upgrading PHP, switching Apache to new version, and installing phpMyadmin

Any have any pointers here? If installed PHP55 and i have set it as the default on the shell but i need to get apache pointed to PHP55 (from 5.3). Im running RHEL 6 and im inside a corporate firewall.

Im also having trouble getting phpmyadmin set up. Its not on the standard repositories and it is on epel. To use epel i must redirect yum through a proxy. This seems to work at first but i get lost of unresolved dependencies. Any help is appreciated.