Companies would also more be more aware of the penalties for failing to abide by the law for a company of their size. It would also aid enforcement by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement for enforcing the law with regard to medium and large companies. .
The majority of the companies in Ireland are not large enough to merit an in-house solicitor that you could expect to find in larger private companies, public companies or some large accounting partnerships. As such, they need to go elsewhere to obtain legal advice on company law provisions. This can be costly for firms, as many do not have a large enough turnover to warrant such expense due to their small size. Again this leads to companies neglecting company law requirements, risking fines or other penalties including disqualification/restriction of the directors in future. If company law was all in one place instead of several Acts, amended by other forms of legislation and delegated legislation also, then it would be cheaper for smaller companies to comply as the Act could explain all, insofar as possible. This would rule out a large expense for small private companies for small issues.
A simple advantage of consolidated legislation is the convenience and time it would save for all those dealing with company law. Looking for a particular aspect of the law at the moment can be cumbersome as the original 1963 Act and all later Acts may have been amended. When looking at the original Acts, one does not know if it has been updated; if so, by what and how many times. Keane highlights the "sheer scale and complexity" of the current law, citing the example of the Acts of 1963 and of 1990 containing "nearly 700 sections" between them . The number of statutory instruments in this area further complicates the issue, as there are over hundred so far and on top of this there is EU law to observe with also.
