Civil Service Pension Short Years - AVC or PRSA advice needed

Hi all, hoping someone can guide me here. Details as follows:

- Short 6 years on retirement from the civil service - assuming I work to 68.
- Member of the single scheme so no option yet to buy back years but that may change.
- I have a PRSA from an old employment that I have not paid anything into in years with a current value of €30,000.

I've been thinking of doing an AVC for the last year and got advice from a provider who said to set up an AVC in such a way that when I retire I can use the lump sum limit I will be short from my pension to take the AVC payment tax free and then any balance will be regular pension payments. This sounds pretty good but what did not sound great were the fees, initial set up fee €500, regular contribution fee 2% and annual fund mgt fee 1%.

As far as I know my PRSA fee is 1% per anum. Could I just use my PRSA in the same way as an AVC and start paying back into it to build it up some more?

If the option comes up to buy back years in the future can I use my PRSA funds to do that or is it only AVCs that can do this?

What are the benefits of an AVC over a PRSA?

Any advice or thoughts welcome.

Ok so I rang Irish Life and they said I would have to set up an AVC PRSA and transfer my Irish Life PRSA into it which is different to what the first provider said - anyone know who is correct???