Madam, - I was amused reading Alex Pigot's piece about postcodes in last Saturday's edition, until at the end I realised this was not a satirical contribution, but a serious article written by a "bulk mail producer".
So a "modern state in the 21st century needs post codes for its everyday quality of life"? I didn't know up to now that states experience "quality of life"; I thought this is something its citizens do or do not. We are later told we will have pizzas delivered more quickly, potholes filled more quickly by the local authority, have a more "sustainable" postal service, and emergency services will find us more quickly.
How should this work? Any postcode has to be translated into what it stands for, and any dwelling has to be identified in the real world. How would this be possible by a postcode, without the information which existing addresses and local knowledge already deliver? How do you find a house by a code?
Let's not be fooled. Apart from businesses, which can send their direct mail quickly to many individuals using postcodes, nobody will gain from this "vital piece of infrastructure for a modern developed economy" (Noel Dempsey, quoted in your Weekend supplement).
And should it really come to this, I request that An Post should ask individual households for consent to allow direct junk mail to be delivered to them. It should not be up to us to send companies individual statements of our disapproval. - Yours, etc,
CHRISTINE RAAB-HEINE,
Kilmore,
Co Leitrim.
Madam, - Alex Pigot, a bulk mail producer and chairman of the Irish Direct Marketing Association, believes that postcodes will mean a better "quality of life".
For us or for him? - Yours, etc,
JOHN MORRISSEY,
Palmerston Road,
Dublin 6.