There are two major problems with the LIRC module.

The first is that it is missing the irman module. In order to get the irman
module LIRC must be compiled with libirman (available from here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/lirc/files/libirman/0.4.5/). However, libirman
is not currently a package in OpenSUSE. I'm currently using the packages from
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/wolfi323:/irman/openSUSE_13.2/
and they work fine, but they have the other problem below. Forum discussion
about that here:
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/508988-LIRC-missing-irman-driver

The other problem, the same as the one that I just submitted a bug for in
OpenSUSE 13.2, is that LIRC is really old. It's at version 0.9.0, which is not
supported anymore. The latest version is 0.9.3. I discovered this when I needed
to receieve support via SourceForge about LIRC:
https://sourceforge.net/p/lirc/tickets/120/

If this were fixed for Factory (both compiling with libirman and the version),
would I be able to do a vendor switch and subscribe to it in 13.2 (what I
currently use)? I can't see anything that would make it incompatible.