It is also envisaged that reforms will be put in place to allow parties to decline from joining the Northern Ireland Executive, and instead receive funding as an official opposition, as occurs in other legislative bodies in Ireland and the UK. By the 2016 election the number of Stormont departments will be reduced from twelve to nine. The UK and Irish governments reaffirmed their commitment to recognising the Irish language in Northern Ireland. However, the Agreement does not create any binding clauses on the recognition of official status for Irish. The signing of the Agreement was met with broad support by a majority of Northern Irish political parties but not the Ulster Unionist Party and outside governments. The Northern Irish Trade Union movement, however, was not as supportive of the agreement staging a number of protests and public meetings against the agreement and the majority of ICTU affiliated public service unions held a one-day strike on 13 March. Sinn Féin eventually withdrew from the deal days before the Trade Union strike. The implementation of the Agreement has been delayed due to disagreements about welfare reform, and controversy about paramilitary activity. The Committee on the Administration of Justice, and academics from the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and the Transitional Justice Institute have drafted a Model Implementation Bill on the dealing with the past elements of the Agreement. A group of civil society activists and academics have adopted a set of Gender Principles for Dealing with the Legacy of the Conflict to address this gap in the Agreement.