The boom in the construction industry became one of the symbols for the period of Irish economic growth dubbed ‘the Celtic Tiger’. After the accession of ten new countries to the EU in May 2004, Irish construction sites welcomed thousands of needed international workers from these new member states. Ensuring their health and safety at work became a fundamental issue. In the presence of linguistic and cultural differences interpreters were called upon to interpret during H&S training sessions for migrant workers. The current study describes the H&S interpreting setting and why interpreters are vulnerable within it. Drawing on Inghilleri's theory of the 'configuration of the social1, and Mason's concept of 'pretextuality'2, the study explores Inghilleri's concept of 'interpreting habitus' within which interpreters are able – through a variety of strategies – to claim certain communication rights, and as a result potentially contribute towards the constructing of new communication/social order/meanings. These aspects of the interpreting habitus in the H&S setting are explored within the contexts of culture, gender and multimodality and are considered in light of Pöchhacker's model of quality understood as successful communication.