Hidden away from the front pages this week was news that a database of practically every address in the State had been completed - which sent a little chill up my spine. I am sure there will be countless very worthy uses for the information in the database, compiled by An Post and the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, and featuring around 1.4 million addresses.

Unfortunately, the only one that springs to mind is the ability of the marketing industry to get a more precise profile of potential customers and annoy them with ever more copious and pointed amounts of junk mail . . . much in the same way that computer cookies allow online advertisers to make everyone's day a misery with unwanted spam e-mail.

No doubt the direct marketing industry will claim that the new database will allow it to reduce wasted mailing efforts and householders' annoyance by contacting households only with information on items that the database shows they might want. The way most of us see it, if we want information on a particular product, service or offer, we will ask for it.