Disabled /etc/network/if-up.d/avahi-daemon: adverse reactions?

["Mumia W.." <paduille.4061.mumia.w+nospam@earthlink.net>]

My booting of Etch was being slowed by 
/etc/network/if-up.d/avahi-daemon, so I removed execute permissions from 
that file, and now my boots are 10 seconds faster.

However, the avahi-daemon still starts. Will there be any adverse 
consequences to disabling .../avahi-daemon on my system?

I'm a dialup user, and I assigned a static IP address to eth0, so I'm 
hoping I don't need the avahi-daemon at all. (However, I'm not to clear 
on what it does.)