Passport card for EU travel will be available in July

A new credit-card size passport card, valid for travel within the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA), will be available from mid-July at a cost of €35.

However, it will be an optional supplement to, rather than a replacement for, the existing passport book.

While citizens of most other EU member states and the EEA have national identity cards which act as a travel document in the EEA and Switzerland, the Irish Government failed to introduce such a card here — even though the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs recommended its introduction as far back as 2009.