This is just another money maker for them. Imagine around 1500 pilots pay around 30£ each to a company which is owned by Ryanair (not talking about all the cabin crew which are based in Spanish bases and need one of these useless plastic cards as well). It should be clear if they want you to have a company ID than they should give you one and if you cannot operate without one it's more their problem than ours.....
I have already voted with my feet so if they take me off the roster at least I can spend some quality time with my family instead of dragging myself to work for another 3 months....