The Garda watchdog has been criticised for wasting taxpayers’ money after it emerged it is now offering to pay the High Court expenses of two gardaí it tried to discipline, even after a lower court ruled they acted properly.

It was the best wedding present Garda Fiona Sheehan could have received.

The Garda Representative Association has hired a well-known solicitor to represent two gardaí who face internal disciplinary proceedings by the force’s watchdog, even though they were cleared of any wrongdoing when they used pepper spray to subdue a violent teenager.

Frontline gardaí have lost confidence in their watchdog’s ability to run fair and impartial internal investigations, said a senior member of the Garda Representative Association.

Representatives of rank-and-file gardaí have launched an attack on the Ombudsman Commission after two members were left to pay their own legal bills after being cleared of assaulting a violent teenager whose own mother described him as “an absolute gurrier of the highest order”.