Financial Services Ombudsman, Ger Deering, has confirmed he’s reviewing some 600 complaints made to his office by people who believed their banks unfairly refused to restore them to tracker mortgages when their fixed-rate mortgage periods ended.

The review, which stretches back to 2009, includes hundreds of complaints previously turned down by the Ombudsman’s office.

It will feed into the Central Bank’s own recently-announced wider investigation of all mortgage lenders about their actions with regard to trackers during the period.

During the summer, PTSB, under pressure from the Central Bank, terminated a Supreme Court challenge to a decision originally made by the Financial Services Ombudsman, that a number of families should be restored to trackers.

PTSB decided instead to restore almost 1,400 customers to trackers, some of whom had lost their homes, and has set up a redress scheme for them.

Mr Deering spoke to Breakfast Business this morning - when asked by Vincent Wall if the review was only being carried out because of the controversy aroused by the PTSB revelations, he replied:

"That certainly brought it to our attention, and that certainly kicked things off alright."

He continued, "The other thing that it's important to point out is that there was a deluge of complaints coming in to the office at that time, there was a huge tsunami of complaints that hit the office."

Mr Deering adds that 10% of the mortgages which have already been reviewed require further scrutiny.

Speaking on the first day of Mediation Awareness week, the Ombudsman said that he thinks that mediation may deliver better outcomes in situations where customers are in dispute with their financial services provider, and that these provides should not see mediation as a sign of weakness.