nanny State", he said.
Speaking at a function at the Garda Club in Dublin to mark the publication of Sex in the City, a book on prostitution in Ireland by RTÉ Crime Correspondent Paul Reynolds, Mr McDowell rejected criticism of recent Operation Quest raids on lap-dancing clubs.
Referring to the seizure of firearms, drugs, cash and "substantial evidence of people trafficking", the Minister said: "The proof of the pudding on that occasion was in the eating."
Mr McDowell said some people talked about sex being a "service", effectively making exploitation "something normal". Prostitution and its "superstructure of exploitation" were neither normal nor "neutral morally", the Minister said.
"People are being exploited in this trade.
"Gardaí do not harass any prostitute. What they do do is confront the organised exploitation of women by people who are breaking the criminal law."
Asked whether there was an irony in endorsing such a publication, in light of his proposed clamp-down on gardaí leaking stories to journalists, he said: "That is for other people to comment."
