If Swift does not actually think the Irish people should eat their children, what does he think they should do?

I think that you can find the answer to this towards the
end of the essay.  There, Swift starts talking about ideas that he does
not want people to consider.  I think that these are the
things he really wants people to do.  This is in the paragraph that
starts

I can
think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this
proposal...

Swift goes on to
list a bunch of ideas.  He talks about things like trying to get the people to use only
things that are made in Ireland, or trying to get them to quit fighting amongst
themselves.

It makes sense to me that his serious proposals
would be the ones that he says should not be done -- after all, this is a very satirical
essay.