theme_debug breaks menu_icons

When theme_debug is enabled, the generated CSS file contains invalid CSS (due to the inserted HTML comments <!-- --> produced by theme_debug altering the code produced by all template files.

Example content found in /sites/default/files/css/menu_icons.css

<!-- THEME DEBUG -->
<!-- CALL: theme('menu_icons_css_item') -->
<!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'sites/all/modules/contrib/menu_icons/menu_icons_css_item.tpl.php' -->
a.menu-1557, ul.links li.menu-1557 a {
  background-image: url(/sites/default/files/styles/my_image_style/public/menu_icons/menu_icon_1557.png);
  padding-left:310px;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: left;
  height: 30px;
}
<!-- END OUTPUT from 'sites/all/modules/contrib/menu_icons/menu_icons_css_item.tpl.php' -->

I'm not entirely sure if there is a way to fix this.