I can see that in Germany, France or the UK (among others), the rail system is so large that one can break it up into separate components for tendering purposes. Most of these components would be larger than the entire Irish Rail operation. Irish rail could only be split up into very small franchises with complex management and costly overheads for such a small system. So would you put the lot out for a single franchise operator?
Nobody has mentioned freight, which might be a better place to start.
Why does the EU get so concerned about this? I can see that in mainland Europe there are cross-border aspects to competition and franchising which need to be addressed at the European level. But Ireland is a small island whose rail system does not interact with other EU systems in any meaningful way (and which has a unique track gauge for heaven’s sake!), so why is it any concern of the EU?
There are times when the EU gives a huge gift to eurosceptics by wanting to meddle in things where they are really of little relevance and are a potential nuisance.
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