I am an Irish resident living and working in the Republic. However, my employer is based in Northern Ireland and it is here that I pay my income tax and national insurance. I am paid in sterling and I also submit a self-assessment tax form to the Irish Revenue at the end of each year. Am I entitled to the benefits afforded to PRSI contributors in the South as a resident?

My pension contributions in Northern Ireland receive tax relief at the marginal rate of tax in the UK, which is 20 per cent as against 42 per cent in the South. If I was to open a pension in the South, would I be able to claim tax relief at 42 per cent as my equivalent salary in the North would be taxed at 42 per cent in the South?

What are the long-term prospects for the sterling/euro exchange rate and what are the main factors influencing this?

Mr C.R., e-mail

The idea is attractive on several fronts, but I am afraid you are not going to be able to cherrypick your benefits across two jurisdictions as your query seems to indicate.

You are, to be fair, in an awkward position - and one that was never forecast by the UK and Irish tax systems - in living and working on one side of the Border, but being paid and taxed on the other.

Nonetheless, it would be more than a little unusual to be able to draw benefits in one jurisdiction when tax resident in another.

On Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI), the benefits relate to the level of PRSI paid.

For instance, civil servants who pay PRSI at a lower rate do not get the full range of benefits under the system. Similarly, if you are not contributing to PRSI at all, you will not be entitled to benefit under the system.

On the pensions front, the same applies. The advice from the Pensions Board is that you can certainly set up a Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) in the Republic, but you will still not be able to benefit from the generous tax relief available here.

That relief relates to net relevant earnings and you do not have any of these in this jurisdiction. Of course, if, down the line, you are paid and pay tax in the Republic, you could then benefit from the more generous tax relief.

On the future of the sterling euro exchange rate, this is crystal ball territory. Most commentators seem to assume that sterling will remain reasonably strong in the medium term. On that basis, the rate is more likely to favour sterling than the euro, which has more questions about future performance.

Factors affecting currency include interest rates and economic performance of the relevant current areas.

Deutsche Telekom shares

I purchased a small amount of shares in Deutsche Telekom some years ago. At the time, I opted to entrust the actual shares certificates with NCB.

They have recently informed me that I will be charged an annual custody charge of €20, plus a €5 dividend charge. The dividend is now very small and the share price has fallen a lot.

To avoid these charges, I asked them to return the share certs to me. They said I cannot have them and I should avail of their offer of 0 per cent commission to dispose of them.

I want to hold on to them for a few more years in the hope that the share price will rise again. Can you advise please?

F.H., e-mail

As with most things in the world of financial services, a little confusion can go a long way. In this instance, the misunderstanding relates largely to the issue of share certificates. Traditionally, when people bought shares, they received a certificate outlining their holding in the company.

This was the proof of ownership and, without it, the owner of shares could not sell that stock.

However, in this technologically driven age, shares are increasingly held electronically. In fact, on certain markets, you cannot get a share certificate for your holding in a company. This is true of holdings on most US markets and it is also the case with Deutsche Telekom.

The fact is that there never was a physical share certificate for your holding in Deutsche Telecom. Instead, the shares were held electronically at NCB in a nominee account.

You were, I imagine, one of a large number of people who bought into Deutsche Telekom just after the initial flotation of Eircom. The German telecoms group proved particularly attractive to investors who had failed to secure as much of Eircom as they had hoped for.

However, no more than with Eircom, those investors are now nursing heavy losses.

Deutsche Telekom is now trading around the €15.50 mark, a long way shy of the €100-plus level at which they peaked in 2000. In the past year, they have traded in the mid-teens.

You could always hold on to them if you want but, as I understand it, you only have around 30 shares, that may well be more trouble than it is worth.

Most brokers will charge an annual custody charge for managing customers' shares in a nominee account or its electronic alternative, a Crest account. Whether €20 is the best price you can get for that service could only be determined by ringing around the different brokers. There aren't many of them, so it shouldn't take too long.

However, whether it's more or less, it is still likely to be significant in terms of a holding that, at today's prices, is worth just €465. Added to the €5 annual charge for processing the company's dividends, the costs involved in managing your holding will far exceed the income you receive through dividends.

You could always hold on in the hope of a dramatic recovery in the share price - and there's no certainty that it will not happen - but it would need to happen quickly to offset the charges that amount to more than 5 per cent of the current value of your shares.

Personally, given the small scale of your holding in Deutsche Telekom, I would bail out - especially in light of the offer of 0 per cent commission, a rarity in itself in stockbroking circles.

I don't know if you have other shares, but the fact is that you need more than €500 odd to dabble effectively in the stock market given the costs involved.

However, if you are determined to stick with this stock, ring around the brokers, find the best offer and notify NCB by e-mail of the details of the account you open with that broker. They will then transfer the shares to that broker.

Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice.

Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.