diff --git a/src/psyclone/psyir/frontend/fortran.py b/src/psyclone/psyir/frontend/fortran.py
index 77b7c5c859..98285bbd6d 100644
--- a/src/psyclone/psyir/frontend/fortran.py
+++ b/src/psyclone/psyir/frontend/fortran.py
@@ -72,6 +72,9 @@ class FortranReader():
         for more precise control it also accepts a list of module names.
         Defaults to False.
 
+    :raises ValueError: If ignore_directives is set to False but
+                        ignore_comments is set to True.
+
     '''
     # Save parser object across instances to reduce the initialisation time
     _parser = None
@@ -85,8 +88,8 @@ def __init__(self, free_form: bool = True, ignore_comments: bool = True,
         self._free_form = free_form
         if ignore_comments and not ignore_directives:
             raise ValueError(
-                "Setting ignore_directives to False will only have an effect"
-                " if ignore_comments is also set to False"
+                "Setting ignore_directives to False in the FortranReader will"
+                " only have an effect if ignore_comments is also set to False."
             )
         self._ignore_comments = ignore_comments
         self._processor = Fparser2Reader(ignore_directives,
diff --git a/src/psyclone/tests/psyir/frontend/fortran_test.py b/src/psyclone/tests/psyir/frontend/fortran_test.py
index 9cd3579ce4..e7c708c749 100644
--- a/src/psyclone/tests/psyir/frontend/fortran_test.py
+++ b/src/psyclone/tests/psyir/frontend/fortran_test.py
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ def test_fortran_psyir_from_file(fortran_reader, tmpdir_factory):
     with pytest.raises(ValueError) as err:
         FortranReader(ignore_comments=True, ignore_directives=False)
     msg = (
-        "Setting ignore_directives to False will only have an effect if"
-        " ignore_comments is also set to False"
+        "Setting ignore_directives to False in the FortranReader will"
+        " only have an effect if ignore_comments is also set to False."
     )
     assert msg in str(err.value)