The Minister for Justice has said the proposed press council must have some system of internal sanction against the media or else it would be a "toothless dog".
Discussing his plans to reform the State's defamation regime, Mr McDowell said what is envisaged by the Government is "a statutory press council in the context of a privacy law".
Mr McDowell
Mr McDowell said he had engaged in a lengthy consultation process with the public and with interested parties.
He believed a voluntary body, similar to the British model, would not work. An alternative model, such as a State-appointed press council, did not appeal to him, he said.
"What we are working on now is an intermediate solution, that if the media interests and public interests are capable of putting together a press council which can be recognised under statute, that that press council can be given certain powers."
He said the press council would have to have powers of sanction similar to those available to professional bodies such as accountants' organisations and would have to have "some system" of getting conformity with its rulings.
But Mr McDowell said there must be some latitude in public affairs for people to "get things wrong" without exposing themselves to absolute liability in defamation. However, he said care must be taken by journalists.
Mr McDowell said there was generally consensus that the media should be able to give an apology "without effectively handing your chequebook over to the other side to write out a cheque.
"What I want to do is to bring about a reforming statute of the law of defamation in which there will be a press council and in which there will be a defence based on reasonable care."
On the question of privacy for celebrities and public figures, Mr McDowell said generally the media in Ireland did not engage in similar practices to those in Britain, whereby paparazzi chased public figures.
"I am not saying our media are anything like that. I've never been the subject of interfering cameras, that I know of."
He later added: "I think that in this country our media serve us very well. And I think that we are, generally speaking, decent. We don't engage in paparazzi-type photo hunts of celebrities and we do generally respect sad aspects of public figures' lives and their families lives."
On the question of the introduction of mandatory ID cards, Mr McDowell said he was personally opposed to this, but that Ireland would have to introduce such a scheme if Britain did.