5. Employee benefits expense
2019 | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|
The average number of employees during the financial year was as follows: | ||
Ferries | 218 | 218 |
Container & Terminal | 91 | 92 |
309 | 310 | |
The number of employees at the financial year-end was | 307 | 311 |
2019 | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|
€m | €m | |
Aggregate costs of employee benefits were as follows: | ||
Wages and salaries | 18.7 | 17.8 |
Social insurance costs | 1.8 | 1.7 |
Defined benefit obligations – current service cost (note 33 vii) | 1.5 | 1.7 |
Defined benefit obligations – curtailment gain (note 33 vii) | (0.1) | (0.5) |
Defined contribution pension scheme – pension cost (note 33) | 0.4 | 0.2 |
Share-based payment expense (note 32) | 2.1 | 2.4 |
Total employee benefit costs incurred | 24.4 | 23.3 |
Wages and salaries costs capitalised | (0.1) | (0.5) |
Total employee benefit expensed in the Income Statement | 24.3 | 22.8 |
Staff costs of €0.1 million were capitalised during the financial year (2018: €0.5 million) in relation to management and supervision of the contracts for the construction of new vessels. Of the total employee expense of €24.3 million, €0.5 million comprising €0.3 million wages and salaries and €0.2 million share based payment expense was included within the non-trading item (note 10).