An American agency which is under investigation in the United States is asking Irish couples to pay £10,500 to adopt Russian babies. It says 10 couples are currently adopting babies with its help and that another two have already adopted.
There have been calls from the Adopted People's Association and from social workers to curb its activities here. Mr Brendan Maloney, who runs the agency Adoptions Unlimited Incorporated with his wife, Inga, says jealous rivals are trying to push him out of the adoption field, partly because he is Irish.
The agency has held public meetings in Ireland and has circulated a brochure which lists a scale of payments depending on the age of the child to be adopted. The payments range from £10,500 for an infant under two years old to £6,600 for a child over six. These prices do not include the cost of flights, hotels or interpreters.
Adoptions Unlimited is based in California, but Mr Maloney and his wife, a former Russian swimming champion, have been living in New Mexico because of Mr Maloney's asthma. Two years ago New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families Department told the Maloneys that they should "cease and desist" from running an unlicensed adoption agency there.
This week a spokesman for the Department told The Irish Times there had been allegations the agency was continuing to place children in New Mexico and "the Attorney General's office is looking into that". Mr Maloney told The Irish Times that the allegations were completely untrue. Mr Conroy Chino, a reporter with KOBTV in Albuquerque told The Irish Times his station screened a programme early this month in which a New Mexico couple brought a hidden camera to a meeting with Mr Maloney and filmed him agreeing to help them adopt a child. Mr Maloney disputes that this is what the film depicted.
The programme also interviewed couples who complained that the babies they were brought to Russia to adopt were in very poor health and that when they decided not to adopt them they were unable to get their money back. Mr Maloney denies their allegations and says a rival organisation is behind the publicity.
In Ireland, Adoptions Unlimited is represented by Mr Michael Flynn, who is based in Clontarf. Last year he and his wife adopted a baby through the agency and were so pleased with the experience that they decided to help other couples to do the same, he says. Mr Flynn says his work is entirely voluntary and that he receives no money. The Adopted People's Association called on the Minister of State for Children, Mr Frank Fahey, to introduce emergency legislation to stop Adoptions Unlimited operating here. It said the scale of payments published by the organisation amounted to a "price list". It also called for measures to encourage Irish couples to foster Irish children. Its views were echoed by Mr Kieran McGrath, editor of the Irish Social Worker.
Mr Derek Farrell, of the Disabled Drivers' Association, who is involved in staff and volunteer training programmes in Russia told The Irish Times that staff at an orphanage in Siberia were shocked when he showed them the list of payments sought by Adoptions Unlimited.
Both Mr Flynn and Mr Maloney said Adoptions Unlimited had a meeting arranged for July with Mr Fahey. A spokeswoman for the Minister said that while a meeting had been requested by Adoptions Unlimited none had been arranged.