Contracting: Advantages/Disadvantages of Limited Company over Sole Trader?

All,
Firstly thanks for taking the time to read this and any replies are greatly appreciated.

Basically the long and the short of it is I am thinking about going contracting, and have a few questions surrounding it.

1) As I understand it most agencies and companies will only deal with a private limited company. Therefore I will need to set up a private limited company. Why don't they want to deal with Sole Traders?

2) What are the annual costs of having a private limited company e.g. yearly accountancy fees, company registration fees, training,etc... ?

3) What are the common advantages of a private limited company? e.g. company car,expenses,what can be written off against tax or is tax free etc...

4) Would you normally agree a separate for oncall or out of office hours work?

5) Does anyone have URL's for useful info on contracting

Here are my thoughts on some of your questions...

1) Customers prefer to deal with a limited company so the temporary contract is done at arms length. There is less likelihood that you will claim employee rights and benefits if work is done through a company.

2) Accountancy: could be €1000-2000 to include annual company tax return, CRO return, balance sheet, P&L etc., and to include your personal annual tax return. Depends on how much you ask accountant to do and how much you do yourself. You can do monthly PAYE and bi-monthly VAT returns yourself. You may get a cheaper rate if you have an accountant friend who will cut you a deal. You should try to make it easy for him/her by keeping good records of expenses, cheques, bank statements, PAYE and VAT returns, invoices etc.

Re setting up the company, here are some sample prices from an agency (that I've used myself but have no other association with):

Looks like ~ €500 incl VAT.

Training? Depends on what training you think you need? You may decide some of your training is better value now through self-study rather than going on formal training courses.

4) I presume you mean a separate rate for work outside normal hours?
Depends really on what you think your customer will regard as reasonable.
I think a higher rate at weekends is often acceptable. Be careful to agree any overtime and corresponding rates in advance, as customers don't like any surprises in this area!

Hope this helps.