On Friday, he boasted at a Progressive Democrat function in Dublin that his own record in resourcing the criminal justice system was "second to none". He reminded listeners: "As I've said before, I have no difficulty in being politically accountable for the criminal justice system".

Today, we are holding the minister to account. In a four-page examination of the facts, we look in detail at what the minister has said, and what the minister has done, and how, 45 months after he took on the job, gangland crime is worse than ever.

Since his appointment in June 2002, minister McDowell has commented many times on the escalating crime rate, the increased use of firearms, and the terrifying levels of violence criminals are prepared to go to, and how he plans to tackle it.

In 2003, when Limerick crime lord Kieran Keane was gunned down, the minister said he was satisfied that the necessary resources had been directed towards these crimes and he reinforced his willingness to pursue any other measure that would assist the gardai.

In 2004, after the murder of pensioner Joan Casey in Tallaght, he promised the full force of the law and said we had to have deterrent sentences. A year ago, when drug dealer Terry Dunleavy was killed, the minister promised minimum sentences of 10 years for illegal possession of firearms.

Last November, after the murders of gang members Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne, the minister rejected suggestions that gangland killings were spiralling out of control.

Last week, after the killing of Donna Cleary he said: "I believe that everybody in Ireland, be they an elected politician, an ordinary citizen, a member of judiciary, members of law enforcement agencies, anybody who reflects on what has happened, must realise this is a watershed point."

He is right, of course, but we must not lose sight of the fact that as Minister for Justice, he is the man in the breach. He is the man with the responsibility for passing the legislation he said was necessary to tackle the problem . . . and it hasn't happened.

As our investigation reveals today, the minister first introduced the Criminal Justice Bill in 2004. Since then, he has come up with 118 amendments. His department says they will be presented to the Dail before the Easter recess and it is hoped the bill will be passed by the time the Dail rises in July.

This is a very confident prediction . . . many on the opposition benches would call it simply unrealistic. It has taken the minister 18 months to come up with 118 amendments and the bill has not yet reached committee stage.

Opposition parties are likely to add hundreds more amendments. To put through such a complicated piece of legislation in the three months before the summer recess seems unlikely, and may even be foolhardy.

Another gangland killing last Friday and another shooting yesterday serve only to reinforce the view that crime in Ireland is more frightening now than it was in 2002, or in 2004, when the minister famously called gang warfare "the sting of a dying wasp".

All the tough-talking soundbites in the world can't deflect attention from this lack of action. The minister is responsible for the fact that the Criminal Justice Bill 2004 is dangerously delayed. It's a bit rich to blame others when that ball is in his court.