Sir, – Michael McDowell warns of the dangers of increasing the size of the Cabinet, however much of what he predicts has already taken place over the past decade (“A referendum to expand the size of the cabinet would just look like ‘jobs for the boys’,” June 10th).First, the ballooning of the attendance at Cabinet to Westminster levels has already occurred here. Weekly meetings are now attended by the Taoiseach, 14 Cabinet Ministers, the Attorney General, the chief whip, three other “super-junior” Ministers, and the secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach. This total attendance of 21 isn’t far shy of the 28 who attend such meetings in London. All those present are party to all decisions, receiving memos in advance.There is simply no way that such a large attendance is in accordance with the requirement in Article 28 of the Constitution that the government (that is, the Taoiseach and 14 Ministers) “shall meet and act as a collective authority”, and this issue is the subject of two appeals to the Supreme Court.McDowell warns of the possibility of decisions being made by “inner or kitchen cabinets”, but this has already been the case since 2011 with the formation of the pretentiously named Economic Management Council consisting of the then taoiseach, tánaiste and the ministers for finance and public expenditure.This cabinet-within-a-cabinet has since been replaced by weekly meetings of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the leader of the Independent grouping (or the Green Party in the last government), whose explicit aim is to resolve “difficult” issues ahead of Cabinet meetings. This inherently leads to an erosion of cabinet government since decisions are being made outside of the room and presented to the cabinet to be rubber-stamped.There has not been a single recorded instance of a recommendation from this meeting of party leaders being rejected by the wider cabinet. Outrageously, despite its enormous influence over Cabinet decisions, the Government refuses to answer questions on these leader’s meetings on the basis that they are party-political in nature and are not accountable to Dáil Éireann.These problems would certainly be exacerbated by the Taoiseach’s ill-advised proposal to increase the size of the Cabinet. – Yours etc,BARRY WALSH,Clontarf,Dublin 3.