Seven gardaí have been reassigned after they were caught drinking tea while on duty.

The Irish Daily Mirror is reporting today that a member of the public complained that seven motorbikes were parked at Dublin Port in the docklands while the officers were on duty.

CCTV footage showed that the seven officers had stopped off for a tea break while trackers on the bikes also backed up the video evidence.

An investigation, known within the force as ‘tea-gate’, was carried out a fortnight ago and resulted in the officers involved being transferred from their current positions within the Garda Traffic Unit.

A source told the Daily Mirror that: “Everyone is calling it tea-gate because it just seems like such an over-the-top reaction.

“The officers weren’t on a break at the time, hence them being disciplined which is fair enough.

“But it seems very harsh that they’ve been transferred and the feeling is that it’s just too over-the-top.

“They have been transferred from Unit A to different units and broken up from each other.”