Such encouraging here in Taylor Speak about Jesus and then you know, I see him every day here at morning prayers We have morning prayers here in the mornings Sometimes five o'clock with this Bible and good morning, Holy Spirit book you see walking around back and forth and praying Honestly, there is power in prayer It's one thing to be called, you know, I believe in Jesus But it's another thing when you obey Jesus and follow Jesus That's when the real transformation is taking place can somebody see a man We're so excited for this coming summer which already has begun about few days into it Graduation has happened most of you already done with school and I believe from the teenagers to also every one of us young adults We're gonna see more people coming to morning prayers during the summer. Come on We're gonna see young people opening up home groups during the summer. Amen Pulling out all the weeds in the church during the summer and also at my house in Jesus name and We're gonna see awesome things happen during the summer We're gonna finish the second school of leaders during the summer and I believe that we are gonna be Very close eventually to having 50 home groups And then we're just gonna be just beginning to have our 300 home groups for the glory of God. Amen You know, we have a conference coming up in about 60 something days They're gonna be our second conference this year and we're gonna release finally our EP about six or five or six Songs that we're gonna release to iTunes that our own songs that we're just gonna give God all the glory and all the power That we're gonna see just awesome things, you know I had a few goals this year for my summer some of them were personal But some of them for our ministry one of them was to have 50 home groups And the other one is to have four people on the staff in our church Some of you don't know we actually have we have three people on the staff in our church we believe in paying and we believe in Setting people free so they can come from morning till evening and have their brains fried with only one thing how to bring more people to Jesus Christ how to raise more home groups and we believe that as a church the money shouldn't be just to buy new Carpets and buy new rocks and new lawn and buy new signs But the church the money is supposed to be used to help us spread the message of the Lord Jesus Christ Because somebody say amen, you know our money is not to buy, you know a $60,000 piano I know a friend of mine I went to their summer camp once and I preached and they're like man It's so awesome that you guys have a pastor who believes in you know setting young people free So they can spend all day in church and give them, you know some money So they could kind of focus on that and I was like well doesn't every pastor believes in that and they're like no You know our church, you know, we have two hundred thousand dollars in their savings account I was like you have what like you can flip the whole city upside down with those money if you said You know 20 people free and let him work all day for God And I was like what do you guys spend money on and he's like well we have this awesome thing in our church We bought a 65,000 dollar piano I said you did what? How many people got saved because of that piano? I'm like and he's like well a lot of people probably not gonna come to our church because of that piano You know our church doesn't believe in just buying new toys though We love toys in our church But we believe to see more people give the lives to Jesus Christ we believe I give financial Sacrificially I teach about that you give Sacrificially and all of that so we can see more and more people serving Jesus Christ I believe one day we're gonna have more than 300 people on the staff in our church for the glory of God there's somebody saying man and This and this is gonna be just like a staff meeting for the glory of God There's a lot of other churches in the United States who have that why not if God can use them God can use us for his glory because somebody say amen So with us said this week actually we had one more person that join our staff And so we're gonna have actually four people that will be working tirelessly and so and there's more people that will be Volunteering more people that will be helping and all of it is going to be to push the kingdom of God further We are not stopping we are not backing down and we are not going backwards of the path Backwards has been burned long time ago. We're not gonna repeat what lots wife did looking back thinking about the old life We're only gonna go walk forward thinking about the good things that God wants to do in our church and in our life in Jesus Mighty name. Amen, I feel like even this building very soon It's becoming too small our Wednesday services will be too small And we're gonna have a lot of other awesome things that God is going to do in our midst in Jesus mighty name Can somebody say amen? I want to tell you something that our church has a vision We have a purpose but every vision requires to be paid for a price That's why morning prayers exist prayers don't exist because we're more radical than other churches prayers exist Is because we don't have what it takes to reach our vision without the Holy Spirit? We lean on the Holy Spirit so heavily I appreciate each one of you who wakes up every morning grabs their Bible comes in to see God those of you who are Doing it at home. I encourage each one of you this summer as I was challenging one young lady And I said you're not going to school. You're not working this summer I want to see you here every morning come spend a few hours in prayer with the Holy Spirit Let's believe that this summer we will grow we will go further that you will have your own home group And I give you the same challenge today in Jesus mighty name God has a plan and a purpose for your life summer is not just to get a tan and get your beach body Summer is a time to get into your spiritual body like a warrior for the glory of God. Amen With us said in first John chapter 4 verse 8 Apostle John tells us that In fear he said there is no fear and love But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment and the one who fears is not made perfect In love the perfect translation says in fear there is torment now It's interesting that Apostle John tells us something very interesting that he says where there is love There is no fear in love He says but perfect love drives away fear because we're fear there is torment See many of us when we receive Jesus Christ We receive God's love in our heart in the form of the Holy Spirit God's love is not some liquid thing that you have in your heart floating from one side of your heart to another and then during worship You feel it stirred God's love is a person the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us and the scripture tells us that when we have the Holy Spirit in Him because of him we don't have fear We don't have torment and you can add to word torment here all other negative words We don't have defeat. We don't have sickness. We don't have depression and everything And you may say well that sounds really cute lad But the reality is I have the Holy Spirit and I still have fear I still have maybe pain or maybe I still have torments or I still have nightmares or I still have certain challenges in my life But Apostle Paul Apostle John breaks us down for us And he says that it's not love in us that causes fears to vanish So it's not the coming of God's love. It's not the presence of God's spirit that immediately Removes all the fears all the darkness and all the problems. He says it's the perfect love Word perfect in the Bible always means usually most of the time it means mature So what is saying is this is that the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life does not guarantee a victorious life yet But when I have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, that's maturing That maturing relationship has the power to begin to squash and drive away Like the power of God all the fear all the torment all the struggles and all the demonic attacks That I still encounter That's why you can meet a Christian who has the Holy Spirit and he still has certain addictions maybe TV Maybe overeating Some of you, you know always thinking about drugs and pornography But there are other addictions that we have the addictions to cussing addiction to these things and you may say he is not A real Christian he can have those things if he has the Holy Spirit But he cannot have those things if he chooses to grow in the Holy Spirit People always have a problem Especially when they see in our churches when we cast out demons and we cast demons out of Christians and they say you shouldn't do that What should we do leave them the point people have is this Christian shouldn't have demons you're right Christian shouldn't cuss Christian shouldn't be depressed and Christian shouldn't have a depressing day But the reality is if a Christian has love but doesn't have a perfect love he can still have those things If a Christian has the Holy Spirit, but a Christian doesn't grow and mature in the Holy Spirit A Christian can have hell inside of him If you have a house that you've built in Trace it is for example, let's say in Pasco You go to PUD you connect the electricity to your house You pay it for all the connections, which is a thousand dollars and then you pay for all other things and they connect the electricity to your house You walk into your house and your house is still dark and You're upset you walk to PUD and you say what is wrong with you guys? I paid you a thousand dollars.  They say legally on the paper the light has been connected to your parcel But now it is your duty to bring that light into your house and it is your duty to turn that light on So you can have legally light on your parcel and be in pitch dark in your house That's how many Christians live They have the Holy Spirit inside of them because they believed in Jesus But because they are not developing and growing in that relationship their life still remains as the life of average person Who doesn't have God? If you think that you come to the front raise your hand and pray the sinners prayer and your life will immediately flip It will only start flipping the real changes the real freedom the real changes in your whole life happens Not just when you get the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit gets you When he gets activated when the Holy Spirit's power matures when his presence begins to mature in us And then our life begins to slowly, but surely change My desire in the last two years my life has changed It's not changed a hundred percent But it changed dramatically in many different facets My deepest prayer is in the next two years It will change even greater than it changed last two years. I am desperate. This is not just empty words I'm bleeding with God. I am sacrificing enormous amount of money That I've never done before only for one thing God changed my life Because I know one thing if this man is changed Everyone who will listen it will come out of me on you and it will touch our congregation It will touch our leaders. I was meeting with the young man today and we were talking with him and very successful businessman Drove in a very expensive car. And so we were talking and I remember talking was like I was like I feel like I'm so far from God It looked at me. It's like if you are far far from God.   How do you activate the anointing? How do you activate your relationship with the Holy Spirit? You mentioned you saw how each person who shares a testimony in our church They begin to mention this person.  Holy Spirit is a person who is alive with us today And he is like electricity that legally comes to your house But as a person he can be activated in your life or he can lay dormant and you can still live the same life As if you would without Jesus Christ I want to share with you just few simple thoughts three thoughts And how to activate the Holy Spirit's presence and his anointing in our life, but for that to happen Let's open to Acts chapter 10 verse 38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth With the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God What was with him and if we open to another verse in a Bible first John chapter 3 verse 8 It says the following for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil somebody say amen So we see in Acts chapter 10 Apostle Peter is talking to Cornelius house, and he's talking about Jesus. He's saying that Jesus God anointed Jesus So that Jesus will go about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil God's anointing and God's Holy Spirit is activated When we do this one thing first When we choose to live for the audience of one when we make the aim of our life Not the applause of people But the approval of God No one can lead an orchestra without first turning his back toward the crowd And no one can truly follow God and have the Holy Spirit move in his life until he first makes one decision I churn my face toward God and my back toward everything else Holy Spirit lays dormant in people's lives who claim to believe in him But have no commitment to God whatsoever. There's two ways. You can check somebody's commitment toward God their calendar and their pocket Not their mouth not their Facebook posts because Facebook posts are cheap When you pull out your calendar and you mark to me our spend with God Our spend reading books podcast or the Bible when you pull out your pocket And you simply say you tipped God just few dollars or you pull out your pocket And you say this certain percentage belongs to God I and the world around you can see one thing Who have you turned your back to and Your face to most of us want to see the Holy Spirit move in our lives But the problem is the cost is very high because the cost is this you have to give God your Undivided attention but in order to do that you have to give all of your homies and cronies The second place the Bible says if we follow God we have to love everyone But the Bible does not guarantee that if we follow God everyone will love us and Many Christians are fishing For everyone's acceptance. Let me tell you this straight up There will never be a day in your life where every person in your circle Will applaud you and people are so fragile their opinions are so fluid They are not worth living your life for their approval Whether they make billions or they maybe are just cute people. They're still not worth living your life for It's good to love people but to live your life for their approval It quenches the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit becomes quench in your life if you live your life not for his attention When Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit it was in Matthew chapter 3 When the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus something happened The father on a big microphone in heaven has made this declaration and this statement He said this is my son in whom I am well pleased 30 years Jesus lived his life We don't see miracles recorded. We don't see a lot of preaching done But one thing God summarizes 30 years of life as this he lived for 30 years of his life And I was the center of his attention and I give this approval those 30 years He pleased me well now. I will give my power to him God doesn't give his anointing cheaply He gives it to people who see God. I'm not perfect But I choose to surrender God I don't have what others have but God I choose to turn my face toward you and Put you as first in my life God I don't have it all together But if one thing I have it together is this my back will never be always to your word It will be to my friends opinions of other people and my face will be toward you God because somebody say a man If we look in the Old Testament We will see that every great man of God every prophet that God used if we look at Enoch It says about him before he died God gave a testimony that he pleased God boom God took him We see Joseph a pagan pharaoh looked at Joseph and said the spirit of God is in you Who can we find just like you but we see Joseph living his life when the temptation came in Joseph nobody was there to watch him He could have easily slip and as people say it's a man's need to sleep with a woman and Joseph says no no no no If I am to protect the Holy Spirit who gives me supernatural things I'm gonna have to turn my back toward you wife of Potiphar and I'm gonna face the Holy Spirit I'm gonna honor the Holy Spirit and God honor them people like Isaiah people like Jeremiah people like Daniel people like the Daniels friends People like David they all had one thing in common not all of these people were educated not all of these people were rich Not all of these people were famous, but all of these people had one thing in their life that they had in common They were not for sale They were sold out When the world knocked and the world says can you give me a little bit of you? They said too late Already gave it to God That's why God used them the Bible says that's why God wasn't ashamed of them And the Bible says the world wasn't worthy of them And that's why God's spirit moved upon them because God's spirit could easily brag about them and said these are my man And I own them Let's be those people today to activate the Holy Spirit. We have to choose to do the first thing Live for the applause of one can somebody say amen Are you gonna live for the applause of God? Are you gonna live to please God? If yes say yes with me We're gonna live for God's call. We're gonna live for God's cause and we're gonna live for God's purpose But the second thing that I want us to point out today how to activate God's anointing God's presence in our lives is Do good to change the bad you see The Bible says in Acts chapter 10 that Jesus anointed by the Holy Spirit went around doing good went around doing good the Holy Spirit Lays dormant in our lives If after committing our life to God first of all Realistically speaking it is impossible to commit your life to God And I mean truly without after that helping other people It is impossible When I meet people and they say that I committed my life to God you may come to church That is one thing but when you truly commit your life to God the one thing that you want to do is you're gonna start helping other people You're gonna want to be a home group leader not because home group leader is cool in a good news church But because home group leaders the way you accomplish your purpose of helping other people to become discipled by Jesus Christ You will automatically do that But if you don't automatically click click in I'm gonna remind you of the scripture when Jesus was anointed Why was he anointed because his life was pleasing to God and not only in the beginning of his life But even in the middle of his life when he was famous and when he already was known and thousands of people flocked to his meetings And people stood up there was reputation going on and Jesus goes on the mountain of transfiguration and the father says Jesus is Still pleasing to me. He didn't get his eyes off of me to success and the ministry He still has his eyes on me. That's why Jesus was anointed. He pleased his dad He pleased God if we choose to please God even when things get good or hard and we stick through it God's anointing will rest upon our church when right now we have more people coming more leaders rising up if we Keep it in front of our face the main thing the main thing which is the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit God's vindication will rest upon our life and God's anointing will not lift from our life But the way God's anointing gets activated is not only when we please God But also when we do good to change the bad we see it's when we pour our life Not just in buying bigger rims bigger houses nicer things But when we pour our life to help people now, let me clarify something about helping people Because when we read John 10 The Jesus went around doing good. We immediately every person has a different definition of what it means to do good Some people think Jesus went around giving people tacos Some people Jesus think Jesus went around giving people free food and actually you are correct Jesus went around giving people free food and when they came to him the next day for more free food Jesus was upset Because Jesus says I'm not giving you free food just to stir up your bellies I'm giving you true food because I'm trying to get into something that is eternal inside of you It's called your soul.  You're still gonna die Jesus was doing good not just by helping with people's problems, but by touching their soul Which will never die. I want us to remember this The best good was when the soul is saved That's when we give somebody the highest good The quote that I had is salvation of the soul brings the most good to person's life Salvation of the soul brings the most good to a person's life.   I'm a big fan of giving people houses When I pay off mine first I'm big fan of giving people clothes. I'm big fan of taking people on road trips paying for them I am all over that sending money to missions I am big fan of that, but I want to tell you something from my own personal experience and from your experience also That doesn't change people's heart. I Had a person that we in my wife We would say bluntly we picked that up from the streets. This person was homeless This person had nowhere to live and this person had no family We build a room in our old place. We put this person there I found out that this person had a lot of debt We helped this person knock all the debt out when this person had still half of seven hundred dollars left in her debt We decided that me and my wife will pitch in and we will pay all of her debt on her birthday and we did that We tried to bring this person to church with us because all of this that we did our only aim was this So this person's heart will be changed And eventually when the car was paid off the car stopped working Another person from the church pitches in and nice about five thousand dollar car and just gives it for free. I Mean everything start going well This person is completely out of debt as a place to live as a job as a financial aid goes to school seems like everything is Well everything around is doing so good because all of us piston to do good But the soul inside if you would talk to this person is the most negative person in the whole world I've seen more positive people in jungles of Tanzania than I found in this person And I said we're bending backwards to help everything, but this person's soul was completely untouched and the moment we moved out of that place This person disappeared from a church like this why Because the soul wasn't touched and you know the funny part in a very short very short period of time if you will Look at this person finances and if you will look at their life Their life is back in the same place that it was before Why? Because the best good you do to somebody is not to give them a car.    Maybe you're you're having a blast of your life I remember I met with one person and he's like man. I don't understand.  I'm like buddy. You're bound. You're not free You can't go one day without that stuff. Your soul inside is empty Do you know why you need Drinking because something inside is completely empty and drinking is trying to fill it and is still not doing the job my friend Why God wants us to save souls? Why are we praying for souls? Some people think we're just trying to get people to be religious No, we found out the best way to change their life Is through their soul. We have people here who work in schools who work as counselors and They will testify to you and I've counseled people myself If you give people advice give people counsel you may change a certain point of their life But until their soul changes Until their mind until and the inside their world which is eternal changes their life doesn't change, you know, I see every morning Brian Ashley Just many months a few months ago Brian Ashley came in for the first time in our church and some of you knew he was addicted to drugs If I'm not mistaken over those three times and once he died Lost his license had no car had no job and had no opportunities to work because of his record Had to go to court for all kinds of classes every single day. He comes in, you know Sometimes you look at somebody's life like they like oh my goodness. Where do we start with the soul? He said but what we need to get a job we need to know no no no We need to get a soul right first and he start coming he start learning the Bible He start praying and the soul got the right first and the interesting part in a very short time court things begin to clear a Sister gives him a car Father gives him a job and now Brian drives to morning prayers While he has his own job and one of the mornings Yes And one of the mornings he walks around here he's praying he's like pastor Where's the envelope and I said why do you need the envelope and the morning prayer? He says I brought my first died and I need to honor God When somebody's soul is changed give them a car and they'll make a use of it But if somebody's soul is not changed I remember you know a girl named Anna whose birthday actually it is today She came to our church and she and her boyfriend were living together. They were living in sin They both profess to be Christians. She comes in and God touched her God touched her heart.  She wouldn't even look at her mom in the face But the first thing that we focused on is not getting her relationship with her boyfriend, right? But getting her relationship with her soul and her savior, right? Interesting part is when that happened two weeks later her boyfriend the one that she was about to leave Gives his life to Jesus Christ also The interesting part is he already made plans to move out to Ellingsburg because they offered him a job there She says we're engaged. You're going to Ellingsburg. You're going alone I'm staying here because God touched my heart and I want him to continue this process. He said well if you're staying here I'm staying here, too What are you gonna do with the job? I asked him. He says I don't know but God will provide The interesting part that happened her relationship with her mom changed. We met with her. We gave her some tips Something to do. She goes in her mom is shocked was blown away because first time in three years Her daughter acted like a daughter instead of a stranger her mom came for her baptism both of these people got married Both of these people got baptized both of these people started the home group and the very job that was offered only in Ellingsburg Became an opening in Trace cities and last week he started to work here I see the stories left and right every day and this convinces me of one truth Save a soul change a life when a soul is saved a life will be changed Yes, it will take some time But that time is gonna be always for a person's good not against them because somebody say amen Holy Spirit's anointing is activated when we please God, but his anointing is activated when we save souls Because somebody say amen, and I'm gonna finish in this that the Holy Spirit's anointing is activated when we Deal with the roots of the problems instead of their symptoms, and I named it when we remove the problems from our life Not just from our site This came to me From an inspiration. I live very close to church and We have a lawn There is currently going through the process of deliverance Because this lawn has a lot of weeds and weeds are not the problem But they have this particular weeds that I've discovered the name. It's called crab weeds I know you thought I'm gonna say the other word it actually The real word for it is the other word But I'm gonna use the godly one on the church crab weeds and these weeds are very unique because they have really thick And really big roots and they spread in like a net under the ground And what you do is if you go and you cut those weeds that kind of particular grass You cut the grass, but the grass keeps growing because the grass is so deeply rooted in the soil that took And you can't pluck it out without actually using some some some machinery or some kind of a tools to pluck it out Because it has deep and very wide roots I went to local stores and I asked them if they anybody could give me some kind of a chemicals to kill them and Every single person said there is no chemicals against this kind of Grass this afternoon I had a person who walk out from a special place and they said it's gonna cost $505 if we spray it in August and it still doesn't guarantee that your crab grass will be gone He says the best way and the only way is really for you to stop plucking it out by its roots Not by its top with something that I did before Because she's I was I don't like to put my fingers into the dirt I'm just like you I need my fingers to be nice And so I would rather take a lawnmower and just cut it and make it look good for my side and remove the problem from my side But never really remove the problem from my soil And that's how many people live with the Holy Spirit. We must understand Holy Spirit is never happy When you deal with the symptoms of your problems not with the roots of your problems Why because Holy Spirit lives in the world we are afraid to get our hands into See I see the world of grass. It's very familiar to me take a lawnmower and cut it take your your your hands and And just simply take all of the grass out But there is a world that my eyes cannot see it's the world of dirt and it makes my hands feel uncomfortable And I am not sure what's going on in that world So I don't like to put my hands into that world, but God the Holy Spirit Lives in the invisible world Where the roots of our problems are at See our problems are physical Their roots are spiritual and the Holy Spirit lives in the spiritual world and in that spiritual world Not only he lives he walks like a boss When all demons all curses are like cockroaches and he waits for them to crush them But he needs your permission to stop using a lawnmower on your problems He wants us to say Holy Spirit. I don't know the realm of the spirit It's confusing the church doesn't like to talk about it and we get criticized for casting out of demons and talking about demons But you Holy Spirit that is your world the world of invisible So I'm gonna open my life to stop dealing with the symptoms of my problems and with you We will deal with the roots of my problems and then the Holy Spirit's power gets activated The Bible says Jesus went around healing those oppressed By the devil You know what that means that means the Holy Spirit was active because Jesus wasn't just healing people He was dealing with things that were dirty Because the moment he start casting out of demons, you know what people did exactly what people do today These people are Making this up It's a lot of actors you guys have out there in the church who do shaking shivering and shaking baking in the church We had a person who came once to a service and said exactly same thing He said I wonder how much do you guys pay those people who shake and and bake over there in the front I? Said how much do you want us to pay you? How much would you take? And I said we don't pay nobody I say if we would pay one person the secret would go out faster You can imagine there will be not one person at this person and not work one person will see their life changed the funny part During the service the very guy was in the front Shaking and baking and you know what he was saying. I'm angry. I'm angry And I was like we didn't pay you didn't we? And he came up to us. He said this is the power of God the power of Jesus the power of the Holy Ghost He's just the power of the Holy Ghost. I'm like, huh When it deals when we talk about curses when we talk about casting out of demons for many people This is like dirty stuff.  Come on. Give me a little room Come on.  Let me get into the roots Let deal with some curses. Let's deal with the abuse. Let's deal with the generational curse Let's deal with those things so I can finally release myself and you can be released also Guys this stuff is serious. This stuff is real. I lost friends because we teach on these things But at first I was teaching it because my pastor was telling us to do so until we start meeting with cases where nobody could help Until we would meet with young lady Who a guy was interested in her? She wasn't interested in him. He cursed her and he said verbally That it will never work for you and you will never get married So she goes on from a relationship to a relationship and nothing works out until she finds this guy and they're already engaged Everything is going toward the wedding and for no reason. She has no feelings for him and I mean not as no feelings She has no feelings so bad that everything is about to stop until during one home group the Holy Spirit See in our home groups, we get a hands dirty In our church, I know it might not be pretty but it helps people and it clears our soil in the home group Holy Spirit gives her just this thought wait That's the curse on your life and They prayed in the home groups that got their hands into the soil put the root out within a very short time the feelings for this guy came back and Just happily married today. I Know that in my own family and in my own life when I married my wife when we moved to Tres cities She moved to Tres cities and for some time I started to see within few months Started to see loneliness in her at first. I thought she's getting used to Tres cities. She's adjusting I'm like it's fine It's gonna take a few more months and she's gonna realize how beautiful this city is and how handsome and powerful I am and how good you guys are Six months passed but it didn't end and I remember the triggering point for me it was Tuesday after prayer We were sitting in a driveway on 214 Della Field original Washington and she didn't want to get out of the car and She was bawling We had an awesome prayer and she just says I can't take this no more. I'm done. I've done with who done with what? She's like, I can't do this. I gotta go back. I'm like where I'm like, you're not going nowhere We have a ministry and here I am little like a fish hitting in the eyes on the top of that It always accompanied with nightmares almost every other day not every day But every other day there will be nightmares when I say nightmares in the dreams that she would see me Being with someone else Emotionally not physically but emotionally and it will hurt her so much that will mess her day This continued for some time when we started to listen to about the things that there's curses and there's demons and One day she comes to me and she says I realized what happened. She says the same thing is happening to her mom She said this loneliness She's like I see it and I was like I see the same thing when we would go visit your mom She's a wonderful lady, but there's just something that's on it and she's okay No, what it's the same thing that's tormenting me so the problem is not the church The problem is not you and the problem is not the people said the problem is not even nightmares The problem is a demon of loneliness That hurts and torments my life and both of us it wasn't one prayer It wasn't even one prayer line and it wasn't a particular anointing water It was working with the Holy Spirit understanding this problem is not physical It's spiritual. I can't tell you exact date, but I can tell you that it's been a very long time When we were trying to I told you the story We were trying to bring her sister who was her best friend to try cities because we thought maybe we'll make things easy and then for No life her sister didn't want to come to try cities She didn't like anybody in Trace cities and it was such a complicated and then when this spirit broke off The first thing that happened is the nightmares seized What they were happening every other night and if they happen once a month or once in six months It will happen so light that Lana will tell me later on in the week Say oh, I had a nightmare. I crushed it before I got up and then her sister for some odd reason Like my brother and my brother for some awesome reason I Like the sister and they're getting married this weekend and I told my wife I was like when we needed her she wasn't here when we don't need her No, she ran here. I didn't say we don't love her I just said we didn't need her and yes, we do need her But the issue is this I saw her firsthand how a demon can torment someone's life right in your own house and It's painful and it hurts and therefore I want to tell you something We don't care what other people will think we care what Jesus did and we care that the Holy Spirit remains active We will cast out demons. We will come against the devil will break the devil strongholds And we will see people set free for the glory of God. You may say well, I'm afraid of this whole demon thing I'm afraid of shaking back. Listen, that's not about shaking and baking.  Can somebody say amen? Don't be afraid of the devil because Holy Spirit is supreme in this world and Holy Spirit is on your side Can somebody say amen with the said I want us to rise right now. Let's come to the front and we're all gonna pray Come on church. Let's come to the front


Good morning everyone, welcome back to Classroom Setup. This is day three. Savannah and I are here today and we are getting started. We do have some to-do lists up on the board, so I have Savannah working on a few projects and then I'm just kind of going through and doing things as I see them. My goal today is to get everything that is currently out and about put away. That way tomorrow, maybe even today, if we get done with this project early enough, we can start decorating walls. What I would like to do on my walls is make this wall for student work. So I'm planning on doing six rows of four, like basically like a construction paper sized sheet and then Mandy has provided me with these really cute things. So I'm planning on putting a black piece of construction paper down first and then these things come up and you can just slide their work on it. So I'll hang those across and I might fold this part down just so that it's not hanging out because I'm not gonna put students names on them. I'm just gonna do it by number and then that way I can always put number ones, number twos, number threes, number fourth, you get me. So that will be that wall and I'm probably gonna put some sort of like title at the top like student work or amazing work or whatever. And then over here in the library, I bought these really cute baskets from Target. They were on sale for five bucks. So I think I'm gonna hang them right in between the lamp and the picture so that they're low enough for students to be able to, like maybe right here, to be able to grab a book from them. So I'll be hanging those today. And then we're getting more books. My Donors Choose project is supposed to be getting shipped while arriving sometime this week. So we'll be putting all the picture books down in here. I do also wanna go back through the picture books one more time and just see which ones I can kind of put away that aren't really that interesting and I'm also gonna stand them up in there so that they can be seen. I need to do something with all of these binders. But basically my goal today is to get everything that's currently out on tables put away. So this should be fun. Also, I know people are going to comment and tell me this shiplap is going up and down and the rest of my shiplap in the room is going side to side. I do not care. I do not have the energy nor do I care to get all the way back up and take that down and resituate it, same with that one, not gonna do it. So I don't really care. These are avid binders. So Savannah's actually working on getting those put into my cubbies. Then she's gonna put them in Mandy's cubbies and then she's gonna take them down to the other two's rooms and then they can handle that. I put my privacy folders in here with my paper because I needed to put the blinds in the tall cabinet over there. I'm gonna be putting away all of this stuff that's up here and I know right where it's going. It's gonna go in that cabinet that's open there. Do you even need a 26? Nope, take the sticker out and then stack it in here with the other extras. Did you start to see if it's holding off? No, just pull the sticker out. Okay, so we're gonna get started here. What do I wanna do first? I think I'm going to work on- You did the blind down, nothing else on it to do next. I know. I think I'm gonna put all of those. Oh, you're doing that, that's your job. Okay, so then I'm gonna organize these binders and get them dealt with. 7.23 and we are starving. So we're gonna go and grab lunch.  Let me show you what we have done so far. I have to check that spotter. Right, I wish. So I've cleared this table pretty much off. I would love to go to Michael's and see if they have on sale one of the little jewelry things so I can store each letter in its own little thing. That way I don't have to worry about looking for it. Savannah took all of the multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction flashcards and put them in these because I've had these hidden forever and they weren't serving a purpose. So now I'll make a label that says math facts and this will be where they are stored. So I think I'm gonna just put whatever's left back in this tub and just hide it. And then I've kind of cleaned these cupboards and reorganized them. Same with this, same with this one. I just put like indoor recess stuff in here and then extra storage. And then we have construction paper. Now I have more room in this cupboard for paper. We got book bins put out and organized. This table, this is all the stuff that goes out on tables. So once we move everything, we'll put those out. This is gonna become a bench that lives under that bulletin board. So for a flexible seating option. And then I think I might move this little bench since it's so cute and it's like really hidden back here. I might move this and put it up front just as another place for stuff. And then the library has changed a little bit. I just moved these bookshelves up against the wall because it was bugging me that the backs were showing and I really didn't want to cover them. And I also didn't like that they were just out because they're kind of flimsy and long and tall and someone was gonna probably knock them over. So now it is evenly on each side. And then Mandy gave me this super cute display rack so once my readers or my, once my donors choose comes in, I'm gonna put like some seasonal favorites there. And I've got flexible seating cushions on either side. I don't know if that will stay that way. I might move them up front with that other black thing. That way all flexible seating stuff's in one spot. And then I also need to fix this. You see how it's off? That cannot be that way. So I need to do that. And then I also need to finish this little strip of wall with this wood paper. And then obviously organize my desk area and get the tables and desks moved around. We're gonna do that after lunch. So we're gonna go. Let's go chow down, girl. Let's go eat cha-pup, ay. I haven't really picked up the camera a whole lot just because I've really been like just in the zone not really thinking about vlogging but I am gonna show you guys everything that I've accomplished today and the plan for tomorrow. So my desk area is pretty much organized. The plan is to use these two tables as my small group space now instead of just as a table. So I will be using those IKEA stools like I did last year but I will have them sitting here when I pull a small group. That way I don't have to have like a specific small group space for myself and for an aid. So this is pretty much how it's going to be minus an add a couple more things. I don't know if this cart's gonna stay here. It might be like my stuff that I use for work like all the time. That way if I wanna work somewhere else I can just roll it. And then the stuff on this might change just where it's at from where it currently is. I put the three black tables here. This one is broken which is why it's in my spot. It's not available for students to work at but this is gonna be used as like a front counter space. So I might put like an inbox there, maybe a pencil sharpener. I'm not really sure if I'm gonna do yet. I don't know if that's gonna stay there. This I'm still missing a bin and I don't think the things on top of it might will stay there. I'm not sure. I know that the two lamps will probably stay there. And then I used my adjustable IKEA table here as another flexible seating workspace option for when that time comes. And then I think I'm gonna not do carpet spots and just move everybody up to the front so that while I'm teaching everybody is just at their own desk while I'm teaching them. I don't know if that will stay forever but for right now I kind of like it. I have this cart now which makes things a little bit harder. If the projector was mounted it would be a lot easier to do carpet spots but since I have this cart which is actually really nice.  I'm gonna handle that later but I can put all of the things that I use for teaching down in here and everything is just in this one place. I don't need like a table and another table for my projector. Everything is just in one spot. So I kind of love that. And then I have my four desks and four desks there. A round table, a round table. And this table has no purpose now because I only have 21 students at this time. Actually I only have 20 students at this time and I have one, two, three, four, five groups of four. So if I did get another student, if I take this table home I could put another student up at that desk and it wouldn't be a problem or I could sit them back here unless there's an aid working there then they could just move. Savannah got all of the binders and white boards placed in the cubbies. So the cubbies are pretty much done aside from the supplies that I want them to have I need to put those away. I need to put these crates up. I think I'm gonna do like black, green, blue, black, green, blue and then this pink one I'm gonna have to find another spot for because it'll drive me a little bit. Bananas, if I have all green, black and blue and no pink except for one so I might move that. Maybe I'll put it up there with the other two pink ones over there. So maybe that. And then the library is pretty much done. I still didn't hang the baskets. I need to do that. But I think I'm just waiting until I can start working on walls. And then this is just more decor that needs to go up when I start doing walls. And all that junk is mine and some more flexible seating things that need to get put somewhere they'll probably get stored under there. I might even put the other flexible seating cushions under there just so that everything is in one place. And then it gives more like walking room around. Savannah's pooped. I'm pooped. I did wanna share one thing with you guys something that I forgot to share yesterday because I was doing walls all day and I didn't think about it. So the bottom edge of the walls I mean, you can kind of see the blue but I used a box cutter slash like exacto knife. So I don't know. People might already know this but I didn't do it until this year for some crazy reason. Maybe it's cause I didn't go all the way down to the floor and all the way into the ceiling. But I used an exacto knife to just slide across the bottom. And there's like a natural gap between the wall and the border down there. So it didn't hurt the wall or anything but that just made cutting off the bottom so much easier an exacto knife. So I don't know. If you knew that awesome. If you didn't, there's a hot tip. It is 315. We are gonna get out of here. I'll be back tomorrow. Tomorrow's gonna be decorating. Getting all of the walls done using the Cricut using my printer. I'm gonna print some stuff tonight, I think. And then yeah, it'll be ready. And then next week, even Friday, I can start planning and prepping for the first week of school. Pretty exciting. So I will see you guys tomorrow for day four of classroom setup.


Good afternoon everybody. My name is Barry Kulf from the Director of Research here at the Institute. It's a real pleasure to welcome those of you who have made the trip to join us here in our headquarters in Norfolk, Georgia Street and hello to those online. Really pleased to welcome Dr. Alexander Chance who feels like a new friend here at the Institute. We're delighted to have you here Alex and really looking forward to your presentation on elicit finance implications for national security and the need for a new strategic response. The event is going to be chaired by the great Mary Whelan, retired of the Department of Foreign Affairs. May I further do Mary? Very happy to hand over to you. Thank you very much. I like that. You're all very welcome here this afternoon and both of you who have joined us online. We have a very interesting topic today elicit finance implications for national security and the need for a new strategic response. Before formally introducing our guest speaker today Dr. Alexander Chance, just a few the presentation will last 20-25 minutes or is open to those who are here in the room. Those online can send in their questions or comments using the Q and A and the Q and A are on the record. I should do so using the handle. I've got rid of the housekeeping part. So it's a great pleasure now that I formally introduce Dr. Alexander Chance. Alex, head of Policy and Research at Transparency International which is the Irish chapter of Transparency International which you probably know better as TI. A global organization working against 100 countries. At Transparency Ireland Alex runs its program on political integrity, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering which was funded by the EU Internal Security Fund and the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium. In addition to his role at Transparency International Alex is a senior fellow at the Azure Forum for Contemporary Security Strategy and an associate fellow at RUSI within the organized crime and policing group. He previously served in the UK National Crime Agency in operational strategy and management positions focused on tackling transnational organized crime and in that capacity he spent five years in South America and you've also understand consulted with various UN and other international bodies. Alex obtained his epidemiology, examined the relationship between organized crime, high-level corrupt in post-war Mozambique. He also holds an M Phil in international peace studies from Trinity College and a BA in law and politics from Durham University in Irish and UK National. Without further ado I'll give you the floor Alex so we very much look forward to what you have to tell us today. Thank you very much Mary. Thank you to Keirne and thank you to Barry for your very very warm welcome to the Institute.  Funny enough when I first came to study in Ireland nearly 25 years ago showing my age here I spent a year living just around the corner in Garden of Place and although some of my fellow students at Trinity were rather curiously to my mind alarmed at this floppy head Englishman yeah there was hair living here at one point I actually had the most wonderful time living in this community and and have huge affection for it so it's great to be back. One of my enduring memories from that period nearly a quarter of a century ago was right going for long training runs along the Liffey and through what was then a largely undeveloped largely deserted and in some cases derelict Docklands area. Today of course those same areas are completely transformed almost unrecognizable with these vast glass and steel fronted offices not only of the expanded IFSC but also various multinationals from the world of tech finance banking law accounting consulting and so on together of course with the central bank the convention center and the three arena on the site of the old point depot. Now whatever you think about the merits or lack thereof of the architecture it seems fair to say that the opening up of Ireland's economy has brought immense benefits not only to Dublin but also to the prosperity of the country as a whole and I'm sure you don't need me to tell you and to spell out the innumerable ways in which Ireland's role as an international financial center has played an important part in bringing investment jobs and economic growth to the country over the past couple of decades but the world is changing and it's changing fast and those of you at the IIEA don't need me to tell you that global shocks such as covid and the invasion of Ukraine have forced policymakers to reevaluate long-held assumptions and orthodoxies in a whole range of fields from the wisdom of just-in-time supply chains for example to the reliance on certain energy sources and the more open a system is the more pressing are those evaluations today I want to suggest that here in Ireland we're well overdue a fundamental reevaluation of our response to illicit financial flows and that failing to do so poses serious risks to our national security but first some definitions what do I mean by illicit financial flows I'm going to use the definition that we've adopted in transparency international which is similar to the UN definition whereby illicit financial flows refer to money or assets that are illegally acquired transferred or spent across borders and when I refer to national security I'm going to use a broad definition which understands national security to mean the protection and safety of the political economic and other interests and values of the state in terms of structure let's see if I can get this get this working and I'm going to split my remarks into two sections the first half is going to look at illicit finance in its global context we'll examine the main threats from illicit finance common deficiencies that exacerbate those threats and emerging responses to them the second half will look specifically at illicit finance in the irish context including both our own there we go including both our own uh vulnerabilities and our strengths and I don't want to I want to show that there are some qualified grounds for optimism in this respect but ultimately I want to show you that in a very rapidly changing world a globally connected country needs to get on to the front foot on this issue and fast and for that to happen I will argue we need a whole new strategic response to the threat posed by illicit finance by way of conclusion I'm going to sketch out a vision for what that response might look like in practice which I hope might provoke some interesting conversation in our Q&A afterwards so illicit finance in the global context in looking at the threat landscape around illicit finance it's perhaps worth bearing a couple of points in mind the first is that almost any security threat one cares to think about has a financial element even if the threat itself is ideologically motivated so most terrorist attacks for example will require financing to a greater or lesser degree and of course on the other hand almost any investigation into a security threat is likely to have a significant financial component the second point is that traditionally illicit finance was thought of as referring only to different forms of organized crime and terrorism and indeed the whole machinery of anti-money laundering has been built around those threats a point I'll come back to in a few minutes now those threats are very real and in fact one could argue that certainly in some parts of the world criminal wealth has grown to such an extent that organized crime groups can threaten the stability and the integrity of entire states societies or huge global financial institutions it wasn't so long ago for example that the banking giant HSBC was found by the US authorities to have laundered at least at least eight hundred million dollars worth of drug money on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and the Norte del Valle Cartel in Colombia so we can't certainly can't afford to lose sight of the threat posed by criminal and terrorist finances but in more recent years there's been increasing acknowledgement that the threat from illicit finance is considerably wider and more insidious than solely the laundering of proceeds of drug sales human trafficking arms dealing and so on because dirty money is also being used to intentionally undermine our political systems through what are sometimes referred to as active financial measures or strategic corruption now these measures assume different forms in different contexts but they all deploy corrupt or illicit finance as a tool to increase influence or to shape the political environment in a targeted country or institution and thereby to achieve certain strategic objectives one form might use money to build long-term relationships for example through donations to research institutions cultural or sporting organizations which in turn provides donors with access to policymakers or other prominent individuals soccer fans amongst you might recall that until 2022 the UEFA Champions League was sponsored by Gazprom or it might take the form of more direct financing to those with influence such as bribes paid to MPs or political parties to advance the interests of another country as is alleged to have taken place in the Katar Gate scandal in the European Parliament in its most serious form the weaponization of finance constitutes one part of hybrid warfare alongside cyber attacks disinformation the use of proxies and other forms of economic manipulation left unchecked the threats from both criminal and politically motivated illicit finance can have very real and very serious implications economically they can undermine entire financial systems and organizations as we saw with the danska bank scandal for example dirty money can also distort entire sections of the sectors of the economy it's been argued for instance that toronto's entire property market has been significantly elevated by the volume of criminal profits being laundered through ontario's real estate sector politically the cumulative cumulative effect of such scandals helped to foster growing cynicism towards democracy and the institutions that under that underpin democracy so having sketch out the threats from illicit finance globally i want to briefly mention some common deficiencies or vulnerabilities that in many countries exacerbate those threats as i mentioned earlier the entire edifice of global anti-money laundering or AML as it's known has been built around the prevention and detection of criminal finances and to be blunt it doesn't perform this role very well the financial action task force or fattaf is the body responsible for setting global anti-money laundering standards and it's come under increasing criticism for its emphasis on procedure over outcomes and for presiding over a system that causes let's be honest huge inconvenience and cost to legitimate businesses and customers without seeming to have a massive impact on criminals moving their money it's also been slow to respond to calls to broaden its scope to include less obvious forms of illicit finance such as strategic corruption but many of the deficiencies in tackling illicit finance are to be found at nation state level countries have become adept at implementing fatter for other AML standards whilst in practice taking very little effective enforcement action in a lot of places policy efforts to prevent or detect dirty money are very much subservient to the interests of free flowing global capital representing a form of what we in ti call regulatory capture in many contexts there's also a severe disparity between the burden of compliance and liability carried by regulated sectors such as traditional banks and non-regulated sectors law enforcement agencies and regulators are often woefully under resourced including the financial intelligence units that analyze suspicious transactions the keeping of an access to company ownership and property registers remains patchy despite these being absolutely key tools for financial investigations and globally rates of asset recovery remains stubbornly low run one reason being that the eye watering cost of pursuing such cases against well-funded legal teams acts as a powerful disincentive leaving authorities to instead focus on the low hanging fruit and where states have taken action it's often against the most visible and ostentatious markers of illicit illicit wealth the bling one might call it of yacht sports cars and so on rather than the invested wealth which is much harder to pin down but despite all these challenges recent years and the last two years in particular have seen a flurry of activity against illicit finance at the political level throughout the western world there's been increasing recognition that illicit finance represents a serious threat to national security for all the reasons i outlined a few moments ago the european commission president in her state of the union address about 18 months ago highlighted the threat from corrupt finance including as a vector for foreign influence operations the white house has named corruption as a core national security issue facing the us with a corruption portfolio added to the u.s national security council and curbing illicit finance set as a strategic priority the uk's review of security defense development and foreign policy identified illicit finance as a key transnational challenge for that country so this acknowledgement of illicit finance as a national security threat has had several important practical effects one has been an increased willingness to devote legislative time and political attention to closing loopholes at the eu level we can see this in the robust anti-money laundering package that was recently agreed between the european parliament and council in the u.s we're seeing evermore robust approach towards illicit finance for example the treasuries recently adopted recently proposed rule to combat money laundering in the investment advisory sector similarly in the uk last year's economic crime and corporate transparency act was an important and very much overdue attempt to close loopholes around illicit finance and we've also seen growing recognition of the impact that dirty money can have on overseas development on conflicts on peace building and the incorporation of asset recovery into tax reform and overseas aid policies for their parts lower and middle income countries are quite understandably increasingly less willing to be lectured by western countries on corruption and governance when illicit finance flows and flows to and is invested and spent in those very same countries so we've looked at illicit finance in the global context the threat it poses common deficiencies and the way in which states are stepping up their responses but what about illicit finance in the irish context is this simply a case of much ado about nothing or perhaps just another front in the shifting sands of great power rivalry in which island has little interest in getting sucked in well aside from the fact that there are both criminal as well as political elements to illicit finance and the lines between the two are increasingly blurred having set ourselves up as an international financial center i would argue that we simply don't have the luxury of pretending that this challenge doesn't concern us or to coin a phrase you might not be interested in illicit in dirty money but dirty money is definitely interested in you or your financial system let's just consider for a moment the numbers involved it's actually it's hard to overstate the pace and the scale of increase in the volume of assets flowing through island over the past 15 or so years in particular via the investment funds industry so between 2006 and 2021 net assets held in irish domiciled funds leapt from 650 billion euros to over 4 trillion euros over the same period assets under administration here grew from 965 billion euros to over 5 trillion euros between 2017 and 2020 alone cross border payments tripled in 2020 island became the largest hedge fund administration center in the world servicing 40 percent of all hedge fund assets globally by 2022 island was the domicile for nearly six percent of global investment fund assets and 19 percent of european fund assets making it the third largest fund center in the world and the second largest and fastest growing center in europe and while i don't for a moment want to tire the whole funds industry i do suggest that it's inconceivable that a proportion of those funds are not from elusive sources and that the failure to tackle them poses serious risks to our economic diplomatic and political interests in other words to our national security economic in terms of the risk to the credibility and integrity of our financial system and institutions a risk that will only grow as other economies target harden political in terms of feeding cynicism towards democracy if citizens feel that the system is loaded in favor of global capital and against the average joe and diplomatic both in terms of island being left behind as other states take this more seriously as well as our soft power including our overseas development agenda being undermined if we're seen as a soft touch for dirty money but don't just take my word for it in 2020 the fbi warned how private equity and hedge funds were being used in support of fraud organized crime sanctions evasion and highlighted funds with accounts in island island and the cayman islands in 2022 the imf warned that island is facing a substantial money laundering threat from foreign proceeds of crime due to the prominence of its financial sector and that the rapid growth in the size of the irish financial sector had further increased the risk from non-resident and cross-border activity with investment funds particularly vulnerable to money laundering now i don't want to paint as i said earlier an overly pessimistic picture here in some respects island is actually quite well placed to rise to this challenge one of the key strengths here is a strong heritage of innovation and tenacity in terms of going after domestic criminal finances both the creation of the criminal assets bureau and the civil forfeiture regime that was created around it in 1996 were in many ways groundbreaking and for years have been looked to by other countries as something of a gold standard in terms of clawing back the proceeds of crime in the intervening years the guards the dpp and the judiciary have all become quite familiar with the use of civil powers against criminal assets and it seems that these powers enjoy quite widespread popular support at a more strategic level we have various structures and initiatives that should be capable of taking on illicit finance from overseas there's the advisory council on economic crime and corruption created in 2022 to bring together various experts in financial crime from across government there's the national security and analysis centre from which we should should soon see the long-awaited national security strategy which is likely to include consideration of hybrid threats and there's an ongoing public conversation at times heated around national security and defence which again has prompted discussion of hybrid forms of aggression in Ireland's private sector we have huge expertise in fields relevant to tackling illicit finance including AML other forms of financial compliance cyber security law accounting fintech and so on so we're certainly not bereft of people with relevant skills but at the same time we do have certain systemic weaknesses and vulnerabilities the first is successive government's willingness to allow specific loopholes to persist until they're forced into taking some remedial action we've seen for example that only now is the government introducing legislation to tighten the law around limited partnerships seven years after similar structures in Scotland were shown to be vulnerable to criminal use and three years after journalists warned that two-thirds of general partners in Irish limited partnerships were based in offshore secrecy jurisdictions such as Belize the British Virgin Islands the Caylan Islands Panama and the Seychelles similarly since 2017 academics at Trinity Business School have been warning that Irish special purpose vehicles have been used for shadow banking and round-tripping in other words recirculating capital out of and back to Russia made possible by minimal regulation and opaque ownership structures to date though here in 2024 there's been little movement to remedy these loopholes second there's a very pronounced dislocation between the steady and I have to say impressive stream of prosecutions and asset forfeiture cases against domestic criminal finance and the relative lack of cases targeting the proceeds of overseas crime and corruption that have been laundered through Ireland I'd love to be proven wrong I stand to be proven wrong on this but to my knowledge of the handful of overseas corruption cases that have come before the Irish courts all of them were instigated by foreign typically US law enforcement rather than by Irish authorities and this isn't a dig at the guards when set against the scale of assets flowing through Ireland the resourcing of key bodies including the financial intelligence unit and the international corruption unit is tiny and I would argue wholly inadequate but this speaks to a far more deep-seated and important weakness in the existing framework which essentially comes down to a lack of genuine political interest in tackling illicit finance from overseas we saw this at play last year when in one breath the government launched its bid to host the EU's new AML authority and in another it adopted the most restrictive possible interpretation of an EU court of justice ruling which essentially prevented journalists and civil society from accessing company ownership information if I was being provocative I might characterize this to use a Brexit phrase as having your cake and eating it approach we'll take all the benefits of free-flowing international capital and we'll ignore the risks so whilst the rest of the western world is hurriedly and in many cases belatedly putting in place the resources the legislation and the policies to prevent and detect illicit financial flows here we're sticking dogmatically to the mantra of light touch regulation and there was a great illustration of this a couple of years ago when after a newspaper investigation showed how the company registration system was being abused to create hundreds of fake companies the government insisted that it had no role to play in verifying details of new companies and directors since it was long-standing government policy to maintain a good faith approach to corporate registrations now even if such an approach was appropriate to more innocent times and I would argue it never was it's certainly not appropriate for the global environment that we're now entering so in conclusion and I will conclude shortly I want to suggest that here in Ireland we have a choice either we maintain the status quo in which the focus remains overwhelmingly on the short to medium-term benefits of a highly open and highly exposed financial system and a light touch regulatory approach and we leave the fall out for future governments and future populations to deal with we might tinker around the edges improve a few laws here and there perhaps when embarrassed into action by some revelations in the media or forced to do so by the EU or in anticipation of fat of coming to town but essentially we remain largely passive in terms of dealing with illicit finance an approach which I have to say having worked in UK law enforcement is not unlike that adopted by the UK governments for for many many years until it was finally shaken out of it slumber by the Ukraine war or we can build on Ireland's legacy of dealing robustly with criminal finance domestic criminal finances and get ahead of this threat before it's too late and possibly even take a leadership role in showing how to tackle illicit finance with it whilst remaining an attractive centre for legitimate international business as I said we have the people we have the expertise we have the international connectivity but to make this shift would require political will and a genuinely whole of government and whole of society response so what would such an approach look like in practice a few headline thoughts that I'll close with first we need to urgently review and close outstanding loopholes that enable or allow illicit finance including for example special purpose vehicles trusts and shelf companies second we need a complete overhaul of the corporate registration regime the company's registration office should have a statutory mandate to ensure the integrity and the transparency of its registers and it needs the powers and the resources to fulfill that mandate third we need an impartial strategic assessment of the threat to Ireland from illicit finance in its broadest sense so that we know exactly what we're up against fourth fourth we need the national security strategy to include illicit finance alongside other hybrid threats and to set the strategic framework for an integrated response fifth we need substantial investment in enforcement bodies so that they're adequately resourced and incentivised to detect and pursue illicit financial flows from overseas crucially this must include ring fence funding for lengthy complex multi-jurisdictional and very costly court cases sixth we need to identify how we're going to sustainably fund this more robust approach across the irish sea the uk have introduced a specific economic crime levy and their next month increasing the fees to register new companies we might need to think along similar lines and seventh and finally we need a genuinely whole of government and whole of society response to illicit finance a response that sits above the interests of any one individual government department which is open to private sector and civil society input and which holds all these all all of those involved accountable for playing their part in the response to this threat so i'm going to wrap up there thank you for listening and i hope that some of what i've said leads to an interesting and productive discussion thank you