Help - Need Tax Advice

Hello,
I was recently made redundant from a PAYE job. Signed on - no problems. I work in IT so I have just landed a 3 month contract. Now I need to setup a company to get paid for this work.

Now one thing im thinking of during this period is of actually putting some ideas together and starting a proper company out of this. I am going to use the 3 months to work out the viability of things...

My predicament:

If I change now from Class A to Class S I will loose my PAYE/Stamps contributions which I have had since 1997...

Can someone tell me what this means ? I think it means the following:
- In two years time I can claim for:
Dental
Dole (in current environment might need this!?
anything else ???

Is my state pension affected if when I retire ?

If I get a PAYE job again in a few months how long before my "stamps" are "good" ??

I'm very confused !

Part B: Cant seem to get advice on this anywhere :
At the end of my 3 month contract I may get a PAYE job but continue to operate the "company" in the background to see if if there is something viable there in the future..
So if that were the case I would be working in a PAYE job.. and have this "entity" on the side...

How does that work ?? Do I just let the company operate and keep any cash coming into it in the company

Where should I go to get more advice on these scenarios ??

Thanks in advance
-a-

Any PRSI payments you have already made since you first started work are on permanent record and cannot be lost.
Citizensinformation.ie have a full explanation of the PRSI system and I think it may be woth a read.
If you have a three month contract and no work after that you can go back on Jobseekers Ben until the next job comes up.
On setting up your own Company you may need to talk to SW about getting JB while starting up

If starting up a company, you should not commence trading until after 1st January to avail of the exemption from Corporation Tax as brought in the budget for start ups