In the US the Catholic schools generally are good quality. NonCatholics do attend them sometimes. Sometimes the Catholic school is perceived as the best school in the area, or a particular child might not be fairing well in public school so the parents might try a private school, even a Catholic school, even when their children aren’t Catholic.
I don’t want my tax dollars going to Catholic schools for two reasons, if they were funded by the government there would be more of them, and the whole Catholic thing might be different in America if they gained more “power” through education. The other reason is the more pressing reason, if we give tax money to a Catholic schools, we have to give it to all the religious schools. No thanks. I would consider sending my Jewish kids to Catholic school, I really would not be comfortable sending my kids to a Baptist school.
Do the Catholic schools get preferential treatment for monies by the Irish government? Or, is it just that the Catholic schools have been there forever and just still get money like always? Ireland would need a change in policy to change it. In America we would need a change in policy to give Catholic schools public money.