In app-misc/lirc-0.8.6-r1 there is an init.d script starting irexec. However, in lirc package there is another daemon, namely irxevent, which allows to map lirc events to mouse, keyboard and so on. It would be good if there would be an init.d script for irxevent - or maybe one init-scipt for both of them.
irexec is best used as autostart program in your favourite DE. It will not work as system-wide daemon, because it's X11 application, it should be started on per-session basis. Someone should close this bug.