The Response Burden Barometer (RBB) for 2015 reduced by 37.1% when measured against the peak year of 2008. 

The RBB is a measure of the total administrative burden placed on Irish enterprises and agricultural holdings by Central Statistics Office (CSO) surveys when calculated on an actual compliance basis¹.

There was a rise of 0.7% in burden between 2014 and 2015. This can be largely attributed to natural fluctuation with enterprises entering and leaving the survey population over the course of the year, and variation in response expected. As some surveys such as the Farm Structure Survey (every 2 to 3 years) and the Census of Agriculture (every ten years), don't take place every year, care needs to be taken when comparing the RBB from one year to that of the previous year.  Improved data and development of methodologies also contribute to variation within the RBB.  The cost to business of this burden was €4.25 million in 2015. See Tables 1 & 2.

The latest estimate is that there are 450,700 active business enterprises (including the latest Farm Population figure) in Ireland. In the course of 2015, the CSO issued 323,400 surveys forms, or an average of 0.72 survey forms per enterprise. There were 216,400 forms returned as partially or wholly completed, representing an average of 0.48 forms per enterprise. See Table 2.

If burden is measured on the basis of partially or fully completed survey forms actually returned to the CSO (i.e., if burden is based on actual compliance), then the total number of hours spent by enterprises in 2015 was 216,300, or 29 minutes per enterprise. The administrative cost, measured on 2013 prices², of actual compliance was €7 million, or €15.62 per enterprise. The administrative burden (i.e., administrative costs less business-as-usual costs) of actual compliance in 2015 was €4.25 million, or €9.42 per enterprise². See Measurement Methodology & Table 2.

If all survey forms issued by the CSO were partially or wholly completed and returned (i.e.,  if there had been full compliance), then the total number of hours spent on this task by enterprises in Ireland in 2015 would have been 275,500, or an average of 37 minutes per enterprise. The administrative cost of full compliance was €9.1 million, or €20.11 per enterprise. The administrative burden of full compliance would have been €5.5 million, or €12.13 per enterprise. See Measurement Methodology & Table 2.

The most burdensome survey in 2015 was the Trade Intrastat Imports survey, which issued 62,100 forms, of which 54,800 were returned partially or wholly completed.

The administrative costs of completing all Intrastat Imports forms in 2015 were €3.4 million. Of the purely CSO surveys, the full compliance administrative costs of the Balance of Payment surveys were €739,800 in 2015, while the actual compliance administrative costs were €677,300.

 ¹ Actual compliance basis: calculated on a time and cost basis of fully or partially completed returns to the CSO. This is the preferred method of the European Statistical System for calculating the Response Burden Barometer level.

² The  hourly administrative cost figure used in the calculations for non-Trade surveys was €44.00(based on 2013 figures). For Trade surveys, the administrative cost figure was based on their 2013 Response Burden Survey. The administrative burden of CSO surveys was 60.32% of the administrative costs figure. The base year in this release is updated to reference year 2013 to better reflect the changed Intrastat burden methodology. Please see Methodology for further details.

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