European Union ID

A EU passport allows you choose a separate passport control at the airport which may or may not have a shorter line.

Some tourist sites also give discounts for people with EU I.D. (for that a EU driver's licence is often enough).

Ireland doesn't issue ID cards, but your Irish passport will prove you have EU citizenship.

TBH I'm not sure how much benefit EU citizenship is to a tourist other than exempting you from any time limits on a visitors visa.

I have run into at least a few museums or cultural attractions that offered discounts (such as student or children's) only to members of the EU. As was said, your passport is your EU ID.

Brad hit the nail on the head.

Yes, your passport is your EU ID.
For exemple, at Colosseum the entrance fee for EU citizens under 25 was 12EUR vs. 20EUR for the rest of the world.Pretty good saving..

But that's my problem-we no longer have an Irish passport, just the piece of paper saying we are Irish citizens...if I'm legimately allowed to claim discounts etc it would be handy to have some form of recognisable ID rather than this citizenship paper.I realise it won't help at Customs etc.
Thank you

Just renew your Irish passport - problem solved.

Also, it might help to know where you are planning to go in Europe. I've never really seen EU discounts for tourists, although I take from other posts that they are common in Italy. Depending where you are going it might not be worth the effort.

If this is to get some form of discount at tourist sites than any form of ID is usually sufficient. At Pompeii it was enough to show my driver's licence to prove EU citizenship for my kids. So if you do have a piece of paper right now that states you're Irish citizens that should be sufficient in such cases.

As mentioned, these kinds of discounts are most common in Italy as the historical sites are being maintained with funds from EU programs. And it's usually restricted for seniors and youth. I haven't seen this much in other places in Europe.

Bea,

I doubt it's possible to renew EU passports at this point. It may vary from country to country but the driving force in this is not the EU but the US who require bio ID to enter their country. There is a bit of a transition period so I know I can fly out to NY in a couple of weeks with my older EU passport that is "only" machine readible and has no bio ID. But I know for a fact that I cannot renew this one.

As to the situation at the Colosseum: if indeed the ticket seller was checking for picture ID it should suffice to show a piece of EU citizen ID that has no picture in conjunction with any other type of picture ID. When we were in Italy last June we used EU ID with no picture the entire time.

Thank you-this is the first time i've ventured onto this site, and you have been very helpful.
I'll just bring a copy of the citizenship papers and see if that helps.

I am not sure if they would take a piece of paper, since it doesn't have a picture. Plus carrying it around while traveling might not be very convenient. I would get a new passport or renew.

Bea,

I don't think picture ID is necessary since it's not used for any "official" purposes. I took my kids expired passports along, no pictures in those ones either. New EU ones with picture and bio ID would have cost me over $100 per piece! We'll get those at a later point in time. In the meantime, for travelling we just use their cheaper Canadian passports - and those expired ones for the rare unofficial occasions they might be used for.

It's not easy or cheap to get a EU passport when living abroad. Especialy if you don't live in a place that has a consulate of the respective country. It may be worthwhile if you use it regularly or if that's your one and only citizenship. But spending a few hundred bucks on passports to save maybe half of that amount while touring Italy doesn't sound very effecient to me.

btw the Vatican is not a member of the EU and there are no discounts available there at all.

Beatrix,

Thanks for the tips.
I thought they would check to make you are the one that has the document, whatever would be.
Now, last year when I went to Colosseum, a young in front of me had an EU passport and the cashier looked at the passport and at this guy at the same time. Maybe not every cashier does that.I don't know where else the discounts are. Do you know how long can EU citiezens can use their old passports before switching to the bio ones? I have an expired EU passport as well. I wonder if I could just renew it, instead of getting a bio one.