redundant a year ago, unemployed since, now pregnant, will i qualify for maternity?

can anyone tell me what the rules for getting state maternity benefit are?
i was made a redundant a year ago, getting jobseekers benefit since ( i think its that one) which will finish in june. i wont qualify for anything after that as husband works. i am due in november and want to know will i qualify for the maternity benefit. before i was made redundant i had worked for 10 years solid, so i think my prsi contributions are ok for the relevant year (2008?), but i possibly won't have worked in the 16 weeks before my due date. there are no jobs in my field AT ALL but i might be able to get a job in a local shop for a while. i suppose my question really is what are the rules for those last 16 weeks of work? if i cant work for all of them is that ok or is there a minimum number of weeks or hours?
thanks in advance

Pregosaurus - I am now in a similar situation - did you find out anything more ?

maternity benefit while unemployed

A few yrs ago I was in a similar position ...
I was made redundant in Aug 2002 & baby due March 2003. I was 7 months into claiming for my Unemployment Benefit at the time (15 months, I think it was in total) at the time as I was fully paid up in PRSI stamps.

I rang Social Welfare to enquire about my position (without giving any personal details) - it appeared that not only was I not entitled to maternity benefit as I was not working up to whatever the required amount of time was before going on maternity leave, but as I was not technically available for work (due to being 9 months pregnant and then, having a newborn) that I was not entitled to my Unemployment Benefit either.

I asked if I could go on Disability Benefit (which irked me as I was pregnant, NOT disabled) - also refused.

I think I just kept my mouth closed and stayed on Unemployment Benefit, using up most of my precious 15 months of benefit. And I was availing of a mortgage protection insurance policy at the time (mortgage paid for 12 months upoin being made redundant) and I needed the paperwork from Social Welfare to demonstrate my unemployed status to insurance company, I figured it was the best way to go at the time.

I do remember there not being a consistent approach at that time to this scenario (it was 2003), the local Social Welfare office gave me a different answer to the national hotline.

But I was really annoyed as I was a fully paid up PRSI worker that just happened to be pregnant and had been laid off during the dot.com slump in the early 2000s (also very stressful at the time) - and I was not entitled to ANY payments.

Tread carefully!!

didn't realise this was such an old post