A Garda technical unit has investigated the scene of a forest fire in the early hours of Monday on land owned by Dorothy Flynn, wife of former EU commissioner Pádraig Flynn.
Fire brigade units Ballycastle and Crossmolina stations and gardaí attended the scene, near Ballycastle in north Mayo, between midnight and 12.30am on Monday after a local person sounded the alert.
It is estimated that between two and three acres of forestry was damaged as a result of the blaze, which was swiftly brought under control.
The scene was preserved for a two-hour examination of the undergrowth by a special Garda unit later on Monday afternoon.
The affected area forms part of lands which were purchased at Coolanass, Killala, in Mrs Flynn's name in 1998.
Mrs Flynn, mother of Dáil TD Beverley Flynn, has been paid more than €87,000 in grants for planting trees on the land whose purchase was investigated by the planning tribunal.
She received €65,378 in afforestation grants in 1998 and €21,793 in 2003. She is scheduled to receive grants on the land, which she bought for €47,700, until 2017.
Under the terms of the EU scheme, applicants for forestry grants had to show they earned at least 25 per cent of their income from farming.
The Mahon tribunal heard last July that Mrs Flynn qualified on the basis that she earned €1,100 a year from haymaking on the land and had no other income.
The total grant entitlement over 20 years is €178,000.
Mrs Flynn revealed to the tribunal she had never seen the farm, nor set foot on it.
She never farmed it in any meaningful way and did not know who had "found" it to buy for her.
Meanwhile, Mayo fire officer Séamus Murphy has indicated that the cause of the forest fire will be difficult to ascertain.
"In most cases it is just impossible to know, we get them every year," Mr Murphy said. "The dry breeze on Sunday and the week without rain would have brought about conditions where it would be very easy for a fire to start."
Mr Murphy has called for extra vigilance on the part of the public when availing of amenities at wooded areas.
Mrs Flynn was unavailable for comment yesterday.