I though I'd get in with this now, before someone else does.
The Catholic Church has always had the right to directly appoint priests, nuns and monks and brothers as teachers or principals in its State-funded schools; and with thoseappointed then obtaining the usual taxpayer-funded salaries and benefits, such as pension entitlements.
Catholic school trustees can appoint who they please, so long as they are qualified teachers, with no public competition.
This right goes back to before the establishment of the State and was confirmed in Church-State agreements made as recently as 2015.
But according to this news-report -
Church control of employment in schools to be scrapped - Richard Bruton, presumably with the full Cabinet backing him, “has asked officials to ‘immediately rectify matters, so that
all school posts are filled by open competition’”.